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Fates Parallel Chapter 42 - Past
🕑 Added 2021-03-11 21:03:49 +0000 UTCEui was just as unhappy as the other two about Yan Yue moving in with them, and her grumpiness only increased when they arrived back home to find nearly a dozen suitcases crowding the already tiny living space.
“Who the fuck needs this many clothes?”
Yan Yue grimaced at Eui and crossed her arms petulantly.
“Hmph, as if you would understand proper fashion.”
“I understand fashion just fine, thank you. Half of these dresses are just slight variations on the uniform—did you have these commissioned just for this?”
Lee Jia sighed—the two of them had been bickering for nearly an hour, and she was forced to stack the suitcases in the corner by herself while they fought. Yan Yue had reluctantly agreed to unpack only one of them at a time, using Lee Jia’s wardrobe since she could simply store things in her ring.
As Lee Jia grabbed the last suitcase, Yan Yue waved at her urgently.
“Wait, that one is—!”
The bag jangled strangely and sagged as she lifted it, and it had a lot more heft than the previous bags.
“By the Emperor, how are you lifting that? It’s full of gold!”
Lee Jia blinked down at the bag in her hands. It was weighty, but it didn’t feel heavy to her. She curled it a few times in her arms experimentally, then tried holding it out with one hand—ok, that was a bit too much.
She tossed the bag into the corner with the others with a loud thump and turned back to meet Yan Yue’s slack-jawed gaze with a shrug.
“I guess I’ve gotten a lot stronger. Why do you have a huge bag of gold?”
Yan Yue floundered to find a response for a moment.
“It...seemed more space efficient than carrying my creature comforts along with me.”
Lee Jia raised an eyebrow and glanced meaningfully at the stack of suitcases reaching the ceiling. Yan Yue blushed a bit.
“Well, not all my creature comforts, I suppose. Anyway, I’m still a mess from all that running. I’m going to shower and get changed.”
---
Jia sat with her back turned as Eui brushed her hair—which had become something of a nightly ritual for them. The rest of the evening had been uneventful, aside from a shriek of surprise and some griping about the cold water from Yan Yue, which elicited a dark chuckle from Eui. Jia elected to lend Yan Yue her bed for the night since she didn’t plan on sleeping and Yan Yue was exhausted from the day’s training.
It was dark except for the light from a low fire in the stove, and the companionable silence had stretched on for quite some time before Eui finally spoke telepathically to Jia.
“Pretty sure she’s asleep by now. Is this the part where you tell me why I shouldn’t go kill her before she does the same to us?”
“Aside from the obvious dangers of retaliation from her allies, or how extremely bad it would look for us to murder our new roommate on the first day?”
Eui snickered at the same time as she responded, which was a little weird, but this wasn’t their first telepathic conversation so Jia was mostly used to it by now.
“Yeah, aside from that. I’m pretty sure you know what I’m talking about.”
Jia did—she’d been psyching herself up for this conversation all day and it still didn’t feel like she was ready. She sighed and leaned back into Eui.
“It’s kinda hard to brush your hair like this, Jia.”
“I’m pretty sure you had it straightened thirty minutes ago.”
They sat like that in silence for a while, and Jia was glad that Eui let her gather her thoughts. When she’d finally summoned the courage to speak, she was glad that it was telepathically, because she was certain her voice would be trembling.
“I had a big sister. Not—not a real one, just an older girl at the orphanage who took care of me. I call it an orphanage, but it was really just a front for the local gang’s human trafficking operations—not that I knew that at the time.
“They’d pick up abandoned kids like me, sometimes left there by people fooled by the front, sometimes victims who’d lost their parents, but usually—um, usually new kids came from the brothels. They sheltered us, but that was pretty much it. If you didn’t contribute, you didn’t eat—and contributing usually meant stealing something valuable and bringing it back to the boss.
“It was up to the older kids to take care of the younger ones, especially the babies. My sister, Lee Jung, she was the one who took care of me—it was even her who named me. She taught me the best ways to avoid getting caught, and how to get away if I was. She told me the best places to get free food, which vendors would turn a blind eye to a cute kid pilfering a snack.
“It wasn’t really the best education, but it’s what I needed to survive. But more than that, she always gave us younger kids hope. She’d tell us that one day we’d be adopted, or we’d be able to earn our freedom when we grew up. We all knew it wasn’t true, but the gentle lie made us feel better—at least until Lee Jung disappeared.
“It was so sudden—one night she was there, telling us stories and scolding some of the younger kids for almost getting caught, then the next morning she was gone. Nobody would tell us where she went, or why—the most that Boss Lee would say was that she ‘went home’.
“I think that even back then I knew what that meant, but I told myself I didn’t. It was two years later that I was forced to confront the truth—when Lee Jung came back. She had a baby with her—her child—and she was there to leave it with the orphanage.”
Jia wiped at her eyes with her sleeves. If not for the telepathic link with Eui, she wouldn’t have been able to continue the story through her weeping. She wished she didn’t have to.
“When she had gotten old enough, she’d been sold to the brothel, and inevitably she ended up having a child. The brothel forced her to give it up, and she brought it to our orphanage—to me, specifically. She asked for me by name, told me her story, put the baby in my arms, and begged me with tears in her eyes to take care of her child the way she had for me.”
Jia brought her knees up to her chest and buried her face in her knees, her sobbing had already become uncontrollable—the memories too painful. She hated thinking about her past. Hated that circumstance had required her to confront it so soon. Hated that telepathic communication meant that she couldn’t even use her blubbering as an excuse to stop. Most of all, she hated herself for what she had done.
Her breath hitched as she felt Eui embrace her gently from behind. Eui said nothing—didn’t pressure her to go on, or ask any details. Somehow, the quiet support gave Jia the strength she needed to finish her story.
“That was the night I ran away. I looked Lee Jung in the eyes and promised her I would take care of her child, but at that moment the only thing that I could think of was getting away. All I could see was my own future—myself standing in Lee Jung’s place, making the same request of the child I was holding in my arms.
“I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t doom myself to repeat that cycle. I left the child behind and fled the orphanage that very same night. They tried to chase me, of course, but my sister had taught me well. The same tricks I used to avoid being captured by the law worked just as well against the lawless. Eventually, they must have decided I was more trouble than I was worth and gave up.
“The worst part is that—I don’t regret it. I feel like I should—like I betrayed the big sister who spent her childhood looking after mine—but I don’t. I’d make the same decision again a hundred times, and I’m terrified of that part of me.”
With her story finished, Jia let herself relax into Eui’s embrace and let her emotions out. She felt a wet spot on her own shoulder that told her Eui had been crying as well, but her own emotions were such a mess that she had no hope of reading Eui’s.
“Is that why? She reminds you of her?”
Eui’s voice—her actual voice, this time—was quiet and somber. The question was vague, but Jia knew what she meant and nodded fractionally.
“Or maybe myself—I don’t know. I just couldn’t ignore it.”
Eui nodded, understanding.
“Is that also why—with me—?”
“No!”
Jia panicked as Eui brought up their newly complicated relationship.
“I mean, yes—probably. Maybe? I don’t know.”
Eui squeezed Jia a little tighter.
“That was every possible answer to that question, Jia. Calm down.”
Despite herself, Jia giggled a bit at Eui’s attempt at levity.
“Sorry. It’s—related, I think. I’m not ready to talk about it yet.”
“I understand. I’m sorry. And—for what it’s worth, I think you did the right thing.”
Jia paused for a moment trying to figure out what Eui was referring to.
“Which?”
“All of it, I guess. You were right to run away, but you were also right to feel bad about it. Lee Jung showed you your fate, and then asked you not to change it—that’s not fair. She put that kid’s fate on your shoulders, and you’re still carrying it with you now.
“But that weight is part of who you are now, it’s why you’re so insistent on helping Yan Yue, it’s why you ended up making friends with Eunae—and me, for that matter. It’s one of the reasons I—”
—love you. Eui left the last part unsaid, but their emotional and mental links were more than enough for Jia to fill in the blanks. In that moment, Jia didn’t particularly feel like she deserved Eui’s feelings. It was almost funny, the way the two of them both felt undeserving of the other, but Jia couldn’t bring herself to laugh.
“Thank you, Eui. I don’t know if it’s what I wanted or needed to hear but—thank you.”
Eui nodded, and they spent the rest of the night sitting like that in silence, just enjoying the quiet comfort of each other’s company.
---
The next morning the trio headed to the lecture hall for one of Magus Hwang’s lessons. In truth, since Hwang didn’t run advanced lessons, Jia and Eui had advanced well ahead of the class thanks to Dae’s tutoring, but they still attended out of respect—and because the Magus would still answer questions on more advanced topics. Besides that, Yan Yue would need to catch up quite a bit, starting from scratch as she was.
Eui scowled peevishly at Yan Yue as they walked—she was probably the least happy of anyone with their new arrangement.
“Are you really just going to follow us around and constantly look over our shoulders?”
“That is how observation works, yes. Lee Jia, what is this ridiculous chicken scratch you’ve given me? It’s barely legible!”
Jia glanced over to see Yan Yue brandishing Dae’s notes on awakening at her.
“Instructions for awakening mana sense written by the best mage in the academy—well, best student, anyway. Though Do Hye is probably the best mage, and Dae is his apprentice.”
Yan Yue hummed thoughtfully and looked at the sheaf of papers as if seeing them in a new light.
“Well, his handwriting is terrible.”
“Actually his handwriting is literally perfect. He just wrote that when he was eleven.”
Yan Yue scoffed and put a hand on her hip.
“And I’m supposed to follow the musings of a small child to awaken my mind? Between this and yesterday’s training, I’m beginning to think you’re making fun of me, Miss Lee.”
“I followed those instructions as a completely uninitiated mortal and awakened the same day.”
Eui crossed her arms and nodded.
“Same.”
Once again Yan Yue looked down at the sheaf with renewed appreciation before mumbling to herself.
“It seems I am truly among peers for once...”
Lee Jia refrained from comment as they entered the slightly crowded lecture hall—it seemed like Do Hye’s demonstration had renewed the academy’s interest in the arcane arts. As Lee Jia peered around for open seats, she noticed Dae in his usual place next to—she frowned—Tae In-Su. She was about to head in that direction anyway when she met the eyes of another familiar face.
Sun Jaehwa’s face lit up as she noticed Lee Jia, then froze when she noticed the girl next to her. Ancestor’s shit! Jia had almost forgotten about Sun Jaehwa in all the excitement over the last two days. She saw Sun Jaehwa make a visible effort to school her expression before standing to greet her.
“Miss Lee! So nice to see you again, who are your friends?”
That was—not the reaction Lee Jia had been expecting, and judging from the complicated mix of confusion and anger she felt from Eui, neither had she.
“U-um, Miss Sun, this is Yan Yue from Qin, and uh, An Eui. They’re my roommates.”
Sun Jaehwa smiled up at Yan Yue, and seemed to be pointedly avoiding looking at An Eui.
“A pleasure to meet you both! I just arrived at the academy recently, and met Miss Lee by happenstance. And please, Lee Jia, no need to stand on formality among friends, you can call me Jaehwa.”
Yan Yue began to respond with her own introduction, but Lee Jia didn’t hear it. Eui’s emotional state had exploded into a blinding rage, and Jia was desperately trying to keep her from doing something rash.
“I’m going to kill her! How dare she!? She destroyed my life and now she has the audacity to pretend she doesn’t even know me!?”
“Eui, calm down, please! Isn’t it better this way? We can just ignore her right back and avoid conflict!”
Eui clenched her teeth and her fists.
“You don’t understand, Jia. Sun Jaehwa won’t let herself be ignored. She’s just waiting for the right moment to play the victim and turn you and everyone else against me.”
“Then we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it, attacking her now isn’t going to solve anything! I’m on your side, Eui, no matter what.”
Sun Jaehwa noticed something was amiss and looked over with a concerned expression.
“Is something wrong?”
Jia quickly tried to come up with an excuse.
“Uh, I think Eui’s just not feeling all that well today—we had an exhausting training session yesterday, right Miss Yue?”
Yan Yue raised her eyebrow inquisitively, but nodded.
“I suppose we did, yes. Though it was a bit harder for some of us.”
Eui took a deep breath before straightening her back and tucking her hair behind an ear, putting her brand in full view. She met Sun Jaehwa’s eyes and spoke through gritted teeth.
“Jia’s right, I’m just a bit overworked. Nice meeting you, Miss Sun.”
Sun Jaehwa glanced away nervously and nodded.
“O-of course. I’ll give you some space. Perhaps we could talk later, Miss Lee?”
“Maybe. I’m fairly busy recently, but I suppose I‘ll see you around.”
Lee Jia brushed Sun Jaehwa’s invitation off as politely as she could and rushed to find an open seat away from either Tae In-Su or Sun Jaehwa. When had her life become so complicated? She was certain it had been much simpler two days ago.
