He meant he cares that I'm okay because I'm a good employee, right?
Right..?
My body feels weird. I was fine at first, then collapsed, and now I'm all full of energy and awake at 2:30 am. I'd be lying if I said my head isn't split up thinking about both of them.
What happened to Chan? Why did I appear here? Did I even cross the gate? Did he bring me here and went back?
And why... why did I feel like it was Chan as soon as I got close to where Mr. Hwang was? Why did I feel like opening that door would lead me to Chan, and it felt like it was him, but it wasn't?
I'm a mess.
Between the ocean of thoughts, a memory swam in.
"What was it..?" I tried remembering. A voice had spoken to me right before waking up, but I couldn't remember exactly what it was. Something about the skin?
I rolled from side to side trying to remember.
"It's hair and skin.. something like that." I sighed.
What else could I do at 2:30 am with a dose of energy? Sleeping was clearly not an option for me, so I went to the living room and grabbed my laptop.
"Hair and skin, hair and skin.." I scratched my head. Hands ready on the keyboard with the browser up to just hit the ready button.
"Hair and skin proverb" I typed. How do I know it's a proverb? It sounds like one, no? I feel like it's something Chan would say, and taking into consideration he's actually from proverbs time, it made sense.
Was it even his voice?
I scrolled through search results for at least an hour. I changed the search a million times, thinking of different combinations. I was so into finding anything, a sound from outside made my soul leave my body and come back.
I checked the clock, 4 am. Why is my neighbor even awake at this hour?
My eyes were getting tired, and I at last was kinda falling sleep. Between that battle with myself of blinking harder to keep me awake, a little red spark appeared in front of me. I opened my eyes at once and stared, the light remained a few seconds untill it disappear.
I blinked a few times and rubbed my eyes, but the light was gone. Just then, my eyes fixated on a search result I hadn't seen before for some reason.
"The forgotten side of Shinto"
I clicked on this search result, and I didn't even know the reason. Since I read -Shinto-, I don't know, it's too much of a coincidence I have to cross a Shinto gate to move around time.
I looked around while waiting for the page to load, trying to locate that red light. The light was gone, or maybe it was never here in the first place.
Of course, the whole website was red. Is it too cliché to say red is my favorite color? Yes? I should have probably said that earlier.
The title read -The forgotten side of Shinto: The past and prohibited beliefs-
" "Prohibited beliefs"? Why do I feel like I'm entering an adult website?"
I continued to read.
-Shinto religion is still practiced by a lot people, especially in Japan. It's known the Japanese placed Shinto gates on their proclaimed territories back in the day, but as time passed by, several regions removed these gates, and the religion with them.
What do you know about Shinto?
Yeah, what do I know? That religion was eradicated way before even my parents were born. Is this info even taking me somewhere?
-Long before Shinto was expanded throughout Asia, this religion's cradle had quite different beliefs from the ones we now are aware of. We know Shinto believes in gods, right? There's a god for almost everything; but before believing in deities, their settle was-
Another Bang from outside scared the shit out of me, completely taking me out of concentration. I looked at the clocked and realized it was already 4:30 am.
"How is that possible? I haven't been reading for even 5 minutes" I stood up and grabbed the table clock. It was running normally, it didn't seem broken. I took my phone and it also said 4:30. I walked to my room and checked the night table clock, and it also said 4:30.
I won't lie, it gave me the chills. I felt weird for a moment, like something wasn't quite right. I remembered again the noise I just heard and started to freak out, just don't ask me why.
I carefuly walked back to the living room and turned off all the lights. I had heard the noise twice, and my neighbor surely doesn't wake up this early. I tip toed towards the door's peep hole, checking from side to side of the hallway. The light was on, meaning someone for sure had walked by.
"I'm just.. gonna take my stuff back to my room and lock myself." I took my laptop and walked back to my room, locked the door and went in bed. Staring at the door for a few more seconds, I went back to my reading.
"Oh? What's wrong?" My laptop was off; dead. I can't say the battery was fine, because honestly I didn't check that, so it could have died.
Of course, the charger was in the living room.
"Well... I'll continue tomorrow. There's no way I'm going out there again." I placed the laptop on my night table and tried to sleep. Surprisingly, I was able to.
-
A loud bang woke me up. It hadn't been even minutes after I was able to fall asleep, only this time, the banging was more like knocking on my door. I stood up and listened before opening.
"DaEun! Are you okay? Is everything fine?"
"Mr Hwang?" I frowned. I opened my door and went to check the front door. "Is he fucking insane? It's 4:30-."
The clock said 8 am.
I'm going crazy, I really am.
Anyway, shrugging the fact that time literally flew, I opened the door.
"Mr Hwang-"
"How are you feeling? Are you okay?" He held my face; my heart immediately started to beat faster, and the words that left his mouth last night came back into mind.
"I'm okay" I tried to get away, but my body didn't answer as I wanted.
"I'm sorry if I woke you up, I was just worried-"
"You did wake me, but it's fine. Its actually really weird because I could have sworn it was 4 am"
"W-what were you doing awake at 4?"
"I was looking for some info about.. you know, what's going on."
"Did you find anything?"
He still hadn't removed his hands from me.
"I did, but my neighbor got me distracted and then my laptop died."
"Aaand you didn't try to charge it?" He laughed. His smile made my heart skip another beat.
"I, uh- anyway, why are you here?" I moved away before he could notice my red cheeks.
"Wanna go grab some breakfast?"
"Aren't you a busy CEO?"
"Sometimes"
"You should be working"
"I am"
"I don't think so" I chuckled. "Fine, let's go have breakfast."
He smiled along with his eyes, making himself comfortable on the couch while I went to get ready.
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Of course, we had to go to the fanciest most expensive restaurant for breakfast. Mr Hwang is surely expensive; he had to eat with full view of the city at the top of the building; just like his stupid penthouse-like office.
"Check please" he asked the waiter.
"I can pay for my food"
"Don't even try" he stared. "I brought you to a very expensive place so I'll be responsible for it."
"At least you accept it is indeed expensive."
"But you can't deny it was delicious. You can't also deny the view."
"I'll give you that, okay." I rolled my eyes.
The waiter came and took the check book with mr Hwang's credit card.
"Mr Hwang, about going back to work-"
"You don't have to worry. Just rest."
"Am I fired?"
"No. Are you crazy? I just want you to rest properly before going back, take your time."
"I can go back today even"
"No, DaEun. Don't push yourself, rest."
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Mr Hwang took me back home after we had breakfast, I guess he really had to work but didn't want to admit it.
I thanked him for the food and he left. It felt nice to talk to him without fighting again. I know last time we saw each other at the office wasn't really pleasant, we both said things we probably shouldn't have, and I felt like I had to apologize properly for it.
Even though he insisted on staying home, I was gonna go crazy, so I decided to go back to work tomorrow.
Today, I want to finish the reading I was doing and go grocery shop, since of course all my food had to be thrown.
I connected my laptop and turned it on; trying in the mean time to remember a little of what I read earlier. Shinto, beliefs, gods and-.. what else?
As soon as it was fully on, I opened the browser and went to the history to check most recent pages.
"How.. weird" I took a closer look to the screen.
Every search result where I clicked was there, but the very last one, the one I was reading, was gone, nowhere to be seen. I scrolled over and over up and down and opened every single link, but the site wasn't there anymore, nothing.
I tried typing the same, and the results showed everything exactly like last night, except for that one link.
This could be the perfect time for that little light to appear again and show me the way, but of course that wasn't going to happen just like that.
Frustrated, I turned off my laptop and sighed. What the hell is going on? It's like the universe wants me to know something, but at the next second it doesn't and pushes me back; I just don't get it.
Should I actually be looking for stuff? I mean, I am here. I'm back, everything seems pretty normal, why am I even looking for information?
I stood up and made my way to the door, to go grocery shopping.
..And that was a lame attempt from me to try not to think about Chan and the fact that I.. I actually miss him.
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I had to visit three different markets, since the first one didn't have most of what I wanted. Luckily, all of them are fairly close to each other.
On my way home, I ran into my, now that I remember, loud and early riser neighbor, mrs Moon.
"Oh my! Hello DaEun!" She greeted me suspiciously happy.
"How are you doing, mrs Moon?" I bowed.
"Oh, I'm terrific! I didn't hear from you for a few weeks back then, I thought you had moved out." She waved her hand.
"Oh, no. It was just a long vacation break that I needed, nothing else."
"Well, that's great! And did you enjoy?"
Not the time to remember what I did centuries ago, literally, but I couldn't help it.
"I spent a really good time, yes." I giggled. "Anyway, I'm sorry if any delivery or something like that disturbed you, I forgot to tell them I'd be away for long-"
"Me? Honey, how long were you off?"
"I.. thought you knew?"
"I mean, the first two weeks yes, but then I moved out and-"
"Wait, you moved out?!"
"Yes! Two months ago! You didn't know?"
"Not at all!"
"Yes, yes! I mean at first I wasn't really sure, but then your handsome boyfriend offered me a great deal and I just couldn't-"
Wait.. WHAT?
"Woah woah wait, mrs Moon, my who?!"
"Your boyfriend, honey."
"I don't have a boyfriend."
"Oh, don't be shy! You kids nowadays" she chuckled. "The handsome young man who came to visit you from time to time, black hair, really tall."
Oh he did not...
"Did he make you move out?!"
"No! He just offered me another apartment he owned, like to buy it! And he only charged me what I had to pay for a month on the building! He must have been desperate."
"So you just paid... one month of rent and BOUGHT the place?"
"Great deal, wasn't it?" She clapped happily, "it's way more pretty than that apartment. Even though I'm grateful, I don't get why he would give up this beautiful apartment to live in that basic looking apartment."
My jaw dropped.
"He.. he what, you said?"
She tilted her head slightly, unable to understand my very evident face. "He offered me that place so he could move right in front of you! I'm a little confused honey, what have you been-"
"Mrs moon, it's been lovely talking to you!" I faked a smile, "but I need to get going. I really hope you're doing great! Bye bye!" I walked past her and straight to the street.
I took a taxi, throwing all the bags on the back seat and sitting on the passenger seat.
He's gonna hear me.