Crash Landing on You - Edelweiss Diaries

Part 13 - Downturn

He dialed Gu Seung Jun's number from his phone. "Is she home yet?" He asked as the call switched to the Jeep's dash over Bluetooth.

"I would have called you if she was already here." Gu Seung Jun huffed into the phone. "Seo Dan is home to keep an eye out for Se Ri. I'm rounding up the trail in the back."

"The roads are clear." A black car approached him from the opposite direction. Craning his neck, he tried to catch an early view of the driver. "I checked for accidents along the Lungern, Bern route and nothing has been reported."

The distance between the cars narrowed and accordingly, the pulse at the base of his neck quickened. A middle-aged woman with glasses drove by with a child in the backseat and his fingers curling over the wheel tightened.

"Perhaps she is still in Bern," Gu Seung Jun sounded tentative. "Possibly meeting someone for work."

"Her mother checked with her assistant," he said. "She is off until tomorrow."

"Are you sure that the car in the CCTV footage belongs to Se Ri?" Creaking sound of metal over metal screeched out of the car speakers and he figured that Gu Seung Jun was at the gate that would lead him back into the estate grounds.

"Based on the time she was at the front desk and when the Porsche drove off the parking lot, it has to be her." He breathed out loud, repeating to himself that it had been three and a half hours since she left the hotel.

"She'll most likely make it here in the next hour. You are overthinking this."

This time, I hope you are right, Gu Seung Jun. He leaned back into the seat. "I'm going to drive around for a bit. Call me if she makes it home."

Once he got past the bend on the snow-laden road, even as he continued to steer the vehicle, his fingers traced the ring again. Where are you Yoon Se Ri? He shook his head refusing to entertain the possibilities that loomed in the corner of his mind and trained his eyes on the long windy road. Find me, will you?

*****

Earlier that morning...

Bright light flickered behind her eyelids and her forearm flopped over her eyes to block them. Movement stirred in her limbs and eventually, she sat up. She rubbed her eyes to squish the remnants of sleep, to find herself still in his bedroom. Breathing out loud, she placed a hand over her chest. No, their bedroom.

Tipping back her head against the headboard, her eyes closed again and her hands grazed the bedside table in search of her phone. Instead, she clasped a rather short rounded object, the rustle of paper making her head turn. A post-it was stuck on a small oval item and she peeled off the note. His graceful, flowy handwriting was ever in contrast with the short pithy phrases he wrote her. With the corner of her lips lifted in a smile, she studied the remote that had only two buttons on it. Open and close. Her forehead creased. Seeking an explanation, she lifted the note into her line of sight.

"Need to take care of a broken water pipe. Stepping out.

Happy Birthday, Yoon Se Ri.

The key unlocks many gifts.

And it comes with a view too.

So, is that a yes?"

The curtains. Extending out of her arm, she pressed on the top button that claimed to open it. The long folds of the drape pulled back with a whiz. Tossing the remote on the table, she hopped out of bed and skittered across to reach the center of the glass wall. Her head angled measuring the length of the glass in front of her. Thirty feet?