Waiting For Your Reincarnation

I pointed to the outside of the elevator with a slight nod. As the elevator doors opened, I couldn’t help but freeze in disbelief.

 

The fifth floor was nothing but an old-fashioned bronze-colored wooden door.

 

The elevator doors slowly closed again, swallowing the bronze door as if time had run out. At that time, Ryu Won still held me in his arms and demanded answers.

 

Ryu Won sighed. 

 “First of all, I don’t want to answer.” “Why?” “Because I want to be independent. I don’t want to live in someone else’s house.” “Why bother, I’ll do all the work, you just bring your body.” “I get sick when I eat other people’s food, so give me a break. What’s that door?” 

Ryu Won’s brow furrowed slightly, as if he didn’t like my stubborn answer. 

 

He tried to figure out what I meant, but his common sense seemed to have failed him.

 

His white pupils were filled with color. It was as if I was trapped in a photograph of pupils.

 

I quickly looked away. Ryu Won, who had been staring at me for a while, took a few steps back and muttered.

 “Well, we still have plenty of time.” “Yeah… What…?” “This is the library. There’s no better way to explain this place.”  ***  

Seeing that he had closed the distance between them, I quickly approached the door and pressed the open button. The bronze door from earlier was revealed.

 

It was hard to see from a distance, but upon closer inspection, the words

“Library”

were carved into the wooden sign.

 

What was unusual was that I couldn’t see the room inside at all from the outside.

 “How do we open this door?” 

I felt the surface of the door. There was a sign that said library and the shape of the door was obvious, but there was no way to enter.

 

Ryu Won watched me suspiciously as I examined the door. I felt a prickle in the back of my head and slowly turned my head away.

 “What’s wrong, you’re acting strange again?” “I have something to tell you, Ms. Yeon-young.” “What is it?” 

Ryu Won’s face was visibly stiff and I felt nervous. 

 

I carefully removed my hand from the door and looked at him. 

 

Tentacles, caves, mad scientists, everything flashed through my mind. 

 

I had no idea what words would come out of his mouth.

 

I swallowed hard, nervous.

 “Why don’t you answer me?” “You feel comfortable talking back to Jung Jaeho, so why don’t you call me “Ryu Won”?” 

My ears pricked up at the question, which was completely out of character for my serious face. I wondered if my cochlea was filtering out the wrong sentence.

 

But I could hear the touch of his hand and the rustle of his fingers clearly enough.

 

Inadvertently, my face turned as red as an overripe apple. 

 

I didn’t know why I should blush when it was him who made the flirtatious remark.

 

Ryu Won lifted his face with a wry smile. His smooth, chiseled features made her shiver. He looked completely devoid of shame.

 

He looked at me expectantly, ready to call him

“Ryu Won”

or face the consequences. I thought about his name in my mouth.

 

I wanted to just call him by his name and get rid of him, but when I tried to say it out loud, the words didn’t come out right.

 

After a long pause, I spoke.

 “Jung Jaeho…, he was so rude that I said something back first… I responded in a way to make him feel bad. Of course, I wouldn’t have touched him if I knew he was a crazy person who would strangle me.” “You said something back to him to make him feel bad?” “Yes.” “So you don’t respect him?” “Yes. I say your name with respect because I wanted you to feel good, because I like you.” 

It was crappy logic, but it made sense in a strange way. 

 

I looked at Ryu Won with a bit of disbelief. The corners of his mouth were now gently turned up.

 

I realized once again that he was just another screw loose in a sea of crazy souls.

 

I wondered why everyone was so crazy. If it was the side effects.

 

I suddenly remembered the word

“side effects”

. According to Jung Jaeho, Ryu Won suffered from the side effects of the experiment.

 “Yes?”

Ryu Won asked suddenly.

 “Are you okay? I heard that you had side effects from the experiment.” 

He smiled at my question. 

 

I wondered if now was a good time to laugh; I hadn’t known him for long, but he was perhaps even more elusive than Jung Jaeho.

 

Ryu Won tapped the bronze door with his index finger and suddenly clutched his chest.

 “I think I feel a little sick from the side effects.” “Are you sick now?” 

Ryu Won leaned his head against the bronze door, as lazy as a cat, and I looked at him in surprise.

 “Are you worried about me?” “What?” “Do you want to live with me?” 

Only then did I realize that Ryu Won was joking. I frowned at the thought of being tricked.

 

He stopped playing and pulled the library sign on the door to the right. A small power button was revealed.

 “You have to use the on-call room until you get assigned to the Center dorms, and it’s pretty uncomfortable. It’s for public use.” 

It was good news for me that there was a dorm and an on-call room. 

 

I knew that as soon as the situation was somewhat organized, I would take over the dormitory or the on-call room.

 “So just come over to my place.” “That would be a little awkward, I’m a woman steeped in tradition.” “Tradition?” “The one that says you can only live in a house with the opposite sex if you’re married.” “Marriage… that sounds good. There’s an order to everything, I almost forgot.” 

He thought about the word marriage for a long time. Ryu Won casually took the ring from the ring finger of his left hand and put it on the switched on machine.

 

The door opened automatically, revealing a magnificent White God Hall. 

  ***  

The aura of the temple overwhelmed me, making my whole body feel crushed, but I entered as if hypnotized.

 “Mr. Ryu Won?” 

Ryu Won must have been with me until I opened the door to the library, but as I walked, his figure blurred and disappeared.

 

I followed in Ryu Won’s footsteps.

 

The long corridors revealed the riches of the temple, which was dented and cracked in places, threatening to collapse at the slightest touch.

 

There wasn’t even a separate area for prayer, just a large altar and a massive statue of the goddess.

 

The statue of the goddess was holding something round in both hands, but I couldn’t quite make out what it was, as it was a shape I had never seen before.

 

Even the one on the right was shapeless and broken.

 

Just looking at it, my heart tightened in my chest. That’s when Ryu Won’s voice rang out from the temple.

 “Yeon-young…, Ms. Yeon-young, can you hear me?” “Mr. Ryu Won, where are you?” “Hold my hand.” “What? How can I hold your hand, I can’t even see you.” 

His voice sounded muffled, as if it was tuned to the wrong frequency. It sounded closer than when he’d first spoken, but it was still hard to place.

 

I waved my arms in the air.

 

I heard the sound of flesh against flesh and felt the warm touch of a hand. 

 

The moment I felt the warmth of his hand, the landscape of the temple turned into a pixelated screen and then shattered.

 

Behind the shattered landscape was a huge, antique-looking three-story library with Ryu Won standing in the center. 

 

He gently squeezed my hand.

 

My heart skipped a beat at the feel of his firm hand.

 “I’m sorry, I forgot to set up the security track after closing time. As you can see, it’s not just a lot of books.” “That’s quite a background for the security track.” “It’s on an island that we bought from the center, so we can take time off in the summer. It’s a beautiful place with a beautiful ocean, and it could be our honeymoon destination.” “Honeymoon?”

I shrugged at Ryu Won’s comment. 

 

The beach. As I thought about his words, my eyebrows twitched. 

 

What I had seen earlier was a temple, not a beach.

 “Is that a beach in the background of the security track? I thought I saw a temple or something?” 

Ryu Won frowned at my question. He had the feeling that something was wrong.

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