Landed on Us

The Woman

"Dang it" he cursed the driver of a charter car he rented inside his head. He knew that he should've asked his father's staff to drive him instead of going with 1980's truck he was currently in. The road to the border city was very rocky, to say the least, and the driver seemed to have no concern over the gestation conditions of his passenger. But it wasn't like he had any choice. Asking his father's staff would be possible, of course, and it would give him much smoother ride. But it also would make his father notified hours faster and he would definitely prevent him from going to his brother.

His older brother who had made one of the most cryptic phone calls he had made to him, ever. And they were part of elite families in Pyongyang, so secret codes and sublime messages were their territory. The simple fact that his brother made the phone call from an unidentified number was enough for him to get the urgency of his message. So, as soon as he put the phone down, he hastily packed a simple duffel bag and told his mother to not say anything to his father that he wanted to visit his older brother. His mother raised her eyebrows in suspicions, but in the end, she only chuckled and asked her staff to sign his travel document.

It had been hours since he left home around lunch time, and he cursed himself to not pack any food on him. The desolate truck had had enough pit stops during the supposedly-2-hours-ride-turned-6 and the sun was almost gone down. So not only he would be greeted with dark village after 6 hours of bumpy ride, but he was starving like crazy. Forcing himself to say thank you to the truck driver, he hopped outside the truck at the first sight of his brother's village and decided running would be faster than in that cursed truck.

He frowned when he saw his brother's house was dark and the gate was locked. Where was his brother? Weren't he home yet? Then he remembered where his brother used to keep his spare keys, and with a smile he found that his brother was truly a man of habit. Behind the rows of small pots filled with decaying flowers, was a set of his spare keys.

Quickly he opened the front gate, and moved to the side of the house. He frowned when he saw a small light inside the house, but was quickly put out as he walked closer. Cautiously, he pulled a flashlight he always packed on himself, and light it up. He immediately saw a shadow of someone's inside the house. With anger over someone who was trespassing his older brother's house, Ri Jeong Hyeok quickly opened the lock to the side door and slid it open with force while yelling "Who are you?"

He was expecting to see a small man, given the short shadow the stranger cast from his flashlight. But he was face to face with a woman instead.

A very beautiful woman who was holding a vase on her hands and ready to haul it to his head.

So, he turned the flashlight straight into her eyes, and she quickly dropped the heavy vase and used her hands to shield her eyes. He asked once more who she was, and he blinked when the woman asked in return about who he was and what he was doing breaking someone's house. He turned down the light so he could see her face better and he was struck.

It was her! The woman on the suspended bridge that he met two years ago in Switzerland. He would never forget the luscious auburn hair and that half-moon shaped eyes. Which now were quivering in fear looking at him.

His first thought was, his mind was pulling a trick on him. Because what was a South Korean woman that he met in Switzerland doing in North Korea? In his older brother's house, no less! The sound of the front gate crashing startled him and with a relief, he saw his older brother was running towards them. Finally, something made sense happen after that disastrous trip.

Without even thinking, he grabbed the woman's hand to make sure she didn't run away and called out his hyung. But the exclaim of the woman made Mu Hyeok walked faster and he firmly detached his grip on her. It was only then that he realized he was gripping too tight.