At Long Last

Letters to the North

Two weeks had gone by since Ri Jeong Hyeok returned to North Korea.

For two weeks, he had largely kept to himself, quietly keeping to the routine of work, home and work again.

Thankfully, the workload had piled up in his absence, and it provided very much-welcomed refuge for him.

When nights got long and painful, he allowed the anguish in his heart to manifest in the form of piano arpeggio chords.

Hour by hour, he would practice into the night.

He knew he should be interacting more with people.

But 'should' was more often than not, easier said than done.

It was only when Joo Meok called one night in the previous week to check if he was safely back in Pyongyang, that Jeong Hyeok found himself revisiting the military village with the smuggled letters and souvenirs in tow on a Sunday.

It was nicely nostalgic, sitting in his old residence which was now home to Pyo Chi Su.

Sitting around that small rectangular table in the living room summoned countless of fond memories of a certain South Korean girl.

It seemed just like yesterday when she was sitting at the table munching rice crisps dipped in sugar.

Or when she had made them all gather around for her little award ceremony during which she had -god forbid- tried to give his television away.

"Apart from these Toblerone bars, she has a letter for you all." Jeong Hyeok said, handing an envelope over to Eun Dong.

It wasn't just any envelope, but an envelope that Se-ri's fingers had touched.

"A letter? From Comrade Se-ri?" Eun Dong's boyish face was lit up with excitement.

Jeong Hyeok nodded, before handing a small album of photographs to Joo Meok. "Yes, I've shown her your letters and this is her reply. She wants to show you these pictures as well. You can take a look at these first."

"Oh! Pictures!" Joo Meok exclaimed, flipping the album open before Eun Dong and Kwang Beom crowded around him excitedly.

Smiling teasingly when he looked up from the album, Joo Meok added, "Comrade Se-ri looks just the same as I remember. The two of you look so good in these photos! If I didn't know better, I would think these were scenes from a South Korean drama filmed in Switzerland indeed."

"Comrade Se-ri is so beautiful indeed, and happy in these pictures with you, Captain Ri." That was Eun Dong, sweet and encouraging as always.

"Not only Comrade Se-ri, Captain Ri's smile is very good as well." Kwang Beom commented, in his typical stoic and sincere manner.

Sitting beside Kwang Beom, preoccupied with pretending as if he could care less, was Pyo Chi Su. The latter was presently busy with stealing glances at the photos during big bites of chocolate.

"Hn. Good that she's alive and kicking. "

Kwang Beom narrowed his eyes and simply ignored Chi Su's comments to continue flipping through the photos.

"Ugh! I must have lived for too long." Chi Su muttered, when the photo of Se-ri kissing Jeong Hyeok's cheek at Two Lakes Bridge appeared. "Why am I seeing these disturbing sights-"

"Well, I think it's very romantic!" Joo Meok retorted good-naturedly. "Snow mountains, blue skies, beautiful couple. You will never understand this, Captain Pyo."

"And why wouldn't I understand any of this?" He glared challengingly, biting off a large chunk of Toblerone in a hilarious bid to intimidate.

Joo Meok settled for giving him a withering look, eliciting a chuckle from Eun Dong.