FALLING SLOWLY ||Complete||

Endgame

There are no cards tucked in her sleeve. In endgame - there are no secrets.

It is a moment suspended in time - Yoo Myung Sun hears the echo of her own exhale. She reaches the endgame faster than she would have believed. Deceit could only take her so far - she feels her palms clammy as she raises a hand to ring the doorbell. There is no doubt about it, the girl would know. But she likes playing the odds, the subtle shifts of human emotions. Myung Sun could play people like a symphony and only that skill would take her through the endgame.

Ha Jin was their Charon and she would pay in fears.

She sees it in the eyes of the girl that opens the door, in the tremble of her lips, in the clutched fist that she hides in her pocket. Myung Sun allows herself a little air, perhaps it would not be as hard as she thought.

The entire drama of repenting, reconciling fools no one - she plays it only for the benefit of any men the senior Hwang might have employed to keep an eye on his precious son. The conversation strained and smiles tight lasts only until Jun disappears into the kitchen.

Ha Jin puts down her wine glass untouched.

“Where is he?” Her eyes burn but Myung Sun smiles.

“I thought you were smarter than that…” she allows her words to trail - and swirls the last remnants of liquid in her glass.

“If anything happens to him - if anything -”

“It’s all in your hands…” she licks at her lip, gathering the last traces of rich sweetness before allowing an ice cold smile. “You’ve known me for a while Hae Soo - you know I don’t like odds in hands of other people. You -” she sets down the glass. “Are the biggest odd in my plan.”

“You think I’ll hold my tongue?” A dark chuckle accompanies her words.

“I believe I can persuade you to,” she nods, seriously. “You see, its rather easy for you to send Jun to his rightful place. I’m sure all you need is one phone call - but then - will you ever find So? What would you think I would do to him?”

With satisfaction she traces the effect of her words along the path of the girl’s harsh inhale, the way her throat tightens around the air.  

“That’s right Hae Soo - if you want to keep your lover alive, you know what you have to do.”

“He went to save you…” Her voice is soft, her eyes sparkle with unshed tears.

Her words barely move her, instead Yoo Myung Sun reaches for her untouched glass.

“It’s rather a good wine to waste,” she comments offhandedly, picking up the glass. The shiver that passes down her spine is quite visible and her lips tug at the corners. Whoever said the same trick does not work twice had not played the game as long as she had. Myung Sun thinks - rather amused. She had coaxed another woman by similar means - her daughter it seemed had inherited a similar spirit.

She pats the girl on her hair, a gesture that seems motherly, but instead crushes her soul under the weight Myung Sun places on it.

“I won’t hurt you..” she coos. “You are my Charon, you will take me out of this mess unscathed. I think I’ve made a fair bargain.”

Ha Jin holds the napkin in a white knuckled grip.

“What do you want me to do?”

She closes her eyes instead of watching the victory flashing across Yoo Myung Sun’s gaze and swallows thinking of Yo’s instructions.

“Play along…until I find him.”

There is a pain that burns her from inside out when Ha Jin thinks how it had came around to the same place where everything had ended thousand years ago. Where they stood apart, drowning in agony - never to see each other again.