Finding You

CHAPTER 2

The cold surface was nothing compared to the numbing darkness that loomed and crept towards the consciousness of the young lady as her life started ticking away.

Just a glance and one would know that it was already a lost cause. The victim was lying on her stomach, her head profusely bleeding while her body was twisted in a way that only meant several of her bones were broken.

"P-please..."

Eon Jin crouched beside the body to take a good look at the young lady, more to satisfy her curiosity than anything. She saw the name Ra Hae Young on the small rectangular plate pinned on her blouse. By the looks of it, she probably was just a freshman or a sophomore. The uniform she was wearing was similar to that of the school near the city river, which somehow looked familiar as Eon Jin's shop had regular customers going to the same academe.

"P-please..." the girl sobbed between her staggered breaths. "P-please help me..."

While Eon Jin knew there was no way the girl was aware of her presence, she still held her breath and pursed her lips out of habit. She kept silent, as there was nothing to be said in this situation. Instead, she gently tucked a few stray locks of hair behind the girl's ear.

She knew from the image that flashed in her mind when she was in the elevator that the driver, a college student who was running from a group of thugs he previously screwed over for money, was too distracted and kept glancing at his side mirrors to see if anyone was closing in on him. What made it worse was that some of the streetlights were off since the road was temporarily closed for repair. The guy was speeding off at 60 kph and was not able to notice that the girl was walking across the dimly lit street. The impact was so strong that the victim's body flew and rolled several feet away from where she last stood.

Eon Jin knew for certain that the guy on the motorcycle was fully aware that he hit someone. But out of fear of being caught by the gang who was after him and the patrol cars who might pass by the scene of the crime, he didn't bother to stop.

A few minutes later, a hand phone suddenly rang. Eon Jin looked around and found it near the curb. Her brows furrowed when she read the name of the caller which was flashed on the screen.

Your mother must be waiting for you at home, she wanted to tell the girl. How cruel could the gods be to break her heart?

This wasn't the first time Eon Jin had to idly stand by while a mortal desperately pleaded for help. In more than three hundred years, there were countless accidents, crimes, and disasters she had to witness from start to finish just to make sure nothing disrupted what Fate laid out. She stood still as she watched the events unfold; at the same time, she endured listening to the sound of desperation that resonated in every soul's cry and looked on as the mortals suffered until they crossed the great divide.

Eon Jin had to go through all these notions just to ensure that the deity's will was done.

Not long after the phone stopped ringing, the girl started gasping for air as tears continued to flow from her eyes. It would only be a few minutes before it was over, therefore Eon Jin conjured the same flower from that afternoon and placed it in one of the girl's hands.

She slowly stood up and looked around to find the deployed grim reaper who was already a few minutes late by protocol. She crossed her arms while thinking of how many ways she would reprimand the newbie for this blunder.

She started counting down the seconds in her mind. Right on cue, someone arrived, but it was not the entity she was expecting.

A car screeched to a stop in the middle of the road, almost hitting the girl who was still lying unconscious on the cold pavement. A man, probably in his mid-thirties, got out and hurriedly went to the side of the high school student.

Kneeling beside the girl while being careful not to touch body, he tilted his head to listen closely if she was still breathing. To both his and Eon Jin's surprise, she was.

The man let out a sigh of relief and stood up, taking out his hand phone in the process, and dialed the emergency number. He ran his hands through his hair in his restlessness. In the chaos, Eon Jin saw his jaw tightened several times and his nostrils flared while he tried to catch his breath.

"Thank God," he sighed when someone took the call after a few rings. "Please send help. There's a victim of a hit-and-run here."

While the man was giving the operator the exact location of the accident, Eon Jin figured out that the course was starting to change; ergo, it was time to run her modus operandi and distract him.

She went through the list of bribes she could use in her mind.

He's probably married, she thought. However, she saw that he wasn't wearing a ring on his finger.

Does he have a child? Probably not. His choice of clothes - a layered combo of coffee tailored blazer and grey knitted cardigan over a crisp, white V-neck which flaunted the prominence of his Adam's apple, slim-fit jeans, and black leather loafers - screamed bachelor.

How about I show you the possibilities? she mused as she pieced a dream scenario in her mind, only to notice that he was actually driving a recent model of a popular SUV. The way he stood and had his hand on his waist also exuded a sense of authority and sophistication.

For the first time in her three hundred seventeen years of service, she found herself hesitating. There was something about the man standing a few feet away from her that seemed different, although she could not put her finger to it. The thought that she was unsure worried her.

"Thank you," he told the operator. "We'll wait for the dispatched units."

It didn't take long for the paramedics to reach the site of the accident and attend to the victim. While three of them examined the state of girl, the team leader talked to the man who called it in. He was asked several questions, which Eon Jin didn't fully pay attention to. Instead, she was fixated on the fact that it was truly possible for someone - a mere mortal, to be exact - to foil the plan of the gods.

While the emergency team carefully lifted the body of the student to the gurney, the team leader asked the man for his name since the police would eventually be asking for potential witnesses.

"Kim Tae Pyung," the man said. He then took his wallet from the back pocket of his jeans and gave his ID. "I work with the Violent Crimes Team at the local police station in the next district."

A few minutes later, the ambulance sped off to the nearest hospital. Eon Jin followed the vehicle with her gaze until it was out of sight, then turned away to walk towards the opposite end of the road.

"Wait."

The calm but clear baritone voice of the man behind her stopped Eon Jin in her tracks.

Though she was absolutely sure she was on her demigod persona, her eyes still did a quick sweep of her appearance. It was the usual thick black coat over a black blouse that fit perfectly to her body, black slacks, and high-heeled boots. Anxious, she bit her glossy lips that was painted in deep crimson and thought there was no way the centuries-old magic would be broken.

A few seconds had passed without hearing the man speak again, therefore Eon Jin assumed it meant nothing. She quickly took a few strides away from the scene of the accident and towards the intersection.

However, the moment she reached the corner, the man named Kim Tae Pyung grabbed her arm to pull her back and face him.

—

Photo by Josh Redd on Unsplash