A Snowdrop Blooms Twice

Chapter 6: When the Flower Eclipses the Sun

Author's Note: Hello everyone! SnivyLord here and welcome to another long chapter! I'm trying to limit the length of these chapters so I can get consistent updates for you guys, but I'm obviously failing lol. I'm going to try to keep chapters at a consistent length, emphasis on "try." I said this chapter was going to be Soo Ho focused but tada! I decided to make this about both of them! This chapter is gonna be kinda action packed... more dramatic since I'm trying to tie up some loose ends that were not addressed at the end of Snowdrop. Specifically one loose end, and by tying up loose ends, I mean extend because I'm gonna run with this specific plot point and have Yeong Ro act like a girl boss, but still completely out of her element. By doing this, I am going to conveniently place Yeong Ro in danger yet again because you know... why not? And when Yeong Ro's in danger, Soo Ho's usually not that far behind. Will they meet in this chapter? They're gonna be in the same place, but who knows if they're going to meet. Also, everything that I mention about North Korea in this chapter is completely fictional and this was partially inspired from Uncharted and Crash Landing On You... kinda. 

About a week or so after the Hosu University incident, Soo Ho's embarked on a journey to North Korea to complete their mission, which is to save their fallen comrades' families. By this time, Yeong Ro's injury had healed and she had received word from Kang Moo concerning the whereabouts of her stepmother, Hong Aera. Yeong Ro had already confronted her father since she had resolved to try to get closure for herself and even though it was to her disdain, she also had to confront her stepmother. Yeong Ro had a mission of her own and despite Kang Moo's insistent objections, Yeong Ro convinced him to take her and Hanna to where her stepmother was hiding out, which was in Pyongyang, which was conveniently where Soo Ho and his group were also heading. Yeong Ro had told her friends that she was going to track down her stepmother to get back the money she stole from her family, but she didn't exactly say where that endeavor would take her. Whether that small obscuration would end up costing Yeong Ro her life, only time would tell.

"I can't believe it.... we're in... North Korea..." Yeong Ro breathed out and she felt like she going to hyperventilate since she had never done something this dangerous before and she has a pretty high bar for making poor and dangerous choices that can get her killed.

Kang Moo walked up beside her on the beach and sighed as he slung their supply bag over his shoulder, "Then why in the world did you insist on coming then? Since you were so desperate to finish things yourself?" Yeong Ro looked back at the little ship that started to retreat back into the waters and out of sight.

"Couldn't she have fled to Germany like everyone else? Why am I not surprised she ended up defecting to North Korea?" Yeong Ro felt herself get angry even thinking about her stepmother's conniving ways. The nerve of the woman to actually run off with her son to North Korea of all places.

"It's going to be alright Yeong Ro, besides... you and I have done dumber things with even worse odds, so I don't think this should be too much of a problem," Hanna came up on the other side and looked reassuringly at Yeong Ro, who snickered and adjusted the sleeves on her black coat, "At most, this really should be only a really strange bonding trip."

Kang Moo scoffed and proceeded to walk off the beach, "Yeah... a bonding trip with the worst team members..." his remark making both of the girls shout out to him.

"Yah! Wait for us!"

Within the fields at the far outskirts of Pyongyang moved three figures hiding in the darkness. Soo Ho led the way back into North Korea in their operation to try to smuggle Gyeok Chan's and Eung Cheol's families down to the South. Soo Ho didn't think there would be any contacts in North Korea that would help smuggle two families on a boat of all things back to South Korea, but Cheongya managed to find a way. The direct path from North Korea to South Korea was a little too obvious so Sui Hui made a plan to smuggle them to Japan and then have them change their identities before smuggling them to the South. Now granted, the only problem was getting back into North Korea without getting spotted. Naturally, the military and the high government officials would recognize all three of their faces, so stealing their documentation and escorting both families was going to be a challenge.