Fallen

Familiar Strangers

She never turned up at the hospital.

For days, his heart was like an ocean, open and inviting despite the restless undercurrents of anxiety, awaiting the arrival of the incoming ship that was her.

Gazing at the doorway of the hospital ward, Jeong Hyeok spent his time visualizing Seri's mesmerizing eye smile and sunny greetings as she slid the door open, bringing in with her not only her physical presence but also, comfort to his soul.

But still, she never came by.

Silent longing became feigned nonchalance, then growing concern, and eventually, he found himself inquiring on Seri's whereabouts.

"Did a lady by the name of Yoon Seri visit while I was out of the ward, or while I was asleep?" He had gone as far as to ask some of the nurses on duty, only to receive quizzical looks in response.

He had even asked the Fifth Company boys, who by now had largely grasped the situation, though no one has seen Seri.

Not at the hospital, not around town.

Her absence in his life dragged on painstakingly, growing from a day to two, then three, with the dwindling of daylight on each day layering greater worry on his mind.

Eventually, the former Captain found himself discharged from hospital, with still no sight of Yoon Seri.

The mounting anxiety, masked under his usual stoicism when out in public, proved to be very much alive when he was surrounded by the four walls of his apartment.

The silence in his empty apartment was deafening; endless hours went by for Jeong Hyeok, with only his traitorous mind for company.

It didn't help that he still wasn't physically strong enough to open the noodle stall for business.

From a separate perspective, this growing sense of uneasiness over Seri's prolonged absence also brought forth realization.

Realization that didn't exactly make Ri Jeong Hyeok feel the best about himself.

In this relationship, if they even had the right to call it one, it was always Seri making the first move to meet in person.

Unless one counted the first time when he had deliberately attended the appreciation dinner for war veterans at the Yoon residence, in hopes of catching a glimpse of her before he left his military career behind, Seri had always been the one taking the initiative.

Despite being a dignified lady of upper class status, raised with utmost care, she had always been the one reaching out to relentlessly envelope him in the love he so painfully needed, yet refused to accept.

Indeed, Jeong Hyeok had always been on the receiving end.

Every beautiful happening in his recent life had only been possible because of her.

From the poignant reunion in the garden at the Yoon residence,

To the quiet, firefly-illuminated moments shared by the river,

To laughing with the Fifth Company boys like they used to,

To narrowly escaping the riots and spending days in a space of their own,

To their respective first experiences of romantic kisses and awakening physical desires,

To the endless hours spent rebuilding and toiling together at their noodle stall,

And the unspoken but mutual acknowledgement that they had both fallen, so hard and so impossibly hopelessly, for each other.

Yet, Jeong Hyeok had often displayed indifference, constructing an icy front to deliberately turn her away, cruelly reminding her of the unbridgeable distance between them.