Save me | Moon Gwang-Moo
𑣲 pairing: divorced!Moon Gwang-Moo x ex-wife!reader
𑣲 genre: angst, a bit of fluff towards the end
𑣲 word count: 3.2k
𑣲 summary: Gwang-Moo’s ex-wife gets entangled in his business troubles. When he gets a call from a rivaling gang, he’s quick on your rescue.
𑣲 warnings: mentions and slight descriptions of violence and wounds, kidnapping, loan sharks
𑣲 A/N: This was an anonymous request – thank you so much for sending it in! I loved writing this, as I’m not usually one to write purely just angst and it was so fun to explore it!🤍
masterlist
This was the exact reason why you asked for a divorce three years ago. You couldn’t believe that you let go of the love of your life, just to end up in this situation.
A stranger towered over you from behind – he was much taller and bigger in built than you were. He held a knife dangerously close to your throat as he murmured the looming words “Awfully late to be walking around here all alone like you are.”
You just wanted to go for a walk, clear your head, look at the stars. That’s why you walked along a field, away from light pollution hiding the sky and noise from the small town you lived in.
When you divorced your ex-husband, you moved outside of the city. Seoul was much too busy, too dangerous. Full of memories of your marriage.
You met him there, during your shift at the bibimbap restaurant you part-timed at.
The owner of the place was indebted to him – to Moon Gwang-Moo. A loan shark of a special kind.
He set rules for himself, for his work ethic. Never wanted to take from the people what they didn’t have, extended loan-periods, shortened interest rates, et cetera.
So him coming by the restaurant wasn’t a threat. Whenever he collected the monthly payment, he also stopped by for lunch.
With this wide smile on his face, rubbing along the stubble on his face, he greeted the owner and put in his order.
Back then, when you served him the bibimbap, all he was to you was a customer of your workplace. But he knew you had a soft spot for him – since you always gave him an extra roll to his order.
Sometimes, when business was slow, he’d invite you to sit with him and talk. That’s how you grew closer.
One night he asked you if he could take you out to dinner sometime, something that’s not rolled in seaweed.
You agreed.
Six years went by quickly, full of joy. Gwang-Moo always managed to put a smile on your face. He said that was his priority – make you laugh just once, every day.
And you did. But with time, laughing became harder. When you saw him come home with bruises on his face, his knuckles ripped open after punching someone, or sometimes even a knife wound somewhere on his body.
It worried you, and it made you realize what you should’ve seen ever since he was just a customer at the restaurant.
He was a loan shark. He was better than most of them, but still in the business of lending people money – and going after it, whenever they didn’t pay it back.
That entails danger, no matter how much of a silly guy he was at home.
Every time you tried to approach the topic, a fight ensued. He never yelled, never would’ve even thought to hit you. But he also never agreed with your wish of him quitting this line of work.
At one point, you made him decide – his job, or his wife.
He couldn’t make the decision. So you made it for him, and slid the divorce papers across the dinner table which you were sitting at.
He signed the paper without looking you in your face just once. He didn’t want to keep you in this situation, he knew that it was dangerous.
Many times you had been threatened, though he always managed to keep you safe, without you even noticing most of the time.
But once or twice, people got the number to your landline and called you while your husband was gone. It scared you just enough to instill a constant fear in you.
Gwang-Moo knew you would eventually be better off without him in your life. Safe.
You thought so too, until today.
Until the cold metal of the knife touched your skin and pressed into your neck, against your jawline.
You shuddered as you thought about how maybe it didn’t matter, whether you would’ve stayed with your husband or not. The danger followed you out here, to the countryside. But he was still in Seoul, nowhere close to notice or help the situation at hand.
Your train of thought was stopped when a hard object made impact with the back of your head and you dropped to the floor, quickly losing vision.
A slow, sad song was playing on the radio. Just a whisper of a noise, almost drowned out by the heavy rain falling outside of the windows.
Gwang-Moo sat down at the dinner table. The very one where you handed him those dreadful papers.
Your name had already been signed back then. Underlining how much you really couldn’t stay anymore.
He still feels guilty. A smile a day, was what he promised you since before he even put a ring on your finger.
He couldn’t keep his promise until the end.
Gwang-Moo sighed heavily, as he grabbed the bottle of scotch that he bought just a few days ago. It was already near empty – devastating proof of how miserable he’d been.
This was his routine, ever since you left him. He’d come home from work to the house you once filled with your laughter. Now it was quiet, it seemed like there was a shadow draped over it.
You were his sun, once. It was a little joke the two of you had. Mr. Moon found his sun. You really lit up his world.
He poured the dark liquor in a glass. As he grabbed it with his hand, the wedding band that still sat on his finger clinked against it. He raised his drink in the air, to a picture of you.
He had it framed right after your wedding – you, in your beautiful white dress, laughing heartily at one of his jokes.
Gwang-Moo thought back to that day in fondness.
Back then, the two of you agreed that he wouldn’t see you the night before the wedding. So he rented a hotel room, where he laid in the bed and stared at the ceiling, because he couldn’t sleep without you next to him.
You called him that night, close to tears. Because you missed him so much, you regretted agreeing to stay separate tonight. Without much thought he immediately drove back home to you.
“Fuck traditions”, he said as he took you in his arms and kissed your temple.
The morning of your wedding, the two of you got ready together. He was the first to see you in your wedding dress. The sight made him speechless. It was a beautiful moment, shared just between the two of you.
The ceremony was wonderful, the vows made everyone shed a tear and he’ll never forget how happy he was when he heard you say “I do”.
Whenever Gwang-Moo thought of that day, it was like his world warmed up again.
The memory slipped away from his mind and he returned to his cold reality.
He regretted not doing everything to make you stay. Leaving this line of work behind should’ve been a no-brainer. It was a mistake he’d carry with him his whole life.
Just as Gwang-Moo settled the rim of the glass on his lips to take the first chug, his phone rang.
His private phone rang.
At this time of night, usually only one of his work phones rang, because a new client needed money or a loanee begged for more time on a payment.
Confused, he stood up from where he was sitting and walked over to the couch. He’d thrown his phone on there when he came home.
At the sight of the caller ID, he froze. “My sun” stood on the display. Was he dreaming?
Immediately, he slid his thumb across the screen to accept the call. Excited, almost nervous, to hear your voice after years of not speaking to you, he held the phone to his ear.
“I knew you’d pick up”, a male voice rang in his head. This wasn’t you, nor should the person on the other side of the call ever be even near you.
A heavy breath left Gwang-Moo’s lips.
“Why the fuck do you have my wife’s phone?” Gwang-Moo clenched his fist tight with anger.
“Get me the money you owe me from all those debtors you stole off my turf and she’ll be alright”, the man on the other line stated. “You have an hour before we start messing her up.”
About four years ago, a deal fell through.
Gwang-Moo was supposed to collect money from a Loanee, but when he arrived at the agreed location, another group of loan sharks was already there.
His debtor was tied up in the back of a corner and the thugs all held a weapon of their choice in their hands.
“This is our territory now. No more deals around here for you, got it?”
Gwang-Moo wanted nothing to do with whatever these guys were up to. But he was a man of business, and that client owed him a lot of money.
Money that he wasn’t willing to give up that easily.
Now, he realizes, he should’ve just let them have it and avoid crossing them again. If he wasn’t so stubborn and provoked them.
Ever since then, the bossman of the rising gangsters was stirring up trouble around Gwang-Moo and his business.
He wanted Gwang-Moo to give up all his clients from the area he claimed for himself, but Gwang-Moo kept going back for the money he was owed by businesses in the area.
It all started with them showing up in his office, sometimes messing it up and destroying his furniture. Then, they moved on to calling his house. Where you picked up the phone and got threatened.
If he thinks about it, this whole dilemma was really the root cause of you not feeling safe anymore.
And now – so many years later, and even after he signed off on the divorce to help you get away from his work troubles – this guy found your new home and kidnapped you.
Gwang-Moo really should’ve just given him what he wanted from the start, avoiding this back and forth clashing of his company and the newcomers.
But throughout this clash he always thought, ‘If I give in to what they want, they’ll just keep pushing for more.’
Sooner or later, they would’ve driven him off of his last bit of turf and he’d end up never recovering financially.
No money in the world is worth your safety, though. He should’ve known better than this.
These thoughts of regret haunted Gwang-Moo on the way to save you.
These assholes brought you to an abandoned warehouse between Seoul and the countryside, where you settled after the divorce.
He didn’t even need them to tell him the address – Gwang-Moo already knew. Since there’s only one distribution company that went broke around that area and had to close down their business, only leaving the empty buildings behind.
Gwang-Moo knew the area well enough to find his way quickly to where you’d been brought to. Because after you moved out of the house you once shared, he’d always have an eye on your whereabouts.
Just to know you were safe.
When he arrived at the warehouse, the headlights of his truck beamed over the sandy ground as the stones underneath his tires crunched softly from still being wet after the rain.
He left his key in the ignition, to keep the lights on. As he got out of the vehicle, he saw two men, dressed in dark clothes, stand at the entrance to the warehouse.
The large double doors were slightly ajar, letting a thin beam of light slip out.
Before walking there, Gwang-Moo opened the back of his truck and grabbed a leather bag from the loading area.
As he approached, the two guards didn’t try to stop him from opening the door further to walk in.
There, tied to a chair, with blood in your hair and gagged with some sort of fabric that was tied around your face and stuffed in your mouth, you sat in the middle of the nearly empty hall.
Everything had been cleared out, besides some metal shelves and paper boxes that were left behind by the old company.
The bossman sat next to you, with a knife in his hand.
He looked at the watch on his wrist as he stood up, calling out: “You’re right on time, Mr. Moon!”
He sounded overjoyed. “I knew I could count on you – after all, this is about the woman you love.” As he said this, a dirty smirk crossed his lips.
“There’s your money”, Gwang-Moo growled as he threw the leather bag in his direction. “Now keep your part of the deal and let me walk out of here with her in peace.”
The thug nodded smugly and walked towards the bag. Meanwhile, Gwang-Moo ran to you.
With tears in your eyes, you look at him. His face was pulled into wrinkles with worry and he clenched his teeth.
“I’m sorry”, he repeated as he removed the rope that tied your arms to the chair. “I’m so sorry that my work followed you out here.”
Gwang-Moo untied the fabric that crossed your head to keep you quiet. He pulled it out of your mouth carefully and finally sunk to his knees in front of you.
You shared a moment of just silence, looking into each other’s eyes, before Gwang-Moo softly laid a hand onto your cheek as he shook his head.
“Because I couldn’t cut you out of my heart, you ended up in danger”, he whispered, with tears building up in his eyes. “If I didn’t love you, you wouldn’t be my vulnerability.”
“Just get me out of here, please,” your voice was coarse and not much louder than his whispers were.
Your plea was met with a strong nod, although Gwang-Moo did sniffle away his tears. He helped you to your feet, but the stress – emotionally and physically, as you were hurt on your head – made your legs shake.
Swiftly, he brought one arm to the back of your knees and lifted you up into his embrace. He supported your back with his other arm, you held onto his shoulder and leaned your head against his chest.
The thug had been counting the money from the bag all while the two of you prepared to get out of the warehouse.
When Gwang-Moo walked past him, the grimy looking man laughed at your ex-husband. “Pleasure doing business with you.”
You know that Gwang-Moo wanted to punch his face in for the remark, but you could feel him take a deep breath into his chest, before deciding to turn back to the door and walk out to his car.
As you looked up to his face, you could see how he was clenching his teeth.
He helped you sit down on the passenger seat, put the seatbelt on you and got in on the driver’s side.
The ride to the house that you once called your home was quiet. All you could hear was the hum of the engine of his truck. Eventually you turned on the radio on a low volume, just to fill the silence.
The familiar driveway came into sight as Gwang-Moo pulled into the street you lived in until three years ago.
He turned off the engine, leaving the two of you in absolute quietness.
“They know where you live”, he murmured with his head held down, hands still on the steering wheel. As he said this, he tightened his grip on the leather. “I didn’t think it wise to leave you there by yourself tonight.”
His explanation was almost a whisper.
“I’d really like to take a shower, and maybe you could check my head”, you said as you unbuckled the seatbelt. “I felt blood run down my neck earlier, although I think it dried up by now.”
Gwang-Moo finally looked at you before he nodded in agreement.
Just as he helped you into the car, he helped you out. He carried you inside the house – where everything was still just the same as the day you left with but a few things packed.
He sat you down on the ottoman in front of the couch, sat down himself right behind you, and separated your hair where the impact hit you earlier tonight.
“It’s just a cut”, he breathed out. You could hear the relief in his voice.
Gwang-Moo stood up again. “I’ll get the first aid kit to clean your wound.”
Before he could walk away, you grabbed his wrist.
“Thank you for saving me”, you uttered quietly. You would’ve died, if it weren’t for him hurrying to your rescue. He turned around to you, his lips in a pout.
“My love”, he started speaking, but his voice cracked as tears started to shoot back into his eyes. This time, he let them escape and slowly trickle down across his cheeks. “You would’ve never been in this situation if it weren’t for me.”
His guilt was more than obvious to you. But you just shook your head. All it took from you was a pull on his wrist to get him to fall into a hug from you. The two of you held each other tightly. You couldn’t help but cry too, feeling his trembling shoulders beneath your palms.
You pulled your head back to look at him, wiped his tears off of his cheeks and looked across his face. You missed this face, but you hated seeing it distorted into sadness.
His eyes landed on your lips and slowly, he leaned in for a kiss. You didn’t stop him, yet he jerked away, as if the kiss gave him an electric shock.
“I didn’t mean to overstep”, he apologized.
“You didn’t “, you shook your head. “I wanted to do the same thing.”
Your admission visibly confused him. Before he had to ask, you explained: “All I could think of back there was, that after all, I’m safest with you.”
You could see that he wanted to disagree. But you pecked his lips quickly before he could speak.
“If you’re by my side, it doesn’t matter whether I get in danger – because I know that you’re going to save me again.”
“Of course I’ll save you”, he whispered. His eyes were locked in deeply onto yours. “I never stopped loving you, but that’s exactly what brought you into this mess.”
Gwang-Moo slid his thumbs underneath your eyes to wipe your remaining tears away now.
“I should’ve listened to you and closed down my business”, he admits. It felt good to hear those words. “If I don’t get out of this loan shark stuff, it’ll never stop – there will always be new people trying to claim turf and stir up trouble.”
He finally saw what you tried to get into his head all this time ago. It made you smile.
“Then close your company down”, you conclude. “And let’s sell this house.”
He breathed a chuckle out. “You’ll take me back?”
“I’ve missed my moon so much, I’ve been looking at the sky every night since leaving here because it reminded me of you…”
“Mh”, Gwang-Moo nodded slowly at your words, with the smile that you knew all too well on his face. “It’s been too cold without my sun.”
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