Authors musings: Well, I'm glad to see all the comments cheering me on. I really appreciate everybody who leaves a review, so I'm hoping for more, please don't forget to express your opinion, scream and yell at me if i drive you crazy or ask questions. Either way, I'm waiting to read what you have to say.
Her big eyes filled with tears. While listening to Jae Su tell his tale, she kept thinking of the young man, who was just a kid really. They both were. Children, who had to make grown up choices about life and death. Unimaginable weight placed on such fragile shoulders. How could anyone survive that and not come out fundamentally and irreversibly changed forever?
Eun Soo buried her head in her hands, her shoulders shuddering with the tears of grief for those who had passed and those whom Jae Su hoped to have another chance at living.
"You don't need to cry, it happened a long time ago," the man tried to console her. His eyes were dry and hallowed by the memories he was forced to expose.
Jae Su watched her weeping for strangers she has never met, but still mourning his loss as if it was her own. Doubts entered his already disturbed mind: did he do the right thing seeking out Choi Young? Telling Eun Soo about everything? Maybe, he should have let the past die with him and join his loved ones in the afterlife, instead of dragging them back to the miserable and full of pain and suffering existence in the world of living. But there was no turning back. It was his mission for many years now, ever since he had learned about Choi Young's ability, the hope kindled from a tiny flame and has been growing steady into a powerful fire that consumed everything else, only leaving one purpose for him – to have Choi Young go back and fix the mistakes they had made. And then, he could die in peace.
Eun Soo was still in deep shock. Her tears subsidized and instead a staggering realization that she was privy to untold and tragic bits of history was dizzying. The life of comfort and safety she has enjoyed was because of anonymous ancestors who gave up their lives so that centuries later she could sleep well, eat well and be safe. These nameless and faceless heroes were not sung about in poems or commemorated in the history books. They were forgotten, and only a few that somehow found their way into the annals of history were mentioned in the textbooks of the children and on the emotionless displays in the museums. But she could not live like that any more. She could not exist in blissful ignorance any longer. These fearless and honorable ancestors who lived each day in danger protecting their country were the two men she knew personally. They were flash and blood, full of flaws and contradictions, torn between duties and honor and their human desires for happiness. They looked like regular men, they smiled and cried like others, but who could truly understand them now, in this day and age? Who could ever comprehend what it was like to grow up learning how to fight and killing their first enemy before they ever had their first kiss? Choi Young and Jae Su were not just boys, they were elite soldiers of a secret unit that conducted its operations in the shadows of the nation, under the dark cover of the night. Their lives were not their own and they were willing to die young, protecting the peaceful sleep of unsuspecting citizens.
Jae Su was only a victim of his circumstances and he suffered tremendously. And Choi Young, her stranger, her gentle and sweet stranger with scars, carpeting his body, survived hell and still managed to remain so human. She was struck by a sorrow that she had always sensed in him, but now felt inside of her as permanently as the love that he planted in her soul.
. . .
To others, he probably looked like a tired relative of a patient, who dosed off, resting against the wall. Choi Young stood by the door, with his eyes closed. It was something he used to do when training - in order to increase the use of other senses he deprived himself of vision. Then he could hear and sense everything without the distractions of images flooding his mind. At first he had to get used to the hospital sounds; how the echoes of the people's steps were dampened by the surface of the floor and how the rolling carts and chairs with rubber wheels had an almost inaudible squeak at a turn. Also when nurses and doctors passed, there was a faint smell of a hospital, which he could not name, but learned to distinguish among the smells from the visitors that came from the outside.
The patient rooms were well sound proof for privacy, and even if he stressed his hearing, he would not be able to tell what the conversation was about on the inside. And that worried him. Guessing what Jae Su could tell Eun Soo was like shooting an arrow into space, without having a target – it could have landed anywhere. Straining his hearing he attempted one more time, failing. He was not just doing it out of curiosity, as a guard, he had to make sure the situation has not changed. For the last few minutes, he's been taken over by powerful sadness, coming from her and his instincts were on edge. "Imja," he knocked, "Are you all right there?"
"Yes, we are fine," he heard her response.
"Sure?"
"Yes."
But what he felt was contrasting with what he heard. She sounded lost and pained. That bastard Jae Su must have upset her with some story. What could he have told her? He paced angrily in front of the door, still not wanting to come in. Completely irrational, he chided himself.
He knocked on the door again, ready to yell at Jae Su and grabbing Eun Soo by the wrist in the possessive fit of anger to take her out, but there was no reply. He did not hear it with his ears, but it was distinct and unmistakable, a cry for him from Eun Soo's lips broke from inside of him onto the surface, reaching his consciousness. He kicked open the door and a scream shook the walls of the sterile hospital.
. . .
A black shadow slid from the window, without a sound; it morphed from a ghost into a man, who in matter of seconds, held Eun Soo by her waist, a knife firmly lodged under her ribs ready to cut into her flesh, while his sword was directed at Jae Su, who lounged at the attacker empty handed, only to have his stomach pierced by the blade.
"Let her go," he hissed, holding onto the flesh wound.
"But I've come for her, not you. Stay out of the way and you might survive."
Eun Soo froze in the assassin's arms. His body gave off an unfamiliar chill, and his icy colorless eyes seemed to be devoid of any liveliness. Scream for Choi Young tore from her lips, but before she could hear anything, she was knocked unconscious, drooping limply on the man's arm.
"Choi Young is behind these doors. He will sense there is something wrong. Leave the lady and flee."
"But that's why I need her," the assassin explained readily. He placed Eun Soo on the chair, her body awkwardly wrapped against the curved back. "You may call him in."
"You call him," wheezed Jae Su; fighting to stay conscious, he collapsed on his bed. His mind was sluggish and all he could see were black and red dots, populating his visual field. "Choi Young... he ... will... decimate you..."
The door propped under the pressure of Choi Young's body. He attacked with a force of a thousand men, the assassin did not stand a chance, and in a quick retreat, he fell out of the window into the darkness, his blood dripping of Choi Young's sharpened blade.
The guards were rapidly approaching, alarmed by the loud noises, and Choi Young hastily grabbed Eun Soo, standing in the middle of the room completely lost at what to do next. He could fight his way out, but many innocent will be harmed. If he is found like that, he would be taken to jail, his weapon a deadly evidence; Jae Su with his injury... he will be in trouble because he's already been on the police's radar.
"Take your friend, run. Escape. Save him. Stranger, please..." Eun Soo whispered, waking up.
He looked into her eyes, reading so much more than what she had said and placing bleeding body of Jae Su over his shoulders, he disappeared in the open window, hot on the bloody trail after the assassin.