I've been lost, trying to find something from a past I wasn't aware about. Trying to make sense of how my life came to this point⊠~ Florence Joyce
xxxxxx
If Sari was going to be honest, she had only known this so-called "gift" to be a curse. All her life, she had to do her best to keep her ability a secret. But she didn't mind if it was discovered in some way.
Or at least, she thought of it that way at one point.
Sarina sighed as she looked around the compound where a big Greek-style building stood proudly. She knew she'd be working there next week. And yet, she still had a hard time trying to settle her thoughts.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath through her nose before continuing to look at the campus ground. This place reminded her of what she once dreamed she could experience before her father's disappearance changed everything. But she wasn't going to blame him for what happened. For what she chose to give up for her to know the truth.
Not after everything that happened. Sarina wanted to know why her father's disappearance led her to this town, but she also just couldn't imagine anyone taking him away from her. Not as mysterious as that.
When she turned to a certain direction, she finally saw familiar figures coming towards her.
Sarina smiled as a young man and two young women approached her. The three of them were smiling back. And she couldn't stop herself, even though she felt something was wrong.
"It took you a while to get here," the young man said with a smirk.
Instead of replying to Rein's words, she chose to hug both Sejin and Isona first without losing that smile on her face. Well, it seemed he didn't mind that she chose to do that first. After all, it had been a long time since she last saw any of them.
"I thought you would never arrive here," Isona, the one who never really remove her headphone from her head, said with a pout after hugging Sarina.
"If I didn't arrive here, I don't think you'd even want to be my friend anymore."
"It's a good thing you know that. Then again, I'm sure Rein would scour every town just to look for you and drag you here to be with us," Sejin, possibly the prettiest out of the three of them, responded as she ruffled Sarina's hair.
She didn't mind Sejin doing that, though. It was one of her signature gestures towards her friends.
Rein was my childhood friend and possibly the only male friend that Sarina had in my life ăŒ other than her father, of course. While Sejin and Isona were the friends she made during middle school and high school respectively. She never associated herself with so many people ever since, even when people were "required" to be a part of a clique during her school days.
And that was why Sarina had been truly grateful to have these three as her friends even after she chose to isolate herself from them ăŒ not completely ăŒ when her father went missing. But that was five years ago. She haven't had any success in locating him or even knowing if he was okay or still alive.
Her friends never let her deal with the mental stress alone. Though they couldn't go to where she was at the time, phone calls and video calls made it possible for them to know how she was feeling all those times she had to give up a lot of things just to figure out what happened to her missing father.
Now, one of the clues that Sarina found had led her to the town of Huijin. The town where her parents' love story started and bloomed.
The town that she was standing at.
"But honestly, what are you all doing here?" Sarina asked when she finally gathered her thoughts to talk to her friends.
"We would be working here, of course."
Without a doubt, it shocked her to hear Isona say that. "Work here? What are you talking about? But you guys were already working at your respective parents' companies, right? What kind of craziness are you thinking for doing that?"
"Don't think of it as craziness. We're doing this with their permission. And besides, we're not going to let you stay here all by yourself."
"Sejin..."
"Sari, don't worry. We already talked about this since last year, even before you told us that you'd come back here."
She could only sigh at Rein's words. And from the way he called her by her nickname, she knew he was serious.
"And we're also going to help you find out everything about your father while you're here. We also want to know what happened to him all this time that he disappeared."
Sarina could only look at Sejin when she said those words. It still felt amazing to hear her friends say something comforting to her face to face. Why did she even decide to isolate herself from them back then?
"Thank you. I really appreciate it," she said and even bowed to them.
Isona placed her hand around Sarina's shoulders and pulled her closer. "And now that we're together again, I think we should celebrate, right? It's been a long time since we've done that."
"You mean, for old time's sake?"
"Why are you saying those words like an old person, Sejin?"
Sarina burst out laughing as soon as Rein asked that question with a frown and annoyance. For goodness' sake, it had been a long time since someone made her laugh personally like this.
"Let's just enjoy that celebration for old times' sake before school works start driving us crazy before we know it."
Sarina just might needed that celebration. At least, that was what she thought when she accepted it. Whatever her reasons were for doing so, she didn't care at the moment.
xxxxxx
All four of them left the campus ground, the smile on their faces remained. Though their presence calmed Sarina's restless heart somehow, she tried her best not look at anyone's eyes as she went along with her friends' plan.
"You're wearing your glasses. I don't think there's any reason for you to worry that you'd see something strange as we walk."
She faced Rein with a smile, but the worry on her face remained. "I still owe you these glasses, by the way. And it did help me a lot over the years."
"But even when Rein said that its chances for preventing you from using your ability inadvertently is low, it still worked. Did you ask someone to enchant it or something?"
Rein nodded in response to Sejin's question. "I asked the family shaman to help me with that."
"Well, she's a powerful shaman, if you ask me."
"That's because she was aware of the ability that Sari has and what it could do to her."
"By the way, do you already have a clue about the woman that appeared in your dreams all the time?"
That was when Sarina halted to a stop. Not long after, the others did the same and faced her.
"Sari? Are you okay?"
She took a deep breath before facing them. "That's also one reason why I decided to go back here."
Even with the frown that etched her friends' faces, she continued.
"I learned that the woman in my dreams once lived in this town a long time ago. And after all this time, she was still looking for someone. That's why she was restless."
Call her crazy for saying that, but she knew what she saw. And she had a feeling that her father knew about it. But how?
"Well, whatever her reasons, the only possibility I could think of is that she wanted you to help her."
"But I don't even have a slightest idea of what she wants and what she was looking for. Her smile always looked sad whenever I'd see her in my dreams."
"Sari..." Rein called out, making her face him. "Have you ever seen that woman in other's eyes when you'd end up looking at them?"
But Sarina's answer was an immediate 'no'. She was sure of it.
When they reached a corner, she frowned at the sight of people gathered in one place near the coffee shop that they were supposed to go to.
"What's going on?" Isona asked.
But she just shrugged. She only arrived there, so there could be some event that she wasn't aware of.
Only... it wasn't a good event. Her eyes widened at the sight of a man lying on the ground as soon as she was able to approach the crowd and find some space to slip through.
'Is he dead?'
A young man wearing a leather jacket, black jeans and boots was lying face down on the ground, surrounded in a pool of blood. And in broad daylight.
"This doesn't usually happen around here, right?" Okay, it might be a silly question to ask at the moment. But Sarina couldn't help it. When was the last time she had ever seen something like this in her life?
"Sari..."
She turned to the direction of that voice and found Sejin looking at her in concern. She knew that look. All she did was to give a reassuring smile to her friend before casting one last glance at the scene and left there.
"Sorry about that," she said as soon as she reached the others.
None of them said anything as they looked at her with understanding smiles.
"Don't worry about it. But seriously, how many victims have been confirmed already since these killings started?"
The question caught Sarina's attention and made her look at Isona. "What do you mean?"
"There's been quite a panic here lately because of the news that a serial killer is on the loose. They based it on the fact that the five victims found around and outside of Huijin over the past 6 months were found dead in similar manner."
"Is that the reason why they had those checkpoints when I headed here?"
They nodded and proceeded to walk to their intended destination.