Can't Let You Go

Chapter 6

"Liam Bennet. Pleased to make your acquaintance." Holding my hand out to shake hers, I wait as she looks at me through squinted eyes before she takes it firmly.

"Fine, I know your name now, but that doesn't mean I should go live with you."

She's not wrong.

"I get it, but you know I'm the best option."

"Or the worst option. I could be dead by this time tomorrow."

"Then your problems would be solved." I shrug my shoulders. "Do you think you're any safer living in a hostel with random people from who knows where?"

The way she's casting her eyes, unseeing, around the room, I can tell she's thinking about it.
"Here's my business card. The office is a few blocks from my apartment. Check the website."

She pulls it up on her phone and finds my picture there with the rest on our about page. "This doesn't really prove anything."

"I guess not, but you can give your friend all my contact information and check in on your phone. Then at least if I do kill you, the police will know to investigate me. You can be satisfied as you curse me from heaven. Or maybe like in a Korean drama, you'll become a ghost so you can haunt me."

She finally laughs.

It feels good to make her laugh.

"Come on, this is an awful lot of work to put in just to kill someone off. There's much easier ways of luring people." I raise my eyebrows at her.

"Hey, I don't know what your kink is." She laughs again then becomes serious as she takes a turn looking me over from head to toe. "Do you really mean it? I can stay with you until this is cleared up?"

I nod my head.

"You don't know anything about me, either. What if I'm the dangerous one?"

"I know that you've been treated like shit lately, but you're strong and determined to make it through. I really respect that. Not everyone stands up to the pressures they face. I just feel like it was fate that you showed up on my doorstep. I don't know your mother or how she had my address, but that's got to mean something, right?"

"Thank you," her voice is barely audible, "I'll figure out a way to pay you back."

"Ahh, save it for later. Let's get you packed up." I return to my haphazard work and she starts fussing at me about how poorly I'm folding her clothes, but with a smile on her face.

***HONEY***

"Here it is, home sweet home." He opens the door to the apartment in which I expected to find my mother about six weeks ago. "It's newish. They call this type of building 'villas' versus 'apartments' which are only high-rises. The interior looks more like an older Korean style. I thought about selling it and moving to something more modern. Seoul is pretty amazing after all, but you can find modern anywhere and it all basically looks the same."

"Yeah, modern is modern anywhere you go. This feels special. I like it." There's more wood beams and panels than I would have expected and that's basically all there is in the space - the unit's own architecture. He has a couch and chair in the living room with a TV. There's also a coffee table that I know doubles as the dining table. Many people here, and even some restaurants, prefer low tables that you sit on the floor at.

"The bathroom is here. This is one advantage of the newer building, it has western style bathing with an actual shower. Another is AC."

I like both of those. My place had the shower sink combo thing and I hated the mess. There was no AC, just fans.