Part V

Winter, 2017

                (reality)

She watches as the snow falls incessantly, covering up the dirty, dank streets below with its whiteness.  She wishes the snow could cover up the vices of this world just as simply as it is covering up the dirty streets in the city.  It is a little past midnight, and the street lights shine down upon the glistening snow that hasn’t already been stepped upon. 

            As she watches idly from the balcony of her apartment, she sees a coffee-brown haired young man crossing the street in a hurry.  She frowns at the running figure, remembering that day at the airport when she had just arrived Seoul from Chicago. 

Her father had told her someone would be at the airport to meet and take her to Seoul City Hospital where he would be waiting for her.  Dr. Jang is the dean of the hospital and is usually busy from morning till night.  That afternoon, he had a board meeting scheduled so he couldn’t receive his daughter at the airport, but promised to have dinner with her later, knowing how much her daughter would love to finally be able to sit and discuss with him about the latest medical discoveries. 

Unfortunately, her flight was delayed for two hours due to a windstorm in Chicago.  Kang Ta, who had been dispatched by Hyesung to receive her, had waited for more than two hours and finally gave up, thinking it was one of Hyesung’s little games with him.  Just as he threw his placard on top of a trashcan, because the opening of the can wasn’t large enough, Yuan was stepping out of the glass doors that separated the waiting area and the customs.  She had caught sight of the placard while still on the other side of the glass door leading to the waiting area and was walking as fast as she could with her baggage toward Kang Ta, who was already starting to walk away.  She hurried and called after him, but appearing to be deaf, he stepped onto a bus without noticing that the person he was to pick up was just across the street. 

Yuan had left Korea when she was eight and haven’t been back for years, so, unfamiliar with the area and tolling her heavy baggage behind her, she finally arrived at the hospital exhausted.  She was angry with the person who had left her at the airport; she was angry at her father for closing his cell phone during a meeting; she was angry that the weather was so hot that day; she was angry that she was angry at such a petty thing, on the whole, she was simply angry with everyone and everything. 

Yuan later learned through her father that Kang Ta was the name of the person responsible for all the troubles she had to go through that first day she stepped foot on Korean soil after years of estrangement from her home.  She also learned, to her surprise and discontent, that he was one of new doctors who had been working at the hospital for the past three months.  What’s more, her desk is right across from his in an office no bigger than 400 square feet in total.  She sees him daily if not hourly. 

Suddenly, a sweet and distinct melody starts playing.  Yuan looks up, bewildered, wondering who it could be at this hour.  12:53 a.m. She quickly brushes her hair and goes to the door. 

“Is there anyone with you?”

It is Kang Ta, his hair is dishevelled and he looks like he has been running away from something. 

“No.  What are you doing here?....What’s wrong?”

He walks in without her invitation and sits himself onto her beige couch in the center of the living room.  He runs his hands through his tousled hair and inhales deeply.  Yuan start making a cup of coffee for him in her open-style kitchen.  He looks a bit shaken up. 

            “Something’s not right, Ms. Young.  Something’s very not right.”

            “I know.”

            “You know?!!?”

He’s bewildered.  His eyes are wide opened.  How very big and bright they look under her crystal lights hanging from the high ceiling.  His lips are slightly parted, giving her a questioning look.  Yuan can’t help but admits he’s quite an attractive male, but then, she thinks that those who have beauty do not have any brains, both males and females.  Kang Ta is no exception.   

            “Of course, the world’s not perfect, Mr. An.” 

            “You don’t understand.  This is about the hospital.  Someone’s using our internal lab for unauthorized experiments!” 

            Yuan looks up, shocked.  She narrows her eyes at Kang Ta. 

            “Do you realize what you are saying, Mr. An?  No such thing can happen at our hospital.  Only senior doctors have access to our internal labs, and you are not one of them. All our senior doctors have been selected carefully and their files are all cleaner than the purest snow. Don’t go spreading around rumours and false accusations.”

            “I am not accusing anyone, and I am certainly not spreading rumours. What I am saying is the nothing but the truth.”

“How did you find out?” 

            “I was supposed to be off duty at 18:00, but Jun Jin asked me to fill him in just for tonight because it’s his girlfriend’s birthday today.  I was making my rounds when I saw some unfamiliar faces wearing white lab jackets pushing carts full of boxes into the freight elevator.  I took the stairs up after I saw the elevator they took stopped at the top floor.  I saw the same people pushing the carts into the internal lab.  There was someone directing them from the door. I could hear his voice, though it was muffled, like he was wearing a mouth mask.  I couldn’t see him because the staircase I took is on the right of the lab and is separated by the wall.  I could only hide behind the fake tree across the wall; even then, I saw only the back of the figure because he was facing inside the lab.  He was tall, around my height and quite lean. He has typical black hair, so I can’t tell who he is, but I feel a trace of familiarity when I look at his figure.” 

            Yuan is now quiet and grave, all anger has subsided as she takes in the seriousness of what Kang Ta is telling her.  The coffee is lying on the kitchen counter, forgotten, growing gradually cooler and cooler as the smoke leaves and dissipate into the atmosphere. 

            “Who else knows about this?”

            “I haven’t told anyone except you.”

            “I see you do have some brains. So, what do you propose we do now?”

            “I am not exactly sure what kind of experiments they are up to, but I am certain they are highly dangerous, since the boxes were the special extra protective kind.  We need to find out more about this as soon as possible.  I have a feeling that these experiments are illegal and someone or some group who is familiar with our hospital is behind this.”

            “You mean someone who works here, our own staff.”

            “I can’t think of anyone outside of the hospital who can manage this without the help of our staff.”

            “I understand.  You should go now, it’s late.”

Yuan abruptly ends the conversation and opens the door, a signal for Kang Ta to leave.  Kang Ta gets up and walks to the door.

            “Remember, not a word to anyone.”

            Kang Ta nods and walks out. 

            Yuan looks at his receding figure.

            “Be careful.”

            Kang Ta turns around, surprised to hear these two simple words coming from her mouth outside of the hospital.  He tilts his head a little and smile, a habit that goes so well with him.  He turns around and resumes his steps. 

            Yuan is momentarily stunned by his warm smile.  It is unlike the cocky, arrogant or double-purpose smile that she is used to receiving from males.  Ever since she was born, people have been clambering by her side to try and get benefits off her.  She believed them to be genuine, until one day, as though her eyes were finally opened; she saw the greed gleaming in their eyes.  She discovers the falseness lying beneath their seemingly genuine appearance. 

            Yuan doesn’t know whether Kang Ta is one of those, or because he really wants to protect the hospital’s reputation, by not reporting to the police immediately.  He must have trust her to tell her what he had found out.  There has been rumours going around that some lower rank and less well-known hospitals are conducting illegal experiments for prominent scientific and technological companies in the country.  But no one has any substantial evidence, and so rumours remain rumours. 

            Yuan sits on the couch, where Kang Ta had sat a while before, staring emptily at a spot in front of her, deep in thought. 

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