The Prophecy 2

Eun Hee stood in front of her friend, pulling a lighter from the pocket of her school skirt,

"Hold this, focus your mind, and the image of your romantic future will appear as soon as I light the stick on."

"Let's see if it will be as you're saying. It's so little time... three or four seconds only. Do I have to close my eyes?"

Eun Ha did not answer, concentrating on lighting the candle in Ye Rim's hand. "Okay... 3, 2, 1... now!"

Ye Rim smiled at her friend, and to Eun Ha's surprise, she grabbed her hand so that both of them could hold the stick at the same time. The older teen watched as Ye Rim closed her eyes hoping to see something... And did the same. And she actually started to see something...

ººº

Camera flashes assault Ye Rim's face, and the celebrity protects her eyes with her hands, as even the stylish branded sunglasses can't handle the amount of light. The security guards at her agency are trying to control the crowd of paparazzi and fans around the building where Nam Ye Rim, the country's most famous and popular living artist, currently lives.

"Ye Rim, we love you!"

"Ye Rim please don't retire!"

"Miss Nam, what are the real reasons for the sudden announcement of your retirement?"

"There are rumors that you are dating the…"

"Are you going to sue your agency?"

"What do you have to say about the rumors that you're pregnant, Ye Rim?"

"Ye Rim, don't stop singing!!!! We love you!!!"

Voices in cacophony overlapped with a thousand statements and questions, totally ignored by the beautiful woman.

Ye Rim waves to everyone as she advances with difficulty. Her every move earns shoots that will be on the internet and TV in a matter of minutes, along with catching headlines. Her beautiful, perfectly made-up face, her shiny hair that gives name to the most popular female haircut this year, her clothes designed exclusively by her personal stylist: everything Ye Rim does, says, and wears is either news or trend. It's been that way last year.

 Her face, however, is expressionless. Only Eun Ha can see the truth, but she can do nothing but watch in horror as events unfold before her, as if seeing through a screen.

Ye Rim reaches the elevator of the luxury building, and signals to her entourage not to accompany her. Entering the elevator, she lowers her head and removes her glasses. A tear drops on her light pink scarpin.

Pink is also the color of the shirt the tall man next to her wears.

His face is never seen, his back is to the mirror. It's like he's invisible, but Eun Ha can see him.

The singer is aware of his presence, but feigns ignorance. Ye Rim never glances at him, and of course, cannot be aware of the chains made of light silver that bind them together, she and the man in pink.

Ye Rim looks at what time it is on the screen of her cell phone, and sighs. As soon as the elevator door opens, she walks out, slightly dazed, into the hall of her triplex apartment in Seoul's most luxurious condo. Ye Rim looks back to where the man was, and only sees her own reflection in the elevator mirror, as the door closes. 

"You're so cruel ..." she mutters, and places the document folder she carries on the glass table near the large window that occupies one entire wall of the living room.

The immensity of her sadness is so huge, her eyes are watery, and to make matters worse, her body begins to show symptoms…

She takes off her coat and looks at her own arms, the jade skin stained with vivid red and purple bruises. She is thirsty, but too tired to go to the kitchen.

Looking at her cell phone, the singer tosses it on the carpet and carefully stomps on it, her high-heel breaking the screen like a cobweb. She leaves her shoes there, feeling the softness of the carpet under the soles of her feet.

Ye Rim coughs, the pain is starting to become unbearable, are her ribs broken? It's getting hard to breathe. She doesn't want to breathe anymore.

Opening the large windows, the famous singer sits on the floor, waiting ... What?

Him? No, he does not care.

She will die. If he doesn't come, she will die. Therefore, she will die.

'But you don't mind if I die, do you?' her desperate laugh of realization ends with a manic, bloody cough. Ye Rim's body hurts and she only wishes it to cease soon. Her heart is hurting like being torn into pieces, inside her chest.

What hurts more? His indifference, or her now aching body? She doesn't know, it's all the same.

'It's good not to know what time it is.' Or whether he would come for her. He won't.

Death will come before him. She doesn't know how long she waits, but death really comes before the cruel man in pink comes for her.

Her eyes finally close, her beautiful face finally serene as her body tumbles to the side. Lifeless.

"NOOOOOOOO!" Eun Ha feels her heart break in half at the same moment… But she only sees the future, unable to interfere with what she was seeing.

At the same moment, the elevator door opens once more, and the man in pink enters the apartment. He walks through the open door with no hurry…

ººº

"Aish!" Eun Ha opened her eyes, rebelling against the prophecy. The first thing she saw was Ye Rim's worried face, eyes closed and frowning, right in front of her. Only a second passed until the last spark has gone, and Ye Rim opened her eyes. Eun Ha looked at her joined hands, took her hand from under Ye Rim's in a rush.

"What did you do?!"

"C'mon, I thought we could share it ..." Ye Rim shrugged. "But ... I don't think I saw my love future ... I think I saw yours."

Eun Ha hid her reddened face, her back to her friend, putting the remaining objects inside the box.

"Uh..."

"Did you see mine?" Ye Rim asked, coming to the most obvious conclusion.

"Uhn," Eun Ha nodded, "And then, I have a love future ... How is it? What you saw?"

"Uh, well ..." Ye Rim shuffled her feet a bit, choosing her words, "I saw you will have a tall, handsome boyfriend, who buys you birthday cakes and everything ...You are so lucky!" Something she saw had bothered Ye Rim, however, Eun Ha could tell this much only by looking at the younger girl's sullen face.

"What's it? What did you see that upset you? "Eun Ha asked, mostly to distract Ye Rim from asking about her own future. She definitely didn't know how to say something so horrible to Ye Rim.

"It was a vision that showed everything! He looked rich, well-born, stylish, and I was jealous because you were celebrating your 27th birthday and I was not there with you! You had a cake all by yourself! It was written: Happy 27th birthday! He gave it to you, as a surprise. I wasn't there, though," the other girl said.

"Such a thing will never happen. Don't we have a promise?" Eun Ha made a pout, her brain processing the images she had seen, and the information she heard as she walked by her friend's side coming into the house.

"And you?"

"I saw... Something like that. You became very rich and famous, and you had a fiancé who seemed to be everything a woman could want ... But we were not together on your 27th birthday..."

Ye Rim stopped,

"That's not right, is it? No man will make us apart, right unnie?"

"It's ridiculous for you to call me unnie when we have about an hour difference," Eun Ha protested, but Ye Rim just shrugged, ignoring this discussion as usual:

"Then swear it!"

"Ye Rim! We are no longer children and we have already done all the possible oaths to each other in elementary school!"

They laughed at it without any embarrassment.

"So let's ignore this silly stick's prophecies." Ye Rim proposed, determined to do so.

"Yeah, let's do it!" Eun Ha enthusiastically endorsed the idea, trying to push the frightening thoughts out of her head.

"Yes! We will write our destiny on the go! And we'll spend all our birthdays together!"

They made a cracky high five, laughing, and hugging each other as they went to the kitchen and fix something to eat.

...

Eun Ha came back to reality, frowning as she sought to wipe away this frightening memory of the day she saw Ye Rim's future and had chosen to hide this dark fate from her friend. More than that, she'd sworn to herself to do everything in her hands to stop it from coming to fruition.

She was sitting at her sewing machine, examining what was left from the dress. She stretched at the seams, they looked perfect when she has sewn the dress, but somehow the seams seemed to fall apart easily now, but that was not how she'd left it on the mannequin.

"How could this happen? It's tearing by itself!"

"Isn't that true?!" Ye Rim put a head on the door of the studio, still dressed only with towels over her body and hair. "How can you do this to me?"

Eun Ha replaced the confused expression with an indignant one:

"Ohhh...Ohh... You're so shameless, Ye Rim! That's you who took the dress without permission! I should be the one outraged here!"

"Don't make a scene, unnie! The dress was for me, anyway. And I thought I heard from you that it was ready!"

"It was, but I told you it was your birthday present, and as a present, you could only wear it at our birthday party!"

"Oh, you're such a controlling person, unnie... Maybe I didn't want to wait so long to put it on. Nor should I wait to meet my new love, hehe!"

"Oh yes? And why did you debut it in a cemetery?" Eun Ha counterattacked.

"AH! Eun Ha unnie ... I almost got naked in front of an old man, and because of you!"

"Well, sure that it would make any man fall in love, hahaha."

"Unnie, fix the dress, okay? You said you would make me a beautiful dress so that I'd be fabulous to finally meet the man of my dreams! Take responsibility!"

"I'm not going to fix anything!" Eun Ha pretended to be more upset than she really was, folding her arms as a statement. "You're fat and ruined the dress. Who's the type of crazy woman who wears such a dress in a cemetery? So much bad, negative energy, aish!" Eun Ha threw the sparkling cloth into a corner, making such a fuss as a smoke curtain to exchange the subject for the one that really interested her at the moment. She asked casually, or she thought so:

"And what crazy thing is it about a pocket show for a dead man? And who is this man, the living man, the man in the pink shirt?"

But Ye Rim was too absent-minded to realize that Eun Ha had a purpose behind her casual chattering, and responded candidly:

"About the gig, I already told you, it was on the good intention of the deceased man's friends. He was my fan, you know? I found the idea a bit ridiculous but I just can't say no to Mr. Go! He's so cute!"

"And about the guy? This Oppa?"

"This Oppa? Well, this rude Oppa is the grandson of Mr. Go, Kim Jun Hyeon." Ye Rim started to use a conspiratorial tone, so Eun Ha came closer. "Mr. Go had already told me a lot about him. He's THE HOTTEST plastic surgeon right now, you know? They say his clinic is crowded night and day. But Mr. Go seems to be very attached to his grandson, so I was totally biased by it at first. It seems like even being born into a rich family, he already managed to double his estate, or something like this. He's in great demand. It also seems that he's into charity, and also has dated some hot actress who I don't remember the name right now, and..." Ye Rim straightened herself, dismissing the gossiping attitude. "...well, he's an idiot."

"... Anyway... Is he an idiot!?" Eun Ha was startled to the point of repeating the sentence.

"Yes, a perfect idiot. Handsome, rich, successful, charitable, etc. It's a shame I've already figured out he's just an idiot." Ye Rim left the studio, humming.

"Better sooner than late!" Eun Ha loudly quotes to her exiting friend, feeling relieved. But she knew Ye Rim too well to be deceived by these disdainful words.

"Better keep monitoring it…" Eun Ha muttered to herself, now with the pink shirt on her hands.