FALLING SLOWLY ||Complete||

Deception

“Ha Jin - ah…”

Her heart skips a beat and then doubles up to catch with the rhythm. The voice pouring through is soothingly familiar. He continues before a reply forms on her lips.

“Just listen - don’t say anything.”

The urgency catches her breath, the secretiveness makes her scoot closer to the window away from the two men discussing something in low, concerned voices.

“Where are you?” She whispers, clutching the mobile closer to her mouth. From thousand things she wants to tell him, it is the most mundane that she picks up. “Everyone is looking for you!”

“They are in on it, Ha Jin - ah.”

“What?” Involuntarily her eyes dart towards the two men, still deep in discussion.

“It’s a trap. They are trying to use you. They shouldn’t know about this call.”

The nagging suspicion stirs itself in the pit of her stomach and she reflects back to each word spoken by senior Hwang - So does not trust the man. He was never on their side - not when Tae died, or when Myung Hee was killed. But coach Park - would he betray the son after his heart?

“Ha Jin - ah -” he sounds troubled and it breaks her train of thought.   

“Tell me where you are -” She tells instead.

She hears him sigh and waits with battered breath as the pause stretches.

“I’m going to text you an address, meet me there.”

**

That feeling stained with haze of pain brings back memories. There’s a hand on his cheek tapping him back to consciousness as he spins back and forth between then and now.

“Oppa!” He wonders for a second why Yeon Hwa is talking to him, or why she is supporting him upright. Then he recalls untying her bounds, fighting with his own body that wants to take him down. His vision is blurred and his breath comes short and laboured. When she speaks there is worry in Yeon Hwa’s voice. “Stay awake -” she orders, as she half drags and half pushes him down a dark hallway. “Hwang So - stay awake!”

He is too heavy for her to maneuver and Yeon Hwa grits her teeth. It’s her fault, she admits gradually, but penance will have to wait. She knows the way out, for she had walked here on her own and she knows whatever miracle this is it will not last long. They don’t have much time to make their escape.

It comes more like a muscle memory than that of mind. He remembers the searing pain of sharp glass dragging down his face - the undiluted hatred in his mother’s delirious,blood drenched face.

There are small hands trying to claw their way between him and the blood thirsty woman, pushing her away - pulling him back. The fear that grips his heart on most part is for her - not him.

“Ha Jin - ah,” he whispers. “Run!”

“It’s not him!” She screams, words that his mother ignore, panting in her fit of rage. Somehow, she squeezes her way out of his arms and stands shielding him from his nightmare. It is not bravery for her shoulders are shaking, it is love that takes her to her doom. “There was another man! Another man! No - no - NO!” She pushes her when she makes another attempt to cut him. “Look at me - I was there! I’ll tell you what happened - I’ll tell you how he died! It wasn’t - DON’T touch him!” Her words rise and fall and he finds it hard to breath.

Yeon Hwa is no longer pulling him with her, instead she pushes him inside, he hears the cringing of doors. Feels the cool wall behind his back.

“Nothing’s broken -” he hears her breath, coming out in gasps at her efforts to shove him in. “I’ll get you the antidote, stay here - keep your eyes open!” The door closes and darkness swallows him. So breathes through his mouth, forehead pressed against the closed door and knows it in his bones that he does not need the antidote Yeon Hwa promises. He has been under this drug before - he knows how it works - what he needs is time.