“The man who was following me in the city, he’s here. He walked right past you, looked like he was listening to what you were saying, and he’s circled around again. He’s wearing a red hat.” Lloyd was mumbling again. It was the next day, and he refused to let me leave his side, even to go to the bathroom. We were on our way to the lunch truck and the post office. I hoped my mother had been able to send me more money.
“Where?” There were people ahead, alongside, and behind us, all walking away from the dining hall. “I don’t see anyone in a red hat. Korean man?”
“Don’t be so obvious. Sweatshirt and jeans, red sweatshirt and jeans.”
I looked around. He yanked me back around. “Just walk.” I hadn’t seen anyone in a red sweatshirt. I saw a girl in a red T-shirt and a boy in a black shirt and red shorts, but no one wearing what Lloyd had said.
He was talking again. “He’ll expect us to go to this meeting. Especially if you told that girl where we were going. Did you tell her about Korea Society?” Without waiting for my reply, he added, “You did. I knew it. We can’t go now. You’ve got to stop telling people our plans. What did you say, word for word?”
“I didn’t know he was on campus. You should have told me. Why are you talking about Korea Society? We agreed we weren’t going to go to that.”
“These people aren’t obvious, Yoona. I wasn’t sure until he walked right by you. I wondered if you knew him, and then he walked past. Really casual. And if I wasn’t looking for him, I would have missed him. The way they coordinated that attack so I couldn’t get out of the car. The way I was locked in that car. We have to find him.”
“Korean man, how tall? You have to tell me something. Does he look like a grad student? Older?”
“But there might be more than one. There were two in every car. I didn’t want to be split up. I told Jaesung I didn’t have a good feeling about it, but he wanted to follow along. He’s too trusting. They walked me between them like they thought I’d try to escape.”
“What are we going to do? You think he knows who I am? It’s not just you he’s following?” My heart was jumping out of my chest. Where was the man Lloyd said was following him? I pulled Lloyd’s arm off me finally and tried to be discreet about examining the people around us. We were behind the dining hall now, heading toward my dorm.
“I’m sorry, did I hurt you?” he asked and moved his hand toward my head, but I jerked away before he touched me. “I know it’s scary, shit, I was scared, but you can’t let it show. You know what I mean? You can’t let them know you know,” he continued. Then he put his hand on his jeans and rubbed it hard. He cleared his throat. “What’s wrong with you? Why’re you mad at me?”
“I’m not.” I was busy looking around. Were we actually in danger?
“Okay, he’s gone,” Lloyd said. “Slow down.”
“How do you know?” I picked up my pace.
“Hey, he’s gone. Slow down, will you?”
I stopped abruptly and caught my breath. “We’ve got to tell the police. Campus first or go straight to the town police? Which?”
“Police? They won’t believe us. I tried that in the city. They locked me up and called my parents.”
“They can’t do that. Why would they do that? When did they do that?”
“Keep your voice down. Yoona, they looked up my record, but it was dumb. It wasn’t for anything, but they locked me up. Trust me, they won’t believe us.”
“What record?”
“You know, community stuff. Forget it; we’re on our own.”
“Community-activism stuff?”
“Yeah, like that. Hey, Daiyu’s always getting hurt, why is that?” He chuckled. I stared at him. Lloyd seemed completely at ease now. He paused. “I thought I saw her just now, that’s why.”
I let out a breath. I was exhausted, and he must be too. I’d been certain we’d be found under the desk in Dean Olin’s room, and I’d be expelled. “She’s uncoordinated,” I said, answering his question about Daiyu. In front of us, in the doorway of one of the dorms, was an Asian man who looked older than the undergrads. He had on a white button-down shirt and khaki pants. He was smoking in the doorway. Was he one of them?
“They know who we are. The man in the blue hat, one o’clock.” Lloyd’s voice lowered. A boy I recognized from my Intro to Asian Lit class was staring at us. He always wore a Yankees baseball cap. “He’s a student here,” I said to Lloyd.
“That’s what you think,” he returned.
“Where do you know him from?”
“He might have been in the car with us, with me and Jaesung.”
“Wait, you said you were in separate cars.”
“For part of the trip. They made us switch outside of Seoul.”
“You never told me that. You and Jaesung were in the same car for part of the time?”
“I got it. He followed me the first night I got here. The one with the baseball hat.”
“You sure about the guy in my Asian lit class? You sure he’s the one who’s been following you?” I said.
“The first night I came up here.”
“You said no one followed you.”
“I lost him. But that was him. I remember that hat.”
“A hat? You think because he was wearing a hat?”
He looked confused. Then he nodded. “You’re right, we’ve got to split up. I’ve brought them right to you, and now you’re in danger too.” He covered his face with his hands.
“Stop, Lloyd, stop, please. We should go to the police. They’ll see we’re right. They’ll see the man outside my dorm. We’ll talk and figure it out. Come on, not here,” I said. He followed along as if on a leash, his head hanging.
I heard laughter behind us.
It was Daiyu and Faye, holding napkins full of sweet rice cake in their hands. Lloyd fled, and I watched him go with a nervous knot in my stomach. Even as Lloyd’s story started to unravel, I told myself he was nervous, that they’d scared him. He’d been through a lot. He was the last one to see you, and you had to be alive. I still wanted to believe you were alive.
73
The sound of helicopters overhead in the distance fills the room. Lloyd’s mouth opens, broadcasting bewilderment. Faye starts screaming, “They’re coming, finally, oh my god.”
“Shut up, Faye,” Heather says, but Lloyd doesn’t react. The helicopter engine grows louder still.
“Lloyd, what’s happening?” I ask and take a few steps toward him.
GET BACK ON THE BED, OR ELSE. He’s snapped back. I do as he says. He pockets the handgun and stretches for the shotgun leaning against the wall.
“It’ll be over soon,” I say to myself, but I must have said it aloud too, because Faye agrees and says, “Thank god, we made it.”
74