Escape From The Sun

Chapter 17: The Underground

I found a job at a restaurant as a waitress in a neighboring province, after spending two whole nights walking. When daybreak came, I hid in an alley and sough for rest. Although the sleep was uneasy, it gave me enough energy to continue walking until I eventually arrive at a busy province. If I remember correctly, it had been called Yingkou. 

While Dandong had been quiet with an undercurrent of tension and mistrust among many people there, the city of Yingkou was bustling and large. I eventually came to know that it was an important port city. While some may be unnerved by how busy the city was, and how many people came in and out of the place, I found peace in the way people hurried past me, not bothered to take notice of who I was or where I came from, merely concentrating on where they were headed to. 

Using that sense of safety, I found a job in a portside restaurant, which was often patronized by the sailors and captains of the ships coming in. I took refuge in the fact that they were temporary visitors to the place, and was unlikely to remember or take notice of who the waitress serving them was. My employer was desperate to hire and eagerly took me on despite me having no proper ID. The only stipulation was that my pay would be nowhere as high as my colleagues and that I could only be paid in cash, clauses I was happy to accept considering my past circumstances. That it came with three meals a day was a bonus, especially when my boss agreed to allow me to sleep in the dining area for the nights. 

The work hours were long and hard, and before long I've had to use the pay I would get each week to purchase new shoes. 

It was a thrilling feeling when I walked into a shop for the first time with a pocketful of cash to be used. The shoes I bought were cheap knockoffs and cost me my whole first month's meager salary, but to have the capability to choose which pair I wanted itself, was freeing for me. There and then, I decided I never wanted to have this ability to choose taken away from me.

But my joy didn't last long.

I was a hard worker, only wanting to earn money, enough to be able to pay someone to seek out Jong Hyun for me. By myself, I had no clue where do I search, or who do I ask, but asking around in Yingkou has shown me there were people who were willing to do investigative work for a fee. The fee was high, but I was determined to find out. That Jong Hyun had likely been captured haunted my nightmares almost every night, and I knew I could not rest until I had found and been reunited with him.

Unfortunately for me, however, it seems as if the girls I work with were envious of the attention our employer paid me. When our boss decided to promote me as a receptionist, they began to question my identity, my origins and pried further into why my intonation had a slang to it. 

Knowing that any further digging would land me in deep trouble, I knew I had to leave. Taking whatever cash I had managed to amass by then, I packed up my belongings once again. The money I had was nowhere near enough for me to find someone to seek for Jong Hyun, but it was at least enough to buy me food as I spent days wandering around Ying Kou, searching for a job. Sleeping was another issue, as I had no roof, I eventually found myself finding any nook and cranny. If I was lucky, I would find a cardboard sheet, but most days I just curled and hugged my money to myself as I slept. I was stingy on spending it, only using it for food, for I did not know when I would earn my next pay or come by more money again. 

It was on one of my uneasy nights spent in alleys, that I heard what would eventually be a friend and lead me to my next income source.

Choi Yee had been a North Korean defector herself, but when she eventually found her job as an online sex operator, she had somehow found herself enjoying the job, and never left. She had tripped over me that night in a drunken haze, spilling beer all over my sleeping form. Luckily for me, she was a nice person and had immediately apologized. She had brought me home, and as I showered in her place, she explained what she did for a living when I saw her getting ready for work.

While I had vowed to myself never to let another person touch me after leaving my first buyer's house (I had not felt clean since then, but had pushed the feeling to the back of my mind in favor of survival), the more I hear Choi Yee explain the details of her job that night, the more I grew curious. She worked for a Madame who handled a darkened office where rows of computers were set up, each manned by one girl who wore a headset from 8 PM till 5 AM. It sounded easy enough to me, and I applied, telling myself that explaining the act was far easier and at least it guaranteed me some money and a place to live, for the Madame also provided lodgings, even if we had to seek for our own meals.

But my lack of experience in the sexual act was sorely seen by the complaints the Madame received from my first few clients.

Eventually, I found myself diving deep into the world of porn and any materials I could get my hands on, be it comics, illustrations, movies or videos, all in a desperate attempt to make sure I could describe as clearly as I could to my clients on the line, so they could find their satisfaction - and I could get paid. I also had to familiarize myself with the usage of foreign equipment, things I've never even heard of like webcams and microphones so that I could make the process of 'chatting' with the customers as smooth an experience for them as possible. 

I had never known such things exist. I mean, I was taught the basics of sex education in Ryongsong Palace when I had first been brought into it to stay, but most of the lesson comprised of me being told that I had to do whatever my husband wanted, and to procreate was a duty to the Supreme Leader, as that would populate our great nation. I never thought such an act was for pleasure and was quite surprised initially that people made a whole business out of it. 

Eventually, I got quite used to the job itself. Some girls would entice them more by taking off their top, but I never went past wearing a tube top that bared my shoulders. Surprisingly, however, I had a knack with words the moment I could be fluent enough to keep my speech smooth. By my third month of working there, I wasn't even batting an eyelash as I managed to twist my voice into a version that the clients would want, knowing within the first few minutes what sort of method or words they'd want to find their pleasure with. I wasn't the best by far, and the owner of the establishment would pocket most of the money charged on the credit cards of the client's, but I earned enough to get by, and my savings to hire that private investigator to find Jong Hyun amassed once again. 

I just never expected there to be a raid.

The whole year I've been finding my way in China, I've been doing my best in trying to get myself an ID, but I was loathed to part with the money when I could use it to hire the investigator to find Jong Hyun. As the months progressed, the girls who worked in the establishment, half of whom were also North Korean women who had run out of options, began to get increasingly antsy as the police carried out more and more raids in places to check for illegals. It wasn't as if we could find different employment easily, and have heard or seen the horrible things which could be done to us North Korean's who have little choice, this job had been the best thing that has happened to me. It may not be the best job, but we didn't have to have sex with anyone, and my first experience with my 'husband' had put me off the act entirely.

But my worst nightmare was fulfilled one day when midway through one of our nights, a loud cry of alarm put all of us on high alert. 

Dashing out of the underground area in which we had all been parked, I even lost sight of Choi Yee as I ran, desperate in my attempt to getaway. If the police found me, I would be identified as illegal with no ID. Being caught in China and sent back to North Korea was even worst than staying put in the first place. Even hearing stories about political prison camps as a child was enough to make me have nightmares about the place.

In just one night, I found myself back at square one all over again. When I went back to the dormitory we all stayed, I only found it stripped bare. The only thing I had to my name was whatever clothes I wore, and the money the boss had passed to us before we had started our work that evening. All of the savings I had amassed to find Jong Hyun, my jacket which I had got to keep me warm, the pair of shoes which helped in my job as a waitress - all gone.