“A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavour by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts.”

-Washington Irving-

Epilogue – Ever After

“You cannot do this. What you have done is unacceptable,” the Leader said, the look of pure discontent peering through his steely gaze, “You have completely misused your power.”

She looked at her toes, her knees shaking like jelly under his scrutinizing gaze. She knew what she did was wrong but she just had to help ‘her’. After all, she was—or is— ‘her’ mother. She could not bear to watch ‘her’ happiness slipped away. ‘He’ was ‘her’ destiny so she thought that it was up to her to make sure that ‘they’ ended up together. She thought that her plan was perfect, until the Leader found out about it and had summoned her to meet with him.

“But I have to do this, Leader,” she pleaded with her eyes, “She is my daughter. I wish for nothing else but her happiness.”

The Leader shook his head disapprovingly, his steely gaze still on her and she felt herself melting, becoming tinier as the time went by. “You’re a guardian angel now,” he bellowed, “You’re supposed to guide, not take matters in your own hands. You cannot re-write destiny. You are not God. You just have to forget that she was your daughter.”

“She is still my daughter!!” she found herself arguing. Her cheeks were flushing with anger.

That was the first time she had shown any emotion in this afterlife. She once thought that she had even forgotten how to feel.

The Leader gave her a look and she found herself unable to meet his eyes so she looked down at her toes. “I know that a mother’s love extends beyond life but—” he paused to sigh, “—but you know that there are boundaries, certain limitations to our power; rules that we have to follow. You know that love can’t be planned. It has to occur naturally. That’s the rule of life.”

She blinked. She knew that she was wrong but she only wanted to help her daughter. She had to do anything in her power to make sure that ‘she’ found ‘him’. She was certain ‘he’ was the one for her daughter.

“But—but—everything went on perfectly!” she argued again, raising her voice to push away the guilt she was feeling. She knew the Leader was responsible for her and was probably getting some torment from others for being so lenient to her. She knew the Leader was fond of her, so fond that he let her become her daughter’s guardian angel. No one else had the chance to guard their families but she was lucky to be given the chance, with the promise that she’d do her job accordingly. She knew he was disappointed with what she had done but she had to persevere. It was for her own daughter’s happiness.

“Can’t you see that if I did not lead her with the dream, he would not even remember her?!! She would be just one of the blurry faces in his mind. If the dream did not happen, she would not have greeted him and nothing would happen to the two of them!” she said in a rush, feeling the desire to make sure that her opinions were heard, “Because of the dream, they are together now. It is her destiny!”

“Destiny?!” the Leader scoffed, his glaring eyes were emitting invisible heat of fury, “Destiny is earned rather than planned, my dear. By your giving her the dream of the future, her destiny would change. You are the one responsible for her change of destiny.”

She blinked back the hot tears that she felt was coming. She felt so helpless in front of the Leader; she had always been.

The Leader let out an inaudible sigh. He looked at her, still looking disappointed. “This is my own fault. I should have listened to the others,” he said with regret, “I should have never let you be her guardian angel. I knew that it would only complicate things. My judgement had failed me.”

“No!” she cried, “It’s not your fault. This is my fault, Leader. Please,” she pleaded with tears in her eyes, “I will try to right things. Please, don’t blame yourself. This is my fault. I got carried away with my emotions.”

The Leader shook his head. “A mother’s love is the truest form of love. God has created us that way. I should have been more careful about that,” he paused to think, “No mother should be blamed for loving her daughter, not even guardian angels.”

It might have been her imagination but she saw how the Leader’s lips curled up to form a slight smile. She did not even know what to think.

“Maybe we can still correct this problem. After all, your daughter is destined to be with him. You had only sped things up a few notches,” he said, “Find Cupid. Maybe he can help. However, I have to tell you that I can’t let you be her guardian angel any longer.”

Without another word, the Leader had gone, leaving her speechless. She just gaped after his retreating back, unable to even utter a single sentence, not believing what she had just heard. She wanted to go down on her knees to thank him for being so considerate. She was lucky that she had gotten him as her leader. Other leaders would not be as supportive.

“Thank you, Leader!” she shouted through the tears of happiness that were running down her pale cheeks. The Leader just gave her a dismissive wave without even looking back.

Without wasting any more time, she went running to find Cupid. She had to save her daughter’s love life before the Leader changed his mind. She found Cupid sitting on a branch of a tree, looking down gleefully at his glass globe—his window to the real world. He was watching over a loving couple that was shown in the globe and he was looking extremely contented that he had set up another pair of lovers.

“Cupid!” she yelled and he nearly fell down from the branch.

Cupid looked disapprovingly at her, holding his bow and arrows close to his chest. “Yah, Park Guardian Angel!” he yelled. He had always been so formal with her. “You nearly gave me a heart attack!”

She rolled her eyes. Spending so much time watching over humans had made Cupid think that he was one of them. As if he could die from a heart attack—he was a cupid for God’s sake!

“I need your help!” she yelled, climbing up the tree to sit beside him on the branch.

“What kind of help?” Cupid looked at her suspiciously, “I won’t set up any lovers if they’re not destined to be with one another. Love is not something to be created.”

“They are destined to be together!” she insisted. She then told the whole story, of how she had made her daughter dream of the future so that ‘she’ would be able to find ‘him’, so that ‘she’ would be brave enough to meet ‘him’.

Cupid began to grin mischievously. “If that is so, what are we waiting for?” he asked, clapping his hands once and the globe began to show her daughter, “Let me help this pair of lovers.”

She peered with interest at the globe, tears streaming down her face when she saw ‘her’ face in the globe. She had missed ‘her’ so much. It was too bad that she had to leave ‘her’ so soon. “Ooh, this is the part where she would meet up with him near the corn stall. I think that the moment when she kisses him will be the perfect time for you to aim your arrow.”

Cupid smiled and nodded. He aimed his magic bow at the globe. “Park Bom and Choi SeungHyun, I command thee to fall in love for ever after.”

She watched with delight as the arrow disappeared through the globe, leaving behind only its trail of magical glitters. She went down from the tree and peered with excitement at the globe which was showing the two of them kissing. Cupid’s arrow had already shown its magic as she could see how ‘he’ was happy that ‘she’ had kissed ‘him’.

“There, it’s all settled,” Cupid clapped with delight, “Another pair of lovers made by yours truly!”

Without even realizing it, hot tears were streaming down her eyes. She hated the fact that although she still possessed raw emotions like humans do, she could not behave like them. She had to push away the emotions so that she could do her job properly. She was no longer human; she had long accepted the fact as hard as it was.

“I need to see her,” she told Cupid in desperation, “I need to let her know that everything is going to be alright. I’m sure that Leader would not let me see her. For the last time, I need to see her.”

Cupid pondered for a while. “To make that happen, you need the power of an Angel,” he said, “Only Angels have the power to go to the real world.”

She bit her lip. She knew that it was impossible to find an Angel to help her. It was against the rule to let Guardian Angels meet with their human counterparts. Guardian Angels could only guard from afar, from their world—they did not possess the power to meet with humans. She hated it that she did not have the power although she was an angel of some sort.

Without another word, she fell down to the ground and sobbed heavily. It hurts to think that she could not meet her daughter any more.

“Now, now, don’t cry Park Guardian Angel,” Cupid said softly, “Don’t you know that I am an Angel too?” She looked up with hope and saw him smiling cheekily, “I’m the Angel of Love if you didn’t know,” he winked.

She could not believe her luck. Cupid had agreed to let her go into the real world. Although she could not touch her daughter nor go near 'her', it was enough for her; as long as she could see 'her' in the real world again for the last time.

That night, when ‘he’ went to ‘her’ house, the moment when their love story would officially begin, she was there standing, watching from afar at the moment of joy. She knew that ‘she’ felt her presence and when ‘she’ smiled at her, she smiled back; her way of letting ‘her’ know that everything would be alright. From the look of bliss on ‘her’ face, she knew that ‘she’ knew what she was trying to convey through her smile.

She was proud that she had raised ‘her’ well. ‘She’ deserved ‘her’ happiness and she was glad that she could make it happen.

It was ‘her’ destiny.

*********************************

Choi SeungHyun is acting weird.

Really, I am not even kidding.

Okay, so maybe weird has been his middle name all along. It would be weird if he is not acting weird but really, today he is on another level of weirdness. It’s like he has gone up a notch on the weird scale.

He is really acting weird.

Like when I called him just now, he was acting as though he was doing a secret mission in the jungle, whispering and such. When I told him to talk louder, he had hung up on me without another word. I tried to call him again but he had switched off his phone. Yesterday when we went out, he was busy looking at his phone and I had seen him whispering to the phone like he was on a secret conversation with someone whom he did not want me to know.

I called MinYoung to confide in her but she too was busy with something so I had nothing else to do but to call the pretty boy.

Just like in my dream, HyunJoong had appeared in my life