Prince Caspian -Jung Yoonoh NCT

52. Memories

TWO YEARS LATER

Xizhou, China

JAE

It invokes an odd reaction in me.

Sadness, and longing. Pain. Hurt. An echo of some sort then, memories of old hopes from more innocent days. In a white shirt and a dark blue skirt, she sits between two fishing rods set ten feet apart, a bucket by her side, a twig in her hand, tracing random patterns in the swift-flowing, aquamarine water. Across the stream, rice paddy fields glint green and gold. Small, rectangular houses of wood stand in the distance. Beyond the village, the ground elevates more rapidly, a cluster of tall, leafy trees, descending into low, bushy shrubs and an intermitten boulder or two.

"Yiseul," I say.

My head hurts, but I must speak to her.

She goes utterly still.

The twig washes downstream, catches in a rock, then spins and floats free again. Still facing the stream, she wraps her arms about her knees.

"Jae, how unexpected. What brings you to this part of the world?" She turns a little, her voice low, steady.

"I was in this part of the country." It is a lie, of course. "I thought I could see you in person. To talk about Ravenscrag. About what we are to do with it."

She rises at last. I swallow. Her face is lovelier than in my memories and my dreams. She looks almost unchanged, until I notice the bleakness behind her dark brown eyes; there is an emptiness there, a loss of hope. Once, they brimmed with love for me, the adoration spilling out, radiant with wonder, welling easily with tears. I did this to her. I destroyed her. The wide-eyed, child-like innocence that I loved so much has gone forever. I can never have it back.

"I have been trying to locate you." Two years. Two fucking long years. "But you are very hard to find." You wouldn't believe how many private detectives I have hired to track you down. All, to no avail. Until now. I got on a flight the moment they told me they had found you. I have barely slept since I got the news.

"Oh." She narrows her eyes, lifting a hand to shield her face from the sun. Her wrist is so fragile, the curve of her cheek so vulnerable my heart breaks. Her long hair falls in a sweep, hiding her face. She looked like this a long time ago, my nereid, her feet bare, curling in the sand, her eyes wide, innocent, trusting, untouched by the ugliness of life. I swallow, and clench my fists hard at my sides.

"I'm sorry that you have to come so far, just to talk about this. You could have just mentioned it to Mr. Prescott."

"Would you rather I turned around and went back right away?"

Silence.

"No, of course not. You'll need to rest after travelling so far."

"And if I didn't need to rest after travelling so far?"

She doesn't answer, but turns away from me. Then she bends down, retrieves a fishing rod, and reels in something that is struggling to escape.

"Are you engaged to be married?" she asks me politely, as if we are strangers. "Does this have something to do with your future plans?"

"No." Though I should be. I know a number of beautiful young women who are desperate to become my future wife.

"According to Lisa you are. Lisa - you remember her, don't you? We were interns." Her face suddenly turns cold. She is remembering Nicola.

"You keep in touch with Lisa." Lisa is an office manager now. Nicola? I don't give a fuck where she is. I fired her the day after she pulled that stunt on me.