The Running Game

Chapter 25

Present day

A week has passed ever since the revelation of the major election scandal. A lot has happened since then. Oh Woo Seok, the presidential candidate of the ruling party, was officially under arrest for the past crime that was previously alleged to him of corruption and money laundering. He was also found guilty to be the mastermind of the premeditated murder of Baek Dae Song and Lim Ji Rok. To add more sentences to his crime, he was also found guilty for abduction to defect Professor Han I Seop to the North. He was sentenced for a lifetime imprisonment as he was now detained by the authorities. Not only him, her father and Nam Tae Il had been arrested as well for their involvement in those crimes. Kim Sang Beom and Eun Chang Soo's secretary, Choi Hui Jun were also arrested for their crime. Hence joining Oh Woo Seok, they were sentenced for a lifetime imprisonment. And those spies, they were also sentenced for acts of espionage and murder. And they were officially deported to the North and will serve their sentence there.

That scandal turned out to be a huge humiliation for the ANSP. The government has decided to disperse the organization and it will be merged under the NIS. No ANSP employees were going to lose their job, as the merger happened. Soo Ho, Gang Mu, Gyeok Chan, Eung Cheol, and Han Na, had been entitled as heroes for their bravery to reveal the truth for the modern revolution of the future clean government.

And it has been a week since he was admitted to the hospital. He passed the most critical moment in his life when he was flatlined in the ambulance. Luckily, the paramedics were doing everything in their power to bring him back to this world. Right after they arrived at the hospital, he was immediately moved to the operating room to have an emergency surgery. The surgery went well despite his critical condition earlier that made his soul out of this world. And he was a fighter, to fight his way back to this world for this special person. He was placed to get intense care after his surgery. And he hasn't awoken from his coma up until now.

And not every single day went by without her leaving his side. To add more humiliation after her father's arrest,  ever since that scandal her name has become a hot topic to talk about among Korean citizens, the hospital employees and also the ANSP or now called the NIS. How could she not? A false truth that hasn't been justified, a damsel who has a stockholm syndrome for her captor. The daughter of the murderer. But she didn't care about any of that, her main focus now is Soo Ho. She was persistent to wait by his side until he regained his consciousness, which has not happened until now. The darkened yet swollen skin of her under eyes was the evidence of the tired days she spent just to watch his stable breath as he lay motionless on the hospital bed. She never left him unless she needed a bathroom break. At night, where the time is the quietest, she cried her heart out for the man who was brave enough to protect her with all his being. The only man who has occupied her heart ever since she was in her youth. Her first and only love of her life. The intertwined fingers, the mouth that non stop reciting silent prayer, the bittersweet conversation that ended up with monologues.

"I love you... so much

I'm sorry

I'm so sorry for everything." 

When he was being moved to the emergency room, she saw a paper fall from his jacket. She wanted to cry about how he kept her photo inside his jacket. She remembered when he said that he wanted to use her photo as an amulet, and kept the photo in his wallet. But he grew a habit from her to put the photo within his clothes. And in the end, it was her who taped their photo back together, not him. She wants nothing more than him to wake up right in this second. And she knew her place. No matter how much she wanted that future together with him, that dream would have to be buried because she would only remind him of the horrific things caused by everyone around her. Her father took part in his father murder. Though previously he said that he didn't care about any of it, she never wants him to live his life seeing the shadow of that murderer in her. Running seemed to be the best plan for now, but she will have to wait, because she would run in peace at least until he regains his consciousness and the doctor announces and declares that his condition is stable.