7. Chapter 7
“Dad, come on. Nothing about this guy makes sense. I’m going inside to run a freaking background check.”
Jiyeon poked Denny in the arm. “Since when can you just casually run a background check on someone? Who do you even think you are?”
“I have resources, okay?”
But Mr. Han shook his head at Denny and Jiyeon with great vehemence. “No. This boy, he’s more than lost. Just look at him, look into his eyes.”
Here, he took Eunjae by the shoulders and angled him so that the murky glow of the nearest streetlight could illuminate his face.
“I thought he looked familiar, but I was wrong. Something about him just reminded me of that drama we used to watch on Thursdays and Fridays. You know the one, Lizzie.”
“Aigoo!” gasped Mrs. Han. “The one with the chaebol who lost his memory!”
Jiyeon closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose. “So… every Korean drama ever made?”
“No, no.” Mrs. Han clapped her hands together. “I Loved You. That’s what it was called. The hero, he grew up never knowing he was the son of a rich CEO because he got kidnapped as a child.”
Mr. Han joined in with some enthusiastic nodding. “Uh-huh. So the kidnappers are stupid and lose him on Jeju Island. The kid hits his head, pow! Forgets everything about being a chaebol heir. He”s raised by a nice family with a son the same age.”
“Very nice. Not rich, though. Just normal. Almost poor.”
“Almost poor?”
Mrs. Han latched onto her son’s arm and gave it a firm shake. “You know what I’m saying, Han Woosung!”
“They go to school together and he’s best friends with these four other boys,” Mr. Han recounted. “Everything is great. So happy.”
“But then,” the parents exclaimed, practically in sync, “the hero and his fake brother fall in love with the same girl!”
“So,” said Denny, arms crossed, “still like every Korean drama ever made?”
“This one was different,” hissed Mr. Han. “Anyway! Bad guys start looking for him again. He has to hide or they”ll kill him, boom, to get revenge on his real family. The hero runs away, leaves everybody behind. Probably just like this guy you found!”
Mrs. Han clapped her hands. Everything about her was suddenly electric with excitement. “You’re right, Joey,” she told her husband. “Mystery Ryan, he has the same… what do you kids call it, Yeonnie? Same vibes?”
“Of course I’m right,” huffed Mr. Han. “This boy — he has amnesia.”
Silence fell. On Mrs. Han’s part, it was a sympathetic silence. She clearly felt compassion for Eunjae’s plight but was also thrilled to be living in a drama episode. Denny, meanwhile, had descended into the kind of false calm that denotes the eye of a hurricane.
Eunjae couldn”t know this, of course, but the expression on his face was a perfect fit for the Han parents’ amnesia theory. No one had ever looked more like a blank, bewildered slate.
“This is crazy,” Denny said, digging a phone out of his back pocket. “I”m calling the cops.”
At this, Jiyeon elbowed her way over to Eunjae. Ignoring the uproar as her parents and brother clashed over what was to be done next, she took him by the sleeve and led him a few steps away, keeping her voice low so the others wouldn”t hear.
“Are you in trouble?” Jiyeon asked, releasing him. She caught his gaze and held it. “Is that why you won”t tell us who you are?”
The paralysis broke just enough for Eunjae to shake his head. “I”m not,” he stammered. “I mean, yes, I”m definitely in trouble. It”s not that kind of trouble, though. I promise.”
For a long moment, neither of them spoke. Eunjae did his best to radiate sincerity. At last, Jiyeon gave him a brief, decisive nod. “I believe you. What do you want to do?”
Looking back, Eunjae would find himself thinking about the way Jiyeon hadn’t asked what the specific trouble was, or why there was trouble in the first place. Instead, she’d simply asked what he wanted to do.
When did anyone ever ask what Eunjae wanted to do? It was overwhelming to be asked, honestly. Part of that was because he”d sensed right away that she wasn”t inquiring about the mess he’d made — the flight he”d missed, the people he should inform, the name he wouldn”t divulge. Jiyeon seemed to understand what Eunjae had still not allowed himself to admit. She saw that he didn’t really want to rectify the situation. What he wanted was to stay.