Present Day – Seoul, Rainy Morning
The sky outside wept in sheets.
Rain lashed against the windows of the bookstore like it was trying to speak, and Yoorin didn't have the heart to ignore it. She wandered through the aisles barefoot, her sweater too big, her thoughts too loud.
Since the dream—since Hana's voice spoke through her own—she'd barely slept.
Every part of her felt stretched. As if the girl she had been and the woman she now was were fighting for space inside one soul.
She paused near the rare books room.
Something tugged at her. Not physically, but gently, like a string tied to her chest being pulled from the other side.
She stepped inside.
And saw it.
Tucked between two thick volumes on Confucian poetry, there was a silk-wrapped scroll, rolled tightly and bound with red thread. Dust hadn't settled on it. As if someone had only just left it there.
Yoorin's fingers trembled as she reached out. The silk was smooth—real—and her skin tingled as she touched it.
"What are you?" she whispered.
She unwrapped it slowly, breath shallow.
Inside was a painting.
Ink. Paper. Time.
A woman beneath an almond tree. Her hanbok was rendered in delicate strokes—soft silver sash, windswept hair, face tilted slightly away, as if listening for something the world had forgotten.
But Yoorin knew that woman.
It was Hana.
It was her.
She stepped back, heart hammering. The brushwork was precise but emotional—lines carried feeling. Love. Loss. Yearning.
In the bottom right corner, a signature in Hangul:
"Seon."
Yoorin sank to the floor.
He painted her…He remembered…Across time…
She turned the scroll over.
There, in tiny faded characters, almost invisible:
"For the girl who always came back."
Tears spilled freely now. No dream. No illusion. This was real.
Seon had lived. Had loved.
And somehow—somehow—he'd found a way to keep her in the world.
Even after everything.
She wrapped the scroll gently again and held it close to her chest.
"I'm here," she whispered. "I came back."
And outside, the rain softened, as if it had been waiting for that moment too.