"I want to."
"Y-you want to?"
"Don't you?" He stepped closer. This isn't the first time I felt intimidated by him, but not in a bad way. His low voice, his deadly stare, his confidence, always drove me insane.
I took a deep breath, trying to be confident myself.
"I want to too."
He smirked, looked down, and immediately started to laugh his soul out. Great, now I felt awkward.
"What's so funny?!"
"Y-y-you were so cute!!!" He laughed out loud. I just covered my face from embarrassment.
"Why are you like this?!" I yelled at him annoyed.
"I'm sorry!!" He was still laughing.
"It's cruel! I literally braced myself to face you like a grown up and You were messing with me! I hate you!"
"I'm sorry Aeri I'm sorry" he even wiped a tear off.
"You even deviated from what we were talking, this is important Hyunjin!"
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry. I won't mess with you again."
"Fine."
"But I do want to...you know. That wasn't a lie."
"Stop saying that, I can't concentrate."
"Sorry." He winked at me. He literally winked at me, what a flirter.
"You were saying?"
"Right. Okay so, remember we did change bodies but those were different scenarios. Yulhee and Sang Hoon changed but because she wanted to, I mean, she looked for that shell and did it purposely, but you and I did randomly."
" So What we have in common is that we met without the shell's help, which came afterwards, however, it's like the shell was meant for us to find it sooner or later." He analyzed.
"Hmmm, I wouldn't say that we met before the shell."
"How come?"
"When you appeared out of nowhere, I already had the shell in my hands. I actually got distracted by it, untill You appeared."
"Oh, right. Funny though. The shell did want us to cross paths in any way."
"What?"
"Well, I saw you again that night, what are the odds, this place is huge."
"Where?"
"I think you were having dinner with your parents. I came with my father for his business, but I chilled out all week. So that night I was sitting by myself on the sand, I was watching the moon, it was almost full.
I heard steps so I turned around, and you were there, you looked beautiful. You had a white dress."
I couldn't help but to smile a little, I felt flustered.
"But wait, didn't you say you didn't know who I was at first?"
"I didn't. For the 100th time, I have terrible memory. After the beach I got into so many shit with my father, my head was everywhere. You seemed familiar afterwards but I didn't remeber you fully."
"But, if you saw me that night-"
"I really wanted to talk to you, something was urging me to do so. At the beach, I just went to chill again, but I don't know why I decided to go for a walk to the cliff, I didn't do that during the week, it was just that day, and you were by the path I was following. I wasn't going to go through the rocks, but I saw you and it was almost as if my body moved by itself."
"Okay let me get this straight. You have good memory short time but as days go by you actually suck remembering things? Because you remembered my face that night."
"Uh huh.
And, the way you ditched me and scolded me, made me forget about it even faster. I mean the beautiful girl I saw seemed to know me and hate me, so why would I keep that memory?"
"Well, back in the trip you remembered."
"That's because you said it exactly the same and with the same amount of hate." He chuckled.
"I'm sorry for that"
"Don't worry."
"Anyways, I think that means the shell manipulated time for us."
"I think so too, but I still don't see how this could help us finish it. I'm afraid it's meant to repeat."
"I wish I could see or at least call Sang Hoon to ask him some things I didn't back then. I guess it didn't really end for them, it's just that Yulhee passed away, so it didn't happen again."
"Well, that's not an option for us, no way." Hyunjin seemed very serious.
We kept quiet for a while, I was thinking over and over all the new information we gathered, which was not much, but at least it was something. The connected souls, the pearls, time, the dreams, Yulhee and Sang Hoon's words.
Their words, there had to be something that connected everything, somehow. Destiny, balance, together, Destiny, balance, together.
I kept making different sentences with those words, trying different combinations and even including other hints. I ended up making quote-like phrases; at first I felt stupid, but it actually had more and more sense. Maybe, if our souls are really connected through time, because destiny wants it that way, we must stay together to keep it balanced.
That actually made a lot of sense.
"Oh my god." I slammed the table, standing up, startling Hyunjin.
"You scared me, you've been quiet for a while." He sighed.
"I think I got it."
"You do?"
"I just mixed all words and hints we had, and after giving it a hard thought, I came trough something that made a lot of sense."
"Okay, go ahead."
"Destiny will bring souls that are connected through time together, but only together, balance will prevail. "
Hyunjin blinked a few times, probably processing what I just said.
"Okay, so you mean we have to be together to control it?"
"Doesn't it make sense? It happened randomly the times we weren't together, and the only time we succeeded controlling the switching, we actually did it at the same time, that's being together somehow."
"So maybe the pearls are for forcing us to stay together, by switching the souls with each other's body. That way, we will have to be together for sure either to discuss it or just wait untill we switch, but telling each other how to be... am I talking nonsense? I feel like it." He chuckled.
"That's it, Hyunjin, that's it!"
"What is?"
"Think about it, balance, together,"
"Uhhh..."
"If we want balance we must be together, but together doesn't necessarily mean something else, it can be, literally, together."
"So..."
"Ugh. Get there faster!"
"Oohhhh." He finally said waving his hands in happiness.
I grabbed a fresh sweater, and of course, the shell, making my way to the door.
"W-where are you going?
"Are you kidding? We may just have discovered the truth about those pearls, where do you think we're going?
He again widened his eyes, fully connecting everything in his head.
"We're returning the pearls, together this time, to where everything started."
A/n: Hello! How have you all been?
I hope you're all doing great. Just wanted to greet u🧡
Thank you for always reading my story, it makes me so so happy! Please don't forget to vote, comment and share, I always appreciate that so much, plus I love reading your reactions🧡
Anyways, take care! Thank you so much, once again!🥰