The Hidden Treasure

~46~

"What in the world happened in here," said Jinyoung as he walked into the mess. "Oh my, the stench," he said, gagging and pulling his shirt up over his nose and mouth. He looked around quite bewildered. His eyes came to rest on Hyejin who was slowly making her way around the shop, picking up pages and adding them to the already too large stack in her arms. His heart broke to see her, looking broken and soulless.

"Hyejin, let me help," he whispered as he reached out to take the stack of pages from her arms.

Hyejin gripped the pages harder and shook her head. "No, no, I'm not letting them go," she whispered. She picked up several more pages. They were smeared with manure and Jinyoung was surprised to see that Hyejin didn't seem to notice as she laid them on top of her stack.

"Hyejin," he said, reaching out to her again. Again she rejected him and kept moving methodically around the shop.

"She's been like that for a while now," said an unfamiliar voice from behind him. He turned slightly and saw the woman who owned the hanbok shop across the street. "She won't quit. She just keeps picking them up." She nodded towards the counter and Jinyoung turned his eyes to it, seeing about ten stacks of pages already there.

"Who did this?" He grit his teeth together as he laid eyes on more of the damage.

"Not sure yet. The police are investigating. Do you have any ideas?"

Jinyoung's lip became a thin line and fury built up in his chest. He had a very good idea of who could have done this. He looked back at Hyejin and then began picking up pages on his own. He was not going to let her suffer alone.

* * *

"Hyejin, let's stop now. We've cleaned up all the pages. I don't know about you but I need to get out of here for a while. The stench is getting to me. Actually, it got to me a while ago." Jinyoung said with a grimace.

Hyejin looked around sadly. Some customers had come and been surprised to see the destruction of their favorite shop. They left quickly and returned just as quickly with cleaners and mops. The place was being scrubbed now from top to bottom to remove the disgusting smell left by the fresh manure. Other volunteers were doing their best to piece books back together. Anything that could be salvaged was. Hyejin looked at all the people who were coming together to help her and it made her heart overflow with emotion. They were all being so kind. She had even spoke with people she had never met before who were helping put her world back together.

Her eyes caught some movement outside the shop and she saw a news van pull up. Surely not. She frowned. This was not something she wanted spread all over the news.

A reporter and camera man came into the shop and walked towards her and Jinyoung.

"Excuse me, some people outside said I should talk to you. Are you Lee Hyejin, the owner of this shop?" The reporter held out his hand and Hyejin reluctantly shook it.

"Yes, I am. I really don't want to give an interview about this." She turned away and laid her last stack of pages on the counter.

"I'm sure it's rather humiliating and devastating for you. But there's a group online who is claiming responsibility for this."

Hyejin froze and turned around. "A what?" She became filled with anger and hurt all over again even though she didn't know who these people were yet.

"Who? What group? You had better not be lying just to get a story," grumbled Jinyoung, moving protectively towards Hyejin.

"No, sir, I'm not lying. They're a group called..." he paused as he looked down at his small notepad, "the RM Protection Squad. They put up a new webpage just this morning. They've posted pictures of their work. They're obviously not scared of any kind of legal retribution."