I take the picture and hold it up in front of Kwon Hyeun. “This is you.”

She shakes her head in denial.

“Here. Take this.” Jules scribbles something on a piece of paper and shoves it into the woman’s hand.

“I know it’s you,” I insist. “Listen, I’m your kid. This is my dad. Or, not my dad, but the sperm donor. I know it is.” I’m shaking now, the words coming out of my mouth so fast they’re tripping over one another.

Kwon Hyeun continues to deny it. “I’m sorry,” she says in her Korean-accented English. “I do not know this man.” She slides behind the gate. “And I do not know you.”

The gate is shut quietly, but it rings loud in my ears.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

I stare at the closed gate, my hands balled into fists at my sides.

“You look like you’re about to Hulk out on the door and knock it down.”

“Do you think I could?” The woman behind the gate is in the picture, and the fact that Kwon Hyeun’s denying it makes the whole thing suspicious. She stared at me like she knew me, like she’d been expecting me.

“No.” Jules clamps a hand around my wrist and starts dragging me down the street. “Besides, she’s going to call the police and then you’ll be put in a Korean jail and will either get deported or you’ll have to stay there forever.”

“Are you serious?”

“I mean, I don’t have personal knowledge or experience, but I’ve watched dramas, and unless you’re a sports star or celebrity, it’s the lockup for you.”

“Noted.” I uncurl my fingers one by one, forcing myself to calm down, and not because Jules is telling me I’m going to go to prison for breaking and entering but because I’m not getting behind that gate unless Kwon Hyeun lets me in. So I have to figure out a way to get inside. It’s time to retreat and recalibrate. I need a plan.

“Let’s eat. I’m hungry.”

I jiggle my bag. “I’ve ten thousand won. What will that buy us?”

“Not much.” Jules shrugs. “I’ve got some won.”

“Some won” is enough for a bowl of instant ramen and a six-pack of beers at a small store at the edge of a park not too far from the walled-in house. I take everything up to the counter to pay while Jules fills our bowls with hot water from a convenient dispenser along the wall. The clerk says something to me and I can’t make it out. We end up staring at each other until Jules arrives and pushes me out of the way. She pays with her phone and then motions for me to grab the beer and chopsticks. I follow her out to the small table situated on the curb outside the convenience store. Jules sets the two bowls down and places the paper-wrapped chopsticks across the top.