What Happened to Enos'

Little Girl?

by KayCee1951

Part One

Chapter Ten

In His Dreams

Early morning, August 6, 2022

Sleep was nowhere to be found the night before, apparently for either of them and it was proving to be the same on the third night they both slept in the Hanok house. At about three in the morning (Korean time), Esme heard a door slide open on the other side of the courtyard and then close again. For a split second, she held her breath; a knee-jerk reaction because the next sound she heard was Min-jun's footsteps going in the direction of the garden.

Esme couldn't resist following him. She couldn't sleep anyway. A little stalking would at least be more interesting than staring at the white paper walls.

She had been wrong about his destination being the garden. His silhouette in the moonlight was headed for the cliffs beyond the gardens. There were no fences there like the ones in the park. Just precipice and gravity over five and six hundred foot drops. Esme wasn't afraid of heights but Min-jun's proximity to the edge made her nervous. She relaxed only when he took several steps back and sank into an old wooden chaise she hadn't noticed before.

She approached as stealthily as she could, but he must have heard her tip-toeing toward him. Without turning around, he asked, "You couldn't sleep either?"

"No."

"Well, you might as well get something in return for skulking around in the dark. Come see."

When she got close, Min-jun stood close behind her and pointed out a shimmering light off in the distance. "That's a waterfall more than seventy miles away. It can only be seen like this in August when the moon is in just the right position. I'm glad you didn't miss it."

The light from the falls glistened and twinkled like one of the Seven Sisters and she could feel the warmth of his body pressing against her back.

"Then why didn't you invite me to join you?" she asked.

"One, judging from the choice of night clothes, you don't trust me as it is." That made Esme self-conscious. "Two, you've had a long day and worked hard. I hoped you could get some rest. Three, maybe you're right not to trust me." Then he stepped away from her.

An odd admission, she thought…and just when she was beginning to think she could…trust him, that is.

"And why shouldn't I trust you?"

"Because he brought you here under false pretenses," a softly-spoken voice from the dark said. It was a male's voice, but definitely not François'.

Min-jun stood, then dropped to his knees before the abbot of Temple Shangri-La…the one François referred to as 'Father.'

Esme wasn't sure of the protocol but was pretty sure Min-jun's sudden genuflection was the gesture known as keunjeol. And she wondered if she was supposed to do the same.

"You are not required to do that, child. Kim Min-jun has reason to humble himself."

"I don't understan––."

Father held a hand up and quietly said, "He will explain. Won't you Kim Min-jun?"

Min-jun nodded, "Eung Abeoji." 1)

"Then, I will see you both at noon meal tomorrow?"

"Yes, Father." Esme and Min-jun both answered in harmony.

The time was now 04:13 in the morning and Father had left. Other than feeling as if she were answering a royal summons, Esme was very confused.

"Explain to me what that was all about."

Kim Min-jun finally rose from the big bow and slowly began, "It's about the dreams."

"What dreams…?"

Min-jun tilted his head as if to indicate her.

"Why do I get the impression they have something to do with me?" It all fit, after all.

"I keep having these dreams about someone who looks like you."

"Dreams…plural. |Is it always the same dream or––?"

Then, she considered that she might not want a detailed account of dreams he'd had of her or even someone who only looked like her…considering the sexy Joseon-inspired nightwear he had provided.

"No." he said, shaking his head slowly. He was struggling to get the words out.

"Must be one humdinger of a dream…or dreams…to rattle you," Esme said.

"They're all slightly different, but the result is the same. In every dream, I am in mortal danger…and you save me."

"You mean like some sort of Joan of Arc or Wonder Woman?"

"Maybe, I don't know for sure," he chuckled involuntarily. "The details are murky…except for you. You are as clear as a mountain lake."

"What happens in these dreams? Or…should I call them nightmares?"

Min-jun dropped back into the chaise and Esme knelt beside him. He stared into the moonlit valley. "Sometimes my team has dropped into a hot zone to rescue hostages and I come face to face with one of the terrorists holding an IED with a kill switch. He lets go of it and that's when you appear form nowhere. And I'm safe. Sometimes we're jumping out of the back of a C-130. I can't use my hands for some reason and my main chute fails to open. Sometimes it opens but has been sabotaged. But you are there to deploy my reserve chute. Once, I was just walking through a shop in Cairo when someone opened fire and I'm hit. I feel the bullet pierce my heart. But then you show up...and the wound is gone, the bullet is gone like nothing ever happened. When you show up in my dreams…" He looked straight into her glistening hazel eyes. "… the threat disappears."

"Every time?" Esme whispered through a swelling throat.

He nodded slowly. "Every time. You save me every time."

"I don't know what to say. How…" She cleared her throat. "How long have you been having these dreams…about me, or someone who looks like me––?"

"It's not just someone who looks like you, Esmeralda. It's you. I knew it the first time I saw you at the welcome center. And when I heard you booking a train to Seoul for Saturday…I became so desperate to keep you here that I nearly drove you away."

"You saw me at the welcome center? Two days before you stole my bike."

He only nodded sheepishly.

Esme rose and walked away from him, trying to sort out the events of the last week. First, her plane was re-routed from Haneda International in Tokyo to Hiroshima, putting her only 225 miles from Busan. Second, something compelled her, against her mother's wishes and her own staid and steady temperament, to exchange her ticket for one to Busan. Third, after seeing what she could of Mount Jiri by the hiking tour, she suddenly decided to rent a bike? |Was it all just so she and Kim Min-jun could meet? How does any of that make sense, she thought. And yet, it did. Auntie Dae's Red String of Fate. She felt drawn to Jirisan…and to Min-jun. In light of his revelation about the dreams…it made perfect sense. They were destined to meet. But was she supposed to save him from some real threat?

And when?

"How long have you been having these dreams?" she asked.

"Three years…yeah, I know…it doesn't make any sense. If we were supposed to meet, why now? Why here?"

Obviously, they had both been thinking along the same line or string.

"If I hadn't taken the bait with the bike stunt, would you have followed me to Seoul."

"Probably. Yes. But I wouldn't have had Father and François to corroborate my story. And yes, I realize how preposterous all this sounds."

"How on Earth did you get the guy you tackled to cooperate? Don't tell me that was just a fluke."

"I don't know if it was a fluke or not. It was certainly a weird coincidence that I recognized him from a Red Notice we got a few weeks ago…and he was definitely less than cooperative. Him showing up in the right place at the right time may be part of the plan."

"Whose plan?"

"I don't know that either." Min-jun was frustrated and unsettled. "All I know for sure is that I've had these dreams for three years. You're always there and you always save me."

He took a long pause, then, "Esmeralda, I'm beginning to wonder if the meaning in the dreams isn't literal but figurative." His voice trailed off.

Esme pretended to be clueless but knew what he was getting at. "I think we should get back to the house. It's almost daylight and frankly, I don't want anyone to see me in this get-up." Her sleeves had come undone and were hanging over her hands like a Japanese Kabuki dancer.

Kim Min-jun couldn't quite stifle a laugh despite his frustration. "I did give you girl clothes to wear."

Esme tried to walk to the house but kept tripping over her pants legs. Without warning, Min-Jun scooped her up in his arms and carried her in.

References and Translations:
1) Yes, Father.