18 - Breaking Free... Broke

"Mom. When are we going back to LA?" I ask her over breakfast one time. I can't take this anymore. I really can't. This boredom is driving me nuts. If this was my life when I got sick, maybe it really was better that I have forgotten it. There's nothing to it anyway. Just .... the four walls of the house .... the beach ... and back. 

Even surfing the net is as lame as fuck. I mean .... shit. Why are my friends not accepting my friend requests yet?

DAMN!

She smiles her sweetest. "Wanna go shopping with me?" She asks instead. 

That hypes me up. FINALLY. I jump out of my seat and soon regret it when I feel a slight pain on my chest. I grin and slowly go up the steps to change. 

Since this is the first time .... I mean, since we got to NC .... I take full advantage of it, handing clothes after clothes to the sales lady following me even without trying them on. Shoes, accessories and more. I know mom's gonna have a feat when she sees the bill. But, that's what she gets for not letting me out. 

"HEY!" I yell at a boy who grabs the cap I was supposed to get. He ignores me and walks towards the cashier. I reach for his backpack and pull him back. "YO! That's mine."

Wait .... DEJA VU! I shake that off as the boy looks at me with an eyebrow raised. I let go of him and snatch the cap from his hand. "YAH!" He yells. 

Our guards come near us as soon as they hear the shouting. The boy eyes them and his facial expression turns from angry to terrified. I smirk and sarcastically chuckle. He glares at me before turning around and leaving. 

That's the only time I'm glad I have guards following me. 

We drop my mom off at the restaurant after a whole morning of walking around the mall, entering almost all the boutiques. The guards take me straight home. 

"Miss." The guards run after me as I go up the stairs with some of the bags hanging on my hand. 

"What?"

"Your mom left her bag in the car." He says, handing me mom's Gucci. 

I go in my mom's room first to leave her bag, putting it on my bed. Because of my curiosity, I drop my bags on the floor and roam around her very neat room. A smile forms on my lips. She's always the tidy one. That's why she'd always get mad at Lara and me when she'd come in the room and see the mess we'd made. 

Maybe because I have forgotten a certain period of my life in the past, or maybe she's just really busy that I don't see her that often - But, I feel like I've missed her. It's like I've been gone for so long. I go to her closet and touch her clothes. I go to her vanity and open one of her favorite perfumes and spritz a small amount on my wrist. 

I walk towards her desk, just below one of the wide windows, scanning my eyes on the papers on top of it. A certain folder catches my attention. I take it on my hands and open it. I furrow my brows when I see scanned pictures of a man I know.... Mr. Briggs. Sean's dad. My ex's dad. 

What's mom doing with this?

I go to the other page and see another set of pictures. This man, I'm not sure. But, I think I saw him in one of dad's files back in his office in LA. I look below at his name. Rafael Santos.

The next one is of another man - Carl Aymes. Then a man I THINK I've seen before - Rey Tuan. I try to remember where I've seen him, but, I can't. 

Pictures of places follow. It looks like it's somewhere in China. Then profiles of the men. The last page, my brows crease even more as I see a report with my dad's name on it. 

What the fuck is this? 

The report includes my dad's whereabouts a few months ago. In CHINA? I didn't even know he went there. 

I look for more related files on the desk, but find nothing. I open the top drawer then the bottom. I see my passport and pick it up. I see three others, I get them as well. My mom's passport. The two are Korean passports. One of them is hers ... again? The woman in the picture is her, but the name is different - I think it's her Korean name - Nam-Hee Lee. My hands are shaking when I open the last one. Ha-Eun Lee. It's my fuckin' picture. 

What the heck is going on? I check the stamp on it and realize that it was the passport my mom could've used when she transferred me from Korea to here. 

But, why? Why would she use a different name for me ... for her? 

I look in all the drawers, not just the desk's, but, I walk around her room and check every compartment, drawer, cabinet I see. I also look under the bed, her closet and places where my mom could hide whatever it is she wants to hide. But, there was nothing else. 

I take my passports with me and go to my room, then go back to hers just to check my mom's bag I almost forgot. I carry it to my room and immediately look inside. I get her phone and see it useless as I don't know what her password is. This woman and her paranoia. 

I won't get anywhere with this just staying here. I'm sure mom wouldn't tell me anything. 

I get up and grab a big bag from my closet. I put in some of the new clothes I just bought, and my passports. I take mom's wallet and stash it in, too. 

Don't you even think I'm stealing. I'm just .... doing what I think should be done. I need to get to the bottom of this. I need to contact Trey. She's the only person I know who could help me with this. I'm sure she'd be pumped. 

I go down, carrying my backpack and my mom's bag. Lita immediately leaves what she's doing and runs towards me. "Where are you going?"

I lift mom's bag, "I'll just take this to mom. She left it earlier." I tell her.

"I'll call the restaurant then and tell her you're going." With her phone on her ear, she goes out and talks to one of the guards. 

When I get out, the car is already out front and a driver is behind the wheel. Well, I already expected that. Of course they won't let me drive on my own. "Let's go, Miss?"

I get at the back seat and close the door, going through how I'd be able to ditch him when we get to the resto. 

As soon as we get there, I instruct him to take the bag inside. I quickly move to the front when he gets out and curse at myself when I see that he took the key of the car. Of course, he wouldn't be stupid to leave it, right? But, stupid enough to leave me alone. 

I get out of the car and start waving my hand for a cab. I immediately get in the taxi when it stops in front of me. "Airport!"

I look to my right and see a guy who's as surprised as I am. "What the fuck?" I glare at him and my eyes get bigger when I realize who it is. If it's not the ass who almost took my cap earlier in the mall. "Get out." I tell him. 

"You get out." He glares back at me. 

"Ugh...." 

"MISS!" I hear my driver shouting outside. 

"Go. Go. Go." I tell the taxi driver, tapping his shoulder. 

"No." The guy tells me. 

"Just...please. Go." I almost yell. "We're both going to the airport anyway." Fortunately, the driver starts forward. "Hurry, please." I tell him as I see the guard running after the cab. 

I hear the boy grumble beside me but I ignore him. There's no time to argue now. My hands are shaking in both nervousness and fear. And then another feeling of deja vu fills me. 

"Cristina, will you go to Korea with me?"

What was that? I remember running away from my parents before with Lara, but I don't recall a boy asking me to go to another country with him. But, shit. What is this I'm feeling?

"Half." The boy says. I think he's pertaining to the fare. I take out my mom's wallet from the bag. 

SHIT! How the fuck does my mom live without a single bill? They're all freakin' credit cards. 

I make a silly grin and look at him apologetically. "Sorry!" I bite my lip, trying so hard to act cute. "I'll pay you later?"

He rolls his chinky eyes at me and takes out another bill from his wallet, handing it to the driver.

We both get off quickly and run inside. Then, I realize...FUCK! How can I buy a ticket? I don't know my mom's pin nor can I forge her signature. DAMN IT! Why haven't I checked it earlier? How stupid can I get? I took her wallet for nothing. 

"LA please." I hear the guy in front of me say. 

"Two." I quickly add. 

He turns around and looks at me, spitting words in Korean I, surprisingly, understand.

"I'm going to LA, too." I tell him in Korean. "Please. This is an emergency. I'll pay you back when we get there. My dad owns a  law firm and ...."

"You're Korean?" He chuckles. 

"Uhm..." I shrug my shoulders. "My mom is." Then I put my hands together in front of me. "PLEEEEZZZZ!!!! I'll give you the cap you wanted from the mall? And ..." I rummage through my bag, only to find nothing of great value.

He rolls his eyes again. "Give me your passport. I'll hold onto it until you pay me."

"Thank you." I squeal, almost hugging him. 

___

"Ha-Eun! Hey ...."

I turn to my side, my eyes still closed. Then somebody hits the back of my head. "What the fuck!"

"Ha-Eun. We're here." The boy from earlier is already taking his bag from the compartment above.

Ha-Eun? Shit. I almost forgot the name in the passport I gave him. "Oh...." I've been asleep the whole time and didn't notice the plane has already landed. "Thanks."

"So, where to?" He asks me once we get out of the airport. "Where's this law firm your dad owns?"

"Just follow me." I tell him, still a bit groggy. I can run away from him, you know, since I still have my other passport with me. But, I feel guilty. I owe him a lot. I mean .... I wouldn't be here in LA if it wasn't for him. "What's your name, by the way?" I ask him as we get in the taxi. 

"Zu Ho." He simply says, looking out the window. 

"Thanks, Zu Ho." I tell him with all sincerity. "What are you doing here anyway?" 

"Why are you running away from your bodyguard?" He asks instead, turning to me. 

It's my turn to look out the window. "My mom."

He laughs. "Why would you do that?"

"Why do you ask so many questions?" I ask him, irritated at how nosy he is. 

"Well, first off? You owe me. At least tell me why the heck I'm helping you."

He's right. I sigh. "I just want to know the truth."

"About what?"

"I don't know yet. I guess, I'll soon find out."

He stays quiet after that, maybe when he saw how my hands are shaking and my eyes almost at the verge of tearing up. I don't even know why I want to cry. Could it be because I know my dad's gonna throw a feat when he learns I ran away from mom? That's impossible though. I know my dad. It would be an easy task to make him calm down. Besides, he would be too happy to see me to even think of getting mad. 

____

"Can I help you?" The lady behind the desk asks as soon as we reach the outside of my dad's office. I've noticed that a lot has changed. The firm is not as busy as it was before. There are a lot of new people, including this lady talking to me. 

"Is my dad inside?" I ask her, pointing at the double doors. 

Her eyes get bigger then. "I'm sorry, I didn't recognize you. Cristina, is it?"

"Yeah. That's fine." I smile at her. "So, is he in?"