𝑹𝑰𝑵𝑮𝑺𝑰𝑫𝑬 | 𝐊. 𝐆𝐖 - 𝐱𝐱𝐯𝐢. 𝐂𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮

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“Ma’am. Ma’am please return to bed”

The nurse’s rather pitched and worrisome tone caught his attention first. Geon-woo rounded from behind the corner, drinks in either hand that he had picked up from a vending machine down the corridor for himself and Nari.  He had stepped outside for a bit, to get some air as the smell of the hospital had become nauseating and rather suffocating. He hated how many times him or his loved ones where confined here.

After the rescue at the fish farm, they had rushed Mr Oh and Nari to the hospital where Gang-yong was admitted and resting all the while. Woo-jin and Hyeon-ju were both currently talking to Min-Beom and Gang-yong (who was luckily alive and well. So was Han-gu and while Tae-yong was in a coma, she was alive none the less), Da-min had accompanied her grandfather and Geon-woo had to drag Nari to tend to her wounds despite her complaints. She never wanted to be back at a hospital but Geon-woo was adamant and she had no choice but to relent with a small, dejected pout on her lips as he all but carried her into the E.R.

“Miss I beg”

He slid the door open, and he wished he could’ve been surprised to find Nari standing, her hand wrapped around the IV drip as she pulled at the wire in her skin. Her hospital gown hung loosely over her frail shoulders, bandages peaking here and there and there was a gloss over her bruises- probably ointment cream. Her swelling around her eye died down to a purplish bruise and the blood was cleaned from her body while her hair had also returned to its natural shine. She was shrugging off the nurse who tried ushering her back to bed.

“Nari”

Nari straightened in shock at the sound of his voice. She hid her hand behind her back and the nurse turned to him in surprise as Nari plastered an innocent smile on her face.

“Hey, you’re back” she drawled and glanced at the nurse at her side. “She was just…helping me to the bathroom” she trailed and shot the nurse a look. The nurse’s eyes widened and her head bounced between the two, uncertain and weary with hands still outstretched mid coax.

“Is that so?” Geon-woo questioned, taking a step into the room.

“Yes, yes. ” she stammered and the nurse glanced between them as if she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

”So you weren’t about to escape and fight off this nice nurse” he said, raising a sceptic eyebrow in question.

Nari scoffed, blowing a raspberry as if his assumption was crazy. “Me? Escape? Never. I’m just, I’m fine. See, all patched up as good as new. I don’t need to be here” she sighed, and her smile slipped off her face.

“Nari you were kidnapped, tortured and nearly killed. You can’t leave just yet” he told her gently.

“I  can’t sit back in this white prison cell knowing he’s still out there. He could be anywhere or worse, halfway out this country where we’ll never be able to find him ever again” she frenzied, her hands dropping to her side.

The nurse quietly excused herself when Geon-woo told her he’d take care of Nari. He closed the door behind him and placed the two drinks onto the bedside table.

“He’s a wanted criminal now, it won’t be easy for him to leave. Gang-yong made sure of it” he assured her. He stepped closer and gently placed her hands in his.

“You nearly died Nari” he said softly and eyed the bruises and bandages on her face. ” You were hurt and I-” his voice cracked with emotion.

“Geon-woo” her eyes softened.

“Realising you had slipped through my fingers again was worse than death” he confessed. ” I had gotten you back. I had promised to never let you go and then you were gone. Just like that. They had you and I couldn’t find you. Nari, I couldn’t find you”

“It wasn’t your fault” she told him sternly but he shook his head.

”You don’t understand. When I saw you, what he did to you. I couldn’t see anything but red. And it was terrifying. The thought of losing you terrified me more than this. More than Myeong-gil. Nari at the end of the day, I could lose everything but I can’t lose you. He’s taken so much from me, I won’t let him take you too. Which is why we fight like hell to end him, and we do it together but I won’t let it be at the expense of you. If I have to choose between revenge or you. Nari I would always choose you. ”

Nari was stunned at the conviction in his words. He was looking at her like nothing else mattered. He looked at her beyond her bruises, her wounds, her rage. But something twisted in her heart. Could she choose him too? 

Now don’t get her wrong, Nari loved her boyfriend, more than anything. But if it came down to him or revenge, could she throw it aside because he asked her too. 

Nari was not a cruel person. She knew the weight of his words but while they had their similarities, they had their differences too. Avenging her loved ones, herself, that was priority right now. She couldn’t give it up, not like he could. It was too important to her. So, if Nari had to choose, her heart ached that maybe that decision wasn’t as straightforward as he made it out to be. 

Her smile rested uneasy, her turmoil deep in her veins but her decision was solid and fortified in her heart. She coaxed a small nod, her smile strained and Geon-woo could see her confliction but opted to stay silent in understating. 

He raised his hand, tucked her hair behind her ear and smiled. Nari smiled back. 

It seemed despite their closeness their thoughts couldn’t be farther apart and that was okay. No matter what, they’d support each other and if that meant seeing Nari through with her goal (even if it didn’t involve him) or allowing him to make his decisions (even if it bothered her), they would do it. 

As always. Together. 

“You ready to go?” Woo-jin chimed in from the door, head peaking in with Hyeon-ju behind, pulling the two’s attention from each other to the oldest of them.

“Yeah” Nari nodded, pulling away and going to grab her clothes but Geon-woo held her wrist in silent question and concern. He was still apprehensive of her leaving the hospital so early. 

‘”I’m fine” she expressed adamantly.

Geon-woo stared at her, for one long moment of which she held her ground and then he sighed and went to retrieve her clothes for her while she smiled at him bashfully and ripped the drip from her flesh. She shook out her hand and reached for her clothes with a swift peck to his cheek and disappeared into the bathroom to change before the nurses came back and handcuffed her to the bed.

“She’s crazy” Woo-jin muttered and Geon-woo found himself smiling despite his worry.

”I know”

Okay, so this is how the next few days went.

Nari was benched. She hated it, and it was clear from the constant berating she had fussed over from the moment she returned to the apartment. She had a permanent frown on her face, arms crossed and a shadow wherever she went. She had not a moment of solitude without one of them hovering over her shoulder as if A) she was going to collapse in injury or B) get kidnapped again. She had complained all through the day and muttered her displeasure all through the night. But her friends were nothing if not persistent.

In the meantime, they had begun initiating their plan on locating Kim Myeong-gil through the one person whose loyalties had probably waivered enough in their favour- Im Jang-do.

Nari was suddenly brought back to the night in the warehouse, his screams and his cries, the sound of his restricted thrashing and the guilty yet passive looks in Yang-jung and Du-yeong’s eyes as they quite literally, rubbed salt in his wound. But ever since Jae-myeong revealed his leave it had opened doors to finally intercept Myeong-gil before he could escape the country.

And who better to find a criminal than by a criminal. Jae-myeong had swiftly offered them a way to get in contact with him, the only way to ever attract a criminal of this calibre-through their greed and desperation. In the same way this whole thing started, it would end the same. Full circle. With money.

They wired more than ten million won to Jang-do, with a phone number etched in the senders name. and as much as Jae-myeong irked her and he had developed a rational fear of Hyeon-ju, she couldn’t deny he was effective at being their informant. If anything, colour her impressed (but don’t let him know that). And true to Jae-myeong’s promise, Jang-do took the bait.

The call came in the late evening after much deliberating, doubt and pacing that started driving Nari nuts. But when the call came, their hopes of cooperation hit a standstill and an ultimatum was formed. Information, at the expense of one billion won. Now while Nari had her money from Mr Choi alongside the remainder of the emergency cash it was nowhere near enough to meet his request so they went to the last person who could help them and have that kind of money- Hong Min-beom.

It didn’t take much to convince him, his entire life was still in the hands of Myeong-gil. And quite frankly he’d do anything to stop him, even if it meant throwing four hopeful adults to the wolves and mourning their sacrifice so long as that video of him was wiped from this planet forever.

Which leads them to now- going to say goodbye to the last people who ever had any ounce of faith in them from the start- Mr Oh and Da-min. Mr Oh had been discharged a day prior and had returned back to the apartment to spend some time with his granddaughter until the whole ordeal blew over. Hyeon-ju had agonised when she saw their reunion, stifling the envy that rolled green in her chest that she’d never have that with her own grandfather ever again. Mr Oh held them close and held Nari even closer.

Mr Oh had never told them, not even Nari that when he was in there, he had thought back on his life and yet it seemed his happiest moments were with his family- going for drinks with Mr Choi and the knifers, looking after the four kids and his precious granddaughter of whom he doted. His thoughts trailed but he felt somewhat reassured that it better him than them. That he was finally performing one last duty to Mr Choi before he followed dutifully after him. But then, then as cruelly as life ripped away Mr Choi from him, so did life rip away his peace in finality.

He had heard it all from blind eyes and sealed lips. Heard blurred conversations and the sound of metal on bone and gasps and grunts. Loud voices and soft, ragged breaths and tantalising laughs. He didn’t know what poor soul had been trapped indignity like him and he had wished he never had. Hearing Nari’s voice. Nari, the young woman who had grown on him, kind-hearted, loving and driven Nari apologising in his ear and realising she had been the owner of the poor soul subjected to Myeong-gil’s ensemble had broken him beyond measure. He felt like a failure, that he could not fulfil Mr Choi’s dying wish- protect our kids, he had said and promise me Nari lives a happy life. All of them really. They deserve it. Mr Oh had tried and failed to keep himself together as Nari stomached blow after blow on his behalf. He’d heard it despite not seeing it. Heavens he was sort of grateful Myeong-gil had taken his ability to see because nothing would ease the horror of witnessing what she had looked like. He couldn’t tell her no, couldn’t tell her that he was sorry he couldn’t protect them and that maybe, just maybe, if he hadn’t given in to their return, none of this would’ve happened. But his mouth was taped shut and he could do nothing as he tried to tune out the sound of Nari’s wheezed breath and a fist hitting flesh.

As they stood in the parking lot, a spare pair of glasses on his nose with strips of band aids all over his face, he held Nari and begged for her forgiveness. But sweet, headstrong and determined Nari had always been like, she merely shook her head and cracked a joke about how she always knew she was the favourite. He wanted to laugh but he would sob instead. So, he handed her a briefcase filled with weapons to aid them in their final endeavour and bid them farewell- he was already tearing up at the effort.

Da-min was next.

She had decided to remain with her grandfather and the four of them were actually disheartened at the thought of leaving the young teen behind. She had grown on them quickly and fiercely and had become a little annoying but charismatic sister to the lot of them. They had made an incredible team in the short while they knew each other and Da-min put up a façade in hopes they didn’t see just how disheartened she felt at the goodbye. But Nari assured her, this wasn’t a goodbye, their story wasn’t over yet. It was a see you later. It was a see you soon when Kim Myeong-gil was finally put down once and for all.

Da-min knew they would be back, she knew they’d succeed and she knew their little family would reunite sooner than later. She also found herself missing them dearly when she returned to the apartment with her grandfather and found a three diffuser set wrapped in a pretty bow curtsey of Nari and the others waiting on the table.

The goodbyes sent them off in assurance and soon they were speeding down the highway to Pohang where the final had  begun and end was near.

Nari couldn’t wait until she had her hands on him.

It was on. 

Okay 2 things

1) How tf Tae- yong managed to survive that was genuinely crazy😭😭 Sis was made of steel or something omg

2) Don’t chide Nari too much. I think we need to realise how important getting revenge is for her compared to Geon-woo. Geon-woo’s mother is alive, he only knew Du-yeong and Yang-jung for a little while and while his grief is valid, Nari lost practically her entire family, was tortured and nearly killed TWICE.

She watched her family die before her, she lost Du-yeong, Mi-kyung, Mr Kwan, her mother. She has every right to see this through. Both of them were real for what they said and Geon-woo’s circumstances make it a alot easier for him to choose her above all else (not saying his drive for revenge is less than hers. It’s just not his priority- she is) while for Nari that decision is a bit more difficult. She really does love him but I guess we’ll see what happens.

Would Nari choose him over revenge? Guess we’ll find out

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