FALLING SLOWLY ||Complete||

Zero hour

2.00 hours to zero,

Baek Ah is reeling. It was one thing to turn up late and get berated by coach Park but completely another to find his charge gone without notice. He would have taken the former gladly in a heartbeat. Now that he knows what had come to pass, and all that which is at the stake, he could not curse himself more. There was no need to chase that man rather than standing by So. When it comes to that, he has never aced the art of prioritizing. It is his self frustration that makes him take Kim Woo Hee by the shoulders.

“Did I not tell you to review the questions before?” His voice a low growl in his throat.

To her credit, the woman who is so small has a glare of a giant. It sobers up his guilt and self blame instantly. She looks irked rather than intimidated.

“I am not a mind reader Mr. Manager, and FYI, I did review questions - double checked almost at the cost of my job the questionnaire of that Yoo Won.”

“Then how? How?” Woo Hee shakes her hands, jerking herself out of his hold.

“How am I to know?”

Baek Ah exhales loudly, pinching the bridge of his nose. He wonders if Woo Hee knows what a disaster she avoided by a hair breadth and, if she did would she be as calm as a cucumber. Instead, he grasps at the last threads of his patience and tries to calm his tone.

“Do you have any idea where he went?” Woo Hee looks at him incredulously and shrugs.

“I’m no security personal or a dispatch commissioned to trail him.”

Oh she is hell bent on playing with his patience, he sighs and grits his teeth.

“I need to find him before he does something stupid.” Or somebody else does something to him is what he thinks inwardly.

The woman - arches a penciled eyebrow. The action makes up for thousand unsaid words.

“Where were you for so long then?”

“I - I” It had felt so important then, but he can’t bring himself to admit how easily he failed in his job.

“Fine,” she stuffs her hand inside her bag and takes out a mobile, to check something on its scree. “Let’s go and find this athlete of yours before he does something stupid.”

It is Beak Ah’s turn to stop and stare at her incredulously. “You would come?” He repeats stupidly.

“You seem to have this weird idea that I’m responsible for whatever happened or happens to you athlete - I’d rather prove you wrong before retiring for the night!”

“Woo Hee -” he has not taken her name in ages, and it feels so foreign in his lips.

She looks at him blankly.

“I’d rather not take unfinished business with you home with me,” She says briskly before marching toward the exit and shoving her security pass at the guard. “Come on!”

**

1.30 hours to zero,

Jung sways dazed by the power that vibrates through him. The feeling is quickly trailed after by a blinding pain radiating from where a fist had contacted with his jaw. It snaps his head back and the joins in his neck crack when he pulls his head back. His hair is mattered with sweat and creates a small drizzle at the movement.

He is till sober enough to taste blood in his mouth. Jung runs his tongue over the cut in his lip gathering the taste of sweat and blood, and wipes a thumb over his sweaty brow, before curling his fist for his next blow.