The protector

Epilogue 1 - South (M)

Seoul, 2028, May – August

It happened slowly, but Se-ri recovered.

Gook helped her to spread the rumour that she'd accidentally gotten a sprained ankle due to a road hog, so that in the office no one questioned anymore about her sudden disappearance in April and, as her mom had suggested, everything at work continued as if nothing had happened.

Her private followed consequentially. Things simply flowed.

It helped that she wasn't actually having a private. And it helped that Chief Kim kept her constantly informed.

It helped, mostly, that, after a couple of weeks of pure anguish, eventually the NIS started to give her good news, even if few and terse.

He was safe. Severely injured, yet recovering. It would have taken time, and he had to stay hidden, but it was now sure that all the Ris would have left the country. They were coming.

Since there was anything she could do, Se-ri tried to write short messages to reply to the information she received, and persuaded Chief Kim to deliver them.

The replies she received back were short, though. Neutral, nearly brusque, and always meagre, never really replying to her questions, if she made some. Messages barely sufficient for her to survive without losing hope. Barely, yet sufficient. She survived, so, and didn't lose hope.

In the while, the businesswoman tried to carry on with her life. Included her life as former wife slash best friend of Gu Seo Jin.

Seo-jin was feeling guilty. Never having had a doubt about the problem being on Se-ri – he had conceived a child with Ha-na, hence he was ok, wasn't he? -, according to his persona ethic he was being the bad husband who had abandoned a wife only due to her infertility.

Exactly what her mom had predicted.

He continued to be her friend and her business partner. And as soon as the NIS restrictions around her eased, and Se-ri found herself with a lot of free time that someone would have called void, Seo-jin became the friend she used to ease the stress with, the friend to drink with, the friend to chat about work with.

"Gu-ssi, it's time for you to look for some blind date," she told him on a random night, half to fool – half to cheer him.

"Mhm... you've been too much a good wife, Yoon, you made life difficult to whoever will come next."

"You'll find someone good enough for you, someone who'll deserve the special man you are."

She was sincere: Seo-jin was special. But it was also due to her own feelings if Se-ri was speaking like that. She was in one of those moments when she wanted for everyone around her to be happy.

She wasn't, though.

This time, Se-ri had promised to herself that she wouldn't have dared to feel happy until she wouldn't have seen Jeong Hyeok with her own eyes. Hence, in spite of the news, she wasn't daring to feel positive.

July passed like that, alternating nights out with Seo-jin – innocent nights out: since when they'd signed the divorce papers, their relationship had subsided to an innocent friendship which had surprisingly led the press to leave them in peace, fortunate side effect -, and depressing nights at home, staring outside the windows with the only company of a heavy heart and an edelweiss, like six years before, like before Seo-jin.