FALLING SLOWLY ||Complete||

Escape

The rain patters with whispered promises of winter and Ha Jin tries to gather what is left of her life. It is hard to heal a wound she doesn’t have the faintest idea where to look for, but with waning seasons she learns to live with the pain. And she waits.

She doesn’t find him that day, when miraculously Yo offers her an escape from the glided cage of her uncle’s. She postpones thinking of the consequences, for their plans she has no idea to follow. As for Yo, his reason intrigues her - though he shares only a little as they travel.

“I don’t want to see him hurt,” his answer is as elusive as he is, the man with a cold heart and a warm voice. “My twin, has had his fair share of pain.”

“I don’t intend to hurt him,” she promises, to him as well as herself.

“”But you intend to hurt Wook,” his eyes are trained on the road and his tone void of judgement.

Ha Jin shrugs, attempting to sort out her feelings.

“We are nothing but a political alliance,” she tells him slowly, “Your father needs the Haes’ support, my family needs the political backing.”

“And you don’t care about that anymore?” There is a hint of curiosity in his tone and his eyes briefly shift to hers.

“I guess I don’t have enough Hae in me to care - I am not going back, if that answers your question.”

“Yeon Hwa is going to kill me…” Yo mutters offhandedly, then smiles openly at her dumbfounded look. “Never mind, never mind, I can handle her.”

“You don’t love her do you?” She cannot help but ask. Yo frowns lightly and then sighs.

“She is not a creature that needs a man’s love.” Ha Jin thinks - that is a strange way to describe Yeon Hwa. But Yo does not want her pressing on the matter. His next words make it clear. “I have my reasons though you might find them less appealing.”

His tone makes her think of their mother and wonder if - if this was yet another arrangement of their families.

She had always thought they were alike - her cold hearted cousin and this ice gray eyed man. But appearances can be deceiving and Yo she finds is quite likable.

“But Wook has feelings for you - I think you know,” Yo says after a moment, his eyes remain on her for a moment before the traffic starts moving. “After Myung Hee I thought he would never -”

“What?” She feels her heart pick up speed and is almost worried of her trembling voice. “Wook knew her?”

“They were the originally intended - you know right?” Ha Jin cannot bring herself to answer. Instead she nods and thinks uncomfortably of thousand years back - and her Unni who suffered of a broken heart as much as a sickly body, of the man who could not understand his own feelings for the woman until she was nothing less than ashes in a decorated urn. She remembers him crying for a love that came too late and squeezes her eyes shut.

“They met when they were both abroad - ” Yo shakes his head at the thought and Ha Jin thinks of the last time she bid Myung Hee farewell in the airport. “I think the meeting was also pre - planed.”

Lies. Just how many lies were sown in the empty space between them?

“What happened to them?” She asks, daring the answer.

“She met someone else in Paris, you know when she went to pursue fine arts, or so I’ve heard. Wook has crap luck in love it seems.”

She doesn’t answer for Ha Jin cannot work out which of his brothers Yo is sided with. And she doesn’t question his loyalties, there is already too much information to process. She thinks of her Unni and wonders if she had betrayed her by considering Wook’s attentions as anything worthy of reciprocation. She has made a mess of her life in the years she lived detached from her past memories and Wook - he had pushed her more and more towards that chasm without once holding back. 

She gets her answers - though not in the manner she hopes.

“Oh this fool!” Yo curses under his breath. She only hears him faintly for her heart is sinking faster than she could gasp for the next breath. He is gone. Without a sign, a word, a proper good bye.

She is falling and that old ache of her knees return. This has happened before - the helplessness she feels is familiar and frightful.

“Ha Jin!” Yo’s hand is at her elbow, his touch unfamiliar but enough to snap her back into reality. His concerned eyes remind her that not all remains same in this life, this man is not pointing his arrow at either of them. “Breathe.” he says slowly, guiding her away and joining the crowd before either of them are noticed by people they wanted to avoid.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have brought you here,” he says once they are back in the car. She is still trying to breathe, trying to keep her tears at bay. “He told me to get you out - I thought I should improvise - I’ve overstepped I’m sorry -”

She grasps at the ends of his words the only comfort he could offer.

“He asked you?”

Yo nods and then drums his steering wheel irked.

“I don’t think we’d be able to catch him now.”

“Do you know where he is going?” She doesn’t dare hope.

“Can’t you tell he is running away.”

“Is he that desperate to get away from me?”

“Desperate? My dear girl I think he is in love with you.” There is a chuckle in his voice but Yo keeps his tone serious. “My brother doesn’t believe he deserves happiness. A belief he doesn’t let anyone change.”

“I didn’t know you were that close…” She wonders aloud before realizing how hurtful it would sound.

“He is my twin. He has this strange notion that he ends up hurting everyone he comes across. Something Omma has drilled into his head no doubt.” He shakes his head, his look dark. “He believes he is dying. My brother doesn’t think he is good enough for you.”

Her inhale is loud and sharp, her lungs on fire.

‘What do you think?”

“I think he is a bloody fool with a bit of hero complex. But that is none of my business,” he turns the key in the ignition and looks at her.

“Now - you can decide for yourself Ha Jin Ssi, where to?”

“Why are you doing all this, Hwang Yo Ssi?”

“I don’t want him to put his life in danger Ha Jin, not for my mother, not for Jung or anyone else.” Then noting she did not look satisfied he sighs. “I’m looking into Tae’s incident - I know.”

She doesn’t say anything and he pats her shoulder awkwardly.

“If you don’t have a plan - may I suggest something?”

And so she finds herself on a train, with a new mobile and a hasty goodbye from a partial stranger. Ha Jin wonders how much of it is directed by So, and what exactly he hopes by that - Yo wouldn’t tell. Only his worry for his brother is palpable. Woo Hee waits for her at the destination and at last she gets an answer.

One line of his neat writing tucked inside a folded paper. 

I would not have you live a shackled life

“He is not coming back -” Woo Hee rubs her shoulder. “I think you should -”

“No!” The strength of her own voice anchors her failing nerves. She turns to look at Woo Hee, all set to take her to the escape So has planed. As Yo said, they are but acting on his directions. If she follows they would never see each other again.

Ha Jin doesn’t believe in fate. She doesn’t believe in happy endings. But fated they are tied with a past thousand years old and Ha Jin is determined to test their ending.

“I’ll go my own away.” She declares, fire in her eyes. If we are meant to be - we shall meet.

I would not have you live a lonely life again…

And she waits.