The Aftermath

The Aftermath

~

Silence.

Silence was the only thing he remembered after that dreaded shotgun echoed in his ears. Then the click sound of the phone call being disconnected.

Then silence again.

He didn't remember much else. He remembered trying to call the number that Seri used, but it was of course inactive. Then he tried to call Gu Seung Jung number, which was of course inactive too.

He remembered standing among those trees for the longest time. Dried leaves were falling around him, and the winter breeze soaked from his damp shoes. But he didn't register being cold that time, the tightness of his heart felt like someone had stripped him naked and poured a bucket of ice on his body on a winter night. Surely nothing would be colder than that.

He remembered being awoken only when Mrs. Ma called him and asked him to come home immediately. To which he ran as fast he could. Could it be Seri?

But what he saw was that Cho Cheol Gang ransacking his home, like he did when he first discovered Seri hiding in his kimchi cellar. That wretched man and his men wreak havoc on everything in his home; his bed, his books and even his kitchen. Of which he didn't care.

But when they threw around Seri's clothes, which usually stacked under his TV since they weren't much and he saw his tomato plant on the ground, he saw red. Thought nothing of consequences, he pulled punches to the man he was sure responsible for Seri's disappearance.

The rest was all blurred as well.

He remembered being thrown into a detention cell, and vaguely remembered his conversation with Seo Dan that once again made him see red. He never once thought ill of Seo Dan, and even felt guilty of how he treated her until that point. But when she said Seri was dead, his lifelong principle of never hitting a woman was the only thing preventing him from doing exactly that.

After that he knew that his father must be behind this. While he loved and respected his father, he knew Ri Chung Ryeol didn't sit in the position he was by sending flowers to his superior. So he did what his short-circuited brain could afford that time to get away.

He knew that once people know what family he belongs to, he would be released immediately. Silly, he knew, but such was the way of his country. Those with power could always do everything they please. He had never been comfortable with that, but with Yoon Seri's life on the line, he just couldn't care anymore.

After he was released, he wasted no time to drive the first vehicle he could get on hand to and rushed to his father's house.

He knew something was not right right away.

There were cars that he didn't recognize parked in the driveway. And when he rushed inside, he saw some men were talking in a hushed tone; one of them was his father. The other men were wearing blue scrubs with dark stain over their body.

"Where is she?" he demanded. Never in his life he used that tone with his father.

It was his father's expression that told him everything he needed to know. Guilt. Etched among the usually stoic military man.

"Where is she?" he shouted so loud, the men surrounding his father took a step back and looked at him nervously.

His father didn't say anything, but stared at him with an expression he could recall now as pity. He tried to remember were there tears in his eyes? He couldn't remember. What he did remember was he heard there was rustling on the 2nd floor, so without waiting for his father's answer, he ran upstairs and he saw his old bedroom door was ajar.