Summer Child

Harsh Winter. Part 3.

Seri blinked herself awake to a white, crisp ceiling of her bedroom. Not for the first time, after almost a week of sleeping on her new bed, she realized just how different sleeping on a high-quality mattress versus the cheap one you'd find on a rented weekly apartment. She sighed and looked at the clock sitting nicely on the modern-looking nightstand. It was barely 6 and she already felt exhausted; completely not ready to take on the day.

However, she had learnt from many years ago that delaying the day would only make it worst. If she woke up now, at least she would have several hours just by herself before she had to face the people in her life.

The life that she never thought would turn out this way.

For starter, instead of the hide-hole she called her rented apartment, now she resided at one of the most luxurious apartments in Seoul. Of course, her father would spare no expense when it came to purchasing her something. Her own childhood house (an antique house that he managed to flip into a modern haven for her and her mother) and her apartments in Paris should be good indications. But still, this was too much, considering she would only stay in it for the next 5 weeks.

She sat up on the bed and marveled at the whiteness of the room. She had to give it to her father to remember her preferences. When it came to clothes, she liked her splash of colors here and there. However, when it comes to her bedding, she preferred them to be white and fluffy. And whoever was put in charge in setting up her place in a record 2 days' time, had taken it to an extreme.

Her whole 'bedroom' was casted in white, with trendy black and gold accents everywhere; making it look like it was torn straight from a design interior magazine. Her bed was even better than the one in her bedroom in Paris; and that really said something. She had spent a ridiculous amount of her stipend to furnish her bedroom in everything's finest. Finest orthopedic mattress she could fine, finest quality, hypoallergenic goose feather pillows, fluffiest duvet, silk bedsheets; you name it.

She wasn't lying when she said to Ri Jeong Hyeok that she always had trouble sleeping. What she didn't tell him was that she had trouble sleeping, starting 7 years ago. Therefore, she tried her best to make her bedrooms in Paris and Zurich as comfortable as she could.

Her father's decorator also didn't disappoint.

She had spent most of her life in comfortable living situation. It was way humbler than what her father and his family were used to, but her life was far from shabby. But this apartment, was something else.

It situated, fortunately, not very far from her father's hospital. Only 2 metro stations away, or 40 minutes' walk. Which something she would gladly fare if the situation were normal. As a seasoned Parisian, she was used to walk almost everywhere, and she actually liked it. It was like doing exercise while living your life. With her long working hour in Paris, it worked well that she could combine both commute and exercise.

However, with current situation where a lunatic North Korean rogue agent was trying to kill her, she had to accept her father's offer to have his personal driver to drive her to and from hospital. To say that her father was ecstatic having her accepted all of his offer was an understatement. She thought perhaps he paralleled it with her finally agreed to live in his life. But her reason was actually much more practical than that.

Such as keeping her alive until she could safely board the plane back to Zurich in 5 weeks from now.

Ri Jeong Hyeok was another reason.

After that first morning, they had argued high and low about her living situation. She had argued that she didn't want to move her living space just because a lunatic was targeting her. She even almost pointed out that it was his responsibility to take care of it since it was his fault that she was targeted in the first place.