Stella (3)

Jintae walked out of the club with two obedient deer following in his tracks.

Both Sangmin and Minji wore a guilty-as-charged expression on their faces. Sangmin and Minji didn't dare speak a word as they kept nudging each other to take the initiative in resolving their older cousin's wrath. Neither wanted to be the first to take the hit. When they arrived at the spot where a white Hyundai Santa Fe was parked, Minji used what strength she had and shoved her older brother towards the front passenger seat while she quickly jumped into the backseat, but not before sticking her tongue out at him.

Sangmin mentally cursed, shooting Minji a glare, but left with no other choice, he got into the front passenger seat beside the driver. There was a cautious tension in the air, especially since Sangmin and Minji knew they were totally in the wrong and was even caught red-handed. 

Soon, the Hyundai Santa Fe pulled out of the parking spot. As their car passed by the entrance to The Narrow, Jintae stared at the patrol cars pensively.

"Jintae hyung, how did you even know we were here?" Sangmin bravely asked.

Without mincing his words, Jintae retorted, "Why? So you can bully my informant?"

Sangmin's intention was easily seen through, so he was tongue-tied. He had planned to give an earful to whoever had tattled on him later that night but now, he could only hold it in.

In the backseat, Minji rolled her eyes as she watched her older brother's 'oh-fuck-me' expression. Unlike Sangmin, Minji didn't have to ask to guess the identity of the person who had betrayed them. It was obvious to her, but perhaps not to her somewhat dim-witted brother. There were times when her brother was smart, but there were also times when he was plain stupid.

"Where did you get the fake ID?" Jintae interrogated as the car made a left turn at the traffic lights, leaving the Entertainment District.

Sangmin bit his lower lip. He shouldn't have asked. This was clearly digging his own grave. He didn't want to sell out his source because what if he needed it later? He wasn't going to buy one for Minji anytime in the future, but it was good to have connections in the world.

"Park Sangmin," Jintae said his full name in a strict, warning tone. "Do I have to remind you what you're majoring in? Did you forget what your father does? He's the Prosecutor General."

"But it's just a small transgression. It's not like I'm buddy-buddy with the South Korean Mafia," Sangmin protested resentfully. He didn't understand what the big deal was. With the stress from school, he just wanted to have some fun and get his mind off of things. He admitted he shouldn't have brought Minji along, but that sister of his could be really persuasive and scary when she wanted to be. Besides, she was father's little angel who could do no wrong. He doubted his father was even going to blink an eye about this incident.

Jintae shot Sangmin a glare out of the corner of his eye. "Small transgression? Should we wait for you to make a big mistake then? Should we wait until you've tarnished South Korea's Ministry of Justice?" If only Sangmin knew that, just two days ago, Jintae had already done his part by involving a civilian in a cop chase then he would definitely call the kettle black on his older cousin. Unfortunately he didn't know and Jintae didn't plan on confessing.

"Jintae hyung, you're being too far-fetched," Sangmin said, laughing nervously. "Besides it's important to build connections and have informants. Hyung, you have informants too."

"That's a different story. I'm a cop. You're a student studying to become a prosecutor. You need to start with a clean slate."

"Hyung, I'm a stressed out university student! I just want to let out some steam," Sangmin cried, pouting like a child who had been wronged. "Do you know how many students suffer because they have no proper outlet to relieve their stress?"

Jintae sighed, somewhat relenting as he empathized with Sangmin's burdens. "I'm not gonna say you can't relieve stress, but why did you bring Minji with you? You know she's only twenty. It's a different story if she's twenty-one." He paused then corrected, "No, even if she's twenty-one, don't corrupt her by bringing her to these clubs. Playlights isn't a normal club that Minji should be seen at. If she wants to go clubbing then bring her to places like Elevation or Kaleidoscope. Don't bring her to Playlights, Warehouse 65 or Six Under. Do you understand?"

Minji looked over to Sangmin. Even though they argued like cats and dogs, at the end of the day they were family, and she figured he had enough scolding for the night. "Jintae oppa, you sure know a lot of club names," she cutely joked, purposely changing the topic. "It sounds like you've been around more than Sangmin oppa. I will definitely only go to the places you greenlighted."

Jintae glanced at Minji through the rear-view mirror. She was smiling back at him, unlike Sangmin's grumbling appearance. It was obvious she was trying to bootlick and shift attention away from Sangmin. These two were siblings for a reason. Unlike Sangmin though, Minji was good at getting her way with people. She was everyone's favorite in the family, if they had to pick one.

"I should know my city to do my job," Jintae said matter-of-factly, not falling for Minji's tricks. Although it would be a lie to say he didn't have a soft spot for this younger cousin of his. However, he understood her intentions and decided to stop the nagging on Sangmin. Instead, after a few seconds of hesitation, Jintae asked, "That's the stripper you've been spending your money on?"

"Hey! Don't make it sound like that," Sangmin exclaimed, slightly offended. "Stella and I are totally innocuous. I just think she's the best dancer and prettiest one out of the bunch, so I always give her a couple thousand won as tips when I'm at the club."

"She looks…tacky," Jintae commented, reminded of the purple hair and grey eye colored contacts. He didn't like them one bit.

"That's her getup. Honestly, I've never seen her real face. She's always in a wig with dramatic make-up and colored contact lenses. I tried asking her out for dinner, but she rejected me." Sangmin exhaled in disappointment.

"Then how do you know she's the prettiest one of the bunch?" Minji piped in. "If she's always in that getup? You don't know her real face."

"I just know ok? I have a good eye for beauty," Sangmin defended, puffing his chest out in pride.

Minji bit back the need to roll her eyes. "Sangmin oppa, haven't you watched that make-up removal video?"

"What make-up removal video?"

"The one where it's titled 'my girlfriend after she removes her makeup'."

"What's that about?"

"The girl removes her make-up and she looks completely different, like a totally different person to the point her boyfriend can't even recognize her. It became viral and then afterwards, a whole bunch of make-up removal before and after videos got posted online too. It shows the magic of make-up and how deceiving it can be. Someone you think is pretty can turn out to be ugly." Minji shrugged. "I'm just saying, oppa. Don't be catfished."

"She's pretty even without make-up," Jintae blurted his thoughts before he could get them in check.

There was a split second of silence and then…

"What?!" Minji and Sangmin uniformly exclaimed with wide eyes.

They couldn't believe their ears and the words that came out of their workaholic cousin's mouth. In a million years, they would've never expected to hear a compliment about an opposite gender coming out of their hard-bitten, unromantic cousin. In fact, everyone in the family was already beginning to lose hope in Jintae's romantic life. How many times did their grandpa set up blind dates for Jintae, only for the poor woman to be stood up? It had happened way too many times, to the point that grandpa felt sorry for arranging a blind date and ceased the operation altogether.

At one point, grandpa was so worried he had asked to speak to Sangmin and Minji in private. To this day, Sangmin and Minji remembered how uncomfortable it was as they sat and answered grandpa's endless questions about Jintae's romantic life, or rather lack thereof. Basically, their answer to all of his questions was, "We don't know."  

Just the reminder of that incident made chills run down Sangmin and Minji's back. Never again, they implicitly agreed.

That wasn't to say their older cousin was completely unmoveable. He did have a girlfriend back when he was nineteen. They dated for a good four years before calling it quits, and then he never dated again in these last five years. Now he was twenty-eight and grandpa was very anxious about his lack of initiative towards a marriage.

Considering all that they knew, Sangmin and Minji felt as if they had just been dealt with a clap of thunder and lightning. Disregarding the fact that the one time they heard a compliment coming from Jintae's mouth was about a stripper, it was already something astonishing.

"Hyung, you know Stella?!" Sangmin couldn't keep his mouth closed.

"Oppa, how do you know?" Minji said at the same time as Sangmin.

Both pair of eyes were staring excitedly at Jintae like a hawk would its prey. This might be the juiciest gossip they heard in a while. Grandpa shouldn't lose hope!

Realizing he had inadvertently slipped up, Jintae cleared his throat and pretended not to hear their questioning as he turned into an affluent, gated community.

"Oppa, do you know the stripper unnie? How do you know her? Where did you meet her? Did you meet her at the club?" Minji probed endlessly.

"Hyung, did you go on a date with Stella? You two surely didn't act like you knew each other back there," Sangmin followed up.

"We're here," Jintae interrupted the two as he pulled up in front of an expensive estate. 

Sangmin was momentarily distracted as he stared up at the massive building where they had stopped. His head snapped towards Jintae, asking nervously, "Hyung, why are you dropping us off at harabeoji's?" Sangmin swallowed. "Don't tell me…he knows about what happened tonight?"

Jintae stared at Sangmin, steadfast. "Who do you think rang me up while I was at work?" 

Sangmin's heart dropped.

"You're not coming in with us, Jintae oppa?" Minji wondered.

He shook his head. "I still have things to do at the station."

"Alright…" Minji was a lot more accepting since she had made a guess on their grandpa. Besides, even if they got in trouble, she was confident in her skills to de-escalate grandpa's anger. Sangmin, on the other hand, well she wished her dear brother all the good luck in the world. "Let's go, Sangmin oppa!" She cheerfully hopped out of the Hyundai.

Sangmin turned to Jintae, pleading with his eyes, "Hyung, do I have to go in? Are you leaving? Can I leave with you?"

"Get out of my car," was Jintae's firm and impatient reply.

Sangmin muttered a couple of incoherent words under his breath as he reluctantly unbuckled his belt and got out of the car. He stared up at the mansion and braced himself for the impending lecture. So much for celebrating his parents being out of the country. He forgot he still had a grandpa left.

Having safely delivered the kids to their destination, Jintae was about to shift gear and drive away, but he heard a knock on his side window. It was Minji as he powered the window down.

"Oppa, I'll make sure Sangmin oppa won't say a thing about the pretty stripper unnie to harabeoji," Minji teased and winked.

Jintae's lips parted to protest but she was already skipping off. He scowled.

Damn it.