Forty, Thirty-Six

He Meets Her

Author's Note: So, given my track record (I still have an unfinished CLOY fic, I know, I know) I thought the safe choice would be to set this as a series of one-shots. I just had to get this off my chest after the finale!

2016

It had been years – years and years – since he had set foot in this particular establishment. If it wasn't for the address, Yi-jin would have had serious doubts that this was the same bar he had once visited with his seonbae Seo Jung-hyuk to commiserate in the pitfalls of a reporter's life. When she had been sitting one table over, and he had....

Yi-jin shook his head as if that could scatter the thought.

To take his mind off the memories, he scanned the room from where he sat nursing a bottle of soju. Gone were the cement floor and grey brick walls which he remembered. Now that Yi-jin had taken another look, the layout was the same. It only looked unfamiliar since it had been outfitted with a sleek wood-panelled, U-shaped bar counter which took up most of the space, with tables clustered around it and ambient light all around.

"A 40-year-old man shouldn't be drinking by himself in a trendy bar like this..." Yi-jin muttered to himself with a wry smile as he poured himself another glass. Youngsters in their early 20s sat all around him, in pairs or in groups, raucous with their drinking games and their chatter. He wasn't sure what had possessed him to sit down.

It had been a momentous day for him. After a 17-year tenure at UBS, Yi-jin had finally committed to leaving his anchor position today. There would still be a handover period. He had agreed to stay on and train his replacement until the higher-ups gave their approval. A position with the Journalism faculty of a respected local university was waiting for him, cushy in comparison to the high-pressure environment of the newsroom. He should have been celebrating with other people. He should have felt like a weight had been lifted.

And yet he felt, somehow, untethered. And during moments like this, when he felt like nothing was tying him in place, Yi-jin tended to drift into nostalgia. Perhaps that was why he had decided to visit this bar, on this day.

Or, perhaps, it had been fate.

His body reacted before his mind did. All of a sudden, Yi-jin's heart felt as though it had speared up into his throat. His breath cut short.

Only a second later did his thoughts catch up to what his eyes had already been drawn to, as if by a magnet: a woman who had just sat down on the opposite end of the U-shaped bar counter, still petite and sprightly, with a round doll's face and long, shiny hair. Her hand, as she lifted it to catch a server's attention, was as childlike as he remembered. It had always been amusing to think that those small hands could wield a sabre with such deadly speed and precision.

Na Hee-do.

Yi-jin swallowed, unsure of what to do with himself. Improbable as it seemed, he had never run into her since their break-up. The only time they had met were during news interviews, and even then those had been virtual occasions, given that the anchorman was always positioned in the broadcasting room or newsroom.

He had followed her life from a distance, of course he had. The information had been easy to come by, and Yi-jin had a close rapport with the Sports department.

"Did you see? Na Hee-do seonsu got married right under our noses." "Who's the man?" "Kim something something... a financial consultant or something. Nothing to do with sports."

"Na Hee-do seonsu just announced her retirement!" "I wonder if she's pregnant?" "Maybe just sick of winning gold medals."

And then, as she had gradually faded from the fencing world, he had had to rely more and more on hearsay. The last he had heard of her was a year or so before, from some junior sports reporters who had happened to be gossiping in the newsroom.