Centuries ago, in a small city:

She held out her hands to receive the first dollops of the morning sun, filtering through the gap between the crimson drapes. Gingerly, she got up and strode to the window to completely part the drapes and let the sun rays dispense into the chamber. It was a sublime morning, with the sun similar to a slice of butter—slightly warm in its melting and savory in its aroma. She looked outside, getting a whiff of the lovely air.

The city was magnificent as always, gleaming underneath the pale blue sky. It was already starting to get full of activity. She watched the people as they shuffled to their own businesses, already busy in their daily activities. As she rested her chin on her two hands, her elbows resting by the window, she thought… it was nice to live in a place like this.

***

Seoul, at present:

She woke up with a slight headache, courtesy of the previous night. As she came to think of it, she could not even remember anything that had happened the night before. Her headache that only seemed to grow stronger as she got up from the bed was the only souvenir. And what a terrible keepsake that was.

She strode towards the window, hoping that a little sunshine would help her feel better. But she regretted that decision as the sun was too bright that day, much too intense such that the sunlight dazzled her eyes, adding more to the already throbbing headache.

With a soft groan, she shut the curtains to prevent even the tiniest ray from taking a peek. Starting with a few tentative steps, she proceeded out of the bedroom and to the kitchen to get herself a nice and warm cup of coffee and a tablet of aspirin.

Joohyun lived in a rather opulent apartment for someone her age. Her lifestyle was equally splendid. She was wealthy enough to last a lifetime without ever having to work.

A lifetime.

She chuckled at her thoughts. A lifetime. People had varying opinions regarding it, some complaining it was too lengthy, too stretched to endure whereas others argued it was too short for one to be able to live it to the fullest.

What if they all had to live several lifetimes like her? Would their opinions change then? 

***

Irene could not remember what drink exactly she had the previous night and how many glasses she had downed. She was used to drinking, being drunk and having hangovers. But the headache that was torturing her today was different, as if it were an enduring punishment to a simple slip-up. Driving to the office would have made her curse the morning rush hour Seoul traffic and all the commuters, and so she wound her way past three blocks from her house to the stop to take a bus instead. Yet walking added to her problems and so she cursed on her shoe.

After 30 minutes of the bus ride, Irene reached her office building, half-dragging herself to the rotating doors and onto the elevator where she jammed the button that indicated her floor. She was vaguely aware of all the other passengers inside the elevator, or even inside the bus earlier, who were looking at her as she was torn between wanting to fume about having such a terrible headache and calming down to try to soothe it.

As the lift reached the 14th-floor landing, Irene huffed, exited with the heads behind her turned to her direction, ambled towards her friend’s desk and plopped herself onto the chair before it.

***

“Three.”

“Three glasses?”

“Three bottles, why?”

“Three freaking bottles?? Seulgi, why didn’t you stop me!?” Irene swatted her friend’s arm as she reprimanded the girl for allowing her to drink more than necessary the previous night.

“Ow!” Seulgi pouted. “After one glass I was ready to haul you home, actually. But you let the bartender keep pouring you a drink! He was trying to flirt with you at first, but after three margaritas, he knew you were done.”

“Okayyy, so, how did you know where I lived? You dropped me off at my house then?”

“What? No, I brought you to my apartment. But when we got there, you insisted on driving yourself home. So I, well, I sorta didn’t have a choice then.”

“Whoa. Wait a minute. I drank lots last night, got to your apartment with you and then drove myself home?” Irene asked indignantly as she was now scratching her head while her friend told her bits of information about what happened the previous night.

“Yup. Is there something wrong?” said friend chided.

“Well, aside from this excruciating headache that won’t go away,” Irene explained, “I can’t remember anything.”

“Naturally!” Seulgi flung her arms into the air, as if insisting on the obvious, “You were pissed, my girl! It’s likely you won’t remember any detail. How about we get ourselves a nice cup of coffee to chase the headache away, hmmm?” She patted her friend’s back and led the way to the office pantry.

Irene considered that it might have been the margarita that was getting into her head, but it was very improbable that her memory would fail her even as she tried to recollect only tiny details. It bothered her that there could be blank spaces unknown. Though she found it hard to dismiss her worries, and the headache, at the moment, she got up to follow Seulgi.

***

“Can we please go through all of it again?”

Seulgi’s jaw dropped as she tried to process her friend’s words. “Come again?”

Irene repeated her request.

“What is with you today? This is just a simple command. You can probably recite the entire Periodic Table of Elements. And you want me to repeat this… this simple instruction for the fourth time?”

“Yes, please,” was the reply, with as much enthusiasm as is necessary when you’re trying to convince someone.

The younger lady gave one brooding stare at her imploring friend for a good fraction of a minute, made up her mind and strolled across the office to open the door. “Ugh, no. I can’t do this with you right now. Not you too! Get out. Go home now.”

“That’s funny. I thought I heard you say ‘Get out’ and ‘Go home.’”

“I did, missy. You can’t be here right now. Obviously you have some sort of a headache and it’s not helping you concentrate. So please, will you just go home and rest?” Seulgi insisted with much conviction than she could have mustered in an ordinary day, but still with a very gentle tone. Irene was her boss. She could not just order the other woman around even in her off days. But this one was proving to be a different and difficult day for Irene, even the other employees thought so. Usually, she was sharp in giving her orders. She was astute in handling even the most precarious of tasks. But today, as some of the employees took turns peeking through her office blinds, they could see Irene staring off into space, forehead creasing, as if rummaging through a chest of her thoughts for something missing. Seulgi had to swat some of them on their backs to stop nosing on other people’s business.

“Alright, hold the fort for me while I’m gone.” With a grateful look at her friend and a heavy sigh, Irene slowly marched out of her office, into the lobby, into the elevator and out of the office building from whence she’d come.

***

In another corner of Seoul…

He was walking along a stony path that wound its way towards the seashore, his determination to reach his target destination never wavering one bit. He just had to reach the shore. Someone was waiting for him there… but who?

As if to answer the question, he spotted a girl as she walked, nay, glided parallel to the sea’s waves rolling onto the shore, the foamy tips of the ocean hugging her feet. It would seem that she was gliding as she was clad in a long, billowy white dress with her hair waving at the back of her head. Though he did not have any inkling as to who the girl was, he had it at the back of his mind to approach her, as if he knew her very well. He did so, not bothering to speed up, even though it was evident she was walking away from him with her back turned, as he knew as well that she was waiting for him. How could he know that? He was not sure.

He was also sure of her name. Joohyun. It popped somewhere in his memory as if it had been there all along. He smiled as he called it out in a whisper, daring the salty wind to carry the sound to the maiden standing beneath the morning sun.

Yet he took his time. He would reach her soon. It was only a matter of moments.

But he was wrong at that. The stony path stretched on, making him start to have a little of that apprehension, like when you are anticipating something but you know it would not come. Impatience started to consume him. He began to jog and then sprint and then run to where the girl was, all the while screaming out her name.

Yet she would not turn around because she would not, or could not, hear him.

Still, the stony path extended such that when he thought he would finally reach her, he would still be a few steps behind.

So near yet so far.

He was already getting very weary of running and yelling, yet he persevered, until finally, finally…

…he woke up.

***

Beads of sweat had already taken shape on his forehead. He urged his eyes to open, albeit tentatively, half-expecting to wake up on a bed of sand. When he was sure he was back on his comfortable bed in his own room inside his own bachelor pad, comfortable was at least an appropriate word even for a split-second.

He’s had the same dream for the past six months. He was always trudging that stone path. Though he still did not reach the end of it, that dream he had before he woke up proved there was some sense of purpose as to why he wanted to reach the shore in the first place.

There was a girl. What was her name again? He forgot. Somewhere in his struggle to place himself onto that king size of a bed and reassure himself that his plight running down that endless trail was merely a dream, he had forgotten the name.

Flummoxed for a few more minutes, he allowed his thoughts to leisurely wander to that place where he was supposed to meet the girl. The girl. He hoped his persistence could pay the price of him remembering her name, but it was futile. With a frustrated and exhausted sigh, he got up and strolled outside the bedroom to try to fix himself some breakfast.