Author's Note: Kdramas (Korean Drama) are my favorite TV dramas, whether they are movie length or 16 episodes - I love the difference between them and our American dramas. This story was influenced by the Korean Series Jirisan and Descendants of the Sun because of their beautiful scenery (Jirisan) and strong storylines (both). If you are also a fan of kdrama and have seen these series, you will recognize the influenced elements.
What Happened to Enos' Little Girl?
In Two Parts
by KayCee1951
Prelude
December 2, 2023
That day…that wonderful/terrible day…was the first time the Strate sisters had performed in fully layered, authentic Korean hanbok. Esme had learned to play the gayageum while visiting Korea the previous summer and since they heard how lovely the gayageum sounded with only Esme plucking the strings, it was reasonable to assume five would be five times as sweet. So, Gem, Rue, Gigi, and Yaya also learned how to play the gayageum 1)...that had been one of the primary reasons they were asked to perform at the Korean Cultural Celebration in Atlanta.
One must dress the part if contemplating a traditional performance with traditional instruments. The gayageum was usually played with more comfortable hanbok or Western-style attire. However, their duties at the celebration were not limited to performing. Acquainting attendees with the different parts and meanings of the dress, right down to the proper way to tie the goreum, also called the Otkorun (ribbons on the jacket).
Their parents, Enos and Soonie Strate were excited about the upcoming event and were sad they would have to miss it. But Enos and Soonie both had committed to the conference. Soonie would provide an explanation of money laundering in more detail than street cops usually get, and Enos would tie how cleaning dirty money helped promote trafficking in human beings. Enos never left the fight, even when he accepted the Sheriff of Hazzard County job.
The sisters had worn the outer garments, a chima skirt, and jeogori top, but never the whole package…seven layers of undergarments, socks, shoes, and headdress other than the small, ornamented headband or the elegantly carved and bejeweled binyeo stick, when the accessory was appropriate.
The rules of traditional hanbok were many, but the one that required them to design their own norigae, from the central ornament to the knot and finally to the tassel, proved the most enjoyable...and challenging. The process took over two months of research and fretted-over choices.
Their performance at the governor's mansion was part of a celebration of Korean culture, and the Strate sisters worried right up to the moment they walked onto the small raised stage that they had incorrectly chosen or applied an outfit component. After all, the Consul General of Korea in Atlanta would be in attendance.
But they needn't have concerned themselves. After an attempt to assassinate the Korean Consul in the governor's mansion was eliminated by some covert response unit from who-knows-where, no one would be concerned about any cultural faux pas committed by the performers.
So there they were, lined up side-by-side or as close as they could get to each other in those multi-layered petticoats, anticipating the witness statements each would have to give before leaving the scene. The anonymous rescue team had vanished into thin air, or so it seemed, having turned the handling of the case and clean-up to Atlanta Detectives and uniformed officers. Rue was ready to start dropping names, like Sheriff Strate being their father. He knew the Governor.
"You do that," Gigi whispered, "and you'll wish they'd kept you here all night. You know how Appa (Dad) and Omma (Mom) feel about using his badge to get special treatment. Remember what happened the last time?"
Rue shuddered at the lecture waiting for them…not from Dad…from Mom.
They may have been allowed to go home and come back in the morning to give their statements as a matter of course…but this was an act of international terrorism that involved a representative of the Republic of Korea. They learned later that the anonymous team who dispatched the terrorist was a Counter Terrorist Force from the ROK's 707th Brigade. But they might as well have come from the planet Xenon for all the guests at the celebration knew. Head to toe, covered in black body armor and tactical gear attached to their bodies and black helmets, they were like silent, stealthy ninjas.
At that moment, however, the sisters' most significant concern was being able to sit down, even on a chair. The royal women and noble ladies of Joseon were given training in the art of sitting…but none of them had practiced the proper 'sitting ritual' or any position even close to dignified. How the upper class in the Jeoson Era managed it was...well, it was probably what made them so cranky all the time. Gigi had enough when the wait became tedious. She found a corner and stripped off all but one of her petticoats.
The Governor appeared once to thank them for their cooperation and patience. The Consul General had been whisked away by two U.S. Marines, and they never saw him again. Rue, Gigi, both twenty-three (in seven days), and Yaya, nineteen, enjoyed the attention from the uniformed officers closer to their ages more than necessary for Gem to countenance. One of the significant issues with all five of Enos and Soonie's daughters was the confiscation of their smartphones. Rue, Gig, and Yaya fretted about not being able to check their social media platforms and Gem had a husband who would worry when it got late, and he couldn't reach her. Esme was the only Strate sister who seemed uncharacteristically preoccupied.
Gem watched her become more nervous by the second…but later realized she had misinterpreted Esme's anxiety. Since his profile was the only element not masked or in shadow, Esme had focused all her attention on one of the men from the response unit. When he and his team reappeared in the great hall, gone was the heavy body armor and extreme gear. Now, he was dressed in a military green t-shirt and camo pants. His face was shadowed by a black ball cap to which lower profile yet high-tech communication gear was attached. Having been in the military herself, Gem knew, or had seen, most of the tech they used, or infant versions of it, when she was a medic in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Like the others in the unit, he wore a black mask over his nose and mouth to obscure his identity, and no insignia to identify him, his team, or his rank. Still, he seemed to be the one calling the shots - literally. Esme froze when he turned his head ever so slightly in their direction. With what, Gem wondered?…excitement, disbelief, desperation…anger? Gem couldn't decipher the conflicting emotions rampaging across her sister's face.
That's when it happened. And it happened so fast that the four remaining sisters had no time to react. The man that had caught Esme's interest ripped off his headset and gave it to the Atlanta detective he'd been speaking with, turned, and walked with what Gem could only describe to Enos and Soonie later as determination. He headed straight for Esme, who looked like she'd been sealed to the spot with super glue. His long legs closed the distance between them in barely a heartbeat, leaving the bewildered detective still in possession of the headgear. The man was relieved of that as soon one of the team noticed…and the detective was more relieved to be shed of it.
"What's going on, Gemmie?" asked Yaya.
"Did Esme do something wrong?" That was Gigi from behind her.
Rue put her hands on her hips. "Just like her to…Oh, my God!" Rue choked out before Gem slapped her hand over Rue's mouth to stifle any more outbursts.
Rue, Gigi, and Yaya stood agape and speechless. They'd been stunned into complete silence, which, for anyone who knew Gigi at all, was not an easy thing to do. She was well-known as the magpie of the five Strate siblings.
The man who had coldly and without the slightest hesitation, or qualm, shot a man dead in front of them, was engaged in an intense lip-lock with Esme. She would have described it as passionate, but it was much more than that. It was as if he were consuming her.
And Esme appeared to be giving him her full cooperation.
References and Translations:
1) gayageum is a traditional instrument - its closest comparison is to a zither