Decembers With You

A Heart's Prayer

Author’s Notes: This is a “Finding You” one-shot written in Kim Tae Pyung’s perspective.

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December 2047

Twenty-five years.

That was how long I have avoided passing by flower shops. There was simply no need to visit one because the only occasion I require a flower is when I oversee the summoning of souls, and I can easily conjure a purple hyacinth up for the departed — a practice I admit to have copied from my predecessor — with the limited powers that I have been given by the deity I serve.

That was also how long I have declined to purchase a house — let alone a big one, with a spacious backyard where one could have a field day planting seeds and cultivating shrubs. My colleagues at the station say that gardening is a relaxing hobby — enough to take my mind off the stress from the cases we are regularly tasked to solve — although sadly, I was not born with a green thumb.

Twenty-five years.

That was how long I have spent cooking breakfast, brewing coffee, and eating dinner for one. And when it was time to call it a night, I normally retired to the bedroom and curled up on the mattress facing the door instead of the window on the right, away from the empty space that had been left permanently cold ever since that fateful summer afternoon in 2023.

Twenty-five years.

That was how long I have waited for my wife — my mercurial mistress, Eon Jin — to come back just as she promised in the last letter she wrote me twenty-five years ago.

And now that she has returned through her reincarnation — my dear Jin — what happens next?

That question pops into my head as I watch out for the red light to turn green again at the intersection leading to the district where she lives.

It’s the morning of Christmas Eve; while some people are rushing out of the busy metropolis for a short visit to their hometowns, we are about to head back to it. Jin and I agreed that since it is supposedly our first holiday back together, we are going to spend it in Seoul where our old house still stands. I remember how thrilled she was when I mentioned that I did not sell it, and that it has been well-maintained during those years we were apart — me in Prague and her growing up. The plan was to stay there until winter break ends (Maybe two to three weeks max.), yet I saw how her eyes twinkled in the exact way that it did whenever she got excited, and I practically heard the gears turning non-stop. At that instant, I assumed that she was looking forward to getting back to the rhythm of her past self.

In retrospect, I deliberate whether or not that is truly what she wanted.

“Hello!” Jin breathlessly greets me with a peck on my cheek as soon as she settles on the passenger seat, interrupting my musings. “I’m sorry for being late. How long have you been out here?”

“I waited for you for a quarter of a century, love,” I tell her while I reach over to tuck two fingers under her chin and rub circles on it with my thumb. “I would not mind waiting thirty-five minutes more.”

The corners of her mouth turn up into a smile as she chews on her lip, and I could not help but press mine gently onto hers. When I pull back, I feel her fingers weave through my hair, drawing me to her.

“One more, Officer Kim,” she shyly murmurs. “I have not kissed you for three days.”

With that, I willfully comply.

Jin surveys the house the moment we arrive, and her mere presence effortlessly brings our old home back to life. She moves as if it is not her first time visiting it, checking each of the rooms without asking me for directions — as if she never left.