First Snow

I Miss You Too, Yoon Seri

Author notes:
First of all, thank you for the feedback on the last chapter. I'm grateful for the amazing readers you are and I'm sorry to be so very late in answering the comments.

Second, I apologize for the delay. It wasn't a writer block, but more a motivation block. Not much energy left to focus on writing in proper English, only to fangirl, which is far more easier. But I'm not giving up in this story, just slowing the pace of the updates.

Next chapter might be the last one, not sure, still thinking about how to articulate things, but for sure, the end is very close. I really hope you'll be there until the very end, of what will probably be my last long story, at least for a while. I might catch up with the fictions I've wanted to read for a while and focus on writing Dooly one shots after that.
Anyway, I hope you're all well, safe and healthy wherever you are.

Thank you again for the love and support.

*****

Concern was gnawing at him from inside as the elevator descended. Seeing Seri chasing after him, pale and shaking when she was still so weak, had made him panic. He had wanted to break free and run to her, bring her back to her bed and make sure she was okay. Not knowing how she was doing made him sick. Agent Kim was watching him, he could feel it, but he didn't care.

He knew he wasn't going to be convicted. First, and most of all because he was innocent. Even if he wanted nothing more than to punch her brother in the face, he would never kill a man in cold blood. Especially not her brother. The man was a monster, deserved to pay for his acts, but he was still her brother. It would hurt her and he would never do that.
Second, he was a diplomat. The diplomatic immunity would protect him, and he knew his country wasn't very cooperative with strangers investigating on their citizens. But just the fact that he was being taken that way to be interrogated, would be reported to North Korean authorities, and given what Alberto had told him, he would be asked to go back to Pyongyang immediately. He had done everything to gain time, to stay by her side, and yet, by his own doing, by being unable to catch the culprit, he was going to leave her, with Cho Cheol Gang still free. The idea made him gasp for air, and as he was taken away in the police car, he stared at the hospital as if he could see through the walls.

Once at the police station, the handcuffs were taken off and he waited in an interrogation room, dumb from the shock of knowing with more and a more accuracy that he might not be able to see Seri before being taken to Pyongyang. The thought was too painful to bear, and the numbness was welcome, stopping his brain from thinking too much about what was about to come. He tried to focus on something else than Seri, on how Alberto spoke of Seo Dan as if he knew her well, on his brother who was now in Pyongyang and didn't seem to make anymore progress, on his men, who looked shocked when they had seen their former captain being taken...

Was her brother really dead? She probably was upset, the news had been so brutal, and then him being taken as a suspect... The day before, the doctor had looked concerned with her last exams results, what if her state worsened?

When the door finally opened, Agent Kim and another NIS agent came in.

"Ri Jeong Hyeokssi. How are you feeling?"

He didn't answer, and Agent Kim sighed before taking the seat across the table.

"We had to wait for a sworn interpreter to arrive. They agreed to let me question you, but only if an interpreter is listening. They are suspicious, and not very happy that Koreans are coming to disturb their peaceful country ..."

"Given my status, aren't you worried that this story will make things worse between our two countries?"

"We said we are taking you for questioning, not arresting you ..."