FALLING SLOWLY ||Complete||

Hero

Joy makes her fearful - for how her heart is bursting when finally his arms are around her, and the earthy spice of his being fills her senses. Ha Jin holds him to herself as tight as her arms would allow, fingers digging into his flesh - afraid that she might wake up from this happy dream - or that they would drag him away once more. Instead So strokes her face with a thumb, muttering against her hair.

She hardy catches his words - only the tenor of his voice that she allows to wash over her in waves, buried against his heartbeat, for one long moment. Prosecutor Hwang Shik Ryeom gives them no second glance as he walks out - struggling to come in terms with his defeat. Yo lingers only a moment longer eyes crinkling as he watches them - he leaves after his uncle, giving no indication of his true loyalties. Mun Seong follows him - a heavy pile of case briefs trailing after her.

For a fragment of a second she allows herself to feel secure, convinces herself that it is over.

And then fate blows off her card castle.

Wook escapes - using his own mother as his hostage. In a chaos of men - vehicles - lights and voices, he takes her away - a barrel pressed to her forehead. He is aided by the weapon he had raised - the man they wanted to think was an innocent victim. Ha Jin is uncertain whether Jun wanted to help Wook or save his mother or save himself from complying with the order to have him treated at an institution - but he follows Wook when the man takes the flight.

“He is going to kill her -” So’s voice makes her grip on him harder.

“No! No - don’t!” she murmurs, implores, pressing closer to him - hardly wasting a moment to reconsider exactly what she is asking him not to do.

“Ha Jin - ah,” his tone is tight - his hand slips from hers.

“You don’t have to go - please - So - yah…”

He closes his eyes and sighs and she sees it in his face. She knows it before he speaks the words. No matter how many times over she hurts him - he is still the boy who trailed after her crumbs of affection.

“I can’t let her die…”

He doesn’t allow her another word and she hopes someday Yoo Myung Sung would realize his heart - offer him the closure that he deserves. For he has always loved her so selflessly, thousand years back then and now, even when she continued to torture him mentally and physically So would always remain her son. His arm drape around her shoulder and his lips press on her temple.

“I’m sorry Ha Jin - ah,” he whispers an apology in her ear.

“Don’t -” she murmurs back. “I know you won’t forgive yourself if something happens to her. Don’t apologize for who you are.”

He leaves her with a faint smile and her heart sinks watching him go. It is as if she knows - trouble is to follow.

So that when he returns, bloodied, broken with trembling fingers and teary eyes, she feels like a victor of war. With her arms wrapped around him, his head buried against her shoulder - she allows herself to breathe in ease.

“He is gone,” his voice is broken. With her fingers tangled in his hair, Ha Jin’s mind reflects thousand years back to a time when So had believed Yo died at his hands. It is another similar sunset, lit up in hues of blood and gold - the yellowish amber of evening spilling over them.

She feels monstrous about how little she feels about Wook. The same mother his endeavour was to please all his life, had taken his life in the end. She remembers the tone the woman had employed to talk about him - the only son who had pleased her, but then in the end only survival had mattered to her. With her eyes closed she remembers the pitiful way Jeongjong had passed away - how he had demanded his mother to tell him what he meant for her. It was one of the things that remained unchanged - Ha Jin thinks with a sigh - Queen Yoo has never learned to be a good mother.