Chapter 10: What Chan Decided

Chan counted the window panes of the cabin eleven times before dawn.

There were twelve. There had always been twelve.

He counted them anyway, because the alternative was thinking about her face in the doorway.

He had said please, and it had not been enough.

The others slept upstairs in the loft in a heap.

Felix's arm lay over Hyunjin, and Jisung was curled at their feet.

That alone should have made him happy.

Three of his members had found something good in this wet, gray town.

He was the one who had gone down the cliff path last night with a dish of food and been sent home with it.

He took his coffee out to the porch and dialed a number he knew by heart.

It rang twice.

"You're up early," said the company lawyer, in Seoul, at the end of a long day.

"I need to know what it costs," Chan said.

"To keep three people out of trouble and one woman's name out of every file you own."

"Chan, the manager has already."

"I know what the manager has already. I'm asking you."

There was a pause, and a rustle of papers.

"There's the document," the lawyer said. "It's been sitting on your desk, and you haven't touched it."

"And if I sign?"

"Then you're worth enough for the company to look the other way."

"Meaning what?"

"A retreat in a small town. Three members who spend their time off with whoever they like. Nobody is penalized."

"And her."

"The owner gets no clause and no letter. She's simply a landlady."

Chan watched a gull turn over the water.

It was not a question. It was a price, and he had paid worse ones.

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