Crash Landing on You - Edelweiss Diaries

Part 14 - Hard conversations

It was past noon and she still wasn't home.

"Don't check for direct references. What if they were talking in code?" He texted Ju Mok back.

Ju Mok and Eun Dong had confirmed that there had been no tails on her. Nor on him. And yet his mind was far from ease.

He'd rounded the area three times too. Going back to Bern didn't seem like a good idea when she wasn't picking his calls.

A police vehicle drifted past him and he resisted the urge to follow it. Sitting inside a car parked on the side of the highway felt like doing nothing. But he didn't know what else he could do.

Taking out the crushed post-it note from his pocket, he read it again.

"Going to Bern to get my stuff. I will be back in 2-3 hrs. Now, if I had your number, I might have texted you. Too bad you don't get to stop me."

With his hands folded on the steering, he rested his forehead over them.

The torment was familiar. Standing outside her ICU, willing her to live from one second to the next had been one kind of hell. Not having her in front of his eyes incited the anguish in his chest several times over. Raising his head, he conked it side to side, stretching to relieve the stiffness in his neck.

Logic over emotion. Surely he was missing something. Or ignoring to see what was in front of his eyes.

Rubbing his forehead, he sighed. Black Porche. He had seen two of them at pullouts during the times he'd circled the vicinity of his house. Nothing on the roads or at the store parking lots nearby.

Wait. It wasn't two different pullouts, but the same one. Between the two instances, the car must have been parked there for over an hour.

Powering the jeep again, he took a U-turn to drive back. He zipped through the distance in minutes and pulled in to find the Porche still there. Jumping out, he raced to the car and lowered to peer through the glass. There were no belongings to hint if the car belonged to her.

"Argh!" He kicked the ground. Though nothing had been easy about their relationship, he wanted this search to end.

What next?  With his hands fisted by his waisted, he took a few steps towards the trail opening. A board in german, read, 'Keep out. Black ice.' His feet pivoted to return to the car. An odd glint of pink metal caught his eye. His head flipped to the path again. A phone? He dashed down the incline and soon, his feet hit the smooth ice. Skidding to a sudden halt, he noticed the striations on the ice of something being dragged down. His gaze followed the pattern to the edge after which the path turned and the downward incline appeared undisturbed. Don't overthink. Just get to the phone first.

His fingers grabbed the back of his neck and he looked around. Closing his eyes for a beat, he took in a deep breath. Did he still have the snow grips in the trunk? He bolted to the jeep. Luck on was his side then. Grabbing the snow grips, he mounted them over his shoes and dashed down the trail. Once on the ice, he slowed. His feet wobbled but managed to find grip. Bending down he reached for the phone, his breath shaking. Please let it not be her.

But the home screen image was indeed a picture of her smiling back at him. "Yoon Se Ri." He cried. "Yoon Se Ri, are you here? Answer me!"

His feet buckled. "Yoon Se Ri?" The shivers grew stronger. Bending down, he braced himself against his knees. There was little confidence in him to take another step. With his fingers still shaking, he called on emergency services and Gu Seung Jun too.

It would be another ten minutes until help would get there. Without a doubt that would still be an eternity in the ninth circle of hell. While the denial cut through his being, he surrendered to the disquiet of his mind. Love and despair too came in turns.