Ever After

Surprise

Nothing more had happened after their kiss the day before. Seri had replayed the moment in her head afterwards – during the 45-minute drive back from Sigriswil to Grindelwald, while she was washing her hair, brushing her teeth, tossing and turning in bed. She had added to the scene, subtracted from it. Squirmed in embarrassingly teenage-like feelings of happiness over it.

Jeong-hyeok had to be back before evening, that much he was clear about. They had agreed that she would drive to Sigriswil the next day and stay the night before her flight back home. When Seri had begun to open the car door to see him off, Jeong-hyeok had put a hand on her arm.

"We only talk here," he had said. Cryptic as always.

"Why? Are you..." suddenly catching on, Seri had mimed headphones to substitute for 'being bugged', her eyes wide with the question.

"Maybe. Yes," he had nonetheless given her a reassuring smile, that suave wider smile that was part of this new unfamiliar Jeong-hyeok. "Act like you would if we were still in my home country."

With that ominous piece of advice, he had given her hand one last squeeze before stepping out from the car and walking quickly towards the bus stop he had instructed her to drop him off at.

Today, Seri had woken early and left her rental cottage almost as pristine as it had been when she arrived. The drive to Sigriswil seemed so much longer than the day before, when she and Jeong-hyeok had spent the journey laughing over the boys' antics back in North Korea and discussing her family's goings-on in Seoul.

The hotel she had booked was within walking distance of Jeong-hyeok's campus. There was a flutter of anticipation in Seri's stomach as she checked in. She still had so many questions, even though they had managed to colour in some of the last three years during their car ride. What were Jeong-hyeok's plans now? How would they communicate once she left? How would they plan to meet afterwards?

Perhaps it was a tad paranoid, but Seri found herself doing a thorough search of her hotel room. "No harm," she told herself as she swept her hand behind the bedside table. Satisfied that it didn't seem to be bugged (for now), Seri could finally relax.

She went for a jog. Took a nice long shower. Took her time getting ready. Ate a late, leisurely lunch. Checked her wristwatch. "How is it still only 3pm?" she muttered. Jeong-hyeok had asked to meet her at 6pm at a small bar nearby.

She decided to take a stroll towards his campus. The weather was so beautiful and after all, it wouldn't be out of ordinary for the sponsor of their annual recital to be coincidentally passing by. Seeing Jeong-hyeok's campus would be some fodder for her overactive imagination. She liked to imagine him walking through the halls, wanted to see the pianos he practiced on, the benches where he might sit to have lunch.

The school itself was typically European in style, made of pale stone and ornate arches. It was a world away from Seoul or Pyongyang. She trailed a hand along the cool stone of a pillar and drifted around the side of the building. There seemed to be a gathering of some sorts on the lawn.

Suddenly, she caught sight of a tall, sharply dressed figure among the crowd. It did seem to be made up of graduates rather than students now that she was paying attention and – yes, that was indeed Ri Jeong-hyeok. That stopped Seri in her tracks. Unsure of whether they should be seen in the same location, she inched towards one of the pillars and peeked out from behind in what she hoped was an unobtrusive manner.

"Uwa Jeong-hyeok ssi, look at you!" she whispered to herself. Whereas the Jeong-hyeok she knew wasn't by any means a wallflower, he seemed to prefer standing to the side and observing when it came to group gatherings. Now, however, he was drifting between groups, chatting and even letting out the occasional laugh or two. It wasn't that he was an entirely different man, he had just become more... shiny.