A Friend from My Previous Life Lives in the Neighboring County

“There is a story in which the heirs of two families fell in love with each other.”

Roylette said to the girl standing in front of him.

“But it turned out that each other’s families were enemies. So the two of them agonized and suffered, before deciding to abandon their own family to run away together. But things went wrong, and in the end, both of them took their own lives.”

Eleanor’s eyes widened as she listened to him.

Her hands were shaking as she clenched her fists.

“If the male protagonist’s name is Romeo, what do you think the female protagonist’s name would be?”

To his question, she answered without even blinking.

“Juliet.”

Roylette’s eyes shook as soon as he heard the answer, and Eleanor did not miss that moment.

“Then, listen to what I will say this time and tell me the first word that comes to your mind.”

Eleanor took a breath and let out her words.

“Kim Cheomji.” [t/n: 김 첨지 is the character of the story 운수 좋은 날 < A Lucky Day > written by 현진건 <Hyun Jin-geon>]

He looked straight into her eyes and finally answered.

“…Seolleongtang” [t/n: ox bone soup]

People in this world know Seolleongtang? It can’t be.

Just who are you?

***

“When did you practice driving on the highway?”

Hyeseo, who was feeling the warmth of the heated seat, said as the car pulled into the highway.

“I practice driving every day and I once came here, or maybe twice?”

“Hmm?”

“I already came here for a driving practice.”

“Oh, now that I think about it, I think I heard about that.”

Hyeseo looked at Eunho, who was holding the steering wheel.

Clearly, a few years ago, he was just a kindergartener who bickers with her, but seeing him driving a car doesn’t feel like the same person at all.

When they gone through puberty and he became tall, she still sees him as the childhood friend she had. Even when they passed the SAT, and now that they’re already at the end of their teens.

While looking at Eunho with a strange feeling, his grip on the steering wheel caught Hyeseo’s attention. She remembered her mother telling her to relax her shoulders every time she took the wheel.

“I have to practice driving on the highway, but it’s scary.”

As Hyeseo murmured, she looked at the car in front of them and said:

“How come mom never look back to see if we’re doing well behind them?”

Hyeseo grumbled as she checked their destination on the navigation screen again.

Hyeseo’s and Eunho’s families were on their way to Mount Jirisan for a vacation. Hyeseo’s parents and Eunho’s parents started in a different car first, and so the two followed with a separate car.

Eunho and Hyeseo were going to stop by in the middle to pick up Hyeseo’s younger sister. Her younger sister, Hyerim, had gone to play at her friend’s house yesterday, so she couldn’t go together with them. They’re on the way anyway, so it wasn’t a big problem.

Eunho was concentrating on driving, so he couldn’t hear Hyeseo muttering. After barely understanding the grunting, Eunho responded by lowering the music a bit.

“Looks like you’re too busy muttering. Do we have anything to eat?”

“I have tangerines. Shall I give it to you?”

“Yes.”

Hyeseo peeled a tangerine and put the small pieces into Eunho’s mouth, and then put the larger piece into her own mouth.

As soon as she put the tangerine in her mouth, Hyeseo frowned.

“Ah, this tangerine is so sour. You eat all of this.”

When Eunho opened his mouth, she put two or three pieces of tangerine into his mouth without hesitation.

“It’s fine.”

Eunho said while feeling the tangerine bursting into his mouth.

“Huh? I thought you don’t like sour foods that much.”

“Yes, but this is okay though?”

“Okay then, that’s good.”

Hyeseo poured all the remaining tangerine slices into his mouth. Eunho’s cheeks are bulging.

Seeing this, she smiled and put the tangerine peel in the bag.

“We still have to pick up Hyerim. All the other cars are already going ahead, aren’t we too slow? Let’s just go to the other lane.”

As Hyeseo watched the cars speeding past her in the lane next to them, she said.

“This is the prescribed speed limit. There’s nothing to worry about, we can just follow. A good driver just go straight and don’t change lanes.”

“Really? Well, only if you’re the person behind the wheel, that’s it. Just drive safe. Oh, it says you have to exit right in that way in the front.”

“Yes, I looked at the navigation. But what’s with that car behind us? Why is it running fast like that?”

Eunho, who had been glancing at the rearview mirror for a while, worried about the car behind them, hurriedly put the thought out of his mouth. After that, Hyeseo looked at the back of the car.

A tour bus was running behind them at great speed. It was running so fast that even if they press the brake lightly, they would crash.

“Are they crazy?”

She frowned and cursed them a little. Suddenly, the bus came right behind their car.

The moment Eunho honks the horn and change lane…

Bang—!

Hyeseo and Eunho felt a huge shock along with a bang.

Without the time to feel if the seatbelts are tight enough to prevent their bodies from being thrown forward, a series of crashing noise was heard. Once again, they felt the impact of the car hitting them.

Hyeseo lost consciousness when her vision suddenly blackened like a power outage.

***

Her whole body was hot and sore. It was after a feeling of heat and pain that she realized she had regained consciousness.

She remembered the accident she had suffered before she lost her consciousness and the shock she felt at that time. Hyeseo naturally thought that she died.

But…now that she’s dead, why is she still feeling sick? Does she have to suffer like this even after she died? What will happen to her now? Surely, she won’t be feeling sick like this all the time right?

She doesn’t know where this is, and she don’t know what happened. Her brain’s still not working well.

She didn’t even want to open her eyes, let alone lift a finger.

 ‘I’m dead anyway, so let’s take a break for now then think about the future.’

At that moment, something cool suddenly touched her cheek, and then she heard someone’s voice.

‘Is this a hospital? So I’m not dead yet…’

She silently thank God and fell asleep again right after.

***

When Hyeseo woke up, her condition had improved a lot. She felt her body lighter than before, but she still wanted to sleep a little more.

However, when she reached out her hand to pull the blanket up to her chin, she couldn’t help but wake up to the unfamiliar texture.

 ‘I don’t think this is my nor the hospital’s blanket, what the hell is this blanket?’

Hyeseo rolled her eyes wide open. She was in a room with her bouquets of flowing all over her. It was a strange place she had never been to.

‘What is this princess’ room for?’

Startled, she tried to get up but got dizzy so she slowed down sitting.

She only moved a little, but her whole body ached. She frowned at the pain and was startled by silhouette she saw.

Somehow her legs look short…

‘My legs! No way, is this because of the accident?’

Contemplating her terrifying imagination, she stood up and pulled out the blanket around her, then realized.

It wasn’t just the legs that were short.

 Her arms, fingers, feet, torso. It was just all short. The only long on this body is the hair.

What is this little girl?

Confused, she looked around the room with a feast of gold and pastel tones.

She looked around with her eyes wide open at the movie-like room, and found a mirror adorned with gold on one side.

She went straight to the mirror, then she looked at the reflection in it.

The blonde, green-eyed, roughly five or six-year-old child in the mirror…

It was pretty, and surprisingly cute.

 ‘You’re still young, but you already have a perfect face.’

And what was even more surprising was the fact that the face was hers.

Hyeseo doubted her own eyes, grabbed her face in the mirror and pulled it. Then, suddenly she got scared and went back to bed and covered herself with a blanket.

‘The accident. It’s because of the accident I’ve gone crazy’

Their car got into an accident…then what happened to everyone? Mom, Dad, Eunho, Auntie, Uncle…are they safe?

She’s thinking that they might’ve hurt but it would be okay, they’re gonna survive…

The feeling of the car collapsing in an instant was too clear to be dismissed like that.

As she recalled the time of the accident, it seemed to naturally lead to a single result. She became frightened to think of the tragic consequences, so Hyeseo gripped the quilt even tighter.

‘I don’t want to think about it…later, think about it later. For now, let’s think about what’s happening.’

Covering her eyes with the blanket, she decided to take a moment to catch her breath and think about something else.

It was a diversion.

As she recalled the memories of the accident, she couldn’t think of any other ending other than that her parents and Eunho would not be safe.

‘What happened to me? This body isn’t a newborn baby, it’s a kid…so she didn’t reincarnate, right?

Is this for real?

She looked down at her tiny hand and clenched and opened her fist. It was too real to be a dream.

She was apparently dead, but suddenly she woke up in another child’s body with her past life memory. What’s this? After-service in the afterlife?

She’s still thinking nonsense on top of the ridiculous reality, but she still don’t know what’s going on so it doesn’t make her feel better.

She don’t know what it was, but one thing was certain.

 Now, Hyeseo became this girl.