Waiting For Your Reincarnation

Yeon-young opened her eyes with a shiver.

 

Trying to hide her confusion, she began to piece together her memories.

 

When she arrived at the office, she found the Divine in the basket that Zhaolin had left behind.

 

After eating the Divine, she felt nauseous and fainted.

 

When she collapsed, she felt an excruciating pain in her stomach, but when she woke up, the pain was gone.

 “Did it just go bad, or is there a side effect of overdosing?” 

Aside from the texture, the taste, the look, the smell. It was definitely divine.

 

Suddenly, Yeon-young noticed that the office landscape looked strange.

 

She quickly stood up and checked her surroundings and noticed that the interior of the office was very large and spacious.

 

She also felt very light, as if she were made of feathers. It was true that eating Divine would restore her strength.

 

Yeon-young looked at the floor calmly. Her vision was strangely low.

 

Just then, there was a knock on Yeon-young’s office door and someone entered.

 

It was Zhaolin, her sunset-colored hair disheveled.

 “She’s huge.” 

Yeon-young stared at her in awe, ten times taller than she was.

 

Zhaolin’s jaw clenched, and she watched as Yeon-young took every bite.

 “Ms. Zhaolin, what did you eat that made you so tall?” 

She wondered if she had eaten the Divine.

 

She didn’t understand what had happened in the center to make her so big.

 

Zhaolin furrowed his brow and looked down at Yeon-young with a look of annoyance.

 

She spoke coldly and bluntly.

 “What is this again?” “Ms. Zhaolin? “Ha… What have you been up to while I was taking care of business…?” 

Zhaolin shook her head, fiddling with her necklace.

 

The necklace glowed intermittently with a bright red light, then faded.

 

Hands on her hips, Zhaolin tapped the desk with her index finger.

 “Very good of you to turn off the receiver. I can’t believe you left a Sly in the office.” “Sly?” 

Zhaolin looked at Yeon-young and said the word sly.

 

Yeon-young looked at her incredulously.

 

The round, curvy shape, the faint glow from inside.

 

A voice that wouldn’t come out no matter how hard she tried.

 

Yeon-young had become a Sly.

 

She froze, unable to hide her shock.

 

Was she finally living up to her mutant name?

 

As she opened her mouth to speak, unable to stop herself, Zhaolin stepped forward and grabbed her.

 

She touched her with her left hand and her necklace with her right.

 “If you come, I will not leave you alone.” 

Clearly misunderstood, Zhaolin opened the teleport with a slight clench of her fist,

and Yeon-young struggled to free himself from her embrace.

 

She didn’t know when her body would return to normal, and once she left the center, it would be difficult to return.

 

But to her horror, Zhaolin insisted.

 “Please stay still. If you move violently and get caught in the teleportation, your form will fly away. I’m going to take you back to the forest, so stay still.” 

It was better to stay in a Sly’s form than to have her body blown away.

 

As the

“half-given-up”

Yeon-Young slowly let go of her body, Zhaolin jumped into the teleportation portal.

 

The room of light disappeared and they emerged in a field in the Forest of Iris.

 

The Slys resting in the field scattered, keeping their distance as soon as they spotted Zhaolin.

 

The horses whinnied, but Zhaolin carefully set them down in the field.

 “You can stay here. The newcomer must have made a mistake earlier.” 

After kindly assuring Yeon-young that it was her mistake, Zhaolin left to do something else.

 

Yeon-young rolled around in the field in disbelief.

 

She lamented the twisted situation.

 “Ming?” 

One by one, the Slys who had been separated from her by Zhaolin gathered around her side.

 

They tried to communicate with her in their language, but she couldn’t make out anything.

 

The Slys rubbed against her body to warm her.

 

One of them even spit out a banana it had stuffed inside.

 

The kindness of the Slys warmed her heart, but she was still disturbed.

 

* * * 

 

‘Reincarnation.’

 

Yeon-young stared at the cloudless blue sky.

 

She’d seen a sky like this once before, in kindergarten.

 

A place where she hadn’t noticed that she had fallen or disappeared.

 

There she stared at the sky until someone came to pick her up.

 

Looking up at the sky, a sky that others would say was blue and beautiful, Yeon-young felt afraid for the first time.

 

She was afraid that the endless expanse was her loneliness.

 

At the end of the day, no one came to pick her up.

 

If she goes through the process like this, what else will happen?

 

She began to feel that she was getting used to the center.

 

Learning the faces of the spirits, opening her abilities, making requests.

 

She was finally getting used to it all.

 

But the thought of living as a Sly was bleak.

 

Yeon-Young rolled across the field again, forgetting to swallow the banana a Sly offered her.

 

She remembered a dream from a past life where she was kissing a man under an iridescent pillar in a vast field.

 

If that wasn’t a dream, then what was it?

 

If she was right, was there anything else she should remember?

 

‘I am thinking about Mr. Ryu Won again.’

 

It was strange that even as Sly, she was still thinking about him.

 

Just then, he heard shuffling footsteps across the field, and soon, someone approached the group of Slys.

 “Excuse me, ma’am. Why are you in there at this time?” 

Mint colored hair, blending in with the field but still standing out.

 

The uninvited visitor was Jung Jaeho.

 

The moment Yeon-young saw him, she frowned, her face puckered.

 

Slys let out a warning scream to keep Jaeho from coming any closer to the field.

 

Their bodies merged, growing in size and intimidation.

 

Jaeho flinched at the Sly’s momentum and backed away slightly.

 

Tiny drops of water floated around Jaeho’s body.

 

The drops scurried in and out of his various pockets.

 “Oh, I guess not. Hey, Kim Yeon-young.” 

Jaeho knew she was a Sly.

 

At the sound of her name, Yeon-young jumped and moved slowly toward Jaeho.

 

But the Slys prevented her from moving any further.

 

Jaeho stared into space, studying her.

 

He had called her name curiously, but he wasn’t even sure if she was here or not.

 “Weren’t you lying when you said you put your palm print here? If you managed to deceive me, what’s the point? I can’t tell the difference.” 

After examining a few Slys with the drip, he gave up looking for Yeon-young.

 

He disappeared again across the field and into the woods, promising to come back with more tools.

 

As Yeon-young thought about Jaeho’s words, she froze.

 

It wasn’t Zhaolin who left the divine behind, it was Jung Jaeho.

 

Yeon-young remembered Ryu Won’s words about being careful with the food Jaeho gave her and she was furious.

 “This is what I deserve.” 

If she couldn’t even get anyone to recognize her new appearance, the chances of her returning to being a Phantom were slim.

 

Everything was ruined.

 

Nothing else occurred to her.

 

She was alone.

 

Maybe she could go back, but for now she would have to look at this sky alone.

 

“You’re like someone who can’t love, and if you’re like that, you’ll always be alone.”

 

She remembered what her ex-boyfriend Woo-jin had said to her one day.

 

His words were like a curse, and on days like this, they always came back like a boomerang.

 

While she was lost in thought, the portal in the field opened again.

 

Remembering Jaeho’s words about bringing back the experimental tools, Yeon-young didn’t move.

 “Yeon-young!” 

A familiar voice called out, leisurely yet urgent.

 

Yeon-young blinked and jumped to her feet.

 

In the distance, she could see Ryu Won standing against a group of Slys.

 

His eyes, as graceful as a swan’s, were fixed on her,

 

and she didn’t say anything, didn’t react.

 

He wouldn’t recognize her anyway.

 

She just stared at him.

 

Ryu Won’s mouth curved into a smooth smile.

 

Like a snake that has caught its prey, he walked towards Yeon-young with a confident stride.

 

His long legs made it obvious that he was approaching at a fairly fast pace, but to her eyes, it seemed slow, as if he was in slow motion.

 

Ryu Won picked her up from the many Slys.

 “Ms. Yeon-young, how did you end up like this?” 

‘Wow.’

 

It was that moment.

 

At the touch of Ryu Won’s hand, her body returned to normal.

 

Yeon-young took a deep breath and examined her body. She couldn’t believe that she was back to normal.

 

He held her in his arms and pecked her wet, plump lower lip.

 “In fairy tales, you have to kiss them to get them back to normal. Why are you always in such a hurry, Yeon-young?” “Thanks for saving me, but how did you know it was me?” 

He tilted his head as if someone had asked him a strange question.

 

His eyes, as clear and pure as the first snow that no one had ever touched, were still fixed on Yeon-young.

 “I don’t know why, Ms. Yeon-young, it’s you.” 

Clouds drifted across the sky.

 

The sunlight was partially blocked by the clouds, but it made her face flush red and hot.

 

At the same time, it felt like someone was squeezing and shaking her heart.

 

She felt like she was alive at that moment.

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