In Search of Our Destiny - Chapter 213

Not knowing whether to laugh or cry over his own past stupidity, Ji-Won decided to make up for his lost time.

Whether it was about conversation or being physically close, he would try everything in order to breach that barrier he had previously created. One step at a time, he would eventually be able to reach her.

For that purpose, he decided to start by talking more about their destination.

“Do you know how to get there? If not, you can type the address in the GPS.”

He was certain that, since she was the one who wanted to visit that place, Su-Jin would have the exact address or at least an approximative location.

If that wasn’t the case, though, they might end up in a bit of a bind. Why? Because there was no way for him to remember the exact location of the guesthouse. It had been almost sixteen years since he visited the place last time. Furthermore, he had been ten years old at the time.

After asking that question Ji-Won waited. But even after several seconds, no sounds came from his right.

Perplexed, he turned his head to the side, peering at Su-Jin curiously.

As if she could sense his eyes on her, Su-Jin flinched. All her previous cheerfulness dissolved as fast as a cube of ice melting into water. She shrunk her neck, while her body imperceptibly shifted closer to the window.

During the time Ji-Won stared at her, the woman was more silent than a mouse in the presence of a dangerous cat.

Although her mouth was silent, Su-Jin’s mind and body were in a state of extreme agitation. She kept wringing her hands, pressing her fingertips together in an attempt to calm down. It was all in vain, though. No matter what she did, Su-Jin still appeared to be on the verge of a mental collapse caused by nerves.

“Miss Park?” Ji-Won suddenly called out to her.

He used a soft voice, yet it still managed to startle Su-Jin.

“Hm?” She hummed noncommittally, doing everything in her power to avoid staring into Ji-Won’s eyes.

“The address?” He inquired calmly.

“I…” Su-Jin bit her lower lip. “To be honest, I don’t know the address.”

Ji-Won’s eyebrows rose up on his forehead. He continued to stare at her with a complicated expression on his face.

Afraid of what that look could mean and wanting to avoid a harsh scolding, Su-Jin hurried to explain.

“You see, I actually visited Eunpyeong Hanok Village many years ago. I went there only once with my parents when I was very young, so I don’t remember much about it. Because I wanted to take this opportunity and see that place again, I tried looking it up on the internet. But I… I couldn’t find much information on ‘Summer Triangle Villa’, not even the address.”

Su-Jin stopped and shot Ji-Won a sheepish smile.

“Since many years have passed, I am not even sure whether the guesthouse is still in business or not. Even so, I still want to try and find it. That place is special to me, because my family was there with me.”

Ji-Won was startled by her words. His pupils trembled and he found it hard to contain his own emotions.

When he spoke next, he was shocked to hear his voice sounding hoarse.

“Alright. We’ll go there first and take a walk around the village. Since that’s one of the places you’d like to use in our proposal, we must find it.”

Hearing his words, Su-Jin looked as though she had been granted amnesty. Her face glowed with relief and a grateful smile spread across her face. It was so wide that her eyes curved into crescents.

“Mn.” She nodded. “Thank you so much, Director Kang.”

He merely smiled and gave her a light nod, before starting to drive again.

During this entire time, though, his mind worked in a frenzy. To think that such a coincidence could actually happen in the world, it was simply unbelievable. Who would have expected Su-Jin to choose a location that was so tightly connected to one of Ji-Won’s important memories.

While overthinking the situation, Ji-Won also kept wondering whether he should be honest with Su-Jin or not. Should he really tell her that he was also familiar with Eunpyeong Hanok Village and the ‘Summer Triangle Villa’? Or was it actually better to wait until they got there before saying anything?

In the end, after all that pondering and mental fussing, what finally got out of Ji-Won’s mouth was something completely unrelated to his worries.

“Miss Park, may I ask you something?”

“Of course.” she said, looking at him expectantly.

“How did you come up with this new concept?”

“Eh?” Su-Jin’s eyes widened slightly.

For a moment she stared at him in silence, not knowing where to begin to explain. Should she talk about the little bits and pieces she still remembered from her last visit there? Or was it better to talk about the festival atmosphere she experienced at the hanok village. Even if her memory wasn’t very clear, she still had the pictures back home to account for the events.

While Su-Jin was struggling to decide how to begin her answer, Ji-Won was sitting on pins and needles.

At first, he had been taken aback by the familiar name of the location Su-Jin had chosen. He couldn’t stop thinking how coincidental it all was. That the object he most desperately wanted to find was tightly connected to that place.

There was also another special memory that tied him to that guesthouse, but it was slightly foggy.

Whenever he thought about it, Ji-Won could only remember something happening on a wooden bridge. As though looking through a layer of mist, he could see a person’s tiny silhouette walking towards him. But that person never got close to him. Right before reaching him, that small body frame toppled down, falling harshly on the wooden floor of the bridge.

He remembered running towards that person and pulling them up, but that was it. Afterwards, his mother and father soon came to take him away and that was that. He didn’t even recall what that person looked like. He only saw her dress and hair tied in a ponytail, so it must have been a little girl.

‘I wonder where that person is right now. What would she look like after all these years?’