January 1951. He saved her life in a city torn apart by war during the Korean War.
December 1953. The soldier is reunited with the governor's daughter- souls scarred and bodies battered, seeking the second chance that Fate has dealt.
A/N: Please note that while everything else related to history is kept factually accurate to my best ability, the timeline for the 1960 "Bloody Tuesday" April Revolution has been brought forward to 1954 for the sake of the story.
—————————————————————————
Post-war South Korea was constantly plagued by every issue imaginable— political unrest, autocratic rule under President Syngman Rhee, widespread corruption and hard-line approach to opposition.
With over forty per cent of South Korea's industrial and power-generating facilities left in ruins after the war, the people suffered constant power outages, impaired telecommunications, food shortage, poverty...just to name some.
In the southeastern port city of Masan, trouble was brewing amid growing discontentment with the ruling regime's autocratic ways and uneven development of South Korea.
It wasn't long before students and labor groups took to the streets in protest, following the unjust death of a student protestor at the hands of the police during demonstrations staged against rigged elections.
The protests spread, and violent suppression from the government soon followed, and the situation quickly escalated out of control.
To Seri, that was extremely worrying— her father Yoon Jeung Pyeong was aligned politically with the President as the governor of Seoul, but personally did not stand for the use of violence against the young demonstrators, many of whom were around his daughter's age.
It put the older Yoon in a very precarious position; he couldn't openly oppose President Rhee for that would result in horrifying consequences, but to the protestors, the Governor was nothing more than the president's lackey.
The governor's daughter followed the news closely, fearing further escalation in the violence and scale of the protests.
Months had gone by since the day she first turned up unannounced at his noodle stall, and the seasons in between had slipped away, slowly turning into spring.
Today, things were no different for Seri and Jeong Hyeok.
It was business as usual on this chilly day, though slower than what it usually was.
They made small talk during the breaks; more specifically, it was Seri talking about a funny anecdote involving Mr. Hong, and Jeong Hyeok listening in comfortable silence.
Everything was peaceful, until urgent footsteps shattered the peace lingering in the spring winds.
"Captain Ri! Miss Yoon!" A familiar masculine voice called out, one which the governor's daughter quickly recognized as that of their friend, Kim Joo Meok's.
The younger man sprinted over to the noodle stall counter in the next instant, gripping the countertop for leverage as he bent over to draw in deep breaths.
"Joo Meok, what is it?" Jeong Hyeok asked concernedly upon seeing his former subordinate's anxiousness.
"Did you listen to the radio?"
Those words didn't bode well. Alarmed, the former military captain turned to the silent device tucked in a corner of his stall. "No, I couldn't get a signal this morning when I tried to turn it on...what's going on?"
"It's the student protests from Masan; they have spread to the capital. This morning, students from Korea University marched to the National Assembly demanding fair elections—"
اوووه! هذه الصورة لا تتبع إرشادات المحتوى الخاصة بنا. لمتابعة النشر، يرجى إزالتها أو تحميل صورة أخرى.
