Chapter 26: REWIND <<<<<<<<<[--:--am]

Four years later…

“LEE CHANGSUN! JUNG BYUNGHEE!”  a girl yelled as she stuck her head out of the backdoor to a worn down house. It was a faded color of grey, yet another standard house in the row of monotonous buildings. Everything in this world was so grey. Color had been leeched out of it since long ago. “YOU TWO GET BACK HERE! AND BYUNGHEE, FINISH YOUR CHORES!”

“Noooope,” Byunghee turned around to stick his tongue out and blow a mehrong to his noona. She fumed but stopped short of the courtyard, knowing she would never catch up to her little brother and his equally mischievous friend, both of which knew the alleys and shortcuts of the mid-levels like the back of their hands.

“Aish,” she groaned and turned around. She would have to do his chores now. No doubt his plan from the very beginning. She gave a small smile, happy her brother was able to smile despite the hardships they faced every day. Having a friend was invaluable in places like this and times like these. She shook her head, picked up her broomstick and went back into the house to do her little brother’s chores.

***

“Haha!” Byunghee chortled and slapped high fives with Changsun. “She fell for it!” he said with glee.

“Of course!” Changsun grinned. “I came up with the plan.”

“Good thinking!” Byunghee bumped shoulders with Changsun. “My parents wouldn’t have let me out elsewise.”

Changsun winked back at him. “You can always rely on me! Oh and…that was your sister, huh?” a dreamy gaze came into his eyes.

“Ewww!” Byunghee leaned away from him. “Not my sister!”

“Why not?” Changsun rolled his eyes. “She’s pretty.”

“Dude, that’s gross.” Byunghee stuck out his tongue. “Don’t go too near to her. You might get cooties.”

“Don’t be silly Byunghee,” Changsun chided. “That’s just a stupid rumor. Sides, we’re twelve. Aren’t you interested in girls yet?”

Byunghee shook his head violently. “Nope.  And proud of it.”

Changsun scoffed.

“Let’s shut up about that okay?” Byunghee pleaded. Changsun gave in with a sigh and when he did, Byunghee beamed.  “So Changsun," he tilted his head towards his best friend, "What shall we do today?”

***

A further four years later…

“Hi umma!”  Byunghee grinned, sweaty and tired from his excursion with Changsun. They had been playing on the docks again – their new hideout.

“Byunghee,” his mother bent down and kiss his cheek. “Go have a shower. We’ll have dinner as soon as your father gets home.”

Byunghee nodded and hummed in agreement. Dinner was never really anything special, usually hard rice and potatoes and if he was lucky, meat. But today was the day his dad got home! His dad had been away for work so often that his returns were sporadic – at best once or twice every two weeks. Both he and his two older sisters were looking forwards to it immensely. And at age eighteen, he would need to think about a stable job in future. He was looking forwards to working with his father to provide for his family. The thought had him grinning as he scrubbed the dirt away. Even the cold shower couldn’t dampen his mood.

He was changed and in his small bedroom before he knew it. It was barely bigger than a closet – because it was a closet – but it meant he didn’t have to share with his sisters. And privacy was a good enough cost to pay for the small size.

“Byunghee!” he heard his sister knock on his cupboard. “Come help lay the table.”

“Coming!”

He rattled into the other room at the speed of light. As he past his sisters, they ruffled his head.

“Byunghee,” his mother smiled at his appearance. “Can you take these?” she offered him some worn out chopsticks. He took them and turned back for the small table that at night they to its side and leaned against the wall so that their parents could sleep in the center.

He was putting down the first of the chopsticks – white, his mother’s favorite – when the doors slammed opened so violently he was sure they would crack. Nothing in this house was built to last after all.

Byunghee’s eyes flew to the door.

In poured four men in dark black suits and helmets that covered the upper half of their faces. “Everyone! Stay still! Do not speak unless spoken to!” they ordered and were obeyed. Their silver guns provided sufficient incentive. But their sharp tone startled Byunghee who dropped the chopsticks. It clattered to the floor, the noise drawing the enforcers attention immediately. In an instant all weapons were trained on him. 

Byunghee froze.

“You, kid,” one enforcer barked once he realized the fourteen year old was no threat. “Where’s your father?”

“H-he…” Byunghee couldn’t string together more than one word. 

“Speak!” another enforcer smacked his weapon into Byunghee’s cheek and it sent him reeling, the cold steel hard and bruising his skin easily.

“Hey!” Byunghee’s older noona was striding up to the enforcer and shoving his cold weapon away. Then she was kneeling and pulling Byunghee up, one protective arm wrapped around him. “Don’t do that!” she snapped to the enforcer.

Byunghee was so very scared.

“What was that little girl?” the enforcer whom she had shoved away sneered. “You think you can talk back to me?!”

“Stop!” Byunghee’s mother flew in. “Please, she’s just a little girl.” Byunghee wanted to tell the enforcer that his sister was eighteen and most definitely not a little girl, but the look of desperation and the fold of his mother’s hands told him to wisely keep his mouth shut.

The enforcer looked like he wanted to say more, but another one stepped forwards. This one was in charge. It was clear from the air he exuded and from the way the other me parted to let him move forwards. “Ma’am,” he nodded curtly to her. “We just need to know where your husband is. Then we’ll be gone.”

“My husband?” Byunghee’s mother’s hands fluttered like small, white birds. “I-I don’t know where he is.”

“If you are lying,” the enforcer came in close and spoke in a serious voice. The kind that said you would be in so much trouble if they ever found out but also the kind that was not threat. A warning. Nothing more and nothing less. Purely factual. “Then we shall treat you as an obstacle to justice and deal with you accordingly.”

Byunghee back then could only shiver in fear. His mother however was fearless in her own way. “I’m sorry enforcers, but I really do not know. My husband is due back soon, but I do not know when. He has been gone for two weeks already.”

The enforcer stared at her, so dark was his visor that none of the Jung family could read his expression. Then after the longest of times, he stood down. Unlike his subordinates who corrupted their power and turned it into whips instead of the shields the enforcers were meant to be, this enforcer seemed to have retained a fragile sense of dignity and justice. “Very well,” he said and holstered his weapon. “But if we find out…” his mouth pressed into a thin line. Dignity and justice were two things easily rusted. 

“Understood,” Byunghee’s mother bowed. But Byunghee saw her eyes flash. What they meant though, he could not possibly comprehend. 

The head enforcer returned her gesture with a curt nod and then gave one sharp signal. The enforcers were gone as quickly as they had come. The minute they left, Byunghee’s mother collapsed to her knees, her strength ebbing away as the realization they had escaped so thinly shattered her momentary brovado. 

“Umma,” his sister went to her side, hugging her tightly. His mother’s hands clasped his sister close. “Is everything alright? What did they want with appa?”

His mother could only shake her head. “It’s nothing sweetie,” she said. “I’m sure it’s not as bad as we fear.”

But Byunghee could hear the tremble in his mother's voice and knew that she knew. And nothing scared him more in the world than the fact his mother was lying to her children to protect them all. 

***

It was later that night that Byunghee awoke to hushed sounds of an argument. He rubbed his eyes sleepily and cracked his closet door open. One person was his mother. And the other-

Father!

He wanted to cry with joy and jump out and into his father’s arms. But something about the crackle of tension in the air stopped him. 

“Yeobo,” his mother had despair in her words and eyes and hands. “Please. Stop. What if you get killed?!”

Killed?!

“Shhh, I’ll be fine.” His father was quick to reassure her. He placed one hand on top of hers and looked at her lovingly. “I’m nearly done with the work anyway. Code: Red will reveal so much. It could be a new start for us all! A new government! A new city! A new life!"

“Hush,” his mother scolded him. “What if there are spies around? What if there’s bugs we’ve never known about.”

“Sweetheart…” his father stared at her with despair. “I promise I swept the entire place when we moved in. There’s nothing. We’re safe.”

“Don’t’ be complacent,” she snapped. “The government is always developing new technology. It’s where all the money and labor goes to. Who knows what else they use to spy on people!” Then she turned back to Byunghee’s father. “Please dear. Stop it. Let someone new take over the project. I worry for you.”

“I know you do,” he tucked one stray curl behind her ear. “But I’m nearly done. This project is my baby. It could do so much for our people.”

“And our three children are your babies as well! Would you sacrifice them?”

“I’m not sacrificing them,” he shook his head sternly. “I’m creating a better future for them.”

“How?” There was only despair in his mother’s eyes.

“I can’t tell you more, I promise. Give me two more days and I’ll return for good. Okay?”

Byunghee noticed his mother looked like she wanted to protest but held it in. “Fine,” she said curtly. “Two days. After which, even if your project fails, I want you to return. Promise?”

“I promise,” Byunghee’s father grinned and hooked pinkies with her. “Well then,” he kissed her gently on the forehead. “I’ll be going.”

“You won’t even see the children?” his mother stared at him with loss in her eyes. 

“No,” then a smile bloomed. “After all, I’ll be seeing them all the time after two days time.”

Byunghee’s mother let out a short sigh. “I give up,” she threw her hands in the air. But there was a lift to her shoulders, a weight taken off. “Take care okay?”

“Always,” his father blew her a kiss and in a whisk of a wave and movement, was gone.

***

Two days later. 

Byunghee stared at their front door. In black was a notice taped to the battered wood. Byunghee swallowed hard, read and re-read the blocks and letters and tried to process what they said. Tried to convince himself that his eyes were funny and he was reading everything wrong. And that his father was not...

"Byunghee?" his mother called, wiping her hands on a teatowel as she came to see why her son had not brought in the mail yet. "What's holding you up-"

Byunghee spun around, a guilty look painted on his face. He tried to hide the notice, but it was too late. The towel dropped to the floor. There was a shake to his mother's mouth, a tremble in her shoulders. Her hand moved to as her eyes read the incriminating words. 

Jung Jongsu has been convicted of espionage, government theft, the release of highly classificed information and the attempt of overthrowing the government. 

 For this crime, he will be sentenced to death.