2.00 hours to zero,

Baek Ah is reeling. It was one thing to turn up late and get berated by coach Park but completely another to find his charge gone without notice. He would have taken the former gladly in a heartbeat. Now that he knows what had come to pass, and all that which is at the stake, he could not curse himself more. There was no need to chase that man rather than standing by So. When it comes to that, he has never aced the art of prioritizing. It is his self frustration that makes him take Kim Woo Hee by the shoulders.

“Did I not tell you to review the questions before?” His voice a low growl in his throat.

To her credit, the woman who is so small has a glare of a giant. It sobers up his guilt and self blame instantly. She looks irked rather than intimidated.

“I am not a mind reader Mr. Manager, and FYI, I did review questions - double checked almost at the cost of my job the questionnaire of that Yoo Won.”

“Then how? How?” Woo Hee shakes her hands, jerking herself out of his hold.

“How am I to know?”

Baek Ah exhales loudly, pinching the bridge of his nose. He wonders if Woo Hee knows what a disaster she avoided by a hair breadth and, if she did would she be as calm as a cucumber. Instead, he grasps at the last threads of his patience and tries to calm his tone.

“Do you have any idea where he went?” Woo Hee looks at him incredulously and shrugs.

“I’m no security personal or a dispatch commissioned to trail him.”

Oh she is hell bent on playing with his patience, he sighs and grits his teeth.

“I need to find him before he does something stupid.” Or somebody else does something to him is what he thinks inwardly.

The woman - arches a penciled eyebrow. The action makes up for thousand unsaid words.

“Where were you for so long then?”

“I - I” It had felt so important then, but he can’t bring himself to admit how easily he failed in his job.

“Fine,” she stuffs her hand inside her bag and takes out a mobile, to check something on its scree. “Let’s go and find this athlete of yours before he does something stupid.”

It is Beak Ah’s turn to stop and stare at her incredulously. “You would come?” He repeats stupidly.

“You seem to have this weird idea that I’m responsible for whatever happened or happens to you athlete - I’d rather prove you wrong before retiring for the night!”

“Woo Hee -” he has not taken her name in ages, and it feels so foreign in his lips.

She looks at him blankly.

“I’d rather not take unfinished business with you home with me,” She says briskly before marching toward the exit and shoving her security pass at the guard. “Come on!”

**

1.30 hours to zero,

Jung sways dazed by the power that vibrates through him. The feeling is quickly trailed after by a blinding pain radiating from where a fist had contacted with his jaw. It snaps his head back and the joins in his neck crack when he pulls his head back. His hair is mattered with sweat and creates a small drizzle at the movement.

He is till sober enough to taste blood in his mouth. Jung runs his tongue over the cut in his lip gathering the taste of sweat and blood, and wipes a thumb over his sweaty brow, before curling his fist for his next blow.

His opponent is too big, rowdy and unconquerable like the typical illegal wrestler but tonight he admits the distraction of pain and booze gladly. His knuckles are scraped raw and the opponent merely chuckles darkly, before punching into his stomach with a force that knocks out his breath. His vision blurs for a moment.

“Tae died a pitiful death…” He tries to remember that. “He did not deserve to die so young.. To be taken down so cruelly… His death must be avenged!”

He never liked swimming much. But it is something he must perfect in order to bring justice to his brother.

This dark pit is always there to unwind later. He gets beaten until he does not have to think more about brothers bringing brothers down. Or of the vicious cycle repeating and slams himself on the dusty cold cement - coughing up residual blood and spite lingering in his throat.

One of his eyes are sealed shut, around which he is sure a bruise will be formed by morning. He closes his good eye for a moment and relaxes on the dirty, bloody ground better than he had ever on his luxurious bedding.

“Get out! Cops are coming!” A shabby voice rings sharp over the rough hum of the fight ring.

Everything freezes and his eye snaps open.

“Aisht - man get up! Get up!” His contact is pulling him to his feet, before he had made sense of the situation. “You can’t get caught in here - your mother will have my hide!”

Pushed around the crowd, steered into his own jeep parked in an ally, the contact pushes him in, and turns on the ignition for him. In the chill air sirens are going off and Jung slowly blinks away his stupor.

“Go on! Get away!” He is still unsure what he is doing, if he is running away or running towards the trouble. But he takes the advice shouted into his eardrums seriously and steps on gas.

Away he goes.

**

10 minutes to zero,

The tires screech into a halt and Beak Ah almost sighs seeing the right windows floating with light. But they’ve merely made it out of the parking when someone barrels into his chest, the shock almost throwing both of them into the ground.

“Jin - ah!” It’s Woo Hee who calls out the pale, trembling woman, who looks as if she has wolves chasing after her.

Finding their eyes on her, she folds her arms over her partially wet clothes, her teeth trembling. Self consciousness flashes in her eyes before being replaced by deeper, graver concern.

“Woo Hee - yah, help me! Help me find him!”

“Look lady - I’m sorry but -” Baek Ah never manages to finish.

“It’s So!” Ha Jin cries. “He went away in anger - I don’t even know what went wrong. We went to his mother and she -”

“He went to see his mother?” Baek Ah exclaims.

His eyes are widened with panic when he turns to Woo Hee, “we need to get to him now!”

“Here,” Woo Hee slips out of her coat and throws it over the shoulders of the trembling girl and pats her cheeks like a mother hen.

“We’ll find him Jin -ah, he can’t have gone far!”

“Oh that damn car,” Ha Jin mutters under her breath, “I don’t know where he went!”

“Get in! Get in,” Baek Ah urges them impatiently before turning the key.

His heart beats sickly and he tries to chase away all the negative thoughts by shaking his head.

The pale young woman is shivering from cold as well as nerves. Her brown eyes wide and reddened.

“It’s my fault, my fault my fault…” She hums against Woo Hee’s shoulder, who has an arm thrown around her. She mutters something, soothing no doubt but it hardly seems to ease the broken woman.

“He will be fine.” He tells firmly, assuring her and himself at the same time. “He has to.”

**

Zero hour

So sees the lights before the logic reaches him. He knows its only an imagination but the time slows down and stretches filling few minutes with excruciating minute details.

The impact that sends the car spinning - how it vibrates along the windscreen rattling the glass and finds way along his spine. The steering spinning under his hands out of control and the moment the tires glide over the asphalt in a deadly dance.

He doesn’t hear crashing into the concrete but feels the impact that numbs his senses. There are dark spots dancing around his vision and he blinks as he sees the sparks that showers over the smashed windscreen.

Snowflakes on flame - he thinks as he watches them dance a muted ballet down the air thick with fumes rising out from the engine. He watches a thick drop of blood dangle from his lashes before dripping down and his eyelids follow the suit. He doesn’t feel his head hitting the steering.

He floats - between shifting lights of then and now. Shadows that were and are and yet to be creep up around him.

He thinks of Ha Jin - he didn’t call Baek Ah to take her home yet. He wonders if she is still out in the night - it’s cold. She might be cold.

His thoughts shift - to claws of wolves, weight of a crown - to an eclipse long ago and an almost forsaken vow. Then he thinks no more.

**

A minute too late,

“So - yah!” Her lungs burn and her hands shake.

There’s blood - on her hands, on her clothes, on the asphalt. Too much blood, too much life spilling out of him.

In her hands she cradles his face, her tears raining down on his closed lashes. His head heavy on her lap and his body limp.

“No, no, no!” her shoulders shake and her heart wrenches painfully. I’ve just found you - you cannot be taken away like this.

“Please - please!” She is dimly aware of her own words.

Her hair has long came down from the knot and curtains them when she bends down to press her lips to his forehead.

He is still warm, but his blood is warmer as it seeps through her clothes.

“You can’t go! You can’t die!” She whispers against the kisses she press on his skin. “I will not allow that - never! So!”

The pre - medics pull them apart and Woo Hee holds her only for a moment.

Soo follows him like a woman possessed, all her thoughts centered around that one person. They allow her. Nobody presses any inquiries, taking the dazed, incoherent look in her eyes. She sits by his side, her fingers laced through his, back of his hand pressed to her mouth.

Nothing would wrench them apart - not life - nor death.