Lines Crossed - Volume 1 Chapter 53 Blue String.
I watched the video of my nephew in his office working away, unaware of my camera’s all around the room.
My secretary walked in he was a stubby little man around thirty, many years younger than me, but in most ways couldn’t hold up a candle to the beautifully high class, the pureblood genetics of a Kim. It didn’t matter that I wasn’t one; it didn’t matter one bit. Because to him and everyone else who did not understand just how much of an outsider, I truly was a Kim. My very name was synonymous with power.
So, a man like him shorter, of a pudgier build, with a plain average face, in his very late twenties, almost cusp of beginning the thirties, even if he tried for the rest of his years. He would always be a shorter man with a slight limp from when he lived on the streets before I picked him up to be my informant. Nothing more, nothing less.
He was insignificant.
But what he brought was worth more than a million pounds of gold, or anything else in this world.
I peered up at him over the black rim of my square glasses. “I told you I didn’t want to see you again till I found out who that girl Mina was.”
I folded my hands across the desk, and he gulped.
“Y-Yes S-Sir, I did, find out.”
“The results are back.”
“Let’s find out who this girl is. A girl who doesn’t exist.” I sucked back my glee hoping it wouldn’t show too brightly. A man could never show weakness because then his opponent had a hand to use against him in battle.
It worked in war days.
And for Kim Hyunbin every day, every person was a war game, I was already ten steps into waging before they ever even knew they were playing.
“I’m afraid it might not exactly be what you were looking for…” He started.
I grabbed the file away and opened it up.
“She is an illegal immigrant?”
“That’s it?”
“What about her parents?”
“They died early on when she was younger, she is an orphan. They left her that house. She is a writer.”
“Hmmm, is that s..” He was about to say something when the little logo at the back of the picture caught his eye and he almost yelped aloud with actual glee.
It had been a long time since he was filled with this much happiness, with this much hope.
Five years and sixteen years were all he had gotten the only chances in his life he had to fix the past mistake of twenty-six years before, a mistake he wished so badly to undo.
‘I miss you so much Kate, I miss you and Lily with all my heart. I would give anything to get back to you.’ His jaw tightened as he thought of the little two-year-old baby girl he had left behind.
‘I wonder what would have happened if I hadn’t had met Soo Ah If I hadn’t had told her my secret. If she hadn’t helped me get an illegal background. If she hadn’t given me the very name, I wear to this day. I never would know.’
‘I would be as ignorant and stupid as my own employees. But to be fair, the whole world was ignorant. Their tiny minds, in their tiny lives, content to be the only ant’s working on the only tunnels, in the entire universe.’
‘It’s not that I don’t want to get back to you. It’s that I have missed the only chances I was ever given.’
‘Then again, those chances were never brought to fruition, never even came to pass. So if there was anyone to blame, it was time and fate. Neither of them had ever been kind to him.’
‘If only I had said no if only I had not followed Hyun Ki, it is my greatest regret.’
“Sir, is everything alright?”
“Huh,”
“Oh, uh, yes, I am. You were wrong, I found everything I was looking for in that file.” I grinned, clasped my hand behind my back, and walked to the window to look at the street below.
“There was only one thing that would make life better right now.”
“I need you to do one more thing for me.”
“Sure, what can I get you.”
“I need you to look up weather patterns. I have a feeling something is coming soon.”
“Of course, is there anything specific I am looking for?”
“Oh, just a bit of rain is all.”
“Let’s just say I can feel it in my bones.”
***
I walked up to the counter. Two matcha latte’s extra foam hot with milk not cream and two sugars. Oh, and the order is for Mina, not Min ah..”
“Okay. Mina. Not Min AH, we don’t need your name here, we will give you a buzzer. Like this.” She grabbed one and handed it to me smiling, and I stared at it stupidly.
“Ah, right? I always forget.”
“Yes, you are from America? Yes? I can tell because of your accent.” The girl said she gave me a small grin back, and I nodded awkwardly.
“Ah,” Mina laughed.
“Yes, America.”
Mina bowed politely, then went outside to sit at the patio that wrapped around the entire cafe corner. It was one of those rare moments where she was pretending she wasn’t working, that she maybe had a day off.
When in reality, that was a latte for Mark and Jaemin.
It was a peace offering, hoping her first day on the job wouldn’t be an entire disaster.
“Excuse me, Miss.”
“Oh, yes?”
I paused and looked up to see a beautiful man, with long fluffy brown hair that tussled gently in the wind. His thin frame was decked out in long, smooth dress pants and a long-sleeved cardigan that looked like cashmere. Everything he wore, screamed rich and powerful,
‘He doesn’t belong here.’ She thought.
“I am afraid I am a little lost.”
She smiled.
“I kinda had that feeling.”
“Can you help me find this building?”
I smiled at him, and the wind whipped a small piece of hair in my mouth. I pulled it out and looked at the phone screen.
“Sorry, it’s my first day. I am not sure I can help you find stuff around this area. But if you just wait a second, I can ask my boss.” I shoved one drink into my elbow and balanced it while I reached into the small bag I carried and searched for my phone.
“It’s okay. You don’t have to. I can find it on my own.”
“Oh, okay. Are you sure?”
“I really don’t mind calling my boss to ask the way for you.”
“No, it’s okay. The generous kind offer is more than enough.”
“It’s hard enough to find genuine kindness nowadays.”
“But the magnificent thing about kindness is, that it always finds a way to be paid forward in life. Even if in just small ways.”
“Yes,” I agreed with a slight chuckle.
“I agree. Kindness always finds away.”
The man reached into his pocket and pulled something small and blue out.
He reached out grabbed my hand that was in the purse and dragged it out before placing the tiny blue object inside it.
I looked back up, but he was already walking away.
I watched him go
“Wear it at all times, you never know when it might come in handy.” He yelled back from across the street.
‘He wants me to wear a string?’
I shook my head.
But then remembered my mother’s words from before she died.
No matter how big or small a gift is. We give a gift with the heart, and unless you are willing to throw away someone’s heart then you should never throw a gift away.
I stuck it inside my purse then hurried off towards the office and the awaiting hell I knew it was going to be.