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Title: Too Harsh
Series: 내일 / Tomorrow
Characters: Park Joonggil, Gu Ryeon, Jang Jae-hee, Jeon Soo-in, Jeon Boyun
Summary: For quite some time, he had been feeling bitter towards Gu Ryeon. While it might just be his pride, he wanted her to understand what he felt. But now, he wondered if he had been a bit too harsh on her...
-----------------------------
"Didn't you always wonder why Ms Gu was inside your nightmare?"
"Go inside that nightmare that you always have and see for yourself!"
By rights, he has no reason to believe anything the kid said to him. Because the kid had a talent for running his mouth on matters that he didn't have the slightest clue for. Who's to say that Choi Junwoong was just trying to rile him up just to make him go help them save Gu Ryeon? That kid was certainly capable of doing something like that!
Yet somehow he could sense that the kid wasn't playing around with him this time. There's something in the kid's eyes that told him that the kid knew exactly what he was talking about.
Choi Junwoong knew something that he didn't know. But Choi Junwoong was just an average half-spirit half-living grim reaper who didn't have any special ability or rank in Jumadeung! How could someone like that be able to gain access to knowledge that even he had no chance of getting it? How could that be possible? It's unlikely that Ryeon would even tell that kid when she didn't tell him about it!
Unless that information was given by someone who has a higher authority than Ryeon. Someone like... the Director.
Was this a trick? But then the Director wasn't the kind of person who'd do things in such convoluted ways. And if she had wanted him to know about this, she wouldn't have sealed his Records of the Dead to prevent him from accessing them.
So that's how he ended up at the Sales department office. As the Sales team member asked him for the required credentials to access the memory room, Joonggil grabbed the ID card from the reaper without any other explanations.
×××
The moment he access the dream—nightmare—that used to plague him, all of the memories from the previous two incarnations of his started to flow into his mind. The memories of the first time he met with Ryeon, the memories of him marrying her, losing her and finding her again, the painful memories afterwards as he struggled to protect his wife from the people who had no business but to hurt his beloved. And of course, the memories of him cradling the lifeless body of the wife he failed to protect. In what felt like an eternity to him, multiple storms of emotions pierced into his heart like an inevitable tsunami.
That's when he realised what terrible and cruel things he'd done to Ryeon. How much he has hurt her because of his selfishness. How awful his behaviour had been towards her.
He shouldn't have done what he did to Ryeon. Of all the people in Ryeon's life, he shouldn't have done that to his beloved! Ryeon didn't deserve all the things he had done to her!
He finally got the answer he was looking for. So now he needed to fix the situation and set things right.
Just before he could leave the dream and back to Jumadeung, suddenly he was taken into another piece of memory. It was a memory of Ryeon crying over a servant who had been by her side ever since she was very young. That servant had died after trying to protect her master from being stoned to death by the villagers. A devoted servant called Gob-dan.
Joonggil stared long at the still body of the servant that Ryeon had been mourning. Without warning, yet another memory started to unlock inside his mind as he recalled the memories of the day he was being married to Ryeon. A younger Gob-dan used to stay beside Ryeon, dancing around as the wedding festivities continued.
That younger Gob-dan bore a strong resemblance to a certain Ryu Chohui!
Immediately Joonggil realised why the case with Ryu Chohui affected Ryeon very severely.
Joonggil sat up as he disconnected himself from the dream database. Another fresh wave of emotions immediately wash over him as Joonggil struggled to keep himself from breaking down.
×××
"Team Leader Park!"
Joonggil turned around as two of his assistants, Soo-in and Jae-hee rushed over to him. He frowned as the two girls hurriedly gave their reports to him.
"How is it? Have you located Gu Ryeon?" he immediately asked them.
"Mr Lim just passed the information to us earlier, he and Mr Choi were already on the way towards the location Team Leader Gu should be heading to," answered Jae-hee as Joonggil nodded to her.
Soo-in cocked her head towards him. "—but it seemed that Mr Ha and his men were also heading in the same direction!"
Joonggil bit his lips. "Is that so? Then we got no time to waste—" This didn't bode well. If Mr Ha got to Ryeon first, there's no way for him to save her. He needed to rush over there...
"—should we come with you, Team Leader? You'll need help to keep Mr Ha and his men at bay. We'll tell the others—"
"No." Joonggil raised his hand to stop the two from running off to find the rest of the Escort team members. Both Soo-in and Jae-hee stared at him with concern. "I'll deal with this matter on my own. There's no reason to drag everyone into this matter. Stay put over here."
"Team Leader!"
"Team Leader Park, wait!"
Escort team member Jeon Boyun hurriedly rushed over to the three of them before gathering her breath. Boyun looked up towards Joonggil in alarm.
"We got a problem! We received a new case just now." Boyun bit her lips before continuing, "It's Ms Ryu Chohui... isn't her case supposed to be handled by the Risk Management team?"
Joonggil's eyes widened as he heard her report. "Are you sure?" he asked as Boyun gave him her datapad to show him the report.
"All right, I'll deal with this," he said before passing back the datapad to Boyun. "The rest of you stay put over here. Under no circumstances do any of you come over to lend me a hand. This is a delicate matter, we don't want this matter to escalate even worse."
"Be careful, Team Leader Park. Take care of Team Leader Gu," said Boyun as Joonggil took that cue to leave.
×××
"Leave the grunt work to me, Mr Ha."
It seemed that he was able to arrive just in time! Good... everyone's here. So there should not be a problem for him to deal with everything all at once.
"Park Joonggil? I haven't seen hide nor hair from you all these times. So what are you doing here?"
Ha Daesu didn't seemed too pleased to be interrupted so suddenly. Well, if he had wanted to stay on the guy's good side he wouldn't have even started this.
"Gu Ryeon used to work under me."
"So?"
"It was my fault for not teaching her well. I'll be the one to handle her."
Mr Ha didn't look convinced.
"What kind of trick are you trying to pull? I guess I was wrong to think that you're the only useful one in Jumadeung."
Well, he already knew that it won't be easy to persuade Mr Ha from letting Ryeon go. So nothing else he could do but keep pressing the issue.
"I'm sorry. I'm only saying that there's no need to trouble yourself about this matter."
"What did you say?"
"What I'm saying is: Jumadeung will take care of Jumadeung's problems."
Mr Ha started to laugh out loud.
"What? Are you suddenly overcome with affection for your subordinate? Are you expecting me to be touched by this and cry?"
Joonggil took this moment to turn around and face Ryeon. Ryeon had looked worse for wear. Somehow it reminded him of the time she had looked after she and the other kidnapped women managed to escape the Jurchens to return home. Back then, she had almost died again when the guards had refused to grant the women entry.
What could've happened to her if he hadn't been able to come to her aid like this in both situations?
Joonggil clenched his teeth as he tried to strengthen his resolve. He hastily reminded himself about what Boyun had told him earlier.
"Hurry and save the girl."
He turned back to face Mr Ha as soon as he finished his words. Because he didn't think he'd be able to let her go if he continued looking at her.
As soon as he turned his back on them he could hear the Red Light app starting to blare out alerts from the RM team's phones. Guess he did arrive in the nick of time!
As his ears picked up the soft sounds of rushing air behind him Joonggil started to tighten his fist. So the hard work begins now.
Series: 내일 / Tomorrow
Characters: Park Joonggil, Gu Ryeon, Jang Jae-hee, Jeon Soo-in, Jeon Boyun
Summary: For quite some time, he had been feeling bitter towards Gu Ryeon. While it might just be his pride, he wanted her to understand what he felt. But now, he wondered if he had been a bit too harsh on her...
-----------------------------
"Didn't you always wonder why Ms Gu was inside your nightmare?"
"Go inside that nightmare that you always have and see for yourself!"
By rights, he has no reason to believe anything the kid said to him. Because the kid had a talent for running his mouth on matters that he didn't have the slightest clue for. Who's to say that Choi Junwoong was just trying to rile him up just to make him go help them save Gu Ryeon? That kid was certainly capable of doing something like that!
Yet somehow he could sense that the kid wasn't playing around with him this time. There's something in the kid's eyes that told him that the kid knew exactly what he was talking about.
Choi Junwoong knew something that he didn't know. But Choi Junwoong was just an average half-spirit half-living grim reaper who didn't have any special ability or rank in Jumadeung! How could someone like that be able to gain access to knowledge that even he had no chance of getting it? How could that be possible? It's unlikely that Ryeon would even tell that kid when she didn't tell him about it!
Unless that information was given by someone who has a higher authority than Ryeon. Someone like... the Director.
Was this a trick? But then the Director wasn't the kind of person who'd do things in such convoluted ways. And if she had wanted him to know about this, she wouldn't have sealed his Records of the Dead to prevent him from accessing them.
So that's how he ended up at the Sales department office. As the Sales team member asked him for the required credentials to access the memory room, Joonggil grabbed the ID card from the reaper without any other explanations.
×××
The moment he access the dream—nightmare—that used to plague him, all of the memories from the previous two incarnations of his started to flow into his mind. The memories of the first time he met with Ryeon, the memories of him marrying her, losing her and finding her again, the painful memories afterwards as he struggled to protect his wife from the people who had no business but to hurt his beloved. And of course, the memories of him cradling the lifeless body of the wife he failed to protect. In what felt like an eternity to him, multiple storms of emotions pierced into his heart like an inevitable tsunami.
That's when he realised what terrible and cruel things he'd done to Ryeon. How much he has hurt her because of his selfishness. How awful his behaviour had been towards her.
He shouldn't have done what he did to Ryeon. Of all the people in Ryeon's life, he shouldn't have done that to his beloved! Ryeon didn't deserve all the things he had done to her!
He finally got the answer he was looking for. So now he needed to fix the situation and set things right.
Just before he could leave the dream and back to Jumadeung, suddenly he was taken into another piece of memory. It was a memory of Ryeon crying over a servant who had been by her side ever since she was very young. That servant had died after trying to protect her master from being stoned to death by the villagers. A devoted servant called Gob-dan.
Joonggil stared long at the still body of the servant that Ryeon had been mourning. Without warning, yet another memory started to unlock inside his mind as he recalled the memories of the day he was being married to Ryeon. A younger Gob-dan used to stay beside Ryeon, dancing around as the wedding festivities continued.
That younger Gob-dan bore a strong resemblance to a certain Ryu Chohui!
Immediately Joonggil realised why the case with Ryu Chohui affected Ryeon very severely.
Joonggil sat up as he disconnected himself from the dream database. Another fresh wave of emotions immediately wash over him as Joonggil struggled to keep himself from breaking down.
×××
"Team Leader Park!"
Joonggil turned around as two of his assistants, Soo-in and Jae-hee rushed over to him. He frowned as the two girls hurriedly gave their reports to him.
"How is it? Have you located Gu Ryeon?" he immediately asked them.
"Mr Lim just passed the information to us earlier, he and Mr Choi were already on the way towards the location Team Leader Gu should be heading to," answered Jae-hee as Joonggil nodded to her.
Soo-in cocked her head towards him. "—but it seemed that Mr Ha and his men were also heading in the same direction!"
Joonggil bit his lips. "Is that so? Then we got no time to waste—" This didn't bode well. If Mr Ha got to Ryeon first, there's no way for him to save her. He needed to rush over there...
"—should we come with you, Team Leader? You'll need help to keep Mr Ha and his men at bay. We'll tell the others—"
"No." Joonggil raised his hand to stop the two from running off to find the rest of the Escort team members. Both Soo-in and Jae-hee stared at him with concern. "I'll deal with this matter on my own. There's no reason to drag everyone into this matter. Stay put over here."
"Team Leader!"
"Team Leader Park, wait!"
Escort team member Jeon Boyun hurriedly rushed over to the three of them before gathering her breath. Boyun looked up towards Joonggil in alarm.
"We got a problem! We received a new case just now." Boyun bit her lips before continuing, "It's Ms Ryu Chohui... isn't her case supposed to be handled by the Risk Management team?"
Joonggil's eyes widened as he heard her report. "Are you sure?" he asked as Boyun gave him her datapad to show him the report.
"All right, I'll deal with this," he said before passing back the datapad to Boyun. "The rest of you stay put over here. Under no circumstances do any of you come over to lend me a hand. This is a delicate matter, we don't want this matter to escalate even worse."
"Be careful, Team Leader Park. Take care of Team Leader Gu," said Boyun as Joonggil took that cue to leave.
×××
"Leave the grunt work to me, Mr Ha."
It seemed that he was able to arrive just in time! Good... everyone's here. So there should not be a problem for him to deal with everything all at once.
"Park Joonggil? I haven't seen hide nor hair from you all these times. So what are you doing here?"
Ha Daesu didn't seemed too pleased to be interrupted so suddenly. Well, if he had wanted to stay on the guy's good side he wouldn't have even started this.
"Gu Ryeon used to work under me."
"So?"
"It was my fault for not teaching her well. I'll be the one to handle her."
Mr Ha didn't look convinced.
"What kind of trick are you trying to pull? I guess I was wrong to think that you're the only useful one in Jumadeung."
Well, he already knew that it won't be easy to persuade Mr Ha from letting Ryeon go. So nothing else he could do but keep pressing the issue.
"I'm sorry. I'm only saying that there's no need to trouble yourself about this matter."
"What did you say?"
"What I'm saying is: Jumadeung will take care of Jumadeung's problems."
Mr Ha started to laugh out loud.
"What? Are you suddenly overcome with affection for your subordinate? Are you expecting me to be touched by this and cry?"
Joonggil took this moment to turn around and face Ryeon. Ryeon had looked worse for wear. Somehow it reminded him of the time she had looked after she and the other kidnapped women managed to escape the Jurchens to return home. Back then, she had almost died again when the guards had refused to grant the women entry.
What could've happened to her if he hadn't been able to come to her aid like this in both situations?
Joonggil clenched his teeth as he tried to strengthen his resolve. He hastily reminded himself about what Boyun had told him earlier.
"Hurry and save the girl."
He turned back to face Mr Ha as soon as he finished his words. Because he didn't think he'd be able to let her go if he continued looking at her.
As soon as he turned his back on them he could hear the Red Light app starting to blare out alerts from the RM team's phones. Guess he did arrive in the nick of time!
As his ears picked up the soft sounds of rushing air behind him Joonggil started to tighten his fist. So the hard work begins now.
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