The Blue House

Daylight

It's one ordinary summer afternoon.

The weather is crisp; the air is heavy with moisture and the sun sprays its rays granting the earth its warmth. Even when daylight is almost over.

Hyun Bin is relieved to be inside an air conditioned vehicle, the fan blows in full force cooling the space. His choice of wheels may draw frowns from some, colleagues or rivals, but he doesn't care.

He loves his Lincoln Navigator. An imposing yet comfortable car that is more suitable for his bodyguards than for an expected presidential candidate like himself.

Bin hopes the cool air will stop his mind from reminiscing. Because this kind of day always brings back memory of a day almost 30 years ago.

It was the same bright day, the same route, the same destination. The stark difference is only the fact that he is now older. And he doesn't ride with his father.

No more ride with him in fact after that fateful day.

Bin looks out of the window as his car makes the final turn toward the entrance of the massive establishment and again, a nostalgic sense ambushes him.

Cheong Wa Dae.

The place where he lived for almost four years. It was a thrill to say he lived at Cheong Wa Dae to his friends at school. It was always a cool experience to be a part of a presidential motorcade.

But to call The Blue House his home—

It might be a stretch; his father was busy running the country that he was seldom seen, his mother — in the absence of his father — surrendered to the immense pressure that was put on her shoulder to hold the fort at home and also to continue running the office of the First Lady of South Korea.

Bin was the only witness to this struggle, though. His younger sibling, Yoon Ah, was too young to understand why their mother always roamed the family room with a glass of alcohol in her hand. Or why that constant companion would immediately disappear when their father was home.

And of course, the last day of his father's service to the country, it was also here. President Hyun Ji Seok ruled the country with huge emphasis on diplomacy. Most of his actions were always wrong to a certain percentage of population even if it were the correct ones for the majority.

He tried as much as he could to entertain the proposal of the opposite party, yet, it was also his downfall. Until that last of his day, several attempts had been made to remove the incumbent President from the highest office of the country, but nothing had been more forceful than the removal of his old man.

An assassination.

A shot to the heart that instantly killed him. In front of thousands of his supporters and in front of his family.

In front of him.

The red of his father's blood still colored his vision whenever someone mentioned his name.

The case was never resolved properly, the government forced his mother to accept the pitiful excuse of investigation result and their family was never the same. His mother retreated to the country side choosing to focus on her recovery from alcohol addiction.

Bin and Yoon Ah lived with their grandparents from his father's side, the former Prime Minister of South Korea, Hyun Deok Hwa.

His grandparents always told people, he would one day become the President of South Korea. Like a doctrine. Or a brainwash.

He wasn't one whose ambition was to follow his father's footsteps. He didn't even like politics at the beginning. It ruined his family, who would want to go through that experience one more time?