じゆみよう：むげん

(Jyumyou: Mugen)

 

 

You can never get enough of the sight of the bustling streets of Seoul, be it businessmen rushing to work, students trying their best to get to school on time, couples lovingly walking on their dates or even normal citizens going on their everyday lives. No matter how many times you look at it, they are all trying to live their life to the fullest.

 

We never know when our lives end; every single day, we try to go through it with the best we’ve got. But, what if you can find out the lifespans of other people?

 

Well, that is what makes Hwang Yerin special. You’d think that she could see from the eyes or by reading their palm, but that’s not the case.

 

“Hey, Yerin, how ‘bout that guy?” asked Maerin - a close friend of Yerin - for the umpteenth time.

 

“Are you serious?” The annoyed girl replied, not liking the disturbance. All she wanted to do was read her Harry Potter book.

 

“You only have to look above their heads, right? It won’t take any of your energy~” Her friend pleaded, tugging on the white coat Yerin was wearing.

 

Yes, dear Yerin can see people’s lifespans over their heads. The number of days left for the person would appear above them like a halo. Once there is only 1 day to live, the numbers would turn red. The big problem is that she cannot control whether she’d want to see it or not. It’s just there.

 

“2 days,” Yerin answered shortly after lowering down her glasses and taking a peek at a random person across the street who looked like he was on his way back to his house.

 

One of the things she hated about having this ability was that she had to deal with knowing the people who only had a few days left till they passed. Luckily, she found a way to avoid as much as she can from seeing the numbers. Yerin found out that wearing her thick-rimmed glasses somehow helped in making the numbers disappear.

 

“Dang, must be hard on him,” commented Maerin, crossing her arms as she thought of the possibilities for that person to die.

 

“Why are we here again, Mae?” asked Yerin. She had lost all focus she had on finishing her book.

 

“Oh, we’re here to meet Hyunmi,” the brown-haired girl replied, “We’re gonna accompany her on her date with her lovey-dovey Woohyunie,” she continued, emphasising on the ‘lovey dovey’ just like how their friend, Hyunmi, described him.

 

“Aren’t you just taking this opportunity to go on a double date with your sweetie pie Taemin-ah?” Yerin teased back, also emphasising on the ‘sweetie pie’ as how her friend would always call him. If she could remember correctly, Hyunmi had proposed this idea to Maerin a while ago and somehow, Yerin was caught in it too. So now, she has to follow her two friends on double dates with their boyfriends. Ah, what a lovely single life she’s living.

 

“Don’t be like that, Yerin~” Maerin said, patting her back, “Who knows, maybe you’ll find your handsome soulmate there~” holding on her friend’s arm, the girl rubbed her face on her shoulder to try and persuade Yerin to not feel left out, “You know I’ll never betray you~”

 

“Who’s betraying who?” A voice called out from behind. And as Yerin expected, as soon as Maerin turned her back and spotted her boyfriend, she immediately left her side and linked hands with Taemin.

 

“I’m not betraying you, honey~” Replied the girlfriend.

 

So much for never betraying, Yerin thought jokingly. She was never one to care about getting a boyfriend and whatnot, so she was never bothered with her circle of friends being in relationships.

 

Having a partner, how does that feel like? That was the question that she’d ask every time she would see her friends with their respective other.

 

Yerin shook the thought off and turned her attention to the, now two, couples in front of her, “So where are we going again?”

 

Two couples who were obviously in their own circle of love to take notice of her.

 

---

 

Sounds of rollercoaster riders screaming their lungs out, children shouting in joy from being on their favourite rides, and people chatting and having fun, surrounded Yerin.

 

It’s been quite a while since she’s been to the amusement park. The last time she’d been here was when she was out with her parents. And that was years ago. The environment of the park somehow was calming, with soft breezes occasionally blowing every now and then. And with spring coming, the theme park was beginning to fill up with people.

 

Taking a bite out of her cotton candy, Yerin waited for her friends on a bench near the ‘Love Tunnel’ ride which the couples insisted on riding. Well, who honestly wouldn’t when they’re out with their girlfriends or boyfriends.

 

As she let the sweet melt in , she began stretching out her legs out in front of her and leaned back further over the bench. That was when she realised that her was half on the bench and half in the air. Yerin began losing balance and was almost falling off the bench. As soon as she felt like she managed to save herself, her outstretched feet was hit by something, or someone, and she immediately fell.

 

Yerin’s face was already laying flat on the soil when she realised that she had slipped off the bench. When she was trying to gain composure and lift herself up, she could hear a grunt coming from her right side. She tried to get off the ground as quickly as she could that a person had probably tripped because of her feet.

 

Brushing off the dirt from her now soiled coat, instantly apologised to the fallen person. Or rather, she would call him a fallen angel.

 

Even though his nose was red, probably from the fall, the visuals that this guy in front of Yerin was enough to leave her in awe. And not to mention, he was hella tall.

 

“Ah,” the deep-voiced person voiced out, “what happened?” he asked, rubbing his, now sore, jaw.

 

“Y-you tripped,” Yerin fumbled, too dazed out to talk properly. Wow Yerin, this is the first time you’ve seen a beauty like this and you’re still messing this up. She scolded herself.

 

It was when she was shifting her eyes to his dark maroon hair that she noticed that her glasses were not on her face. Not only she could see how long this guy had left, but what she saw confused the hell out of her.

 

He had an infinity sign above him.

 

“What the ?” She blurted out in confusion.

 

“Excuse me?” the tall boy asked, a bit offended as he thought that there was something wrong with him.

 

“O-oh,” Yerin replied, realizing that she had said her mind out loud, “It’s nothing. You just got, um, something on your cheek,” she continued, using a patch of dirt stuck on the poor guy’s cheek as an excuse.

 

The boy immediately tried to check if there was really something on his but kept missing the mark. He kept asking if it was here, here, here or there, and still, it was clinging on his skin. Yerin, being annoyed by the constant questions, approached the tall stranger in front of her and offered to clean it up for him - to which he obliged.

 

With a tissue pulled out from her left pocket, she wrapped it around her finger and gently smudged the dirt off. She couldn’t ignore the fact that this boy’s cheek was softer than anything she has ever felt.

 

“Oh hoh hoh, what do we have here?” Yerin shut her eyes in embarrassment as a familiar voice called out from behind. Her friends were back from making out the ride.

 

Maerin hopped over towards the pair and scanned the stranger in front of her for a second before turning back to Yerin, “So,” she started, “Who’s this tall fella here?”

 

“Oh, aren’t you Chanyeol?” Taemin asked. It’s been quite a while since he’s seen Chanyeol, but that height and Yoda ears hinted that it was Park Chanyeol, Taemin’s high school senior.

 

“Taemin?” Chanyeol questioned in response, “Ay man! Long time no see!” the tall boy slipped through the two girls in front of him and headed towards Taemin, wrapping his arms around the boy. Maerin couldn’t help but laugh from the obvious height and size difference of the two guys in front of her.

 

“This is my girlfriend, Maerin, and this is her friend, whom you have met just now, Yerin,” Taemin introduced Chanyeol to the girls in front of them. As Chanyeol was about to shake hands with Maerin, Taemin stopped him, “Nuh-uh, don’t touch my girlfriend,” he jokingly warned.

 

Yerin stepped forward after Maerin and Chanyeol exchanged greetings and put out her hand, “Nice to meet you, Chanyeol,” she greeted as he took her hand. Well damn, he has huge hands.

 

“Nice to meet you, Yerin,” He greeted back, giving her a small smile which she swore made her swoon over him even more, “Since you’re all Taemin’s friends, I guess we’ll be seeing each other often,” he added.

 

He threw a glance at Yerin which probably meant, ‘I can’t wait to see you more’.

 

“Oh by the way, where’s Woohyun and HyunMi?”

 

“Crap, we left them on the ride!”

 

---

 

For two weeks, Yerin has been trying to think of the reason why Chanyeol had an infinity symbol above his head. And in the span of those two weeks, she has ‘accidentally’ met the said boy 20 times. She purposely let her glasses slide down every time to see if there was any changes to the symbol, there were none.

 

“Oh, if it isn’t Yerin!”

 

Make that, 21 times in two weeks.

 

“Chanyeol!” she responded, trying to sound as joyful as she could, “What are you doing here?” He’s been here for two weeks, why are you asking him what he’s doing here, idiot!

 

“To get some coffee for my sister, again,” he commented. After he ordered, he sat down in front of Yerin and began talking about how the coffee in the cafe was great. She was sure this was his 4th time he mentioned it every time they met at Oh Cafe.

 

Yerin continued to scribble down any connections on the numbers she’d seen over other people’s heads. It still didn’t make sense. The numbers weren’t supposed to be linked to another stranger. She already told this to Maerin and HyunMi but they too have no clue on what’s going on. She would’ve asked about it to her parents since these sights were hereditary, but all they told her was it’s a gift that skips one generation, so her parents never experienced any of this.

 

Unless…

 

“Oh my God!” Yerin exclaimed, clutching her head.

 

With her sudden voice, both Chanyeol and the waitress who was bringing the ordered coffee, jumped in surprise. The confused boy instantly rose from his seat and leaned over towards Yerin. What was it that made the girl in front of him shout.

 

“Are you okay?” asked the waitress as she put the drink down.

 

“Yes, I’m okay, Hana,” Yerin reassured, flustered from her sudden outburst, “Just realised something.” added the girl.

 

The waitress, Park Hana, as said on her name tag, nodded hesitantly and slowly backed away dding hesitantly and walking back slowly after asking once more if she was really okay.

 

“What happened?” questioned the blond-haired boy named Oh Sehun to Hana.

 

“Nah, nothing,” replied the waitress.

 

Yerin could hear the conversation between the two part-timers of the cafe. How embarrassing she felt, and this was the second time she did it in front of Chanyeol.

 

As the tall boy fussed about on whether she got a cut or she wasn’t feeling well or if there was a cockroach under the table, Yerin went back to her train of thoughts as she tried to calm down Chanyeol.

 

The one explanation she could come up from this was that she had the whole ‘Numbers that determine how much time a person has left’ wrong. If she misunderstood the ability that she has, she needs to find a way to see what the abilities are all about.

 

---

 

And that was why, on a Saturday afternoon, Chanyeol and Yerin were found tagging along on Maerin and Taemin’s date. Well, it was not exactly tagging along. It was more like ‘I need to find out something so allow me to secretly follow people around’.

 

The reason why Chanyeol was the one accompanying her instead of her friends was because he was the first person in front of her that she saw and knew when she actually thought of the idea. Weirdly, he didn’t question anything. But as a safety measure and to lessen any sort of suspicion, she told him that she was bored and wanted to see what were her friends doing.

 

As the first observation, she chose to observe the couple because she believed that more people equals to more data. Also, since the couple were connected through a love relationship, she figured that the numbers would be affected by each other. With her doubts on her abilities, she threw away all information she previously had about it and decided to start afresh.

 

“So, what are we doing again?” Chanyeol asked, his voice a bit too loud, causing Yerin to hush him, “Are we just gonna follow them?”

 

“W-well, yeah,” Yerin stuttered, as she noted down the numbers above her friends’ head. Considering that these numbers had nothing to do with how many days left for them to live, she managed to overcome her fear of seeing the numbers, “I’m just curious at what they always do during their dates.”

 

Everything was going as per normal with no change in the numbers.

 

Until the moment Maerin pecked Taemin at the end of their date.

 

Yerin stared at her own notes, not believing what she just witnessed. At the end of the day, Chanyeol had walked her back to her house. All she had in her mind was the change in the numbers above her friends’ heads.

 

Not only did it increased, it went several numbers up. That wouldn’t make any sense. Now, the numbers were on the same level.

 

The only thing that she could think of was that the numbers would have something to do with their relationship since they increased at the same time and are now on the same level.

 

---

 

Chanyeol: Hey, are we going out again today?

 

Yerin: Do you want to?

 

Chanyeol: I’m okay with anything. Got nothin to do anyway.

 

Yerin: See you tomorrow then.

 

Chanyeol: Okay :) Sleep tight~

 

Yerin exited her Line after chatting with Chanyeol. This would be the 30th day they had gone out to just hang out. After a month, she had gotten accustomed to his presence that she would feel awkward without the tall boy beside her. Sure, Yerin was hanging out with him because of her need to investigate her abilities, even if she didn’t tell him about it, but she felt that being in his presence was comfortable.

 

Well, it was love at first sight anyway. Because his appearance, his voice, his height was enough to make her melt. But even if she had a huge crush on him, it didn’t make her feel all shy and awkward around him like the type you see in those K-Dramas. Instead, it was very comforting.

 

Anyway, enough of those lovey dovey thoughts, Yerin managed to collect enough data to see a pattern in the numbers. The patterns were most apparent when couples were involved. When they fight, the numbers go down, when they had a good date, the numbers went up.

 

So, technically, if she deduced this correctly, the numbers has something to do with the love relationship of couples.

 

But, this still doesn’t explain the infinity symbol that she had seen above Chanyeol’s head. For all she knew, he’s not in a love relationship nor does he omit any sort of indication he has a crush on anyone at the current moment.

 

She just couldn’t wrap her head around the Chanyeol situation.

 

---

 

Park Chanyeol was never one to peek at anyone’s work, but for the past month, he was very curious on what the girl he’s been hanging out with kept writing in that little notebook of hers.

 

The first time he snuck a glance, he could only see scribbles and numbers above circles. Before he could get another glimpse, Yerin had already closed her book.

 

So, now, with Yerin in the bathroom, he found a chance for him to find out what was in her book as she left the notebook on the table they were sitting on.

 

The first page was just random scribbles. But as he flipped through the pages, more detailed notes were written. It almost looked like a full research project.

 

He couldn’t help but smile.

 

Before he could turn to the next page, the book was snatched away.

 

“What do you think you’re doing?!” warned Yerin, her face red out of anger and probably embarrassment.

 

Hwang Yerin really does not like it when people sneakily try to see what she was doing. If they wanted to know, she’d really prefer they ask first. Even if they were her best friends, she’d still won’t be happy if they blatantly read whatever she was working on. And to add to that, he was reading from a book she’d consider a very personal book.

 

“I’m asking again, what the hell were you doing,” she interrogated again. Chanyeol, with a smile on his face, was standing in front of her like he’d done nothing wrong.

 

“That’s some interesting stuff you-” he tried to jokingly say.

 

“Who gave you the right to read this?!” Yerin was fuming. She’d expect an excuse or at least an apology from the boy.

 

Chanyeol, having a slightly short temper, began being annoyed by her. Wow, talk about hot-tempered.

 

“I wanted to read it, why are you so defensive over it?!” he retaliated, his voice a bit louder than before. By that time, the pair had caught attention of the other customers beside them.

 

“Why is what I consider personal any of your problem?!” she talked back. Why is he so persistent on what he did wrong?

 

“Because I wanted to know what you were doing all the time we were out together.” answered Chanyeol, “Is that so wrong?!”

 

“Yes it is!”

 

“How?!”

 

“You could’ve asked me.”

 

“I wanted to see your progress!” Chanyeol blurted out.

 

“How do you even know what all of this means?!” Yerin was in heat of the argument. She couldn’t think straight anymore that she didn’t care what the people around her were thinking. All she wants was some sort of clarification.

 

“Because I’m your soulmate!” answered the tall boy. , I wasn’t supposed to say that.

 

“What?” Yerin was taken aback. What did he mean by soulmate? And what did he mean by progress? What does he know about this that she doesn’t know? “Why are you even my soulmate? That doesn’t make sense.”

 

A flicker.

 

The infinity symbol on top of Chanyeol’s head was flickering. It was… changing to numbers.

 

Chanyeol pushed his bangs back, frustrated at himself for blurting it out…

 

 

Confused that the infinity symbol above Yerin was flickering.

 

---

 

Chanyeol: Hey, can we meet up?

Chanyeol: Please?

Chanyeol: We need to talk.

Chanyeol: I have something to confess

 

---

 

It took Yerin 2 days to actually cool off and think about what the boy had said during their argument. She still couldn’t grasp the whole soulmate concept and what he meant about progress. Sure, she liked him, and that would’ve meant that he liked her too. Just the thought of him liking her back was nice and all, but if it’s because he was bound by this whole soulmate thing, she didn’t want that. He was right, they really needed to talk. And that was why she agreed to meet up with the tall boy at the park.

 

“What is it that you wanted to explain?” was the first thing Yerin asked as she met Chanyeol.

 

“Firstly, I’m very sorry to have looked at your book. I heard from your friends that it was a very personal kind of book and I’m sorry that someone like me, who you’ve only known for, what, 2 months?” he clarified and apologised.

 

The more Yerin looked at him, the more she realised that she couldn’t stay mad at this man. She was still pissed but to stay as mad as she was before? Impossible. As Chanyeol lifted his head up, Yerin noticed that the infinity symbol above his above had changed to numbers, although they definitely increased a bit when he apologised.

 

“Apology accepted for now,” she replied, not wanting to him to think that it was so easy to be apologised by her, “Now explain.”

 

“To start off, yes, I can also see these ‘numbers’ above people’s heads,” was the first thing he admitted. It surprised Yerin that there was another person who had the same ability as her, “At first I didn’t understand what it was all about.

 

“So, I asked my grandmother about this. And I guess this is the thing that you didn’t know about this ability,” Chanyeol said, waiting for Yerin to nod in confirmation, “What you see above people’s heads are not their lifespans or how many days or hours or minutes they have to live, but rather, it’s their ‘love’span.

 

“It’s the number of years the person has left in the relationship. More like it’s how many years they are able to truly love each other. Each person, though, has a limit as everyone has to die someday too. Therefore, you’ve never seen any infinity symbols on anyone before this.”

 

“What’s this about soulmates though?” questioned Yerin, still trying to process the fact that her whole perception of the ability was wrong.

 

“The reason I know that you’re my soulmate was that you, too, had an infinity symbol on top of your head. The person who can see the numbers will see their significant with this symbol because the ability is not able to determine how long each of them will be able to live. It’s just the flaw of this gift.”

 

“So, basically if I didn’t have this infinity symbol, you wouldn’t even try to approach me?” Yerin scoffed. No way he’d even look at me if I didn’t have this, right? she thought to herself. She must have realised how much she had grown to like Chanyeol that it kind of hurt that he would probably like her because the ability showed that she’s his soulmate.

 

“No no no,” the boy denied, approaching the girl who was obviously upset, “It’s not like that.”

 

“I like you, Chanyeol, even before this whole soulmate thing,” the words were rolling off her tongue without her noticing it. She should stop herself but she couldn’t, “You only think you like me because the power showed me as your soulmate, right?”

 

“No, no,” he tried to hush her.

 

“Then what?”

 

“I like you, Hwang Yerin, from the bottom of my heart,” he confessed, hugging the girl as he was trying to prove to her what he was feeling for her was real, “This is the confession that I wanted you to hear.”

“Even if this whole soulmate thing wasn’t there, I’d still like you. Even if it wasn’t there, I’d still hang out with you after our encounter at the amusement park. Besides, you’re pretty, why wouldn’t I?” he added.

 

“Wow, Park Chanyeol, that was very sincere,” Yerin said, burying her head deeper into his chest as she hit him softly.

 

“I like you, Yerin, do you like me?”

 

“Yes I do.”

 

With or without her abilities, she was glad that she met Chanyeol. She finally knew what it meant to really like someone. Never mind seeing people’s lifespan, as long as she has him, she wouldn’t care about anyone’s love life. Because as of now, she’ll take that her relationship with this man is going to be infinite.

 

As the two characters hugged, little did they noticed that the numbers above their heads turned to infinity again

 

FIN