“First, when I was apart from you, this world did not exist, nor any other.
Second, whatever I was looking for was always you”

                                                                   - Rumi

Nam Ji Hyun watches as a tiny leaf floats down gently from a large Ginkgo tree overhead. She stretches out her hand to catch it, marveling at the delicate veins that fan out on the yellow leaf. It makes her miss the forests and trees of her island even more. Incheon was a busy, packed port city so different from the quiet village and ancient forests of her old home. But it had tiny spots like this especially up in the hills that had bursts of wooded areas.

She traces the little lines of the fan-shaped leaf, so different from the plants in the mostly evergreen Jeju forests. She knew from the little plant book she found in the Villa that the Ginkgo seeds were valued for their medicinal properties. It was one of the oldest surviving tree species and each tree could live for over a thousand years. Monks and shamans had long revered it as a symbol of longevity and enlightenment. There were no other trees like it or that had it's fan-shaped leaf.
 

Some old wives tales said if you caught a Ginkgo leaf floating down it would bring you good luck. Perhaps she should try catch a whole sackful then because she seemed to be short on luck nowadays. 

From the corner of her eye, JiHyun sees the man next to her watching her. They had stopped at a quiet spot on the hillside overlooking a densely urban neighborhood. Where they sat wasn’t far from the road, but they were not in direct view of anyone who should pass by.  She waits to see if he would say anything; but he stays silent. She tries to grasp at something that she could say instead but anything impersonal would seem too trite and anything too personal could potentially cut open some old wound of the past.
 

She wasn't sure if she was ready for honest revelations just yet.
 

Finally she takes a deep breath and decides to share a story: "In ancient Chinese times, the Ginkgo tree's existence was virtually unknown. It had been around since over a hundred million years ago and was the last of it's kind to survive; but, except for a few monasteries and a small area south of the Yangtze River, the species was on the verge of extinction. edspite surviving the long ice age and witnessing the birth of human civilization, it seemed destined to fade away."
 

She pauses for a moment suddenly feeling silly for rambling; but, since he says nothing to interrupt, she forges on.
 

"One day a prince from the Northern capital of Kaifeng arrived to the southern area. He was so struck by the beauty of the Ginkgo trees that on his return home he brought with him plenty of Ginkgo seeds. The smell was foul but the tea it produced seemed to miraculously cure different ailments. He planted some seeds in the imperial garden and, out of those, four trees grew. Three bloomed in damp, dark places. The fourth one was placed in a pretty spot but never bloomed."
 

"Hearing of these new plants, the Emperor came to inspect the trees and at seeing the bloomless one, he expressed great pity. As if the tree had heard his lament, the next year it burst into bloom and also bore many fruit with the luster of jade. The Emperor delighted in the taste of the roasted nuts from the fruit and his fondness for the tree was immortalized in poems and soon spread throughout the empire."

"Thanks to that long ago prince the Ginkgo is now grown all over the world; their beauty unchanged from their ancestors who lived a millenia ago. A tree much like this one could have stood here and witnessed life before there was even such a thing as humans."
 

JiHyun looks up at the tree above them, wondering if this one itself would survive for another thousand years. What did it think about the little scene playing out beneath it? Very likely this moment would be a tiny blip in its existence. For some reason this thought was reassuring.

Today might seem overwhelming and insurmountable to her; but in truth, life would go on. This tree would continue to shed it's leaves and grow again for many more seasons. Her little drama would fade into time.  With that in mind, JiHyun steels herself and decides, whatever would happen will happen. That was for the Gods to determine. She could only manage her own heart.
 

She takes a deep breath and looks directly at the man next to her. Even in her mind she didn't know what to call him anymore. By leaving him, it felt like she had lost all rights to call him Oppa or think of him as other than a stranger from her past. But, everything about him was still so f