Eight hours later, the sun is now well up in the morning sky. They finally approach their destination.

"We're almost there," Yeong-su says grimly, as if it is a burden. The three of them are standing on the deck, watching the horizon as land is finally within sight.

Yeong-su turns to his side and sees Ha-neul playing with Hye-jin again, who by now is well awake and well fed. Ha-neul kisses her little sister on each cheek at random, with Hye-jin trying to guess which side she will kiss on and placing her hand on her cheek before Ha-neul moves in, sometimes guessing right and Ha-neul kissing her hand instead, causing Hye-jin to burst out in laughter at each successfully blocked kiss.

"Are you guys excited?" Yeong-su asks as he watches them, surprised by their energy.

"Can't you tell?" Ha-neul replies as she stands and turns to him grinning innocently, her long black hair still tied in a ponytail, her cheeks hiding her brown eyes and revealing her bubbly smile once more.

Yeong-su just looks at her blankly.

"Ahhhhhh!" Ha-neul screams with childish excitement, shaking her head like a crazy person before she grabs Yeong-su's arm and shakes him playfully, then kneeling back down to Hye-jin and grabbing both her shoulders, shaking her with the same silly enthusiasm. Hye-jin's head rocks back and forth, a wide grin stuck on her frozen, unblinking face. Ha-neul lets go and hops back up, punching out her arms and dancing exuberantly in place before running down the side of the boat with her arms in the air, finally happy they made it out alive.

Yeong-su manages to crack a smile, before he realizes he's looking at them and turns his head back down to the ground.

The three of them reach the dock late in the morning and step out to leave. Ha-neul, expecting huge glass buildings and cars and people everywhere, instead sees a tiny village with two story buildings and boats docked in a small port.

"It isn't much, is it," Ha-neul remarks.

"What is?" Yeong-su asks.

"Seoul," Ha-neul replies.

Yeong-su laughs again. "This isn't Seoul," he says, as he walks away from the dock onto a road and takes a left. The road runs along the bay, hugging close to the coast.

"Why didn't we go to Seoul?" Ha-neul asks as she and Hye-jin follow. "I heard defectors even go to other countries too."

"Too much security in Seoul," Yeong-su replies, as he leads the way up the coastal road. "We'd probably get separated. Seoul is kind of far from the coast anyway. No, this place is perfect. We found this sleepy little fishing village and regularly smuggled people here directly rather than going through other countries. Our clients preferred a direct route, saving a lot of paperwork and time. Plus in foreign countries, it's a lot harder if you only speak Korean, you would have to find some aid organization to take care of you. No, this is simpler. Here, you get to decide when and who to turn yourself into."

Puzzled, Ha-neul asks, "We're turning ourselves in? Can't we just stay together on our own?"

"We could," Yeong-su says, "But the government here has a program to help defectors. They'll send us to school, give us housing, plus we'll get money as refugees."

"Ah," Ha-neul replies.

"Let's head into town and find a government office," Yeong-su says.

Yeong-su continues up the coastal road, with the sea to the left and hills to the right. Excited at their prospects, Ha-neul and Hye-jin follow Yeong-su closely. They resume their familiar formation, with Yeong-su at the front, Hye-jin zigzagging close behind, and Ha-neul following Hye-jin like a mother hen. Hye-jin is walking again in her absent-minded way, with Ha-neul catching her occasionally as she trips over random rocks.

"Stop dragging your feet," Ha-neul whispers to Hye-jin.

Just then, Hye-jin darts out in front, surprising even Yeong-su who looks up from the ground for once to see the clumsy six-year-old trip and fall right in front of him. Instead of crying, Hye-jin gets up laughing.

"How can you be so happy right now?" Yeong-su asks Hye-jin.

Hye-jin is sweeping the small rocks off the knees of her pants, somehow finding it funny. "It's okay," she says as she brushes herself off, "I just get back up." Just then, she darts off to the right up a hill.

"Hey!" Yeong-su calls out as he chases after her, "That's the wrong way!"

Ha-neul laughs as Yeong-su catches up to Hye-jin and tells her to follow him. Yeong-su's genuine look of concern melts back to a perhaps half-hearted blank stare to the ground now as he resumes his familiar sad walk up the coastal road, trying to act like nothing happened.

Ha-neul lets Hye-jin go as she follows close behind Yeong-su in her haphazard way again. When it's time to take the left fork in the road, Yeong-su goes left, and Hye-jin darts right, tripping on a rock and falling again in a fit of laughter. Yeong-su immediately walks over and helps her up, Hye-jin laughing as if it is a game, then darts off in the wrong direction again.

Instead of being annoyed, Yeong-su seems to finally lighten up to see the humor in the moment. Each time this silly six-year-old runs off, he is now the mother hen close behind, sometimes catching her to both of their surprise, sometimes not to their raucous laughter. Ha-neul watches on in amusement.

The road leads to a town at the center of the bay, which the three of them quickly approach. Right before they enter the town, Yeong-su suddenly turns off to a side street. He walks in and out of back alleys in between the buildings, searching for something. He finally walks past a clothing store and goes around to the back.

"What are we looking for," Ha-neul asks, following Yeong-su towards a group of dumpsters at the back of the building.

"Trash," Yeong-su replies.

"Ah, right, hmm," Ha-neul replies. "What kind of trash?"

"Clothes," Yeong-su asks.

Ha-neul looks down at what she's wearing. Besides the oversized jacket she was given by Jae-sung, she is still wearing the same white blouse she had on when they fled the North. Needless to say, it is quite dirty. In fact, the three of them look ragged.

"Why," Ha-neul asks, "Don't I look good?" She poses in a flirty way.

Yeong-su seems to ignore her. Ha-neul pouts in disappointment.

Yeong-su leans over into a dumpster, rummaging for clothes as he says, "We are going to turn ourselves in, it's just a matter of who we turn ourselves into. I'd like to scout out the government agents first."

Ha-neul suddenly recalls the sense of uncertainty she felt when being picked up in the wilderness. "To see if they're trustworthy?" Ha-neul asks.

"Yes," Yeong-su replies, "Who knows, they could be in contact with human traffickers themselves to make some money on the side. Especially off nobodies like us, some kids walking in and asking to be taken care of - we'd be helpless once we put ourselves into their power."

Ha-neul shudders at the thought. Unfortunately, she thinks to herself, Yeong-su is probably right: even people with complete freedom can still turn out to be bad. In Ha-neul's imagination, people here would naturally treat each other with kindness since they would be so happy to live their lives without the constant fear of being executed for treason. But sadly, she thinks to herself, that is not likely to be the case. A life of freedom that is precious in her eyes is, in another's eyes, taken for granted like trash.

Just then, Yeong-su pulls out a black suit coat. As he inspects it, he says, "I never accompanied our clients when they turned themselves in, but I'm pretty sure we can find a government office in the center of town. There's a different kind of accent here when they speak, and they'll catch on if they don't detect it from us. So let me do the talking. We can pose as students, see." He points at the patch on the coat which looks like a school insignia. "I can ask questions as if it's a school assignment. Then we can decide if we want to go through with it or walk out without suspicion. It won't take long. I'm usually pretty good at sniffing out if people have bad intentions."

"Oh, and how is that?" Ha-neul asks, genuinely curious.

"Well," Yeong-su replies, trying on the coat. "Most people try to read actions. Actions have multiple interpretations though, they're by nature ambiguous. A good deed could be done with good intentions or with bad. To figure out intentions, listen to their words. Untrue words always have contradictions." Just then he takes off the coat as he mutters to himself, "It doesn't fit."

"If you're good at reading people's intentions, how did you end up getting caught?" Ha-neul asks.

Yeong-su pauses for a moment, but then ignores it and goes back to explaining the plan. "If something is off, I'll immediately walk away, just follow me. If everything checks out, I'll look to you for confirmation. Nod for yes, pout for no." Just then he makes eye contact with Ha-neul, tilts his head to the side, and pouts like a sad puppy.

Ha-neul's heart flutters at this unexpected outburst of playfulness. She looks away, turning to a different dumpster and leaning into it to hide her blushing face. Inside are a pile of old school uniforms. Each piece has large holes or tears to one degree or another, but there are some pieces where the imperfections are in unnoticeable places. Ha-neul cycles through several coats herself, looking through a pile of boys' coats as she searches for one that fits Yeong-su. Meanwhile, Yeong-su resumes his search in his dumpster.

Hye-jin tiptoes next to Ha-neul to try to see what's in the dumpster but she cannot, so she pulls on Ha-neul's blouse to grab her attention. Ha-neul promptly snatches Hye-jin up and tosses her into the dumpster onto a pile of clothes, both of them laughing at the sudden surprise.

After a while Ha-neul pulls out a coat that looks like it will fit Yeong-su. She walks over to Yeong-su who is still searching.

"Here," Ha-neul says to him as she hands him the coat, "Try this one." Ha-neul looks down, somewhat scared that he won't like it.

Yeong-su takes it and tries it on before saying, "It's perfect."

When Ha-neul looks up, she sees Yeong-su looking into her eyes, smiling. Ha-neul smiles back. She then returns to Hye-jin and starts searching for something to fit her. Despite the clothes being from a dumpster, Ha-neul doesn't mind at all. In fact, she enjoys this experience as she tries to dress up her little sister to be as cute as possible.