Part 6

                                    

                                          
AN: We're nearing the end! This chapter took a lot out of me because I had such a clear picture of it in my head but it was sooo hard to put it into words, you have been very patient. Hope everyone enjoys it. Thank you so much for the comments and votes - they make me want to do better and write more! There's a small note from me at the end of the chapter as well. Have a nice day and stay healthy :)
                          
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PART 6
                          
Ri Chung-ryeol isn't a man who acts impulsively — if he was, he never would have made it to where he is now. He enjoys the power that is found within his position, a position that came from hard work, loyalty, and a good amount of luck by coming from an influential family with close ties to the leader's family. With power, however, comes uncertainty. One step taken in the wrong direction and it all blows up. It has always been like that, not only in their country but everywhere else as well.
                          
More than just luck, Ri Chung-ryeol had once considered himself blessed. As a father of two boys, both of whom were always wonderful children. Both talented and smart, none of them rebellious, and most important of all: both loyal to each other, to their family, to their motherland.
                          
Until that loyalty took Mu-hyeok.
                          
Now that same loyalty threatens Jeong-hyeok.
                          
The lack of that loyalty threatens the rest of the family.
                          
With Jeong-hyeok arrested in the South, things could go very wrong very quickly. Chung-ryeol dismisses the officer who has come bearing news, both news equally distressing. Both news requires different plans, different preparations. They require separate decisions, decisions that will affect their lives — his, his wife's, his son's — very directly.
                          
Chung-ryeol sighs heavily, eyebrows frowning, his mind going over the possibilities.
                          
A few minutes pass in absolute silence. He approaches solutions for both options, one less ideal than the other for him. Both solutions offer bittersweet endings. He fears they won't survive this, although not in a literal way.
                          
He's afraid this will ruin whatever is left of his family.
                          
The door to the study is open, and his wife walks in, worry clear in her eyes. He knows she's hurting — she's always been a mother hen to both their boys, spoiling them and giving them affection when he couldn't. Their arranged marriage had always made sense — both from important families, both sharing the same values, both agreeing on how to raise their boys. They had wanted one more child but it never happened; they had their two boys, and love blossomed between them with time.
                          
Now they only have one boy.
                          
They both know he's slipping away.
                          
Yoon-hee approaches the loveseat in the middle of the study and arches her eyebrows. 
                          
"Well?"
                          
"Our son has been arrested in the South," Chung-ryeol tells her. There is no point in lying or hiding the truth. She should prepare — they both must prepare.
                          
Yoon-hee sits down instantly. "What?"
                          
"Cho Cheol-gang is dead," he continues. "Jeong-hyeok is being investigated."
                          
"You must bring him back," she says instantly. "He cannot stay there, not like this."
                          
He hums uncomfortably. If only it was that simple — surely the South will try to negotiate their extradition, and that would be easy to manage. He only needs to call in a few favors and it will be done.
                          
It's more complicated than that.
                          
"Yoon Se-ri is pregnant," he reveals, the words weighing in the thick air of the study. His wife gasps. "She was already pregnant when she left this house. I believe they only found out when she needed surgery."