Surprise!

The Call - Part 2

Yoon Se-ri could hear her son's excited babble at the other end of her office as she listened to one of her employees make a case for sourcing the wool for her new luxury handbags from Peru rather than Wales.

She'd already decided on New Zealand, their Coopworth sheep produced a softer grade of wool, but she wanted to hear all the options before she threw in her curve ball.

Mu-hyeok's nanny was reading him a story and he was laughing uproariously at the tales of a mischievous farm animal. The sound of his joy sang through Se-ri's body warming her like a fire.

Just nine more months and Jeong-hyeok could hear that laugh too. A pang of pain thudded into her chest. Nine whole months. An ocean of time. Their son would be nearly two. He'd be walking, talking, a different child. That laugh would have changed.

"Chairwoman?"

She blinked. The designer who'd been presenting was looking at her curiously. The whole design committee was staring at her. She lifted her wrist and glanced at her Breguet watch pointedly as though she had been merely bored and not completely absent.

"It's 5.10pm. Let's take a br-"

Her pocket began to vibrate. The tinkling keys of Chopin's Nocturne rang out. Her words froze. Her heart stopped. The phone fell silent for a moment, then began vibrating and ringing again. That special, specific ringtone that belonged to one person and could only be used when he was in Europe. Numb fingers dug into her pocket and fished the phone out.

"Anyong haseyo?"

Her throat was dry, her voice scratchy.

"Anyong haseyo."

The soft rumble of his voice sent heat pulsing through her body. She stumbled to her feet and away from the cluster of chairs where her employees sat staring, and made her way towards the ceiling-to-floor windows where the sun was setting in a haze of red light.

"Where are you? Are you okay?" She whispered the words, alert to the interested silence behind her.

"I'm here. Can you come?"

She gripped the phone against her ear. Here? At their home? How? Had something happened? She couldn't ask him any of that. He had taught her to be cautious. Never say anything you wouldn't in front of a North Korean official. Can you come?

"Yes." Of course. Anywhere.

"Bring your parents."

She blinked. Furrowed her brow in confusion.

"Umma!" Mu-hyeok gave a plaintive cry behind her. He'd recently discovered the sound for 'mother' and enjoyed the power of calling her to him. She spun to look. Her baby was wriggling in his nanny's arms, hands outstretched for her. His bow-shaped mouth and round cheeks were hers but he'd stolen his quiet doe eyes from his father.

"I'll bring them." Her mother would persuade her father.

There was a pause. A stretch of silence. Then, "I love you."

Her heart was a boiling kettle, whistling wildly, bubbling and overflowing with emotion.

She put a hand to her chest to soothe the fierce energy before it burst out of her.

"I love you, too."

The line went dead.

"Umma!" Higher, frustrated now. His little face scrunched in annoyance. There would be tears next. She hurried over to take him and it was a relief to wrap his warm body in her arms and let the wild surge of love boiling inside her spill into her little miracle. He burrowed into her chest, clenching her Mulberry silk shirt in his fists and rooting for her nipple. She pressed her lips to his soft head, taking a moment to collect herself, then hitched him up so that his head nestled against her shoulder.