The room was silent.
Utterly, achingly silent.
Four sections lined its walls,
like a library divided into corners of forgotten lives.
One corner held simple, daily things.....
a chair, plain yet enduring.
Kai's gaze fell on that chair.
And suddenly....
the flood began.
Memories tore through her mind like a storm.
Her grandmother's arms.
The warmth of her lullabies.
The night when flickering candles betrayed her parents' lives,
and death became her shadow.
And then.....
a voice.
Soft. Loving. Calling her name.
"Yim…"
Her breath hitched.
Her heart thundered.
The name wrapped around her like fire and ice.
She stumbled, clutching her head,
as if her very soul had split in two.
And when she lifted her eyes....
She froze.
On the wall, staring back at her,
was the same face she had just seen within her mind.
Talotkan.
The one who had whispered "Yim."
The one whose eyes mirrored her own.
Tears blurred Kai's vision,
yet through them, the photo grew sharper,
alive, almost breathing.
Beneath the portrait, a pendant hung.
Simple. Worn.
But when her trembling fingers touched it,
the memories poured in....
not broken fragments anymore,
but vivid, whole.
It was yesterday.
It was forever.
And it was her.
Her chest shook as sobs broke free.
For the first time in years,
Kai cried like a child.
---
At the other end of the room...
Wee sat in the last corner.
Her hands trembled as she lifted a book,
its cover etched with a single name: Yim.
Her eyes widened.
It wasn't just a book.
It was a life.
A biography carved in ink and pain.
She opened the first page.....
and there it was.
The name that had haunted her nights.
Talotkan.
The book slipped from her hands,
thudding against the floor.
Her chest constricted.
Memories rose like smoke,
swallowing her whole.
---
The sudden noise drew Kai's attention.
Her heart whispered, louder than thought itself.....
Go. Go. What you seek is there.
Her steps carried her to the far corner.
Her pulse quickened,
her breaths shallow,
as though some unseen hand pushed her forward.
And then...
She saw her.
Wee.
The very soul she had tried to escape.
The very shadow she had run from.
Yet her lips betrayed her.
Her spirit betrayed her.
The name slipped out, unbidden,
the one she had seen written in that old magazine,
the one her soul already knew...
"...Talotkan."
---
Wee froze.
Her body turned to stone.
Her breath vanished.
Her soul trembled.
Someone… had called her by that name.
Her name.
Her heart stuttered as she whispered back,
the word trembling, fragile, yet unshakable...
"...Yim."
---
Their eyes met.
Two rivers colliding after lifetimes apart.
Tears welled, unrestrained.
And in that moment....
they were no longer Kai and Wee.
They were not fugitives or seekers,
not broken or lost.
They were what they had always been.....
two souls bound by memory,
by love,
by a story written long before their first breath.
And as Kai stepped closer,
the distance dissolved into a strange ache....
half anguish, half relief.
Wee felt it too.
The torment, the comfort.
The pull of recognition so deep,
it was almost unbearable.
Not a person.
Not a stranger.
But a soul she had always known.