SHINee Duets 2012: miss_circle & xfwankiex & chaeii (part two)
It was without a doubt that they would end up getting close to one another. Gwiboon went to Minjung's house to hang out so often, neither family didn't need to ask where the young girl was. Sometimes, when Minjung wouldn't be at home yet, Minho, Minjung's older brother who stayed at home all day and left at night, would let her in anyway, treat her like the frequent guest she was, and entertained her until Minjung got home, sweaty and mud-streaked from practice.
'Gwiboon-ah, come in,' he would say, holding the door wide open, with a warm smile on his face. She would bow to him, for manners' sake (although he's told her more than enough times it wasn't needed), and would politely enter, toeing off her shoes by the door. He would lead her inside to the living room, asking her to sit while he got them drinks. Beside her on the couch would always be that black tattered bag of his, sitting alone until she came along. Sticking out from where the zipper was undone would be a tin of chocolate cookies, tempting her to take one. And she would, without fail, take one of the two cookies left inside the tin and gingerly place it back in the same position where it belongs. She would still have half the cookie held in between two dainty fingers when Minho would come back, holding a tray of water and tea. He never said anything about it, not since the first time he caught her, and she never asked either; why he would always have a tin of cookies in his bag, why he never closed his bag properly, why there were always only two left in the tin, and why he always let her eat the other one. It was a silent mutual understanding, and neither of them seemed to be too bothered by it.
*
Day in and day out Gwiboon spent her stay there getting questioned in the morning and then set free to roam their grounds for the rest of the day, having meals with their core group, watched over by their authoritative eyes. She wondered why for the days that she had been there, no one had tried to kill her or no one had even raised their voice at her. She was a key person in the government, wouldn't one of them have at least tried to harm her in the heat of their anger and vengeance? It was after a few days of redundancy that she found out why.
"You've been watching me," she spoke so callously during dinner when the core group had gone for an important meeting with a supplier or some other, but Minho had been ordered to stay with her.
"So I have. It's my job to," he replied just as coldly, doe eyes never leaving his plate of food.
The silence stretched on for a few painful minutes, only the muffled sounds of the rebels moving outside of the room they were in and the sound of utensils scratching at metal plates filled the room. Gwiboon could not help but constantly glance at Minho. Sure, he was a jerk, but he was a good looking one at that. No one could deny that he was easy on the eyes, especially for someone like Gwiboon who had a liking for tall, lean men with a small face to match. But that wasn't the point. She knew him, somehow, someway. She'd seen that judging look in his eyes.
He snapped his head up to look at her and their gazes met. Something shifted, she was sure of it, in the atmosphere when they looked at each other, finally, properly. Gwiboon opened her mouth to say something but Minho looked away, with a tinge of pink on his cheeks, she noted, and began to eat again, shoving the food in his mouth.
She smiled softly at his actions before frowning and shaking her head. This was not the time to be doing this kind of thing, she was a captive and he was a rebel. There was no time to go day dreaming about his chocolate doe eyes. She was about to leave the underground cafeteria, when Minho gave her a small package. Inside were a pack of cotton, a bottle of ointment, and some band aids.
“For your wounds,” he said. Then he left the cafeteria first.
*
Gwiboon had always been too proud to get a personal security service, thinking that she would be fine on her own. Look at her now. She had caused panic to the whole Department of Defense. One of their top security agents was abducted by a gang of belligerents that were planning to overthrow the country. This was bad. Jonghyun felt like losing his head, under the threat of losing his job.
"Any trails yet?" Jonghyun asked the thin programmer who was typing away on his keyboard.
"For the fifth time, no," Taemin told him, irritated. It was hard to be the youngest and smartest programmer in the department. He hadn't even worked there for a year and yet everyone depended on him now. Unfortunately, there was still the magnae aspect that didn’t allow him to disobey orders once in a while. Even if it was just refusing to get Jonghyun a cup of coffee.
"What the hell have you been doing in there? I thought you're smart," Jonghyun retorted.
"Well, I'm sorry, sir. Would you like to look for Gwiboon's trail yourself?"
It was a good thing that Taemin was free to talk back as long as he kept the honorifics.
It had been four days since the last time Gwiboon was sighted, and there was still no clue of her whereabouts. Jonghyun knew for certain that it must be the belligerents who kidnapped her. The department's intelligence was 99% sure that they were after the top security information the government was keeping, the military hard drive. There were only several people that had access to the hard drive, including Jonghyun and Gwiboon. It was protected by layers of security, from access code up to retina scan. It didn't take a genius to figure out why they took Gwiboon. They certainly couldn't kidnap the president. What if they're planning to?
"If it's any consolation," Taemin added, "I'll stay here tonight and look for her."
"Well, you should. It's a matter of national security."
Jonghyun didn't miss Taemin rolling his eyes at him, but he was too occupied thinking of where the rebels' headquarter could be. He couldn't believe it took so long to find their hideaway.
Frustrated, Jonghyun slammed the door to his office behind his back, going back to the solitude that didn't exactly help him to get a solution. He missed Taemin wiping the cold sweat on his palms, frantically trying to prevent a breach in the communication system.
He was preventing Gwiboon from contacting Jonghyun.
*
She was right. There was a mole in the department. Gwiboon only had less than five minutes to hack Minho's computer. She had to contact Jonghyun and tell him where she was. She had a guess of what the rebel group was trying to get into and when they would do it. She almost succeeded, but somehow someone kept blocking her way. This was a secure line she was trying to break into. A line that only a few people knew, solely created for the purpose of them, the secret keepers, to communicate. Whoever was blocking her code must be someone who knew the code. Gwiboon could only think of one person.
It can't be.
She kept trying, bypassing lines she knew that only a few of them possessed. One minute. Minho could find her any seconds now. Light footsteps resonated through the corridor hall outside Minho's open door. Click, click, click, Gwiboon erased whatever history she might have made during the hacking. She didn't make much progress after all, thus making it easy for her to erase the data. She had made a small worm into Jonghyun’s communication line. She could only hope it got through. Quickly, Gwiboon flew from the desk to Minho's bed, feigning a lethargy of having been kept prisoner for so long. When Minho stepped into the room, Gwiboon realized that she had been holding her breath.
"You're so lazy," Minho commented.
"I'm sorry, would you like me to help you overthrow the country?" Gwiboon replied, to which Minho snorted. She sat up on the bad and saw Minho put several things on the desk. "Where have you been?"
"Supplies. Needed some refill."
Gwiboon recognized the tin box that Minho brought along with him.
The cartoon design on it was faded, paint chipped away from age, but she knew whose it was. Her mind traveled back to younger, more innocent days, where chocolate chips represented love and a metal tin box held her beating heart in it. She watched quietly as he released the latches that held the box together, and unveiled the cookies inside, neat rows of six that mirror the way Minjung’s brother used to keep his cookies.
She was silent as he brought a cookie to his mouth and bit it, each moment playing in slow-motion as her mind went into overdrive. It couldn’t be. Her memories of Minho were blurry but colourful. She remembered the way he had started to leave the cookies behind for her, how he had deliberately brought more. Her last memory of him was him waving at her as his family car drove away, drove away to a new place miles and miles away. She hadn’t heard from him since.
He waved the cookie in front of her.
“Here, have one. You’re probably sick of the food we’ve been feeding you,” he said.
Gwiboon took the cookie tentatively and proceeded to stare at it. It was the same brand of chocolate cookies that Minho had.
“That’s a cool box you have,” she commented, biting into the cookie.
“Childhood relic. Can’t bear to throw it away just yet,” he said, dropping the rest of the cookie into his mouth.
“Reminds me of a friend my sister had. I never got to know her name, but I had the biggest crush on her. You could probably call her my first love,” he added. There was wistfulness on his face that she didn’t know he was capable of achieving.
She started to say something, but he continued, “Why am I telling you this? I’ll leave the cookies here. Someone will come and retrieve it later.”
He was almost out the door before Gwiboon said, “I was Minjung’s friend.”
He didn’t turn to look at her, but there was a moment, a small moment where he had stiffened and paused. Gwiboon wondered if the revelation would make any difference.
Minho finally turned and looked at her deep in the eyes. There was no smile.
“Funny how life goes, isn’t it?” he said.
It probably wouldn’t make any difference.
*
She spent some more dull days there, her life a dull repetition of gray stone walls and piercing eyes. One day, however, one of the rebels had caught her eye. She was small, not a child, but almost adolescent. She stood staring out at the distance with her fists clenched at her sides. Gwiboon approached her, tapping her shoulder once and bending down to be at eye level with her, smiling softly.
"Hi," she greeted, taking in the small girl's rosy cheeks and small eyes.
The polite greeting was not returned, instead a scowl was sent her way. The small girl scrunched up her nose at the sight of Gwiboon and pressed her hand into Gwiboon's face, pushing her back. The older girl could only step back in surprise, straightening up as the younger continued to glare at her.
"You're part of the bad people! The ones that took away me and my mommy's home! I hate you! You made mommy hurt and sad! Now she's gone too and it's all your fault! I wish you'd all just go away!" the little girl yelled, stomping her foot and Gwiboon could only watch with wide eyes as one of the older rebels picked her up and carried her away.
Her heart thudded against her chest as the little girl's words resonated in her ears. What have they done? As fas as she knew they weren't doing anything wrong, aside from the small technical difficulties they'd have now and again, but they were doing their job right, weren't they? Perhaps Gwiboon had been brought up too closely to the government that she had become blind to their imperfection, blind to their people's suffering.
Tears gathered in her eyes as she looked around her and finally, really, saw these people for who they were. Citizens who had been cheated off of life, off of proper living because of the greed of their government. She looked at them as they looked back at her, secretly rejoicing at her flushed cheeks and over her stomach, feeling cold and empty. In her whole life, all she wanted to do was to be able to serve the people, be one of the leaders of the country who would lead their state to greatness. She never would have wished hardship and cruelty on anybody, and she would never have wanted to work for the government had she known what they really do to their countrymen.
She then felt a large warm hand on her back and she looked up, the tears in her eyes trailing down her cheeks. Minho looked down at her with even warmer eyes as if to tell her 'now you understand'. She bowed her head as the tears continued to fall, a hand coming up to her mouth, stifling the sobs that ripped from her throat.
Unexpectedly, she felt arms wrap around her and pull her towards warmth. She pressed her face into his shirt as she cried, hands gripping at his shirt. They stood there in silent understanding and mutual surrender.
She decided that if she could not turn back time and undo all the things she had done, the services she had rendered, then she could help these people to get back what truly belonged to them. She could help them fight against the very government she worked for, and she was going to do it with her head held high, knowing that what she was about to do was finally what she'd been dreaming to do all her life.
*
When Gwiboon finally had a good sleep in the bunker, she was startled by Minho's hand covering her mouth, telling her to not make a sound. Wordlessly, he gestured Gwiboon to wake up and followed him. They walked briskly to the central area and there were already Jinki, Jongkook, Dong Hoon and the others. They dressed in black from head to toe, each one was holding guns of various kinds.
"Where are we going?" Gwiboon asked, stricken with panic.
"Don't ask questions. I almost begged at them, so that they wouldn't drug you through the journey," Minho whispered, at the same time hurrying to get his own gun.
"No, Minho, I have to ask this. Where are we going?" she urged. Out of the corner of her eyes she saw Dong Hoon coming closer.
"Are you going to shut up?" Dong Hoon asked.
"No, I will not-"
"Sorry, Minho."
Without waiting for permission, Dong Hoon tied a cloth around Gwiboon's mouth.
"Hey," Minho said. "Be gentle. At least don't tie her hands."
"No can do. She's going to try to take the guns," Dong Hoon replied and tied Gwiboon's hands. He pushed Gwiboon towards an iron door, but Minho stopped him. He gestured towards Dong Hoon to go ahead, while he walked beside Gwiboon, making sure she kept her balance. There was a frantic look in her eyes, like she was trying to tell him something, but it could be just panic.
The iron door sled open and they all stepped into the elevator. Gwiboon kept pulling at Minho's shirt, compensating her lack of speech ability to a muffled cry.
"Please let me drug her. The Department of Defense is going to hear her before we're even there," Gary whined.
"Don't touch her," Minho threatened and it was enough to make everyone quiet. Except for Gwiboon who kept trying to get Minho's attention, but he only whispered at her to stay quiet for the fear they would really drug her.
The elevator kept going up and they appeared in a wide space covered by a dome. There was water above the dome. Gwiboon's eyes grew wide realizing that they'd been underwater all along. The department had been looking under the wrong land. They should have looked under the water.
Before being ushered into the dark van, Gwiboon saw a school of colorful fish swimming across the dome. If only her mouth and hands weren't bound, she would gasp and pull her hair in frustration. A few days ago, Jinki had confirmed that Yoo Jae Suk was the brain of everything, but she never expected that the famous politician would hide these belligerents under his own fish pond. To think that he had this big bunker under his luxurious home. This is outrageous, Gwiboon screamed mentally.
The van's door was slammed shut and they moved to a place unknown to Gwiboon. She had a guess, but it was horrifying her. She kept trashing and kicking everyone around her to get their attention, before Jongkook pulled her hair and made her stop.
"Hey!" Minho protested.
Jongkook ignored him and pulled out a cloth wet with chloroform. He looked at Gwiboon with a pair of cold eyes.
"If it weren't for Minho," he said. "I'd already kill you. After all, we only need your fingers and eyes."
How Gwiboon wished her mouth bound was untied, so that she could laugh over her mental image of Jongkook's face when she told him that they needed her voice to open the hard drive. She didn't get to see the end of it, because the chloroform got her first.
The second time she woke up that night was because Minho patted her gently on the shoulder. He was a big man, and it might look like he was dragging Gwiboon out of the van. The truth was he did it ever so softly knowing Gwiboon was disoriented from the chloroform. It took a few seconds until she gained her senses. Adrenaline poured into her as they broke into a familiar building. The Department of Defense.
Jinki and his team moved into the building easily. Gwiboon gasped when she realized that the alarm was disabled. In fact, the door was opened from the inside and there was Taemin with a stun gun on his hand. The securities were laying on the floor, bound to their watch chairs. It was a good call to bypass Taemin's communication line to reach Jonghyun. She just wished that her guess had been wrong when she suspected him to be the mole. She liked that sarcastic kid.
It was pretty stupid to think that the Department of Defense was empty at night, but it wasn't what Gwiboon worried about. Empty or not, Jinki had to abort this mission. Minho wouldn't listen.
Desperate, Gwiboon kicked Minho on the legs. He stopped himself from falling to the floor and cocked his gun at Gwiboon.
"I'm not going to hesitate," he threatened, but the quiver in his eyes betrayed his words. Gwiboon stomped her foot on the ground and groped on her mouth bound.
"Come on, we don't have much time," Taemin said, avoiding Gwiboon's eyes.
Once again, Gwiboon made a sound and groped on the mouth bound. Minho untied her impatiently, and Gwiboon didn't waste any time to breathe.
"Abort the mission. You have to go!"
"We can't," Jinki debated, checking his watch.
"They know you're here," Gwiboon disclosed the truth. There was a silence spreading across the team.
"What?"
The usual gentleness was gone from Jinki's face and Gwiboon wished she didn't have to see that.
"I hacked Minho's computer and told Jonghyun that you were coming. I'm sorry."
"That can't be. I kept watch 24 hours," Taemin interrupted.
"I bypassed your line, kid. You weren't that hard to discover. In fact, we've had our eyes on you for months."
"Why?" Minho asked. Out of all the rage they could have thrown at Gwiboon, Minho chose to disrupt the moment with a single why.
"There's no time to discuss. We need to move out," Jinki ordered.
The first gunshot was heard the second they turned to get out of the building.
*
Minho was warm against Gwiboon, using his own body to cover her smaller frame. They were running, running as fast as their legs could carry them. Minho’s breath was shallow; little pants of air that ghosted on Gwiboon’s neck. Gwiboon wanted to stop him, to tell him that she could now be the one that protected him, that if they turned back, Gwiboon would put in a good word for him so he wouldn’t get into much trouble. They had seen Jongkook get shot down, blood haloing around him as he laid on the floor, probably dead. Minho had instantly grabbed her hand, shielded her, and ran for the woods near the Department. Gwiboon had no choice but to follow him as he ran, his body pressing into hers.
To be honest, they had not run much, not even a mile, maybe a lot less, but Minho sounded exhausted, almost in pain. He tripped then, crashing Gwiboon on to the floor and then falling on her. Gwiboon laid beneath him, not moving, before reaching out around him to his back to shake him up. Her hand met liquid, but it was probably just perspiration. She pulled back her and met -
Blood.
There was blood on her hand, deep red liquid that seeped into the lines on her palm, veining out like an abstract painting.
“Yah, Minho, Minho, can you hear me?”
Minho grunted above her, eyes slowly inching open.
“I think I might have got shot,” he whispered, a hint of humour in his voice. He started to shift away, using his left hand to prop himself up. Gwiboon watched silently as he slowly inched his way up, till he was standing again. She stood up too.
“This is your opportunity to run, you know?”
“Why don’t you run, Minho?” Gwiboon said, the words out of her out of her mouth before she realized. She clamped a hand over her mouth.
“Why?”
“Just… go. Before I regret this,” she said. “I can go back, say you knocked me out and ran away.”
“Will I ever see you again?”
“Are you crazy? Go quick,” Gwiboon said as she heard the rustling of leaves, of people shouting her name.
“I’ll come back for you, you know? Not as a kidnapper, but as someone who likes you.”
“Just go.”
Gwiboon’s mouth quirked into a small side smile as she watched Minho run away, left hand pressing down on to the wound on his right shoulder.
She wasn’t sure why she let him go, he was injured, she could have held him in place till her people came, and they could have punished him for kidnapping her, for holding her hostage for days and weeks on end. He also could just collapse somewhere in the middle of the woods, and die a silent and unknown death. There was a part of her heart that aches, that seemed to have hardened and died off as the figure of him became smaller and smaller.
Guess she would just consider it as repayment for the cookies he gave her.
*
It was only a few days before Minho would disappear from her life. Little Gwiboon didn’t know what goodbye meant, and she had no idea that Minho would go. She didn’t have a reason to. All she knew, as she was finishing her piece of cookie, chocolate crumbs smeared all over her rosy lips, she had a question floating in her mind.
“Minho, what is love?” she asked. She heard her parents said the word all the time, but she never knew what it meant.
Minho munched his cookie in silence, thinking of the word ‘love’. He actually didn’t know the answer himself, but as the older between the two, he should have the answer to everything. The look on Gwiboon’s eyes made him feel like he could do anything.
Putting the last bit of the cookie into his mouth, Minho took a piece of tissue and cleaned the crumbs of Gwiboon’s mouth.
“Love is knowing that you always take my favorite cookies out of my backpack and yet I always put them in the same place.”