The Oriental Melon

Fiction by Satovic
Translated by flowerbossa

(Originally posted on JOB & BSJ in Aug. 2, 2008)

The fresh scent of oriental melon filled the hospital room.
The yellow melon ... my sweet husband peeled for me ...
But ... I could not get myself to eat it ....
Tears kept coming and would not stop ....
To think he had died....
My husband quietly left the room and let me be by myself.

I burst into tears, crying loudly.
Again ... I had made him die ....

In the state of a long long coma, she was ruminating on the images she glimpsed in the moment of the accident. They were several after images that appeared and disappeared like flashes.

I could not tell what age it was, but I saw myself wearing a heavy comb in my hair, and he, dressed in armor, appeared as the son of a prime minister. He looked far more handsome and gallant than the junior high school teacher I knew, but I could feel in my soul that inside that figure was the man who I knew so well from my college days.

That man who at one time held me tight when I was delirious with fever,
That man who at one time yelled at me furiously inside the tent in the red light,
That man who at one time watched my hands as I calmly poured tea,
I also recalled how happy he seemed to hear the words, “jujak (red phoenix) and her mate”....

I had made up my mind to fall with him to the very bottom. I was determined to become cold-blooded as the devil himself, but he was always gentle towards me.

Even when he knew that I would ditch him, he let himself be manipulated.
Making our bond in the afterlife our collateral, I used him, and fulfilled my wish.
I was supposed to be making up for what I had done to him.

I was supposed to be fulfill his wish of torturing the king, and making me entirely his ....

But again, I made him die ...
Because of my careless driving ...
Leaving only me to survive ....

Insu, you may not believe me, but this was our fate.
I owed it to him to make up for what he did for me.

And when you were Damdeok, you hurt me so much, not believing in me – that must have led me to hurt you in return.

In this life, I was supposed to fulfill my wish from my days as Kajin to stay by your side all my life ....I realized that you will never be mine no matter how many times we are reincarnated.

It must have been some kind of fate for my sister Seo -Young to become his wife ...
She is probably the only one that can comfort you.

The two of you drank together, didn't you? At that seafood restaurant where they serve blowfish.

It must have come back to you. Your past life where you two shared drinks with your arm around her shoulder.

So, you needn't feel guilty if you feel drawn to her.
It is your fate, you know.
The fate you had been waiting for for 2000 years ....