Kdrama:
Tomorrow
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J O O N G G I L
IT WERE AS though he was still chained in hell. Every hour, every minute served nothing but to torment him with guilt, with anger, with self-loathing.
Park Joong-gil felt so incredibly foolish.
For four hundred and twenty years, Ryeon had suffered in silence, kept all their pain to herself. How did he treat her? By admonishing her, insulting her, telling her all those words he'd say out of emotion without ever actually meaning them. And then recently, he had hurt her the most, by almost murdering her dearest friend Ryu Choi-hui. The only person who truly stood by Ryeon's side when she needed refuge during those trying times.
You're a fool, Joong-gil.
He lets out an exasperated sigh.
Damn you and your pride.
He rakes a hand through his hair.
More than a week has passed since his release from hell. Within that span of time, Joong-gil has only seen Ryeon four times, had his presence acknowledged by her twice, and exchanged a few words with her once. Just once.
"You're back to work?"
It sounded like a question, which he knew to be plain rhetoric. He nodded his head, going with whatever flow their small talk was taking.
"How has the RM Team been holding up?" He decided to ask, when in actuality, it was her wellbeing he wanted to know more about. He found himself missing Koo Ryeon more than he thought he would. Way more than he deserved to.
After a few more bland sentences discussing work and only work, she took her leave with a curt bow. Joong-gil remained where he stood, as he could only watch her walk away, a storm brewing within him.
He's been dying to just talk to her. Earlier that day, upon another one of their hallway encounters, he had wanted to call her name, to approach her and say something, anything. Yet the sudden look of alarm in her eyes upon seeing him had made him reluctant, as though he were the last person she wanted to see.
Whatever that look meant, it stung.
Now, Joong-gil stands at the edge of some building's rooftop, frustrated with himself and above all, dejected. With his hands in his pockets, he stares off in rumination, going over every regrettable moment, every horrible thing he's said and done. He's filled with so much regret and at lost with how to cope.
Then, like a miracle, he spots an all-too-familiar pink out of the corner of his eye. He casts his gaze on the streets down below, and immediately spots Ryeon by the stonewall walkway, alone. Just as he was.
It's probably the desperation that doesn't make him think twice. There's no time to waste so he teleports. He materializes beside her. For a split second, their eyes meet, before she's gone.
She just teleported herself away.
Was she so cautious to avoid him that she was able to sense his presence that quickly?
Nonetheless, Joong-gil doesn't give up. He musters all his courage to teleport to the one place she might have gone to.
He needs (to talk to) her.
R Y E O N
Koo Ryeon is out on a late evening stroll. She and Ryung-gu had just finished a mission, and her partner had already taken his leave, early as usual. She takes in the fresh air, relishes it filling her lungs and alleviating her senses. She's always been a lover of the outdoors—then as a human, now as a grim reaper. Being holed up in the RM Team's shared office was already suffocating enough with its lack of spaciousness. What more when there were thoughts ready to intrude her headspace whenever they found her alone and unoccupied.
