3 Ways

Into the Heart

>_____<;;

"Ok," Victoria spoke the next morning while they were eating lunch in the kitchen, "so I looked up the directory last night. I located 8 men who have the name Byun Tae Won."

"In all of Seoul?" Chorong asked with her mouth full. "I thought there would be more."

"Chew your food first," Namjoo ordered.

"Well there might be more whose names were in the directory," Victoria explained, "but we'll go with these first." She handed her sisters slips of papers. "I'll look for 3, Namjoo will look for 3, and Chorong 2."

"2?" Chorong repeated.

"Since you're going on a date," Victoria said. "Better to be there early than late. Impression counts."

"I told you it's not a date!" Chorong tilted her head up and Namjoo backed away from the food she was spitting out.

"Cover your mouth!" Victoria grabbed a napkin and pressed it over her sister's lips. "Namjoo, your area is closer to downtown."

"The poor side, right," Namjoo said.

"You're sending Namjoo there?" Chorong asked as if shocked. "There are so many stairs to climb and so many confusing homes that don't even have number plates."

"You want to deal with rude city people?" Victoria challenged. "People in the city are much more rude than those over there. Plus, it's easier for Luhan to appear if something goes wrong."

"You can't always use him, you know," Chorong said.

"Well we will this round," Victoria stated. "What I say goes."

Chorong rolled her eyes.

"Got it? Good," Victoria patted Chorong's shoulder, "and have fun with your date."

>_____<;;

"Date, it's not a date," Chorong repeated to herself as she walked down the sidewalk.

The rows of preciously built houses shone in front of her in their bold yellow, blue, and green hues. Chorong first thought of how expensive those homes must be before she looked at the piece of paper she'd been handed.

"Aish...this is embarrassing," she muttered to herself.

Clearing her throat she stepped forward to ring a doorbell by the freshly white painted gates and waited. While waiting for a response she peered up the brick walk leading to the front door and admired the work done for the home.

"Yes? Who's there?" a female voice chirped.

"Is there a Byun Tae Won there?" Chorong started nervously.

"He's not in right now, can I take a message?"

"Um..." Chorong debated whether to ask the next question or not, but decided to shoot it anyway. "I was just wondering if 14 years ago he was involved in some kind of suicide incident."

"Who are you? Is this a prank?"

Chorong leaned back from the voice speaker.

"Oops, wrong person," she muttered before turning around to dash around the corner of the block.

Embarrassed, Chorong hopped into her car and quickly drove off before looking for the next house. Like the first, the second Byun Tae Won wasn't the one who had discovered their mom. He was actually some kind of high school student grumpy to have been interrupted in the middle of his gaming session. After setting eyes on him Chorong immediately apologized for having called him out. The guy must have only been some 2 or 3 years old when her mother died.