Memories | Sanjoong

44. Him

*
"Midnight comes, and I go looking for you
My mind runs through all the photographs"
*

San stumbled backwards and bumped into Hongjoong who instantly put his arms around him. to keep him steady.

"San? What's wrong?" Hongjoong asked, but he got no response.

San's breathing was heavy and his heart pounced in his chest until the thumping reached his head. San's head and heart suddenly began aching. As he fell to the ground in a crouch, Hongjoong followed, his arms encasing San in a desperate hug. San couldn't hear the words being said to him, he was too lost in his own thoughts.

"Please San speak to me," Hongjoong begged tearfully.

"Jaeho... he's not- I mean..."

"San what is wrong?" Mr Park asked again.

"T-That's Hyunsik!" San exclaimed, pointing at the wallet he had dropped earlier.

Hongjoong looked at San in shock, then leant over to pick up the fallen wallet. He opened it and took a look at the photo and just as he'd been told, the boy in the photo was indeed Hyunsik. Hongjoong had no idea what Hyunsik looked like, but he'd seen the sketches of him in San's precious notebook and instantly chills ran down his spine.

"How is this possible!?" Hongjoong gasped in shock.

"Joong... If Jaeho died when he was 25..." San began but it's like his words got caught in the web of his throat.

"And if we assume Hyunsik didn't live long after Seok..." Hongjoong continued.

"Then... are Jaeho and Hyunsik... the same person?" San finished with the ominous question, that they both had in their heads, hanging in the air.

"Hang on a minute, I'm not sure I understand what you two are trying to say," Mr Park interrupted in confusion.

"Jaeho... or Hyunsik... he's the person that haunts my memories," San replied, shuddering at the coincidence.

"Mr Park are you sure Jaeho didn't have another name?" Hongjoong asked. "Maybe he lied to you or- or-"

"Even if he did, there's no way of telling now. I knew him as Jaeho and nothing else."

"But how can this- I don't understand!" San almost cried from the surprise.

"Let's think about this logically. There is no other explanation for why Jaeho has the same face as Hyunsik because Hyunsik couldn't have died and been reborn in such a short amount of time," Hongjoong said.

Hongjoong did have a point, but San was still in shock as he slowly realised how everything began to make sense. The paintings of the bridge, the flowers, the cottage - everything that San had found in this house were from Hyunsik's point of view. The poems he discovered, the photographs, even the diaries...

"My Seok. I thought that the divide of life and death would be enough, I thought that it would be easy to let you go once you were no more. How foolish I was to believe such a thing. Life and death are not enough for us. It would never dissipate the love I had for you or rather the love that I still have for you. It runs through me like the water runs through a creek and grows in the same way a stream flows into a river."

San's breath got caught in his throat as he remembered these words. Hyunsik's words. They echoed in his ears as his mind became shrouded with fear. And before he could call for help, San's world collapsed into the familiar darkness.

-

"What are you doing?" Seok giggled as Hyunsik took off the necklace that he was wearing.

"We're going to make a time capsule!" Hyunsik responded excitedly, gently placing Seok's necklace in the shoebox he had open on the bed.