"I have to think that," he said. "I can't just stop looking."
Hyejin sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Gihun, you've been at this for two years. What happens if you do find him? What's the plan?"
There was a pause on the line before he answered. "We take him. Make him talk. Find out who's behind all of this."
"And then what? Walk into another trap?"
"I don't have a choice," he said, his voice rising. "Do you think I like this? Spending every waking moment chasing shadows?"
"No," Hyejin said quietly. "But I think Saebyeok wouldn't want you killing yourself over this."
"She'd want justice," he shot back.
"Yeah, and she'd also want her family safe," Hyejin replied, her tone firm. "And she'd want you to live."
The silence between them was heavy.
"Look," she said after a moment. "If you're going to keep doing this, then I'm coming with you."
"No," Gihun said sharply. "It's too dangerous."
"I don't care," Hyejin said, her voice unwavering. "You're not the only one who lost someone in that hellhole."
"You have Cheol to think about," he argued.
"And I'm thinking about him," she said. "I'm thinking about the fact that he deserves to grow up in a world where this kind of thing doesn't exist."
Gihun sighed deeply. "You're as stubborn as your sister, you know that?"
"You should've seen us arguing over whose taller. It got violent, I tell you."
By the time they hung up, the plan was set. Hyejin would meet Gihun at the Pink Hotel within the week, and together they'd track down the suit man. As she packed a small bag that night, her mind wandered to Saebyeok.
Her gaze flicked over to one of the few photos she and Cheol had managed to find after a deep search through their stuff and hassling that travel broker that Gihun mentioned to her. They had found photos of Hyejin and Saebyeok as little twins in North Korea, some baby photos of Cheol, Saebyeok and Hyejin in pigtails and one worn down family photo with their mum and dad. Their dad was long gone but their mother was recovering from a tuberculosis outbreak at her prison in the north, and the broker was working as hard as he could to get her on a ship in China.
Hyejin gently touched the photo of her, Saebyeok and Cheol with ice cream just outside the orphanage. She remembered helping Cheol stick the photo to the wall by the door at the perfect level. "I don't know if this is what you'd want," she murmured, gripping the switchblade her sister had left behind in her pocket (she had bought a two pack). "But I'm going to finish what you started."
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