Soul Mate (The Mating Series)

by S. Swan

  The door delayed me. I fumbled to shut and lock it. I fought with the door and lock so long that I was down two minutes. I walked out of my building to find Cho, or at least I hoped it was him, behind the wheel of black town car. He looked at his watch and shook his head exasperated. I hadn’t properly met the man and already was on his bad side.

  “Sorry.” I said, hopping into the car. “I had trouble locking my door.”

  “Whatever,” Cho said. “Let’s roll.” Cho looked like an older version of Jimmy. The likeness was uncanny, except his hair was cropped short in a conservative professional look. He weighed more than Jimmy with a little bit of a gut. Cho’s eyes were dark brown and piercing. He occasionally made sidelong glances at me. I fiddled with my purse nervously. Aware of his effect on me, Cho appeared to enjoy it.

  “So you’re the girl fucking up my brother’s life.” Cho said, eyeing me. What? I shifted nervously. “I mean, you’re Cassie.”

  “I usually look better, but…”

  “You look fine,” he said. “Well, under the circumstances.” He added. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

  “All good I hope,” I said and cringed at the cliché.

  “Not always.” Cho smirked. “You frustrate the hell out of my little brother.”

  “I do?”

  “For years, all Jimmy talked about is how he’d like to hook up and can’t,” Cho said. “He finally gets the balls to act, and all this shit happens.” He shook his head. “I want Jimmy to be happy, but you and him…” Cho stopped, but I understood his meaning. I was not the one for Jimmy. I forced the relationship, now Jimmy was being punished. I had no reply. I remained quiet on the drive to the jail.

  We arrived at the Marion County Jail with just a few minutes to spare. “Now, stay quiet and follow my lead.” Cho instructed. A heavy woman sat behind the front desk. “I’m Cho Kim. I have an appointment with my client Jimmy Kim.” He announced with authority.

  “Hold on,” the woman said, not looking up. She scribbled on something we couldn’t see. “Identification?” she asked. Cho handed her his driver’s license. “What about her?” she asked, still not looking up. I handed her my driver’s license.

  “Ms. Williams is a paralegal with Huber and Associates. They will be local counsel on this case,” Cho said.

  “Are you family to the prisoner?” the woman asked.

  “No,” Cho lied. “You can check. I filed my appearance.”

  “You have the same last name.” Oh shit, we’re busted. I could feel my face flush. Cho eyed me.

  “It’s a common name,” Cho lied.

  “Kim is a common name?” the woman questioned.

  “Not in the states, but in Korea Kim is as common as Smith or Jones.” Sweat poured off me. Terrible at lying, I hoped the woman didn’t question me. I would sing like a bird. Apprehensive, I shifted from foot to foot. Cho sidled close to me. He put his arm around me. His hand on my back, his fingers dug in, squeezing. I stopped fidgeting and stiffened, eyes forward. What the hell! I felt like an unruly child. Cho’s hand remained my back as a reminder. He never broke eye contact with the woman. “I speak Korean. I have to translate for Ms. Williams,” he said. The woman looked at us. Between the woman and Cho, I almost peed myself like a nervous puppy.

  “Very well,” the woman said. She handed us two visitor badges. The woman pointed to a green door in the back. “Go through that door,” she said. “There’s a man on the other side who will direct you to the room you’ll be in.”

  I immediately broke from Cho’s grip. He caught my shoulder, stopping me, and leaned into my ear. “Listen to me, this room will be monitored. Don’t do or say anything.”

  I blinked. “What do you mean?”

  Cho pointed in my face. “Don’t act like you know Jimmy and don’t touch him,” he said. “I did this for Jimmy not you.” Who in the hell did he think he was? I gave Cho the stink eye. He cut in front of me and proceeded through the door, letting it close in my face.

  The guard on the other side thoroughly patted Cho and went through his briefcase. When the man patted me, he lingered on my legs. It made me uncomfortable. Cho cleared his throat and eyed the man. The guard looked at him. Cho tensed protectively. The guard removed his hand from my thigh. It made me feel a little better about Cho.

  The guard led us into a windowless green room. “No touching the prisoner, no giving him anything, and if you need assistance just push the button under this table. I’ll be outside,” the guard said. He closed the door with a loud bang. I jumped.

  Cho and I stared at each other, wordless. It seemed like an eternity. Jimmy’s brother didn’t like me. He appraised me with his cold eyes. The man thought I was an idiot, and screwing up his brother’s life. The feeling was mutual. I thought Cho was a class A jerk. I didn’t aim to cause Jimmy harm. Cho had no reason to dislike me.

  A door on the other side of the room opened. Jimmy entered flanked by two guards. I examined Jimmy. He wore the typical orange jumpsuit. His ankles and wrists cuffed. He struggled to keep up with the guards.

  In the dimly lit room, I couldn’t see Jimmy’s face clearly until the guards pushed him into the chair. His hair hung over his eyes. Jimmy jerked his head to free his face of hair. His right eye appeared swollen shut and blackish-blue. Jimmy had been beaten. I opened my mouth to speak. Cho caught my leg. He pinched my thigh and locked those angry dark eyes on me, reminding me not to speak. I gasped, startled.

  Cho fired words in Korean. Jimmy nodded a couple times and replied in short bursts of Korean. Jimmy kept his eyes on me while he spoke. He tried to convey a message by body language, but I didn’t understand. The sick feeling in my gut returned. It pained me to see him. My eyes watered. I busied myself pretending to take notes. I couldn’t look at Jimmy or I would burst into sobs.

  The conversation turned heated. I looked up from my scribbles. Something angered Jimmy. He raised his voice in irritation. Cho put his hands up to calm Jimmy. “Sh!” Cho said in English. “They’ll think you need to be subdued.” Jimmy stopped his argument. “They’ll come in and taze you. Do you want her to see that?”

  Jimmy stared at me for a long time. “No.” he murmured.

  The guard called from the far door. “Time’s up!”

  “Take care of her Cho,” Jimmy said. Jimmy attempted to smile at me. The corner of his mouth quivered. I’m okay, he mouthed as the guards positioned beside him, yanking him from the chair. They pulled him from the table.

  Jimmy stopped and turned. “Ms. Williams,” he said. “Tell my girlfriend I love her very much.” He winked and was wrenched out the door.

  Mouth gaped, I wanted to tell Jimmy that I loved him too, but Cho stopped me with a warning glare. His eyes scared the hell out of me.

  Leaving, I didn’t say a word to Cho or even look at him. “Do you want to get something to eat?” He acted like nothing happened. I couldn’t forget.

  “I’m not hungry,” I said. I hate you!

  “Look, I’m starved and I want to go over everything with you,” Cho said. “Suit yourself, but I’m stopping to eat anyway.”

  I folded my arms and blew a hair out of my face. “Do I have a choice?”

  “No,” he said, “but you can pick the restaurant.” I directed Cho to a small diner on Madison Avenue. He kept quiet until his food arrived. When he took a bite of burger, his face softened. He rolled his eyes in pleasure.

  “Good?” I asked.

  His tone softened. “Delicious.” Cho said, with a mouth full of food. “This was a good pick.” Food makes Cho pleasant. I noted. I sipped my coffee. I refused food. My stomach ached from stress. “Look, Cassie, I don’t want you to think I don’t like you.” Cho said, wiping his mouth with a napkin.

  “But?” I asked.

  “…but Jimmy is my first concern.”

  “I understand,” I said. “He’s your brother.”

  “I couldn’t let you talk to Jimmy.”

  “I know.” I shrugged. “I’m happy I got to s
ee Jimmy.”

  “Jimmy thought I was being an ass,” Cho said. My throbbing thigh agreed. “It wasn’t my intention.” Cho rubbed the back of his neck. “When I saw Jimmy’s eye, I knew you’d open your mouth,” he said. “I aimed to shut you up, not hurt you. I panicked. I apologize.” He swallowed hard, looked down, and said, “I hated seeing my little brother like that. Jimmy doesn’t deserve to be treated like that.” Cho looked away. He sniffed a few times.

  I placed my hand on Cho’s arm. “We both love Jimmy,” I said. “I’m trying to help, but I don’t know how. Please tell me what I need to do.” I had a change of heart. I respected Cho’s love for Jimmy.

  “That’s what’s disturbing me; I don’t know what to do either.” Cho said, rubbing his eyes. Was he crying? I couldn’t tell. “I would handle this differently, if we weren’t talking about my little brother or if Jimmy didn’t have these strange gifts.”

  “What did Jimmy tell you? I couldn’t understand you, but I could tell it got heated.”

  “I guess he had a vision last night. That’s how he got the black eye,” Cho said, his tough demeanor restored. “He went into some kind of trance and the C.O. hit him for being insubordinate. When he didn’t react, they took him to the infirmary. They thought it was some kind of seizure.”

  I put my hand to my heart. “Oh!” A tear escaped my eye.

  “That’s good news,” Cho said.

  “How is that good news?” Jimmy’s eye looked terrible.

  “Not the beating, but they’re keeping him in the infirmary. They think he’s epileptic. He’s not in general population.”

  “He’s not with criminals,” I said. I let out a sigh of relief.

  “Right,” he said. “Jimmy’s too sensitive. He’d get worse from his cell mates.”

  Shawshank Redemption came to mind. Several tears fell. I blew my nose with a napkin. “Did Jimmy say what the vision was?”

  “It was about you.”

  “Me?”

  “About your apartment being broken into,” Cho said. “Jimmy said that he saw the apartment in shambles. The person searched for something. Jimmy is worried about you. He doesn’t think you’re safe in that apartment. He wants to stay with you when he gets out. I don’t think it’s wise.”

  “When he gets out?” I questioned. “Will he be getting out soon?”

  “His arraignment is tomorrow. Jay Huber is going to ask that he be released on bail,” Cho said. “I expect the judge to set the bail at a million.”

  “No one can afford that!”

  “That’s the point, but we can, well our parents can.”

  “Your parents can afford a million dollar bail?” I asked, surprised. I knew the Kim’s were well off, but not that well off.

  “Yes, but Jimmy doesn’t want me to involve them.” Jimmy worried about what his parents thought. They didn’t know he was still using his abilities. It was dishonorable for Jimmy to lie.

  I don’t get the “honor” and “dishonor” stuff that Jimmy’s mom, Park Min, threw around. If he didn’t do what she wanted, it dishonored her or the family. If she wanted him to do something she’d tell him “It will honor me greatly, if…”

  I remember the first time I met Park Min and Shin Kim. They came to visit Jimmy and check up on him. Jimmy invited me to join them. “I’ve met your mom and I want you to meet mine,” Jimmy said.

  “I don’t know,” I said, nervously. “I don’t want to give them the wrong impression.”

  “I’ve told them that you’re just a friend, not a girlfriend.”

  I met the three of them at St. Elmo’s downtown. I wore a nice pant suit, which Jimmy advised me to wear. He said it made me look like a successful business woman. “Do I need to impress your parents?” I asked.

  “No, but my mother is impressed by successful women,” Jimmy replied.

  “I’m in no way successful,” I said.

  “You’re successful. You love your job and you’re good at what you do.”

  Jimmy introduced us. “It’s nice to meet you,” I said.

  “Hmm,” Mrs. Kim said, eying me.

  “Nice meet you,” Mr. Kim said, slightly bowing at me.

  “Where from?” Mrs. Kim asked in broken English.

  “Mom!” Jimmy scolded.

  “It important to know where ancestors from, Gangaji,” she said. Jimmy’s father named him, but his mother insisted on calling him “Gangaji” her pet name for him.

  “Her people are American,” Jimmy said, annoyed.

  “No one American in America,” Mrs. Kim said.

  “My mother is Swedish and my father is Sicilian,” I said, trying to diffuse the situation.

  “You not Swedish,” Park Min said, examining me.

  “I’m, but I took after the Italian side of my family,” I said. “I didn’t get my mother’s blond hair and blue eyes.”

  “Cassie, would you like a drink?” Jimmy asked, trying to change the conversation.

  “Yes, please,” I said. Jimmy waved over the waiter. I wasn’t sure what would be considered appropriate to drink. I didn’t want to give the Kim’s a bad impression. I looked at Park Min and asked, “What are you drinking?”

  “Soju.”

  “What is that?”

  “Drink,” Park Min answered.

  “I’ll have a glass of that.”

  “Cassie, you don’t want that,” Jimmy said, in a hushed voice.

  “Why not?”

  “It’s too strong. Just have wine.”

  “Not too strong,” Park Min said, interrupting the exchange.

  “It is for Cassie.”

  “Not too strong for mother, but too strong for girlfriend?” Park Min mocked.

  “What is it?”

  “It’s rice vodka,” Jimmy said.

  “Like Sake?” I asked. “I like Sake.”

  “No, it’s much stronger.”

  “It’s fine, I’ll nurse it,” I said. I noticed Park Min assessing me. She found me wanton.

  “Do you like my Gangaji?” She asked

  “Yes,” I said. “He’s my best friend.”

  “Mom, I told you that Cassie and I are friends.”

  “Gangaji, you need wife,” Park Min said. “You not get wife with friend always on arm.”

  “Mom, I’m not ready for a wife and besides,” Jimmy lowered his voice, “I have baggage, remember?”

  “A nice Korean girl would honor you even with demons. American girl not understand, but Korean girl do.”

  “Not now Mom,” Jimmy said.

  “Why you call me mom in front of friend?”

  “Uhm-ma, not now.” To me Jimmy said, “Uhm-ma is mother in Korean.”

  “No explain,” Park Min said.

  “Mrs. Kim, I assure you. Jimmy and I are friends,” I insisted.

  The rest of the night spiraled further downwards. It ended with me getting too intoxicated on the Soju, and puking outside the expensive steakhouse. Jimmy thought it was funny, but it offended Park Min. Park Min would die if she knew her little Gangaji was in love with me, a Mee-Kook or American.

  “Anyway,” Cho said, breaking my thoughts. “I’m calling my parents later. Jimmy doesn’t want them to know, but I need to get him out of there, before...” Cho trailed off. He stared at me.

  “What?” I asked. I blocked Cho out while thinking.

  Cho rolled his eyes at my short attention span. “I said…I’m calling my parents to put up bail.”

  “What if they don’t?”

  “They will,” Cho said. “I just don’t know which will be worse for Jimmy, jail or Mom giving him hell about you.”

  “Your mom really doesn’t like me, does she?”

  “It’s not you,” he said. “She doesn’t want any of her kids to be with an American.”

  “Doesn’t she like Americans?”

  “She likes them as long as they aren’t dating or married to her children.” He hitched a thumb at his chest. “I learned the hard way.”

  “You
’re married to an American?” I glanced at his left hand, no wedding ring.

  “Not anymore,” he said.

  “What happened?”

  “Our parents didn’t approve, which caused problems. That wasn’t the only problem, but it didn’t help. It was too much for Stephanie to deal with. I worked a lot and was never home. Stephanie found someone else and left.” Cho took a drink of coffee. “I was pretty heartbroken for a while. Jimmy came to Chicago and helped me through it. Now, it’s my turn to help him through this mess. Our sister, Jin, is married to an American too. Mom disowned her. Todd’s a good guy. Jimmy and I still talk to her, but Mom won’t even mention her name. Jin’s got a baby on the way too.”

  “Wow, I didn’t know.” My heart sank. “What if Park Min disowns Jimmy?” I asked.

  Cho laughed. “Murder is forgivable, but your relationship isn’t. Let’s keep your love affair quiet.”

  “No problem. Park Min scares me,” I said.

  “If you’re serious about Jimmy then don’t let Mom intimidate you. Stand your ground with her, but not until after Jimmy’s been exonerated.”

  “Do you think Jimmy will be exonerated?” I asked.

  “I hope so. I mean this guy is a nut job. It’s only a matter of time before he does it again. Hopefully, he’ll be caught in the act.”

  “Do you know why Jimmy was at Mary House yesterday?”

  “He thought you were there and knew something was going to happen. He went to save you, and catch the guy.”

  “I never work on Saturdays. Why would he think I was there?”

  “Beats me.” Cho shrugged. “How does Jimmy know the things he does.”

  “He’s psychic,” I said.

  Cho almost smiled. “No shit, smart ass, but where does that ability come from?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Exactly, and I can’t explain this unknown power to a judge, and not have Jimmy locked up in a psych ward.”

  “You believe him, don’t you?”

  “Without a doubt. I’ve always believed him. He’s been doing this since he could talk.” Cho crammed a ketchup covered fry in his mouth. “Once we were having dinner, and Jimmy, at three years old, looked up and said, ‘Gwang-gwang is here and says that it’s okay you took her pearls. Your sisters didn’t deserve them.’ My mother about shit herself! My grandmother died two years before Jimmy was born.” Cho smiled and his dimples showed. He had Jimmy’s smile. “The next day, Mom took Jimmy to some quack in China Town. Then she hounded Jimmy for more answers about her mother.”