Crash Landing on You - Edelweiss Diaries

Part 2 - Thorny regrets

Se Ri's body lay limp on the hospital bed. The doctors buzzed around busy repairing the stitches that had come apart from her careless dash towards the border.

Her mother leaned onto the glass from the weight of uncertainty that gripped her daughter's future. It wasn't the present that troubled her. Se Ri had the strength to face a thousand men, she knew. But she couldn't tell if Se Ri would endure not having the one man she loved by her side. She let out a prayer that the love that never came easy in her life, can only be a blessing.

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A shaft of pain scorched Se Ri's side and she stirred to find her mom, holding her hand.

Ri Jeong Hyuk...

"Omma." Her breath was hollow. "Ri Jeong Hyuk" She repeated his name endlessly. "Ri Jeong Hyuk."

Se Ri's mother clutched her other arm that raised towards the hallway window. "He had to leave, Se Ri'ya."

There was concern too now when the image of him in handcuffs came to her. Nothing would buy her his safety and she squished her teary eyes at the piercing thought of helplessness.

"I miss him," she uttered, but the words wouldn't come out. Her chest continued to heave from the dark rope of despair that tightened around her. Were they only meant to love each other from far? she questioned her fate.

Ri Jeong Hyuk wasn't a man of grand gestures, nonetheless, it had been the small things that had captured her heart.

"Are you hurt?" She bunched up the sheet unknowing, as she wailed. "Are you all right?" His voice poured into her mind.

"Here drink this." And the sobs racked her being, as her mind's eye caught the image of him offering a cup of water to calm her down.

While in that crucible of pain, her thoughts brought flashes of him smiling at her. "Ri Jeong Hyuk!" That smile of his that ever held a silent avowal of what she meant to him.

Their conversations had always been punctuated with long pauses, a reprieve in which she'd cherished his chosen words immensely. However, this infinite stretch of silence was one she had never prepared for. The memories she once held dear, now stood as a reminder of the future they couldn't have.

Together. Until then, she didn't know the word was an ode in itself.

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Later that evening, despite the heaviness of doom that settled around her with his leaving, she sat unaffected amidst her family.

Se Ri's father took a seat close to her, while her second brother and sister-in-law entered the room. "Sit down." she coughed, mustering all the strength to not sound feeble.

"You don't tell me what to do Se Ri." Her second brother, Yoon Se Hyung, barked. "This is not your house to order me around."

"When will you get questioned by the NIS?" Go Sang-ah, her sister-in-law sounded eager.

"It's done. I think I'll be prosecuted," Se Ri declared.

"It's about the violation of the National Security Act." Se Hyung looked pleased. "You should get a good lawyer."

"Don't worry! She will have my attorney." Se Ri's father rescued her from having to formulate a response. "Due to the extenuating circumstances, she'll face a suspended sentence or a fine, at best."