Sōrumeito (Soulmate #2)

Day 6: Fushimi Inari

Fushimi Inari, Kyoto

(03:20pm)

It was so crowded here. Had it always been like this?

We were at Fushimi Inari Shrine, where the famous thousands of vibrant orange torii gates were. If you walk through those gates and reach the top of the mountain, you'd see the whole of Kyoto. Besides that, the Shrine was huge.

Jin Yeong flashed me an encouraging smile, after seeing the uneasy expression on my face. How did he manage to convince me to go with him today?

He nodded towards the shrine, and said, "Let's pray."

We headed towards the bells and stood by each rope. I dug around my mini black backpack for some coins, when Jin Yeong reached out a hand and gave me 500 yen.

"Ah," I mumbled. "Arigatou."

He grinned and patted my head, before facing his front.

At the same time, we made a wish as we threw the coins. We then bowed and clapped twice before ringing the bell. I stared at the Shrine for a few moments. After that, I stepped back and walked towards Jin Yeong who was waiting for me.

"What did you wish for?" he asked.

Freedom.

"Doesn't matter," I answered instead. "It won't come true, anyway. You?"

The corner of his lips turned up. "I'll let you know when it comes true."

I snorted. "That's not fair. What if it doesn't?"

"See? I haven't told you yet, and you're already jinxing it."

Rolling my eyes, I replied, "Alright, I'll let it go." With a sigh, I looked around. There were people in every nook of this place. My eyes landed on a crowd of people not too far away. "Want to get your fortune?"

Jin Yeong's eyes practically twinkled as he nodded in excitement. For a moment, I stared at him. I wondered if I looked like that when I went to Seoul. But more than that, I realized he was back to his carefree self. What changed?

"It's over there," I said, pointing a finger at a distance.

We waited for the other tourists to finish first. When it was our turn, we grabbed the stick holder and shook it. At least, I shook it with all my might. And after half a minute of vigorous shaking, I took out a stick with a number on it and looked for the drawer with the same number. Then, I pulled out a paper from that drawer.

"Ha!" I grinned triumphantly, after reading the contents. "I got good fortune!"

Jin Yeong was quiet, though. When I looked at him, he had a troubled look on his face as he read through his fortune paper. I took a step closer and studied him.

"Doushita no?" What's wrong?

"Bad fortune," he deadpanned.

My eyes widened. "What does it say?"

"Nothing good."

I was about to lean forward to see, but he quickly folded it up. He shook his head at me and went to tie the paper to the nearby rod stand where the rest of the bad fortunes were.

It must be really bad for him to react that way, so I let it go. We went to the fountain next. I demonstrated how to do it, and he followed suit.

Today, he was the Jin Yeong I remembered from Seoul. It was hard to stay mad at him when he was acting like his old self. But I had to be strong.