Peddling

[Deros]

"A bed," Shrew clarified, watching Jean. "Up top." He parted with his Koreon clients to run up to Barry and give him the ten that he had earned from the watch. "That should cover it until they've worked out a deal with Berry. I'm going to see if I can't find a set of fresh clothes for her," he told him seriously before darting past him into the house. He was pretty sure that Jean would pay him back if told about it. Not that he planned on telling her himself, though. Strangely, he couldn't think why not, though. Ten dollars was ten dollars, after all.

Digging through Berry's extensive closet- outfitted for all sizes and ages, since she was not so vain as to have an entire room like this just for her clothes, he decided on an easy answer. He needed to maintain a certain level of trust with Jean, if he was to maintain business relations with her. Six hundred dollars a day was hardly small change. That question answered, another one presented itself. What size was she? His expression became worried as he considered this normally mundane query.

-------------------

Barry let loose a chuckle once Shrew was out of earshot. "Never thought I'd see that boy talk that way bout anyone but Ber'. C'mon, you two. The coin's good, so I'm sure my wife won't mind. We'll get your girl a bed," he beckoned to them, unsure of their grasp of the english language, and went into the house at a much more restrained pace than Shrew had. After climbing a set of stairs, he opened the door that led to the main part of the house.

From appearances, it hardly seemed fit to be connected to a place like the Home. The decoration was beautiful and well placed, creating a rich but still homely appearance. Expensive, but still comfortable. Barry went ahead to climb another set of stairs and knocked on a door at random. Not hearing any sound inside, he opened it, and then closed it again.

The next door was the same, but when he opened it, he left it open. Evidently, there was something inherently wrong with the first room. This room had a window and a queen-sized bed, as well as a dresser and desk- all of fine make, as would suit guests of a lady of Berry's standing.

[Literal Comprehension]

The two bodyguards took Jean and followed the man up to the room. For the most part, they didn't pay him much mind and simply busied themselves with getting Jean better. They laid her in bed after Jiyeon quickly stripped her of her dress, shoes, and socks, making sure neither of the males were watching. When Jean was safely tucked under the blanket, a variety of things began coming out of the nanny's purse.

A thermometer, several small containers of pills, prescriptions of all kinds. Even a medical needle fell out of the purse, along with a handkerchief and yet more stuff. The nanny began to pick out medication, but Jean opened her eyes and tugged at her shirt, unwilling to take medication for something so silly as a fever. The older woman began to protest, but Jean wouldn't change her mind.

"*Babo.." was Dae-hyun's only input.

-----------

*Babo : 'Stupid', 'Idiot', etc.

[Deros]

Shrew poked his head in the doorway, an expression of relief drifting across his face for a very brief moment before his business sense returned to him. "I brought you a shirt from Berry's closet. You should be able to wear it until your clothes get dry," he said, putting the oversized shirt onto a post of the headboard. Then a thought occurred to him, and he turned to Barry, who was still in the room. "Oh, where is-" "She's out shopping. Hold it," Barry replied, grabbing at Shrew's shoulder as he made to rush out the door. "I already sent Melanie out with an umbrella. She'll be just fine. You just take care of one thing at a time." Shrew nodded, visibly calming again, although his nerves were still tight. Barry then left the room, leaving Shrew in the room with Jean and her bodyguards. One thing at a time. Right. He turned to Jean, who was lying down in the bed. He couldn't help the pang of guilt that came to him at that moment, but did his best to hide it. "So how are you feeling now?" he asked, still standing a few feet away from the bed.

[Literal Comprehension]

Jean smiled at Shrew, the fever showing through a light flush of her face. "A little hot, a little cold, but I'm fine. I've been through worse. Haven't I, Cseri?" Jean's eyes turned to the bug that crawled from the purse on the bedside table to the sheets covering the girl up. Clicks and sadly blinking lights were the mecha-bug's response. The nanny took her temperature and stuffed all her items back in except for one particular medication. She held this in front of Jean and shook it a little, softly pleading in Korean for her to take just one pill. Jean just turned back to Shrew. "She thinks I need to take my prescriptions. I'm always telling her I don't need to take medicine for every little thing that happens to me, but she refuses to listen." She looked around her at the room. "So this is where I'm supposed to stay?"

[Deros]

"It's the safest place in Newark that I can get you. And you're getting tenant treatment, or at least you will once Berry gets back. Foundlings like me sleep downstairs- it gets kind of damp, so I don't think your immune system would be able to handle it. It's no wonder if you get medication for every little thing that happens to you. Of course, if you want to try to find somewhere else once the rain settles, I won't stop you," he said, adding "once I get my pay" just inside his head. He hadn't forgotten that he hadn't taken the hundred dollar bill that she had offered before. But he still knew that it was a really bad time for that, so he restrained himself from mentioning it. He'd find a time, even if it was when they parted.

[Literal Comprehension]

She asked her nanny to help her dress into the outfit that Shrew had picked out for her. Once it was pulled over herself, she slowly sat up and asked her bodyguards to leave the room. The woman began to protest but Jean sent them out anyway. She asked for Shrew to come sit close by, however.

"Shrew. Tell me what it's like. To live here, I mean." She slid her arms around her knees and set her chin on top. Cseri climbed up onto her head.

[Deros]

Shrew hesitated for a moment, and then took the offered seat on the bed. Again, he felt extremely uncomfortable, and his gently twitching body showed that. After a deep breath- more as a preliminary than as something to calm him down- he began to speak. "It's different for you than me. For me, this is home when I'm in Newark. This... is a place where I can go and have shelter guaranteed to me. But more importantly, it's a place where I can go and not be treated like vermin. Like I said... it's different for me. For you, I'd guess that you'll be treated like an heiress- but still like you're human. There's a lot of people that complain about that, actually."

He chuckled to himself as he remembered a man being thrown out for treating one of the foundlings as a slave. "Anyways, yeah. The class system is still active here, just in a different way. Your experience will be different than mine." He turned to her- up until then, he'd been shifting his gaze from the wall to the floor in roughly equal amounts. "I think you'll like it here, though," he said honestly, smiling at her.

[Literal Comprehension]

She smiled and nodded her head a couple of times, but then she shook it at the end. "Class is of no importance to me. It is reassuring to know that I won't have to worry about being treated well." She closed her eyes for a moment, a small wave of heat causing her a dizzy whirl. "But...I was asking about the Tri-State Thrall." She looked up at him with a tilted head. "How is life here, in the Thrall, Shrew? How is it like for people outside of my community?"

[Deros]

"Oh," Shrew mumbled as he turned away again to collect his thoughts, silently cursing himself for his burst of exposition. Then he forced his attention back to Jean. "Tough," he told her bluntly. "It's dog-eat-dog. The biggest thing to take care of survival, which is hard, and after that is finding people that you can trust, which is harder. Of course, you can't ever really trust anyone- the person that you trust absolutely has probably already robbed you or worse. I can keep going, but it's pretty much more of the same. Just pain and tainted money."

[Literal Comprehension]

Jean turned her gaze down to the bed sheets. She was quiet. Maybe perturbed. "I heard that the Koreans living in Manhattan had been forced out by their poverty. I'm concerned. I want to know what's happened to my people and if I can help them in any way at all. I'd heard that many of them had to move here, to Newark. Which is why I came.." She softly blinked her somewhat feverish eyes. "I wonder where they all are.."

[Deros]

Shrew paused, wracked with uncomfortable feeling. He had the nagging impression that he should do something or say something, but he had no idea what that thing was. He became even more uncomfortable once the pause reached the amount of time that was the definition of an awkward silence. His mind went in circles, trying to think of something, but in the end, the thing that saved him was a knock at the door. He turned to look as the door opened, and breathed in relief as he saw who it was.

Berry was a little tall, but not overly so. Her hair, originally red, now had strips of gray tinting it, and the beginnings of laugh lines played with her face. She was dressed well, as would suit a lady of her class. "Now, Shrew, what have you said to this girl?" she asked. Shrew started to stammer an explanation, but she just laughed and waved him aside, further down the bed. She took the seat that he had recently been in and turned her attention to Jean. "My name's Berry White. What's yours?" she asked quietly.

[Literal Comprehension]

Jean sat up straight and gave the unknown woman a small bow, her bodyguards entering into the room behind the woman.

"My name is Jean Hee Kim. Those are my bodyguards and this is my pet, Cseri." The millipede on her head clicked musically. "It's a pleasure to meet your acquaintance, Mrs. White. Thank you for letting us stay here. I'm sure our stay will be pleasant."

[Deros]

Shrew almost couldn't help himself bursting out in satisfaction. Nanny and fiancé- ha! Well, maybe that story was still true, but he'd known that they were there primarily for her protection. He did control himself, though, firstly because of how rude such an outburst would be, but mostly because it was Berry's turn to speak. "Now, aren't you sweet?" she asked, smiling kindly at Jean. "That was an amazingly quick change-around, so now I'm wondering if you were acting to play with our little Shrew, which isn't fair. I'm also thinking that Sang Sung Kim has a daughter named Jean Hee, which suggests either a strange coincidence or another question. What would the young Samsung heiress be doing in the backwaters of America?"

[Literal Comprehension]

Jean slowly shook her head, careful not to move too much too quickly since the fever was still making her liable to dizziness. "I do not act, Mrs. White." She smiled at Shrew, then back to the woman. "I came here on business with escorts and my guards." She made a gesture towards her bodyguards with an open palm. "My business was in Manhattan where we spent a few days in negotiations with several contacts and two of our partners. We were staying at a hotel near the main street of Koreatown." She wrapped her arms around her knees again. "However, Koreatown is left only with a name and few Koreans but the rich and socially respected. I had visited that neighborhood a few times before in my much earlier childhood, and I wanted to know what had happened. I found out that many of my people came here to Newark.

"I simply want to know what happened to them and if there is anything I can do to support them. I heard that Newark is a very difficult place to live in and many of my people were nigh bankrupt when they were forced to move to this area. Do you know anything of this?" Her head tilted slightly, dry strands of hair swaying lightly. Cseri, too, made a click or two and tilted her head, bending some of the front body segments like a neck.

[Deros]

Berry's smile saddened as she watched Jean. The girl was so fragile, and yet trying to be so strong. She wanted to fix the problems of the world, despite her own failings. There was something strangely familiar about her. "I know that this is Newark. I'm sure that Shrew has explained the general state of this city to you, although I suspect that he exaggerated. Lost souls come into this city all of the time- and yes, many of them are of Korean heritage. I'm not personally aware of the significance, but once your residency here is contracted, I'm sure that one of my guests would know something. First and foremost, if you're feeling unwell, then I must insist that you lie down. And then- for your rooms, how does fifty dollars per head per night sound? That's not counting Shrew, of course."