A collection of one-shots/missing scenes exploring what happened that night after...
...Yoon Se Ri and Ri Jeong Hyeok drank soju together in her apartment
...Cho Cheol Gang almost kidnapped Yoon Seri in Seoul
...they exchanged couple rin...
A/N: This is a pair of (unrelated) re-imaginings of a couple of scenes: the one where Seri was shot (The lack of symmetry between the gunshot scenes always bugged me. Yoon Seri fainted too soon.) and the one where they exchanged rings that somehow felt both superfluous and incomplete
There's a screech of tires. A gunshot. The sound of shattering glass.
Ri Jeong Yeok whirls around and sees Seri in her car. Her right arm is thrown up to shield against the spray of glass from the broken window. She looks up at him and turns her head in the direction of the threat so he follows her gaze, spotting Cho Cheol Gang.
Ri Jeong Hyeok fires in quick succession and watches the other man go down. He turns back to check on Seri. She is looking down, staring at her hands.
His instincts start screaming. He runs to the driver's side of the car and yanks the door open.
"Yoon Seri!"
She looks at him, eyes wide with surprise. She had unbuckled her seat belt and felt a sudden sharp pain bloom at her right side. Her fingers came away wet and she stared at them, uncomprehending. Did a shard of glass hit her? Why did it hurt so much?
"Ri Jeong Hyeok-ssi..." She leans towards him as his arms open to catch her coming out of the car.
He notices glass glittering all over the front seat in the moonlight and hears her ask, "Are you injured? Are you...?"
Seri gasps as pain shoots up her side again, but she manages to grab his arms to steady herself.
"I'm fine," he answers automatically. "What happened? Are you alright?"
She tries to take a deep breath and instead becomes lightheaded. Her knees buckle.
"Seri!" He catches her and lowers her gently to the ground.
She looks up at him, head swimming. "He has a gun. Did he hit you?"
"No," he says as his eyes land on the red stain on her right side. His heart drops.
She uses what is left of her focus to assess his injuries. Was this man really just in a brawl? How does he manage to look this good?
"Thank goodness," she sighs, and with that exhale, the last shreds of her consciousness slip away. The hand gripping his arm falls limply to the side and her eyelids flutter shut.
In the deafening silence, snow continues to fall. The flakes land unnoticed, melting onto their skin and the growing red spot on the white fabric of her clothes.
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* * *
"I'll always remember you."
It was the night of her birthday, after they'd slipped rings on each other's fingers. He wasn't sure why he'd done it, but he was being honest when he said he had kind of panicked when pressed to find a birthday gift. And yet, it felt right.
Despite how clumsily the moment unfolded with his stumbling words and her impatience, he was deeply moved by the sight of the gold bands on their intertwined hands.
"You know," she said, "You're doing a terrible job at not making any memories for me in Seoul."
He recalled that moment in the parking garage and his amusement was drowned out by his guilt. It's true. Here he was, making another promise he couldn't keep.
She laughed lightly at his expression. "It's okay. I rescind the order. I want... to make as many memories as possible, while we can."
He watched a tear slide down her cheek despite the smile on her face, and his heart broke anew.
"You deserve more than memories," he said, brushing away the tear with his thumb. "You deserve so much more. I'm so ---"
"Shh," she pressed her fingers to his lips. "Don't." There was no room for apologies. Or guilt. Not when there was precious little time left.
He reached for her hand and kissed the fingers that were just on his lips, then pulled her close, kissing her forehead as their arms wrapped around each other.
It was she who pulled him down for a kiss -- one that started with tenderness and quickly changed into hunger.
It was she who took him by the hand and led him to her bed, their hearts racing.
It was she who pulled his sweater off, then his shirt, and finally ran her hands over the soft skin and taut muscles she'd only been able to touch through layers of fabric.
He felt like a pile of kindling that someone just threw a match in, igniting helplessly... with the certainty that a stronger, hotter fire was about to start burning.
He knew he had his reasons for not taking this step and could not for the life of him remember what they were.
There were so many things that were not in his power to give her, but this is not one of them. Seri could have whatever she wanted tonight.
It was, after all, her birthday.
A/N: For all of us who wondered if they slept together the night they exchanged rings, it felt appropriate to leave our overactive imaginations to the task of filling in the details. ;)
I'm just as surprised as anyone that there was another chapter brewing in my head, but I hope you like the contrast between these two brief one-shots.
