The Girl with Seven Names

When Hyeonseo made preparations to leave Shanghai before the sugar test, she had sent some money and her belongings to Mr. Ahn’s, so she makes arrangements to travel to Changbai and retrieve them. It is October 2004, and when she arrives in Changbai, Mrs. Ahn tells her that Mr. Ahn has died. Hyeonseo packs her things, including a hairdryer, an iron, and some perfume, into two blue sacks and places all her cash into a small white sack. Then she calls Min-ho and tells him to come and get the things to take back to Hyesan. Mrs. Ahn has two smugglers take the sacks across the river to meet Min-ho, but Min-ho never calls to say he has received them.

With no word from Min-ho, Hyeonseo returns to Shanghai, and Min-ho calls a week later. He is blunt and asks her what was in the bags. Just normal stuff, Hyeonseo replies, and Min-ho hangs up. The call makes no sense at all. The next morning, a man calls claiming to be a friend of Mother’s and asks Hyeonseo what was in the bags. Hyeonseo again lists off the items, and then the man asks about the money. He asks how much money was in the bag, but Hyeonseo can’t remember exactly.

Hyeonseo never once suspects danger, but then Min-ho calls a week later. Both he and Mother were arrested, and all their calls have been recorded. The same day Min-ho retrieved the bags from the river, a group of inspectors knocked on their door. They were arrested and the bags confiscated. The inspectors were shocked by the amount of money in the bag and assumed it had come from a South Korean spy, but their call to Hyeonseo convinced them otherwise. Afterward, both Hyeonseo and Ok-hee decide their plan to obtain South Korean passports is a bad idea. They don’t want to risk being sent back to North Korea.