>_____<;;

Namjoo looked up when the door opened and Luhan walked into her room. Pressing her lips together she held her hands together and felt him sit beside her. Neither talked for the next few minutes and Namjoo enjoyably let the silence sink in. For some time she tried picturing the two of them sitting at an old port back in the Joseon Dynasty as she’d seen in her textbook once. The picture stayed very vaguely in her mind before it disappeared.

“I didn’t know death was possible for angels,” Namjoo spoke. “Why do you even bother coming to the rescue?” Namjoo turned to look at him, “Luhan, do you…do you like me?”

He stared back at her without movement. Their eyes locked and another moment of silence passed by as calmly as it came.

“Mm…” he sounded, “I like you.”

And Namjoo felt her world crumble again, whether for good or for bad. Where would Chanyeol fit into all of this when she was this messed up? He was fading out of sight faster than she’d anticipated. What if the next time Chanyeol appeared in front of her she was already too caught up with Luhan? What would he be then?

Namjoo turned away from Luhan somewhat afraid that she wouldn’t be able to keep in check with her emotions. They were totally out of her control and it felt that whatever Luhan did next, she’d blindly follow. He was trustable and she could place all of herself into his hands without worry that he would later on betray her. That was how close she felt to him.

“You’ve known me for a long time, haven’t you?” Namjoo asked when she turned back to him.

There was this plead in her heart for him to answer her that almost made her desperate. Part of her was crying for whatever reason she couldn’t grasp and the other half of her was patiently waiting for his answer.  

“Yes,” Luhan quietly replied.

And then the tears inside her flooded freely in sympathy for him. Why had he been there for her for such a long time without her knowledge? Why didn’t he say anything when he ever felt hurt? All of her hurt for him and Namjoo didn’t know where she stood anymore. With Chanyeol’s feelings or with Luhan’s.

>_____<;;

Victoria dried her hands against her pants when she walked toward the door and unlocked it.

“Hi,” Chanyeol broadly greeted.

“Oh…” Victoria found herself saying at the sight of him.

His eyes darted toward the inside of the house, “Is Namjoo in?”

“Um…actually,” Victoria began, but was cut off by the voice behind her.

“I called him,” Namjoo started down the stairs.

“You?” Victoria turned around to frown at her before glancing up the stairs.

Namjoo shot her a tiny smile before grabbing the door, “I’ll be back soon.”

Victoria watched Namjoo walk out with Chanyeol. They didn’t hold hands or grab each other’s arms as they usually would have. Worried she walked into the kitchen to find Chorong diligently cutting some vegetables up.

“Namjoo called Chanyeol,” Victoria told. “Should we be worried or not?”

“Did he look angry?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Then we shouldn’t worry.”

“You think so?” Victoria tilted her head.

“I think….Namjoo should be very confused right now,” Chorong explained. “If Luhan died earlier and she cried as much as you said she did, she’s probably confused about her feelings. And Chanyeol’s also a problem.”

“And talking to him will make it better?” Victoria was honestly confused.

“Not actually,” Chorong told. “Maybe Namjoo’s finally asking for a real break or something. I think both guys understand her to a level where they’ll give in for her.”

“Huh…really?” Victoria asked. “I’m worried Namjoo’s going to get emotionally stressed over this; perhaps more over Luhan. She lost him before and she almost lost him again today. I’m not sure her soul can deal with it after she said it feels like he’s the one she’s been waiting for.”

“We’ll have to wait for the Dream Weaver in order to understand who Namjoo really cares for, don’t we?”

>_____<;;

Chanyeol watched Namjoo walk along the river back and forth while he stood there watching her. He’d been really excited when she’d called him. Honestly, he’d been expecting some kind of reconciliation surprise from her, but Namjoo wasn’t saying anything and he knew she wasn’t going to tell him anything. At least he was able to see her.

“Namjoo, is there…something you want to say to me?” Chanyeol asked stepping toward her.

Namjoo bent down to pick a rock and skipped it across the river before it sunk in. She reached down for another one, but Chanyeol grabbed her wrist to stop her. When she straightened up she couldn’t look him in the eye, he realized. Now why was that? Namjoo barely shied away from him anymore.

“I always thought first experiences were some of the most important to be remembered,” Namjoo said, “but now they don’t really hold meaning for me anymore.”

And she picked up another rock. This time she flung it into the water.

“Remember how you asked me out in high school?” Namjoo asked still not looking at him, but he knew she could feel his eyes on her. “Everything was so special that year, but things quickly become meaningless, especially firsts.”

Chanyeol wasn’t getting a good feeling about this. He wanted to cut her off.

“Namjoo…”

“Did Mi Hee…ever tell you she saw me?”

Chanyeol stilled. He recalled her telling him about a double date and how he’d forced her out after hearing it. Was Namjoo confessing she’d been seeing someone else? He felt his heart jump in fear and panic. There was no chance in the world that he could lose her.

When Namjoo turned to look at him he swerved his eyes toward the road filled with joggers. He couldn’t look at her for the truth she might be telling him. Chanyeol wasn’t ready to let go. Not after 7 long years of knowing her.

Knowing that Mi Hee must have told him Namjoo said, “That person that was with me…is someone very important to me. Chanyeol, I need a break.”

With a burst of anger he turned to her, “A break? Hasn’t that always been a one-sided thing for you!? How can you even think to ask me this!?”

Chanyeol turned away with a quiet grunt when Namjoo continued staring at him with those eyes of hers.

“It’s the first time I’m asking you for this.”

“I can’t stand it how you sway me back and forth like this.” He kicked at the ground. “So what is it that you want? Wasn’t I giving you enough space? You weren’t happy with that?”

“Chanyeol.”

He couldn’t help but bite his lower lip.

“Stop waiting for me to show. I want a break, as in don’t come to see me or call. I want some distance between us right now.”

Chanyeol let out a snort. “For what? To spend time with your important person? Who the hell is he?! How come you’ve never told me about him? This isn’t right, Namjoo. You can’t just go off, act all innocent, and come back to me to tell me this. What do you think we are?!”

He wanted her to get mad and retaliate, but all she did was look sadder and glance at the ground as if he weren’t there at all. It made him all the more angrier.

“I’ll tell you about it when the time is right,” Namjoo looked up at him.

Chanyeol rolled his eyes and turned away. “You never told me anything before. How am I supposed to trust you this time?”  

Namjoo took a step toward him and reached her arm up to touch the back of his neck and slightly leaned against his shoulder before turning to walk away. He hated it even more how it happened. What had gone so wrong? What was it that he’d done that they’d ended up like this?

>_____<;;

Namjoo wanted to dig her face into the window when she rode the taxi back home. She knew it wouldn’t be as painful for her as it would be for Chanyeol and that was why she felt so extremely sorry for him. Chanyeol would have been better off if their paths had never crossed in the first place. He’d always been so kind the moment he approached her in those nerdy glasses of his, and his feelings had always been so overwhelmingly sincere. But she couldn’t concentrate on Luhan if Chanyeol existed at the back of her mind. She wanted to be fair, even when she probably wasn’t being so.

It was just her bad luck that it had happened like this. Her fortune wasn’t good enough that such a thing as happiness was so hard to strive for. Perhaps it would have been easier if she’d met someone simple like Suho. Yes, Chorong may have met someone simple. The ease at the finish line wouldn’t take hurls to achieve.

“Back already?” Chorong asked when she walked in through the kitchen a few minutes later. “Just in time. Food’s just done.”

“So what’d you call Chanyeol out for?” Victoria asked.

“To tell him to stay away.”

Victoria spun around from the kitchen counter where she was preparing the last of the salad.

Namjoo swerved her eyes elsewhere, “I just don’t want him to have to see Luhan during times like these.” Namjoo quieted before going on, “I feel like my feelings are stronger for Luhan and I don’t like how it’s like this. It’s unfair for Chanyeol.”

Chorong comforted her with a pat on the shoulder.

“And sometimes, I don’t know if it’s just what’s in me that misses Luhan or if it’s really me,” Namjoo continued. “When Luhan got hurt earlier, I felt like I lost someone I’ve known for so long when I’ve only known him for a few weeks. Is this the Joseon me or the present me? I feel like I’ve obtained her feelings when we went back in time and I’m starting to get confused now.”

“You are you, Namjoo,” Victoria emphasized. “Come on, don’t think about it. Are you sure you still want to call the Dream Weaver out?”

Namjoo slightly knitted her brows before nodding. Even so, she was desperate to know her and Luhan’s story.

>_____<;;

Victoria went to bed a little nervous. What if sending Namjoo back to the past brought her more pain than she could bear? What if it was nothing like the three of them had thought? And Namjoo’s future would forever be changed because of it? What would she do if it had a negative impact on them all? Was learning about a past life dangerous?

The next day after sending Jin Hyuk off everything seemed slightly normal, except for Kim Daesung who made it to the newspapers. So it seemed that everyone on campus became aware of the crime and Daesung became a gossip. On Friday morning Chorong received a call about her acceptance to the program of Education. She leapt around the house screaming and woke everyone up from their slumber. After congratulating Chorong Victoria sunk into bed for another half hour.

It was at school that she felt like she was being followed. Not in the way that a ghost was following her, but that there was this feeling that told her someone was keeping his eye on her. It started when she first left the house early in the morning. Was there someone following her for whatever reason?

Before leaving her car she stopped to turn around. Her eyes glazed over the colorful cars all crammed together into one space. She saw students leaving their cars and walking with friends, but no one in particular who would be following her. This was strange, very strange, but since she didn’t see anyone there was no use suspecting anything.

Supposing that it was the paranoia she’d conjured after Jin Hyuk’s incident she shrugged it off and headed into the Architecture Hall.

>_____<;;

He was a man of 6’5, fair in width with extra-long legs he’d inherited from his father. Turning away from Victoria’s suspicious eyes he turned around to backtrack through the pictures he’d snapped from morning till now.

Lee Dongsun was a spy under the bureau of the Police Department specifically called on by crime investigator Shim Changmin. His job was to follow the sisters of three different last names and find out if there was anything to be suspicious about; whether they were involved in crime activities or not. Other than that, he hadn’t been given further detail about why he was doing this.

Two hours after developing his photos he walked into the police station armed with the pictures.

“First batch, Victoria Song,” he explained setting the envelope of pictures in front of Changmin. “Nothing strange. Don’t know why you’re tailing the sisters, but I usually like to do my job with a little extra background information, you know?”

Changmin glanced up at him and said, “Police business. It’s confidential.”

With nothing more to say, Lee Dongsun pressed his lips together and turned around to walk away.

>_____<;;

Normal, all too normal. It was just as Lee Dongsun had reported. There was nothing to be suspicious about…yet. He was sure that whatever it was that Victoria knew, he’d be able to uncover soon.

Why Namjoo had been sent to him when Chorong was perhaps out going after Kim Daesung would be forever a mystery if he didn’t get the background information on their little ways. The little tricks that Daesung had spoken of; the lights flickering and the pages of his textbook being flipped repeatedly when it was just the two of them was even stranger. What kind of trick had Chorong pulled? Or had there really been a ghost?

No, Changmin didn’t believe in this supernatural stuff. Ghosts didn’t exist. There was definitely something the three of them were keeping to themselves. Perhaps all of this had a tie to their mother’s death.

The more he thought about it, the more confused he was about why Victoria was so sure her mother’s death was wrongly justified when evidence all suggested so. Since the day the sisters had come to view their mother’s file, he’d kept it fairly well with him. Reports said the knife had their mother’s fingerprints and that seemed fair enough evidence. Plus, no one had been tested to be at the scene of the incident.

So how was Victoria confident about how her mother died?

>_____<;;

Namjoo was first one up that weekend. It had been impossible for her to sleep when she was so anxious about what would happen the next day. She’d pondered over and over in her head about what could have happened between her and Luhan in the Joseon Dynasty. There had to be a strong reason about why Luhan refused to ever speak about it. And all, but the truth would be revealed when she was sent back to relive what had happened.

None of them had ever done it, but Namjoo was willing to give it her all. With her eyes clamped shut in the living room she thougth about her dreams and the Dream Weaver.

“Dream Weaver, please come to me. Hear my voice and come to me,” she muttered the words underneath her breath.

When Chorong let out a loud cry of surprise and fear Namjoo opened her eyes to see someone make his way through the wall. There was an oval forming in the walls making it look soft and gooey as he walked out of it. His royal blue robe ran all the way down his body and over his feet. Little wings fluttered at his back before he turned in his flight and started toward them. His feet barely touched the ground even when he turned to face them.

His large hood was draped over his head so carefully that Namjoo couldn’t see his eyes, but those frail lips that belonged to someone old of age.

“You summoned me?” his voice was fairly quiet and soft, not like what Namjoo had anticipated from someone old like he.

“Where you sent me before,” Namjoo began without hesitation, “can you send me back to the days the before that?”

The Dream Weaver stood flying in spot before her without word or movement, but she could hear his wings beating in motion as each second ticked by.

“It is a dangerous time,” the Dream Weaver warned as if he understood what exactly it was she wanted, “the consequences of what you learn there will come back with you. Will you be able to handle it?”

Namjoo stared at him for a long time as if she might be able to see his face. After a half minute she nodded.

“It is up to your free will when to wake up,” he raised his hands and split them to either side of her head.

Victoria and Chorong watched as a white glow appeared from his hands. As Namjoo’s heart raced anxiously she felt sleep overcome her before her eyes fully closed.   

***Namjoo finally asks for an official break from Chanyeol and so now here we venture into the past.

***And we find out Changmin has someone stalking the sisters /screams