In The Dark (SNOWDROP)

"come with me"

❄︎ — chapter 26 — ❄︎

On the way to the hospital, Lee Kangmu filled Park Woosung in on everything that had led up to Jang Hanna being shot with the tranquilizer. Woosung was driving a police car behind the ambulance carrying Hanna. As much as Kangmu had wanted to stay with her, there wasn't enough room for him in the ambulance.

"Why was she in your apartment to begin with?" Woosung asked.

Kangmu cursed to himself, but did his best to come up with an answer. "She's the leader of the team tracking down the Northern spy Haegeumseong 1. Her team intercepted a transmission ordering Haegeumseong 1 to capture or kill me. Now one of the agents is always with me in case something happens."

Woosung frowned in the light of the streetlamps. "Even at home?"

"We're engaged," Kangmu said before he could stop himself. It was much simpler than we used to be engaged but then I broke up with her and she left for a couple years but now she's back and we're not really engaged again but we're living together and I kissed her the other day and I'm planning on proposing to her again even though it was totally my fault we broke up in the first place.

"I see," Woosung mused. Kangmu prayed that he was oblivious to the dating ban on the ANSP agents. The man didn't appear to find it odd or reprehensible.

"Tranquilizers usually wear off in a couple of hours," Woosung said as they entered the parking lot of the hospital. "We'll just have one of the doctors check on her when she wakes up. In the meantime, the team will collect whatever evidence they can get from your apartment and hand it over to your team to catch the spy."

Kangmu nodded as Woosung parked the car and both of them got out, following the men rolling Hanna's stretcher inside. One unlocked a windowless door leading to another long corridor. A couple turns later, they'd arrived at their destination— a plain old recovery ward room. A young nurse with short black hair in a low bun was preparing a few pieces of monitoring equipment. She bowed as they walked in. Hanna was transferred to the bed in the middle of the room, and Woosung and his team left with the rolling stretcher. Woosung's goodbye went totally over Kangmu's head as he was too busy stressing out over how still Hanna lay, how her face was minutely paler than usual, and how her breathing seemed abnormally shallow.

"Is she okay?" He asked the nurse as she hooked Hanna onto a heart and breathing monitor.

"Yes, her pulse and breathing rate are normal for someone peacefully asleep," the nurse responded. "You're Lee Kangmu, right?"

"Have I met you before?"

"It was a long time ago," she said. "I didn't expect you to recognize me. I'm Lim Soohui, Lim Sooho's sister."

Kangmu took a second look at her face. Her eyes, nose, and shape of her mouth did bear a resemblance to Sooho's.

He nodded. "You look like your brother."

She smiled and checked Hanna's temperature. "How is he, by the way? He never remembers to call me."

"Sooho's doing fine," Kangmu said, a bit absentmindedly. "He's working on Hanna's team, now."

"Good to hear," Soohui said. "Next time you see him, please tell him to call me more often, would you?"

Kangmu gave her his word, and she left soon after. She'd told him that he should go back home and rest, but his apartment was currently being scoured by ANSP agents, and he wasn't keen to go anywhere alone when Haegeumseong 1 was no doubt out for him. The hospital might be the safest place at the moment. Plus, it had been his fault Hanna had been struck by the tranquilizer dart. He wanted to at least be there when she woke up. He hoped it wouldn't be long.

Soohui had relented and brought him a simple meal from the hospital's cafeteria. Every five seconds or so he'd glance up at Hanna, hoping to see her dark eyes open and alert, but they never were.

His dinner finished, he left the tray on a counter built into the wall and washed his hands in the tiny bathroom before returning to his post— the small chair by Hanna's bedside. Kangmu shifted a couple times, but it was still pretty uncomfortable, and save for the floor, there was nowhere else to lie down. He settled for sleeping upright in the chair, his head drooping onto his shoulder and his hand holding Hanna's limp one. He'd definitely have a neck cramp when he woke up, but he didn't care very much. He took his coat off and draped it over his chest like a small and fairly ineffective blanket. The soft and steady beeping of the heart monitor and the sound of Hanna's peaceful breathing eventually lulled him to sleep.

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Kangmu's rest was suddenly interrupted by the quiet nose of the door squeaking as it opened. When he woke, the room was pitch black, but a dim light turned on near the door, far enough away to not disturb the patient in the middle of the room. Kangmu stood, leaving his coat on the chair he'd been sleeping on. He rubbed his sore neck as a figure stepped into view— another nurse, this one male with black hair streaked through with silver and a blue face mask.

"Annyeonghaseyo," the nurse bowed politely. "I've been sent to check on Jang Hanna since there was an irregular pattern in her heart rate."

Kangmu's eyes widened and he looked back at the softly glowing monitor, but nothing looked irregular. The machine hadn't beeped or made any noise.

"Is there something wrong with her?"

"I'm not sure," the nurse said, walking over to the computer. "It might have just been a glitch, but I should check just in case."

Kangmu could barely see Hanna's face in the dark, but he could still hear her steady and soft breathing. He checked his watch. It was almost two in the morning. Woosung had said the tranquilizer would wear off in mere hours. Why wasn't Hanna awake yet?

He heard the nurse give a subtle wince, hissing in a breath through his teeth.

"What is it?" Kangmu asked.

The nurse jotted a couple notes down onto the small clipboard he held, then looked up at Kangmu's worried face.

"Come with me. We'll talk in my office so we don't accidentally disturb her."

Kangmu agreed, and with one last glance at Hanna, he followed the man out and down the hallway, turning a couple of corners here and there. The corridors were completely empty and silent, save for their footsteps. The nurse ushered Kangmu into a small office. He looked around the room before hearing the doorknob lock.

Kangmu turned around, every sense in his body screaming danger. The dark barrel of a pistol's silencer stared menacingly back at him.

"Put your hands up, Lee Kangmu timjangnim," the nurse said.

By now, Kangmu was pretty sure this man wasn't your average hospital caretaker. He slowly raised his hands in the air, cursing himself for not bringing his coat, which had his own pistol in the inside pocket. He had no weapons except for the knife in his boot, but he couldn't exactly grab it now. Plus, a knife wouldn't do much against a bullet.

"Who are you?" He asked, although he had a sickening feeling he knew the answer already.

"You know me as Haegeumseong 1," the man said, the corners of his eyes crinkling like he was smiling under the mask. "Your team has been hunting me, but it seems like I've captured the Black Tiger first."

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NOTE: KOREAN TERM TRANSLATIONS ARE AVAILABLE IN THE GLOSSARY

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