AAE -- For Better For Worse

Part 2 -- Chapter 07

by LoveCR2

edited by All-About-AAE

 

 

"We'll be there in just a minute," the taxi driver announces as he maneuvers his cab down a narrow lane in Seoul's elite, old-money Seongbuk-dong neighborhood.

 

Sun-Mi doesn't reply, lost in her thoughts...

 

"You're going to visit the Chairman? After what happened? Are you crazy?" Cho-Jeh had strenuously opposed her plans."Besides, what kind of impression do you expect to make? There's a reason Director Yoon had to buy you a dress when you met his father!"

 

"Maybe I am crazy," she murmurs to herself. "Daddy's eyes will bug out when he sees the credit card bill!"

 

"Huh?" The cabbie grunts, glancing back in the rear-view mirror at the attractive woman dressed in the latest style, asymmetric Elie Tahari sculptured sheath.

 

"Nothing," she responds. "Just talking to myself."

 

 

The driver slows to turn a sharp corner, and stops about 100 meters further on.

 

"This is it," he points to the house on his left.

 

Sun-Mi passes the payment forward without comment. She is not in the mood to chat.

 

But before she collects her handbag and alights, he asks, "Will you need a ride back?"

 

"That's not necessary," Sun-Mi answers tersely as she opens the cab door, knowing that without a convenient way of escape, she is less likely to back out.

 

Still, hoping for a standby, the driver tries to persuade her. "Not many cabs work this area, so you could have quite a wait ... And it's a long walk to anywhere from here."

 

"No thank you, I'll be fine," she replies coldly, displeased by his obtrusiveness.

 

 

Before approaching the house, Sun-Mi takes time to observe the impressive, gray tiled modernist structure rising above a granite security wall that surrounds the expansive property. Stepping up to the double oak entry doors behind decorative black wrought iron grills, she hesitates before pushing the doorbell.

 

She has always been aware of her economic disparity from Hyung-Chul's family, but comparing this imposing home to her father's diminutive abode makes the difference strikingly evident. The doubts she had entertained in the taxi return stronger as she ponders over what she is about to attempt.

 

"What if he's not home? Should I wait? Come back again? Leave a message?" she second-guesses her decision to show up unheralded. "Or worse, what if he refuses to see me? Do I make a scene and demand to be let in?"

 

She sighs, despairing. "Actually, why should he listen to me at all? After what happened I'm probably the last person Chairman Yoon wants to meet! I'll just look like a fool!"

 

Having talked herself out of her purpose, she ignominiously retreats back to the lane.

 

"What was I thinking? Cho-Jeh was right. This was a waste of time," she belatedly concurs with her friend's opinion. "I should've at least had the cab wait. How stupid can I be?" she regrets her imprudent action.

 

Sun-Mi takes out her mobile from her handbag, flips it open to call a taxi service, but then reconsiders, "I can't wait here. What if someone sees me? How could I explain?"

 

 

Anxious to put distance between herself and the house, Sun-Mi starts off with a brisk stride. Heel tips clacking sharply on the pavement, she heads back on the way she had come in the taxi, toward a small restaurant she recalls passing.

 

But before even making it back to the corner, her gait is slowed to a halting limp from the increasing soreness in one foot. Stopping to pull off the pinching shoe, with nowhere to sit, she stands in the lane, wriggling her toes in the open air.

 

Grasping the newly purchased Ferragamo pointed-toe slingback by it's slender, tapered heel, Sun-Mi appraises the offending footwear disapprovingly.

 

"What a waste of time and money, and for nothing!" she rues the shopping splurge conducted just for this occasion.

 

 

Focused on her plight, Sun-Mi ignores the low rumble of an approaching car, until a black Mercedes-Benz limousine rounds the corner and the driver sounds a warning beep with his horn. Startled, she looks up, horrified to see the vehicle bearing down on her, only meters away.

 

Hobbled on one heel, she freezes in place, staring helplessly into the shiny chrome grille, reliving the terrifying moment of panic she had experienced five years earlier, when Hyung-Chul's silver BMW had knocked her senseless to the ground.

 

But this car is bigger, and moving faster. The outcome can only be much worse.

 

In a flash of memory she recalls seeing the bloodied, still body of Kim Woo-Jin laid out on a hospital emergency room gurney after he was run down by a truck trying to save Young-Mi.

 

Her thoughts go out to her father. "Daddy, I'm so sorry," she pleads forgiveness for his shock at finding her in the same state as Woo-Jin.

 

 

With the limousine almost upon her, Sun-Mi squeezes her eyes shut, blocking out from sight the agent of her impending doom.

 

"Please, God," the desperate, urgent prayer escapes spontaneously from her lips, "Save me! ..."