The protector

Ducklings (M)

2027, October

"Ani, you can stay at my place as usual. Ani, no disturb. De. De. See you next week." Jeong Hyeok placed the phone on the kitchen table, puffing out the air, the concern of someone who had no idea of what to do growing on his face.

"Ehi perfect!" A voice came from his back, "who was on the phone? Light Co.?"

This was enough to blank his mind for a while. The man chuckled, directing an amused, soft smile to the pestiferous source of the question. 

Since when his father had teased her so hard on her birthday, In-ah had gotten into the habit to call him Light Co. Which meant light communist, yet also spitefully recalled the name of an American drink.

Besides, since in her opinion that wasn't enough as revenge, she had even begun to collect his interviews, and sometimes coerced Jeong Hyeok to read and comment on them – never in life he had read one of his father's interviews and, wanting to be completely honest, he wasn't even eager to start (1) – to prove her point: she was more communist than him. Side effect of it was that the son was now eventually able to understand what the father talked about during the Sunday dinners, and even slightly discuss with him. Thing that always had Cheong-ryeol chuckling, both because of the unexpected novelty, and because he knew he was actually listening that woman's opinions. Those weren't his son's thoughts.

"It was Chi-su." Jeong Hyeok replied after a small pause. "The friend who hosted me at the village," added, not sure if In-ah remembered the names of his friends. "They will come for the concert."

Rewind:

If the pianist would have wanted to measure the state of his career, for sure the best indicator would have been the dates of his concerts, which were scheduled each time closer to a national celebration. Of course, this time the request was coming – also or only, he couldn't say - because of his father. Choosing the son of the General Political Bureau – in other words: The Party – for the concert on the occasion of the Party Foundation Day (2) well, calling it an obvious choice would have been a slight euphemism.

But on that time, the fact also had an additionalmeaning which was the reason why he welcomed the news with considerable relief.His private life. The scandal he was expecting never exploded, though he wasn't that reckless to think that his relationship with a stranger wouldn't have affected his position at all. Before deciding to live with In-ah, he had carefully pondered all the pros and cons – both for him and for her - and losing the trust of the people around him was something he was giving for granted.

Instead, he must have been obviously wrong, if they had chosen him to figuratively represent all the musicians of the country in their tribute to the Party. Maybe, the man told to himself, provided her job, his closeness to her was perceived as a sign of friendship between their two nations.

Jeong Hyeok hadn't dared to discuss it with her, dreading that, if the sunbaenim would have suspected even the shadow of a risk, she would have undoubtedly refused to make their situation so public. But even in this he had been wrong. In fact , when he had told her about the concert, In-ah had listed him a ton of pros and cons which was way longer and more accurate than his one, explaining him, in the end, that their relationship was appraised not as a sign of friendship between the two nations as he had superficially thought, but as something slightly different:

"Since you're so good looking, it's like if you areusing your charm to seduce a vaguely important, stranger woman 'for yourcountry.' It's something that spies are used to do. They hope to take advantage from it," she had clarified with that flat, slow tone of sunbaenim who wants for her pupil to understand the meanings of her words. The literal and the implied, because there also was another reason, the deepest one, why their being together was more a pro than a con, though none of them was feeling like talking nor thinking about it in that time.