Finding You

CHAPTER 29

"One autumn night, you told Kim Tae Pyung that 'Life is a collection of a multitude of predetermined events'," Fate said in a matter-of-factly tone. "You used a tapestry as an example for him to visualize it: patterns created out of intertwined threads, threads woven and cut in a predetermined fashion."

"You said that a mortal's life is designed in a similar way," she added, lifting her gaze from the ground to hold Eon Jin's. "Their beginning, their end, and the period in between - everything shall unfold in accordance to my plan."

"I was so proud of the way you elucidated it to him - I was elated! I was optimistic that we were finally starting to be on the same page," Fate confessed. "In spite of everything, it seems that until now, you are ignorant - to a certain extent - to what fate is all about and why we are here."

Eon Jin willed herself to look straight at the god as if clarity would dawn upon her by doing so, but her thoughts only became more and more disorderly by the second.

"Are you saying that I neglected a significant aspect in this journey?" she asked.

"I shall entrust the judgement to you," Fate conceded. "If there was one thing I learned after observing you from afar, it is that you comprehend things better when you find the answers on your own."

"'From afar'?" Eon Jin repeated.

"I never left you alone even if I intended to, mistress," Fate replied, a fleeting shadow of melancholy crossing her face. "The moment I changed you, I made a decision to stay in this realm, waiting for the day that your arrogance diminishes to feeble embers and ceases to keep you from getting your head around everything I hoped for you to learn. Regardless how long it took us to get to where we are now, I am glad that my choice was justified in the end."

"Anyhow, you have enough time for some last-minute epiphanies and it would be a shame for me to take much of it," she segued. "I trust that you will not disappoint me, my child - as always."

The instant Fate turned her back on Eon Jin to retreat to the darkness surrounding the clearing, the latter halted the immortal.

"Kim Tae Pyung," Eon Jin managed to mention his name clearly through her quivering lips. "I will do anything, your divinity. I will grovel at your feet - be your obedient servant for three centuries more, if that is what you require. Just choose another mortal to be your vessel... please."

Fate responded to her request without looking back, "Of all the beings in this universe, you should know that it cannot be undone."

With unsteady legs, Eon Jin stood up and shuffled her feet towards the powerful entity she was indebted to, only to drop onto her knees and beseech her one last time.

"I beg you," she implored through stifled sobs. "Please have mercy on him... on us."

Fate heaved a labored breath that caused her dignified shoulders fall.

"I am sorry, Son Eon Jin," she said with sincere regret. "We cannot alter the path the mortals are born to take, especially when they have wholeheartedly accepted it."

Although despair was consuming her, Eon Jin knew that there was verity to Fate's words and the realization left her with no option but to admit that there was nothing she could do to change what was planned out for her and Kim Tae Pyung. It was no longer a question of if it were to happen; it was a question of when.

Eon Jin woke up from her dream with a gasp, her small frame crouching as she lay on her side and her trembling fingers seizing the collar of the oversized shirt she was wearing. The wetness of the pillow on her cheek was enough evidence that she was crying in her sleep and her movement roused Tae Pyung almost at once.