The Twin Sisters from Macau
'I swear, that woman is impossible...'
When Ha Seok-jun asked for their names, Chu Meijun thought to herself, watching Lin Xiaojing give hers away without the slightest hesitation.
Lin Xiaojing never had any problem telling her name to the people she was meant to kill.
And every time Chu Meijun pointed that out, she gave the same answer.
“They’re going to die anyway. What’s the big deal about telling them my name?”
So Chu Meijun had laughed and given hers too.
Just to play along with her sister’s antics.
Lin Xiaojing and Chu Meijun.
They were fraternal twins, twenty-three years old now.
Their mother had worked as a casino dealer in Macau when she was young.
Then she fell for an Irish tourist visiting Macau, spent one reckless night with him, and conceived them.
In a casino, a woman showing was no longer fit to deal cards.
So she had no choice but to quit.
Still, she planned to return once the children in her womb were born.
But when people saw that the skin and eyes of the babies were different from everyone else’s, the casino refused to take her back.
She had to work any job she could find just to survive.
And somewhere along the way, she started drifting back into the casino.
Even though she knew better than anyone that she’d never beat the house.
Because when she was holding chips in her hand, she didn’t have to think about anything at all.
In the end, she squandered the last of the money her parents had left her and went to a Triad loan shark to borrow more.
And when the Triad came looking for payment, they saw the girls.
Chu Meijun and Lin Xiaojing, with eyes that turned blue by day and green by night.
The Triad took the girls instead of the money.
And left them at one of the orphanages they controlled.
The orphanage was full of children who had been taken in place of cash.
Even among them, Chu Meijun and Lin Xiaojing stood out.
And as time passed, that difference only grew.
Their exotic features, their bodies, and even the indefinable air around them.
The year they turned eighteen, the Triad took them out of the orphanage.
And began managing them directly.
The Triad gave them two kinds of work.
Sleep with the people they pointed out, or kill them.
They learned how to use guns and knives, but they almost never had to.
When they drank and smiled with that seductive, intoxicating air, no man could help but fall for them.
Just like Ha Seok-jun sitting across from them now.
“Your names are beautiful too…” Ha Seok-jun said, grinning stupidly once he heard them.
Lin Xiaojing and Chu Meijun covered their mouths and laughed.
“Should we move somewhere else?”
That was when Kang-hae, who had remained silent until now, suggested they change places.
“Then I’ll get going.”
Seong Ha-yeong started to rise from her seat.
She felt she was making the ratio awkward just by being there.
And it was uncomfortable watching Lin Xiaojing casually rest a hand on Kang-hae’s shoulder and thigh every time she laughed.
“All right, then. Be careful on your way.”
It wasn’t Ha Seok-jun who said it, but Kang-hae.
And in that instant, Seong Ha-yeong couldn’t quite hide the hurt that rose in her chest.
“Sis, stay and have fun with us.”
“That’s right. You can’t leave.”
Lin Xiaojing and Chu Meijun hooked their arms through Seong Ha-yeong’s and held her in place.
“Then where should we go?” Ha Seok-jun said brightly, suddenly energized.
“There are too many people here. Let’s go to our place.”
“We rented a house through Airbnb.”
“Hahaha. Isn’t that a little too rude?!”
Ha Seok-jun said it with absolutely no sincerity.
“It’s nearby.”
Chu Meijun took Ha Seok-jun’s arm and led the way.
Lin Xiaojing followed behind, wedging herself between Seong Ha-yeong and Kang-hae and hooking both of their arms.
“Here we are.”
After about ten minutes of walking, they reached a single-story house in Itaewon-dong.
“It’s rude to come into someone else’s house empty-handed, though…” Ha Seok-jun muttered, scratching the back of his head as he followed Chu Meijun inside first.
“Ha-yeong, you said you were tired earlier.” Kang-hae stood at the door and looked at Seong Ha-yeong as he spoke.
She wasn’t about to miss the meaning behind that.
So even when he likes women, this is how it is… Honestly, at this point, I saved his life, didn’t I…?!
Seeing Kang-hae trying to send her home just so he could hang out with women he’d met for the first time today—twice, no less—left Seong Ha-yeong feeling an inexplicable sting of disappointment.
“I’m fine. It’s not like I have to work tomorrow anyway.”
Her voice was firm.
“That’s great, sis,” Lin Xiaojing said, clapping like a seal and cheering.
Kang-hae stared at Seong Ha-yeong for a long moment and said, “Then you might end up seeing something you really don’t want to.”
“W-what kind of thing are you talking about…!”
Seong Ha-yeong flushed, flustered by his words.
It was impossible to tell what he meant.
And just as strange, suggestive images were beginning to form in her head,
Lin Xiaojing hooked her arm through Kang-hae’s and drew him inside.
“Come on in, oppa.”
Kang-hae stared at her face and asked, “You’re from Macau?”
“...!”
Lin Xiaojing yanked a knife from her pocket and slashed at him, but Kang-hae caught her wrist in midstrike.
Then he drove a syringe into her neck.
Fssht—
She collapsed where she stood, as if her bones had turned to water.
“W-what just—!”
Seong Ha-yeong gaped in shock.
Without a word, Kang-hae searched Lin Xiaojing’s body.
From the coat pockets came more syringes and steel wire of unknown purpose.
“I’ll call the police…”
Seong Ha-yeong pulled out her phone.
The moment she was about to dial 112, Kang-hae caught her hand.
“Don’t call them.”
“But still—”
“Wait here.”
Kang-hae picked up Lin Xiaojing’s knife and moved into the house.
Seong Ha-yeong, despite his warning, followed behind him anyway.
And the two of them came face to face with Chu Meijun, who had a knife at Ha Seok-jun’s throat.
The moment Chu Meijun heard Lin Xiaojing collapse outside, she drew the knife she’d been hiding against her chest.
“You knew from the beginning?” Chu Meijun asked, still holding the blade to Ha Seok-jun’s throat and looking at Kang-hae.
“No. Not from the beginning.”
Kang-hae had become suspicious of them from the moment Lin Xiaojing and Chu Meijun suggested they all join tables.
He had thought that, perhaps because of what had happened in Macau, someone might come after him.
That was why, as soon as he returned to Korea, he had started carrying drugs and syringes on him.
They were the same ones he’d been given by Joo Hyeon-woo, a senior from Intelligence Command, when he killed Company Commander Ahn Yeong-wook of the 1st Division Recon Battalion before.
But he hadn’t expected them to come this soon.
And he hadn’t been certain that the women he’d joined with were killers sent to target him.
Still, the hard calluses on Lin Xiaojing’s fingers from all the subtle touching,
the way they walked when they went to and from the restroom,
and the glances they kept sweeping over the room as though they were only looking at other tables—those gave them away. He realized they had another purpose.
“So you noticed, and still came all the way here?” Chu Meijun asked with a murderous smile.
Kang-hae gave a small nod and asked back, “Who sent you?”
She answered not with words, but by lunging at him.
She slashed at his throat and abdomen with the knife.
But from the start, she had never been a match for Kang-hae.
He seized the wrist of the hand that held the knife, just as he had with Lin Xiaojing, and drove a syringe into Chu Meijun’s neck as well.
Fssht—
She, too, collapsed where she stood, just like Lin Xiaojing had moments earlier.
An hour later.
Lin Xiaojing opened her eyes.
And realized steel wire had been bound around her arms and legs.
As she thrashed, Chu Meijun, lying beside her, slowly opened her eyes too.
Then the sisters found themselves facing the three people sitting on the sofa, looking down at them.
“They’re killers raised by the Macau Triad.”
“...”
“...”
Seong Ha-yeong had taken their photo and sent it to Miki Ho.
And Miki Ho had told her who they were.
“Go back and tell Stacy Ho this: if she sends anyone after us again, I’ll come to Macau myself and kill her.”
Lin Xiaojing let out a scoff at Kang-hae’s words and said, “Do you know what Stacy Ho’s nickname is?”
“...?”
“Black Mamba.”
The fastest, deadliest snake in the world, a venomous serpent that lived in Africa.
That was what the people who worked in Macau’s underworld called Stacy Ho.
“So?”
“...?”
“That still just makes her a snake bitch.”
“Ha…”
Lin Xiaojing laughed again, incredulous.
She had never seen anyone talk about Stacy Ho like this in her life.
There were only two possibilities.
Either this man had no idea who Stacy Ho was, or he was insane.
But the moment her eyes met Kang-hae’s, she knew he wasn’t crazy.
And she thought that maybe this man could help with something she and her sister had dreamed of for years.
“If we go back like this, we’ll be killed anyway.”
Lin Xiaojing said it flatly.
“That sounds an awful lot like you’re asking me to kill you.”
Kang-hae’s voice carried no emotion at all.
Lin Xiaojing spoke again.
“You’re not planning to kill us, are you?”
“Why would you think that?”
“You knew who sent us and still left us alive. That means you’re not going to kill us.”
“...”
As Lin Xiaojing said, Kang-hae had no intention of killing them.
Even if he did, Stacy Ho would almost certainly send more killers.
He thought it would be better to let them go with a suitable warning instead.
“Help us…”
But instead of saying they’d go back, the sisters said something else.
And she told him everything she and her younger sister had gone through all this time.
There was no need to embellish any of it.
At times, even speaking those things made her throat close up.
She had never told anyone in the world.
And for the first time, she understood something.
Words buried deep in the heart could be a comfort simply by being spoken aloud.
When she finished telling the whole story, Lin Xiaojing felt a little lighter.
“Sounds pretty convincing.”
That was Kang-hae.
“It’s true…! I’m not lying…!”
“I know. I believe you.”
“Then help us…”
“What do you want me to help you with?”
“We want to live a new life…”
That was something Lin Xiaojing and her sister had dreamed of for years.
Escaping the Triad’s grasp.
But they knew the fate of people who had tried it before them, and fear had kept them from daring to do it.
Still, if it were in Korea, and if they were together with this man whose background they couldn’t read but who was looking down at them now…
It felt like the dream might actually be possible.
And Kang-hae fell into thought.
Her story didn’t sound like a lie.
If everything she said was true, then their lives must have been hell from the moment they were born.
“I’m sure there’s something we can help with…” Lin Xiaojing said urgently from where she lay.
Kang-hae said nothing as he looked down at the twins.
He saw the desperation in their eyes.
And in that instant, he thought of his older brother, dead in Cambodia.
My brother must have wanted someone to help him too…
In the end, Kang-hae loosened the steel wire binding their arms and legs.
“Don’t forget this. You came to kill us, and we’re the ones letting you live.”
“Thank you…”
“Do you have money?”
Lin Xiaojing nodded.
She and her sister had been secretly saving money from the Triad for a day like this.
“Was it only the two of you from your organization?”
“Yes.”
“Come back tomorrow at noon.”
“Thank you… I’ll never forget this kindness.”
Kang-hae, Seong Ha-yeong, and Ha Seok-jun left the house.
Ha Seok-jun was the first to vanish, hailing a taxi and disappearing in it.
And Kang-hae offered to escort Seong Ha-yeong to the bus stop, since she said she’d take the night bus home.
“Do you believe what she said, Kang-hae?”
“About what?”
“What that woman said earlier.”
“It could’ve been a lie.”
“Then why…?”
“Because the part about needing help felt sincere.”
“...”
Seong Ha-yeong fell silent for a while.
Then, when the bus stop came into view in the distance, she spoke again.
“Are we going to be okay?”
“Stacy Ho might send more killers.”
“Aren’t you scared, Kang-hae?”
“No.”
“I’m jealous. Honestly, I’m a little scared.”
“Don’t worry.”
“How can I not worry?”
“I’ll protect you.”
The moment Seong Ha-yeong heard that, her heart dropped with a heavy thud.
And Kang-hae realized he might have gone too far.
“No, I mean… if the Triad comes looking again…”
“The weather’s nice today.”
Seong Ha-yeong changed the subject.
“Um, but Kang-hae…”
“Yes?”
“Then when you told me to go in first earlier, it was because you were worried about me, right? Because you knew those women were killers.”
“Yes.”
“Then that’s enough.”
“What? Enough of what?”
“Huh? Oh—there’s the bus. I should go. Be careful on your way home.”
Seong Ha-yeong hurried onto the bus without even looking at him.
Even after she got on, her heart was still pounding.
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