The woman smiled. "Am I?"
"Of course you are. I didn't forget you. You just selfishly left Ai-chan with me that day! What if I had abandoned her too?"
"I knew you wouldn't."
Jin's gaze darkened by the arrogant confidence in her voice. It was then that thinking about her voice, he seemed to pause.
Where have I heard it before? She sounds familiar…
"Why did you come to the church?"
He frowned. "Why should I tell you?"
"Maybe I will be able to help you."
Jin still wasn't able to figure out where he had heard her voice apart from the time they had met in the church.
"I don't need your help."
She chuckled. "You are really stubborn, you know. Whether the time you refused to admit your feelings for that girl and had to be locked up in the time-space or now when I am generously offering my help."
A razor-sharp silence descended after that, and he slowly turned to look at her, this time with extreme scrutiny.
"You were the one who talked to me both times. When I had the fever and…after the accident. Both the times when I saw that clock."
The woman simply smiled. "I think we have talked a third time too. Much further back."
He suddenly felt a sense of nervousness creep in and his back straightened up, alert. It was evident that her presence wasn't so thrilling to him. He looked at her up and down, gauging her from head to toe. He was well aware that whatever he, Jun and Ai had faced regarding the golden clock was an otherworldly experience. Anybody associated with that phenomenon couldn't be…
"You…cannot be a hu-human."
Even though he was Liu Jin, the son of the prestigious and influential Liu family, he couldn't help but slightly stammer because his status didn't matter before someone whose existence was beyond power and money.
"Oh, I can be anything I wish," her eyes twinkled.
"What are you doing here? Are you keeping an eye on me?" He slightly gritted his teeth, feeling irked with her response. For some reason, she reminded him of his grandfather or his uncle or the twins. The glint of mischief in her eyes was very similar.
"Oh my. Why would I do that?
"Because you don't want me getting closer to Shui!" He barked. "I heard your warning crystal clear at that time itself! You don't have to keep reminding me again and again…"
He then threw accusing glares at her. "You are the one who had suddenly made the clock appear before me, right? So that I would lose control over my car and then that accident…"
The woman held a solemn look. "It was time I reminded you of the condition."
He clenched his trembling fist. "Yeah I remember that very well now…So you can leave! I won't do anything to jeopardize my brother's future."
"But I came to offer my generous help here."
"I don't need your generous help. I don't trust you! Especially after how you planned that accident! You unnecessarily dragged Shui and Xing Bi in danger."
"I wouldn't have let anything happen to them," she mysteriously smiled.
"Leave!"
The woman tilted her head. "You are really stubborn, you know. One of the many stubborn souls that keep me busy. But you were different because you extended that stubbornness even after your death. It was the first time that I witnessed a soul gaining consciousness of its own through its sheer willpower. You refused to let your soul move on to your next birth only for one wish to be fulfilled."
*Flashback*
It was in those very last moments that Jin, who was just shot in his chest by his brother's bullet, could see and sense something unnatural happening to him. It was as if his time as Liu Jin was over. It was a feeling as if he was getting sucked into something which resembled a mysterious pathway. His head ached by the blinding white light before his eyes, and his instinct told him that this was his end…or was it his new beginning?
Whatever it was, Jin felt a strange but strong repulsion and resistance. His human body was already dead, yet he felt an immense sense of pain as if he was getting burned into ashes. It was extremely agonizing and painful. On one side, his resistance was pulling him back and on the other side, some mystical force was pulling him into the opposite direction.
He couldn't speak. He couldn't articulate himself as if he had become mute. But the sheer force of his protest resounded the thoughts circulating within his soul.
'Bro is still back there…'
'Where are you taking me?'
'I don't want to go anywhere.'
The few painful moments felt like forever and after a while, he felt liberated from the other side as if some link had just shattered. And as it did, the world suddenly spun around Jin, and he began to hear voices and see the people before him. He looked down and stared at his human body, which was lying bleeding on the floor.
He stared at it hard for a long time before it registered in him that he was looking at his own dead body. The voices he was hearing belonged to his family, mourning over his death. He saw Jun kneeling before Jin's body with his gun slipped long ago from his hands.
"Jin…"
Shui was in a similar state, kneeling beside Jin with her white wedding gown marred with the drops of his blood splatter.
The shock, the disbelief washing over Jun's and everybody's faces gradually was growing deeper and deeper.
What is happening…
Jin looked at himself from top to bottom. His whole body seemed to shine and look transparent. He could see his family, but as he moved his hand to touch them, his hand simply passed through them and neither could his family see him anymore.
That's when the reality actually sunk in him.
I am dead…
This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢