Eunha Lin sat in the quiet corner of the library, her books spread neatly before her. The soft hum of students flipping pages and the occasional whispering voices usually comforted her, but today, her mind kept wandering. She could still feel him — the boy with dark, piercing eyes — lingering at the edge of her awareness.
It had been days since their first conversation, yet Lian Wu was everywhere she went. In the cafeteria, he appeared at a table across the room, pretending to read a book. In the courtyard, he stood under a tree, shadows playing across his perfect features. No matter how fast she walked, he was always there, calm, patient, and impossibly close.
Eunha frowned, her chest tightening. Why did he feel so familiar? Why did her heart skip when their eyes met, even for a second? She shook her head, trying to dismiss the strange feeling as imagination.
But that evening, when she returned to her dorm, something unexpected happened. As she unpacked her bag, a silver glint caught her eye — a tiny, shiny scale, unlike anything she had seen before. Her fingers trembled as she held it up, memories flickering in her mind: a small snake by the hidden lake, her hands gently tending to it, a soft whisper in the mountains…
Her breath caught. Could it be? No. It had been years, and yet the feeling was undeniable. Her pulse raced.
The next day, she saw him again in the courtyard. Lian Wu's gaze found hers instantly, and this time, he stepped closer. "You remember," he said softly, almost a whisper, yet full of certainty.
"I… what?" Eunha asked, confusion clouding her face.
"The memories," he replied, his eyes darkening with a strange intensity. "They're waking up. You might not understand yet, but they will. You and I… we were never meant to be apart."
Eunha's heart pounded, torn between disbelief and a strange longing she couldn't name. She wanted to pull away, to tell herself this was impossible — yet something deep inside her soul whispered that it was true.
Her friends noticed her distraction. Somi nudged her. "Eunha, are you okay? You've been… different lately."
"I'm fine," she said softly, forcing a smile, though her mind was consumed by the boy who had entered her life like a shadow she could not escape.
As she walked back to her dorm that evening, she felt it again — an invisible thread tugging at her heart, stronger than before. She didn't fully understand it yet, but she knew one thing for certain: her life had changed. And Lian Wu, the boy who had once been a small, injured snake, was no longer just a memory. He was here, human, real, and impossible to ignore.
And somewhere deep within her, memories of a love lost and found across lifetimes were beginning to stir.