His touch lingers on her, a tendril of warmth - a lingering kiss. Ha Jin leans her head on the headrest and closes her eyes - last few minutes playing in her head on a never ending loop. Their fingers entwine already in the middle of a conversation, the speed eating away the distance between them and the abrupt ending of the road. Her exhale is loud in her ears and their eyes never leave each other.

“Yo is coming,” he says in the end, shaking his head subtly at the terror in her face. “I must go.”

The engines slow down, the wheels curve and they end up in a half fall, stuck in the shrubs, back wheels in the air. The air bags bloom and sirens go off, his arms come around her in a desperate hug.

“It’s okay - it’s okay,” he chants in her ear. “We are not going to die.”

It has the taste of all departures in her life - being up there, dangling over death. She thinks of her mother, thinks of when attorney Yoo had tried to kill her - and she burrows her head in the crook of his neck and tries to hold back a whimper. So rubs her back, his pulse racing with adrenaline and rests her forehead against hers.

“We are not going to fall - we can climb up once Yo gets here. Hmm? Okay?”

“You said -” her voice sounds rough when she tries to talk. Rusty from fear and guilt. “You said you won’t get caught until -”

“It’s done now,” he soothes. “The files of Omoni’s record room are being copied to a drive I’ve set up, Yo knows how to collect it - in a way that it becomes admissible in the trial. Eun will talk with his grandfather about the plastic surgery matter.”

His fingers tries to pry her face away from where she has it buried against him, so that he could look at her. She refuses though, clinging to the reassuring sense of his very being - the earth and spice that grounds her to reality.

“Ha Jin - ah,” he calls her, endearingly, slowly. “You have lot to do - everything might depend on your statement. They will try to break you - you mustn’t let them.”

It is then than she looks at him, holds the determination in his gaze with one of her own.

“I’ll be back -” he tells her, a promise accompanied by his thumb stroking her cheek. “I promise!”

Eun settles a shawl on her shoulders, his palm remains reassuringly a moment longer until she opens her eyes to the present. Jung drives with a dark expression etched on his face and there are weary shadows under the eyes that meets hers, still Eun smiles and squeezes her hand. Ha Jin is startled when the car takes a turn unfamiliar to her and it is Eun who answers.

“My grandfather wants to see you,” is all he says, in explanation.  

**

“…Rightly called the thriller of the decade the trial of the famed athlete has taken a very different turn to what everybody has been anticipating. Today we will be discussing how after a sensational ride the justice has come to rest on proving or disproving of the testimony of one key witness who the nation believed to be a victim and was at some point doubted to be an accomplice - the Hae heiress who was originally said to be abducted by the accused.”

The announcer is red faced, partly from the early morning cold and partly from the excitement. He shuffles the papers in his hand and turns to the experts who had been invited to discuss the merits of the case. The morning show that normally most people ignored would fetch good ratings for this particular episode - the entire crew knowing it - seemed to be charged with a new determination to perfect every aspect of it.

The case as they had justly put had an impact on several arenas. There was the athlete the accused himself. Then there was his father the politician blamed for obstructing the justice on several occasions and colluding with his mistress to steal the identity of his own legitimate son. The accusation is brought forward by his own wife who is a well known social worker endearingly called ‘mother’ by many.

The Hae heiress with her brought a cluster of accusations on her own - against Attorney Yoo as well as her own family, who in her opinion has been planing her death for a while. Her claims of the extended incident at the time of Hwang Tae’s death and then and later involvement of Hwang Wook is yet to be proved and point blank denied by the clan head of Hae’s.  

“But the most nerve wracking was the testimony of Dr. Lee Gyu!” Exclaims the announcer. “The man to whom the plastic surgery was originally referred to. The man who claims - according to the documentation he keeps of each his consultations that he was approached by the senior Hae and the child was accompanied by a woman who he is positively certain could be Attorney Yoo.”

“Not to forget,” interjects another. “Dr. Lee is a director of Hwang hospitals there by a partial witness - the part concerning to Attorney Yoo could very well be a false claim.”

“And what would be the effect of that on the credibility of his entire testimony?” The announcer rises a question which is then answered by one of the experts.

There the discussion begins as Hong Ha Jin would be called to stand today and so far his position had been that he had been operating under the directions of the senior Hwang and there was no involvement of Attorney Yoo to their dealings. So far as that he accepts the documented evidence of Dr. Gyu. On the last trial date in which he had been absent the prosecution went further down the trail of the surgery which was finally performed by a doctor who has passed away and who was as the evidence established, since her resettlement in the country had been a good friend of Oh Soo Yeon - the alleged mistress of the Assemblyman Hwang.

Myung Hee’s death is attached to the main trial - since it is alleged that it was no accident and a deliberate murder done in an attempt to destroy evidence of Hwang Tae murder. The blame currently lies on both Senior Hwang and Hae Hong Ha Jin the latter of whom is brought to stand.

Hwang Shik Ryom glances briefly at Yo, who gets up breezily by his side. He was not yet comfortable at the thought that they had ended up as partners for the prosecution - but the young man has not once given him a reason to doubt his credibility. On the earth - he had been the one to arrest his maggot of a brother.

“He killed Yeon Hwa -” was all he had told his mother. “I want to get her justice.”

Still, Shik Ryom tried to keep him away from his instruments for the case as far as possible. It was certain to him that if the entire truth of his finacee’s death is revealed Yo might change sides quicker than they could say ‘stop.’ So instead he lets his young partner believe in the evidence Shik Ryom lays down in front of him - including the murder weapon - a gun - with finger prints of Hwang So.

The origin of the gun he keeps to himself - the fact that it belongs to Wook in the real sense - the fact that the finger prints ended up on it during the struggle between the two - So and Wook, where the former ended up injured.

Shik Ryom frowns and taps his knuckles on his desk - his eyes on Hong Ha Jin. The secrets were inducing a migraine and he hoped the old man would stick to his end of bargain.

“I was informed you were indisposed at the last trial date,” Yo beings after the initial greetings. “May I inquire how you are feeling now?”

“I’m fairly well - thank you!” The old man remains coolly indifferent and Shik Ryom is reminded of an earlier conversation where the man had refused to comply with their story.

“Why should I shoulder any part of this blame?” He had demanded rather furiously. It was no secret that any love the man harbored for Wook was subject to his own greed. It was too much to ask him to give up on his own good name so that his son’s path to his inheritance would be cleared up. Shik Ryom sighs, thinking of the cost of Hong Ha Jin’s obedience.

“Will you divulge to the court what happened to you?”

Shik Ryom frowns as an unease riles up under his skin. Of cause Yo was within his limits to pursue that line - he was but guarding the credibility of his witness by establishing the reasons for his absence but something prickles him at Yo’s tone but before he could pin point it Hong Ha Jin begins to speak.

“I was hospitalized following an episode of unconsciousness and subjected to several tests to determined the cause of such.” The man drops his gaze - a shadow trailing his features. “I am perfectly alright now.”

Shik Ryom sighs when the examination then shifts smoothly to rails he had engineered and the old man sticks to his story. He speaks of things he had done under the instructions of assemblyman Hwang and proceeds perfectly on the mental instability of his adopted daughter. By the time cross begins Shik Ryom can’t help the slight curl to his lips.

There is a frown deep settled between the brows of his brother who represents himself and his disgraced son as he stands up. There is hardly a point he could contradict in Hong Ha Jin’s delivery, Shik Ryom leans in slightly in his chair as he watches his brother who builds up on mundane questions.

“Since you were unavailable on the last date I made it a point to inquire on your schedule for the next month in case you end up unavailable again.” He presents Hong Ha Jin with the said document. “You have freed up today for the trial - shall I presume these three days in the week after next are also set aside for the trial?”

An objection of irrelevancy bubbles in his throat, still Shik Ryom holds it in for the sake of letting his brother dig the pit for himself. There is no way Hong Ha Jin would speak up about the matter.

“I have other obligations on those dates.”

“Ah I see - obligations that might involve your health - as you mentioned in your statement. That brings me to this -” another document is placed before him. “- this is one of the many tests you mentioned having conducted on yourself during your statement. Care read this aloud for the benefit of court?”

Hong Ha Jin works his way down the report on his blood sample and Shik Ryom’s pulse starts to pick up.

“What is he on about?” Yo mutters beside him. He doesn’t know, but Shik Ryom does and a small sheen of perspiration gathers on his forehead. The man pauses on a certain item, his brows frown.

“Yes, Mr. Hae?” Insists senior Hwang. The man does not speak but a muscle in the corner of his jaw starts to twitch. The senior Hwang snatches back the paper and reads it out loud, laying heavy emphasis on the said item. “Traces of which is found on your blood am I correct to gather from your silence that you are aware would induce symptoms such as fainting spells - dilutes blood - increase of lymphocyte. Well enough for an uneducated man to conclude that he is suffering from a much - much more terminal illness.”

Hong Ha Jin is red in the face. His eyes narrowed to slits as he watches the mild smile in senior Hwang’s face. Shik Ryom watches as the man curls his fists and knows a lost cause when he sees one.

“And now -” says his brother. “Let us revisit some of the questions you answered initially.”

It had been Wook’s idea, tying his survival to Hong Ha Jin’s existence by making the man believe in a diagnosis of leukemia. The only way - he had said - to make sure the man will not betray them in court. The same had ended up a double edged blade not only cutting the last thread that bond them to Hong Ha Jin but also leaving him ruffled and provoked enough to turn around and sink his teeth into their well built case.

The man confesses to his connection with Yoo.