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They sat quietly, side by side on the pale shoreline. There was no sea, yet waves of soft light rolled quietly across the sand. This is a place where spirits wander, a place where you could neither call heaven nor hell. Quite frankly, the only place they are allowed to meet again. Because in this version, Jinu is already dead.
"Can you promise me something?" he whispers, breaking through the silence.
"Anything"
"Live"
There was a short pause before she managed to say the words that remained lodged on her throat.
"Not without you" her lips quivered as she tried to grab hold of his hand, but they were already fading.
"And have kids. Lots of them, they're fun." The man had the nerve to smile when he said that. She reached again, desperately trying to hold onto his shoulders as they dissolved beneath her hands.
Then he vanished in front of her.
"Jinu?" She calls out to the void but no answer. And just like that, he was gone. "Jinu..."
She sat up suddenly in the dark bedroom, waking up in a cold sweat after that terrifying nightmare. Her heart pounded in her chest, breath shaking as she gently feels for the dampness in her cheeks. She's crying.
“Jinu…?” she whispered, her hands searching his side of the bed frantically.
Empty.
The panic hit her all at once. Is he gone? Did Gwi-Ma take him again? For a moment she thought that it was all real.
"Eomma.." a small voice came from the doorway.
She immediately wiped her face, forcing a smile to greet her daughter all the while her hands and lips still trembled. "...did I wake you?"
Minji walked into the room quietly, her small feet padding across the floor. She climbed onto the bed beside her mother without hesitation.
"We heard you crying, we thought you got hurt"
"We?" She asked her daughter softly and at that moment, a small bump slowly moved under the covers… inching its way up the bed.
Rumi gently lifted her sheets and before she could say anything, the blanket suddenly popped up and a small face appeared between the folds.
She smiles, the rapid beating of her heart finally slowed in pace.
Yerin is here. Minji is here too. Jinu might not be here right now, but their daughters are alive and well. And so was he.
At that moment, she'd remember her husband saying that he'd be working late today. Nightmares should've been expected. It always happens when he's not beside her when she goes to bed.
"Eomma.... just had a bad dream" she explained in whispers, hugging the both of them close.
They're real. She reassured herself. There's nothing to worry about.
"Bad dreams bad dreams go away" Minji suddenly waves her hands in front of Rumi's face and continues chanting. "Good dreams, good dreams here to stay..."
A confused smile glosses over her for a second.
"It's a magic trick" Minji tells her "Appa does magic when we have bad dreams"
Yerin looked at her older sister in awe and copied what she did with her hands, only the words that came out of her were incoherent babbles. At that, Rumi was finally able to let out a small laugh, her worries dissolving all at once.
She lays on the bed and lets her daughters take care of her. Minji covered her with a blanket and brought her a stuffed teddy bear “for support.” Yerin on the other hand was still confused, but understood that her older sister had been giving their mother small trinkets and decided to give Rumi the bottle of milk she had been drinking this whole time as her share.
"Thank you sweetheart...but you can have it"
It felt nice to be loved by her family the same way that she loved them.
The room was quiet now, filled with soft breathing, and Rumi finally let herself drift back toward sleep, with her brave little girls by her side.
The next time she opens her eyes, she sees her husband hovering over them. "Jinu, you're home"
He pressed a finger to his lips, shushing her gently. “Shh… don’t wake them,” he murmured, voice low, careful as he pointed at their two sleeping daughters. When he leaned down to give her a soft kiss on the forehead, he noticed it. Her eyes were puffy, rimmed with redness.
"Were you crying?"
She didn't answer but her husband just kept gently stroking her hair.
"Can you promise me something?" She asks the same question he asked her in her dreams.
"Anything"
"Please...don't die."
Jinu blinks at this, holding back a small chuckle when he sees the worry and somberness in her eyes.
"I'll try my best"