Keeper of the Light

In the Still of the Night

Yoon Se-ri's reputation forever precedes her.

People say she was hard and cold like steel, and so were the walls she caged her heart in and built around herself so high up that she was perpetually shrouded in darkness, and no one dared, or even wanted, to take her out of it.

She does and gets what she wants, when she wants it.

The beautiful, enigmatic, young CEO had successfully matched the caliber of her chaebol family's empire, if not considerably exceeded it, with the birth and triumph of her own company, Seri's Choice.

An heiress to her family as well as by her own right, she had always managed to make people pay attention to her, bowing to her in reverence even when she was not yet in their presence.

And when she would finally walk into the room, her proud little head would be held high, her striking discerning eyes focused straight ahead, not bothering to acknowledge those who practically fell on their knees along the path forged by her in her million-dollar black stilettos.

That is, until the heavens cried one day and sent her pummelling down to an unknown territory where nobody knows her name or anything about her, and so she was plunged into a wildly ordinary life she has never experienced before, not even once, not within the bounds of her realm.

...and she liked it.

Perhaps the skies really did weep in agony to mourn the apparent lack of Se-ri's humanity, snatched away from her by the very life she thought she belonged to, replaced by hard unnatural emotions that were dictated to her by strangers who merely bowed to her, failing to see how her eyes were harrowingly empty, how the gait in her walk was peculiarly calculated so she won't ever slip, how her shoulders, in contrast to her proud head, were slumped in exhaustion and repressed sorrow.

But in that strange foreign land where she was stripped bare of everything that has always been associated with her – money, power, splendor, extravagance, perfection – Se-ri found people who actually saw her.

They didn't look past her, didn't bother to avert their eyes, didn't treat her like royalty or a fragile piece of glass that would break with a simple touch.

They talked to her, ate with her, taught her things, made her laugh, invited her to parties, listened to her worries, asked her if she was okay.

They cared about her.

...especially one particular man.

While her newfound friends all made her feel human again, and that she was loved and wanted for who she is and not for what she can offer, he had managed to achieve something else entirely, something far greater than all this.

He made her feel happy to live.

Grateful, even.

He made her look forward to waking up every day, for every day suddenly felt new and fresh with him around, and she would silently yet excitedly anticipate the moments they would spend together, wondering what new information she could learn about him. Though she came up short most of the time, what with Captain Ri being such a mystery, he was one she wished to solve for as long as she could.

Or perhaps the tornado that had brought her to him was heaven's imposition of its cruel punishment for whatever wrongdoings she may have done in the past, allowing her to meet her fated one, only to slap her with the harsh reality of their two warring worlds that would forever tear them apart.

No matter the reason for why she just had to crash-land into North Korea, into the arms of the soldier she now loves, one thing was certain.

She was now a better person because of it.