I Transmigrated As The Person My BestFriend Loved

17. Until Then

Days have passed after War/Mark disappeared and I have exhausted all my effort and wealth looking for him everywhere until my dad intervened and stripped me bare of all my rights in the company. All my credits and bank accounts were all cancelled which halted all my attempts in searching for War abroad.

My parents were so disappointed in me, especially my dad when he lost face in front of Fern's parents, his business associates and the press. There are alarming pull outs of shares in the company and my dad could only vent his frustrations on me. It was mainly my fault though. I have stopped functioning as the CEO and only focused on finding War/Mark.

"Yin, honey please. Don't do this. Your dad can't be mad at you for long. Please don't leave." My mother begs, holding on to my arm as I was about to leave the main house. I decided to leave and settle somewhere else to clear my mind. I have a few cash in me to help me get by for a few days. Fern and some friends also promised to lend some more if I ask but I think what I have is more than enough for now.

"Sorry mama. Just let me be alone first somewhere far from here. I'll settle things with papa and the company when my heart and mind becomes more clearer." I told my mother pressing a kiss on her soft cheeks before finally leaving the house.

I spent the first few weeks going back and forth to where Mark and I would usually go in the past. I went to our old schools, universities, beaches in the near by provinces, his favorite restaurants, the school where he worked before and even the cemetery where he was buried. I repeatedly visited those places expecting to find Mark in War's body, but it was a fruitless quest.

I went to his parent's house a dozen of times but even Sarah no longer lives there anymore. It's like their whole family just disappeared one day and no one could tell me where they went.

War's parents also cannot tell me anything about their son's whereabouts. All they were able to reveal was how War sends them messages every once in a while to ask them how they are and to tell them he's doing excellent at his side. At certain point I concluded that they have no idea about their nephew's soul inhibiting their son's body. So I cannot show them my persisting interrogation, afraid that they'd think something might have happened to their son already.

In the end, I went back to that beach where me and Mark last went together before he disappeared. There is something about the place that drove me back there. It's like the feeling of getting separated from my mama in a busy mall when I was a kid. I would panic at first to look for her everywhere but then my instinct would tell me to go back to where we were last together. It always work because somehow, mama would eventually look and return to where she last saw me too. It had become a primal rule everywhere. And also, the ocean's symbolism in fiction is 'the basic point' where all things have their origin in this vastness body of water. So eventually, it is nature call to draw every life on earth closer to the source of life which is the water.

So I applied that same rule to Mark's case. I don't know what's with the sea that calms me down and gives me hope. But when I look at the waves and the endless vastness of it, it kinda gives me a promise. I believe that if Mark would decide to go back to me, he would first find me here.

I met with P Bank again and made an unpredicted friendship as time goes by. I helped him managed his small family business which is a small seafood stall by the beach. Later on, with the help of the money Fern loaned to me, I partnered with P Bank in extending his family business and built a larger traditional dining restaurant and bar by the sea and a small traveller's inn for tourists and other guests.

The hands-on planning and managing kept me busy and drag my thoughts away from missing Mark but only until dusk. After the sun sets, it's a different story. As soon as the night comes, I get so lonely that there are times when I think of drowning my self in the sea to make it all stop. I still think and dream of Mark in War's face every single night.