For a while, life seemed normal, though Yoon Seri should know better than to label it as such.
It was normal in a messy, inconsistent, hopeful, delusional way.
Messy, in that she was obstinately weaving more entanglements in this cursed web in which they were trapped.
Inconsistent, in that she was always torn over her decisions regarding this forbidden relationship she shared with Jeong Hyeok.
Hopeful, in that she constantly pined for a miracle, for an alternative reality in which her betrothal did not exist.
Finally, delusional, in the moments when she allowed herself to live a sweet lie and pretend this moment could go on forever.
Unable to detach from the idealistic situation which she had created with Jeong Hyeok, the governor's daughter persisted in her routine of visiting and helping out at the noodle stall.
It was an intense obsession, she'd admit that, but she wouldn't have wanted it any differently.
To her, this intensity was her idea of normal.
Then one day, out of the blue came a lesson she never asked for, Yoon Seri learnt that her norm was someone else's absurdity, and vice versa.
"You can drop me off at the usual spot."
Given that her parents were out of town for an event involving the construction of a new industrial zone centering on automobile factories, Seri had a few days of freedom to herself.
"Alright. Same time?" Her trusty chauffeur asked, casting a glance at her through the rear view mirror.
"Yes please, thank you." She replied habitually, before adding playfully, "Oh, maybe around seven?"
"Why am I not surprised?" Chang Sik muttered in mock annoyance, drawing chuckles from the governor's daughter.
The black Plymouth Suburban slowly crawled to a halt.
"I'll see you later in the evening. Have a good day." The governor's daughter exited the car, instinctively raising a hand to tame a lock of hair which the late spring winds played with.
As always, she made her way to the intersection where Seri's Choice was located, but it wasn't long before she felt the subtle shift in the atmosphere along these streets.
There were no signs of the usual hustle and bustle of the streets riding on the spring winds blowing in her direction.
From afar, she could hear hints of it— screams, shouts and what was unmistakably, violence, as she hastened her footsteps with every passing second.
The ominous sounds only grew louder and louder.
Her blood ran cold.
Something was very, very wrong, and it seemed to be unfolding at a place she knew very well.
Seri's Choice.
From where she was, the governor's daughter could see that a small crowd had gathered around the commotion at the noodle stall.
Masculine taunts, profanities and threats were heard against a backdrop of the violent splintering sounds of wood, and repeated blows on flesh.
There were on-lookers watching in morbid fascination, but they were mostly middle-aged and elderly womenfolk who had children in tow, and were more fearful than anything else.
Some were calling out for the men to stop, and one or two men did go forward to try to help defuse the situation, but to no avail.
"Excuse me, please let me through..." Helplessly repeating these words, the governor's daughter squeezed her way through the crowd, pushing past the human wall of curiosity to take in the heartbreaking scene in front of her.
An elderly regular customer whom she recognized rushed towards her, "Seri, you've come at the right time, these thugs are creating trouble, they are beating Mr. Ri up!"
"How did this happen?" Face frozen with pain, confusion and fear, she helplessly asked, though no answer came.
Seri had seen some horrifying scenes during the war, especially when she had traveled with the 7th Infantry Division from Incheon to Busan as a military nurse.
Getting ambushed by enemy forces, sprinting to a nearby ditch to take cover as gunfire and explosions lit up the sky, before venturing out at sunrise to work and treat the wounded.
Those experiences had been very scary, but they had never plunged her into hopelessness, shattered her heart and crushed her like this moment did.
Seri's Choice, the pride and joy that they had painstakingly rebuilt, had been reduced to nothing more than strewn and tangled wreckage.
War was blind and senseless, but this was sober brutality.
"Please, get help!" She pleaded anxiously, to which the elderly lady nodded, before hurrying off.
Right in front of the noodle stand, a group of approximately seven or eight men stood in a circle, violently moving in synchronized malice.
Knees shaking, eyes welling up with anxious tears upon hearing the heavy thuds of wood on flesh, Seri instinctively rushed forward.
Stumbling in her haste, she stifled a cry of horror when she heard muffled grunts of pain as heavy kicks landed repeatedly on Jeong Hyeok's stomach.
Witnessing those thugs rain relentless blows on Jeong Hyeok, deliberately targeting his bad leg, her mind went increasingly blank before a blood-curdling scream tore through her chest to join the chaos in front of her.
"Stop, stop this right now! Why are you doing this?!" Calling out pleadingly, voice breaking with fear at times, the governor's daughter ran as fast as her legs could take her. "Help, somebody help! Call the police! Please get help!"
The muted thud of skull on asphalt broke the dam holding her tears back, before she instinctively raised her handbag and swung it with all the strength she could muster at one of the men.
"Back off! Stop hurting him!" She screamed again and again, shoving past the men to throw herself in front of Jeong Hyeok, spreading her arms to shield him.
Unable to do anything more in that situation, the nurse in her tried her best to visually assess Jeong Hyeok's condition, but to no avail.
The former Captain was hunched over in a kneeling position, head bloodied, with his arms protectively guarding something instead of being wrapped around his head.
A tense second ticked by as the men, clearly surprised by Seri's sudden intervention, stopped in their actions.
"How dare you hit me, bitch—" The glowering face, masculine roar and raised arm elicited a grimace from the governor's daughter, who squeezed her teary eyes shut in expectation of pain.
But the blow never came.
Instead, she felt a familiar pair of arms pull her into a tight embrace, as the Captain maneuvered their positions such that he was back-facing his attackers with Seri enveloped safely.
"No. Not the woman, remember? Only the man."
"But this brazen bitch deserves to be taught a lesson!"
In a low, rough whisper, the other man replied, "He said, 'Only the filthy cripple.' You don't remember that? Don't complicate matters for us."
She heard that.
Loud and clear.
Through the tiny gaps in Jeong Hyeok's protective embrace, Seri could see one of the men hold her would-be attacker by the arm, stopping him in mid-blow.
A few of them spotted injuries; the Captain hadn't gone down without a fight.
Eyes widening in shock, she registered the gruff, weather-beaten features on one of the men. Seri recognized that face; it was one of the two ruffians who had visited their stall months ago and tried to leave without paying for the meal.
Back then, she had been the one to confront and humiliate them in public, not Jeong Hyeok.
Why only the 'filthy cripple' then?
In that instant, magnolia-scented mental images of her wrought iron garden swing, a heated confrontation and a handsome face marred with fury, flooded her memories.
She knew someone who had called Jeong Hyeok a filthy cripple on more than one occasion.
Someone who wouldn't stand to gain a thing if she had gotten hurt, and who would have a very hard time explaining the situation should she get hurt.
Also, for this to happen when her father was out on a high profile political visit?
It was too much of a coincidence, wasn't it?
A violent kick to the Captain's back caused him to lurch forward in her arms, causing her to fall back in the process.
"Jeong Hyeok!" Seri cried urgently despite falling unceremoniously to the ground, clambering on all fours to cradle the semi-conscious former soldier protectively.
She could smell the metallic stench of blood in their close proximity, and her hands were increasingly stained crimson. "Stop hurting him! How dare you do this...who put you up to it!?"
"This..." One of the attackers sneered menacingly, "...is for being a shameless bastard who doesn't know his place."
A splintered wooden rod was raised, sunlight glinting ominously off an exposed nail at its tip.
For a moment, it was as if time had stopped to draw her into a raging vortex of terror.
Whimpering in fear, Seri held the former military officer as tightly as she could, fighting against his struggles to shield her with himself.
"Miss Yoon! Get the hell away from her!"
That was when a deep booming voice, drawing closer with every second, sliced through the morbid tension in the air. "You don't know who you're messing with! You'd better bet your worthless asses we'll make you pay dearly for this!"
From among the crowd, someone started shouting, "Police! Police! The police are here!"
"Count yourself lucky, you shameless creatures." A contemptuous smile, seen through watery eyes, was the last thing Seri registered of their attackers before they threw their makeshift weapons down to speed off in the opposite direction.
"Stop running, you lowly cowards!" The booming voice drew closer and closer, until a pair of pudgy, strong hands gripped her by the shoulders. "Miss Yoon, are you alright?"
It was her chauffeur.
Nodding, Seri sniffled as she cautiously positioned a barely-conscious Jeong Hyeok such that she was cradling him in her arms, while a hand repeatedly brushed his fringe back from his forehead as if that provided comfort.
"I'm okay, please, hurry...get help, get help for him."
Realizing the severity of the situation at hand, Chang Sik nodded before hurrying off. "I'll drive the car over. We will go to the nearest hospital."
"Jeong Hyeok, can you hear me?"
"Our...tomato plant..." His pale lips, sporting a painful, bloody cut in the middle, moved in a barely-audible murmur. "...it's safe."
Eyes widening as tears continued falling freely, the governor's daughter frantically scanned their surroundings, only to see their tomato plant beside them.
Apart from the fact that it was lying on its side on the ground, the plant remained firmly rooted in its pot.
Even the tiny tomatoes on it were unharmed, evident of the Captain's efforts in protecting the plant from the street thugs.
"Why are you so silly? You should have protected yourself instead!" Seri chided heartbreakingly, failing to stop the tears from breaking her voice again and again. "We can always get another tomato plant!"
Cracking a fraction of a smile, Jeong Hyeok whispered feebly, "I promised you...to...take good care of it. Also..."
Following the subtle dip of the Captain's gaze to his side, the governor's daughter noticed that their little signboard, the one that read 'Seri's Choice' was tucked safely between his jacket and shirt.
"It's...safe as well."
Sobbing audibly by now, she pressed her forehead to his, noting how cold and clammy his skin was.
"Hang in there, Jeong Hyeok. I'll bring you to the hospital...hang in there."
Now that the coast was clear, people started crowding around, and Seri found herself being helped into a standing position.
A few others assisted with getting Jeong Hyeok safely into the backseat of the car, and that was when Seri noticed gratefully that her chauffeur had already lined the seats with hemp rugs, presumably not to arouse the Governor's suspicions should bloodstains be left behind.
Everything else happened in a blur as Chang Sik rushed them to the nearest hospital he knew of in the vicinity.
Overwhelmed by worry, Seri, who had sutured wounds, done blood transfusions, and administered antibiotics on top of the usual nurse duties during the Korean war, found herself at a complete loss.
All she could do was to hold the Captain in her arms as he drifted in and out of consciousness, as her own tears ran dry. She would have to stay strong for him; weakness wasn't an option at this point.
Another neighbor by the name of Jung Man Bok, who had also witnessed the attack, followed to help.
It wasn't long before Jeong Hyeok was safely brought into the hospital, and they could only wait as the medical staff worked on him.
Her chauffeur offered to get her a drink, whereas the neighbor helped to call the Fifth Company boys to notify them of what had happened to their former Captain.
The last she heard was that the boys were rushing to the hospital immediately.
Now left waiting alone, sitting with the Captain's bloodied jacket in her lap, she held the little signboard which read 'Seri's Choice' close to her bosom, still unable to believe how hard he had fought to protect their shared memories.
Her heart and everything else within her felt hollow, empty and aching, as weary numbness threatened to engulf her.
Thankfully, Chang Sik soon came back with a cup of water, which Seri took a generous gulp from.
Drawing the back of her hand across her lips, Seri started, "Thank you for your help earlier...I wouldn't have known what else to do."
Drawing a fraying handkerchief over his features, which were glistening with grease and perspiration, the typically timid chauffeur shook his head. "How can I not help you? I've been serving the Yoon family since the time the Old Master was still around...your safety is also my responsibility."
Bowing her gratitude, Seri replied wistfully, "My grandfather was definitely a very good judge of character."
If the late Old Master Yoon had still been around, she was certain her betrothal wouldn't have happened.
"Thank you for always looking out for me. I honestly didn't know you could be so brave." She added with a small smile.
"I haven't stopped perspiring, you know." Revealing the soaked handkerchief in his hand, the chauffeur chuckled embarrassedly, before his voice took on a more serious tone.
"That was really scary. I was already driving away, but saw people running in the opposite direction. So I asked a guy who was running by, and he told me some of the neighborhood folks mentioned there was a fight going on at the noodle stall near the intersection. Who could have done this...was there a need to be so savage?"
"I don't know..." She breathed. Deep down, she had an inkling, an absurd one, one that she needed to verify.
But for now, she must focus on Jeong Hyeok.
Digging into her handbag, Seri retrieved a neatly-folded Supima cotton floral handkerchief.
"Here. Use this instead."
"...I can't possibly borrow your handkerchief, Miss Yoon."
"You can. Stop being so calculative; we are family."
Fighting to suppress the involuntary smile which lit his features up, the older man bowed repeatedly before taking the folded square to dab at his forehead with it.
"Thank you, Miss Yoon."
"One more thing, though. I'd need you to take me somewhere tomorrow morning."
Jeong Hyeok had always protected her; it was her turn to protect him.
Sitting up straighter, the chauffeur promptly replied, "Of course. Where to?"
"Gyeonggi province."
"Gyeonggi? We can go, of course, but why would you need to go out of Seoul?" He regarded Seri curiously, not knowing why she'd planned to go out of town.
"I need to make a trip to the Finance Ministry's headquarters in the Government Complex Gwacheon."