In The Dark (SNOWDROP)

"black tiger"

❄︎ — chapter 14 — ❄︎

Jang Hanna should've known things were getting too good to be true.

Lee Kangmu had come back to her, and she'd accepted his million apologies for breaking their engagement. She couldn't push him away again when both of them so clearly wanted nothing but to be with the other.

She still had some more to learn about the whole situation— namely, she wanted to hear it from her father and Chief Ahn. But for now, she was just happy to be back in Kangmu's arms. He'd finally been allowed to kiss her again after four years, although all of them so far had been chaste pecks on the cheek or forehead. Hanna had rendered a long goodbye completely useless by simply asking him to stay the night at her apartment, and Kangmu had put up no resistance at all.

The next day dawned warm and bright, and Hanna was woken up by the deafening scream of her alarm clock.

Kangmu had woken up a few minutes earlier, at first confused as to where he was, before he'd noticed a familiar figure wrapped in his arms. Hanna lay peacefully there on the bed, her hair messily tangled on the pillow. He'd stayed still, not wanting to wake her, until her alarm clock went off, making him jump in surprise. Hanna was jolted out of her sleep and immediately turned off the alarm before turning to see him a little frazzled, his heart rate having spiked up into the sky at the unexpected loud noise.

Hanna smirked, sensing his near-panic. "You okay, Kangmu-ya?"

"Fine," he said, glaring daggers at the little clock for disturbing the peaceful morning.

Hanna smiled at him. She hadn't remembered being that close to him when they'd gone to sleep, but she wasn't about to complain about it.

"I think that's the best I've slept in four years."

Kangmu leaned over to press a quick kiss to her temple. "Me too, jagiya."

"You're back to the pet names already?" Hanna asked teasingly.

He shrugged. "If it's okay with you."

She nodded. "Just not in front of anyone else."

Kangmu agreed, and the two got out of bed. He soon left, since he didn't have any spare clothes or anything else at Hanna's apartment and had to go back to his own, promising to come back to pick her up so he could drive her to the office, where she'd left her broken-down Jeep the night before.

So much had happened over less than twelve hours, so when they got to the office and Joo Gyeokchan immediately called Hanna over to his table, she almost forgot what they'd been working on for the past couple days. Kangmu
reluctantly left her to go into his office, and Hanna walked over to Gyeokchan's table.

"Annyeonghaseyo, sunbaenim," Gyeokchan said. "What were you doing with timjangnim?"

Hanna was careful not to let anything too personal slip in her answer. "My car broke down. He had to pick me up."

"Ah," Gyeokchan said, although he looked a little suspicious. "Anyway, I've picked up a different version of the audio clip sent to Haegeumseong 1. I think you'd better hear this."

He passed her the headphones and paper with the decoded message on it. For the most part, it was the same message, but towards the end, the cutting-out static was a bit clearer, and words could be made out.