pairing: Jihyo x Mina

summary: A story about a pond, a storm and an obsession with water.

raiting: M (minor mention of ion)

note: pov change after - - -

 

 

 

Even before she had been a child the wall had stood there, tall and unmoving, obscuring the view from nosy schoolkids like herself. Before she could read, the sign had already been there, warning not to climb over the wall and into an area that was "contaminated". Even before she learned what the word meant, it fascinated her.

 

In most things, she liked to follow the rules and listen to the well-meant words of her mother. However, sometimes she graved a good adventure. Especially on beautiful, quiet days when the world was day dreaming about itself.

 

She passed the wall on her way to school, because her secret shortcut followed the path nearby. Except that it didn't make the journey any shorter, just a little bit more fun. On lucky days, she saw small animals go about their lives near the path: rabbits and squirrels, and a variety of different birds.

 

It was a little odd that in a place where the trees grew taller and the animals seemed more comfortable, there was an area contaminated by some unknown chemical. Sometimes she dreamed about the desolate view behind the wall: murky water and dead plants around it, and on some nights, creepy creatures would worm their way out of the water, trying to reach out to her feet that didn't move no matter how hard she ran.

 

Jihyo dropped her school bag on the ground and looked up. The top of the wall was like a grey tooth against the blue of the sky and she knew that even if she could get on top of it, it would tear her skirt and scrape her skin. She pouted and looked down, trying to find another way in.

 

It was clear that the wall had seen better days. It must have been there long before her parents had been born as vines crawled over the eroded structure and tree branches reached out for it like old friends.

 

The wall stood forgotten, but not to her.

 

She picked up her bag again and started walking around the barrier. Here and there the thickets were almost impassible and she wished she had had a large jungle knife that she could wield. The nature was taking back what belonged to it, she thought as an aggressive branch cut her cheek, making her wince from the pain.

 

It was a good thing that she hadn't brought Nayeon with her: the older girl would have whined constantly about her grievances and made the travel so much slower. Nayeon was a good friend and fun company, but a wildlife adventurer she was not. Jeongyeon would have fared better, but recently she had been very careful about her clothes. She wouldn't have dared to walk through the thickets if it threatened to ruin her clothing. If Jeongyeon hated something, it was mess and dirt and ruined things.

 

A flicker of movement stopped her in her tracks and she crouched, trying to hide in case someone else was in the location, not quite sure why she was so afraid of being seen. But from her hiding place she could only see a small bird hopping on the ground, clearly aware that she was around. The bird seemed to glance at her and then took a small hop before disappearing.

 

Jihyo got up and dusted her skirt before moving forward. She reached the spot where the bird had just been and to her amazement there was a hole in the wall. It was small and effectively hidden by a large bush, so that if the bird hadn't stopped her she might not have noticed it at all. She crouched and tried to see what was on the other side, but the greenery was on the way, blocking most of the view.

 

She knelt and pushed her bag through the hole, but not too far away in case she wouldn't be able to squeeze in herself. She looked around to make sure she was still alone and once she was convinced she laid down on the ground and began to crawl.

 

Getting inside was much easier than she had thought. Triumphantly, she got up and brushed her dirty knees and looked around. The world inside the wall was wild yet beautiful. Everything grew where it wanted to yet somehow maintaining some overall order, as if the plants had discussed amongst themselves what to do and where to grow to achieve maximum beauty.

 

But it wasn't the trees and the plants that amazed her as much, but the glimmering pond in the middle of it all. Nowhere else has she seen clearer water, or prettier sand. Why on earth would someone want to hide the place? How could anyone forget that such a place even existed?

 

Entranced, she walked closer to the water and peered in, half-expecting to find trout swimming peacefully near the surface. Instead, there was only water and on the bottom golden sand. She sat down near the waterline and breathed in deep, letting her gaze sweep over the pond. The wall could be seen circling it on all sides and it had been clearly built for the pond in mind. No matter how much she pondered about, it made no sense.

 

Giddy from the fact that she had found something that no one else had, she made herself comfortable and pulled out a book from her schoolbag. Now that she was inside she didn't want to leave, but the fact that she had an exam coming up hadn't gone anywhere. She could study much better in the quiet environment rather than back at home with all of its distractions. She might be even so desperate as to clean her room as long as she didn’t have to study.

 

Clouds drifted by overhead and the sand felt like a pillow under her head. The warmth of the day was just right and her hands grew heavy from keeping the book up. Before she knew it, her eyes closed and the singing of the birds got mixed up with sounds of rushing water.

 

She was in a cave behind a waterfall, her wet hair sticking to her head and face. Did she just come through the curtain of water? The air in the cave was cool and a little stuffy but somewhere behind her a small breeze was blowing in. Shivering, she began walking towards the back of the cave. She knew she was there to find something, or someone.

 

The way was dark and slippery, and more than once she stumbled on little puddles that looked like they could be as deep as the earth under her feet. Something alive was near her, or around her, but she could see nothing but rock and water. The breeze grew stronger and she could feel it on her face, as it blew her hair dry. She was not sure if her eyes were deceiving her, but it seemed like there was light streaming through?

 

"I've been waiting for you," a voice said from behind her and she jumped, a scream dying in as a pair of cool hands came from behind to block her eyes. She heard her own ragged breathing echoing in the tunnel, but the silence between the words was overwhelming.

 

"Come back soon," the voice said and the hands disappeared, falling away from her face like drops of water. When she turned around, the space behind her was empty.

 

The sound of rushing water filled her ears and she started running back to where she had come from but couldn't get far before she dripped and the water ran her over. It was everywhere - in her ears, eyes, nose and soon in her lungs and she couldn't breathe -

 

She woke up as the first rain drop fell down from a grey sky and she found that her feet were ankle deep in the pond.

 

 

-

 

 

That night, as she went to sleep, she tried to think about her exam the next day and not the day's events, but no matter how much she tried it came back to her. She curled her toes, remembering the annoying feeling of wet socks sloshing in her shoes as she got off the sand. Before she had managed to leave the strange place, it had begun to rain and by the time she had gotten home, she had been so wet that she could have been just another rain cloud.

 

Even as her mom scolded her about the state she was in, she kept wondering how she had managed to move in her sleep so much that she had ended up in the water. And why had there been a mark on the sand, as if she had been pulled into the water by her feet? Who had pulled her? Or what?

 

 

-

 

 

She dreamed again.

 

She was in a cold place, with no memories to comfort herself with. The sounds of water came and went, never quite ceasing. At times the water dripped quietly like the last rain of a season just before a dry spell, but then the sound would change and it was like she was under the Niagara Falls, with millions of tons of falling water in her ears.

 

She knew it was a familiar place, but not to her. It was someone else's home, someone else's place of comfort. She didn't know why she knew - she just did. It was like a conversation overheard and suddenly remembered when the smell of water tingled in her nose.

 

"Jihyo," the water said, making her name out of dew drops and ocean waves. It wanted her - to do something, or to own her, she could not tell. She didn't like the feeling, but she couldn't resist it either.

 

"Jihyo," the water repeated, this time with the fall of monsoon and the desperate erosion of ancient rock under rushing water.

 

She woke up in the middle of the night and found a glass of water on the floor. She must have knocked it down in her sleep. For a moment, she thought she saw a pair of eyes in the pool of water on the floor. Then it was gone and replaced by the light of the moon.

 

 

-

 

 

"He's being unfair! He keeps putting stuff in the exam that no one is ever going to need. He must get a kick out of our suffering," Nayeon ranted after an exam, giving Mr. Kim some “feedback.” Math lesson would start any minute and the shadow of Ms. Choi already lingered over the glass room when Jeongyeon opened her books on the row before Nayeon.

 

Jihyo was supposed to listen to Nayeon. It was her duty, because Jeongyeon wasn't very talented at listening. She didn't bother to care about half the things Nayeon said -at least, that was how it looked on the outside.

 

"Yeah," Jihyo said and stared ahead, seeing nothing. She was sure that she could hear water running somewhere. She glanced at a small sink by the side of the door, but nobody was using it. The white porcelain or the tap didn't speak a word.

 

"He must have gotten into teaching just to torment people. He is a bitter ! I bet he hasn't even gotten laid in the last decade..." As Nayeon's words got more colorful, only Jeongyeon managed to roll eyes. Jihyo flashed a smile that didn't reach her eyes.

 

The sound of running water was so far away that she had to really concentrate to hear it at all. It was like putting a seashell to one's ear and trying to hear the waves, two hundred kilometers inland - one couldn't be sure whether it was actually there or whether one’s brain was making them hear things they wanted to hear. She moved the position of her head a little back, just when Ms. Choi entered the classroom. She didn't notice as Nayeon’s mouth clamped shut or how she spun around in her seat, acting like an angel of the highest order.

 

"Good morning, everyone! Let's begin with a little recap..."

 

It was like a tsunami nearing the shore, a mixture of thunder storm and an avalanche but with lots of water. The plumbing system of the building was suddenly pulsing like the veins of a whale. She couldn’t see any of the pipes but she knew exactly where they were. If someone had given her the right tools, she could have pierced the right spot on the wall and the water would have rushed in, washing them all away.

 

"Jihyo," the water sang. She wanted to be carried away with it, to lands unknown. She could go anywhere as a drop of water, she could know all the secrets of the earth.

 

"Jihyo!" How beautiful was the music of water in its many variations. Always different, yet never changing.

 

"Ms. Park!" a demanding voice said and pierced the sound of water until everything fell away. She could not hear the pipes anymore.

 

Jihyo blinked and noticed that she was standing in the classroom, staring right into a wall with her back to the teacher. Slowly, she turned around and could see twenty-three curious pairs of eyes watching her. Ms. Choi looked like she had swallowed an eel.

 

"Ms. Park. If you're prone to sleep walking, I wish you’d sleep at home where your ministrations won't bother your fellow students. Please, sit down."

 

A choir of muffled chuckles made the tips of her ears turn red and she sat down quickly, forcing herself to sit very straight while trying to look unbothered.

 

"What the hell were you doing?" Nayeon hissed as the lesson continued. Jihyo shook her head, unable to come up with any explanation. Even Jeongyeon made a face at her when the teacher couldn’t see.

 

If she was honest, she couldn't quite understand what had just happened.

 

 

-

 

 

After school ended, Jihyo packed her things and said bye to her friends. The sun was high in the sky and she didn't get far until sweat started to roll down her back, making the thick fabric of her school shirt uncomfortable. The hot air around her felt like a solid thing and she wondered if she could lean back while the heat would carry her weight.

 

The semester was nearing its end and the restlessness grew among the pupils. She could feel it too as she forgot how much homework she had just because she watched a flower growing by the side of the pavement. It seemed that studying made less sense than swimming or eating ice-cream in the mall, listening to Nayeon gossiping about crushes and enemies.

 

As the last days of school slipped from her mind, she thought about water. A young man walking past her was carrying a large bottle of water and for a split second she felt an overpowering need to steal it from him. When his shadow fell over her, she reached out and touched the bottom of the bottle with her fingertip so quickly that he didn't notice anything. She lifted the finger close to her face and saw that she had managed to steal a small drop of water from him. She stared into the drop like it had been a ladybug or a flower resting on her hand. She thought she could see something in the water, even as it was crystal clear, distorting the surface of her skin and making the sun glow on its invisible boundaries.

 

When no one saw, she put the finger in and swallowed the drop.

 

 

-

 

 

That night she dreamed that she was in the underwater cave again. Water was dropping from her hair to her skin and she noticed she was wearing a swimsuit. She looked down on herself, wondering when was the last time she had worn it and if it was even possible for it to fit her growing chest. Her figure had changed so much since the early teens that it was like she had been taken away and replaced with another Jihyo.

 

Somewhere behind her, she could hear someone wading through the water, but when she turned around she couldn't see anyone. The sound changed as she turned and seemed to be coming from the front and when she turned again, the sound changed again - whoever it was that was coming to her, was always behind her no matter how fast she moved.

 

"Who are you?" she whispered and the question bounced on the rocky walls like a rabbit running away. The cave could have been full of Jihyos asking the same question as the echo dashed through the water.

 

"The pond," a female voice answered and it came from so close that Jihyo gasped, turning around quickly and backing to the wall so that she could see to both sides at the same time. No one was coming and the sound of wading had disappeared, but where she had just been standing, she could see a face of a girl underwater.

 

She tried to back away, but she was already leaning against the wall and could not move. The girl under water motioned her to come closer and strangely, Jihyo forgot her fear. She went on all fours in the water, so that she could press her face close to the surface. When her lips were almost touching the water, the other girl moved up and kissed her.

 

Where the water and air met, they exchanged kisses that went to Jihyo's head and every tip of her body. She fell deeper into the water so that soon she couldn't breathe, but it wasn’t her biggest concern. While her lungs burned, her lips devoured until the girl disappeared and everything was nothing but water. She tried to push herself back to the surface but realized that she was in the bottom of the ocean and the sun was nothing but a small dot overhead.

 

She woke up to the feeling of suffocation.

 

Her lips were wet and salty, and her bed linen was damp around her thighs. She was already throbbing when she pushed her hand down on herself and came with the sound of waves in her ears, knowing that she didn’t belong to herself anymore.

 

 

-

 

 

"What should we do on our break?" Nayeon asked as they sat in the cafeteria, picking on their meals.

 

"Revise, probably," Jeongyeon said and stuffed salad into while scrolling down on her phone. She managed to look extremely bored even by her own high standards.

 

"You're as fun as a bag of moldy bread," the eldest mocked and glanced at another table before she began to tell a story about one of the guys sitting in the middle. Apparently, he had gotten into some trouble with the police on the weekend.

 

Jihyo hadn't touched her food yet. There was nothing wrong with it, but she felt lethargic and didn't want to move her hand enough to feed herself. Lately, she had often felt tired during the days, like someone was draining all her energy but she could not see who it was and how they did it. She had thought about going to the school's doctor but it was on the other side of the building and her symptoms were a little too abstract. They would just tell her to eat more food with iron and ask her if she was pregnant, like all the doctors did.

 

Nayeon sat on the other side of the table, while Jeongyeon sat by her side. The oldest had gotten one glass of juice and another of water. Jihyo stared at the glass of water and felt thirsty. There seemed to be a desert in - when she swallowed, she could feel a crack on the skin of her lips. She wiped her lips with her tongue, but even the inside of felt as dry as a forest fire.

 

"Are you gonna drink that?" she asked and pointed at the glass in front of her. Before Nayeon could answer, she took the glass and poured the water down .

 

Nayeon said something along the lines of “what the hell are you doing”, but the voice came from far away. She didn't really care, the liquid healed every hurt inside of her. It whispered her name to her and it was the sweetest music she had ever heard.

 

"Are you okay?" Jeongyeon asked, but Jihyo had already gotten up and was walking out of the cafeteria with her plate untouched.

 

Nobody knew where she was going, not even herself.

 

 

-

 

 

Jihyo walked to the wall. It stood there exactly as it had done before, tall and hostile in an otherwise lovely environment. She looked at the sign with its many warnings but it only made her smile - she knew how wrong it was, in fact, the whole wall was a joke. Yet there was no one to laugh at it and a joke that is not shared, is hardly a joke at all.

 

She began to walk by the side of the structure, knowing exactly where to dug and where to jump. She could see the hole in the wall with her mind's eye and she kept it as her compass. Everything around her was quiet, as if the animals were sensing something that she could not.

 

Some minutes later, she found the opening and wasted no time crawling through it. There were no colorful birds in sight, only buzzing insects and a spider rushing through the undergrowth. Nothing in the secret place had changed, yet was the pond slightly smaller than before?

 

She rushed to the sand and took her shoes off. When she had placed her things on the ground, she walked to the water and tipped her toe into the pond. The cool liquid tingled on her skin, but it was pleasant. She looked around, feeling a strange sense of guilt, but as she saw nothing but the wall staring back at her she walked into the water.

 

Her feet made the golden sand twirl, but there was nothing else to see. Nothing grew in the bottom of the water and she could see no fish anywhere. It was like an artificial pond in a new garden - nothing seemed to live in it and therefore its beauty was a little bittersweet and empty. When she had walked nearly to the middle of the pond, she was knee deep - still not deep enough to get her school skirt wet.

 

She held her breath, but nothing happened.

 

She stood in the water for a long time, but no one came. A faint breeze blew her hair to her eyes but she didn't lift her hand to wipe the strands off. She closed her eyes and tried to feel the water around her, like she was one with the element, but even as her feet cooled, the blood in her veins was still warmer than the water. She could feel how separate she was from her surroundings, how alien the water felt and how sad it was to be a human - disconnected from everything, even from other human beings.

 

When a large cloud appeared, and hid the sun like the best magician, Jihyo opened her eyes and tears streamed down her face. She knew something wasn't right, but she couldn’t put it into words. The pond was as empty as it had been the whole time, but she thought she saw movement in the corner of her eye every time she looked somewhere else. It was like there were two ponds, the one where she was in and the other, in a dimension close to her own.

 

She walked out of the water, certain that she had the feelings of two different people mingling inside of her head at the same time. When she lifted her bag from the ground and threw it on her shoulder, she saw writing on the sand. It looked like someone had written it with a stick:

 

HELP ME

 

 

-

 

 

When Jihyo got home, she asked her mother if she knew anything about the pond in the contaminated area. She masked her curiosity using a history assignment as an excuse, but as her mother spoke she could hardly sit still listening.

 

"Pond? I know nothing about a pond. The area was already contaminated when I was a child and I have never seen what's inside."

 

Jihyo bit her lip. It was strange how the place was so unknown even to people who had lived in the town all their lives. Surely, the wall should had been attracting interest from children and teenagers. Was there ever a forbidden place that kids didn't try to trespass?

 

"They’re demolishing the site soon.” Jihyo's father said, suddenly poking his head into the kitchen. He should have been working in his study, but the smell of food must have drawn him downstairs.

 

"What?" Jihyo and her mother said in unison.

 

“It was in the newspaper. A Chinese company has bought the area. They’re going to build a factory there.”

 

Jihyo’s heart hammered in her chest like the warning of drums, as her father explained something about new technologies for purifying water and how cheap the land had been.

 

 

-

 

 

"What's that?" Nayeon said, as Jihyo walked into classroom, carrying a large, brown book with her.

 

"Uh... some local records..." She sat down and put the book on the desk in front of her. She was hoping that she could look at it during the class. It was one of those books that the school's library refused to borrow, but she had managed to take it out of the library as she had explained that she needed it for an assignment. She had promised to bring the book back before the end of the school day and there was not enough breaks for her to read it.

 

"Someone might think you're trying to restart a satanic cult - walking around with your head in the clouds while carrying ancient books with you. Tell us all!" Nayeon said and leaned closer to Jihyo, but the younger girl had already stopped listening to her.

 

"Just because you want to go to the woods and drink cow blood at midnight, doesn't mean Jihyo wants to do that too," Jeongyeon said while going through homework. It worked like magic and Nayeon forgot Jihyo's entire existence as the older girls began to argue heatedly about which of them was a bigger moron.

 

Jihyo sighed. The book was thick and the print inside as small as a spider’s tracks on sand. She leafed through pages after pages and a scent of old dust, that had long stayed still, made itch.

 

She spent the whole hour going through the book, but there wasn’t a single mention of the pond or even of the area, even as the records went as far back as the middle of the 18^th century. It was like someone had wiped the whole place from history and people’s memories.

 

Maybe she had dreamed the whole thing, she thought and closed the book, realizing that it had started to rain outside.

 

 

-

 

 

Jihyo walked under a shower and a stream of hot water rushed over her back, soothing it gently. She pressed her forehead on the wall and saw the face in front of her again. Such a beautiful girl, who was living in her dreams and feeling more real than the people outside of her head lately.

 

"Jihyo."

 

She opened her eyes and pulled back from the wall and saw that she wasn't in the shower anymore. She was back at the pond, but this time there was no wall. When she looked at the horizon, she saw tree-covered hills and the city had disappeared like it had been a strange futuristic dream.

 

"Jihyo."

 

Jihyo turned around to face the source of the voice and found the girl standing there, only a leap away, like she had been summoned with mere thoughts. The stranger was wearing a dress, but even as the wind blew, her hair and clothes didn’t move with it. Her surroundings were like a large moving theatre prop, that looked real but felt slightly off.

 

"I need your help," she said frowning and Jihyo realized that the water around them kept rising steadily, even though there was no sign of where it was coming from.

 

"The next time it rains, go to the pond and fill a bucket with water. Then go to the sea and pour the contents into the water. That is the only way."

 

"I don’t understand," Jihyo whispered, somehow scared to talk out loud. The water was already on their chest level and it felt colder than anything else she had ever felt.

 

"There is not enough time to talk. Come closer."

 

Jihyo did as she was told and when they were face to face, she lifted her hands and held Jihyo's head before giving a small kiss on her cheek. The water swallowed them in a whirlpool, but they hold onto each other and while the embrace lasted, Jihyo could see flashes of another life. The girl’s face came and went in the scenes and Jihyo knew that she was in her memories, but even as she understood everything she could not put the happenings into words. She saw her by the pond, on a grey October after-

 

"Jihyo!"

 

Jihyo opened her eyes in the shower and felt a shiver ran down her spine. She was cold and the skin on her hands had gotten all wrinkly and numb.

 

"The water has been running for 30 minutes. Are you trying to drown us?" it was her mother's voice.

 

"I’m sorry," she said and closed the tap. As she heard her mother's angry, residing steps, she lifted her arms up and hugged herself. No matter how hard she tried, the vision or the girl did not come back.

 

At least, she understood what she needed to do.

 

 

- - -

 

 

Jong-yeol pushed a door open and as soon as it was slightly ajar, the wind took it and banged it against the side of the building. He lifted his arms over his eyes and moved his leg a little to the left to get a better stance. From under his arms he could see the flowerpot near the door -  the wind had already toppled it over, just as he had feared, but thankfully the pot was still unbroken and only a bit of dirt had escaped. With effort, he lifted the pot with both hands and retreated inside, carrying the flowers to the nearest empty table. He was already coughing from the labor as he returned to the door and pulling it with all his might, he managed to bang it shut. After taking a few calming breaths, he turned the sign from “OPEN” to “CLOSED” and watched as the wind blew a plastic bag across the street.

 

“It’s a real monster,” Sung-ho said from inside the bar, watching a small TV screen from under his heavy brows. Jong-yeol walked to his side and watched the whirlpool of bright reds pass over the country as the weather forecaster looked more grave than usual. He reminded about record winds and heavy rainfall while showing pictures of the damage the storm had already done.

 

“They call it Mina,” Sung-ho said and took a sip of his drink. He had been planning to go home earlier, but Jong-yeol had protested, saying that the weather was too bad to be going anywhere. He had easily agreed as they both were lonely men who didn’t mind the company.

 

“Japanese women must be really fierce, since they gave it a Japanese name,” Sung-ho continued, earning a dry huff of amusement from the bar owner.

 

Jong-yeol glanced outside and to his surprise, he could see a figure walking on the street. Even more strange was that the person was carrying a bucket with them, holding it in their arms like a baby.

 

“Isn’t that the Park’s oldest daughter…” he muttered, but before he could continue and ask his friend, the power went out, taking the lights and the TV channels as hostages.

 

Sung-ho began to swear, sounding more excited than annoyed and Jong-yeol forgot the girl outside, already wondering where he had put the only flashlight he owned.

 

 

- - -

 

 

Jihyo walked, staring at a little glimmering light in her green bucket. The wind around her kept throwing things at her, but always missing the target like it was so angry that it could not aim properly. She felt the sheets of water around her, but she didn’t mind them, as lately her life had been nothing but water or longing for water. However, she didn’t have time to appreciate the storm, because the flicker of light in the bucket. It was so alive.

 

Sometimes, she thought it looked like a goldfish swimming around and around in the small space, but other times it looked like a fallen star and the bucket could have been bottomless, continuing deep into the dark earth. The light was close and far away at the same time, tugging at her heart and mind.

 

It wasn’t until she felt sand under her shoes that she lifted her gaze from the light and saw a raging sea in front of her. The waves were larger than she had ever seen and even as her hair was as wet as a mop, the wind was strong enough to slap it on to her face over and over. She couldn’t hear anything but the rolling thunderous sound that was the sea – immediately she recognized it as the sound from her dreams and shivered.

 

Carefully, she walked to the ever-shifting shoreline and when the tip of her shoe touched the sea water, the light in the bucket began to trash around like a bullet with a mind of its own. She hold the bucket harder and took another step forward, but it only made the light more wild.

 

“Shh,” Jihyo whispered, not sure whether she was talking to the light or the waves around her - or herself. Then, as if her words had been heard, the sea around her parted to reveal a path on the sea floor. She looked back and saw that the storm behind her was not showing any sign of fatigue but somehow around her it had died down. She could only hear the wind distantly, it was like the faint echo in a seashell.

 

The ball of light had stopped moving and floated on the surface as if it was trying to see over the rim of the bucket. Jihyo could not recognize any of the previous shapes she had thought she had seen, but she could still feel the life like a warmth on her face.

 

“Do you want to go there?” she asked and waited for a signal, but nothing happened. She looked down the path on the sand and the strange walls of water on each side. The path was about hundred meters long and it ended where the deep waters began. She took one more look at the bucket and when nothing had changed, she started to walk with her gaze fixed on the path.

 

The water around her grew higher and she felt like a small child walking on a meadow where the largest plants reached for the sky high above her own head. She could not see anything in the stormy water even as she expected to see a glimpse of a fish or two, but it was empty except for the rage and power it had borrowed from the wind. It was like the whole world had gotten mad.

 

I’ll never forget this, she thought.

 

Finally, she stopped where the path ended and looked up. In front of her was another wall of water and she could see that it had its roots deep in the sea. She looked down seeing nothing but darkness that was deeper than the deepest blue – it made dry.

 

The light began to trash again, but this time it was so violent that Jihyo had to put the bucket down when her hands lost the strength to fight back. As soon as the bucket was down, it tipped over and all the contents spilled onto the sand right in front of the water. The light flashed like a thunder bolt and Jihyo scattered back, shielding her eyes from the brightness, certain that her life was about to end.

 

Something touched her arm.

 

“Thank you,” said the girl in front of her when she opened her eyes again. It was the light, it was the stranger from her dreams and Jihyo gasped, her whole being flooding with warmth. This time, she was real, tangible and right in front of her. Jihyo moved forward, unable to stop her feet from moving in the wet sand as they answered the silent call that she had been hearing constantly in the past weeks.

 

“I owe you my life,” said the girl with a soft voice that was hardly stronger than the distant murmur of the storm. Jihyo smiled, feeling that she was the one in debt and not the person in front of her. However, she could not express it with words, it was like had been blocked with too much happiness.

 

Jihyo kissed her instead, feeling the warmth fading as soon as their lips touched. The girl was the distant light of a star again and the harder she tried to keep her close, the harder she slipped away like all the previous dreams of her.

 

By the time the girl drew away, Jihyo was already crying.

 

“You must hurry, I cannot hold the sea,” the stranger whispered and pushed her forward. Jihyo stumbled and tried to look back but the girl was gone and the walls of water seemed to waver as if they were about to break. While the sobs raged in , she ran back, the water at her heel and for the first time in weeks she realized the terrible power it could contain. How could she have ever mistaken it for a home?

 

The pond…. the pond… She thought she understood it now, but the idea was too complex and slipped from her terrified mind.

 

The waves crashed down on her just before she reached the shore and she felt the mass of water spin her around for a moment, before spitting her on the sand like a wreckage. The air in her lungs hurt like a poison as it fought with salt water for the dominance of her body. She could not stop crying.

 

 

-

 

 

When Jihyo got home that day, she had lost her ability to speak and fell ill. Her parents could not understand what she had been doing outside during the worst storm in decades that had ripped houses to pieces and killed several people. Even after she got better and could talk again, she could never explain where she had been.

 

The memories of the strange events faded. The only reminder was a dull pain when someone talked about the Mina storm and what it had done. She could not explain why she could not talk or hear about it without bursting into tears.

 

One day when she had fully recovered, she walked past the wall on her way to Nayeon’s house. There was a large crane taking the structure apart and she stood close by for a moment, curious to see what was behind it while her heart jumped loudly in her chest.

 

When the first panel was lifted, she saw a small puddle in the middle of a sand pit between trees and other plants. She was surprised, but unsure why. Hadn’t there been water before?

 

You’ve never even been there so how could you know, she chided herself and walked away.

 

 

-

 

 

30 years later

 

 

Jihyo sighed and took off her reading glasses. She tried to remember the details of the report she had just read, but could only come up with unimportant fragments. The harder she tried to chase her thoughts, the harder they ran away from her and soon she was only thinking about what she would eat for dinner and whether she had watered the flowers on the backyard.

 

She glanced at her watch, it was 5.36 PM.

 

Might as well wrap it up-

 

Jihyo!

 

She stilled, sitting up straight in her chair. She was certain someone had called her name. She got up and moved her head towards the closed door, but couldn’t hear anything out of the ordinary. It was then that she heard that it had begun to rain. It delighted her and she turned towards the windows, seeing how the green of the garden was deepening with each drop of water. She pushed the backdoor open and sniffed at the fresh air outside, feeling the moistness on her skin.

 

Jihyo!

 

There it was again, the voice! She was certain that it was coming from the garden so she stepped on the terrace, feeling water underneath her bare feet. She walked further, but the call wasn’t repeated. She stood in the rain, anxious to hear it again, certain that it was something important, something she had forgotten.

 

“What are you doing?” Came a voice from the doorway and Jihyo spun around like she had been caught doing something naughty.

 

“I- um… was just- -“

 

 

“Showering?” Sana said and laughter shined in her pretty eyes. Jihyo couldn’t help but smile at her, just like she had done almost every day for the last 23 years.

 

“Saves water,” she said and stepped inside, giving her wife a peck on the lips. The cool water tingled on the skin of their lips and Jihyo could feel a familiar stirring of passion inside of her.

 

“Dinner first,” Sana whispered, reading her faster than she could read herself. Jihyo watched as the other woman walked out of the study, before she turned to close the backdoor.

 

Drops of water adorned the window glass and it reminded her of small puddles. She looked at them for a moment, before she also walked out of the study, flicking the light shut and closing the door.

 

She never saw a pair of eyes in the water droplets as they appeared and then disappeared, never to be seen by anyone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A/N: I'm sorry it's been awhile and that this wasn't very shippy. I'll try to update more frequently from now on. *mic drop*