@247shiwoo​ 

2010 - a dark evening in September

It’s been a month since she’s last been home. All that time with no actual place to sleep or call home. She’s mostly spent her nights outside or in saunas, using the latter’s accommodations to keep herself clean as well. It’s been a rough month and Shinhye has been wondering what the hell she’s supposed to do with herself, but she has finally found a way out of the mess. Well, into a bigger mess admittedly, but that is beside the point. The point is that she will have a house again, a roof above her head, a place to sleep and a certain income.

The point is also that after four weeks of trying her very best to not tell anyone about her predicament, she just can’t do it anymore. She can’t keep lying to her best friend, the guy who has been by her side since the first day of high school, the one who knows pretty much everything about her. To not tell him something important like this, she can hardly imagine how she would be able to live with that for any longer than she already has. It’s killing her every time she sees him, knowing that she is keeping something from him. And so today is the day that she’s going to change that.

Screw the contract she signed stating she wouldn’t reveal any of it to the world. Shiwoo is not the world. Well, he is to her, but he isn’t actually the world. He’s just one person of whom she’s entirely sure he will keep her secret. So she heads over to the familiar restaurant for her weekly visit. It’s the only day she spends so much money, just to get a decent meal and to be able to see him again. She misses the times when they would see each other daily, hopes that maybe telling him this might help them become closer again than they have been over the past couple of weeks.

Still, anxiety creeps in the moment she enters the Gosang restaurant, her eyes quickly taking in all the customers before she heads over to where she knows Shiwoo is. Luckily they already know her well enough in this place to let her pass, so she makes it to where she’s supposed to be with very little effort. Still, the biggest effort of all is yet to come. But first is the usual greeting.

2010 - the holiday period

Shinhye walks through the airport, on her way to the luggage area so she can gather her bag again. She’s just returned from a trip to China, ready to get back to her part time job at the convenience store. The weekend city trip has rejuvenated her spirits and made her feel more able to take on the coming weeks again. One of the perks of the little arrangement she’s made for herself.

Grabbing her bag from the automatic distributing line, she checks the tag to make sure it’s hers, then sets on her way to the exit of the airport. Of course there’s customs first, but she strides over to the line that indicates she has nothing to declare. Walking with confident steps, Shinhye wonders again if she hasn’t entirely missed out on her career as an actress.

After all, she is more than aware of the amount of drugs she is currently carrying into the country. Perhaps she would feel bad about it, if she could afford such a luxury. The truth is she needs the money, and this is the easiest way to make money. Dangerous, but easy. The organisation she’s working for has also provided her with a place to live and the occasional clothes to go with her so-called city trips.

Well, she is visiting those cities, so there is hardly anything wrong about what they’re calling it. She’s seen plenty beautiful parts of China by now, and the stress every time she walks through the airport security is just something she’s going to have to get used to. It doesn’t feel like that’s going to happen anytime soon, though, with the way her heart is thumping in her throat.

She gives the security agents a polite nod as she passes them by, then walks out into the airport entrance halls. Behind her, she can hear someone else being stopped so they can do a luggage control. It’s only when she exits the airport altogether that the relief fills her, however. Taking a deep breath, she looks around for the taxi with the right plate number and calmly gets in.

“Cheongnam, please.”

All she has to do now is get out of the taxi with the second luggage in the trunk that contains her payment and perhaps a bonus, and the driver will deliver the goods to where they need to be. Shinhye’s hands are clean of any other crime.