Miho the Killer
Chapter 65: Her Room

Chapter 65: Her Room

It was another 30-minute drive away from Lily Garden. This time I was blindfolded. Again. I would have liked to complain to Shin about still not trusting me, but between my fear of potato peelers and growing suspicion of the old man myself as well, there really wasn’t much for me to say.

Miho, unfairly but understandably, got a favorable treatment and did not have to wear the blindfolds. This time she sat at the front while I was shoved in at the back, making me feel like a blindfolded hostage being taken somewhere I didn’t know.

It didn’t quite stop me from talking though.

"So where are you taking me this time, OLD MAN?"

"Somewhere safe."

"I wouldn’t need to be somewhere safe if it weren’t for you."

"You play with fire, you get burnt. You stay with Miho, you will have people coming after you. As simple as that."

"Why are they after me?" Miho innocuously asked.

"Well, you did piss off some people before you lost your memory." Shin chuckled.

"That bad?"

"Yes, very bad."

"That sucks."

The short and casual conversation really confused me as to where Miho exactly was between her distant past and more recent past. She clearly recalled - or at least her body recalled - how to fight, yet she didn’t seem to recall what she did as a killer.

Or maybe, she didn’t even remember that she used to be a killer herself? Then how could she wrap her head around the fact that she just defeated three attackers?

It was a risk but I had to check.

"Miho, you said you will protect me before."

I reminded her.

"Yeah! Of course, I still intend to." It was clear she meant what she said.

"What are you going to protect me from?"

"From the bad guys. Like today. Pew-pew!" I could hear her throwing jabs in the air as she said this.

"Do you remember from whom, specifically, you said you will protect me?"

"Yup. From the bad woman that I see in my dreams."

Blindfolded, I almost sensed Shin’s silent anticipation for finding out what this conversation would develop into.

"Do you remember now who that woman is?"

"Nope."

"I see."

It wasn’t right for me to force it onto her now. Perhaps she just thought that she became strong enough to protect me from ANY attackers, but she still hadn’t made the connection with her past self as the killer - the lady who was coming to get us.

"But don’t worry, Sohee. I feel more confident now that I have gained some more experience. I was pretty strong back there, eh?"

"You’ve done very well. Good girl." Shin butted in.

"Do you remember... any more ’experiences’ like this?"

Was I probing too much?

It was a tough task, trying to find out where she was at without provoking the painful memories to flood back.

"I’m not so sure."

"You are talking too much, Ms. Han." The old man cut me off.

Perhaps he was right. One thing at a time.

We then drove in silence except for Miho’s humming,

Maybe another ten minutes have passed and I could feel that we were driving down to some sort of basement garage again.

Sigh... I had absolutely no idea where I was now. At least back in the first safe house in Paju I knew where I was and could even go to work every day. But I was now in the weird state of being kidnapped and being on the run at the same time. I remembered that I needed to go to work the next day, but it seemed the last remaining part of my normal life - as an office lady Ms. Han in JJ Systems - was coming to an end too. No matter how nice they have been to me there was no way they were going to welcome me back after going missing for God knows how long without any prior notice.

Maybe when I get back, there will be someone else sitting at my desk, doing the same irrelevant but vital work, looking reasonably easy on the eye, quietly bubbly without coming across as forced, receiving the fish head in her soup with the fatty tuna belly.

"JJ Systems! We are! The future!"

They would chant and shout "Geonbae!" once more.

Everyone happy, continuing their lives, without me.

It would be a lie if I said I wasn’t saddened at all.

Shin took off my blindfold only after we walked up the stairs, walked down the hallway (solid floor, probably stone - I noted down in my mind), turned a few corners (once to the left, once to the right, and once to the left again), opened two doors and came to a wider open space - considering how the sound of our footsteps reverberated.

When I adjusted my eyes to the light again and looked around, this felt like a bigger version of Shin’s safe house back in Paju, also filled with lots of books and-

They were organized in the order of size. The biggest one on the left, the smallest one on the right. Same for every single shelf.

I also noticed that some of the shelves had something a little more disturbing than books - jars containing what I now knew must be human vertebra.

I hated that my stomach didn’t turn this time.

"Come this way."

Shin said dryly and led the way, up the stairs, past a few doors, and at the end of the hallway there was a wooden door marked with a big X and a circle surrounding it.

Miho excitedly ran forward, past Shin, and opened the door with a glee.

"MY ROOM!!!"

The old man did not go any closer and moved out of the way to let me pass him, and gestured that I could follow Miho into her territory.

When I went in I inadvertently laughed as I saw a bunker bed where the bottom bed was filled with bunch of cute plushies. It was a side of her that I always suspected might have existed but never got to see in person.

Miho wasn’t shy about it though and she came hopping back to me with a grin.

"Hehe, a nice collection, right?"

"It is, indeed."

Some of the plushies were characters that I knew well too, like the ones that I grew up watching on TV, or seeing them as I walked down the street with my Mom and made me press my face against the shop window asking "Can we go in to check them out?"

"Where did you get them all?"

Without saying anything, she pointed to another corner of the room, which made me laugh even more.

Miho had a frigging crane game machine in her room, packed with all sorts of nice things that would make kids squeal in joy and cry in disappointment when they inevitably fail.

"Shin fills them up when it gets empty. He says it’s more fun to get them that way than him just gifting me those."

This old man was a true enigma himself too. I needed many hands to describe what this guy was like. On one hand, he was a sadistic killer - although that is a moot point because I couldn’t tell he ’enjoyed’ the killing process -, on the other hand, he was like a spoiling uncle to Miho, yet in a few other hands he was a manipulative ’senior’ to police officers, a kind chauffeur driving me to work every morning, someone who threatened my life, and a loan shark who held my body as a collateral. Yet, imagining him carrying a massive bag of plushies to Miho’s room to fill up the crane game machine brought some wholesome feeling that I didn’t expect to feel.

I investigated the room further and she really had some interesting stuff. There was a big dart on the wall with small knives plunged into its bull’s eye, a very battered Wooden Man (or Wing Chun Wooden Dummy, more appropriately called, I heard), and even... a piano?

"Miho... can you play them?"

I asked her. I don’t know what was such a big deal about it, and perhaps this was less unusual than having a crane game machine in her room, but somehow I just couldn’t imagine Miho playing the piano.

"No, hehe."

"Tsk. The brat asked me to buy it for her - never practiced, never learned."

Shin standing by the door tsk-tsk-tsked and commented.

"Aw, that’s because you never got me a teacher!" the brat protested.

"I explained to you. We can’t have a teacher come here."

"That really sucks. I really wanted to learn too." The brat sulked.

"I... I could teach you." I haven’t played for ages but it used to be one of few things that I could say I was decent at, with reasonable confidence.

"Seriously?! You can play?!" The brat was excited.

"A little," I answered, modestly.

"Well, that’s good then. She will be staying here for a while, maybe you can finally learn to play." The old man sounded so genuinely glad that it threw me off.

Just some hours ago I was wondering what will happen to us now.

But now it seems we will just live like a normal family.

Maybe it wasn’t all that bad after all.