.ninety seven.
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"The universe wanted to bring your souls together again. Perhaps you both suffered a lot in the previous life, and the universe wants to compensate you in this one."
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Minji slowly went back to look at the paintings of the princes, and she was glad to find out that So had become king. Though he seemed like a tough person on the outside and didn't talk to anyone much, she knew that he cared about Eun, and Eun loved his brother a lot as well. So had only been able to visit them a few times, since he was often away from the palace. But Minji knew his intentions were good. The children loved him as well, and they loved him too. They always asked for him and whenever it was one of their birthdays, he'd shower them with love and presents. So had a good heart and Minji thought it was well-deserved that he eventually became king.
He had the star of a king after all, just like her Soo Hyun did.
She stood with her back to the entrance of the gallery, not wanting to part with the paintings because it offered her closure. It made her feel that everything she had lived was not just some coma induced dream. She had really been there. As she continued looking at the painting of the royal siblings all together, she heard footsteps approaching and she felt her heart freeze up.
Back in Goryeo, when she could not see, she had learned to tell his footsteps apart from anyone else's. These footsteps were identical, thought light and hesitant upon seeing another person inside the gallery. But she knew that it had to be him. Her Eun. She turned her head quickly with excitement, thinking that he had found her and that their wish came true. That they had found each other in the next life.
Instead, her heart dropped when she found a young man wearing sunglasses indoors. He also wore a bucket hat and a black mask. The only thing visible on his face were his eyes, and she found some familiarity in them, but she also found no recognition of her in his eyes. If she knew him, and if he was her Eun, in this life he did not recognize her. He did not know who she was. They were his footsteps and perhaps his soul had found her without him realizing. But they were both there. She stood without saying a word, only watching as he entered the room slowly. Though her heart told her that it was him.
After six years in Goryeo of being unable to see, she had trained her ear to tell apart his footsteps from anyone else. There was no doubt in her mind that it was him. Yet he said nothing when he saw her in the gallery. He had absolutely no clue to who she was. He didn't know that they had been married in another life, that they had children, and had loved each other very much. He was oblivious to it all. But then why had he been drawn to that gallery, on that day? It had to be the pull of destiny, trying to push them together again.
And would they even get along in this life?
She remembered when she was fourteen and he was seventeen in Goryeo, they hated each other that first day. Would it be the same in the present time?
Minji knew she was overthinking things and that it was most likely that she was the only one of them who remembered their past life. Or if she wanted to go by any logic, he also could have been someone she saw briefly at the lake and his face was one of the last things she remembered when she fell unconscious. The brain was a strange enigma like that. But everything that happened in Goryeo had felt so real and she did not want to accept that it could have been a dream.
When she had been staring at the boy for too long, eyes widened in surprise, he took it upon himself to find out why she was so surprised to see him. He had other thoughts in his mind as to how and why she knew him. His voice came out low and hesitant at first. "Hey...do we--do we know each other?" He stuttered slightly and Minji found another similarity that made her think it was definitely him.
