Chapter nine
The next morning I was making coffee when the telephone rang. A curt voice, not immediately recognisable, said: ‘Moon?’
‘Speaking’, I said. ‘Who’s that?’
‘This is Jo Yun-je. I believe you telephoned me’.
‘Yes, I tried to get you last night. I’ve got something to tell you, Jo’. ‘Is it important?’
‘I think so’, I said.
Jo hesitated for a moment, then said: ‘Can you meet me at The Lounge bar at the Lotte Hotel – at twelve thirty?’
‘I’ll be there’, I promised.
Back in the kitchen I had drunk half my coffee when the doorbell rang. I was surprised to find that the caller was Joo-young.
‘Hello’, I said, ‘I thought you were Mrs Gim. I was just going to ask you to clean out the fridge’.
Joo-young appeared to be serene and composed. ‘I’d be delighted if I had a little more time, but I’m on my way to the hairdresser and I’m late already’.
I looked at her hair, which to me seemed to defy improvement. ‘Actually, I’m in a bit of a rush myself’, I said, ‘but we might work in a cup of coffee. I’ve just made some’.
‘Sorry, darling’, said Joo-young. ‘I just looked in about the message you left last night. You want to see me about something, don’t you?’
I nodded. ‘I was wondering if you’d do me a favour’. ‘If I can. What is it?’
I hesitated for a moment. ‘This may seem rather an odd request’, I said, ‘but I’d like you to make out a list for me’.
Joo-young raised her eyebrows. ‘A list? A list of what?’
‘A list of all Park Song-yong’s friends and acquaintances’.
Joo-young looked completely mystified.
‘I probably know quite a lot of them myself’, I added, ‘but I doubt if I know all of them. Will you do it?’
‘But why on earth do you want it?’
I said deliberately: ‘I’m trying to find Song-yong, that’s why’.
Joo-young laughed. ‘But, darling, why so dramatic? You talk as if Song-yong had disappeared’. ‘Well, hasn’t he?’ I said.
‘Of course he hasn’t’, she replied indulgently. ‘I wouldn’t mind betting that any day now we’ll get a picture postcard from Singapore or somewhere, saying that he’s having a whale of a time – on someone else’s money’.
‘Possibly’, I said. ‘But supposing we don’t get a postcard? I can’t afford to wait. I’ve got to find Park Song-yong’.
‘But why?’ she persisted. ‘You didn’t feel like this when you got back from Sinjang-ri. I thought you’d given him up as a bad job’.
‘Perhaps I did’, I said, ‘but I’ve changed my mind’. ‘Why? Has anything happened?’
I shrugged. ‘I’ve thought better of it, that’s all’.
‘Why this sudden concern for Song-yong?’ she demanded. ‘I thought you were simply going to cut your losses and forget him’. She came a little closer to me. ‘Han-sang, if it’s the money that’s worrying you – well, you know my feelings about that’.
‘You can put that right out of your head. You are positively not paying Song-yong’s debts for him’.
‘So it is the money’, she said accusingly.
‘The money comes into it’, I said. ‘Why the hell should Park Song-yong get away with it? Why should someone else always carry the can for him?’
‘No reason at all’, said Joo-young ruefully, ‘but he always seems to land on his feet. Are the firm’s creditors making a nuisance of themselves?’
‘No more than usual’.
‘Then why this sudden change of heart?’
‘I’ve told you’, I said.
‘You haven’t told me anything’, broke in Joo-young vehemently, ‘except that you must find Song-yong. Is there another reason why you must find him, apart from the money?’
‘No’, I said shortly.
‘Is Song-yong in any sort of trouble?’
I smiled. ‘You know Park – he’s always in some sort of trouble’.
She shook her head impatiently. ‘You know what I mean – serious trouble’.
I thought for a moment. Joo-young was no fool and it wouldn’t help matters to try and bluff her. I temporised. ‘Why should he be? Besides, even if he is, he can take care of himself’.
‘I’m not sure about that. Han-sang, as far as Song-yong’s concerned, there’s no need to hide anything from me – you know that. You’d be surprised what I’ve had to put up with since we’ve been engaged’.
‘Nothing would surprise me about Park’, I said dryly.
‘All the same, I’m under some obligation to him’, she argued. ‘If he’s in some sort of trouble I want to know about it’.
‘If I knew anything, I’d tell you’, I assured her. ‘But I’m just as much in the dark as you are’.
Obviously Joo-young was suspicious: before I’d met Na I had, in effect, shrugged my shoulders and dismissed Park Song-yong. Now, for no apparent reason that she could see, I was as anxious to find him as she was herself.
‘I’ve heard again from the accountant, I hedged at length, ‘and I've got to find Park as quickly as possible. If you can let me have that list of his friends I’ll be very grateful’.
‘Is that all you’re going to tell me?’ demanded Joo-young. ‘It’s all I can tell you’.
‘All right’, she said resignedly, and I felt a quick rush of relief. ‘I’ll get started on the list straight away and drop it in sometime tomorrow, probably after the theatre’.
I smiled, in an attempt to break the tension between us. ‘Thanks for your co-operation, Helen’, I said.
She glanced at her watch. ‘I must fly. I’m late as it is’. She looked at me almost appealingly and seemed about to say something. Then she changed her mind and hurried out of the flat.