FALLING SLOWLY ||Complete||

Stroke of midnight

It comes back to him with consciousness - slowly as if a dragged out inhale. The air that fills his lungs is stale and dusty and his head throbs under the weight of muddled thoughts. Injuries - he could count for later. Foolishness - he finds no time to repent for. His eyes crack open into the bluish haze of darkness lit by a distant light and he feels the tell - tale pressure of restraints around his wrists. A painful realization shoots through him as if his heart is squeezed by an invisible palm - Ha Jin - she must be with Jun!

In his ears the shot still echoes. Against his darkening vision the last image he recalls is that of the utter disbelief in Wook’s face - followed by mind numbing pain. The bullet had not broken his skin by the time the sheer agony twists his features and he knows she had killed him a long before her bullet had found him - it had been the moment when he realized that his mother had sacrificed him - willingly - even deliberately - as a means to reach her own end. 

So doesn’t understand the twisted loyalties they share - but he knows of that particular feeling. Knows of the bitterness of being the one forsaken. He wonders if Wook’s actions had warranted it or if he had acted out knowing the end was drawing closer and he remembers following them through the grimy debris of pipes and steam and oil - the general chaos of the dock - then up and up and up - until Wook stands at the very edge, sun a halo behind his head and their mother held up against him. It is not his expression that makes him pause - but the cold indifference in her eyes. Standing with her back to her death - with all her secrets out in open, the woman he was brought up to call his mother - looks like an avenging goddess. It is then - he should have known. Just as Jun came up behind him. 

He remembers each blow as a bruise on his skin - an ache in his bones. It is in his peripheral vision that he catches the mother and son duo battling for the gun. He never sees the exact moment when she snatches it. The first bullet that she fires is not at Wook - but it is aimed at him. At that time he thinks it was a mistake. But in the darkness of his new prison he realizes that his mother never makes mistakes. It was meant for him - it was meant to injure his hand. 

As if the memory had opened a valve somewhere pain shoots through his arm. The bonds must have numbed most of the senses, effectively working as a restrainer on bleeding. The blood loss had knocked him out of it. His memory spins back to the first image he had of the entire recollection - of his mother spinning on her heels, of her aim resting on Wook - of the look that flashed across his eyes. 

A door opens somewhere and a dark figure stands against the faint source of light. He knows who it is without context and explanation. 

“Did I worry you brother?” his smile is crazed, as he bends down to offer him a clear view of his face. 

In front of him stands Wook, healthy and whole. 

“Did you think she would forsake me as easily as she had done with you? All those years ago?” His voice rasps and So realizes everything he had witnessed had been a well scripted drama acted out for the benefit of several credible witnesses. Wook was a dead man - Jun has been replaced - the sharp edge of the justice they had fought for and obtained has been twisted to point at themselves. His mother - he reminds himself - likes to be unpredictable. All this time they had been playing her game - to her goal and she made them feel that they had been winning against her. 

Wook clicks his tongue. 

“I made a promise to you didn’t I?” He draws out his words, pulling him up to his feet and shoving him to the sided. The dark room spins around him and his eyes dart across searching for means of escape. There is a window on the very far end, a crack running down the boarded up glass. Suddenly - like a gulp of air - he is hit with a memory. This place also had once been his prison. “To show you how I snatch everything that is yours?” Wook continues to speak. “Keep your eyes open brother - it has just started.” His laughter is a cackle. “Poor Ha Jin she must be so happy to finally have you back home with her - huh? Wonder how they might be celebrating? Jun is one lucky bastard.”

He clenches his jaw, squeezing his eyes shut, trying to block out the mockery of Wook’s tone. The man lives showmanship - the reaction of other’s to his actions that must their previous encounters had taught him. He will not give Wook the satisfaction of managing to rile him up. 

“I have it all planned out…” He goes on. “Soon enough Jun would announce his retirement from athletes before the upcoming - what was it again - yes - FINA right? I might make him confess to some stuff too - a little dent in the fame as you go?” He is refastening the bonds, the weight on his legs makes So wince. He is only starting to realize the extent of damages he has suffered. “Wonder why I’m telling you all?” Wook looks up, finishing with a flourish. “Because sadly, you won’t be there to see it - tonight is your last brother.” He stands up straight, eyes aflame in the darkness. “Ironical isn’t it - a boarded up house - soon to be filled with monoxide - once a legend dying a death of a coward?”

**

She shuts herself inside the washroom and clasps a hand over her trembling lips, having a breath. Her skin prickles and eyes water. Ha Jin remembers with a sinking heart that her mobile is left where she tossed it on the cushions of the living room. She wonders if Jun would be going through the many messages of people trying too reach out to her - if he would know that she has realized. She prays he does not. Her knees buckle under the weight of her own fears and she sinks to the cold floor, holding herself - gathering herself - willing to be stronger than she really felt. 

A call she will have to take - with him in attendance. 

It takes a few gulps of air and a very fragile resolve for her to reach her mobile and pick it up as Jun lounges around - hand wrapped in new bandages and checking out the dogeared books stacked by the fireplace. He raises an eyebrow at her. 

“I’m going to order takeout,” she tells him, the slight tremor of her tone covered up by a grin. Please be safe - please be safe - a prayer she murmurs for the sake of the man she loves as she dials up his brother. 

“Ha Jin Ssi?” Yo answers on the second ring. 

“Oh hi - one large pepperoni pizza please?”

“Umm…” Yo sounds stuck between a chuckle and a frown. She doesn’t give him a chance to ponder upon it. 

“Yes - its about the offer you called me about before? Yes - yes - the buy one get one free deal?”

She hears him getting up, or knocking something over. 

“Is he there?” He picks up fast and she could only thank for his years of training. “Is he close by?”

“Yes. And please check before you dispatch - I brought the wrong package home last time.”

Yo curses. 

“Ha Jin Ssi - the one at home is Jun? Say you want extra cheese if I’m right.”

Her eyes dart across the hall and meet Jun’s. He smiles at her, flipping through the pages of an old magazine with So on its cover. She offers him a hesitant smile.

“And add some extra cheese.”