My dear readers. I'm on a roll this week, and since I'm inspired, I've been writing to deliver you yet another chapter. I hope this compensates for all the times you had to wait for a month for updates. Can't promise many more, but for now, please leave your comments. Things are moving slowly, but surely. Let me know who should be the next person to encounter? Should CY meet his first love or maybe even his younger self? All the ideas are welcomed.
"Will you trust me, Jae Su?"
"Yes, noble fairy. I will believe your words." Readily nodded Jae Su. The boy was seated before a table with his favorite dishes, positioned across from the fairy lady, meeting him with a kind expression.
"Your mother, is she well?"
"She is doing well, thank you."
"And your sister?"
"Well, too."
"Have you told her yet that you are completely and hopelessly in love with her?"
"Eh?" The boy choked and the kind fairy hit his back a few times very unfairy-like, as he coughed violently. "Drink some water, it will help," She urged him. Jae Su's crush was a secret he guarded with his life. Or so he thought. How did the fairy know? Can she read his mind?
"You are probably thinking how did the fairy learn of my secret?" The woman smirked.
"Yes, my lady."
"I know other things, too. No use hiding anything from me," she reprimanded. "Listen well. If you don't tell her about your feelings, you are going to lose her forever. Soon she will meet a young man, fall in love with him and engage to be married. Her father will approve of him, too. And you will be miserable and regretting you cowardly choices till the day you die," she said doubtlessly with the depth of knowledge that was frightening.
"No, that can't be!" Screamed Jae Su. "I can't have her marrying some guy. I will take care of her, always."
"Sure. That's what you think. Does she agree with you? Does she share your feelings? Girls are different, you know." She explained with wise patience that gave him a pause.
"But then... what can I do? The teacher will never accept a bastard like me as a son-in-law. And she only looks at me as a brother. We grew up together and all. I'm like a shadow to her. Always there and not important." He sighed loudly.
Choi Young moved in the background. Eun Soo glanced at him, worriedly. A shade of absence colored his almond eyes, he was looking at her, but not seeing, his attention locked far into distance - whether it was past or the future, her husband was not in the present.
Despite himself, memories of his times with Mae Hee were coming alive in Choi Young's mind. After he saw her at the market, he could not shake confusion growing in his soul. His heart trembled at the sight, it ached to run after and stop her. He wished to look at her lively face and receive her cheerful smile. Maybe, even speak with her. Her voice and her laughter were but a distant memory; he could not conjure them no matter how hard he tried, but the sensation of the sound that rang brightly was almost tangible. So he traveled places long forgotten, unlocking memories of their times together.
Some of his recollections brought happiness, some sorrow, but the knowledge of his sweet first love so near was painful. His thoughts were pure, the most innocent kind of longing that one gets when dreaming of childhood, yet, even those thoughts made him feel horrible as if he was cheating on Eun Soo. But what could he do, if that child filled his heart with love and life at one point? If he had not loved Mae Hee then, would he be able to become a man worthy of loving Eun Soo, being a good man for her? By giving a chance for happiness for Jae Su, would he be dooming his future self for another path in life?
"Don't act like a brother, act like a man. I will teach you, but the rest is up to you. You need to make happiness with your own hands." Continued her heavenly teachings beautiful and mysterious fairy, shaking off unsettling feeing in the pit of her stomach when she sent another glance over to Choi Young. He nodded to Eun Soo to approach him, his silhouette safely tucked against a pillar of the dining hall, a mask protecting his features and his gaze now not absent, but rather alarmingly dark.
"Give me second," rather casually the fairy got up to consult with her partner, leaving the boy scratching his head again: "If I tell her and she laughs in my face, I will die of embarrassment. And if she tells her father – I will be thrown out on the street. Mae Hee does not even care about boys. All of her friends are girls. The only boy she likes to play with is me." Pleased with the discovery, the teenager grinned. They were friends since infancy so if he confessed and she brushed him off, he could just act as if it was all a joke. His pride might get injured forever, but the fairy was right about one thing – if another man came along and took a hold of her heart – he would be the last one on her list of potential contenders.
"Miss Fairy," he called. "If it's all the same to you, I have to go."
"Go." Spoke the tall man. "We will find you when the time is right. Don't tell anybody about this meeting."
"Yes, sir Fairy." Bowed deeply Jae Su and quickly shoved the rest of the food in his mouth before taking off.
She ran up to Choi Young, worried. Predicting her impulse, the general took a step back and reminded her that they were in a public place.
"I don't care any more. Those rules are too much! If I don't comfort my husband, who will?" she wrung her fingers in frustration.
Choi Young was at loss for words, dismay spelled over his features. Eun Soo felt compelled to wrap around his soul like a blanket with her warmth and use her healing hands to drain his pain out.
"Imja," a silky tone of his voice ghosted by her ear, making her neck tingle sensually, although it was not his intention. "I don't need comforting. I need you to be safe. That is the most important thing for me." With her back she felt his body's heat, knowing that his closeness was as far as he could allow himself to be near her, ultimately finding a way to provide her with such needed consolation.
"Let's go home," she whispered under the breath. She needed him to make love to her so badly her bones ached. Choi Young felt her desire, but something inside of him kept him at an arm's length. He was not sure if he deserved to touch his wife when his memories were flooded with the images of another woman. Even if he no longer felt love for Mae Hee, he felt something that was hard to put into words. That deep melancholy he had always nursed was crawling out to the surface. He missed the old self when he was seventeen, the short-lived joy of being young and in love, the longing and loss of something so precious he could never imagine could be taken away from him till the moment his youthful hopefulness got swallowed in one cruel gesture of fate.
"You are thinking of her, aren't you?" Asked Eun Soo, not able to hold back her tears.
"I am. I'm sorry. I know it hurts you."
"I'm OK. I understand." And she did understand, but it did not take away the stifling sense of helplessness that was suffocating her. "I want to help you, Young-ah. I want to be your strength. Help me be the wife you can lean on."
Choi Young solemnly shook his head. As if unsure, he caught her gaze, slowly dissolving into her essence, he held her by the shoulders and drew her into a tender hug. Caressing her hair he whispered sweet words of love, nonsensical syllables of affection, not daring to do more than that.
Gradually she reached out with her KI and touched his, a gentle charge channeling through her skin penetrated him, making Choi Young exhale sharply. "Kiss me stranger," she asked looking into the pools of his beautiful eyes, reflecting his lonely soul, which yearned to rest. "Kiss me and take a break. If you want to see that girl... that girl you were promised to marry, I won't stop you. As long you come back to me. Because I'll be here waiting."