IX. Encounters

“Everything you encounter is your life.”

                                                      
                                                = Kosho Uchiyama

Modern Day Seoul South Korea

Hae Jin stood outside the coffee shop folding her umbrella.  The rain had come suddenly.

She tried to enter the building to keep her shoes and herself from getting any wetter.  She stopped once inside the shop, looking around trying to spot the person she was meeting.

He sat at the back of the shop in a table next to a window and saw her enter the building. Rising from his seat, he walked to where she stood frozen for a minute inside the door, feeling chilled.

“You look cold. We should get you something warm to drink first.” He said as he approached her with a smile. Taking her umbrella and letting her walk to the counter to place an order.

“I’m sorry for making you wait. My bus was late. Probably due to the rain.” She said in an apologetic voice.

“No need to apologize. I enjoy watching the rain.” He gestured towards the table where his drink waited.

They sat next to the window.  Hae Jin sipped her tea trying to gather her thoughts. She was at a loss as to where to start.  None of this felt real yet.

Seeing the exhibit in the gallery, and the images of her life in Goryeo had brought back all her memories and feelings of the past. 

She had thought time travelling was hard.

It was nothing compared to having 10 years of memories rush at you at once. 

Especially when those memories involved tragedies and mistakes made in those 10 years and so many of those memories had copious quantities of regret.

She had arrived in Goryeo trying to learn how to live like Hae Soo and keep everyone from learning about Hae Jin.

Now, she was back to being Hae Jin, but after the gallery she now found Hae Soo’s memories and life super imposed and trying to fit into Hae Jin’s modern life.

Those drawings were intimate portraits of moments she shared with the princes.

She could think of only one person who could find out about those moments in detail. She recognized his drawing style. The answer led to Prince Baek-Ah.

The memories regained at the gallery  had shifted  her reality violently again.

She no longer just had concerns about getting back to work and reestablishing relationships with friends and family. Living a life every modern person experienced.

She had lived a life as Hae Jin before Goryeo, broken by love and friendships.

Her second life had started in Goryeo as Hae Soo.

She had learned about love that was strong enough to withstand betrayal and attack on all fronts. The word friendship had acquired new meanings.

She had started her third life as Hae Jin, after a year in a coma. Returning to work, starting a life after drowning.

Today, she began a fourth life.  She was now Hae Jin and carried Hae Soo’s experiences and memories. She was a time traveler. 

It seemed the unexpected encounters in her life were starting again.  These encounters defied logic, and the laws of Physics.

She should not be having these encounters. Meeting them again and again…but here she was.

How deeply her life had just changed would be determined from this meeting.

She stopped gazing into her tea cup and looked outside the window.

The rain left drops clinging to the large window, sliding off slowly as they hit the glass.

Leaving traces of their path as they slid into their inevitable fall, pulled by gravity. She used her finger to trace their path.

She felt just as fractured and fragile as those drops clinging to the glass.

She only had one certainty now.

She would not be swept away by circumstances, just waiting for each day to unfold for her the way she had done in Goryeo.

King Taejo had advised her to close her eyes when things became too much to bear. Do nothing. Be a witness.

She couldn't be just a witness anymore, always afraid of changing history.

She would not follow that path again.

She would not think so much about consequences anymore. 

She understood now, that forces were at work that where beyond her control anymore or full understanding.

This was the modern world. Her world. 

She had the home court advantage this time.

This time she would be an active participant not just an observer.

He sat watching the wheels turning in her head.  

Determination filled her eyes. 

Sensing her discomfort, he spoke first. “This has come upon you suddenly. You must still be trying to make sense of it.”

She looked at him trying to read his thoughts. Not satisfied with what she read there. 

Questions flooded her mind one on top of the other. She couldn’t stop them from filling her head and didn’t know where to begin.

Why am I travelling back here?

And you?

Why are you here?

Is anyone else travelling too?

Why is this happening?

Breaking the silence, looking at her, he said, “What is it you are trying to ask me?”

Finally, with mounting frustration, she asked, “Who are you?”