When next Yeo wool woke, the proximity alarm was sounding and she was alone in the bed.
She tumbled sleepily from the room into the computer room, silencing the alarm and checking the CCTV. She saw Cap walking away from the apartment and was briefly alarmed until she checked the GPS on his burner phone.
He was carrying it. She calmed.
He was no expert, but he knew enough that if he wanted to leave her, he wouldn't take the phone with him. Trying to put herself in his shoes, she understood he needed to feel free to come or leave unchecked. After being locked up for so long, he would need space and choices.
So she kept an eye on the GPS signal as she prepared breakfast for them; grilled short ribs, a spicy seafood salad and bean sprout rice, as well as some side dishes of cold cucumber soup, seasoned kelp, and radish strip kimchi.
They were at the edge of a rural town, and his route would take him along a road now deserted since the closure of the warehouse it led to. In any case, she had purchased the empty warehouse as well as the land surrounding it. So long as he stayed along that route, he shouldn't encounter anyone.
From the movement of the signal is seemed that he was exercising, running with short sprints at intervals. That was a good thing, it meant that his injuries must be mostly healed.
He returned an hour later, going directly to the bathroom, and taking a short shower. He joined her at the table as she was setting out the hot rice.
"Good morning." Him.
"Good morning." Her.
and then there was quiet for the next half hour as they ate.
As breakfast came to a close, Yeo wool knew it was time to do what she had been planning all morning. After spending last night with him, she no longer felt her customary need to maintain a verbal distance. Moreover, Yeo wool now had something to say. She had to prepare him for the mission to the junkyard with Demolition, and for that, she would need to talk to him. It would be difficult, but for him, she could do it.
"My name is Yeo wool." she began.
Cap looked up, clearly startled that she was now speaking to him directly.
Yesterday, he had heard her speak to the Team about the events surrounding the murder patterns, but always through the phone. Other than the two exchanges of goodnight and good morning, it was clear he was no longer expecting conversation from her. Perhaps he thought she wasn't capable of normal conversation. 8 months ago, he may have been right in thinking so.
"My name is Kwon Yoo." Cap finally responded.
"Yes." she replied. This was a good start she thought. Names, I can do names.
A long pause, and then Cap seemed to understand she needed help to move the conversation forward.
"You are very good with computers." he started.
It wasn't a question, but Yeo wool understood he was prompting her to talk about her skill set.
"I'm a master hacker." she clarified. "Probably one of the top 50 in the world." She stated it factually, as if it wasn't a colossal achievement for one so young to have accomplished.
Cap nodded, accepting her statement at face value.
"That's how you found me?" he questioned.
She shrugged. "It was actually pretty easy. You logged into your email at that internet cafe."
"But why?" Cap's tone had changed and Yeo wool looked up at him. For all the the question was brief, she knew what he was asking. It was a question he hadn't asked her yesterday, not at the cafe and not later when the Team had revealed that the cost of helping him had been that she had gone into hiding.
She paused for a moment, considering her response. It was a serious question, one that required her to search herself for the truth of her actions. In the end, there was only one answer.
"Because you are my Cap" she answered honestly.
"Your Cap?" He asked gently.
"Yes." This time her answer came without any hesitation. She didn't know what he would think about her declaration, but she knew that after last night she would need to be completely honest and open with him in order to bring him back from the edge. Neither of them could afford to hide anything.
Contrary to her worst fears, Cap didn't immediately correct her or make small talk to find a way to extricate himself from an uncomfortable subject. Instead he sat still, just watching her for a few minutes as if trying the reach an internal conclusion about her.
Finally, he seemed to reach the end of his thoughts. His hand extended across the table to where her hand unconsciously clutched the edge. His fingers felt warm and calloused against hers as he gave her a slight squeeze.
"Okay." he replied. "Your Cap." He relaxed his shoulders and for the first time, gave a small smile. "Let's review what I need to know"
That smile and his words breached a door within her. In the minutes that followed, she found herself talking with him just as she had talked to the Team on the phone, but without the interface. It was easier than she thought it would be, the words coming unhindered as he listened intently and didn't interrupt her.
She began by outlining to him what she knew about the mission to the junkyard.
For the rest of the day they sat together in front of the monitors, reviewing her intel. As they talked, Yeo wool soon discovered that Cap's skill set as Team Leader in the game were due to a keen sense of tactics and strategy. Cap listened carefully as she reviewed known data from her searches, and revealed her initial plan for infiltrating the junkyard. He responded with detail questions about contingencies and movements, challenging her to consider possibilities that hadn't occurred to her before. She soon found herself in unstilted debate with him, as he helped to refine and develop the plan with her.
It pleased Yeo wool how well their skills complimented each other. While her strength was in searching and providing information, his was in using that information to the best effect.
The experience was exhilarating in a way that reminded her of her first major hacking job. She did her best work under pressure, and with his safety and well-being on the line, she felt challenged.
It was also just who he was. Cap was a natural leader. He spoke with a calm sincerity that showed he respected her but also demanded respect. It was also clear that he expected her best, and that he would give the same of himself.
Just as in the game, Cap's thoughts reflected a creativity and innovation that blended well with his decisiveness. As they worked through the infiltration plan, his mind sorted and weighted the information to analyze where the Team could maximize gain while minimizing risk.
In the game, his leadership was unquestioned, but in the 'real' that effect was amplified. His entire demeanor radiated an honesty and integrity that could not be feigned. Sitting next to him, listening to him expand on each tactic, Yeo wool realized that for the first time in her life she had found someone she could trust not to hurt her. That trust had developed like this, so quickly and without conscious decision on her part caught Yeo wool off guard. But there is was.
As they debated the merits of one aspect of the plan, Cap's trademark of always taking the highest risks on himself also came again to the forefront. In the game this had lead to the Team reaching the highest ranks, but now Yeo wool was a little scared for him. It was clear he was committed to the goal of clearing his name and protecting all of them to an extent that was absolute.
The day flew by. They stopped only briefly to prepare lunch, continuing to discuss plans as they ate. When dinner time came, Cap volunteered to help prepare the meal with her.
Yeo wool discovered he was an intuitive partner in the kitchen, needing only a little guidance at first to get him started on where to find equipment as he completed his tasks of cooking eggs and preparing the rice. The kitchen was small, but they moved in a natural rhythm with each other, never blocking each other's movements.
Yeo wool knew it was at least partially because she was always so conscious of his body near her, his presence had a masculine energy that a previous Taoist foster sister would have described as 'yang'. It was assertive and direct like he was. It appealed to her.
When Yeo wool was not cutting off her own emotions, she knew that in comparison, her energy tended toward the feminine 'yin'. The receptive and nurturing part of her nature had not had much chance to bear fruit in her self-isolated environment, but she felt those emotions strongly now towards Cap. She was a passive force to his more assertive one and she felt herself gravitate towards him naturally, like water flows downstream.
The meal prepared and mostly set out on the table, Cap was filling and a bowl with rice, and Yeo wool reached for another bowl on a shelf above his shoulder. Sensing the movement, Cap's head turned, and she found the fingers of her right hand brushing against his nape.
Like flicking a light switch, the atmosphere in the kitchen changed from calm to electrically charged in an instant. It was like the previous night as she held his hand on the couch, but with ten-fold the energy.
Both froze completely. There was no disguising that both were feeling this. Her fingers were still at his neck, and the skin there was warm. She realized she could lightly feel the beating of his pulse there, a steady rhythm that seemed to synchronize with the pounding in her ears.
In slow motion, they were both turning towards each other. Their own kind of gravity was taking over. His hands moving towards her waist, her left hand finding a matching position on the other side of his neck.
Slowly, slowly, slowly, everything moved into place. Now her hips were pressing against the tops of his thighs and his head was bending down to touch his forehead against hers.
They rested against each other like that for a minute, testing the fit and finding that their bodies matched comfortably with each other. Her hands entwined in the thick dark hair at the nape of his neck, wanting to check that it was really as soft as it looked. It was.
His breath feathered over her cheeks. Their eyes had not yet met, and she somehow knew that if they did she would be lost in them. If their eyes met, there would be no turning back. She paused at that thought.
She had never taken this step with anyone. This was so far outside her previous realm of experience that she had nothing to rely on. Did she need to confirm first what this was to him? Did she need to let him know how she felt?
She searched her own heart for whether this was right and found no doubts, no questions there.
She lifted her face to meet his eyes.