Bridging Destinies

Chapter 69: An End and Beginning

The next morning came to nothing, as Dana knew it would with their leaving. Using a burner phone, Dana had sent a 'death threat' that would ensure bodyguards would be sent to the house for extra protection, which alerted those who had planned to attack that morning, that their plans would need to change. Disaster averted, Felina and her party left South Korea, and she would not return for many years. She was as crushed as Namjoon and had returned to her home to be with her people and heal. They would be a balm for her, and it was what she needed.

Namjoon recovered slowly, burying himself in work, writing furiously and producing the best music he ever had. Army knew he was struggling, but he put on a good face for them, and in time his heart healed, and he loved again, but he never forgot Felina. She was always part of him and always would be, he'd decided.

In his mind, though he could not watch her go, he had said to her, 'I will always love you. Forever, Felina. I love you.' His tears had streamed down his face and as the door closed behind her, he had sat down hard in the chair nearest to him, weeping heavy, bitter tears for all that would not be, while his brothers attempted to console him. He hoped Felina had heard him, and while he didn't have confirmation that she had, he knew she must have.

While both recovered from the heart wrenching pain of separation, Namjoon continued to work hard, wearing himself down, hiding how he truly felt, while writing like a fiend, pouring his pain into his complex, layered lyrics. Sometimes he dreamed of Felina, as if following her around the world in her travels and she in his, but wasn't always sure if his dreams were truly of her, or if they were only a result of his subconscious desires. Sometimes he lived for those moments. Sometimes he grieved them. They became both a torture and a blessing. And in time, he healed, though he lived with a shadow on his heart. Those closest to him could see it, even after he had ceased to talk of it.

~~~

Many years had passed, beyond his military enlistment, his retirement from Bangtan Sonyeondan, and eventually finding a woman to love, who helped to erase some of the shadows that lingered within him. She wasn't Felina, but she was beautiful and special in her own right, and he truly loved her. They'd had three children, though at first he did not want them. Yet, when their son came, he was overjoyed and the shadow on his heart had lifted for months after. When a daughter was born three years later, he named her Lina, though it was not a common Korean name. And within a year, another boy completed his family. He eventually learned to be happy again and the shadow lessened within him.

~~~

Felina did not return to Korea for many years. She, too, never forgot Namjoon, and did enter his dreams sometimes, as he had suspected, but the moments they shared in his dreamscape were as bittersweet for her as they were for him. Through the years, she kept tabs on him, loosely following his career, or watching him within her mind. When she did finally return to Korea, she found him again, but as she had done when first approaching him, she was careful not to be seen. And she had been careful. Very careful. Yet not as careful as she had thought.

The boy had surprised her, escaping from his mother, and had run up to her with a flower in his hand and with only the ease and deep knowing a child will sometimes have, he knew she was not human. "Pretty faerie," he had called her, "Here is a flower for you!" He had held it out to her, excited and happy to be able to share the pretty flower with the pretty woman, the stem crushed in his chubby little hand.

His mother had run up, apologizing, "I am so sorry." She had said and gently scolded her son as she tried to pull him away, but the boy continued to hold the flower up to Felina. As she looked into his eyes, she saw the woman she had known centuries ago in France, recognizing the soul within the child. She took the flower, breathing the name she recalled while looking into his eyes, "Angelica." Then she bowed with a smile and thanked the boy. As the boy walked off with his mother, he turned around to watch her and she waved and bowed to him, while he ducked his head in return, grinning with his chubby little cheeks. Amazed, she puzzled over the event, but felt and saw Namjoon coming out of the shop he'd been in. For a split second her heart had beat so hard within her chest, that she felt he could hear it, if he'd been listening. And maybe he had, because in that split second, as he handed the young boy an ice cream, and as she began to hide herself from him, he had seen her. It had been just a flash of her hair and a turn of her ankle, but he had seen her and wondered for a moment if he had been dreaming. And as he wondered, Felina wondered how he was connected to the boy. She later learned that the boy had been his youngest son, and the woman was his wife, and while he mostly kept them out of the public eye, his life was all over social media. She only had to look deeply to know more.

~~~

It was not until much later, when Namjoon was an old man that she had seen him again. As before, she met him in the park, this time approaching him and sitting next to him on the bench he occupied. When he looked up from his book, he thought he was dreaming, but stared at her as she smiled at him, "Hello, Joonah." She had said to him and a slow smile broke from his lips.

"Lina." He breathed, "You're here."

Smiling, she nodded and took his hand, "I am." Stroking her thumb over his withered skin, she gazed down at their hands.

The silence in the moment stretched on between them as he set the book to the side and gazed at her profile. He quietly spoke, "I'm dying, you know. Cancer." He told her.

Felina softly nodded, "I know. That's why I am here."

He smirked, his signature half smile showing on his semi lined face, "Saying goodbye one last time?" He asked and she looked at him, gazing into his rheumy eyes.

"You could say that." She told him, "I could not let the love of my life disappear from the earth without it."

Smiling softly, he squeezed her hand, as she looked away into the distance, "I never forgot you, either."

"I know." She said with a sigh, then continued after a moment of silence, "I cannot stay, but I will be there in your last moment. I will watch for it, and I will be there for you. It is what I want more than anything to do for you." She told him, as she looked from the distance to their hands and then to his eyes again.

"I would like that." He said, not questioning the mystery of how she would be with him at the end, only happy that she would be.

Sadly smiling, Felina turned to him and leaned over, kissing his cheek and whispered, "I will always love you, Joonah. Always." Echoing the last words she had said to them when they had parted as lovers.

"Thank you. I've always known. You've been in my heart, too." He smiled more, his dimples showing, "Always."

Laughing softly, Felina stood and bowed deeply to him, "Until then." She rose, and turned, walking swiftly away. She truly had not changed. Had not aged, and while glamoured, she still had that unworldly air about her. He watched her until she faded into the group of oncoming people, then stood, grabbed his book and walked back to his car, returning home.

~~~

She had kept her promise. Taehyung, Jungkook, and his wife, children and grandchildren sat with him as he breathed his last. And as his eyes closed, he saw her, as a spirit, shining in all her inhuman glory. She took his hand, and as she did, his appearance changed to how he had looked in his youth. He looked back at his diseased body, feeling light, and laughed, then embraced the woman next to him. They both turned and walked away from this life as she guided him to his rest.