Jeong-hyeok and Seri have maintained their love and commitment to each other, despite only being together once a year. But will they ever have the opportunity for more than that? Will Jeong-hyeok ever realise his full potential as a musician? Perhap...
Yoon Seri looked out of her penthouse apartment window as the sun set over the city. It was an attractive scene, but her mind was elsewhere. She was waiting. Earlier that day she'd had a call from Director Kim at the National Intelligence Service, asking if he could call on her at home on a personal matter. He hadn't said more and she hadn't asked. Now she was waiting and wondering. It had to be something to do with Jeong-hyeok. Some news about him perhaps. Either that or he knew about their meetings in Switzerland. But if that was the case, surely that would be an official matter?
No-one here knew about their meetings, only her parents. They had met three times now under the pretext of the music festival. Three wonderful times spent together. The last was nearly 10 months ago. She usually made a point of not counting the weeks and months, but their next meeting was only ten weeks away now. Close enough to make it hard not to count, but also close enough for her to start worrying that something might stop it happening. Surely this evening's visit wouldn't interfere? She looked around her stylish apartment. She knew already that there were no give away clues of him on display. She did have a photograph of his face that she kept by her bed, but there was nothing in the lounge. She looked anyway, feeling nervous.
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Once before Director Kim had shared personal information about Jeong-hyeok with her. It had been very kind of him. She had been feeling very low, wondering how he was, missing him. It was also in the middle of her brother's trial, when the full extent of his and his wife's ruthlessness and greed had been revealed. The Director had taken her quietly aside to show her a North Korean newspaper with a picture of the National Orchestra. There he was safe and well, at the piano. He must have realised his dream of going back to music. She would have loved to have kept the photograph, but of course Director Kim couldn't let her do that. Still, it had been so kind of him to share that with her, it had really helped her to cope. Perhaps it would be something like that again. She hoped so. Surely it couldn't be bad news.
The doorbell rang and she went to answer it, telling herself to keep calm.
"Director Kim, welcome. Please come in." She showed him into the apartment and they took seats in the lounge. Seri felt a little nervous with the Director, wondering if he could tell how she felt, but she tried to act normally. She offered him a drink but he politely refused.
"Thank you for seeing me Ms Yoon, I won't take up too much of your evening. As I said on the phone this isn't an official matter, but I do have some news to share with you."
"Thank you for coming. I hope it is good news, what is it?" Her heart beat a little faster.
"I thought you would want to know that Ri Jeong-hyeok's father has died. Apparently he was diagnosed with cancer seven months ago. He has been buried with full honours."
"Oh goodness, that must have been a terrible shock to them all. Poor Jeong-hyeok and Mrs Kim, they must be very distressed." The news was very unexpected. When they were last together Jeong-hyeok hadn't expressed any concerns about his father's health. This must have happened completely out of the blue.
