FALLING SLOWLY ||Complete||

Silence - before the storm

Wisteria grows in abandon on and around her father’s grave. It is a heaven of purple and white, in the lush of greenest grass, a personal shrine she likes to walk in the mornings or whenever she is longing for peace. Now Oh Soo Yeon kneels at the mound of earth, head buried in the thicket of grass, shoulders shaking in muted sobs.

Guilt burns in her blood and pours out of her eyes.

This is not how they were supposed to meet. No they are not supposed to meet at all. She tries to will herself back to calmness and the more she tries, the more she is reminded of the baby that had wailed in excruciating pain when its tendons and joints were stretched and manipulated.

“Why did you bring him here?” She demands through her sobs, knowing Park Soo Kyung is standing a few feet away.

Oh how she longed but for the wretched promise she made - fresh tears that now feel like acid pool in her eyes.

“Don’t hurt him Soo Yeon - ah,” Park says, he almost stretches a hand to pat her shoulder when she straightens up, looking at him through red rimmed eyes. He leaves the hand hanging by his side with a sigh.

“Hurt him? Hurt him? Do you even know how much I had hurt him in the first place? Things I did with my own hands, things I watched being done?” Unable to help, unable to soothe . Her insides twitch at the reminder. Her tone is shrill but she lets the rein go, the understanding in her oldest friend’s face hurts more than any old memory. “No, its the best thing for him.”

“He’d think you ran away because you are reminded of how disgusting his deformity looked.” Park says slowly, approaching the hysterical woman with a tentative hand. “Soo Yeon - ah, he deserves better..” She stills and her eyes widen, she looks at him as if he had slapped her. “You think he had the best life? Do you really think that Soo Yeon - ah?”

“He promised me -” she mutters the words as as if its a faith that she holds into and Park shakes his head.

“For the second time you trusted a man who keeps his career ahead of his family.” He takes her hand when she makes a move to turn around and forces her to listen. She wretches her hand out of his hold.

“But he was okay - I know - I’ve watched - I -”

Park shakes his head a dark look crossing his eyes.

“The insecurity was always there and the accident has brought it up again. This has happened before - it took me an year to bring him out of that shell. This time we don’t have that long. They had it grilled to his head - that he is a monster, an abnormality. He believes it - he believes it all. If you don’t help him he will be lost to us forever. He believes he is dying.”

“It’s not true!”

“And who is going to tell him that? His own father will have him believe he was born deformed for the sake of his own image - who will tell him that?”

**

By the time thunder rattles the windows and drizzle picks up in speed Ha Jin starts to worry. Her day had been mostly occupied by trying to cheer up Park Soon Deok since returning from her mid morning walk. Ha Jin learns it earlier that day that the ex Taekwondo athlete with whom she had been sharing a room is in fact the daughter of So’s coach. After the injury that had left her wheelchair bound for the time being she had been living with Miss Oh.

Insecurities had settled themselves on the girl - Ha Jin could almost see it in her eyes. The girl yearned for her father’s affection who she feared silently preferred a boy over the girl he had been blessed with. There was an undercurrent of jealousy when she observed dryly that he had not accompanied her to treatment like he seems to trail after So.  

“Oppa -” she reminisces darkly, “has always been the son Appa wanted.”

The fact that instead of hanging around to spend the day with her, coach Park had gone after Miss Oh did not sit well with Soon Deok. The scowl on her face resembled the now rumbling skies so closely that Ha Jin was half glad So did not return to be subjected to the full wrath of her foul mood.

But that had been before.

Another thunder rumbled and she watched the angry purple clouds with a frown. Miss Oh and coach Park do not return and there is no sign of So. The wind picks up and the rain splatters on the windows, heavy that it sprinkles on her face when she opens one to survey the outside better.

The night is thick and humid, a pitch black that makes it hard to see anything around. The sudden beam of light that cuts its way through is therefore seen as clearly as a beacon. She runs outside hoping its Miss Oh possibly at tow with coach Park and gets drenched the moment she steps out.

It is Baek Ah and her heart thuds painfully at the look in his face.

It must have something to do with the manner of their first meeting but somehow her subconscious has associated the young man with misfortune. As she watches him parking and rushing out of the car, an image of a bloodied So flashes past her mind. She wills it away and hugs herself against the sudden shiver that runs down her spine.

“Manager Baek Ah?”

“Is So hyung here?” He sounds urgent almost hysterical. “Coach Park?” His hands on her shoulders he presses her for answers.

“I’ve been waiting for them myself, why what is wrong?”

He lets her go and runs a distressed hand through his already drenched hair, chewing the inside of his cheek. Ha Jin watches as he proceeds to wipe his face.

“I need to find them both - I’m coming straight from Seoul -”

“What is wrong?”

“Do you have any idea where they went? Which direction? God - I swear it all look the same in the dark!”

“Baek Ah Ssi what is wrong?” Despite herself Ha Jin hears her voice rising and her panic with it. There is something acutely distressing about the way Baek Ah keeps fidgeting about. “What has happened?”

“There’s a problem in hyung’s OOC test.”

|| Glossary ||

OOC test - out of competition test. The athletes are tested for banned substances in and out of competitions. This refers to the report of the out of competition test.