Ghost Girls by Cath Ferla

Author:Cath Ferla
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fiction, Crime, mystery, Cath Ferla, international students, missing girls, Chinatown, Sydney, Australian fiction, debut novels
ISBN: 9781760401184
Publisher: The Five Mile Press
Published: 2016-01-12T05:00:00+00:00

Tae Hun removed the last soju bottle from the corner booth and used his cloth to wipe up some spilled kimchi. The group in the corner had arrived early, left late and created a great mess in the hours between. A bunch of Chinese students, trying out Korean food. They’d complained that it was too spicy and too sour and they’d lifted their silver rice bowls to their mouths like pigs. Tae Hun wiped the table clean and hummed his favourite pop song. He consoled himself with the thought of a cigarette and a glass of Johnny Walker. These small pleasures would be his in an hour, amid the darkness of a nightclub, in a corner booth, with some friends for company, some good music and a girl or two. He’d look out for a pretty one tonight and he’d ask her to sit on his lap.

Australian girls were so stuck up. In Australia, the girls spent their whole evening sneering. If you tried to talk to one of them, she’d brush you off before you got a chance to ask her name. No wonder the women here were all single and haggard.

In Korea, it was different. In Korea, women actually dressed to impress. A man could invite a lady to come and sit with him. Back home in the clubs, Tae Hun liked to order Johnny Walker, champagne, plates of food and sweets, expensive cigarettes. Then he’d scan the crowd for the best-looking woman and ask a friend to invite her over. The girl would take a look and, if she liked what she saw, she’d comply. In Korea, men were men and women were women. Life was not so complicated.

Tae Hun bit his lip as he felt the first stabbing pain of homesickness hit hard in his gut. He still had five months of study to complete, but he would be home by Christmas and away from all this. He now dearly regretted his conversation with the English teacher. He’d opened a box that perhaps couldn’t be closed and he had a sneaking suspicion that this would have negative consequences. He wanted to forget about Wendy and Han Hong and the rest. Now he wanted only to finish his time here, and go home to Seoul.

He loaded the last of the dirty dishes into a plastic tub and hoisted the tub to his shoulder. But as he turned towards the kitchen, he became aware of a woman calling his name. He felt his stomach muscles tense as he recognised the voice.

鬼

Sophie winked at Tae Hun as he followed her approach with his eyes. He had the flushed look of someone very tired or very emotional and his eyes were encircled with dark. Sophie felt bad about what she was going to ask him to do – the boy looked in need of his bed.

‘How’s it going?’ she asked, peeling gloves from her fingers.

Tae Hun pointed to the tub full of dirty dishes, annoyance clear on his face. ‘I’m kind of busy, Sophie.

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