Beyond His Grey Eyes

I've been lost, trying to find something from a past I wasn't aware about. Trying to make sense of how my life came to this point… ~ Florence Joyce

xxxxxx

If Sarina was going to be honest, she had only known this so-called "gift" to be a curse. All her life, she had to do her best to keep her ability a secret. But she didn't mind if it was discovered in some way.

Or at least, she thought of it that way at one point.

Sarina sighed as she looked around the compound where a big Greek-style building stood proudly. She knew she'd be working there next week. And yet, she still had a hard time trying to settle her thoughts.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath through her nose before continuing to look at the campus ground. This place reminded her of what she once dreamed she could experience before her father's disappearance changed everything. But she wasn't going to blame him for what happened. For what she chose to give up for her to know the truth.

Not after everything that had happened. Sarina wanted to know why her father's disappearance led her back to this town, but she also just couldn't imagine anyone taking him away from her. Not as mysterious as that.

When she turned to a certain direction, she finally saw familiar figures coming towards her.

Sarina smiled as a young man and two young women approached her. The three of them were smiling back. And she couldn't stop herself, even though she felt something was wrong.

"It took you a while to get here," the young man said with a smirk.

Instead of replying to Rein's words, she chose to hug both Sejin and Isona first without losing that smile on her face. Well, it seemed he didn't mind that she chose to do that first. After all, it had been a long time since she last saw any of them.

"I thought you would never arrive here," Isona, the one who never really remove her headphone from her head, said with a pout after hugging Sarina.

"If I didn't arrive here, I don't think you'd even want to be my friend anymore."

"It's a good thing you know that. Then again, I'm sure Rein would scour every town just to look for you and drag you here to be with us," Sejin, possibly the prettiest out of the three of them, responded as she ruffled Sarina's hair.

She didn't mind Sejin doing that, though. It was one of her signature gestures towards her friends.

Rein was my childhood friend and possibly the only male friend that Sarina had in my life – other than her father, of course. While Sejin and Isona were the friends she made during middle school and high school respectively. She never associated herself with so many people ever since, even when people were "required" to be a part of a clique during her school days.

And that was why Sarina had been truly grateful to have these three as her friends even after she chose to isolate herself from them -- not completely – when her father went missing. But that was five years ago. She hasn't had any success in locating him or even knowing if he was okay or still alive.

Her friends never let her deal with the mental stress alone. Though they couldn't go to where she was at the time, phone calls and video calls made it possible for them to know how she was feeling all those times she had to give up a lot of things just to figure out what happened to her missing father.

Now, one of the clues that Sarina found had led her to the town of Huijin. The town where her parents' love story started and bloomed.

The town that she was standing at.

"But honestly, what are you all doing here?" Sarina asked when she finally gathered her thoughts to talk to her friends.

"We would be working here, of course."

Without a doubt, it shocked her to hear Isona say that. "Work here? What are you talking about? But you guys were already working at your respective parents' companies, right? What kind of craziness are you thinking for doing that?"

"Don't think of it as craziness. We're doing this with their permission. And besides, we're not going to let you stay here all by yourself."

"Sejin..."

"Sari, don't worry. We already talked about this since last year, even before you told us that you'd come back here."

She could only sigh at Rein's words. And from the way he called her by her nickname, she knew he was serious.

"And we're also going to help you find out everything about your father while you're here. We also want to know what happened to him all this time that he disappeared."

Sarina could only look at Sejin when she said those words. It still felt amazing to hear her friends say something comforting to her face to face. Why did she even decide to isolate herself from them back then?

"Thank you. I really appreciate it," she said and even bowed to them.

Isona placed her hand around Sarina's shoulders and pulled her closer. "And now that we're together again, I think we should celebrate, right? It's been a long time since we've done that."

"You mean, for old time's sake?"

"Why are you saying those words like an old person, Sejin?"

Sarina burst out laughing as soon as Rein asked that question with a frown and annoyance. For goodness' sake, it had been a long time since someone made her laugh personally like this.

"Let's just enjoy that celebration for old times' sake before school works start driving us crazy before we know it."