Chapter 44 - For Your Sake

By the time the darkness of the night crept up, the green eyed girl was sound asleep. She was snoozing peacefully on the sofa opposite the bed, while another man was lying next to the bed with his head down. Both of them were exhausted after watching over the man on the bed, who was still comatose.

Jade slowly opened his eyes, scanning his surroundings to ensure that both the spectators were asleep. He was taking a big risk by performing the ritual there; what if one of them woke up in the middle of it?

But there was no time. KJ had at most two weeks left before his spirit disappears. He must do it tonight. Jade quietly prowled towards KJ's bed and jumped on it. Ash stirred slightly but did not wake up.

Quietly moving towards the motionless KJ, Jade placed a paw on his chest. The cat closed its eyes and concentrated.

"Please let this work," Jade prayed. A slight pearly light began to glow from the area where Jade touched KJ. Thankfully, it was not bright enough to wake Ash and Mirae, who were still sound asleep. Jade felt a tug from KJ's heart.

"That's it," Jade encouraged. "Come out. Please come out."

He put all his might into concentrating on the pearly light. Slowly, a ball of light emerged from KJ's heart. 

As the light emerged, Jade felt his energy draining. He was losing consciousness but kept himself focused.

"KJ, I'm doing this for your sake," Jade mumbled as a tear fell from his eye. "So please... Please don't die." With one last heave, he pulled the entire light out.

.... 

"Where am I?"

He felt light, really light. Slowly opening his eyes, he tried to absorb his surrounding. 

"Where am I?" he wondered out loud. The whole place was pitch black. There was not a soul in sight.

"What is this place?"

"It's your inner space, KJ," a voice came from behind him.

Startled, KJ turned around. Jade was sitting there, observing him. 

"Jade? Where are we?" KJ asked. "How did we get here?"

"It's your inner space KJ," Jade repeated. "To be more specific, your subconsciousness. It is where you and all other humans cultivate spirit energy."

"What's that?"

"In order to survive, humans need a balance of earthly energy and spirit energy," Jade explained. "The earthly energy is everything you can see, touch and smell. Like food, air, water, sunlight etc. Spirit energy is like... Food for the soul. Your soul needs certain things to survive as well. Like positive thoughts, peaceful mind and most importantly a willpower. Lack any of it and your spirit energy will deplete. When one loses spirit power, they lose the will to live."

"Still doesn't explain why we are here?" KJ pointed out. He racked his brains to remember what happened. The events of the past few weeks came gushing in.

"Madam Hong was about to shoot Ash!" he exclaimed. "I have to save him."

"Relax," Jade said sharply. "He's fine. Both him and Mirae are fine. You got shot while protecting him."

"What?" KJ checked his body. "But I have no wound."

"That's coz you're in your spiritual form," Jade said. "Your physical body is in a coma because your spirit energy is dangerously low. In this form, you are stuck between the dimensions of time, life and death. Remember all those years ago when you changed the past? I pulled you through the time dimension. However, if you choose the wrong dimension this time, you can actually die."

"So what do we have to do?" KJ asked. 

"What you lack, is the willpower to live," Jade stated. "Tell me KJ, do you really want to live?"

Jade was looking at KJ with his big round eyes, demanding for the truth. It was a difficult question to answer. Did he want to live? 

"I don't know," he admitted. He sat down in exasperation. "Honestly, the life I chose for myself... It was all glitz and glamour from the outside. But after I chose to trade my time for fame, I started to feel how empty this life is. Truthfully, after seeing Mirae being much happier with Ash than she was with me, I think she can do better without me. I wasn't happy then. I'm not happy now. What is the point in living if I'm not happy in any of my lives?"

Jade did not say anything. He pitied KJ for his mistakes but every action has a consequence. 

"KJ," Jade said. "You're probably right. In fact, I agree with you. Mirae is probably better off with Ash. But you need to live as well. You may not be married to her in this timeline, but she considers you a friend. She would hate to lose you."

"She'll forget about me after a few days," KJ gave a sad smile. "Jade, just let me pass through the dimension of death. Let her be happy."

"KJ, if you wanna die, then go ahead," Jade said. "But before that, will you do me a favor? Let me try one last time to bring back your willpower. Just once. Please."

"How will you do that?"

"By taking you back to the original timeline," Jade revealed.

His words shocked KJ. 

"What?" He bellowed. "No way. We can't do that! That'll affect the timeline again!"

"Just hear me out, dimwit," Jade scolded him. "It won't affect the current timeline. I'm taking your spirit back to the time when you were married to Mirae. But..."

"But what?"

"But you won't be able to communicate with anyone," Jade warned him. "You will see your past self and see all your actions when you were simply Jiwon. But you won't be able to change your previous actions. They won't hear you nor see you."

"How will that bring back my will to live?" KJ asked him. "That's only going to make me feel worse."

Jade took a deep breath. "KJ," he said, looking at KJ straight in the eye. "Trust me. You will gain your willpower after what I'm about to show you. There is something you need to know."

His words confused KJ. The cat was being awfully mysterious.

"Jade, what are you hiding?" KJ asked him in alarm.

"Please KJ," the cat begged. "Please come with me to the past. It's the only way..."

In all these years, he had never seen Jade pleading to him like this. But he was also afraid of what Jade will show him. 

After thinking for a while, KJ finally answered. "Okay," he said. "But after that, you'll let me cross over to the other side."

"After showing you the full events of the past, I will let you do whatever you want," Jade promised. He held out his paw.

KJ shook it. 

"It's a deal then," he agreed. "Now let's go."

A circle of light spread from where they stood. KJ watched in awe as the circle shone brightly sinking them into a black hole. KJ felt the ground beneath him slip away and he fell into the darkness.