Escape from The Palace - Book II

by M.F.K.Fisher

Go Ha Jin wakes up in 2016 and finds life harder here than in Goryeo

6. My Brother

**author note: would love to get some reviews!

Chapter 6 - My Brother

Seung Won was running. His eyes were burning and the air in his chest stung like kerosene. He smelled the sourness of the chemicals before he saw the crush of people, running and scrambling over embankments, traffic barriers, even other people; some stood on newsstands and bus shelters to avoid the rushing crowd. He was too close the maddening herd, the moving stampede. From his vantage on the bridge, Seung Won saw his group of friends sprinting down the main street on Cheongdam-dong, splintering apart into smaller groups. Their pattern soon became chaotic and Seung Won lost them in the thousands of backpacks and headbands emblazoned with protest slogans. The riot police lined up, only a hundred meters away, their gear and helmets gleaming black in the sunlight of the perfect day. Seung Won swallowed his fear. The protests had always been peaceful before, but there was a vein of simmering violence through it all. People were enraged.

Only a few hours earlier, Seung Won and his friends had joined arms to block off a freeway on ramp. They needed to make a civil disturbance. The Seoul Metropolitan police immediately reacted. A freeway interrupted in Seoul, a city of 10 million people, was no joke. The roar of car horns, like a tsunami of sound, greeted them as the students slowly filled the freeway, human chain by human chain. But these cars didn't honk because they were irate; they honked in unison, in solidarity. The noise was overwhelming, a deafening blast of continuous sound. But the riot police came, the stormtroopers in heavy gear, armed with crowd dispersal weapons to inflict pain but not injury.

He knew what to do. Jumping down, he grabbed his backpack full of antacids and milk and joined the flowing crowd. There was a river of people rushing forward and he waited like a fish in a stream to join the flow. When he moved in a herd like this, Seung Won learned to pay attention to the pace of the crowd. Sometimes, one protester would sprint away only to have dozens more people take his speed to be a sign of impending police attacks. There was an erratic logic to it all.

The first tear gas cannon fired into the sky, a loud screaming, before it exploded about ten meters overhead. The smell was acrid like gunpowder, it reminded him of New Years' fireworks that he would set off with Jun Ki watching. His older brother always watched out for him, yelling at him if he got too close to a roman candle. Though Jun Ki had been away more than he had been with his family, Seung Won always felt like he was never out of reach.

Pulling his neckerchief onto his face, Seung Won's warm breath wet the fabric. About two demonstrations ago, he hung out with some older timers, the generation who came before, who had successfully overthrown the government of the 1980's. They were hard-faced and clear eyed; they had seen this before. The old protestors had so much to teach the younger protesters. They advised Seung Won and his friends on the brand of antacid that would combat the worst tear gas, they gave them fortitude and advice about what to do if they got arrested. Seung Won learned that tear gas causes panic and fear. And in a herd, such as he was in now, fear stricken people were no smarter than animals and the most natural reaction for the crowd of people would be to flee, no matter who was in their way.

A family was in front of him, he tried to pivot around them but the family sprawled and came back together like a beast with no head. He wasn't moving fast enough. In a choking breath, Seung Won realized that he was already too late. His mouth tasted like burnt ash and his chest tightened painfully, like a vice clamping his ribs together; he tried to stop breathing, but it was impossible because his lungs demanded oxygen to feed his sprinting legs. Even if he held his breath, the lactic acid build up in his muscles would burn and leave him slow and helpless. He was in full flight mode. Suddenly, he started choking. The saliva in his mouth tasted like fire, his own body was fighting him. Moving his tongue was painful. Sucking in air was painful. Everything burned. A thick load of phlegm caught in the back of his throat, choking him. The phlegm was the body trying to expel a toxic chemical. Seung Won felt his eyes squeezing shut. He couldn't afford blindness so he tried to pry them open again, but his tears were burning.

He ran, almost blind, into an alley and collapsed into small enclosure, each breath still burning. Doubling over, Seung painfully coughed, like he had black lung until the mucus shook out of his throat. He barely remembered what breathing without pain felt like.

He saw mothers grabbing their children, shielding them from the onslaught of the gas. Families were here. Seung Won felt the inhumanity of the moment. He felt like a rat jumping off a sinking ship. There were dozens of protesters like him, who were caught in the thick of it, bent in pain until the spasm of painful chemicals could pass.

Eventually, Seung Won felt a weird calm. This was the fourth time he had been gassed and he did not die. He had learned to manage his fear. He was free from the fear of pain. He had been through it and he could do it again.

"Oma!"

Seung Won spotted a child who stumbled to the ground and skinned his knees. Without breaking his pace, he snatched up the toddler and looked around for the mother, who was only a few paces behind.

"Come with me!" He yelled at the woman who hung on to his backpack as they kept pace with each other. They were in a frightening relay race where they both tried to outrun the crowd surging to meet them. His legs were burning, his eyes on fire, and the weight of the child was heavy in his arms.

Zigzagging through the group, Seung Won lead them to the northwest corner of Cheongdam Park, near a grove of bush that was out of the way. He set the little boy back into his mother's arms. He sat down at the base of the tree and poured milk over his face, the stinging of the chemicals dulling for a few seconds. He glanced over at the mother who was wiping away her son's tears. She caught his look.

"I know what you must be thinking. That I put my child in danger. But I came here because I wanted to show my children that people are the owner of this country, not the power holders."

"It's none of my business." Seung Won offered milk to the mother and she gratefully accepted, pouring it over her face and the little one's face. "Stay upwind, agahssi."

Only a block away, Seung Won spotted the sign that he and his friend, Jun Ho, had made yesterday. Jun Ho was still in the middle of the fleeing masses. Jumping up, Seung Won saw the back of Jun Ho's head, but there was just too many people. The sign kept moving forward so he followed the path.

"Jun-Ho!" Seung Won jumped onto his friends' back pack. "Where's everyone?"

Jun Ho turned around, relieved to see Seung Won.

"Listen, we gotta go back to Cheongdam Park. Sung Min and the others; they're performing in an hour and we have to help them set up." Jun-Ho was still a senior at Seoul National University; a year younger, but still wiser than Seung Won.

"They can't play right now. The pigs are all here." Seung Won frowned.

Jun Ho leveled a steady gaze. "It doesn't matter if we get arrested. We have to do what's right. They're going to give a voice to the people."

"Jun Ho, something bad is going to happen. The last four protests we've been to, I've never seen a stampeding crowd like this. And now, I'm not sure this is the best time for a protest concert. Look at this, the news isn't even covering what's happening. No one knows what's going on."

Seung Won pulled out his phone to show Jun Ho and noticed suddenly there were a dozen missed calls on his cellphone from the same unknown number. He pressed the button and the phone picked up immediately.

"Han Seung Won?"

"Yes, this is."

"This is Nurse Park at Choi General Hospital in Cheongdam-dong. I'm calling you because you are Han Jun Ki's emergency contact."

"What happened?"

"He's in critical condition, Mr. Han. He suffered a bullet wound to the neck."

Jun Ho saw his friend stagger back. When he hung up the phone, Seung Won's face looked like it had frozen in shock.

"Jun-Ho, I can't stay. My brother...he's...I can't. I'm sorry I can't help you."

Seung Won was running again. It felt like all day, he had done nothing but run. He was lucky that he grew up in Seoul and knew the streets like the back of his hand. But even with his hard earned city-boy status, Seung Won kept running into the police barricades that, unbeknownst to him, were set up by Jun Ki along the city for the president's motorcade. He took an alleyway that connected to a main street and was engulfed by another throng of people struggling against a mile of police buses, lined in front of city hall to prevent protesters from rallying. Every direction he went in, he was cut off.

"Fuck!" Seung Won was out of patience. He had to run almost three miles out of the way of the major intersections before he could hail a cab.

Throwing himself into the way of traffic, he finally got a white cab to screech to a halt. He shouted the hospital address to Choi General at the cabbie and got in. Looking in the taxi's rear view mirror, he realized he still had his protest headband on. He quickly shucked the thing off his head and stuffed it into the back pocket of the driver's seat.

"You were protesting?"

"Yes. Please get me to the hospital as soon as you can."

The cabbie nodded and took speedy turn down a side street. They were traveling on the backroads, the buildings whipping past them, signs blurring into a palette of colors he couldn't read anymore. Would Jun Ki survive? He knew that his brother was tough as hell, he spent years abroad in situations much more dangerous than he would ever care to elaborate to Seung Won, but this was in Korea and Seung Won felt like this hit close to home felt more devastating. Jun Ki wa suppose to be safe in Seoul, not in danger as he alway was.

"Young people always think they can cause a ruckus and change the world." The cabbie groused.

Seung Won barely heard him; he was frantically texting his father and mother. When he glanced up, he saw on the embedded LCD screen on the backseat of the cab displaying the massive crowd from protest. He answered the cabbie's unspoken question.

"It doesn't matter if I what I do today doesn't fix the problem. I know that I at least tried and I can live with myself."

"I think you will have a long hard life then, young man."

"Maybe. But I won't have regrets."

Tires screeching, the cab stopped short behind an ambulance at Choi General hospital. As he exited the cab, the driver paused and glanced at the stream of people entering the hospital.

"I hope, whoever it is you're here for, is all right. Life is too precious."

Seung Won was taken aback for a moment. Even for the people who didn't understand him, there was a thread of humanity that connected all of them. He nodded a thank you to the cabbie and tipped him an extra twenty percent on his tab.

Choi General was one of the largest hospitals in Seoul and today, the emergency room was filled to the max with people attending the same protest that Seung Won was in. He had to struggle around dozens of patients before finally reaching the front desk.

"I need a status on patient, Han Jun Ki. Please. He's my brother. I'm family. You have to let me know what's going on with him?"

The nurse tapped on her keyboard and glanced up at Seung Won with uncertainty.

"I'm so sorry, but Han Jun Ki is in the military wing of the hospital."

"Excuse me?"

"He's in top secret care and we do not have any information. I'm so sorry."

"You called me! Choi General called me to tell me that my brother was in critical condition. You're not going to let me see him? What kind of hospital is this?"

"I'm so sorry, but I have no record of who would have called you to refer you to the right person."

"Where is it? Where's the military wing?" Seung Won glared at the nurse.

"I cannot disclose that information." The nurse pressed her lips together in a thin line.

Out of the corner of his eye, Seung Won spotted a military uniform walking down an unmarked hallways.

"Mister?! Come back here, you can't just go in there!" The nurse grabbed her walkie talkie and paged security.

Seung Won thought, what was a few more rules being broken. He sprinted after the uniformed man. The magnetic doors were closing but he slid in a moment before the doors closed. He didn't get very far. Six men in black suits stood at attention as soon as Seung Won emerged through the door.

They grabbed him and threw him to the ground, his arms pinched behind his back by men who were more used to breaking bones.

"I'm sorry sir, this area is admissible personnel only. I invite you to leave."

"My brother's in there!" Seung Won yelled.

"Only ranking military people are allowed beyond this point. You have to leave." The biggest one of them all stepped forward and blocked Seung Won's view.

"I'm General Han's son!"

The men seem taken aback for a second. Whispering to one another, finally one of them made the call. They let him stand up, but Seung Won was still being held by two of the men, his arms painfully bent behind him.

"General Han wants to speak to you."

Seung Won felt a phone being pressed against his ear, his father's voice sounded tinny and far away.

"Seung Won."

"Abeoji."

"Is anyone with you?"

"No."

"Have you told anyone else about Jun Ki's condition?"

"No."

"Good. The secret service will let you in to see Jun Ki, but you must keep this incident secret at all cost. The hospital made a mistake and skipped protocol. You were not suppose to know. Jun Ki's life depends on it. I cannot guarantee his safety if this gets out. No one must know. Do you understand me?"

"Yes, Abeoji."

"I will be there in three hours to take care of everything." His father hung up.

Seung Won felt the pressure release on his right arm and shook himself free. One of the men who held him down on the floor bent at the waist in apology. They led him to a small waiting room where there was only three folding chairs and a water cooler leaking onto the dingy linoleum floors. The secret military wing of the hospital was a no-frills place. Seung Won sunk into the seat and let his head rest against his knees. There was still no news of Jun-Ki. He was completely in the dark. And now, Abeoji had just introduced a new wrinkle. What the hell had happened? Seung Won always knew that Jun Ki and father were on top secret missions, but now to be family members who knew next to nothing. He hated the secrecy.

The hours ticked by, agonizingly slow. Seung Won didn't have cell service deep within the military wing of the hospital. He could only count the minutes dragging by, slower than any microeconomics lecture he had to sit through. Seung Won was troubled. What did it mean that Jun Ki's shooting had to be kept a secret? Would he ever know the complete truth about his father, or his brother?

Winding his fingers together, Seung Won couldn't shake this feeling that the situation was much worse than he knew. There wasn't another person in the waiting room; the stillness of waiting drove him nuts. He remembered that when he was six year old, he loved to wander the streets of their old neighborhood, losing himself in convenience stores and neighbor houses, until his mother, Jin-Seong, sent an entire fleet of police officers to look for him. One time, he followed a black and white puppy down a blind alley and tumbled down an abandoned sewer shaft. He got the breath knocked out of him and when he finally woke up, he tried to climb out. He remembered holding himself in the dry darkness of the shaft, looking upward at the blue sky, wishing for wings so he could fly himself out of trouble. The walls of the sewer shaft were mossy and difficult to grip. He scrambled up the wall and fell half a dozen times before he gave up, his knees skinned into a bloody mess. Licking his upper lip, he tasted the the salty snot that was pouring out of his nose; he hadn't stopped crying for an hour. He wished he hadn't run away from Jun Ki yet again. His stomach was uncomfortably rumbling and he was so scared for the night time, when the sky would be no longer blue, but black, and everyone would have forgotten about Seung Won.

"Seung Won! Seung Won, where are you?!"

When he heard his brother, who was twelve at the time, shouting for him. He screamed back. He was so relieved that it was Jun Ki and not his mother who found him. He felt badly enough already. He saw Jun Ki's head peer into the black hole.

"Hold on, Seung Won. I'll get help!"

"Hyung! I'm so scared."

"Don't be scared. When you come out, I will buy you all the candy you want to eat. Okay?"

"Please don't leave me, hyung!"

"I'll be right back. I promise I'll be back."

Seung Won sighed to himself and muttered to no one in particular.

"You always promised to come back. Don't you dare stop now."

He squeezed his eyes shut and pushed his fingers against his temple, where the residual gas pains were pounding in his head. It felt like a cage of loose gorillas in his brain.

Seung Won felt worse than ever, he considered calling his mother, but there was no cell service. He then thought better of it. It was always better not to involve his mother when it came to things like this. She always had a way of making it worse. Even though Seung Won loved his Oma deeply, she treated him like he was her sun, even he was perceptive enough as a child to notice how deep the rift was between his mother and Jun Ki. Even with that sewer rescue, Jun Ki got a group of men to lower a ladder into the sewer and extracted Seung Won. When they arrived home, Jin-Jeong took one look at Seung Won's bloody knees and slapped Jun Ki, hard in the face. Jun Ki stumbled back against the kitchen by the the force of her blow.

Seung Won froze at the moment when his mother struck his brother. He didn't know what to do. This was the first time he witnessed such a thing. His Oma, up to this point, had nothing but smiles, hugs, and soothing encouragements. He thought that his mother was the most beautiful, kind, perfectly good person in his life. Jun Ki had stood in stony silence, with a bright red handprint on his left cheek. He didn't cry. Jun Ki didn't say anything. Seung Won had pulled the candy out of his mouth and tried to give it to his brother, but his hyung kept looking at the floor like it was made out of nintendo game cartridges. Later Seung Won realized that Jun Ki had retreated into himself, a technique he used often in the face of Oma's mood swings. By the time Seung Won was aware of their family problems, his father was already long gone, on missions as far away from his wife as possible. His mother and his brother, nothing was peaceful until Jun Ki walked out of the house one day and never came back. He left for the military at eighteen.

After two hours, Seung Won's head snapped up when the door to the waiting room swung open. A doctor in clean scrubs made eye contact with Seung Won; when he made a motion to stand, she waved him off and sat next to him.

"My name is Dr. Im." She shook his hand. Dr. Im had a dry and cool handshake. "You must be Han Jun-Ki's little brother."

Seung Won nodded numbly. He tried to read the doctor's expression, but her face was the picture of placid empathy. Her large eyes revealed nothing.

"Your brother suffered a bullet wound in the lower neck area. He's lost a lot of blood because the bullet nicked his carotid artery."

She paused and looked at him steadily.

"He's lucky because the bullet did not hit his spine or his trachea. But, I want to emphasize to you that his condition is dire and I do not want to lie to you."

"What do you mean?"

"The blood transfusion we're giving him hasn't been working. He's AB negative, the rarest blood type, but his body is rejecting the supply we have at the hospital. He will die if we don't find another source of blood."

Seung Won's stomach sank. What could the doctors do at this point if Jun Ki's body rejected the transfusion blood?

"Do you have the same blood type as your brother?" The doctor asked gently.

"Yeh. We do."

"Will you donate some blood to your brother?" Seung Won nodded.

Seung Won was taken to a nondescript examination room and hooked up to an IV bag. With a deep breath, Seung Won tried to concentrate on anything but the needle. He hated needles; the shiny metal, the unexpected pain; the thing was designed to harm people. The nurse came in after a few short minutes of waiting and started the process of blood donation. He watched as his blood sped through the tubes connected from his arm to the empty bag. It filled up slowly and he clenched his fist, willing the blood to fill the bag faster. Seung Won regretted that he did not get to the hospital any sooner. If he were only here a few hours earlier, if he wasn't at the protest, maybe Jun Ki would closer to life than death. He glanced at the nurse, who seemed friendly enough.

"What are the chances of my brother surviving this?"

"I'm not sure. He's still in critical condition. The doctors are doing everything they can." She withdrew the needle and sealed up the transfusion pack. "You should go to the hospital cafeteria. I took nearly a pint and half and you will need to eat. There's no need to wait here. I will come get you as soon as things change."

Seung Won stood in line at the cafeteria, swaying a little on his feet and feeling lightheaded. The lights were too bright for his eyes. He felt completely numb. This horrifying day. He had so little information. Grabbing a metal tray, he went through the hot buffet line and scooped up as much rice and meat as he could. The cashier looked at him sympathetically; after all, a young man in misery at a hospital could not be waiting to hear good news.

When he stepped out of the line to look for a table, he recognized Ha Jin in the far corner. She was on the other side of the cafeteria, eating with her fiance, Dr. Choi. Seung Won remembered Ha Jin introducing him to Dr. Choi and he remember the jealousy that he felt when Dr. Choi easily wrapped his arm around Ha Jin's shoulder and kissed her on the forehead. Seung Won knew that he was too young and that Ha Jin only saw him as her little brother. Still, it didn't stop smarting that he had been crushing on her quietly for a year.

At this moment, he had no wish to put himself through the wringer, so he ducked behind a pillar and sat out of sight. Shoveling the food in his mouth, Seung Won tasted nothing. Hospital food wasn't great, but at least he felt his blood sugar starting to rise.

He felt someone looking at him and turned around.

"Seung Won?" Ha Jin had her arms crossed. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here for the food." Seung Won was sheepish that he had been caught.

"Aigoo, doubtful." Ha Jin smiled. "I hope you're not here to see anyone. Oh, you have a bandaid on your arm." She pointed at his wrapped upper arm.

"Just gave some blood." He remembered his father's warning.

"That's very good! You know most people only give blood during blood drives, but did you know that blood goes bad? Like meat or like dairy." She patted him on the arm. "You're a really thoughtful person."

"What are you doing here?"

"Oh, there's my fiance." She waved to Han Kyul, who strode across the cafeteria and approached them. Seung Won was annoyed by how tall and commanding he was. Han Kyul greeted Seung Won and placed his arm around Han Jin.

"This is Seung Won, you remember?"

"You are Ha Jin's friend from the university? We've met before."

"We got to the hospital late because of the protests." Ha Jin smiled up at her fiancee. "He's leaving me for a month. So this is the last time I get to see him before his flight."

"I'm not leaving you, Ha Jin. I'd be a fool to leave you" Han Kyul grinned at Seung Won, who didn't smile back. "I'm sorry, but I have to get a few things from my office before I leave today. Stay and visit with Seung Won. I'll come get you when I'm done."

Ha Jin waited until Han Kyul was out of earshot before she sat next to Seung Won and quirked up an eyebrow.

"Seung Won, I hope he's alright. It's your brother who's in the military right?"

"How did you-?"

"You have a military wing pass on your shirt. You told me last time that your brother was coming home from an overseas assignment. I'm assuming you didn't just come to the hospital to donate blood to the military right?"

"Yeah."

"Is he alright?" Ha Jin's wide eyes looked worried at her friend. Seung Won reminded her so much of a grown-up Nam Gil. She always had an urge to make sure he was doing okay.

"I can't really talk about it." Seung Won was mixing the rice into his soup, watching the swirl of grains in the liquid.

Ha Jin took out a bottle from her purse and handed it to Seung Won. "It's anti-anxiety medication. Take some."

"Why do you carry this around with you?"

"After my accident, I had bad panic attacks. And I couldn't really be in public without them coming on. This helped. I carry them as insurance." She smiled reassuringly at him.

Seung Won always felt like she understood him deeply, even if there was no way she knew what was happening.

"Take them. Besides, I have an in with a doctor." She winked at him, but then became sober again. "Seung Won, this hospital is really good. I was a patient here too. They'll do everything in their power to save your brother."

"Thank you." Seung Won swallowed a spoonful of rice. "I'll be okay."

"Oh, when is your graduation? I want to see you walk."

"It's in two weeks."

"Are you going to give me a ticket or do I have to beg?" Ha Jin pretended to pout.

"Aish, I couldn't ask a CEO to come to my graduation." Seung Won finally smiled when he saw her expression.

"Pfft, what kind of friend would I be if I missed something this big?"

Seung Won noticed a nurse making a beeline for them and he immediately stood up, almost knocking over his tray of food. Ha Jin saw the rapidly approaching man in scrubs too.

"Do you want me to stay?" She pushed the tray back from the edge.

"No. I have to hear this on my own."

Ha Jin nodded and reached out and squeezed his shoulders affectionately.

"Call me if you need me." She spun around and walked away. When she looked back, Seung Won's face was serious. Ha Jin felt her hands get cold and clammy, but shook off the feeling. It was weird that she was reacting to Seung Won's personal tragedy like this, after all she knew next to nothing about his family other than the fact his older brother was in the military.

Seung Won nodded numbly when the nurse relayed the information. Jun Ki accepted his blood transfusion. Now it was a matter time. They would have to wait to see if the surgery to repair the torn carotid artery in his neck was successful. His situation was still touch and go.

"You should go home. There nothing you can do right now." The nurse knew that it would be days before they actually knew any thing that was going on. "We will monitor your brother as closely as we can. If there are any changes, we will contact you."

Seung Won watched the nurse's retreating figure out of the cafeteria. He wanted to talk to someone, anyone. But he remembered his father's warning.

All at once, the cafeteria exploded into activity and startled Seung Won. Reporters start flowing into the cafeteria. Women in nipped suits, cameramen, cub reporters were all rushing around a foci of activity. Seung Won tried to stand back, what the heck was going on?

Through the open doors, Song Jin-Jeong strode in with her entourage of mayoral aides and assistants. She wore her press conference jacket, a black fitted blazer with a cerulean collar that looked great on camera.

"Over there! I want to be interviewed by the window." Jin-Jeong waved the cameraman over to the more flattering lighting. She was used to being in charge.

"This is Song Jin-Jeong, the Vice Mayor of Seoul, here to address the protests that have been happening in our city." Seung Won recognized the reporter from MBC Nightly News.

Clamoring for Song Jin-Jeong's attention, the reporters waited until she took her place behind a counter top which served as a de facto podium. She beamed in the face of all this attention; she knew the optics of this situation was going to look very good for her next bid for Mayor of Seoul. She held up a hand and immediately, a gaggle of microphones appeared under her face, there to broadcast her words. Every single network had their camera trained on her. She took a deep breath and paused for effect, glancing meaningfully at every lens. She was going connect to the people, whether they liked it or not.

"I am at Choi General Hospital right now, where my son is recovering for a bullet wound that he suffered during the protest." She announced. The news people gasped and a flurry of questions exploded. Gun violence was extremely rare in Korea, and the protests up to this point had been peaceful. Was this a turn for the worst? Was the protest a sign of larger forces at play? Who was responsible? The journalist shouted amongst themselves, jockeying for a closer position to Song Jin-Jeong.

Seung Won felt bile rise up in his stomach. How could his mother economize on the tragedy of her son's shooting? He regretted texting her that Jun Ki had been shot in the cab on the way over to the hospital. Seung Won felt ugly fear take over. He was responsible. He would be responsible if anything happened to his brother and if his mother kept wrecking havoc, exposing Jun Ki's vulnerabilities when Abeoji explicit said that he would not be safe if the news got out. There she was, announcing to the world! Seung Won felt the anger rise up in his chest.

"We have to ensure that the citizen of Seoul are safe above all else! These protests have to be peaceful. What we have are extreme leftist group who are taking advantage of the chaos; endangering our safety. They are terrorists. As the Vice Mayor of Seoul I pledge to take these dangerous criminals down."

"Do you mean that the student protests have been infiltrated by a terrorist faction?" The reporter from SBS frowned at Jin-Jeong.

"My son has been shot. I don't think I can say it any clearer. Next question." She pointed at the blogger for the Associate Press Korea.

"We just got word that you have three sons Vice Mayor Song. Which one was shot?"

"My three sons are the shining citizens of Korea. My eldest is the deputy mayor of Busan. My second is a Corporal in the Korean National Army and my third is a college student who is about to graduate. We serve our country. That's why to have my second son be gunned down in broad daylight makes me doubt the intention of these protestors. There is a peaceful way to assemble and uphold democratic resistance, but these people are the criminals."

Jin-Jeong's voice cracked and she blotted the handkerchief in her hand.

"Imagine how I felt when I heard about my son? A mother should never seen the blood of her son."

"Is this your son?" The AP reporter held up a tablet which played video of a man standing on top of a small structure.

Seung Won recognized the footage immediately. It was him, on top of a bus shelter, waving a protest sign. Jun Ho was in frame too. The footage wasn't from the protest of today, but from a few weeks ago. Seung Won felt his sick to his stomach.

"That is not important." Jin-Jeong was every inch the politician and she refused to budge or be cornered into a question she didn't have the answers for. "The important thing is that these protests are like candles. Candles are candles. They will just go out with a gust of wind. The question is, how much more do we have to suffer?"

Seung Won felt disgust for his mother for the first time in his life. She didn't come to the hospital to see Jun Ki, she came to the hospital for maximum media impact. She wanted to appear on camera as a grieving mother, thus endearing to the hearts and minds of millions of people watching the nightly news.

From across room, Seung Won finally made eye contact with his mother. She nodded at him dismissively and tilted her head to indicate that he should go, lest a reporter spot him and corner him with questions. Seung Won pressed his back against the door and he was about to run down the hallway when he saw that the corridor was filled with government men in black suits. They pushed past him back into the cafeteria.

It was General Han.

Like a group of ground hogs hearing the cry of a hawk, all the reporters turned around when they spotted General Han.

"General Han! What is the meaning of the army being at this hospital? Is the shooting confirmed? Do we have terrorists in this country?" The questions didn't stop, and instead rose into a deafening clamor.

General Han walked to where his wife was standing. He glanced at her with his cool gaze before she moved over. Taking her place, General Han waved to all the reporters to calm down.

"The Korean National Army has investigated the situation. Unfortunately, Vice Mayor Song Jin-Jeong received some outdated information. I can confirm that there was no shooting."

Jin-Jeong's clenched her jaw. She had no idea what General Han was trying to pull.

"That is the end of my statement. Vice Mayor Song Jin-Jeong and I need to discuss more security details. Please excuse us." He stopped talking and gestured for Jin-Jeong to follow him. One of the black suited men grabbed Seung Won and started escorting him after his father and mother.

After they were ushered back into the military wing of the hospital, General Han and his wife sat in silence in one of the empty offices. Seung Won could see through the window in the door that they were having a tense conversation. Jin Jeong was twisting her scarf in her hands and his father's face was set in stone. He wasn't privy to any of it. Seung Won sat outside and waited for the adults to work it out. The secrecy, it killed him.

Seung Won walked out of the waiting room and started wandering the halls. He was so restless. He saw a familiar figure a few feet away, running towards him. He realized it was Dr. Im.

"Han Seung Won? Your brother is awake. Come with me!"

Seung Won ran behind Dr. Im; he felt hope lighten his carriage. Thank god. Jun Ki was conscious, it was probably a miracle only he could survive getting shot in the neck. Then again, Seung Won only knew his brother as a miracle worker.

When they arrived in Jun Ki's room, to Seung Won's surprise, Han Kyul was there at Jun Ki's bedside too, checking over his chart.

"I know you must be wondering why I'm here, Seung Won." Han Kyul patted him on the shoulder. "Ha Jin said that if I had time before my flight, I should come see your brother to make sure he's getting the best care."

"Oh, thank you, Dr. Choi." Suddenly, Seung Won felt very silly when he realized that Dr. Choi was the Choi of Choi General.

Looking down at his brother, Jun Ki looked like he had been run over by a truck. He had facial lacerations all over and a massive bandages over his neck. The beeping of the EKG was bright and steady. It was reassuring. Jun Ki had one eye slightly open, the other one was swollen.

"Seung Won." He rasped out.

"Hyung. You came back."

"I promised, right?" He smiled painfully. "I remembered her name. The girl."

Seung Won frowned. Jun Ki couldn't possibly be still talking about the girl he had visions about from ten years ago, could he?

"Her name is Hae Su."

"What did you say?" It was Han Kyul's turn to stare at Jun Ki.

"Hae Su. Where is Hae Su?" Jun Ki jerked upright in his hospital gown and tried to rip the IVs out of his arms. Seung Won stopped him.

"Stop it, hyung! You have to recover."

Han Kyul stopped cold. He knew that name. He had heard the name before. It was Ha Jin's name. When she finally confessed her Goryeo memories to him, she referred to herself as Hae Su. It couldn't be. How could this man know his fiance's memories? Did they know each other? He felt a ice cold stab in his gut. Han Kyul slid his fists into his lab coat so that no one could see that he was clenching his fists so hard that his knuckles were bone white.

Taking in Han Kyul's expression, Jun Ki focused on the strangely tense man.

"You know her, don't you?"

TO BE CONTINUED...