TVXQ // fic // Our Little Princess #11
Title: Our Little Princess
Author: catachrestical
Keywords: Bandfic; hints of JaeHo and YooSu; some original characters.
Rating: PG13 for few language mishaps.
Disclaimer: Do not own, did not happen.
Notes: The boys found themselves having to take care of two orphan children.
First version beta'd by janeberryblue ; current version re-beta'd by bel_chan ♥
Thanks for reading :)
*
→ previous: #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 | #6 | #7 | #8 | #9 | #10
A/N: OH LOOK AN UPDATE THAT IS ACTUALLY ON TIME \o/ Well. Yes. Let's hope chapter 12 will be on time, too. And I figured I should get cracking on writing Chapter 13 by now, huh *crosses fingers* this will probably be wrapped up after #13. Plus epilogue. Or not. Er.
Enjoy?
Our Little Princess
Chapter 11: It's Not Hard To Fall
"You step a little closer each day,
still i can't say what's going on."
- Damien Rice, Cannonball.
*
Fr: JooEun Jung
To: Panda ; ChungAe Shim ; Max
Re: Read this alone.
I need to talk to you guys. ChangMin, name a time you can chat without risk of getting caught.
JooEun.
-----------------------------------
Fr: Max
To: Pandora Park ; ChungAe ; JooEun Jung
Re: Read this alone.
Er. 5 PM Seoul Time today? YooChun-hyung will be driving YunHo-hyung to the hospital for a checkup and JaeJoong-hyung always goes with them. I can distract JunSu with... something, I'm not sure what yet, but I will.
Min.
*
[ The Three Stooges // On The Way To The Hospital ]
"YunHo, stop sulking."
"Yeah, it doesn't suit your complexion."
"Shut up, YooChun - and do we really have to go back? We were just there three days ago."
"Dr. Lee told us to go everyday."
"Yeah, and do a prostate exam."
"...Wh- prostate exam has nothing to do with anything I have. But I'm almost well, Joongie."
"Almost being the keyword here."
"And a horrible exaggeration."
"... Just drive."
"You didn't want to stay at the hospital, Yunnie."
"Amazingly, you are never this whiny when JaeJoong isn't around."
"YooChun. Shut. Up."
"Yes, sir."
*
[ The Four Who Knew // Chatroom #93 ]
districtattorney has joined the room.
quagmire has joined the room.
quash has joined the room.
pandybox has joined the room.
pandybox: ...
pandybox: You guys and your fixation on obscure vocabularies. Who's who?
quagmire: ChangMin here~
quash: This is ChungAe. Oppa, yours means "swamp", right?
quagmire: Close. "Soft, wet land". Yours is "annihilate" and/or "nullify". Could've picked a more difficult word.
quash: There weren't a lot to pick from, and I knew you'd take 'quagmire'.
pandybox: Right. Next on the line is the letter R. And I'm kicking you both if you don't stop speaking in tongues. Are you even aware that you're robbing people of screen names they actually want?
quagmire: We recycle.
quash: This isn't AIM after all~
districtattorney: ... I wasn't even aware that we could do that.
quash: It pays to read the manual.
pandybox: ... you read the manual. I rest my case.
districtattorney: ... right. Let's get to the topic.
quagmire: mmhm. So what did you find?
districtattorney: Nothing.
- ten seconds of inactivity -
pandybox: ... What do you mean nothing? There's got to be something.
districtattorney: Nothing significant. They're as clean as your fridge after one of ChangMin's food raid. No offense, dongsaeng.
quagmire: None taken. Not even corporate dirt?
districtattorney: Clean. Nothing out of the ordinary. Either they did it cleverly or they just... don't have any.
quash: Family scandal?
districtattorney: No gay relatives, no alleged adultery and/or abuse gossip... Seriously, nothing.
pandybox: What about Arisugawa Keiko?
districtattorney: I thought about her. There was... very little records about her, surprisingly.
quagmire: That means either she's clean or...
pandybox: or she's hiding a huge skeleton in her closet.
districtattorney: ...probably. There's very limited access to her files, though. I need help with this whole investigation. Someone who knows something about the family.
- another five seconds of inactivity -
quash: ...any of you guys gonna say it or should I?
quagmire: Say what?
pandybox: We can't exactly call Satoru-san and ask for divine intervention.
quash: Not *that*. Isn't there one more person who has connections to the Arisugawa clan?
quagmire: ... well done, yeodongsaeng!
pandybox: Right. That's brilliant. Now we just need someone to enlighten JooEun and I because we don't speak your language and/or read people's minds.
districtattorney: ^ what she said.
quash: Arisugawa Satoru and Julia's lawyer. Don't you need to contact him regarding the adoption anyways?
districtattorney: ...right.
quagmire: And here's the kicker: why would Arisugawa Satoru retain a US-based lawyer if they are based in Japan?
pandybox: ...because they trust the guy, which means they probably shared a lot of things?
quagmire: Pin po~n. Also. Considering Arisugawa Julia is from the US, there might be some connection with her past.
quagmire: I mean, we could've totally missed the point and found out that she'd only started hiring him a little before she married Satoru, but it doesn't hurt to look, I suppose?
districtattorney: Already working on it. What time would it be in California, Pandy?
pandybox: Eh. Around seven AM.
districtattorney: Perfect. I'm gonna call him now. I'll keep you guys posted.
districtattorney has left the room.
quash: And I'm gonna go... to tennis practice. See you guys~
quagmire: ... You don't play tennis.
quash: I do, starting today. Bye unni, oppa :D
quash: left the room.
quagmire: Don't
quagmire: damn.
pandybox: What was that about?
quagmire: I'm not sure, actually.
pandybox: ...Hm.
quagmire: So what are you doing?
pandybox: Sorting more e-mails and wrapping up things with translators and all that. How did you distract JunSu?
quagmire: I found him Pre-World Cup matches from some obscure website and asked him to analyze who's winning this year. He hasn't budged an inch from his PC.
pandybox: Heh. Smart.
quagmire: He looked like he fell asleep with his eyes open.
pandybox: And the others?
quagmire: Are not back for at least half an hour ... speaking of which, isn't it like, morning in Virginia?
pandybox: Yeah.
quagmire: And you've been up all night, of course.
quagmire: You should sleep.
pandybox: No, I don't.
quagmire: But you might get sick?
pandybox: I'm nocturnal.
quagmire: Sleep, noona.
pandybox: See, this is why I don't like guys in general. You guys are so bossy. Don't 'noona' me.
quagmire: Of course, noona. Try worried?
pandybox: Nice try. I'll stick with bossy, thanks. Don't 'noona' me.
quagmire: I'll 'noona' you until you go to sleep.
pandybox: Dammit, ChangMin.
quagmire: Yes, noona? :)
pandybox: . . . fine.
quagmire: Gasp. Is Almighty Pandora succumbing to my manly charms?
pandybox: . . . I am this close to shoving your manly charms up your ass.
quagmire: Good night, noona~
pandybox: Don't 'noona' me.
quagmire: Good night, Pandy --{--{@
pandybox: I will pretend that's some sort of two-headed cabbage-eating snake.
quagmire: As long as your highness is pleased~
pandybox: Your highness is not.
pandybox signed off
*
[ JooEun and ChungAe // Private Chat ]
districtattorney: Did you leave the room?
quash: Right after you. Did you call?
districtattorney: Nah. I'm sure they're not open till at least eight. You think ChangMin knows?
quash: Of course he does. He'd only mentioned her three times in the last two days.
districtattorney: That's... OK, that's something.
quash: Only half the time we talk, really. Oppa thinks Pandy-unni isn't actually jaded. That she just got used to the feeling and that she's interesting.
districtattorney: Hah. She only said your brother is "mischievous and a little confusing" which isn't much, but let's just say she usually uses a guy's name in tandem with insults.
quash: So we'll see~
districtattorney: I guess we will.
quash: Oh, unni - ask Mr. Phillips if he knows about Julia's childhood.
districtattorney: What for?
quash: Just a hunch. I skimmed Julia's bio on her website and found out that she was placed in an expensive, first-class orphanage. I was wondering about her sponsor...
quash: So I looked up the news about her parents' death and... her parents were working in Osaka a month before they were killed in an auto accident.
quash: Which is shady, in my opinion.
districtattorney: You should quit school and be my paralegal or something.
quash: I'm just too inquisitive for my own good :') that or I have too wild of an imagination.
districtattorney: Either way, I appreciate your input. I'm gonna do some digging up myself. Thanks, ChungAe-yah.
quash: ...Um.
districtattorney: Hm?
quash: Please try to win this. For Oppa. You know - when I said Oppa talks about Pandy-unni half the time he calls me... half the other time he talks about the kids.
districtattorney: ... Half of the time Yunnie-Oppa called, he also talks about the kids.
quash: ...What actually happened in those two weeks they were together?
districtattorney: I don't know, but I think we can conclude that it was intense.
*
Fr: JooEun Jung
To: Super Lawyer Jung
Attachment: itpaystohavealawyerappa.txt
Can you make a couple phone calls to your resources and/or lawyer friends in the US and ask them to find out about this? I attached the list. It's for Oppa's case. Thanks~
Your lawfully beloved daughter,
Eun-ah.
*
[ The Three Stooges // Two Hours Later ]
"I can't believe he's adding another week of house rest!"
"You have three diseases that end with '-itis', YunHo."
"What took you so long? I grew three kinds of mold just from waiti - wait. Hello? Oh, Su-yah. We're walking out of the hospital now."
"Yeah, but I'm recovering!"
"Not well enough."
"YunHo-hyung had a prostate exam and apparently - ow, hyung!"
"I did not have a prostate exam!"
"Great, now everyone's looking at us. Honestly, hyung, why are you so against - what, ChangMin is trying to eat the table? Shouldn't you guys learn to take care of yourself?"
"You're the one to talk."
"As if you won't fall over dead without JaeJoongie around. Anyway - we'll be home in around fifteen minutes. Try to... I don't know. Keep ChangMin from eating my stuff. Everything else he can eat - ow, Joongie! Why are you hitting me too?!"
"Just tell him we'll be home soon."
"You heard what he said - no, I'm not interested in why you think France will win the World Cup... No, don't sulk... fine. You can tell me all about it later. Yeah. See y - hahaha. I'll tell him."
"What's that all about?"
"Min said you don't have to be ashamed of having your prostate checked. Most men in the US-"
"YooChunnie. Shut the fuck up."
"Yes, sir."
*
[ JooEun.1 // A trip to the kitchen and a thick envelope later ]
I stared at the two-inch thick folder on my mahogany desk (the only expensive object in the room; polished it myself) with great distaste. It wasn't the thickness - had been trained to speed-read the whole thing - that deterred me, but what I had to sacrifice to get my hands on it.
"Three months of paperwork; you get all the data you need in an hour."
"...Three months? That's like... a month longer than what we agreed earlier! You're trying to kill me for the insurance payout. Don't deny it. I know."
"No need to be such a drama queen, little girl. Your life isn't insured. Besides, I don't trust anyone else but you with those papers."
"You have five years worth of unarchived papers, Appa! God - hire a secretary or something!"
"More like eight. Take it or leave it. A lawyer must know how to negotiate."
"Oppa better love those kids a whole lot," I grumbled, pulling the sleeves of my sweater and my hair back. A pair of reading glasses and a full coffee machine (hauled from the kitchen after a tense negotiation with... everyone, really - why was there only one coffee machine in the house?) later, I was set to go.
Four hours, two phone calls, and an inhumane amount of information shoved into my brain later, I opened the big window leading to the backyard and lit up a cigarette.
Yes, I smoked - only Pandy and Oppa knew. It was always an in-joke between us: she lived in a more open-minded country, she had a dirty mouth, and she hated people; smoking fit perfectly with her image. But no - she had to be a socially-conscious, poverty-fighting environmentalist. I was, supposedly, the sophisticated, hot, tough female lawyer-to-be who served justice for a living. Add that with a happy, well-off, accomplished family. Korean, too. Born and raised.
Stereotypes sucked, and smoking was a refreshing rebellion.
Besides, I needed it to process everything I'd swallowed so far.
With Pandy's account, I was able to access a US-based online public library and managed to dig up old newspaper articles about the accident that killed Julia's parents. ChungAe was right - it was shady. The brakes failed and they crashed into a truck. It was declared an accident and no one got sued. Out of five newspapers that covered it, only one mentioned the company that owned that truck. Out of pure randomness, probably, or just trying to fill up space.
Only one newspaper also bothered to mention the name of the third passenger, Julia's mother's brother.
Both names were distinctly Japanese, though; that was what bothered me most.
I was retracing a week's worth of Arisugawa records in my mind when the shrill ringing of my cell phone broke the silence. For a moment, I was tempted not to pick up, but when I saw the name on the LCD I frowned and pressed the call button.
"You should be sleeping."
"Can say the same about you."
"I'm researching. It's 10AM there, Pandy."
"Ten is a reasonable hour to be awake."
"But you're nocturnal. You should be asleep at ten."
"I couldn't."
Pause. Frown. "Elaborate."
"You told me you couldn't find anything in the Arisugawa records. I just had to make sure of that myself."
"What - you spent six hours with those files?"
"Four - had to finish up stuff on the international fanbase. Anyway, I found something interesting."
I grabbed my Arisugawa folder. "Shoot."
"Look at Arisugawa Tomokazu and Arisugawa Keiko's marriage date."
"Yeah?"
"Look at Satoru's birthdate."
"... So he might have been born premature, there have been babies who survived being born at six months."
"I know. Look at this, though: Tomokazu and Keiko waited a month before registering Satoru. I checked the records from the hospital. Satoru was born a month earlier."
"...What?"
"Five months is a little too premature, yeah? I can't find any records of hospital stay, either. Keiko went in at night and out the day after."
"...but that doesn't make sense. Unless-" Pause. Silence. "...Unless Satoru wasn't conceived after the wedding."
"I thought about pre-marital excitement, but come on - this is the Arisugawa clan. The marriage was arranged."
"How do you -"
"Any marriage that involves two blue-blooded, high-class families is always arranged."
"Your cynicism humbles me. Assumptions don't make-"
"Good arguments, I know, which is why we need to consider her period of rebellion that ended two weeks before the marriage."
"Yeah, it was pretty big of a story. She ran away from home for, what, two months?" I rifled through Keiko's record again. "... with a businessman, last name Ogawa." Why did this name sound so familiar? "Wait." I did a mental calculation in my head. "You didn't think..."
"Pre-marital excitement, yeah. With the wrong man.”
"...I'll try my father's Japanese contacts." The sigh was really only because I knew the old bat would demand another month of paperwork as a payment.
"Cool. And stop smoking, JooEun."
"I didn't say I was?"
"It's late there and you're still researching."
"... Fair enough. You could've IMed me, you know, instead of wasting money calling me. I'm online all the time."
"I could, but ChangMin would know that I haven't caught a wink of sleep and... why are you laughing?"
"I was not."
"You so were."
"Was not. Go on~"
"And I don't wanna deal with his complaining."
"Hmm."
"...What?"
"Nothing."
"Fine. I'll sleep now. Good luck with-"
"Wait. One thing - I need to you to help me find everything you can about..." I flipped through the accident files and spelled out the name of the company to Pandora. "Hayashi Incorporated. They're based in Seattle. Anything that's not public material. I know you have friends across the states. Can you, like, ask around? And e-mail me what you've got after at least eight hours of sleep?"
"What do they have to do with-"
"Just a hunch. Can you?"
"I guess I can. Shouldn't you be asking this from your father, though? I mean, I'm sure my friends can dig up things like these, but your father has-"
"Because if he tells me to do another year's worth of paperwork, I'm going to murder someone."
"...Yeah, okay."
*
[ The DongBang Family // Earlier That Night ]
"ChangMinnie, slow down."
"Mrsmfffhp?"
"Yes, you can. We're not going anywhere."
"What did he just say?"
"Whether he can have a second helping or not."
"...And how could you both tell?"
"You mean you guys couldn't?"
"It just sounded like a lot of mumbling to me, right Su?"
"Hm."
"Pft. Rmfphhd! Mmfffph pmfft?"
"We got held up in the hospital."
"Yeah, because YunHo-hyung had to-"
"Chunnie!"
"Excuse me, there are people eating here!"
"...Mmph?"
"I did not have a prostate exam!"
"Yunnie-ah!"
"...I think I'm done with dinner."
"...Pft."
"What, Chunnie said it first!"
"Whoa, hey~ I didn't say anything."
"But you implied it!"
"And whose fault was it to pick that up?"
"Just shut up."
Whistle.
*
[ JooEun.2 // Ten Hours and three cups of coffee later ]
"Miss Jung?"
I looked up from my Korean copy of Times magazine to see a white man; a balding Santa Claus who looked like he'd just popped out of a random Christmas storybook, except he was less beardy and wearing a three-piece suit. My first guess was Jacob Phillips (only because my second guess was Sean Connery and hah - wishful thinking).
I stood up; Jung kids were born with good manners if anything.
"Mr. Phillips, I assume. It's a pleasure to meet you. Thank you for taking the trouble to meet me here," I said in slightly accented English. The old man just smiled and waited for me to return to my seat before taking his own across the table.
"Don't worry about it. It's good that you catch me before I return to the US. Arisugawa Julia and Satoru were dear friends. I must admit, however, that I didn't expect you to be so... young." He said the last part rather carefully. I just laughed it off. There was nothing to be offended about when you were faced with the truth, after all.
"I'm an intern; and I'm doing this case as a favor to my brother. For free, naturally."
"Would that be Jung YunHo?"
"The one and only." I offered a small smile. We nibbled on refreshments before he took out his reading glasses and a stack of paper.
"I understand that you wanted to arrange the adoptions of Arisugawa Kaneko and Akira," He said, not looking up from his papers. "I also understand that they are currently under the care of their grandparents and the possibility of adopting them is next to none."
He knew about the grandparents? "Did they contact you?"
The old man smiled, then; just a small, knowing smile that was somehow free of arrogance. "No, but I keep track of my clients' matters, Miss Jung, deceased or not."
"Then you must know that the kids cannot stay with their grandparents."
Pause. "I act in my clients' best interests. Might I remind you that their grandparents were my clients' first choice of guardians?"
"Might I remind you that they turned the kids out without even bothering to remember their names?"
"They decided to take the children back."
"Only because they believed that my clients would expose the kids to overwhelming attention and publicity and they didn't want it. You are fully aware that wasn't a substantial ground for them to keep the children. You are, I am sure, also fully aware that the Arisugawas are not even living with the grandchildren, and that they haven't seen their grandchildren - not once - ever since they decided to 'take' them back. With all due respect, Mr. Phillips, if you were acting in Satoru and Julia's best interests, you would try to find a good, stable home for those children." I paused. "And by that I mean physically and psychologically."
Silence. I took a deep breath, fished out my own reading glasses, a stack of paper half his, and totally tried to get my lawyer on at him.
"I'll be frank," I began carefully. "Since you were the one who handled Julia's inheritance and finances when she was under foster care, I assumed you were the lawyer of Julia's late parents. I was wondering if you could help me with something on this case." I explained what I'd found to him - Satoru's parents, Hayashi Incorporated, Julia's sponsor in the orphanage - my suspicions, and the arguments revolving around them.
He looked at me for a moment longer, before asking in a considering tone, "have you thought about doing an internship outside of Korea?"
I blinked. "Excuse me - what?"
"Your final year." He pointed out as if he didn't just easily dismiss my tirade about parental care, mental welfare and all that jazz. "Does your university allow international internships?"
"...Yes - as a matter of fact, they do." I was majoring in International Law anyway. "But I don't see -"
"Consider our firm," he interrupted me again. "Our firm is one of the biggest international firms in the world; it has direct connections to most countries in Asia and Europe. Consider that, and I will consider your request."
"...I." I paused. He had that gentle, knowing, Santa-Claus-meets-Sean-Connery smile again. I was sorely tempted to just say yes because WHOA INTERNATIONAL FIRM INTERNSHIP, but there was another matter to think about. "Help me with this case, and I'll sign on for three months."
"Six months."
"Deal."
"Now." He laced his fingers and watched me over the rim of his glasses. "I'm going to hand over the one thing you need to win this case."
JooEun sat up straight in anticipation.
"So, after they returned from Osaka, Julia's mother asked me to run a DNA test."
Mr. Phillips left ten minutes later, leaving his business card, a stack of files about Julia, her parents, and Satoru, and me trying to digest the bomb he dropped in my lap.
Oh, this was even better than what I thought.
*
[ JooEun.3 // Three hours and six cigarettes later ]
Name: Miller, Julia
Date of Birth: xx.xx.xx
Sex: Female
Date admitted: xx.xx.xx
I skimmed down ten lines of text and took another drag. My head was starting to hurt. At this point I was just hoping I didn't miss anything important because I was, honestly and extremely, tired - more tired than I expected I would be. I thought about taking a break but there was only one thin (well, thin compared to the others) folder left and I didn't want to leave things hanging.
Names Of Parents: Miller, Paul; Miller, Hannah
I had gone over the file on Julia's parents twice and the pieces were coming together slowly, but I just couldn't find the link that connected them to the Arisugawa clan. I knew that what we had so far was probably enough to win but there was just this nagging feeling in the back of my mind and I couldn't get rid of it.
Benefactors: Arisugawa, Tomokazu.
Date released: xx.xx.xx
This. I can't figure out why Arisugawa Tomokazu's name is in Julia's orphanage records. Was Tomokazu a family friend? Did he know Julia's parents?
The soft beep on my laptop indicated that I received a new e-mail and I groaned at the interruption. I attacked my mouse with vigor and swore that I would sue people if it was just some junk mail or offer from... it was from Pandy, and she summarized her findings, hurrah.
-----------------------------------
Fr: Pandora Park
Attachment: jooeunstuff.doc
Sorry it took longer than I thought. There'a lot of crazy shit in the attachment, but there's really just one thing that you need to know. Hayashi Incorporated is a front for the Japanese mafia. Details in the doc.
What's this about again?
Pandy.
-----------------------------------
I'd always believed that, with the right trigger, the human mind could work faster than everything else that existed on cosmic plane. Now imagine your mind running stupid miles per second, linking one fact to another and not having the time to even filter what was valid and what wasn't. Assumptions, theories, evidence, bullshit - all rolled up into one big ball of tentative conclusions.
My trained mind, however, demanded proof for my proofs, and so I grabbed the file on Julia's parents again, rifling through the pages with the intensity of a kid in a candy store. Expatriates. Julia's father was an expatriate in Osaka and he worked for a US-based company a few months before returning to California. He was killed in a car crash two months later, with his wife and his brother in law.
His brother in law, Ogawa Shinji.
That was why the name sounded so familiar.
It made sense now. I stumbled to the bathroom adjoining the study to flush the remains of my cigarette. Then I sat on the toilet bowl; just sat there. My bathroom was a nice place. It smelled of lemon and citrus; the tiles scrubbed clean and the lights were the kind of bright that didn't hurt my eyes. It was small enough to give me the peace I needed, but not so much as to feed my claustrophobia.
It made sense now; all of it. Keiko's affair with businessman Ogawa, Satoru's birthdate, the DNA test results, an Ogawa Shinji being in the car accident with Julia's parents, Hayashi Incorporated, Julia's benefactors.
I didn't have a special affinity to cursing, but right that moment I would have revelled in Pandora's dirty mouth; because right that moment, nothing else would eloquently express what I was thinking.
Speaking of which - I returned to the room and speed-dialed three on my cellphone. One dial tone. Two.
"Got your e-mail. Listen up."
*
[ Still a little bit of your taste in my mouth ]
"...My fucking... "
"My sentiments exactly," JooEun replied flatly, thanking technology gods for hands-free cellular phones because she needed both her hands to bury her face in. She could only think of two people to call right after she found out about The Big (Ass) Scandal, and they were ChangMin, out of duty, and Pandora - out of need. Naturally, she called her foul-mouthed American Best Friend first.
"Are you - that was..." Pandora stopped. She wasn't used to stammering because very few things had been able to faze her. But this was huge. When she suggested that JooEun dug up dirt from Keiko's side of the family, she never imagined they would discover something like this.
This guaranteed their triumph, but she didn't feel like rejoicing. All she could think of was how big of a clusterfuck this whole thing was, and how hard it would be for the kids if they ever... "You can't tell the kids about this."
"That their grandparents are as good as murderers?" JooEun sounded a bit hysterical. "I'm not stupid. God. But we still have to tell ChangMin."
"And ChungAe - she'll figure it out by herself anyway."
Silence on both ends.
"Will you call ChangMin about this? I think... I've had enough for today. I'm going to sleep."
Pause. "Yeah." Pandora always considered herself somewhat heartless, but she couldn't possibly refuse; however much she wanted to. "I will."
There was a click from the other line, and Pandora couldn't care less for the nonexistence of parting words and playfully-delivered messages of love.
She speed-dialed two on her cellphone.
*
[ Still a little bit of you laced with my doubt ]
"Yoboseyo?"
It took Pandora a second to remember that she was calling Korea and people speak Korean in... well, Korea. "Yoboseyo. ChangMin-sshi, please?"
"Box?"
"Rat-boy?" Oh shit. Why did it have to be YooChun of all people? "Oh. Yeah. I need to speak to ChangMin. I've, er, got something I need him to deliver to ChungAe-yah. Fanbase stuff."
"Mouse. And why can't you just call ChungAe?"
"Because I don't know her number?" That was a lie - but Pandora figured what YooChun didn't know wouldn't hurt him... at least for now.
"Oh, right. Sec, I think he's in the study room. Yeah, right, he is. I'll transfer the call."
"By the way, this is a collect call, which means you're paying."
"Didn't think otherwise."
She waited for another two seconds before an unfamiliar voice greeted her.
"Pandora?"
For a moment she forgot what she wanted to say. Pandora didn't expect ChangMin to sound solid - he was younger than her, after all. His voice was light, lower than JunSu's, higher than YooChun's, and he had a way of saying her name that was... just different. Pronounced syllables, pronounced consonant.
"...Noona?"
She snapped back from her wandering thoughts. "What did I say about calling me 'noona'?"
There was a low, kind chuckle from the other end of the line. "I called your name twice." Pause. "You sound exactly like how I thought."
She gave a dry laugh. "Jaded and sarcastic?"
"No, actually--firm and sure. Pleasant. Sarcastic, too, but the good kind of..." ChangMin trailed off and he coughed a little. "So, uh. You speak good Korean. I heard you're part Venezuelan. Do you have an accent when you speak English?"
"Everyone in the house speaks Korean." Pandora smiled. "And... oh. Right. I don't have a message for ChungAe. I need to talk to you. Are you alone?"
*
Attentive now, ChangMin pushed away from his spot in front of his computer and sat leaning against the study door. One of these days, he really had to talk JunSu into getting a lock for this room.
"Yeah, I am."
"Good. This is our ace: Satoru is a bastard Arisugawa child. In fact, he's not an Arisugawa by blood at all"
Pause. Whoa. "How do you know?"
"He was registered a month after he was born, exactly seven months after Keiko's marriage. Let that sink in."
"Oh. Wait. That means he was only six months old-"
"Five, actually. If he's Arisugawa Tomokazu's son - and a byproduct of horny premarital sex."
"Oh, please. That marriage was so totally arranged."
"ChangMin?"
"Hm?"
"I like you. Marry me."
"That can be arranged."
"Cool. So Keiko had a fling that ended two weeks before her marriage with a businessman. This man's name is Ogawa Shinji. He could very well be Satoru's father. Turned out contacting Mr. Phillips was a good idea. He gave JooEun Satoru's DNA test result. Apparently Satoru knew."
ChangMin was actually giddy and excited. "Awesome! So we could-"
"There's - one more thing."
The only thing that made ChangMin pause was Pandora's hesitant tone. She didn't strike him as someone who would ever sound hesitant. "Yeah?"
"So you know Julia was an orphan, right? Her parents were killed in a car accident in the US. There were three people in that car: Julia's parents and her uncle ... named Ogawa Shinji."
"That's - wait."
"The truck that hit them was from Hayashi Incorporated, a transportation service based in Seattle. Or at least that's what they're listed as. They're actually... Let's just say they're the kind of service you'd hire if you want someone to do your dirty work. Usually by Japanese corporations. Among other things."
"A Yakuza front."
"Yes."
"No."
"They were in Seattle when the accident happened." Pandora paused. "Look. Ogawa Shinji was Julia's uncle. Which means there's a huge chance that Julia's parents knew the truth about Satoru -- and that was why they decided to take that assignment in Osaka. You see, the truth about Satoru's birth was a scandal by itself. And what if... You know, what if Julia's parents were in Osaka to see Satoru? What if Ogawa Shinji wanted Satoru back? I mean - why would they even do a DNA test if they didn't suspect something?"
ChangMin wasn't stupid. While Pandora was explaining Shinji Ogawa's connection to the Arisugawa clan, his mind raced to catch up. It was a lot of speculation, but if there was a kernel of truth behind it...
"If you put the accident and the Arisugawas suddenly deciding to become Julia's benefactors in the equation... there's only one conclusion-"
"Don't say it."
"-and it's... what?"
(They arrived on the finish line the same time, but no one felt like they won.)
[ Still a little hard to say what's going on. ]
"Don't say it. I don't want to hear it." ChangMin shut his eyes tight and knocked the back of his head to the wooden door. Repeatedly. God. Thump. No. Thump. God. Thump. No. Thump, thump, thump.
A hefty pause. "...ChangMin."
"You won't be living with Kane and Akira, Pandora. You can't-" ChangMin sighed. Silence descended between them, awkward, begging, and knowing at the same time.
"I understand. This... will stay among the four of us. Three."
"Just the part about the accident. I'll let hyung deul know about the rest."
"I'll take care of ChungAe. JooEun is... as of now re-assembling her proofs and booking tickets for Japan. I suggested she book three more."
"Three? Oh, right. Yeah. YunHo-hyung will so whine." ChangMin chuckled, this time genuine.
"And JaeJoong will have to stay with him." Return chuckle, this time genuine. Another silence.
"So I guess this is it, huh?"
"Yeah. I'll send the remaining stuff I have here to you."
"Thank you for everything." Are we ever gonna speak again?
"You're welcome. It was nice to be able to help." We don't have a reason to.
"...Right, then. Bye, Noona."
Pause. "Bye, ChangMin."
ChangMin returned the receiver back into its place and sat there hugging his knees for a good ten minutes - probably longer if JunSu hadn't opened the door from the outside and knocked his head in the process.
ChangMin rubbed the back of his head and grimaced as JunSu rushed into a flurry of apologies and are-you-okays. He lifted a hand and waved it off, his expression turning serious.
"Can you go find hyung deul and tell them to meet me in the living room? I need to tell you guys something."
*
(YooChun eventually stopped making wisecracks about prostate exams after YunHo threatened to tell their manager that YooChun had some sort of genital disease.
-one which would require him to undergo a prostate exam if YooChun wanted to prove otherwise, of course.)
*
Author: catachrestical
Keywords: Bandfic; hints of JaeHo and YooSu; some original characters.
Rating: PG13 for few language mishaps.
Disclaimer: Do not own, did not happen.
Notes: The boys found themselves having to take care of two orphan children.
First version beta'd by janeberryblue ; current version re-beta'd by bel_chan ♥
Thanks for reading :)
*
→ previous: #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 | #6 | #7 | #8 | #9 | #10
A/N: OH LOOK AN UPDATE THAT IS ACTUALLY ON TIME \o/ Well. Yes. Let's hope chapter 12 will be on time, too. And I figured I should get cracking on writing Chapter 13 by now, huh *crosses fingers* this will probably be wrapped up after #13. Plus epilogue. Or not. Er.
Enjoy?
Our Little Princess
Chapter 11: It's Not Hard To Fall
"You step a little closer each day,
still i can't say what's going on."
- Damien Rice, Cannonball.
*
Fr: JooEun Jung
To: Panda ; ChungAe Shim ; Max
Re: Read this alone.
I need to talk to you guys. ChangMin, name a time you can chat without risk of getting caught.
JooEun.
-----------------------------------
Fr: Max
To: Pandora Park ; ChungAe ; JooEun Jung
Re: Read this alone.
Er. 5 PM Seoul Time today? YooChun-hyung will be driving YunHo-hyung to the hospital for a checkup and JaeJoong-hyung always goes with them. I can distract JunSu with... something, I'm not sure what yet, but I will.
Min.
*
[ The Three Stooges // On The Way To The Hospital ]
"YunHo, stop sulking."
"Yeah, it doesn't suit your complexion."
"Shut up, YooChun - and do we really have to go back? We were just there three days ago."
"Dr. Lee told us to go everyday."
"Yeah, and do a prostate exam."
"...Wh- prostate exam has nothing to do with anything I have. But I'm almost well, Joongie."
"Almost being the keyword here."
"And a horrible exaggeration."
"... Just drive."
"You didn't want to stay at the hospital, Yunnie."
"Amazingly, you are never this whiny when JaeJoong isn't around."
"YooChun. Shut. Up."
"Yes, sir."
*
[ The Four Who Knew // Chatroom #93 ]
districtattorney has joined the room.
quagmire has joined the room.
quash has joined the room.
pandybox has joined the room.
pandybox: ...
pandybox: You guys and your fixation on obscure vocabularies. Who's who?
quagmire: ChangMin here~
quash: This is ChungAe. Oppa, yours means "swamp", right?
quagmire: Close. "Soft, wet land". Yours is "annihilate" and/or "nullify". Could've picked a more difficult word.
quash: There weren't a lot to pick from, and I knew you'd take 'quagmire'.
pandybox: Right. Next on the line is the letter R. And I'm kicking you both if you don't stop speaking in tongues. Are you even aware that you're robbing people of screen names they actually want?
quagmire: We recycle.
quash: This isn't AIM after all~
districtattorney: ... I wasn't even aware that we could do that.
quash: It pays to read the manual.
pandybox: ... you read the manual. I rest my case.
districtattorney: ... right. Let's get to the topic.
quagmire: mmhm. So what did you find?
districtattorney: Nothing.
- ten seconds of inactivity -
pandybox: ... What do you mean nothing? There's got to be something.
districtattorney: Nothing significant. They're as clean as your fridge after one of ChangMin's food raid. No offense, dongsaeng.
quagmire: None taken. Not even corporate dirt?
districtattorney: Clean. Nothing out of the ordinary. Either they did it cleverly or they just... don't have any.
quash: Family scandal?
districtattorney: No gay relatives, no alleged adultery and/or abuse gossip... Seriously, nothing.
pandybox: What about Arisugawa Keiko?
districtattorney: I thought about her. There was... very little records about her, surprisingly.
quagmire: That means either she's clean or...
pandybox: or she's hiding a huge skeleton in her closet.
districtattorney: ...probably. There's very limited access to her files, though. I need help with this whole investigation. Someone who knows something about the family.
- another five seconds of inactivity -
quash: ...any of you guys gonna say it or should I?
quagmire: Say what?
pandybox: We can't exactly call Satoru-san and ask for divine intervention.
quash: Not *that*. Isn't there one more person who has connections to the Arisugawa clan?
quagmire: ... well done, yeodongsaeng!
pandybox: Right. That's brilliant. Now we just need someone to enlighten JooEun and I because we don't speak your language and/or read people's minds.
districtattorney: ^ what she said.
quash: Arisugawa Satoru and Julia's lawyer. Don't you need to contact him regarding the adoption anyways?
districtattorney: ...right.
quagmire: And here's the kicker: why would Arisugawa Satoru retain a US-based lawyer if they are based in Japan?
pandybox: ...because they trust the guy, which means they probably shared a lot of things?
quagmire: Pin po~n. Also. Considering Arisugawa Julia is from the US, there might be some connection with her past.
quagmire: I mean, we could've totally missed the point and found out that she'd only started hiring him a little before she married Satoru, but it doesn't hurt to look, I suppose?
districtattorney: Already working on it. What time would it be in California, Pandy?
pandybox: Eh. Around seven AM.
districtattorney: Perfect. I'm gonna call him now. I'll keep you guys posted.
districtattorney has left the room.
quash: And I'm gonna go... to tennis practice. See you guys~
quagmire: ... You don't play tennis.
quash: I do, starting today. Bye unni, oppa :D
quash: left the room.
quagmire: Don't
quagmire: damn.
pandybox: What was that about?
quagmire: I'm not sure, actually.
pandybox: ...Hm.
quagmire: So what are you doing?
pandybox: Sorting more e-mails and wrapping up things with translators and all that. How did you distract JunSu?
quagmire: I found him Pre-World Cup matches from some obscure website and asked him to analyze who's winning this year. He hasn't budged an inch from his PC.
pandybox: Heh. Smart.
quagmire: He looked like he fell asleep with his eyes open.
pandybox: And the others?
quagmire: Are not back for at least half an hour ... speaking of which, isn't it like, morning in Virginia?
pandybox: Yeah.
quagmire: And you've been up all night, of course.
quagmire: You should sleep.
pandybox: No, I don't.
quagmire: But you might get sick?
pandybox: I'm nocturnal.
quagmire: Sleep, noona.
pandybox: See, this is why I don't like guys in general. You guys are so bossy. Don't 'noona' me.
quagmire: Of course, noona. Try worried?
pandybox: Nice try. I'll stick with bossy, thanks. Don't 'noona' me.
quagmire: I'll 'noona' you until you go to sleep.
pandybox: Dammit, ChangMin.
quagmire: Yes, noona? :)
pandybox: . . . fine.
quagmire: Gasp. Is Almighty Pandora succumbing to my manly charms?
pandybox: . . . I am this close to shoving your manly charms up your ass.
quagmire: Good night, noona~
pandybox: Don't 'noona' me.
quagmire: Good night, Pandy --{--{@
pandybox: I will pretend that's some sort of two-headed cabbage-eating snake.
quagmire: As long as your highness is pleased~
pandybox: Your highness is not.
pandybox signed off
*
[ JooEun and ChungAe // Private Chat ]
districtattorney: Did you leave the room?
quash: Right after you. Did you call?
districtattorney: Nah. I'm sure they're not open till at least eight. You think ChangMin knows?
quash: Of course he does. He'd only mentioned her three times in the last two days.
districtattorney: That's... OK, that's something.
quash: Only half the time we talk, really. Oppa thinks Pandy-unni isn't actually jaded. That she just got used to the feeling and that she's interesting.
districtattorney: Hah. She only said your brother is "mischievous and a little confusing" which isn't much, but let's just say she usually uses a guy's name in tandem with insults.
quash: So we'll see~
districtattorney: I guess we will.
quash: Oh, unni - ask Mr. Phillips if he knows about Julia's childhood.
districtattorney: What for?
quash: Just a hunch. I skimmed Julia's bio on her website and found out that she was placed in an expensive, first-class orphanage. I was wondering about her sponsor...
quash: So I looked up the news about her parents' death and... her parents were working in Osaka a month before they were killed in an auto accident.
quash: Which is shady, in my opinion.
districtattorney: You should quit school and be my paralegal or something.
quash: I'm just too inquisitive for my own good :') that or I have too wild of an imagination.
districtattorney: Either way, I appreciate your input. I'm gonna do some digging up myself. Thanks, ChungAe-yah.
quash: ...Um.
districtattorney: Hm?
quash: Please try to win this. For Oppa. You know - when I said Oppa talks about Pandy-unni half the time he calls me... half the other time he talks about the kids.
districtattorney: ... Half of the time Yunnie-Oppa called, he also talks about the kids.
quash: ...What actually happened in those two weeks they were together?
districtattorney: I don't know, but I think we can conclude that it was intense.
*
Fr: JooEun Jung
To: Super Lawyer Jung
Attachment: itpaystohavealawyerappa.txt
Can you make a couple phone calls to your resources and/or lawyer friends in the US and ask them to find out about this? I attached the list. It's for Oppa's case. Thanks~
Your lawfully beloved daughter,
Eun-ah.
*
[ The Three Stooges // Two Hours Later ]
"I can't believe he's adding another week of house rest!"
"You have three diseases that end with '-itis', YunHo."
"What took you so long? I grew three kinds of mold just from waiti - wait. Hello? Oh, Su-yah. We're walking out of the hospital now."
"Yeah, but I'm recovering!"
"Not well enough."
"YunHo-hyung had a prostate exam and apparently - ow, hyung!"
"I did not have a prostate exam!"
"Great, now everyone's looking at us. Honestly, hyung, why are you so against - what, ChangMin is trying to eat the table? Shouldn't you guys learn to take care of yourself?"
"You're the one to talk."
"As if you won't fall over dead without JaeJoongie around. Anyway - we'll be home in around fifteen minutes. Try to... I don't know. Keep ChangMin from eating my stuff. Everything else he can eat - ow, Joongie! Why are you hitting me too?!"
"Just tell him we'll be home soon."
"You heard what he said - no, I'm not interested in why you think France will win the World Cup... No, don't sulk... fine. You can tell me all about it later. Yeah. See y - hahaha. I'll tell him."
"What's that all about?"
"Min said you don't have to be ashamed of having your prostate checked. Most men in the US-"
"YooChunnie. Shut the fuck up."
"Yes, sir."
*
[ JooEun.1 // A trip to the kitchen and a thick envelope later ]
I stared at the two-inch thick folder on my mahogany desk (the only expensive object in the room; polished it myself) with great distaste. It wasn't the thickness - had been trained to speed-read the whole thing - that deterred me, but what I had to sacrifice to get my hands on it.
"Three months of paperwork; you get all the data you need in an hour."
"...Three months? That's like... a month longer than what we agreed earlier! You're trying to kill me for the insurance payout. Don't deny it. I know."
"No need to be such a drama queen, little girl. Your life isn't insured. Besides, I don't trust anyone else but you with those papers."
"You have five years worth of unarchived papers, Appa! God - hire a secretary or something!"
"More like eight. Take it or leave it. A lawyer must know how to negotiate."
"Oppa better love those kids a whole lot," I grumbled, pulling the sleeves of my sweater and my hair back. A pair of reading glasses and a full coffee machine (hauled from the kitchen after a tense negotiation with... everyone, really - why was there only one coffee machine in the house?) later, I was set to go.
Four hours, two phone calls, and an inhumane amount of information shoved into my brain later, I opened the big window leading to the backyard and lit up a cigarette.
Yes, I smoked - only Pandy and Oppa knew. It was always an in-joke between us: she lived in a more open-minded country, she had a dirty mouth, and she hated people; smoking fit perfectly with her image. But no - she had to be a socially-conscious, poverty-fighting environmentalist. I was, supposedly, the sophisticated, hot, tough female lawyer-to-be who served justice for a living. Add that with a happy, well-off, accomplished family. Korean, too. Born and raised.
Stereotypes sucked, and smoking was a refreshing rebellion.
Besides, I needed it to process everything I'd swallowed so far.
With Pandy's account, I was able to access a US-based online public library and managed to dig up old newspaper articles about the accident that killed Julia's parents. ChungAe was right - it was shady. The brakes failed and they crashed into a truck. It was declared an accident and no one got sued. Out of five newspapers that covered it, only one mentioned the company that owned that truck. Out of pure randomness, probably, or just trying to fill up space.
Only one newspaper also bothered to mention the name of the third passenger, Julia's mother's brother.
Both names were distinctly Japanese, though; that was what bothered me most.
I was retracing a week's worth of Arisugawa records in my mind when the shrill ringing of my cell phone broke the silence. For a moment, I was tempted not to pick up, but when I saw the name on the LCD I frowned and pressed the call button.
"You should be sleeping."
"Can say the same about you."
"I'm researching. It's 10AM there, Pandy."
"Ten is a reasonable hour to be awake."
"But you're nocturnal. You should be asleep at ten."
"I couldn't."
Pause. Frown. "Elaborate."
"You told me you couldn't find anything in the Arisugawa records. I just had to make sure of that myself."
"What - you spent six hours with those files?"
"Four - had to finish up stuff on the international fanbase. Anyway, I found something interesting."
I grabbed my Arisugawa folder. "Shoot."
"Look at Arisugawa Tomokazu and Arisugawa Keiko's marriage date."
"Yeah?"
"Look at Satoru's birthdate."
"... So he might have been born premature, there have been babies who survived being born at six months."
"I know. Look at this, though: Tomokazu and Keiko waited a month before registering Satoru. I checked the records from the hospital. Satoru was born a month earlier."
"...What?"
"Five months is a little too premature, yeah? I can't find any records of hospital stay, either. Keiko went in at night and out the day after."
"...but that doesn't make sense. Unless-" Pause. Silence. "...Unless Satoru wasn't conceived after the wedding."
"I thought about pre-marital excitement, but come on - this is the Arisugawa clan. The marriage was arranged."
"How do you -"
"Any marriage that involves two blue-blooded, high-class families is always arranged."
"Your cynicism humbles me. Assumptions don't make-"
"Good arguments, I know, which is why we need to consider her period of rebellion that ended two weeks before the marriage."
"Yeah, it was pretty big of a story. She ran away from home for, what, two months?" I rifled through Keiko's record again. "... with a businessman, last name Ogawa." Why did this name sound so familiar? "Wait." I did a mental calculation in my head. "You didn't think..."
"Pre-marital excitement, yeah. With the wrong man.”
"...I'll try my father's Japanese contacts." The sigh was really only because I knew the old bat would demand another month of paperwork as a payment.
"Cool. And stop smoking, JooEun."
"I didn't say I was?"
"It's late there and you're still researching."
"... Fair enough. You could've IMed me, you know, instead of wasting money calling me. I'm online all the time."
"I could, but ChangMin would know that I haven't caught a wink of sleep and... why are you laughing?"
"I was not."
"You so were."
"Was not. Go on~"
"And I don't wanna deal with his complaining."
"Hmm."
"...What?"
"Nothing."
"Fine. I'll sleep now. Good luck with-"
"Wait. One thing - I need to you to help me find everything you can about..." I flipped through the accident files and spelled out the name of the company to Pandora. "Hayashi Incorporated. They're based in Seattle. Anything that's not public material. I know you have friends across the states. Can you, like, ask around? And e-mail me what you've got after at least eight hours of sleep?"
"What do they have to do with-"
"Just a hunch. Can you?"
"I guess I can. Shouldn't you be asking this from your father, though? I mean, I'm sure my friends can dig up things like these, but your father has-"
"Because if he tells me to do another year's worth of paperwork, I'm going to murder someone."
"...Yeah, okay."
*
[ The DongBang Family // Earlier That Night ]
"ChangMinnie, slow down."
"Mrsmfffhp?"
"Yes, you can. We're not going anywhere."
"What did he just say?"
"Whether he can have a second helping or not."
"...And how could you both tell?"
"You mean you guys couldn't?"
"It just sounded like a lot of mumbling to me, right Su?"
"Hm."
"Pft. Rmfphhd! Mmfffph pmfft?"
"We got held up in the hospital."
"Yeah, because YunHo-hyung had to-"
"Chunnie!"
"Excuse me, there are people eating here!"
"...Mmph?"
"I did not have a prostate exam!"
"Yunnie-ah!"
"...I think I'm done with dinner."
"...Pft."
"What, Chunnie said it first!"
"Whoa, hey~ I didn't say anything."
"But you implied it!"
"And whose fault was it to pick that up?"
"Just shut up."
Whistle.
*
[ JooEun.2 // Ten Hours and three cups of coffee later ]
"Miss Jung?"
I looked up from my Korean copy of Times magazine to see a white man; a balding Santa Claus who looked like he'd just popped out of a random Christmas storybook, except he was less beardy and wearing a three-piece suit. My first guess was Jacob Phillips (only because my second guess was Sean Connery and hah - wishful thinking).
I stood up; Jung kids were born with good manners if anything.
"Mr. Phillips, I assume. It's a pleasure to meet you. Thank you for taking the trouble to meet me here," I said in slightly accented English. The old man just smiled and waited for me to return to my seat before taking his own across the table.
"Don't worry about it. It's good that you catch me before I return to the US. Arisugawa Julia and Satoru were dear friends. I must admit, however, that I didn't expect you to be so... young." He said the last part rather carefully. I just laughed it off. There was nothing to be offended about when you were faced with the truth, after all.
"I'm an intern; and I'm doing this case as a favor to my brother. For free, naturally."
"Would that be Jung YunHo?"
"The one and only." I offered a small smile. We nibbled on refreshments before he took out his reading glasses and a stack of paper.
"I understand that you wanted to arrange the adoptions of Arisugawa Kaneko and Akira," He said, not looking up from his papers. "I also understand that they are currently under the care of their grandparents and the possibility of adopting them is next to none."
He knew about the grandparents? "Did they contact you?"
The old man smiled, then; just a small, knowing smile that was somehow free of arrogance. "No, but I keep track of my clients' matters, Miss Jung, deceased or not."
"Then you must know that the kids cannot stay with their grandparents."
Pause. "I act in my clients' best interests. Might I remind you that their grandparents were my clients' first choice of guardians?"
"Might I remind you that they turned the kids out without even bothering to remember their names?"
"They decided to take the children back."
"Only because they believed that my clients would expose the kids to overwhelming attention and publicity and they didn't want it. You are fully aware that wasn't a substantial ground for them to keep the children. You are, I am sure, also fully aware that the Arisugawas are not even living with the grandchildren, and that they haven't seen their grandchildren - not once - ever since they decided to 'take' them back. With all due respect, Mr. Phillips, if you were acting in Satoru and Julia's best interests, you would try to find a good, stable home for those children." I paused. "And by that I mean physically and psychologically."
Silence. I took a deep breath, fished out my own reading glasses, a stack of paper half his, and totally tried to get my lawyer on at him.
"I'll be frank," I began carefully. "Since you were the one who handled Julia's inheritance and finances when she was under foster care, I assumed you were the lawyer of Julia's late parents. I was wondering if you could help me with something on this case." I explained what I'd found to him - Satoru's parents, Hayashi Incorporated, Julia's sponsor in the orphanage - my suspicions, and the arguments revolving around them.
He looked at me for a moment longer, before asking in a considering tone, "have you thought about doing an internship outside of Korea?"
I blinked. "Excuse me - what?"
"Your final year." He pointed out as if he didn't just easily dismiss my tirade about parental care, mental welfare and all that jazz. "Does your university allow international internships?"
"...Yes - as a matter of fact, they do." I was majoring in International Law anyway. "But I don't see -"
"Consider our firm," he interrupted me again. "Our firm is one of the biggest international firms in the world; it has direct connections to most countries in Asia and Europe. Consider that, and I will consider your request."
"...I." I paused. He had that gentle, knowing, Santa-Claus-meets-Sean-Connery smile again. I was sorely tempted to just say yes because WHOA INTERNATIONAL FIRM INTERNSHIP, but there was another matter to think about. "Help me with this case, and I'll sign on for three months."
"Six months."
"Deal."
"Now." He laced his fingers and watched me over the rim of his glasses. "I'm going to hand over the one thing you need to win this case."
JooEun sat up straight in anticipation.
"So, after they returned from Osaka, Julia's mother asked me to run a DNA test."
Mr. Phillips left ten minutes later, leaving his business card, a stack of files about Julia, her parents, and Satoru, and me trying to digest the bomb he dropped in my lap.
Oh, this was even better than what I thought.
*
[ JooEun.3 // Three hours and six cigarettes later ]
Name: Miller, Julia
Date of Birth: xx.xx.xx
Sex: Female
Date admitted: xx.xx.xx
I skimmed down ten lines of text and took another drag. My head was starting to hurt. At this point I was just hoping I didn't miss anything important because I was, honestly and extremely, tired - more tired than I expected I would be. I thought about taking a break but there was only one thin (well, thin compared to the others) folder left and I didn't want to leave things hanging.
Names Of Parents: Miller, Paul; Miller, Hannah
I had gone over the file on Julia's parents twice and the pieces were coming together slowly, but I just couldn't find the link that connected them to the Arisugawa clan. I knew that what we had so far was probably enough to win but there was just this nagging feeling in the back of my mind and I couldn't get rid of it.
Benefactors: Arisugawa, Tomokazu.
Date released: xx.xx.xx
This. I can't figure out why Arisugawa Tomokazu's name is in Julia's orphanage records. Was Tomokazu a family friend? Did he know Julia's parents?
The soft beep on my laptop indicated that I received a new e-mail and I groaned at the interruption. I attacked my mouse with vigor and swore that I would sue people if it was just some junk mail or offer from... it was from Pandy, and she summarized her findings, hurrah.
-----------------------------------
Fr: Pandora Park
Attachment: jooeunstuff.doc
Sorry it took longer than I thought. There'a lot of crazy shit in the attachment, but there's really just one thing that you need to know. Hayashi Incorporated is a front for the Japanese mafia. Details in the doc.
What's this about again?
Pandy.
-----------------------------------
I'd always believed that, with the right trigger, the human mind could work faster than everything else that existed on cosmic plane. Now imagine your mind running stupid miles per second, linking one fact to another and not having the time to even filter what was valid and what wasn't. Assumptions, theories, evidence, bullshit - all rolled up into one big ball of tentative conclusions.
My trained mind, however, demanded proof for my proofs, and so I grabbed the file on Julia's parents again, rifling through the pages with the intensity of a kid in a candy store. Expatriates. Julia's father was an expatriate in Osaka and he worked for a US-based company a few months before returning to California. He was killed in a car crash two months later, with his wife and his brother in law.
His brother in law, Ogawa Shinji.
That was why the name sounded so familiar.
It made sense now. I stumbled to the bathroom adjoining the study to flush the remains of my cigarette. Then I sat on the toilet bowl; just sat there. My bathroom was a nice place. It smelled of lemon and citrus; the tiles scrubbed clean and the lights were the kind of bright that didn't hurt my eyes. It was small enough to give me the peace I needed, but not so much as to feed my claustrophobia.
It made sense now; all of it. Keiko's affair with businessman Ogawa, Satoru's birthdate, the DNA test results, an Ogawa Shinji being in the car accident with Julia's parents, Hayashi Incorporated, Julia's benefactors.
I didn't have a special affinity to cursing, but right that moment I would have revelled in Pandora's dirty mouth; because right that moment, nothing else would eloquently express what I was thinking.
Speaking of which - I returned to the room and speed-dialed three on my cellphone. One dial tone. Two.
"Got your e-mail. Listen up."
*
[ Still a little bit of your taste in my mouth ]
"...My fucking... "
"My sentiments exactly," JooEun replied flatly, thanking technology gods for hands-free cellular phones because she needed both her hands to bury her face in. She could only think of two people to call right after she found out about The Big (Ass) Scandal, and they were ChangMin, out of duty, and Pandora - out of need. Naturally, she called her foul-mouthed American Best Friend first.
"Are you - that was..." Pandora stopped. She wasn't used to stammering because very few things had been able to faze her. But this was huge. When she suggested that JooEun dug up dirt from Keiko's side of the family, she never imagined they would discover something like this.
This guaranteed their triumph, but she didn't feel like rejoicing. All she could think of was how big of a clusterfuck this whole thing was, and how hard it would be for the kids if they ever... "You can't tell the kids about this."
"That their grandparents are as good as murderers?" JooEun sounded a bit hysterical. "I'm not stupid. God. But we still have to tell ChangMin."
"And ChungAe - she'll figure it out by herself anyway."
Silence on both ends.
"Will you call ChangMin about this? I think... I've had enough for today. I'm going to sleep."
Pause. "Yeah." Pandora always considered herself somewhat heartless, but she couldn't possibly refuse; however much she wanted to. "I will."
There was a click from the other line, and Pandora couldn't care less for the nonexistence of parting words and playfully-delivered messages of love.
She speed-dialed two on her cellphone.
*
[ Still a little bit of you laced with my doubt ]
"Yoboseyo?"
It took Pandora a second to remember that she was calling Korea and people speak Korean in... well, Korea. "Yoboseyo. ChangMin-sshi, please?"
"Box?"
"Rat-boy?" Oh shit. Why did it have to be YooChun of all people? "Oh. Yeah. I need to speak to ChangMin. I've, er, got something I need him to deliver to ChungAe-yah. Fanbase stuff."
"Mouse. And why can't you just call ChungAe?"
"Because I don't know her number?" That was a lie - but Pandora figured what YooChun didn't know wouldn't hurt him... at least for now.
"Oh, right. Sec, I think he's in the study room. Yeah, right, he is. I'll transfer the call."
"By the way, this is a collect call, which means you're paying."
"Didn't think otherwise."
She waited for another two seconds before an unfamiliar voice greeted her.
"Pandora?"
For a moment she forgot what she wanted to say. Pandora didn't expect ChangMin to sound solid - he was younger than her, after all. His voice was light, lower than JunSu's, higher than YooChun's, and he had a way of saying her name that was... just different. Pronounced syllables, pronounced consonant.
"...Noona?"
She snapped back from her wandering thoughts. "What did I say about calling me 'noona'?"
There was a low, kind chuckle from the other end of the line. "I called your name twice." Pause. "You sound exactly like how I thought."
She gave a dry laugh. "Jaded and sarcastic?"
"No, actually--firm and sure. Pleasant. Sarcastic, too, but the good kind of..." ChangMin trailed off and he coughed a little. "So, uh. You speak good Korean. I heard you're part Venezuelan. Do you have an accent when you speak English?"
"Everyone in the house speaks Korean." Pandora smiled. "And... oh. Right. I don't have a message for ChungAe. I need to talk to you. Are you alone?"
*
Attentive now, ChangMin pushed away from his spot in front of his computer and sat leaning against the study door. One of these days, he really had to talk JunSu into getting a lock for this room.
"Yeah, I am."
"Good. This is our ace: Satoru is a bastard Arisugawa child. In fact, he's not an Arisugawa by blood at all"
Pause. Whoa. "How do you know?"
"He was registered a month after he was born, exactly seven months after Keiko's marriage. Let that sink in."
"Oh. Wait. That means he was only six months old-"
"Five, actually. If he's Arisugawa Tomokazu's son - and a byproduct of horny premarital sex."
"Oh, please. That marriage was so totally arranged."
"ChangMin?"
"Hm?"
"I like you. Marry me."
"That can be arranged."
"Cool. So Keiko had a fling that ended two weeks before her marriage with a businessman. This man's name is Ogawa Shinji. He could very well be Satoru's father. Turned out contacting Mr. Phillips was a good idea. He gave JooEun Satoru's DNA test result. Apparently Satoru knew."
ChangMin was actually giddy and excited. "Awesome! So we could-"
"There's - one more thing."
The only thing that made ChangMin pause was Pandora's hesitant tone. She didn't strike him as someone who would ever sound hesitant. "Yeah?"
"So you know Julia was an orphan, right? Her parents were killed in a car accident in the US. There were three people in that car: Julia's parents and her uncle ... named Ogawa Shinji."
"That's - wait."
"The truck that hit them was from Hayashi Incorporated, a transportation service based in Seattle. Or at least that's what they're listed as. They're actually... Let's just say they're the kind of service you'd hire if you want someone to do your dirty work. Usually by Japanese corporations. Among other things."
"A Yakuza front."
"Yes."
"No."
"They were in Seattle when the accident happened." Pandora paused. "Look. Ogawa Shinji was Julia's uncle. Which means there's a huge chance that Julia's parents knew the truth about Satoru -- and that was why they decided to take that assignment in Osaka. You see, the truth about Satoru's birth was a scandal by itself. And what if... You know, what if Julia's parents were in Osaka to see Satoru? What if Ogawa Shinji wanted Satoru back? I mean - why would they even do a DNA test if they didn't suspect something?"
ChangMin wasn't stupid. While Pandora was explaining Shinji Ogawa's connection to the Arisugawa clan, his mind raced to catch up. It was a lot of speculation, but if there was a kernel of truth behind it...
"If you put the accident and the Arisugawas suddenly deciding to become Julia's benefactors in the equation... there's only one conclusion-"
"Don't say it."
"-and it's... what?"
(They arrived on the finish line the same time, but no one felt like they won.)
[ Still a little hard to say what's going on. ]
"Don't say it. I don't want to hear it." ChangMin shut his eyes tight and knocked the back of his head to the wooden door. Repeatedly. God. Thump. No. Thump. God. Thump. No. Thump, thump, thump.
A hefty pause. "...ChangMin."
"You won't be living with Kane and Akira, Pandora. You can't-" ChangMin sighed. Silence descended between them, awkward, begging, and knowing at the same time.
"I understand. This... will stay among the four of us. Three."
"Just the part about the accident. I'll let hyung deul know about the rest."
"I'll take care of ChungAe. JooEun is... as of now re-assembling her proofs and booking tickets for Japan. I suggested she book three more."
"Three? Oh, right. Yeah. YunHo-hyung will so whine." ChangMin chuckled, this time genuine.
"And JaeJoong will have to stay with him." Return chuckle, this time genuine. Another silence.
"So I guess this is it, huh?"
"Yeah. I'll send the remaining stuff I have here to you."
"Thank you for everything." Are we ever gonna speak again?
"You're welcome. It was nice to be able to help." We don't have a reason to.
"...Right, then. Bye, Noona."
Pause. "Bye, ChangMin."
ChangMin returned the receiver back into its place and sat there hugging his knees for a good ten minutes - probably longer if JunSu hadn't opened the door from the outside and knocked his head in the process.
ChangMin rubbed the back of his head and grimaced as JunSu rushed into a flurry of apologies and are-you-okays. He lifted a hand and waved it off, his expression turning serious.
"Can you go find hyung deul and tell them to meet me in the living room? I need to tell you guys something."
*
(YooChun eventually stopped making wisecracks about prostate exams after YunHo threatened to tell their manager that YooChun had some sort of genital disease.
-one which would require him to undergo a prostate exam if YooChun wanted to prove otherwise, of course.)
*