BEYOND | Choi San

13

As soon as San accepted the job offer, Abel took a small card out of his pocket and handed it to him. Celine couldn't help but watch with hidden tenderness the way San admired every detail written there with great attention.
"Come on Sunday noon. It's the fourth floor." Abel pointed to the address on the card and adjusted his suit jacket. "Office six, Abel Lee. Once you sign the contract you will be officially part of the Future team and everything will be ready for you to start on Monday."

San nodded silently, repeating each of the his words in his mind and putting the card in his pocket. Abel made eye contact and then looked at Celine, who met his gaze without much expression.

"By the way..." the boy recalled Chung-ho's advice in his first experience in a job interview, "Should I dress in a specific way?"

"The more comfortable it makes you feel, the better," he replied with that friendly gleam back in his pupils. "To tell the truth, we don't have a dress code; you are free to express your creativity however you want." Celine smirked after his words and Abel smiled. "All right, see you."

Then Abel bowed his head slightly out of courtesy and left the store with his cell phone back in hand, possibly on a mission to make work calls now that he had found a new soul for the team. It didn't take long for Celine to turn her full attention to the boy beside her, noticing how he continued staring at Abel in the distance.

"This..." he murmured, "did it really just happen?"

The girl rolled her eyes with a smile at San's disbelief, and patted his shoulder a couple of times.

"Yes," she answered, "you effectively criticized without compassion the work of a company in front of one of its workers... and somehow you ended up benefiting," she murmured in amusement. "I think you're right; your luck is intact."

At that moment, San's smile widened considerably and he began to dance in place with his eyes closed, celebrating an unforeseen victory. Celine appreciated him with an incredulous smile and then held back a laugh as she noticed that the girl behind the counter was also watching his dance with amusement.

"This is amazing," he said without stopping dancing, "it's like when I got selected and-" Then, his movements suddenly faded, turning his gaze to Celine and swallowing heavily. "Wait, is it now that I go to sign and someone else has already taken my place?"

Celine couldn't help but give him a look full of tenderness at his innocence and then she laughed to ease the tension.

"No, San," she said, "this is when you can appreciate that there is always a positive side to everything... although sometimes it takes time to get to see it." She paused. "«Unfair» doesn't mean «without opportunities»."

Then the smile returned to San's face.

"This is when you write all of this in your journal," Celine added.

Without wasting a single second, San nodded and took her hand again to start walking out of the store. Celine corresponded his action by instinct and silently followed his walk; she had already begun to accept the custom that San had adopted of taking her hand to guide her without giving prior notice of their destination. And if she had to accepted it, she liked that.

After a few minutes, Celine recognized the path to San's house and focused all of her attention on him until they reached the place. Once there, San released her hand and left the bag with the implements on the table, moving to his room and returning almost immediately with his journal in his hands. She couldn't help but look at him with amused disbelief due of how literal San had taken her words.

"So..." he murmured, staring at a blank page. "Where should I start?"

The boy walked over to the table and took a seat, directing his eyes to Celine again. After she found herself in front those pupils full of purity, she approached him a little and crossed her arms.

"It's your story," she said. "You can start wherever you want to start."

San stayed silent and kept his attention on her for a moment. Those words had given him a strange sensation; somehow, it was the first time that he felt so much power over his own life.
However, he still did not know where to start.

Then he looked back at his journal and decided to write everything down just as he remembered it, even adding details about some of the types of painting that Celine had told him about.

The girl kept her distance to give him space and smiled when she saw him writing his experience; she knew that little detail would help him in his future lives to remember that even bad times have a hidden silver lining.

The first time she talked to San about the importance of the journal, the boy only had written on it the date of the day they met, and now, the scenario could not be more different; he had gotten a job offer and was thinking of his future.

Without realizing it, Celine had been staring at him with a slight smile; San was immersed in his writing, and she could only just observe him. She could no longer fool anyone; San had definitely managed to get her affection.

When he finished filling out the page, he closed his journal and returned his attention to Celine. They both made eye contact for a few seconds until San got up from the seat and put the book aside, bringing the shopping bag closer.

"Ready?"

"Here?" Celine asked, watching as the boy began to take out all the instruments and set them on the table side by side.

"Definitely," he answered with a smile, "We're here and also... We may not be dealing with the evil oils in oil painting, but it's still paint, right? And paint paints, but it can also leave a trail that you didn't plan on," he pointed out, "so if that's the case, you'd better leave your mark here."

Celine bit her lip with a smile and shook her head in amusement.

"You really learned to transform your words well, huh," she murmured. "You could have just said that you don't want us to leave paint stains in my apartment."

San smiled at Celine's expression and shrugged:

"I think it was necesary to mention the malevolent oil painting. It's more dramatic." He narrowed his eyes and moved his hands to create an evil and mysterious atmosphere, however, before long he just let out a laugh. "The truth is that I can't wait, I would love to see how you create a masterpiece."

Celine looked at the his honest and innocent pupils and smiled slightly. While it was true that she had never considered creating something during that life, she would never have expected that San would want to focus on her in some way. She always believed that mentors used their last life to focus on guiding the newcomer soul on their way, but he was not like that; San had not allowed her to forget her own existence and always seemed to be looking for a way to get closer to her.

Maybe the future was more unpredictable than what she had been thinking.

"Okay," she said with a smile, letting out a sigh and focusing her attention on the paints on the table, "then let's begin..."

San noticed the way Celine was expectantly silent and got lost among her thoughts again. Although he usually decided to stay by her side and appreciate every detail in her expressions, this time he decided to intervene after he saw her doubting on her next move.

"Don't worry," he whispered, "you can start wherever you want to start."

Celine came back from her thoughts and smiled without looking away, putting her doubts aside for once and taking the canvas. And then, although she still did not know where to start, she decided to imitate San's actions and let herself to follow her instincts.