Author's note: I haven't written in a very long time. And the reason is I've been struggling with some things mentally and emotionally. It's been rough since I last posted something in September and I'm sorry. I will do my best to get the other story up and running again. Just please be patient with me. Thank you.
"Find him!"
Woo Bin clapped his hand over his mouth to keep from making any noise. Though his abdomen throbbed and his shirt clung to a horribly bleeding wound, he had to keep quiet. If not, he was going to die. He was going to die anyway if he didn't get any help, but he would die sooner if he was caught.
He heard footsteps going back and forth in front of his hiding spot, spotty English wafting to his ears. And he was in foreign country with no one to run to. His friends were in the air somewhere between Seoul and New York. He had no help whatsoever. Ji Hoo would be handy right about now. Glancing down slowly, he could see the dark stain even through his black shirt and jacket. Yes, he was really in trouble.
As quietly as he could, he slipped from behind the rotting trash and slinked into the darkness. He hoped against hope that he didn't leave a blood trail. Finding help was the most important thing right now. He knew he looked rough. Hell, he looked like he had had his ass handed to him. And he had. If he walked into an emergency room, the attending physician would call the police and things would escalate. People would get hurt.
His movements were slow as his vision alternated between darkness and light. He was losing blood faster because he was moving so much. It was amazing he was even conscious. It was a great effort just to pick his feet up instead of shuffling them. Shuffling feet meant someone was hurt. It would give him away, and he couldn't have that.
Familiar smells hit his nose. Fiery spices tickled his memories, and he desperately wished he were home with his parents and friends who could protect them. But he knew he couldn't stop. They knew his heritage, knew he would stop for food and maybe even help.
He could see them from the shadow of the alley. They were talking all the vendors, asking them about him and showing his picture to them. By their faces, the vendors were scared of them. They would do whatever they said. They would turn him over if he asked for any sort of help. He wasn't going to get any right there.
Dejected, Woo Bin trudged to the next alley way and ran right into an open door. The pain in his head was much less threatening than the rest that coursed through his body, but it was enough to dim his vision even more. He didn't hear the person at fault due to the ringing in his ears, but he figured he or she was apologizing.
Unfortunately, that knock on the head and the ringing was the last straw. His knees turned to mush and gave way. He wasn't sure, but he thought the ground was very soft.
Rioh felt awkward.
Really awkward.
Like buying six cases of wine at Sam's awkward.
When she opened the door to take the trash out, she did not expect to hit someone in the face. It was midnight. No one ever skulked about at midnight. Unless it was Thomas the Alley Cat. He always came around at this time of night for food. But he was a cat. He would rattle the garbage cans until she opened the door. But he was a cat.
The man pinning her between him and the door was not a normal experience. There was Richard the homeless man that lived two blocks over that came for her leftover dinners every night, but he came through the front door usually and exited that way as well. This was new.
She heard the muffled screech of Thomas as he demanded sustenance. He wasn't going to find anything in the garbage he was currently scouring. Those were all destroyed or ruined blankets from the kennels. He seemed to know because he raised his scraggly head and pinned her with an angry one-eyed glare.
Sighing she pushed the man back and turned so he was draped over her shoulders. It gave her leverage to drag him through the clinic. That left the door open, and Thomas slinked in with a sophisticated grumble. She would deal with him later.
No sooner has she gotten him on the cold, metal operating table than someone started banging on her front door. She closed the back door and set Thomas on the table with a food bowl. There was only one person who would dare at any time of the day.
"Hwan," she growled as she unlocked and opened the door. She saw the man on the other side flinch as if on cue the dogs started barking. "What are you doing here?"
"You haven't heard?" he demanded, shoulders jumping as the dogs kept barking.
Rioh shook her head. "Heard what exactly? Besides dogs barking at an intruder who has messed with our quiet night?"
Hwan glanced around as if he were looking for something. "The president of Song Construction is in New York. The charter from the Yoon Organization attacked him in the side streets beside the hotel he was staying in. Everyone is on high alert for him. Bin sent me to warn you."
She scoffed. "Bin sent you to warn me? You're not even a Lantern. You're just there to please Bin."
The man looked distraught. He was barely twenty-one and yet he looked a little older than that. But he had Bin's ear and heart. Hwan would do whatever the man said. It made a little sense for him to be here, but not too much.
"Ya, Noona. Don't be like that," he complained.
Rio sighed and nodded. "I'll steer clear or anything crazy. But let Bin know this game won't work on me. You know the drill, Hwan. You know what can happen. I'll keep it in mind."
He nodded and was gone. Rioh locked the door behind him and headed back into the operating room. So this was Song Woo Bin. She knew him; like literally knew him. They had met plenty of times on various trips. She wondered if he would know her when he woke up. If he woke up. That wound in his belly was causing more damage than good.
Grabbing the ultrasound machine, she cut the man's shirt and did a preliminary search of his abdominal region to make sure no damage had been done to any organs. Even with a medical degree, she was still technically only allowed to operate on animals as she was a veterinarian, but she had the experience with humans as well. Too much experience.
Satisfied that none of the internal organs had been ruptured and the artery hadn't been nicked, she donned surgical gloves and went to work. After cleaning the area around the wound, she saw the serrated edges left by the knife. A military knife had been used. That made perfect sense, but it also made things difficult for her. The edges didn't match up so she had to cut away the dead ends to make it fit.
Gently, she sutured the two pieces of flesh together then cleaned away the grime around it. She had to change gloves so she didn't contaminate the cleansed area as the cut the shirt from the man's body and trashed it along with her soiled scrubs shirt. She bandaged the sutures so they weren't exposed then tended the cuts and bruises on his face. There was no doubt in her mind that Bin had ordered this assault. This was the work of Kim. He was the only person she knew who was military trained.
This made her angry. They'd had a clean split with the members under Song Construction. It had been a unanimous decision. Why was he going back on his word three years later?
Satisfied with her work, she hefted the man and carted his tail upstairs to her home. She had renovated the attic of the clinic into an apartment due to the number of animals hit by cars. They needed around the clock care and it just made sense for her to live there. It beat the apartment she had rented across town that had taken her thirty minutes to get back and forth from. Now if anyone needed emergency care, she was always available.
The guest bedroom was a mess so she laid him to rest in her personal bed. Everything on this man was ragged. His jeans had seen better days and his designer boots were scuffed. He was going to be mad about that. She stripped him bare so she could wash him clothes and put him in sweat pants so he wouldn't be bared to the world. Thomas jumped up on the bed and snuggled close to him, purring madly as he settled his ratty body down by the man's ribs.
"You're not living here permanently, Thomas," she scolded. But one night would hurt.
Throwing his and her clothes in the laundry, she changed her own clothes and went to the living room to find out what the hell was going on. The only way she was going to find anything out was to email her source and friend.
Woo Bin was aware that he was somewhere he had never been before. He was aware that the clothes he was wearing were not his own, and there was a fuzzy something pressed against his ribs. He was aware of all these thing and yet he couldn't figure out what was different.
He was staring at a textured white ceiling, wracking his brain to figure out what had happened in the nine hours he had been unconscious. Nothing had changed. He was still injured but he wasn't bleeding. He ached but it wasn't difficult to move. He was still in New York and he was still in trouble. He still had no contacts, no phone and no wallet. All that was still in his hotel room. He was still screwed.
Pushing himself up, he saw what was pressed against his side. A scraggly cat with a nicked ear and one eye lay contentedly against his bare skin. His purr was happy and warm as he slept in a lump on the mattress. He looked like he had just had a bath and was trying not to kill the person responsible. Woo Bin understood the sentiment exactly.
Deciding that nature's call was way more important than trying to figure out what was going, he got up and went in search of the bathroom. He was in luck as it was an en suite and he didn't have to hunt it down.
He was curious as to who the woman was who had saved him so he went in search for her. The apartment was empty so he ventured down stairs, grabbing a jacket as he went. He stepped into a hallway of some sort then wandered down it until he reached a frosted windowed door. He could see two figures on the other side but couldn't make out who they were. So he pushed the door open slightly and peeked through the slit he made.
He saw two women, one short and blonde headed and the other tall and black headed. There was a dog between them and they seemed to be in deep discussion. The dark haired woman looked up and her face became stone. She shook her head at him, an imperceptible movement that only he saw. She motioned for him to get back upstairs. And he listened because that look could kill.
He took that look seriously because it was one his mother used all the time. So he slipped back upstairs and waited patiently in the living room. A few minutes later the woman wandered back up, two cups of coffee in her hands and a bag between her teeth. She set one cup on the table then placed the bag down.
"I didn't know what kind of coffee you liked so there is creamer and sugar in the bag. Donuts too," she said.
Woo Bin looked at her, noting the tattoo peeking out under her shirt. He hadn't understood a word she said. She met his gaze and her lips pulled up in a smile.
"Sorry," she apologized, switching to Korean in an instant. "I'm so used to speaking in English that it's just natural."
He was so surprised words failed him. He reached for the bag and pulled out two little cups of creamer and a jelly-filled donut. What was his luck that he would find someone who spoke English and Korean at the same time? He wasn't that lucky.
"You're right to be nervous. I would be if I woke up in a stranger's home with a knife wound in my stomach." He looked up at her but she was level with him. "My name is Rioh Hwang. I'm the resident vet here on the skirts of Korea town."
:"Aren't you afraid?" he blurted.
She tilted her head at him. "Afraid of what exactly?" She saw the blush on his face deepen to scarlet. "Oh you mean the Triad? No, not really. I paid for everything I have in cash and I don't have any debt. I don't have a need to be afraid. That's why a lot of my clients come here. They know it's a safe place. So I get a lot of free food. There's kimchi in that fridge behind you. Feel free to make yourself at home…"
"Wooyoung," Woo Bin spat out before he even thought about it. It didn't seem smart to give his real name even to someone who was helping him. "Son Wooyoung."
Rioh bit back a smile. Rule 1 was to never give your real name away. Though things were over, he stuck to that rule. She wasn't about to burst his bubble even though she knew who he was.
"All right. Make yourself at home, Wooyoung-ssi. I'll see if I can track down your belongings. I know something happened because your phone and documents are missing."
Woo Bin was nervous as she stood and ventured into the bedroom. There was no need for her to get in trouble over him. He knew people were going to be watching the hotel to see if he showed up. They couldn't go through his room because he was in the penthouse but they would watch for someone to come collect his things. They would be on the lookout for his friends to see if they panicked about his absence.