Bomi glares at Yujun before turning to the other man. “What do you say, Ahn Sangki-nim?”

I’m interested as well. My eyes cut toward Sangki, who finds his empty plate very interesting.

“Ah, I, well,” he stammers, and then clamps his mouth shut when Yujun sends him a piercing look. He quickly fills everyone’s glass including his own and drinks his glass down.

His nonanswer is answer enough.

I sink back into the chair. “If you don’t start talking, then perhaps I will go to the press and tell them my story. As you say, someone will be very interested.”

Across from me Yujun stiffens, but he remains silent. There’s a tension in the air that’s different from before, flavored by the worry from both Yujun and Bomi.

The girl licks her lips. “What do you want to know?”

“Everything.” I place my hand over her soju glass. “And no more of this until you are done.”

She begins to talk. “I started working for IF Group when I was nineteen. I did not have a college education but I got hired after I interviewed at a job fair. Even then I had good English and I was hired because of it. I worked my way up and took distance learning courses to obtain a college degree. Sajang—”

“It means CEO and she’s not to use those titles at IF Group. We’re a family,” Yujun interjects.

“That’s right.” Bomi nods fiercely. “A family. Choi Wansu-nim took care of me. She has paid for my education. She is helping me support my family, as she does all of her employees. She does not take a salary. She is good.” Bomi says this as if by repeating it enough, she will compel me to eventually repeat it, but my heart’s a rock at the moment and no amount of sad stories or heroic deeds is going to penetrate.

The other girl sighs. “Because of my English skills, I have been promoted and have worked closely with Choi Wansu-nim on several projects. Last year, she asked me to do a very great favor for her. She asked me to leave my family for a short time and go abroad. There was someone she knew who lived overseas that she had not heard from in a long time, and would I be so kind as to check in on that person. I was—and am—so grateful that she asked this of me.”

Choi Wansu had collected all of these children in place of me. I should be impressed, but it only makes me sick.

I hold up a hand. “Please. I don’t need any more editorial comments about how great and wonderful Choi Wansu is. I want to know about these reports. How long have they been going on? How long has Wansu been paying for ‘everything,’ as you say.”

“I do not know how long. I know that they existed and stopped.”

“And they were provided by Ellen Wilson?” I want to be wrong.