At Long Last

The Little Tomato

A/N: This is for CLOYtober's second prompt, Tomato. 🍅
I certainly shed tears over this chapter, and I sure hope you enjoy this one.

—————————————————————

As the military bus slowly rumbled along the bare asphalt roads, Yoon Se-ri found herself repeatedly questioning her sanity as a mother.

Was she doing the right thing, by bringing seven year old Jeong Hwan on a tour to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), especially to the Panmunjeom in the Joint Security Area (JSA)?

Beside her, the little boy was busy playing with his Nintendo Switch.

Whether this decision was right or wrong, Se-ri did not know, as she absentmindedly watched Jeong Hwan hurl yet another pokéball at the Snorlax he was catching.

What she knew as a mother, was that this decision hadn't come easy.

It was something which the heiress had always thought to do, to bring Jeong Hwan, and one day, Jin-ah as well, on a DMZ peace tour.

She wanted to bring their children as close to North Korea as physically possible, to educate them on the history of the Korean War. Se-ri wished to share as much as she could, of Jeong Hyeok's life prior to his defection with the children.

With Jeong Hwan and Jin-ah turning seven and five respectively, it was increasingly difficult for them to evade or tackle questions from their son.

Why was it that Daddy did not know Lotte World Adventure and Magic Island as a child?

Everyone else's parents knew - they spoke about an old ride which they used to love as kids at a birthday party. Daddy had simply remained quiet, settling for a polite smile, much to Jeong Hwan's bewilderment.

Why was it that Mommy called tensed consonants "double consonants", but Daddy used the term "strong consonants"?

Of course, Daddy also uses Hangul letters. But he writes certain strokes in different positions from the ones that Mommy writes.

These differences, as much as Jeong Hyeok tried to mask them for the sake of the children, always had a way of resurfacing to elicit more questions from Jeong Hwan.

So even though her husband had displayed reluctance in allowing their son to visit the DMZ, Se-ri had gone ahead with the plan.

It wasn't somewhere that Jeong Hyeok could join Se-ri and Jeong Hwan in visiting.

Advance passport screening by the US-led United Nations Command rendered it impossible for a defector to visit, especially one with a military background like himself.

A large part of him lamented this, for as a father, he yearned to be there with Jeong Hwan.

Jeong Hyeok wanted to be there, to help the young boy navigate through all the information and harsh truths that he would inevitably be exposed to.

Yet another part of him felt relieved.

Cowardly, dishonorably, relieved.

No matter what others said or thought, to Ri Jeong Hyeok, his defection would always come across as a craven abdication of his moral duty as a North Korean citizen and a son.

The guilt would always be looming over him, as much as he regretted nothing with Se-ri and the children by his side.

If he were to revisit Panmunjeom, he would come face-to-face with the North's Phanmun Pavilion, while standing at South Korea's Freedom House.

That would be too much to bear.

Too raw.

The last time Jeong Hyeok had been on guard duty at Panmunjeom in his early military service days, he had been looking at the South's Freedom House, with his feet planted to the ground at Phanmun Pavilion.