Finding You

SPECIAL CHAPTER: STUPORE MENTIS

Wait for me.

Tae Pyung woke up crying in the darkest hours before daybreak, eyes flying wide open the instant he heard her voice. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead, dampening the hair near his temples in spite of the cool breeze of the air conditioning unit, and his heart raced frantically as it responded to the behest of the only woman who shall forever own it. However, the temporary high was over as soon as he realized that he was alone in the bedroom he once shared with his beloved wife.

He stared at the ceiling for a few more minutes as he tried to catch his breath and allowed the remnant tears to fall. But even as his pulse reverted to a rather steady state, his mind remained to be on overdrive as it struggled to keep her image from his recent vision forged to memory.

At last, after countless nights of praying desperately to the powers that be for a mere glimpse of her, Son Eon Jin graced his dreams with her haunting presence.

Donning the purple hanbok he gifted her with, she stood at the dock where they were married one afternoon in winter three years ago. She was all by herself, facing the vast river that stretched out to the sea and letting the light wind of spring to gently lift the stray locks of her hair. Compared to the majestic mountain in her background that soared to the azure sky, she looked so tiny and fragile – almost inconsequential in the picturesque panorama. Even so, nothing in the magnificent scenery before him could ever take his breath away like she did.

“Son Eon Jin,” he managed to utter through his quivering lips.

At the mention of her name, Eon Jin turned her head towards his direction and firmly held his bewildered gaze.

The moment their eyes met, it felt as if his chest was being pummeled again, the strikes vicious and unforgiving as the memories of her final moments came rushing back to him. Tears copiously streamed down his face and without any shame, he staggered towards the wooden platform and ultimately fell to his knees.

“Come back, love,” he pleaded through convulsive sobs. “Please come back to me.”

Alas, darkness started to fade in before she could give him her answer, leaving him in a daze until those three words resounded with peculiar clarity in his ears.

Wait for me.

As expected, Tae Pyung found it difficult to go back to sleep, so he went to the kitchen and fixed himself some coffee while mentally running through the pre-ordained events that were to unfold in the subsequent hours. There were six incidents he had to attend to, a daily total which was significantly fewer by current standards. Nonetheless, since a multiple collision on a freeway was part of his agenda, he knew for sure that it was going to be another long day.

Not that he was complaining. In reality, duty calling him round the clock – as a law enforcer and as Fate’s mortal vessel – already became a form of escape for Tae Pyung. It kept him away from the place that effortlessly reminded him of Son Eon Jin so much so that he would rather go home past midnight dead on his feet than be wide awake and fully aware that she was gone. He surmised that perhaps it was the way of the divinities of showing him their sympathy.

He was – in this realm, at least – one of them, after all. Therefore, they had to keep him alive in the most basic sense for him to fulfill his fated purpose.

“Indeed, he honored his promise and continuously breathes for her in order to live. Yet, he is practically in a stupor,” Gong Hyo Jin told Death later that evening after their summoning at the highway. “The deity is reduced to being a shell of who he was – it’s just heartbreaking.”

To that, the young divinity did not have a response. He appeared to be unconcerned as usual, kicking one pebble after another as they traversed the abandoned playground near his transitory residence.

“How long has it been since the mistress died?” Death asked the grim reaper in a casual tone. “Forty-nine days?”

Hyo Jin stopped on her tracks the minute she was able to completely grasp what the higher being was trying to imply.

“Forty-nine days,” she vaguely repeated in a murmur.

The eight-year old immortal with a distinct bowl cut halted and looked back at his faithful servant, smirking.

“Do you truly believe that the gods are benevolent and merciful, Gong Hyo Jin?” Death inquired without waiting for an affirmation.

Tae Pyung was certainly exhausted by the time that he arrived at a downtown hospital for his last task, seemingly ready to drop anytime. He lazily sat at a far corner of the delivery room as he witnessed a woman give birth, barely paying attention even when the doctor enthusiastically announced the arrival of a healthy baby girl to the expectant parents. Nevertheless, he quickly rose to his feet at the precise second the newborn began crying.

“Can I verify the name with you before I write it down in the documents please?” he heard the nurse ask as he stepped out of the room. “Is it Son Eon Hee?”

If only Tae Pyung lingered a bit longer, the mother’s reply would have been a thunderbolt that left him reeling.

“Eon Jin,” the woman said as she doted on the bundle of joy in her arms. “I think I’d like to name her Son Eon Jin instead.”

—

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash