Moonstrike 25

Ji Min drove back to the hotel since it was dark. When they were about halfway back her phone started to go off in her purse.

Ari leaned over in the passenger seat and turned off the music.

“Thanks,” Ji Min said. “Could you-”

“Yeah, of course.” Ari unzipped the bag and pulled it out. She looked at the screen and her whole face twitched. “It's Dad.”

“Dad?” Min Joon burst out. “He still hasn't responded to my messages from the day Issa picked me up!” He sounded outraged.

“Don't answer,” Ji Min said quickly. She found a parking lot to pull over and flipped on her turn signal. “Just a minute.”

“Should we bother talking to him?” Ari asked, disgusted. “It’s not like he cares. If he can't respond to his youngest kid telling him that he's scared-”

“I think that's why I need to talk to him.” Ji Min put the car in park and held out her hand. “I need to figure out what's going on and what they know. If you two will be quiet, I'll stay in the car. Promise? I don't want him to know you're here with me.”

“...where else would we be?” Min Joon asked.

“Promise?” Ji Min pushed, tense. The phone was still ringing but it wouldn't for much longer.

“Fine, yes,” he said. She could hear the eye roll in his tone. Ari grudgingly nodded. Ji Min answered and brought the phone up to her ear. “Good evening.”

Ari made a face immediately.

“Evening,” Daddy said. “Do you have your brother?”

“...What?” Ji Min said. She ran her tone flat with disbelief. “Why would I? Did you forget about one of his games again?”

“No, of course not,” Dad serenely disagreed. Dickhead. There was a metal clank in the background, because he wasn't giving this his full attention. “I haven't seen him in a couple days.”

“A couple days?” Ji Min let her voice rise in genuine anger. Motherfucker. Min Joon had been with her for nearly two weeks. His messages to their parents for help had been sitting unanswered just as long. “Did anything weird happen?” She pressed. Come on. Admit it, you asshole. “He's not answering his phone?”

“No, I'm not unduly concerned.”

She wanted to scream. The last word he'd heard from M.J. had been that some weird adult was following him and he thought someone was in the house. Why the everliving fuck would he not-

Because that wasn't a cause for concern to him. Ji Min froze.

‘He knew what was going on and he was fine with it. He thought someone took M.J. and he was fine with it until he learned it wasn't that person. They got in contact with him about it. Or he's just double checking because he noticed something.’

She didn't have evidence but it sent fear and anger careening through her veins nonetheless. “That's good,” she said. The voice could have belonged to someone else. It came out begrudging and mildly unfriendly. He'd expect that from her. “I'll call him. He's probably caught up with the soccer team.”

She threw the wrong sport in there to see if he was even paying attention.

Dad didn't correct her. “He always is.” He sighed. “Team sports.” She could almost see him shaking his head. “Where did we go wrong?”

Ji Min wrapped her free hand around the steering wheel so tightly that it creaked.

“Anyway. How have you been, sweetie?” There was a series of chimes as some samples finished in his lab. “You didn't say hi when you were in town.”

“I didn't,” she agreed. “I'm fine. Work keeps me busy.”

“You know you don't have to do that,” Dad said offhand, like she could trust him not to pull the rug out from under her. Like he hadn't already withdrawn financial support when she did something he didn't like. “Do something better with your life than crawl around under cars. Do you wanna go back to school, sweetie?”

Yes.

Ji Min ignored the vise around her heart. “Not for the moment,” she said steadily. Fuck. She had to stay calm. She couldn't cry right now. Not in front of the little kids. “Listen, I need to go. Tell Mom I said hi.”

“Tell her yourself,” Dad said. “She'll be in touch.” He hung up.

Slowly, Ji Min let the phone down. She swallowed hard.

‘He didn't buy it. He thinks I have M.J. No mention of Ari at all, but does that mean anything?’

“What was that?” Ari demanded. “I thought you were going to tell him off!”

“Did he say I've been gone for like, two days?” M.J. leaned up into the front seat demanding attention. He crowded into her space. She felt trapped.

Ji Min scrabbled for the door handle. She pulled it and then stopped. She controlled herself. “Just-give me a second.” She raked a hand through her hair.

Ari was looking at her like she'd never seen Ji Min in her life. She put a hand on M.J.’s shoulder and pulled him back a few inches. “That wasn't what I expected,” she rephrased, a lot calmer. Controlled. “You- you don't want him to know where M.J. is. Why?”

Ji Min closed her eyes for a moment and let go of the door handle. She put that hand against her temple. “Look-” she started, and then didn't know where to go. She sighed. “They're… Mom and Dad aren't…”

“They're neglectful assholes,” Ari said sharply. “But you're acting like they're dangerous.”

Ji Min looked away.

“Dangerous to you?” M.J. asked doubtfully. “I mean - you're-” He gestured broadly at her in a way that probably meant she seemed invulnerable to him. “And it's not like they give a shit about Ari or me, so, it's whatever I guess.”

Ji Min swallowed. It wasn't… untrue. “They leave Ari alone because…” she struggled for how to phrase it. Shit. “You know the physicals?”

Both of her siblings looked at her blankly. “Like, before sports?” M.J. asked.

Shit. Ji Min tugged at her hair. “Do you remember when you were little, and you'd go to the hospital maybe 8 times a year?”

“For checkups,” Ari said. “Everyone does that.”

Christ. “No,” Ji Min said. It came out grimmer than she liked to be. “They don't. We got a lot of injections when we were little, and then just occasional blood draws after 8 or 9 years old. Whatever it is, it was most compatible with me. Or I gave the best results. Something. So when I tried to leave-”

“You mean when you went to college?” Min Joon said, puzzled.

She cut a sideways look at him. He wouldn't remember it well, would he? He'd have been 10, 11. And she had no idea what their parents had even told them. Definitely not the truth. “Something like that.” She looked out the windshield at the dark parking lot. Red lights winked at her on the curves of empty cars. “Anyway, I came back because they promised to leave Ari out of it if I did.”

“...Are you talking about medical experimentation?” Ari sounded more shocked than anything. Ji Min stole a look over to try to read her reaction. She nodded. Ari started to turn a little red. “You think they experimented on us? And you didn't tell me anything?”

Ji Min really wanted to not be in this conversation. “You were safer not knowing suspicions when I didn't have facts,” she said bluntly. “But now you're safer knowing.”

She was guessing that M.J. wasn't valuable for whatever Dad was doing. There had to be a reason for the weird favoritism. But that didn't mean Dad didn't see a use for his kids. And it wasn't like Mom was interested to intervene.

“That's high handed, don't you think.” M.J. was pale and stubborn. “Don't we have a right to know?”

“Of course you do. It's not like I actually know what's going on,” Ji Min argued. “Maybe that's why I'm the way I am. Maybe Dad designed me this way. Don't you think I wanna know?”

“Then what's the problem?” Ari leaned forward and crossed her arms. “They're normal people. They can't hurt you. And human experimentation is definitely illegal. Why don't you just report it?”

“...Mom and Dad are willing to go further than you think they are,” Ji Min said, and her throat closed up.

That statement existed in an awkward silence for a while.

“Hostage thing?” Min Joon said, like he hoped it was wrong. “Ari and I were both minors then, I still am. They said something about us?”

Ji Min looked at her hands on the steering wheel. “Something like that, yeah.”

“...Do you think they had something to do with whoever was creeping on M.J.?” Ari asked. She pulled her heels up onto the seat and hugged them. “Your face went white on that call.”

Wow. She hated the ordeal of being known. “The theory occurred to me,” Ji Min admitted. “It would explain not ever responding to your SOS messages.” She nodded at him. “If they thought they knew where you were.”

M.J. looked sick. “You think they what, sold me to a lab?” He wondered. “Sold me for parts?”

She hadn't gotten to specifics in a theory. Ji Min winced. “I don't know how they could benefit from letting someone take you,” she said. “I don't know who would want to. I don't have enough information to keep you safe.”

“Hey, hey,” Ari interrupted. “We're safe here. They don't know where we are. We just don't tell them where we are and then we're fine.” She shrugged pointedly.

“...I don't think that's necessarily true,” M.J. said slowly.

Ji Min nodded. “It's not true in my experience,” she said bleakly. She turned the car back on. “If they want to find us, they will.”

“...Maybe you just didn't go far enough,” M.J. said slowly. “Like. What if we went really really far? Just for a while?”

“You need passports to leave the country,” Ji Min pointed out. “Definitely can't leave with yours without them finding you. I could maybe get you good enough fakes, but it would take time. Where'd we go? There's a money trail, if nothing else. Like.” She threw her hands up. “I'm a good criminal, frankly. I've never been caught. But Mom found me wherever I went, and I never knew how.”

“...Maybe she's got powers,” Ari pointed out. Ji Min shrugged. It was as good a guess as any. “Okay, that's a problem,” she said. She stared into the distance. “Hey, uh. Issa said she had a collaboration with NASA, right? She was gonna leave the solar system for a while?”

M.J. brightened up.

Ah, shit. That was a good idea, aside from the ways it was a fucking terrible idea.

Ji Min felt a dull horror at the concept of letting her siblings go off-planet to be babysat by pirates. Not that there were many. Issa had been forced to part with her crew after the sabotage incident that landed her on earth. So honestly… maybe there was room.

“I'll talk to her,” she said. Issa was incredible but she probably wasn't looking to take on crew members with zero qualifications. Was intergalactic piracy a ‘learn on the job’ kinda deal?