"And now we're here." Both Hyunjin and I finished our "story". Hana and Dong Hyun frowned from time to time after hearing things like Hyunjin's family and his attempt of marrying.
"Well... you two haven't lived that much, you have a huge future ahead of you." Hana smiled. "Do you have the pearls?"
"Yes" I replied as I took out of my pocket the shell with both pearls. They didn't seem to recognize the shell though, as they turned to each other frowning once again.
"So you found this inside a rock?"
"Yes."
"Was it sealed?"
"Uh, when I found it, the shell was kind of loosen, it wasn't neither closed nor opened."
"I see" Hana sighed. "Dong Hyun, what do you think?"
"I have no idea. Do you think these are the same?" He said as he held the pearl between his fingers.
"Y-you should leave it inside its place, it can switch you." Hyunjin added, but Dong Hyun giggled.
"We know how it works, take it easy. We still have to tell you What we know. Hana?" Dong Hyun turned to Hana for her to start talking.
"Okay, so, these two are actually called Jewels, or Tide Jewels, if you want it to sound fancier. There are a lot of tales and rumors about them, and their origin is kind of unknown."
"How did it get to you guys?" I asked.
"Well, first things first. Dong Hyun and I are childhood friends, our parents knew each other and lived nearby. However, five years ago, Dong Hyun was meant to marry someone else, just like Hyunjin."
"Is this something that's meant to happen in every story? Because Yulhee was supposed to marry another man too." Hyunjin wondered.
"Well, since it repeated before and after us, I guess it was meant to happen. Listen carefully, this is what we learned about the pearls.
As I was saying, it's origin is quite unknown. If you read about this, you'll find tales from ocean gods to Japanese emperors.
Back when we were 14, our families came her to visit and relax for a few days. We were having fun on the beach. Dong Hyun found one pearl inside a rock, just like Aeri did; I found the other one while walking along the shore. At first we thought it was unbelievable we found two pearls the same day, but we didn't think they'd be from the same shell, which I think this is the one." She said as she observed the shell carefully.
"We didn't experience the body switching untill a few months went through, when Dong Hyun had to leave with his father to a work trip.
Before "falling in love" which either way I believe we already were, we thought it'd be nice to switch pearls to have something to remember us during Dong Hyun's absence."
"How long was he leaving?" Hyunjin questioned.
"About nine months, maybe a year? I don't remeber." Dong Hyun chuckled.
"Anyways, I think I do not have to describe to you what happened the day we switched, as I am certain you reacted the same. Unfortunately, we only had letters to comunicate with, unlike you, with those things you have there." Hana pointed at our cellphones.
"So, Dong Hyun and I, had to just let it be and face unexpected switches here and there. However, as there wasn't much to do, at least for me, I used to read a lot, and I still enjoy it. My mother would always get me new books to read, about everything. That is when I read about the legend of the Tide Jewels.
It was about a powerful man from a Japanese clan, who had the Jewels in his power, but the dragon of the seas stole them, and took them to the depths of the ocean. The man starts a journey to look for them, and he meets a princess, which he marries. The princess, out of love, dives in where she believes the dragon is, fools the dragon and his guards, and retrieves the Jewels.
To avoid getting spotted, she cuts herself for her blood to distract them and cover for her, and she swims up to her love. She died from her wounds, but delivered safely the Jewels to her husband.
I didn't really believe this story, it is too magical for me, however, with the switching and everything, I did start to investigate and read further in, as it did had something magical in it, or that is what I believed.
Surprisingly, I found tons of books regarding the Jewels. They actually have a name, both of them.
Kanju and Manju.
Kanju controls the ebb-tide, in other words, when the tide retreats. Manju controls the flow of the tide, wether it's high or low."
"Can we control that with the pearls?" I asked.
"You Can, but you need them to be together, and with its respective soul."
"Its respective soul? What do you mean?"
"Okay, listen carefully. This is something Dong Hyun and I figured on our own, no book told us this. The power of the jewels regarding the tides is true, but only as long both souls are together.
Since we don't really know the origin, we figured they belonged to lovers, and that they conveyed their love in those jewels, making them reunite in every single lifetime".
"That is what we talked about back at my apartment." I told Hyunjin, he was about to say the same.
"Has it happened to you that you have realistic dreams?" Dong Hyun asked. We both got nervous, as we remembered the dream we had.
Us nodding, Dong Hyun continued.
"That happens if the Jewels are separated for too long and too far from each other. That happened to us when I was gone, we had realistic dreams where we saw each other, and eventually Hana used that as a way to tell me everything she learned about it."
"But, about the lovers-" I started to say, as I felt very confused. This was a lot of new information coming in to us, but somehow I felt this was what we needed to end everything.
"That is something Hana and I believe, it does not mean that is how it happened." He replied.
"Anyways" Hana continued, " it's normal to experience a lot of weird things, from dreams to soul switching, or body switching, whatever you call it. Those are the Jewels' doings for them to be always together. Believe us, it wasn't easy for us, to investigate all this; and on top of everything, we had to deal with real life problems, like Dong Hyun's engagement."
"How did you fix that?"
"We just ran away and established here."
"Just like that?"
"Well, eventually, we faced our families and made clear we loved each other, and that we were going to be on our own responsibly. My family took it great, they loved Dong Hyun for me, his family on the other hand, wasn't that happy. They loved me too as a daughter, but you know how arranged marriages work, they were going to benefit from it."
"Just like mine." Hyunjin sighed
"Just like yours."
"Wha did you do with the pearls afterwards?"
"Our families agreed on us being together, and we didn't experience anything weird after being together, so we kept them."
"You kept them? Why didn't you return them to the sea?!" I stood up a bit upset.
"Calm down, Aeri" Hana held my hand. "We didn't know what would happen next, and we didn't think we'd have to return them either. Remember no one told us anything.
Dong Hyun and I got married and opened the shop where we met with you. We kept the Jewels safe, along with other pretty treasures."
"I thought someone stole them?"
"In deed. Someone broke into our shop three weeks ago and stole them, but they stole only the Jewels, we think it is probably someone who knows about their power.
We started switching like crazy after that. At first we were panicking, but we were taught how to control it without the Jewels actually."
"Who taught you?"
"People in the past."