When Hajin sees him again, it feels like destiny wants them to be together once more. Then she shakes away the silly notion from her mind and blames her friend for putting such thoughts in her head.

Ever since they had left from their shift at the beauty store, Jinhye hadn't shut her nonsense. During the entire walk from their workplace to the café down the street, she kept on saying that Hajin should be trying to find her predestined one, instead of locking herself away from the world in her bedroom, reading dusty old History books. And even after walking into the line, getting their drinks and sitting down, she kept on going, even offering to introduce a few men to her. So yes, all the thoughts of destiny and of being reunited are truly due to Jinhye's blabber.

Actually, she was trying to tune out Jinhye's speech when her gaze drifted to the door. But before she could roll her eyes and explain — for the nth time — that she was not interested in that particular area, she saw him.

It's as if her eyes are magnetically attracted to his figure, and once he comes into her orbit she just can't stop herself from looking at him. She can't turn away, can't ignore him. His mere presence seems to pull her entire attention to him, to lock her to him, to make her completely aware of him and every single movement of his. Hajin finds it impossible to walk away from him, and she remembers when Wang So told her how that was what she made him feel whenever they were together.

Then she remembers how they parted ways in Goryeo, and how much she has hurt him. She forces herself to remember how she was basically the one who created Gwangjong and then left him behind in a cage he wouldn't have been in if it hadn't been for her. She tells herself that just because she regained her memories, it doesn't give her the right to go after him, and then she looks away. Her eyes begin to sting with unshed tears as she tells herself not to turn her gaze back to the door, back to the man dressed in black. She repeats to herself that this man may look like him, may even be some weird kind of reincarnation of the fourth monarch of Goryeo, but it is not the man who she fell in love with.

Jinhye is still talking and Hajin fights to keep focused on her friend, rather than on the burning sensation in her skull that he's behind her, right behind her, and maybe she could have a second chance of happiness with him if she just turned around...

You can't, Hajin!

"What's wrong?" Jinhye's voice startles her, and that's when she notices that tears have started to fall and her breathing is erratic.

"Nothing," she hurries to try to calm herself and reassure her friend, even though she just wants to crumble down to the floor and lay there crying until she falls in a dreamless sleep, "Nothing's wrong."

She doesn't need to look up to know that Jinhye doesn't believe her.

"Is it one of those again?" she feels her friend's warm hand at her back, trying to calm her down, "I thought you said you were already fine!"

I thought I was…, Hajin thinks but can't find her voice.

I spent a year thinking that everything was fine, and that the worst day of my life was the day that I found out that that scum ex of mine had been cheating on me with my best friend, and they had been accumulating debts under my name.

I spent a year thinking the man with a mask, who would whisper and claim me as his, was a dream and nothing else.

I spent a year unaware that I had traveled a thousand years in the past and fallen in love with a prince from Goryeo, who's long dead now.

I spent a year crying in my sleep, not knowing that in the end I had broken my promise and left him behind.

Why did I remember?

"Hajin-ah, take a deep breath," she half listens to Jinhye's worried words, bringing her back to reality, and then she notices that she has started sobbing, "Let's get you back home, and then we can talk, okay?"

Jinhye helps her to get on her feet and she slowly finds herself coming back to her senses, recovering the control over her emotions. She feels her balance being restored and, after the dizziness of the memories leaves her, she feels normal once again. For a second, she manages to breathe, as if her time traveling never happened and that he's not in the very same room as she is. She breathes slowly and fights to maintain her focus.

Then she turns around to walk away, and her focus shatters as she bumps into a stranger.

No, not a stranger...

Hajin's tears threaten to come back again as she stares at the man before her in silence. A small cry of surprise leaves her shocked and open mouth, and she's back in Goryeo once again.

You're the one who bumped into me!

"I'm sorry!" She shouts quickly, bowing fast, probably startling the man and Jinhye, who freeze and just look at her with a confused face. In this brief second of stupefied silence, Hajin runs away.

She runs away through the door she had seen him come in just a few moments before. She runs away, not daring to look back, ignoring Jinhye's cries for her, ignoring the piercing gaze of the stranger (not a stranger) that seems to linger on her. She runs away and out into the night.

She runs, tears starting to stream down her face again. She runs without looking back, trying to escape from a nightmare in the past, but still unable to let go. She runs, runs from the past, from the present, from the future. She runs without caring where she's going, where she's going to end.

(She wishes she could end.)

Her lungs start burning. Her heart throbbing violently against her ribcage, pounding her chest from the inside, threatening to explode. So, without breath, without strength, she comes to a stop. Doubles down and crouches right where she is. Her face is wet from the tears, and she struggles to breathe as she pants from exhaustion and sobs from crying.

A couple of seconds later she feels two hands on her shoulders, and she jumps in surprise. Only to turn around and see that it is only Jinhye, in the middle of the deserted street, trying to calm her down.

Hajin doesn't calm down, though. But she comes back a little to her senses, and takes the girl's arm as support. She follows her lead, as her coworker maneuvers them to sit at a bench on the side.

"What is going on?" Jinhye asks out of breath as well, tired from chasing her.

"I… I don't know, I think I just..."

Whatever lie or explanation she was about to come up with drowns in another fit of crying and sobbing, and Jinhye starts to panic a little bit as well.

"Gosh, Hajin-ah! Don't run away like that again, you hear me?" She chastises her friend, but her hands are lightly tapping her back, trying to ease her with the little knowledge she has on whatever is going on with her friend, "Oh, boy. What should I do? What do I do, Hajin-ah?"

There's not much Jinhye can do, but Hajin doesn't say that to her. She's too busy trying to erase stuff from her mind, trying to forget the sturdy chest she had just collided with back at the café, trying to think about anything other than the masked prince of her dreams. She's too busy replaying her old memories in her mind, feeling the old pains breaking her heart.

Why did I remember?

It's not him.

It's not him, so I can't truly apologize.

It's not him, so I can't ever move on.

Why did I remember?

Now she can't forget a thing.

It seemed she was cursed after all. Cursed to carry all the knowledge, be it in the future or the past. Cursed to never be able to do anything with the knowledge she had. And then Hajin starts regretting Hae Soo's decision to even forget everything in the first place.

Not for the first time, she wishes she had just drowned.

.

.

.

.

It takes a while for her crying to subside. It takes a while longer for her to come back to normal again.

Jinhye brings her out of the isolated park after her tears are gone, and Hajin notices for the first time where exactly she is. But she does not trust herself to talk just yet, so she silently follows her friend to a bus stop, their arms linked as they walk.

Only after a few minutes riding on the back of the bus does she feel that she's not about to break apart with her next words. So she turns her head slightly, still leaning back in her seat, and whispers.

"Sorry."

"Not your fault," Jinhye immediately dismisses her apology and raises a hand to tap her head carefully, "Whatever is going on in here is out of your control."

"Sorry for not controlling it."

Hajin's words are once again rebuked, this time with a flick of her friend's hand on her forehead.

"You should take the next couple days off. Relax a bit, and if you feel something again, go back to your therapist." Jinhye leans her head back, closing her eyes a bit, "It's the middle of the week, movement is slow. Nari and I can handle things."

"I can't just miss work without warning," she tries to protest, but Jinhye is not having it.

"You can't go to work like this, girl. What if you have another one while serving a client?" Her voice is serious and stern, but then she grins a bit, "That poor dude before wasn't even close to us and you managed to bump right into his coffee."

And because Hajin would indeed find that hilarious had the poor dude not looked like a past lover that she tragically parted ways with, she chuckles a bit.

She looks down to her hands, feeling a tinge of that panic threatening to resurge. But before she even has to fight the tears back, she notices something.

"Jinhye-ah."

"Hm?"

"I left my bag at the café."

Jinhye opens her eyes and turns to Hajin. Their eyes meet each other's and then turn down to Hajin's empty hands. When they look up, they burst giggling.

"I'll go there tomorrow, see if it's in the lost and found section. Was there anything important in it?"

"No, nothing, just..." Hajin sighs, her hands massaging her temples, "Gosh, I had a whole chocolate bar in there."

"Wait, you had chocolate and didn't share?" Hajin winces with Jinhye's accusation and evades the woman's glaring eyes, but she can't avoid her words, "You know what, I think it serves you right. Who told you to be selfish and hide chocolate from us?!"

They laugh, and Hajin breathes deeply. Mentally, she thanks Jinhye for being there with her today, and she dreads what would have happened had she been alone. Would she still be crying in the middle of the park? Would she still be running around Seoul? Would she still be seated at the table in the café?

Would she have talked to the stranger?

"I'm a mess," she whispers, her mind a chaotic noise of what ifs and whys.

"You'll be fine," Jinhye says with a smile, with enough determination to raise her spirits, "You're an expert at getting back on your feet, Hajin-ah."

So she smiles back, she fights to believe in her friend's words. She fights to resist the burning questions and memories that plague her mind. She fights not to succumb to the same heartache that broke her spirit a thousand years ago.

She fights to hold on to sanity and reality, but it's hard when her own strength is slowly fading.

She wonders if she could ever go back to her normal life after regaining Hae Soo's memory.

She wonders if she could live with a broken heart.

A\N: Yes. I know. They haven't properly met yet. How dare I.

Honestly, I just couldn't make this Hajin speak to him just yet. Her wounds are still too recent, specially taking into account the whole time travel thing that can take a toll on someone. And she died believing he wanted nothing to do with her.

Well, maybe next chapter she won't be as troubled and will work up the courage to say something. Anything.

See you then!