First Snow

Wrong Train, Right Direction

If she hadn't met him, she would be alive.

Seri was everything, she had become his only reason for living, the only one that justified enduring whatever he had to endure. If she was dead, then what was the point? He had not protected her, he had promised her he would keep her safe, and once again, it took a bad decision, and he was failing her again. A part of him couldn't believe it, a world without Seri seemed impossible, if she had come back to him once, surely she would come back this time too?

He looked at the gun in his hand and abruptly let it fall to the ground, as if it had burnt him. The abyss of despair that had opened under his feet seemed to have drowned out all form of rationality, the pain far too powerful, consuming, to be able to imagine any other way out.

"Ri Jeong Hyeokssi!"

He looked up haggardly, realizing the scene was now overrun with officers and policemen, paramedics were covering up Cho Cheol Gang's body, and Officer Kim stepped in front of him, trying to get his attention.

"Ri Jeong Hyeokssi, are you injured?"

He couldn't answer. Was he hurt? What could he say when he felt like he was dying from the inside out.

As he was unresponsive, the agent attempted a step forward, and when Ri Jeong Hyeok looked up again at him, he was stunned by the pain and despair he could read there. The man was in agony.

"Seri ..."

His voice was strained, hoarse. The agent hesitated, before choosing to tell the truth.

"In intensive care, she developed a serious infection ..."

But instead of collapsing, as he had feared, the North Korean diplomat blinked, before asking in a shaky whisper.

"She..."

He closed his eyes and took a shuddering breath.

"She is alive?"

The agent sighed. He wasn't sure if Cho Cheol Gang had told him his plans, and it seems that he did, judging by how on the edge of a massive breakdown he had found the north Korean diplomat.

"She is ... We intercepted the man sent by Cho Cheol Gang, he was already under surveillance by the Swiss police ... Actually, we're late because à car attempted to stop us, Yoon Se Hyun was driving..."

"She is alive?" he repeated in disbelief.

"Yes..."

Ri Jeong Hyeok heaved a sigh of relief.

"I want to see her ..." he whispered.

"You'll have to answer some questions from the police before..."

"Please..."

The agent let out a sigh.

"I guess you're lucky they are so attached to peace... I'll take you there, they won't be against it if I come with you..."

Maybe the hospital was being watched by people sent by his country authorities, he was supposed to be right now with Seo Dan's uncle, he didn't know what was going on, he didn't know what had happened to his men, but he was not in a position to measure the consequences of what he had done. He was however ready to accept the consequences, he would find a way to make believe that what could be seen as a betrayal, had been done without the complicity of his family or of his men. He would gladly take the falk if it meant that finally the people he cared about were safe.

Despite the overwhelming evidence implicating Cho Cheol Gang as a go-between for some senior North Korean officials, he knew he and his father were navigating troubled waters, corruption in the upper echelons was a scourge his father had fought against all his life, even though Ri Jeong Hyeok suspected that he was not completely innocent himself.