Pop Singer: A Dark BWAM / AMBW Romance (39 page)

JONG-SOO

There was a ruckus on the boat.

Officials moved from one level to the next.

Up and down the different decks.

I went outside to see what was going on.

All I saw was chaos, a swirl and crash of bodies everywhere. People screaming and shouting, saying words so quickly, I could not understand them.

I went upstairs, and then to the dining room, and still there was panic.

“We’re being boarded,” someone said.

Yakuza.

And Twin Swords.

I saw the men coming up the gangway, the stairs. They were in suits and ties, and had different arsenals of weapons slung over their shoulders.

In the flurry of bodies, I ducked back down to the bedroom, way by the engine.

I told the girls what was happening, where we had to go: outside and immediately. This was no place for us to stay in for too long. If we did, it would be obvious what would happen to us.

Capture, torture.

They were here for us, wanted us so badly, they sent reinforcements.

“Oh-seong,” Bit-na said, “that idiot.”

“Ignore him for now,” I said, gathering up the medicine bag, taking my Glock. “We’ve got to go now.”

“Are you sure you can carry the bag?” Henrietta said.

It was very heavy, so I took it off, and handed it over to her. If she was going to be here, then she needed to help some.

“Where are we going to go?” Bit-na said.

“Maybe we can steal one of the boats from the docks,” I said. Henrietta glanced at both of us. Although she said nothing, I knew she had her qualms, but she was less scared than ever before.

“Let’s go,” I said, “let’s go, let’s go, let’s go.”

Back up the stairs we went, through the winding hallways.

Many of the men in suits did not even recognize me and Bit-na and Henrietta in the swarm of it all.

I guess, their little attack on the ship did not go so well—someone had set off one of the officials, so panic acted as our cover.

We were able to slip through the side of the ship, exiting off a gangway, carrying nothing but our clothes and the medicine on our backs, or well, Henrietta’s.

We went down the side and the length of the shoreline where the ship had seemingly run aground against a highway.

With our shoes still on, we hobbled near thick verdant trees that dotted the Japanese landscape.

There were several police cars around the ship and civilian cars backing away from the road, seeing the danger that had sprung up.

Onshore, there were tons of people wandering around, wondering what was going on.

From the snippets of Japanese that I could understand, everyone was confused, and very few even knew what was going on inside the ship.

Not even the gangsters themselves.

I have to say, the Double Dragons had always been known for good infiltration events. And I was proud that I was able to get us out of the ship without anyone knowing.

How did you think my gang was able to penetrate North Korea’s border for so long? Chinese borders?

“This way,” I said, as we rounded a corner. We walked around people, acting like the others were: dazed and perplexed, totally confounded and confused.

Behind us there were others swarming away from the ship, running in a huge mob.

In total, there had to be at least a couple hundred of human beings manifesting as a tsunami wave of fright.

“They were so dumb,” Bit-na said, as we got away from the highway mess. Cars were pulling away faster now, driving along the road more normally.

“We can’t stay too far away from the ship,” I said.” Or else we’re going to stick out like sore thumbs.”

I suddenly realized that there were no boats for us to use.

We would have to either steal one of the cars parked along the roads or hitchhike.

Many outsiders don’t know this about Japan, but hitchhiking is actually much more common than in other parts of the world.

Unlike some countries, Japanese crime rates have always been astronomically low. Even the Japanese criminal organizations are very polite, well-dressed, and put-together. With a strong hierarchy, and solid rules, the Japanese are one of the most orderly societies on planet earth.

So it was no surprise, that when I lifted up my thumb, someone did eventually slow down.

An old woman, with a bunch of cats in the back of her old Subaru.

We had to wave our arms and bust out what limited Japanese we could, but she welcomed us into her world, filled with boxed up kitties and longhair cats.

For several miles, we had no idea where we were going to go, or our next destination.

When we passed Mt. Yatate, I knew we were close to civilization. We were in a small village town, filled with dirty shacks and stores named “Suzuki.”

“We can get off here,” I said, miming to the woman that we would. She dropped us off next to a noodle shop, where we grabbed a quick meal to rest and recalibrate.

“This is what life is like,” I said to Henrietta, “when you live in the underground. There is no stability. You’re constantly moving here and there. You see the regular world, and it’s right next to you, right next door. But you never actually have to interact with it, unless you need to. Like, now.”

“It’s more adventure than I could ever imagine,” she said, stuffing her face into a bowl of Ramen.

We walked out the store, and then made our way back to the shoreline, where we itineraries for the next ship to mainland Japan.

Bit-na all the while had not said much, not much more since the night before.

Neither was Henrietta talking as much as she had been.

They were quiet, and I guess I was as well, due to the fact that we had to keep our eyes open for any threats, had to keep moving on and on, onwards to our next destination, because if we stopped at any point in time, we could be immediately captured, taken, and then who knew what Oh-seong would do with us?

What the Yakuza would do with us?

By the time night fell, we had chartered a small boat—one filled with fishermen—to bring us to Fukuoka Prefecture.

And in only another day, we would be there. The fishermen knew a shortcut.

Henrietta didn’t seem to care. She had a smile on her face, ever-positive.

I wondered if that was an American trait. That’s what Americans are and were famous for, back then and now. That kind of strange positivity that would never go away, ever-present, seemingly predicting the future to be bright and sunny always.

We were sitting at the docks, under a small white roof, shaded from the street, packed in with a couple of other burly men, ready to go out in the morning sailing for fish.

Many of these guys next to us were the types who I thought would be working at the local meatpacking district or maybe the cannery.

Some of them were, but they fished part time for extra cash or for extra food.

This was the lifestyle that few Westerners knew of in Asia—the more traditional Asian style where the sea was the sole source of income.

Of course, few people could actually live like that anymore, with the advancement of technology.

“We still don’t know what we’re going to do in Fukuoka,” I said. “So we still have to come up with a plan.”

“How are we supposed to even find Oh-seong? He could be in North Korea for all we know,” Bit-na said.

I told Bit-na the plan I had told Henrietta before on the ship.

She thought it was crazy, but that it would work.

“I know how badly he wants to kill me,” Bit-na said. “But imagine if we all got captured together? And yeah, you could be a Trojan horse. You could pop out, and then kill him. I could.”

“It’s going to be so dangerous,” I said, glancing at Henrietta.

“But I don’t want her going to the police,” Bit-na said. “That’s nonnegotiable. She has to stay here with us. At all times. I don’t trust her, as sweet as her words have been to me. I’m sorry, but I need her by my side, so that I can keep watch. I didn’t have to save her way back at the house.”

“No,” I said. “No, you didn’t. But it was the right thing to do in the end.”

Bit-na placed her Fukuoka ticket between her fingers. She spat. “I never cared about being a good woman. You’re talking about the wrong person here. I’m not the type who cares so much about humanity or whatever. I don’t want to have to shoulder the responsibility of being a hero. Someone else can go and do that. But it’s not going to be me. I promise you, it’s not going to be me at all. So you can take that kind of shit and stuff it down your throat.”

Henrietta looked at me, incredulously. She stared at her own ticket, and then the medicine bag. There was gauze in there and tools. Maybe something to numb pain.

The way Henrietta was looking at me…

Her expression said it all…

Why don’t we just go and kill Bit-na and run away by ourselves? Leave her behind?

I knew that’s what I was thinking as well. But…

Both of us knew that we had to do the right thing, no matter how frustrated we got.

Dark, dark thoughts were bleeding into our minds.

They were changing our personalities, apparently.

I didn’t want to corrupt Henrietta, but my influence was definitely stretching into her.

And she was the type of girl who thought she could fix people. Who could make them better.

I was the kind of man who wanted to believe that I could change the world.

Were we really going to make it out?

In that moment, I didn’t know.

I wasn’t sure.

And as the boat approached the docks, I lost faith.

HENRIETTA

We boarded together, turning in our tickets, passports unnecessary. Because we were going by a small fishermen’s boat, we were more so traveling by generosity rather than officially.

The man on the boat seemed more interested in the fish than they were in us anyway. Like the old woman who had given us a ride, these men were happy to have us aboard as guests. And then they ignored us, except when it was time to eat. They laid out several varieties of fish, baked bread, and of course, fresh sashimi, as someone onboard once worked as a chef.

With chopsticks, I ate them all as best as I could, fumbling here and there, scarfing the food down into my stomach, satiating myself.

“You could never do this in the States,” I said, as we clinked our tin bowls against our chopsticks. “Over there, everyone is so paranoid about criminals. You hear all of this news about people getting killed and people leaving their children in cars. No one wants to have to deal with hitchhiking. Even though, at one point in time, it was actually pretty common.”

“I can imagine that it was,” Jong-soo said. “I remember learning about that in school.”

“Where did you go to school?” I said. “Where do people in the Double Dragons attend?”

“Some people end up going to college,” Jong-soo said. “Believe that or not. Most people go to local high schools, but me myself, I bounced around. As we traveled throughout different countries, my parents had me in different places. It was always kind of a trip, having to make brand-new friends every time.”

“I can imagine that’s pretty hard to do,” I said. “Having to go everywhere… I can’t really imagine it…”

“Like I said,” Jong-soo said. “You get used to the lifestyle. Have you noticed that I’ve never been scared? It’s just the way it goes. People get shot, and you have to keep moving. If you freeze, then that’s an opportunity for someone to take advantage of you. And then what? You get taken advantage of, and then you’re at a loss. You’ve lost. And I hate losing.”

He hated losing.

That side of him—it was coming out more and more now, as we traveled across Japan. I could see why he wanted to go after Oh-seong, and why he stayed in the underground for so long: he had his own sense of pride.

His own need to stay on top of the world.

As much is he wanted to dismantle the criminal underground, he wanted to do it on his terms, and on his timetable.

He didn’t know anywhere else, the world beyond.

“We still need that game plan,” I said. “Am I going to be part of the Trojan horse or what?”

“If you’re up for it,” Bit-na said, having been quiet. “I don’t know how else we can arrange for everyone to be happy.”

“I really don’t want to put her in danger,” Jong-soo said. “I can’t risk her life—”

“If you take down Oh-seong,” Bit-na said, “then we can all go free. This can be a happily ever after for everyone involved. It’s only a matter of time. His gang is falling apart. I promise you, he won’t have many guards. Sure, he’s still powerful, but with me walking away, I’m sure I did a number on him. This entire house of cards has to collapse.”

So we settled on a compromise. After much talking, and much back and forth, we finally figured out what we were going to do.