As he held her petite body against him, Tae Pyung measured the passing of time by listening to Eon Jin's breathing, an uneven rhythm that synchronized with the movement of her chest and the warm gusts of air that grazed the side of his neck. He knew that it took about thirty seconds before she was able to tame the erratic beating of her heart.
"Are they gone?" she asked, her voice low and hushed to an almost whisper.
Tae Pyung subtly glimpsed to his right and saw Hyo Jin give him a slight bow, looking perplexed at the sudden change in Eon Jin's behavior, before quietly leaving with the two souls. It was only when they have completely vanished into thin air that he started to take his hand away from Eon Jin's eyes, only to gently rest it on the side of her neck.
"Yes. You can open your eyes now," he told her in a soothing manner that matched the calming motion of his thumb that tenderly stroked the skin under her jaw, feeling every pulse that passed through that vein on her neck.
Eon Jin obeyed and opened her eyes slowly, her lashes fluttering as she slightly tilted her face up to see his. She was then greeted by Tae Pyung's gaze, a look smoldering with an intensity that would have broken down the walls she built over a long period of time in an instant – if she would only allow it to.
"Are you okay now?" Tae Pyung asked, genuine concern seeping through his voice.
Eon Jin nodded, prompting him to gradually loosen up on his hold on her body although not entirely letting go of it.
"I'll take you home," he said.
"I can drive," Eon Jin protested weakly. "Besides, you still have that one hand in a cast."
"Let's not put the immunity Fate granted to me to a test tonight, shall we?" she added the moment she saw him hesitate, thus making Tae Pyung concede without further argument.
It was another quiet drive back to the city with only the purr of the engine filling in the silence that lurked between them. Throughout their journey, Tae Pyung stole a few a glances at Eon Jin, whose eyes were focused on the road ahead of them as she sped off on the freeway. Fifteen minutes later, they were back at the basement parking of the building where she lived.
"Rest well tonight," Tae Pyung said as he started to unbuckle his seat belt.
Eon Jin hummed in response without looking at him, which he took as a sign that she probably needed some time alone. He then willed himself a few moments later to reach for the door handle, only to be stopped by Eon Jin's hands that unexpectedly clutched at his coat sleeve.
"Would you like to have coffee upstairs before you go?" she asked, to which Tae Pyung replied with a wordless nod.
They sat on the living room of Eon Jin's roof top home a few minutes later, occupying the far ends of the velvet couch while they sipped on their coffee.
"What were you doing in that back alley?" Eon Jin probed as she took a sideway glance at the man seated a few inches away from her.
Tae Pyung sighed before answering, "I figured you weren't yourself before we parted so I followed you just to make sure you were alright. You worked your magic when you turned to the main street – that's where the taxi driver lost you – and then, I had to search for you on my own."
"I see," she mumbled in acknowledgement. "And why did you cover my eyes?"
"I just thought you didn't need to see that," he replied as he ran his thumb on the smooth curve of the cup's handle. "Like how you didn't need to see the foal being buried when you were little."
Eon Jin was reminded of the recent memory Tae Pyung drew up for her, which – to her surprise – actually made her feel a whole lot better after being taken over by those forgotten emotions that began to resurface as of late. She took a deep breath, as if to shake them off, before she spoke again.
"Thank you," she muttered. "However, you cannot keep on doing this, Kim Tae Pyung."
"Doing what?"
"Going to places you shouldn't be," Eon Jin replied, her voice resolute but dismal. "Your mere presence is the variable that makes the completion of Fate's course in peril."
"Do you remember Kang Myeong Suk?" she asked him moments later. "He was supposed to die in that accident on the bridge. Yet, your arrival in the dark street where you saw me and Hyo Jin changed everything."
Tae Pyung tilted his head down and bit his lower lip as he contemplated on what Eon Jin told him.
"My life as the mistress is already complicated as it is," Eon Jin spoke in a soft voice. "Having you in the equation will not make it any better, Kim Tae Pyung."
"I never intended to be in your way," Tae Pyung murmured. "But I can't seem to stay away from you, especially after the memories I've seen so far."
Eon Jin turned to look at him, a frown forming on her face, and said, "Do not misinterpret your feelings for me in the present with that of your past self. The Kim Tae Pyung from more than three hundred years ago is different from the person you are now. Please do not forget that."
"I know," Tae Pyung agreed, but with reservations.
"Although it's true that I might be seeing you through his eyes, haven't you considered the tiniest possibility for me to end up falling in love with you even in this lifetime?" he asked shortly after.
"That does not make any sense, Kim Tae Pyung – and you know it," Eon Jin said with a faint laugh, turning away from him to avoid his eyes.
"Well, what does?" Tae Pyung challenged her, throwing a glance her way from the corners of his eyes. "Ever since our paths crossed, I met an actual grim reaper, witnessed souls being summoned from their lifeless bodies, and welcomed a quasi-deity who stirred up memories from my past life."
Knowing that everything he said was right, Eon Jin snorted and then told him in a voice that was almost apologetic, "There will be no happy endings here, Kim Tae Pyung. I hope you are ready for that."
They spent the following minutes in comfortable silence, sitting on their respective corners as they allowed themselves to get lost in their thoughts. Tae Pyung pondered on Eon Jin's words while assessing his feelings, which, as far as he knew, were already starting to develop into something that might lead him to a point of no return. Eon Jin, on the other hand, went through the events of the evening in her mind as she sat cross-legged on her side of the sofa, trying to understand how the resurgence of the feeling of pity elicited a sudden change in her behavior.
"Can I ask you a question?" Tae Pyung requested a few moments later, capturing her attention.
"Ask away."
"What just happened back there? What made you so distraught over a situation you knew so well?"
Eon Jin shook her head and said, "That was my mistake. I behaved improperly as an emotion surfaced from a forgotten pit of my being, therefore overwhelming me."
"Sympathy," he whispered the moment he figured it out.
"Yes," Eon Jin confirmed. "The feeling was so strong that I had to fight the urge to intervene the moment I heard the woman's plea for her child."
"These memories from my past... They work like a double-edged sword," she added, talking more to herself than to Tae Pyung. "My limited knowledge of my previous life gives me a slight idea of who I was before this punishment and awakens the emotions I willingly felt when I was still a mortal. At the same time, getting reacquainted with such feelings makes me less invulnerable now, thus hindering me from carrying out my task flawlessly."
Eon Jin dragged out a breath, letting her shoulders fall as if it was a burden, and said, "Regardless and in spite of my better judgment, I think I still want to continue discovering these vague pieces of my past. I must admit that I am already getting tired of being solely a vessel of the deity, acting on her behalf without knowing who I truly am; so much so that even if the price I have to pay for retrieving those memories is for me to revert into that emotionally fragile mortal bit by bit, I would accept it more than willingly. I guess I just need to adapt and toughen myself up a little more from now on, like what I have always done to survive in the past three hundred years or so."
Tae Pyung gave her a faint smile and asked, "Am I being too selfish if I tell you that I am glad to hear that you still wanted to get those memories back?"
Eon Jin nodded, a smirk hinting on her face, and said, "But then again, who isn't?"
The next couple of months were busy for both of them, with Tae Pyung working on back-to-back cases and Eon Jin living her double life as the Fate's mistress and the owner slash manager of the flower shop at the ground floor of the building where she lived. He saw her in almost all of the crime scenes he visited and unconsciously established a routine of him riding in either Kyung Won's car or one of the patrol vehicles just to have an excuse to drive Eon Jin home whenever they wrapped up a case at night.
They also went out for lunch or dinner twice a week, bickering like an old couple whenever they were together and even when they were apart via text and over the phone. In those few weeks, several memories came up at random timings.
"What in the world were you thinking when you put that frog in my face?" Tae Pyung groaned as they drove home one evening past midnight.
Eon Jin kept her head turned towards the window as she suppressed a laugh, clearly amused at the memory of a teenaged Tae Pyung waking up from his afternoon nap to a pair of big, yellow eyes and immediately panicking, rolling on the dock and eventually falling in the river with a loud splash.
"It was just a frog, Kim Tae Pyung," she chided. "Besides, that was payback for that one time when you tricked me to go inside a haunted house by the foot of the hill on a late afternoon when we were little."
Tae Pyung rolled his eyes and pouted his lips as they travelled along the highway, sulking at the embarrassing memory and looking exactly like his thirteen year-old self from his past life.
"I am starting to wonder how many times you have been reincarnated," Eon Jin mused when they were already in the basement parking of her building, just as Tae Pyung parked the car in one go. "I never saw other memories aside from the ones in the Joseon era."
"Maybe we kept on missing each other," she concluded as soon as he turned off the engine.
"That's highly unlikely," Tae Pyung refuted as he unfastened his seat belt, prompting Eon Jin to do the same and alight the sedan afterwards.
"How could you be so sure?" she questioned him as they walked towards the elevator together.
"I thought I already told you that I will be finding you in any lifetime," he replied as he pressed the button going up. "Don't tell me you have already forgotten about that in just a short period of time?"
"But what if you failed to do so in your past lives?"
"Again, that's highly unlikely because I'm good at keeping promises."
The moment the elevator doors opened, Tae Pyung carefully placed his hand on Eon Jin's back, a gesture she began to get used to and allowed – although she was not willing to admit it – ever since they started meeting each other on a regular basis, prodding her to step into the spacious metal compartment first.
"You have not been perfect at it, though," she told him as she pressed the button going to the top floor. "Do you remember that one time when you said you would take me to watch a group of travelling performers at the town square?"
"I did not promise to take you there, silly," he argued, then pressed the button to the ground floor. "If you were paying close attention to that memory, you would have known that I did not commit to do so in spite of your relentless demands. Your father would have been furious if he found out that I took you out to mingle with the lower class."
The tables turned and it was Eon Jin's turn to pout then, letting out a gush of air from her lips as a nonverbal rebuttal.
The bell dinged a few seconds later, announcing that they have reached the first floor of the building.
"Sleep well, Eon Jin," Tae Pyung told her before taking a step towards the door to wait for the steel panels to open.
Perhaps it was the easy banters that made him bold enough to turn around just as the doors of the elevator parted, taking a step that closed the distance between them to lightly place a hand on her nape to support it as he kissed her forehead. He heard her catch her breath and felt her hands latch on both sides of his waist, obviously startled by his last-minute act, then eased out a quiet sigh as she got accustomed to the feel of his warm lips on her skin.
"You are surely pushing your luck, Kim Tae Pyung," Eon Jin reprimanded as she glowered at him, staring straight into his eyes through her lashes the moment he pulled back.
"Maybe I am, but only as payback for that frog prank you pulled at the river," he replied, then pushed his fringe up with his hand to expose his own forehead. "Even so, go ahead and flick on it twice."
Eon Jin narrowed her eyes at him to a give him a threatening glare, her nose wrinkling up in mock annoyance as the steel panels of the elevators closed.
"Kim Tae Pyung, I already warned you –"
"Not to fall in love with you," he sighed. "I know, I know."
"Good," Eon Jin said as she eased her grip on the sides of his coat. "Come to think of it, reminding you over and over would be pointless if you could not help it, and I can never blame you for that."
Tae Pyung chuckled at her self-confidence, then swiftly pivoted on his heel so that he could lean back on the metal wall of the booth, facing the doors that reflected both of their images as they waited for the shrill sound of the elevator bell that signaled their arrival at the top floor of the building.
"Yup, definitely my style," he murmured to himself as he saw Eon Jin's lips turn up into a smug smile, although her eyes were subtly showing a worry she chose to leave unspoken.
The next morning, Eon Jin saw a post-it on her refrigerator just as she was about to prepare her breakfast.
For some reason, late night coffee always tastes better here. I'll see you tomorrow, my mercurial mistress.
That evening, Eon Jin chose to stay behind after her staff closed the shop up for the day. She perched herself on her desk, facing the window behind it as she sipped on a cup of rosehip tea. An instrumental entitled "Andante" from a guitarist named Jung Sung Ha faintly reverberated within the corners of her office as she recalled the recent conversations she had with Tae Pyung, as well as the little trinkets of information she consequently acquired: like the fact that he was coincidentally afraid of frogs even in this lifetime, or that in spite of the nature of his work, he was never a fan of slasher films because he hated the gory details. She also found out two days before that he almost always slept in except during workdays, but will get out of bed in an instant if he knew that bacon and eggs were on the breakfast menu.
Yet, he still was not willing to tell her what happened that day at the wedding reception.
It was past nine when she decided to call it a day. She turned off the lights in her office and walked through the aisles of the store, checking on the nooks and corners on her way out.
That was when she saw a figure of a man lurking in the shadows near the small storage area at the back of the shop.
Eon Jin pretended like she did not see anything and proceeded to the main door, fishing her hand phone out of her blazer the moment she stepped out in the street to dial the Hyo Jin's number.
"Kang Myeong Suk is here," she told her over the phone in a muted tone.
Virtually at the same time, Tae Pyung walked through the doors of the police station, a few miles away from Eon Jin's current location.
"I thought you already went home," Kyung Won said as he looked up from his laptop, finishing some paper works beyond office hours at his desk.
"I forgot my coat," Tae Pyung said as he took steady strides towards the room that was located at the end of the hall.
"Oh! By the way, you've got mail," Kyung Won called out the moment he opened the door to his office. "I left it on your desk."
Tae Pyung spotted the large manila envelope with ease as it lay on top of the stacked up folders on his desk.
"Would you know who sent this?" he asked as he unwound the string that sealed the thin package.
"No idea," Kyung Won replied as he continued typing. "Some junior investigator handed it over this afternoon and forgot to tell you."
Just as he said it, Tae Pyung pulled his hand phone out of the confines of the back pocket of his jeans and tapped the number 7 on the screen – which was the assigned speed dial for Eon Jin's mobile – while a handful of photos taken from his recent rendezvous with her sprawled out of the envelope and scattered on his desk.
He kept trying to reach Eon Jin even as he drove to her building, hitting redial each time his call went straight to her voicemail. Even as he knew it would cost him a hefty fine later on, Tae Pyung stepped on the pedal as he raced through the city boulevard to get to her as soon as possible.
Instead of going up to her roof top home, Eon Jin walked on the busy street outside and turned to a narrow alley in an effort to mislead Kang Myeong Suk and corner him with the help of Hyo Jin, who was already waiting with two other grim reapers at the designated place. Just as she expected, Kang Myeong Suk kept a safe distance as he followed her lead.
Given that Kang Myeong Suk was already tagged as a missing soul – a person who did not die at the time he or she was set to expire because of a shift in Fate's course – it made things more difficult for Eon Jin as she lacked the visuals that usually foretold the mortal's death, placing her on equal footing with the man she was supposed to capture. Nevertheless, she felt no fear as she took casual steps towards the last turn, confident that she was able to foolproof her plan to lure the man to his end.
Unfortunately, just before she worked her magic to go incognito, an involuntary shriek escaped her throat as the man stunned her by grabbing a fistful of her tresses, forcing her to take a huge step backwards as she fought for balance after the violent tug. Almost at once, the arm of Kang Myeong Suk swung to hold a switchblade directly against her throat.
The grim reapers came charging towards the man the moment they heard Eon Jin's shrill voice. However, Eon Jin was also quick on her feet, seizing the man's wrist to pull it away from her neck and turning on her heel fast to face Kang Myeong Suk. She shifted her feet and gave him a solid kick on his left side, just below the ribcage, that instantly made him double over and writhe in pain.
"Kang Myeong Suk!" Hyo Jin bellowed.
Hearing his name from an entity he could not see alerted Kang Myeong Suk to flee as soon as possible, compelling himself to stand up and shuffle on his feet as he tried to break for it.
"That bastard!" Eon Jin spat before hastily launching herself to a full sprint to chase after the man, making the grim reapers follow suit straightaway.
Eon Jin was already running out of breath when she saw Kang Myeong Suk duck a corner that led to the main boulevard, so she gathered whatever strength remained in her and dashed towards his direction, imitating him when he darted across an intersection without looking. But the moment she crossed halfway, she heard a deafening sound of a car honk going off, as well as a loud screeching of tires against the concrete. Before she could even turn to look, something hit her body, throwing her out of the path of the speeding car. She felt a pair of muscular arms cage her torso, one hand protecting her head while the other covered her back, as she tried and failed to withstand the impact, making her fall flat on her back and roll on the pavement towards the curb.
She opened her eyes and saw that she was lying on her stomach on top of Kim Tae Pyung, whose face was already reflecting the pain he was enduring after sacrificing his body to protect Eon Jin from further injuries after pushing her.
"What the hell –" she uttered, her voice hoarse to the point of breaking.
"Let's not put the immunity Fate granted to you to a test – like, never ever – okay?" he pleaded through tightly shut eyes.
"Hey! Open your eyes!" Eon Jin ordered, her heart starting to race frantically. "Kim Tae Pyung, open your eyes!"
Tae Pyung complied by forcing one eye to squint at her, then grinned before saying, "I'm okay, I'm okay."
Eon Jin breathed out a heavy sigh as she rested her head on the crook of his neck, dragging one of her shaking hands up to cushion his head from the cold concrete.
"If saving you like this would grant me more cuddles, then getting hurt from time to time doesn't seem like a bad idea to me," Tae Pyung said in between wheezes. "What do you say, Son Eon Jin?"
"Sure, Officer Kim, sure," she managed to reply as she nuzzled against the collar of his jacket, while her other hand rested on the side of his chest where she could feel the rapid beating of his heart, thereby making sure that he was still breathing safely in the confines of her arms.
—
Photo by Jonathan J. Castellon on Unsplash