Dark Blue - 深蓝の魂 by 珊



Chapter 18


Li Ann skipped downstairs while humming a soft tune to herself. She flipped her hair out of her face and became a bit frustrated with its annoying way of always getting in her way. She had thought of cutting it several times, but never got around to it.

She walked over to the patio that stood outside her kitchen and spotted Mike, leaning against the wall, staring off into the endless distance. Li Ann didn’t ponder him with questions, but instead just stood there next to him and stared.

A few minutes later, Mike finally turned to face her. She smiled.

“Hi,” Li Ann greeted cheerfully.

“Hey,” Mike asked in a low tired voice. Her smiled slowly faded as she wondered what was up with the sudden down change of his attitude.

“Something wrong?” she asked just to break the silence between them. Mike slowly shook his head as he looked down.

“I’m going to a Manchurian restaurant this afternoon,” Mike said, still keeping his gaze on the ground.

“For what?” she asked, suddenly feeling like she was intruding his private space. She backed up a little like she was going to walk back in.

“My lawyer’s going there to tell Ji Yun who my niece is. This may be my chance to find her,” Mike spoke ever so casually.

“Do you need me to come with you?” Li Ann asked with a hint of hope in her voice that he would eventually say yes.

“No, that’s okay,” Mike replied quietly. Li Ann’s reaction was a silent stare. She somehow felt a bit betrayed that he didn’t need her.

“Good luck then,” Li Ann said with a small smile as she walked back into the kitchen, slowly sliding the door behind her.

Mike leaned back onto the wall for support and wished he had a cigarette. He had quitted years before he died, but now he suddenly had the desire to taste one. He rested his head and closed his eyes.

“I’m sorry Li Ann,” Mike whispered to himself as he walked out of the patio and onto the sidewalk of the street.

He was headed downtown to that Manchurian restaurant. Li Ann, feeling a bit disappointed and lonely, decided to keep herself busy.

That day had been a warm sunny day, not like the regular stormy gray ones, but with Mike’s rejection brought her a feeling of depression.

She told herself she shouldn’t feel this way. Mike has his own business to take care of, and it be best if she stayed out of it. She plopped down onto the bouncy couch and popped in a movie. #### it if she didn’t have any clients that day.

Her class was not going to start anytime soon, and her friend Lindsey is busy with her boyfriend.

Li Ann asked herself why she didn’t have a boyfriend either?

Maybe it was Andy? He was the first man she had peculiarly dated first since coming back from the States, but other than that, she questioned herself for not obtaining one.

Mike brushed passed the busy crowds as he made his way into the busy marketplace. Up ahead of him was the Manchurian restaurant that he could tell was already filled with costumers. Suddenly he stopped.

His eyebrows tighten as he thought of what had just happened a few seconds ago. Had he just brushed passed some people? Did this mean he can touch things without having Li Ann around? To try out his hypothesis, he reached over to a nearby pole, but felt nothing.

It was the same. Perhaps it was just his illusion. Perhaps he was stressing himself out with his journey to find his niece and save her. But why save her?

He had never met her before, nor seen her. He didn’t even know he had a niece. Then he remembered his cousin Lee Tae Jung.

His cousin was much older than he was, and he remembered that Tae Jung had married, and had a daughter before passing away.

So that must be the niece?

Could it be?

All these questions had an insurgence to Mike as he tried to recall the past. He was seven years old when his cousin Tae Jung had his daughter. So would that mean his niece was already seventeen years old?

He stepped into the restaurant and looked around for a familiar face he would recognize. He immediately spotted the lawyer who sat nervously at the end of the restaurant, with a coffee cup on his table.

He kept glancing at his watch as Mike approached.

“Are you Mr. Choi?” asked a voice from behind Mike. He turned around and saw that it was Hwanhee, who was talking to the lawyer.

The lawyer nodded and motioned for Hwanhee to sit down. Hwanhee looked around uncomfortably, then sat down. He kept glancing over at the other side of the restaurant.

“Such a bad place to meet,” Hwanhee muttered as he kept looking at everything in sight with suspicion.

“Where’s Ji Yun?” the lawyer asked nervously.

“She asked me to come get the information. Do you have it?” Hwanhee asked with his eyes boring directly into the lawyers. The lawyer nodded in response and took out his small brief case. He took out some papers and shuffled them in his hands.

“Can you hurry up?” Hwanhee asked impatiently.

“What’s the hurry?” the lawyer asked still browsing through the papers.

“There’s a detective over there,” Hwanhee pointed a weak finger towards Eric and his friends sitting at the opposite end of the restaurant, talking and eating.

“A detective?” Mr. Choi asked looking towards where Hwanhee was pointing. Mike looked the same direction and analyzed Eric, who was enjoying his conversation with Tae Hyung. They looked like impersonate fools to him instead of detectives.

Perhaps they were undercover impersonate detectives? He shrugged off the thought and turned back to the conversation.

“Yeah, he’s on Mike’s murder case,” Hwanhee stated as he leaned back in his seat. Mike crossed his arms smiling at how pathetic Hwanhee must be to just give away secrets like that.

“Oh, okay,” the lawyer replied. He handed the papers to Hwanhee and sat back, drinking the rest of his coffee.

“What the ####’s all this crap?” Hwanhee asked looking over the thick pile of papers in his palm.

“Those are just outside information, but the info on the niece is also in there,” Mr. Choi explained. Hwanhee picked out the paper on top of the pile and looked over it. “Lee Dahye?” he asked raising his eyebrows.

“Yes, she’s seventeen years old and she lives in Pusan. Her address is there, and the rest is just outside information like I said,” Mr. Choi explained again.

“Seventeen? And she doesn’t know about Mike right?” Hwanhee asked with some kind of interest in the girl.

“Of course not...yet,” Mr. Choi mumbled back.

“All right, fine. Thanks,” Hwanhee noted as he stood up, folding the top piece of paper into four parts then stuffed it in his jacket. He tossed the other bunch back down onto the table as he stood up to leave.

“Keep this informational confident,” Mr. Choi shouted back in a low voice as Hwanhee walked towards the exit.

“Lee Dahye?” Mike said quietly to himself. Now that was a name he had never heard in his family before. He walked out to follow Hwanhee when he suddenly saw Eric and his men shift out of their seats to follow after Hwanhee.

Hwanhee walked quickly out to his black BMW when Eric suddenly tapped him from behind his shoulder. Hwanhee turned around and shown a surprised expression on his face. Tae Hyung, Tony and Jae Won followed and stayed a few feet away from Eric and Hwanhee.

Eric smiled cooly at Hwanhee as he checked out Hwanhee’s car.

“Can I help you?” Hwanhee asked as he looked around.

“I was just wanting to ask you a few questions as I saw you in there,” Eric replied stepping a few inches back.

“Sure...” Hwanhee said trying to sound calm.

“Do you know anything that has to do with Lee Mike? I mean, I saw you in his home the other day I went to see his wife, so I was thinking maybe you could be a friend of Mr. Lee?”

“Oh, no. I don’t know that guy. I am just co-workers with his wife, so I went to talk to her,” Hwanhee shrugged as he explained his relationship with Ji Yun. Eric nodded slowly.

“Oh, I see. Well, thanks for your time then,” Eric acknowledged.

Hwanhee shook his hands and got into his car. With a innocent look on his face, he glanced at Eric and waved, then drove out of the parking lot.

Mike sat in Hwanhee’s car, in the backseat with a cold glare at Hwanhee. He wanted to see what Eric was doing, but couldn’t afford to lose Hwanhee either. Eric put his hands on his hips and bit his lip, thinking to himself.

Tae Hyung, who was talking to Tony and Jae Won, walked over and stepped in front of Eric. “Hey, who’s the guy?” Tae Hyung asked.

“He knows Mike’s wife. I don’t know, but it feels as if I’ve met him somewhere before...hey Jae Won! Can you do a background scan of Hwang Sung Hyuk?” Eric shouted from where he was to Jae Won.

“Yeah sure,” Jae Won shouted back. Eric rolled up his sleeves and walked over to his car. The other three men followed. Tony stepped into his silver convertible while Tae Hyung and Jae Won got into Eric’s four wheeler.

Jae Won sat comfortably and took out his lap top.

Typing in the name “Hwang Sung Hyuk,” he glanced over to Tae Hyung.

“I’ve never heard of a guy like that in my files,” Jae Won muttered. Eric slammed the door in the drivers seat and looked back over to Jae Won.

“Anything?” Eric asked with one hand over the steering wheel.

“Nope,” Jae Won shook his head as he kept staring at the laptop screen.

“All right, maybe he’s never had a record before,” Eric muttered as he started the engine and started the car into gear. Hwanhee drove to a familiar territory that Mike was known to and stopped when he reached the parking lot of Mike’s corporation. Nobody was in the corporation at that moment, making Mike wonder why he had come there.

Hwanhee stepped out of the car and walked over to the entrance. Mike got out and quickly followed behind, keeping a close look on Hwanhee. Hwanhee glanced around the empty parking lot for signs of anybody, but without anyone in sight, he took out a silver key and unlocked the gates. Oddly, the security system didn’t go off. Mike inspected even closer, wondering what Hwanhee was trying to do.

Break in? But why?Hwanhee got through the glass doors and locked it. He walked into the quiet lobby. The elevators were shut down, so he walked into the staircase room and climbed up the stairs. Mike followed right behind. Making his way to the sixth floor, Hwanhee looked around pantingly for Mike’s office.

Mike also wondered why the security cameras were off also. Hwanhee found Mike’s office and used yet, another key to open it. It had seemed as if Hwanhee knew his way pretty much around the building. This surprised Mike. Hwanhee walked into Mike’s office and headed straight to Mike’s desk.

Mike walked slowly behind and looked on to see what Hwanhee would do next. Hwanhee bent down behind his desk where Mike had kept all his personal files.

“X marks the spot,” Hwanhee smiled slyly as he inspected the shiny brown desk that held a small drawer behind it. He used a smaller key this time to open the desk drawer. Mike grew concern as to what he suddenly knew what Hwanhee was trying to do.

He was searching for that number. How would Hwanhee know that Mike also kept a record of the number in his office. Obviously Mike was not that stupid to keep it right in his desk drawer. He sat down on top of his desk and crossed his arm, amused.

“#### it,” Hwanhee muttered in frustration as he searched through the pile of papers in that drawer. Mike smiled as he waited for Hwanhee to drive himself insane. After a few minutes of sifting through every single paper there is, there was no luck for Hwanhee.

No number. Hwanhee poked his head up when a clicking sound was heard. Mike looked up and towards the door. The sound was heard from far away, as if somebody else had gotten in. Hwanhee immediately pushed the drawers back in and locked it.

He got out quickly from behind the desk but figured it was too late to run out, so he ran for cover behind the bathroom that was in Mike’s office. Mike stood there still, waiting for somebody to show up through the doors.

A minute later, Junjin walked in with his fast pace. He didn’t seem to wonder why Mike’s office was unlock. Hwanhee peeked through a open crack from the bathroom door to see what Junjin, a man he’d never seen before, was doing.

Hwanhee smirked in disbelief when he saw Junjin kneel down behind Mike’s desk and also used a small silver key to open. So everyone was after that number? Mike stared in half questioning shock as Junjin looked through every single piece of paper there was. He looked back up a bit frustrated as he seemed to have no luck either.

Hwanhee wished he had a gun with him so badly. Five minutes in the room, Junjin finally stood up, holding a small piece of paper in his hands. Hwanhee’s eyes grew wide as he suddenly wanted to jump up and strangle Junjin, but from his estimation of Junjin’s size, he’d probably have a slim chance only.

Junjin walked around the desk with a sigh in triumph. He walked away from the desk and towards the door to leave when his cell phone suddenly rang. He picked it up and answered it.

“Hello? Yeah, this is Jin. Okay, sure, okay.

I’ll meet you at club Xtasy later tonight then,” Junjin said as he closed his phone. He folded the paper into four parts and slipped it into his jacket.

With that, he walked out and locked the door to the office behind him. A few seconds afterwards, Hwanhee stepped out of the bathroom and walked out of the office, forgetting to lock it up. Mike stood inside his office, still puzzled.

Was Junjin becoming a traitor too? He had fully trusted Junjin when he was alive, and now he couldn’t believe what he just saw. He felt as if the whole world had betrayed him, yet the only person he could really trust was Li Ann. Hwanhee walked out of the building, securing the lock behind him. Junjin had already left the area.

He stopped walking when he reached his car and pulled out his cell phone.

“Ji Yun?” he asked. “Get ready baby. We’re going to club Xtasy tonight.
Don’t ask why, I need you to do something for me alright? I’ll see you in a while,” Hwanhee said as he hung up, stepped into his car and drove off.

Mike walked out of the building, right through the glass pane doors.

He knew where Hwanhee was headed now.

He had to get to Li Ann.

Club Xtasy was the destination.

[To be Cont]