Chapter 6 - The Night of the Red Snow
The private clinic in Chinatown was hidden behind a storefront that sold herbal teas and dried ginseng.
Grace sat on a plastic chair in the narrow hallway, her white silk blouse covered in Dojin’s blood from when she had helped Reed—Dojin’s chief of security—drag him from the service elevator. The snow was falling heavily outside, drifting against the barred windows of the clinic like white ash.
Reed stood near the entrance, his hands on his hips, his face gray with exhaustion.
"He's going to be fine, Miss Holloway," Reed said. "The bullet passed through the flesh of his shoulder. It missed the bone."
"Why did they do this, Reed?" Grace asked, her voice hollow. "This isn't about real estate. This is something else."
Reed let out a heavy sigh, sitting down in the chair beside her. "In Seoul, Dojin’s family is... complicated. His grandfather built the construction empire, but when he died, he left the control to Dojin instead of his older sons. His uncle, Seo Kang-dae, has been trying to kill him for ten years. This tower... it was supposed to be Dojin’s sanctuary. A place where his uncle’s hands couldn't reach him."
"But they reached him anyway," Grace said.
"They reached him because he was distracted," Reed said, looking at her with a quiet, non-judgmental gravity. "For ten years, Dojin has had no weaknesses. He lived in hotels, he ate in private clubs, he trusted no one. Then he met you. He started sitting in the lobby for two hours every morning. He started making decisions based on... on something other than survival."
Grace looked down at her hands. They were shaking.
"I am his weakness," she whispered.
"No," a weak, raspy voice said from the doorway of the treatment room.
Dojin stood there, leaning against the doorframe. His left arm was in a black sling, and his face was pale, but his eyes were bright with a dark, stubborn fire. He was wearing a simple white t-shirt, the bandages visible beneath the thin cotton.
"You are not my weakness, Grace," he said, taking a slow, painful step toward her. "You are the only reason I have to stay alive."
Grace stood up, running to him. She didn't care about Reed. She didn't care about the blood on her clothes. She threw her arms around his waist, burying her face in his chest, her tears soaking through his t-shirt.
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"You're a fool, Seo Dojin," she sobbed.
"I know," he murmured, his right arm wrapping around her back, pulling her so close she could hear the steady, strong beat of his heart beneath his ribs. "I know."
