WEDDINGS AND FUNERALS MUST BE ANNOUNCED
The car was parked in front of the hotel entrance. The headlights shone on the signboard that read “Maison Prunier.” It was a newly constructed boutique hotel with huge windows and an enormous swimming pool out front. In order to avoid drawing too much attention, the person behind the wheel had come to this hotel at dawn and now felt a bit on edge. Anger transformed into nervousness, burning a cool, steady blue. The driver cut off the engine and headlights and waited.
A tall man came walking out into the pale darkness of the early morning. It was the first time the driver was seeing him in the flesh. Before, he’d only been viewable online through a search for the name Yang Chanmin. Now, perhaps because it was still dark, he looked like a different person from the man in his staff photo on the research lab website. The driver had no desire to get out of the car and opted instead to roll the window down a crack.
After he’d been thoroughly grilled about why he had gone against the plan and cased out Nol on his own, Dr. Yang’s excuse was simply that he’d wanted to check the place out for himself. There was no point in having a long, drawn-out conversation about this. It wasn’t clear whether he’d gone there to steal something, but he certainly wouldn’t be able to find what it was that he wanted so easily. Only one person in the world knew the passcode to the safe in which it was being kept. At one time, there had been two people in on the secret—and then there was one.
Yang Chanmin spat out one last remark as he walked away from the car. “Don’t mess this up. Let’s be in touch by text message between now and the conference.”
The driver watched him disappear into the hotel through the front door. He moved at a pace that was not quite a walk, not quite a sprint—something was obviously making him uneasy. Maybe it was because he was involved in this furtive little scheme, but that couldn’t have been all there was to it. The driver looked up at the hotel. The building itself was small, but the aesthetic interior and its location right on the shore made the place a nice, private spot. Still, it was expensive—not a place just anyone could readily choose to stay. He must have come with someone else—someone he didn’t want anyone to see. But as long as it didn’t disrupt the task at hand, the driver figured, it wasn’t something to be concerned with.
The driver started up the car and pulled off. This was especially not the time to draw attention. Not here, not now. The driver turned back onto the narrow road that had led up to the hotel, passing by a black SUV. What was a vehicle doing there of all places? It looked like someone might have been in the car, but the engine and headlights were off. The driver felt that something was amiss but didn’t have time to think too much about it.
Stopped at a traffic light, the driver saw something floating up ahead. Something round that glowed white like the cosmos, studded with constellations. It wasn’t clear what the object was, not at first, but the moment a person’s arm came into view, lit up by that glow, the driver knew. It was one of those LED balloons that were popular lately because they looked great in photos. The light swayed from side to side in the wind. The woman holding the balloon looked to be in her twenties and wore a blue gingham dress. Beside her stood a man in a white T-shirt and jeans. They were walking hand in hand, and when the woman looked up at the man and laughed, the sound seemed to seep into the driver’s car despite the windows being up. The spirit of late summer clung to the couple’s arms, bare feet, and disheveled hair like beads of dew.
The sight of them brought forth a memory from a long time ago. Another birthday had come and gone without anyone seeming to have remembered. Late that night, the driver had gotten a text saying to look out the window. Outside, a bright light was coming closer, shining through the glass. A woman appeared beneath the window, smiling as bright as that glow, the folds of her blue chiffon skirt swallowing her legs. With one hand, the driver covered a sudden, surprised laugh and rushed down the stairs to meet her. When they were both outside, the woman carrying the light smiled and said, Happy birthday. Here, I brought you a paper moon. She added shyly, I made it myself from paper and LED bulbs. Hyeyoung was that sort of woman. Remarkably bright, capable of discoveries that would rattle the world but also able to find amusement in making little things. The two of them held up the paper moon together and burst out laughing. Underneath the glow of the paper moon, with the chirps of crickets resounding in the stillness of the night, their laughter still remained an unforgettable birthday present.
Now, the light changed, and the driver pulled off, leaving the summer lovers behind. It had been a while since that woman, too, had left, and whenever she suddenly came to mind like this, the driver’s heart ached. But it might have been inaccurate to say it was sudden. “Suddenly” described things that came to mind unexpectedly after a long time of not thinking about them. The memory of Hyeyoung, though, had never once stopped weighing on the driver’s mind. It was the reason behind the resolve to carry out this task, the plan they’d made as a pair but couldn’t fulfill. The plan that would have seen the two of them end up together, but at the last minute, Hyeyoung changed her mind. Then she’d left the world of the living entirely, and the plan never had a chance to come to fruition.
There was a time after Hyeyoung was gone when the driver watched a movie on cable called Paper Moon . The driver had never heard of the movie but found it surprisingly absorbing after watching a few scenes. I brought you a paper moon. The driver suddenly wondered whether Hyeyoung’s present could have been a reference to this film. The story was about a woman who works at a bank and falls in love with a young man who is not her husband, and all the lines she crosses to be with him in the end.
No—as much as their story matched the plot of Paper Moon , it was painful to imagine theirs having the same ending. I’m different. I’m going to make it. Even if that meant using Yang Chanmin and deceiving perfectly good people. The driver would probably have to go around and do some observations later in the morning. It was important to make sure Chanmin’s appearance hadn’t drawn any unwanted attention.
Looking through the windshield at the pale moon and LED balloon glowing in the distance, the driver gripped the steering wheel. The time to act was drawing ever nearer.