A/N: Just wanted to write something post-finale; concrit would be appreciated!
"… the real name of the person who died in this case was revealed to be Park Bong-soo…"
For a moment, no one reacts as the name seems to echo around the room. The pen in Editor Jang's fingers clatters to the floor.
"What?"
Then the picture flashes onscreen, and everyone collectively breathes a sigh of relief. The middle-aged man staring into the camera is certainly not the bumbling junior reporter they all know.
"Must be a coincidence," Reporter Yeo decides, turning back to his laptop. "It's not a very uncommon name."
Jong-soo nods along with the rest of them, but his mind lingers on how the Park Bong-soo they know quite literally disappeared from the office that day and never returned, and he can't help feeling like he's missing something.
x.
When he stops to think about it, he realizes it's kind of ridiculous.
In the past eight years, he's encountered all sorts of people in his line of work, from business moguls to hardened criminals to foreigners whose languages he doesn't speak a lick of. He's scaled more buildings than most people have entered, donned more disguises than he can care to recall, slipped in and out of many different personalities, all of which have given him a decent grasp of the human mindset and how it works.
So there is no doubt in his mind that comparatively, Young-shin's father should be easy to deal with, but every time he looks at the man something freezes in his throat.
He doesn't have to wonder why—next to him, Young-shin squeezes his hand and he remembers all over again why this means so much to him, why he is doing this. She is the reason he is terrified of this unassuming middle-aged man, and the reason he would face said man a million more times if he had to.
Chae Chi-soo jerks his head towards the small office by the side of the shop. "Let's talk," he says.
Jung-hoo's positive he's not imagining the threatening undercurrent to the words. He tries to smile and nod, but he finds himself thinking he'd rather face a hundred more Elders at the moment.
x.
Sang-soo wants to hit that Healer guy.
Sure, getting out of prison would be nice. So would getting revenge on the morons who'd landed him here. But right now, if asked what he'd really like, he'd say he just really wants to give that slippery bastard a good smack across the face.
He tried, once, and only ended up slapping Yo-yo instead. The Healer's quick on his feet—one of many reasons he's managed to evade and outsmart Sang-soo all these years.
And now he's the reason Sang-soo is in prison—that bastard double-crossed them. Not only did Sang-soo have to suffer the humiliation of working with the Healer, watching the Healer strut around headquarters like he'd always been there, he also had to take the fall with the rest of the idiots who'd let the Healer join them in the first place.
Sang-soo flexes his fingers, wishing he had a certain night courier to smack around or at least a cigarette. He glares through the bars at Yo-yo, who is stationed in the cell across the hall. "Aren't you angry?" he spits.
Yo-yo gives no indication of hearing him, but he answers. "About what?"
"That Healer bastard—he tricked us!"
Yo-yo turns to squint at him. "You're not hard to trick," he points out.
Sang-soo can't reach Yo-yo across the hall either, so he gives up on slapping the Healer and slams his fist into the wall instead.
x.
When Jung-hoo actually starts in surprise when she lands in front of him, Dae-yong has a hard time suppressing a smirk.
Granted, his attention was diverted, completely focused on the cell phone in his hands. (Dae-yong doesn't have to see his goofy smile or glance at his screen to know he's texting his girlfriend; there is no one else he texts.) Still—she managed to startle the ex-Healer. Not bad for the current Healer-in-training.
"Boss wanted me to give you this," she says. She pulls the package out of her jacket pocket and tosses it at him; he snags it midair but does not move to open it.
"What is this?"
"In case you need us again," she says. He blinks at her and she answers the question in his silence. "I probably won't be as good as you, hyung, but I'm going to try."
"Ah," he says, and pockets the parcel. He returns to typing on his cell phone, but after a few seconds' pause, he adds without looking up, "Fighting."
Dae-yong grins to herself as she makes her way back up the side of the building (not as silently as he does, but she's getting there). It's only an iota more attention than the amount she usually receives from him, but it's good enough for her.
x.
When she finally sees her son again, she bursts into tears.
He hates seeing her cry, but she can't help it—for so long she's been going to sleep and waking up with fear choking her, clenching her chest and clogging her throat, making it hard to breathe when she thinks too hard about the reason for that fear. For so long she's been worrying about his safety, anxious about his health, and now that he is before her, alive and whole, a bright smile on his face, she is unable to stop the tears.
He holds out his arms, enveloping her in a warm hug. She clings to him, relief at seeing him safe weakening her knees. Not for the first time, she marvels at how big he's grown, the wonder and joy at the man her son has grown into mixed as always with shame and regret in her heart, at herself for not being there every step of the way.
"It's truly okay now?" she breathes. He said as much on the phone, but she has to hear it in person. "You're safe now? I can see you again?"
"Yes, Mother," he says.
She leans back and sighs, wiping her eyes and finally letting out the breath it feels like she's been holding since the day he told her he had to disappear. She stands back at arm's length and looks him up and down; there is something different about him, she notices. Something more relaxed, more content.
"You're good, Jung-hoo-ya?"
"Yes," he says. "I'm… I'm living a good life now, Mother. I have a good job. It makes decent money. I'm saving it for the future." He smiles then, a smile that lights up his whole face, and takes her hands in his.
"Also, Mother… there's someone I'd like you to meet."
x.
There is something that's changed about his demeanor, something she has never seen before in his eyes—she has known Kim Moon-ho for many years, loved him for nearly just as many, but not once has she noticed such a spark in his gaze before.
He talks animatedly, his hands gesturing over the two cups of coffee sitting between them. She finds herself staring at his throat, watching it bob up and down as he speaks, and instead of listening to his voice, her mind drifts off to two very different conversations.
"So what about her?" she finds herself blurting before she can stop herself.
He pauses midsentence and blinks. "Who?"
"The first woman in your life." Min-jae almost wishes she could take back the words, but she pushes the feeling away. She has been a news anchor for so long, an expert in crafting her sentences sometimes seconds before they leave her mouth, and she never wishes to take back any of them—he is the only one who can make her do so.
Her gaze flicks briefly to the table before she focuses it on him again. "What about her?"
"Ah," he says. His face is solemn for a moment and she fears the worst—but then that smile is back, curling at the corners of his lips. "The debt has been repaid."
Min-jae presses her lips together and nods curtly, unwilling to give him any other reaction. He reads her too well though; he always has. The smile on his face is growing, and as she picks up her cup to take a sip of coffee that has already gone cold, she is unable to completely hide a smile of her own.
x.
When her daughter pulls a man into the room with her and Myung-hee looks up into Seo Jung-hoo's face, she finds she isn't surprised.
Unbidden, a memory springs to mind: the same handsome face, though slightly less nervous, hair hidden beneath a cap and eyes just as earnest. "There's somebody I've come to care for," he said, "so I had to find out what kind of person my father was, and I'll know if it's okay to like her."
She thinks of two children playing together, laughing and shouting and crying when they had to be separated, of all the time and distance that has kept them apart, and of the circumstances that have brought them together again.
She thinks of everything that has led them to this day, and the feeling of truly coming full circle settles deep in her bones, warm and familiar.
"It's wonderful to meet you again, Seo Jung-hoo," she says, face splitting into a broad smile, and clasps his hands in hers.
x.
"What's this?"
Young-shin peers at the SD card she was just handed, then at her boyfriend. He shrugs and grins, managing to look awkward and pleased with himself all at once.
"When we first met," he says. "You said… well, I took it off your computer, actually." She mock-glares at him for the reminder and he hurries on. "You said it was one of your dreams to interview the Healer. So…"
He trails off, making a vague gesture at the SD card. Young-shin looks at it again and understands.
"How did you manage to get an interview with the elusive Healer?" she jokes, placing the card carefully in her pocket. When she glances back at Jung-hoo, she sees faint confusion creasing his brow.
Even now he occasionally has trouble following her sense of humor. He really is silly sometimes, she thinks fondly, like a child; she finds it terribly endearing.
"Thank you, Jung-hoo-ya, but you don't need to worry about fulfilling my dreams," she says, stepping up to him and wrapping her arms around his shoulders. She bumps his nose with hers and grins. "I already have everything I want."