The protector

Zorba the cat (un gato grande, gordo y negro) (Epilogue 2 - North) (MMM)

WARNINGS: graphic depiction of suicide and domestic abuses, please do NOT proceed if you think you could feel triggered, TP is going to have at least 2 chapters more so there's no need to trigger yourself to know how it ends.

Author's note: gentle reminder that if something cloy-canon or cloy-related happens in the North universe, it means it hasn't happened in the South (for example there's only ONE woman who has been on Sigriswil bridge, not two. It's S. in the southern universe, it's I. in the northern.)

Plus: this chapter is long. I apologize but it would have made little sense to part it. It is, however, parted in two different days, so you don't have to necessarily read it in one shot.

Also: pretty spicy chapter, maybe the spiciest. Please skip it if you're not up for things.

And finally: this is where Jeong Hyeok and In-ah's journey ends. Whatever will happen in the next two chapters, this is their real epilogue as a couple, so let me thank you all for reading till here, and for having been with me through this long story. 

Tú, que decidiste que tu vida no valía

que te inclinaste por sentirte siempre mal (...)

hoy te prepara para el golpe más fantástico

(La Revolución Sexual, La Casa Azul)

Barcelona, later that night

"So..."

It had been a long, uncertain wait. Parked on the couch, eyes stuck to the green dot moving on the app's map, and scenes looping inside his head again and again. The fight on the wall. The chat in the kitchen. And that smile he had seen on In-ah's face only in Pyongyang, and only on rare occasions.

He had seen the dot stopping, but there was the icon of a cafeteria on that spot. She had come home waving a white bag that smelled pastries indeed.

"Breakfast."

"Good idea."

"What if I put these in the fridge and then we talk?"

"So... Has it been that bad?" she came back from the kitchen with hurried urge, interrogating him while still walking to the couch, giving rise to the conversation before even taking place at his side, for so pressing seemed to be that subject to her.

And for you? Jeong Hyeok studied her face, the solid concern inside her eyes, so material it could be touched. In every moment, in every situation – and apparently that one was no exception – In-ah always put his feelings first.

"I will protect you, and I will make you smile" she had told him on a morning of many years ago. She was still keeping the promise.

Unaware he was duplicating something, Jeong Hyeok pulled the woman to snuggle on his laps. Then, with studied calm, in silence, he took her right hand and folded all the fingers except for the index and the middle.

Slender and whitish, the fingers were now forming a 'two' that was contrastingly sparkling on the dark fabric of her jeans. The pianist stroked them with calm, like methodically soothing some imaginary creases, all his attention captivated by that number.