The Last Mission | Markhyuck

8.

an hour later

Stepping out of a taxi, the powerful smell of spices and fried fish made my head spin. I figured it was because I had eaten nothing for the past six hours. However, I didn't have time for anything else at the moment.

Kim mentioned about meeting Madam Nin in the food market, so I didn't bother sticking around. There had to some kind of information on the woman here. I walked around the market here and there, not sure what I was supposed to look for to find her.

It was late in the evening, and the crowd kept growing. Stopping dead in my tracks, I stood out like a thumb in my suit. Sweating immensely. Scanning one face to another. For fuck's sake, I hadn't even seen the woman, so why was I expecting something? Eyes watching every inch of me up and down. I looked like a kid who lost his mom here. Who had no choice but to stop at some point and start sobbing?

'Oye! You!' I heard a shout from somewhere around me.'Come, come!'. Finally, the voice had a face.

A man in his late thirties stood at a fish stall. I wasn't sure if he wanted to convince me to buy his fish, or why else call out? I stood there in an awkward position as he continued scaling a fish.

'You,' continued questioning in Broken English, pointing at me with a nailed brush. 'Why you here, American?'

I exhaled loud, annoyed. Slipping my hands in my trousers even with the boiling weather. I seriously didn't have time for small talk, but then- I didn't have anywhere to go either. So I figured maybe try asking him something. 'Not American, Korean,' Pointed to myself as if I was talking to a child. I didn't have enough patience. Either this talk should end fast or I might have to scale someone myself.

'What you want?' the man uttered a little aggressively. I didn't mind at all. Why would I? At least I'd be able to say he started it.

'A lady. House maid? Madam Nin.' I blubbered at whatever would make sense to him. I thought. But his next words left me baffled.

'Ah yes, yes! Here,' he smiled with dirty teeth. Showing me a way behind into an alleyway. I was suspicious.

'She's in there?' raised a brow at the man. The nod increased my suspicion.

There could be two things going on in this situation which I could read.

One.

Either this man here was lying through his ugly smile and see's a simple foreigner to take advantage of- which, of course, won't end in a smooth theft. Someone might make it out with a few broken bones.

Two.

The woman was actually in there and his thick skull couldn't process the fact that why would a random foreigner come looking for a housemaid at her house?

There was one way to find out.

The alley was narrow. Dark and moist. No sunlight reached a single corner. At, the end of it was a metal door. I thought of knocking, but who am I kidding? I wasn't here for a tea party except I had dressed similarly. Slipping my leather gloves on, I pushed the door slightly. That gave way. Revealing a filthy home. If you could even call it that. Stepping into the shabby room, that had a roof sealed with plastic covers. I stood like an elephant in a library. Not fitting in. Not being able to decide where I should begin.

A voice cut my plans short as a man came around behind a makeshift wall. Frozen in place in shock, he uttered something stern. I figured he was asking who I was, or perhaps what I was even doing here?

I showed him a picture. The Lee family portrait. Pointing to the smiling kid, I began my first question of many more to come. 'Where is this kid?' keeping the questions short and to the point.