Bailonz Street 13

“Jane, I’ve waited for you for seven years. I always remembered the woman with brown hair and green eyes disappearing into the mirror when I was twenty-two.”

“…Ever since then?”

“Ever since then. I searched all over London for a woman named Jane. But strangely, I couldn’t find her, as if she vanished like a ghost. I even wondered if I had gone mad.”

It was November of his twenty-ninth year when I started as Jane.

“Then, in the spring of my twenty-seventh year, Jane appeared.”

“Another Jane, not me.”

Liam Moore’s fingers brushed my cheek as if playing the piano keys. I saw his lips curl into a gentle smile.

“I tried a few times, but ‘that’ Jane didn’t remember anything. You were the same. Even though she was closest to me, she didn’t seem to know about our encounters. So, I realised our time was tangled.”

When did it start? When did Liam Moore begin to welcome me?

I can’t remember. The first time I met him feels so distant, as if it happened a long time ago.

His fingers slipped between my bitten lips, pressing gently. Liam Moore’s eyes glowed as he whispered, “Finally.”

He whispered, “We finally face each other, you and I.”

Liam, who knows me, and I, who knows Liam.

We just quietly looked at each other. Two people who met after a long, long time, with tangible bodies. Even if this place is in someone’s mind.

I regained what I had lost. The past, tangled like a skein of thread, unravelled, and all that was left was to return.

I had so much I wanted to say to him, but Liam seemed to have even more to say. He looked at me for a moment before apologising.

“I’m sorry. I heard your voice calling me, but I was still trapped because I hadn’t fully reconnected.”

“What do you mean by ‘reconnected’?”

“Finding the shattered pieces of my soul and putting them back together. If I miss even one, or connect them wrong, my very existence would be disrupted. That’s what a soul is. It makes up the essence of a human and is the last bastion that sustains existence.”

What should I say about the mind that mutilated such a soul with its own hands? Is he strong or reckless, or maybe just out of his mind? I can’t dislike this man who is fearless enough to gamble his existence for me.

Once, I found such feelings unpleasant and creepy. Watching game characters come to life with monotonous voices and bizarrely vivid expressions scared me. But all those memories now feel so distant.

Maybe I have known this man for a very long time.

And in part, that’s true. It feels like you have become my reason.

If a soul makes up the essence of a human, why does it feel like my essence is with you? Like my last breath is tied to you.

To shake off the restless feeling, I change the subject slightly.

“So that’s why it took so long.”

“Well, I thought I was pretty quick.”

Annoyed by his exaggeratedly proud face, I pressed his cheeks with my fingers.

While my heart was in turmoil, he acted so nonchalantly. I spent a mad amount of time looking for this man. Finally, I found him. And now, I intend to make him pay for all the worry he caused me.

I grumbled, “Naughty Liam Moore. You heard everything but gave no sign.”

Wait a minute.

And then I began to realise something dreadful.

Liam said he heard my ‘waking’ voice. That means his consciousness has existed since I arrived here.

My face started to burn uncontrollably. If there was a hole to hide in, or if this lake were just a bit deeper, I’d dive in.

I asked in a voice as small as an ant, “You heard everything?”

Liam, his face pressed flat, smiled broadly.

“What?”

“You know what!”

“I want to hear it from your mouth again.”

Crazy. What does he want to hear? I’ll never say it. This isn’t for Liam. I know it’s petty to give something and then take it back, but I can’t say it with a clear mind.

As I shuddered, Liam, who was watching me with warm eyes, wrapped his arms around my neck. He clasped his hands tightly to prevent me from escaping and looked up at me, smiling gently. It was a gesture typical of a 19th-century lady.

Everything happened so naturally. The problem was it suited him too well. I didn’t know where to look, so I rolled my eyes around.

Suddenly, his voice pierced my ears.

“I love you too.”

My wavering gaze turned to him.

I felt like I had been hit with a hammer. I just stood there with my mouth agape, replaying his words in my mind like a broken cassette tape.

Love you, love you, me? You? …Why?

He knew better than anyone how to command attention with a single word.

“It might be too late to say this after everything, but Miss Jane Osmond.”

William Moore’s long, elegant fingers slowly caressed my neck, parting my hair and touching my bare skin. My face felt like it was about to explode. My heart pounded so loudly I felt dizzy, unsure if the sky was spinning or if I was.

And then, as if flipping through a thin layer of water, the scenery began to change.

The snowy field turned into a white bedspread, the falling snow into vines.

Before I knew it, we were back in the room in Greenwich. The white vines had grown enough to coil around the bed, in the room in Greenwich.

But one thing hadn’t changed: the man in front of me.

As my gaze shifted from the sudden embarrassment, he pressed my cheek with his thumb to make me look at him. Then he whispered softly.

“If you’re going to run, now’s your chance.”

How could I refuse that?

I complied. Yes, as if resigning to fate.

It’s always hard the first time, but surprisingly easy the second.

“I love you.”

The man smiled brightly.

＊ ＊ ＊

As soon as we returned, the tension in the room deflated like a balloon slowly releasing air. Or like a bowl filled with water where a single drop causes it to overflow.

I could feel the things the room had been trying to contain slowly returning to Liam Moore.

Liam Moore, who was gathering the fierce forces he had let loose, looked a bit strained. I could see the cold sweat on his forehead and the pain twisting his eyes.

The man pressed his forehead against my collarbone and exhaled deeply. His arms tightened around me.

I was confused. Isn’t this his power? Didn’t he originally possess it? I thought he would accept it effortlessly. That he couldn’t possibly fail.

“Are you okay?”

Liam nodded, clutching his chest.

“I forgot how light a body without magic is.”

“Didn’t you use magic since birth?”

“Jane, people are born with empty hands and die the same way….”

What’s he talking about? I tapped his cheeky lips as he blabbered nonsense, and he laughed weakly, like a deflated balloon. His large hand patted my head.

“It takes a bit of adjustment. Look around the room. What do you think those are?”

Following his gaze, I turned my head. No matter how much I looked, I couldn’t figure it out.

“Well, sparkling decorative plants? Delicate interior for Sleeping Beauty?”

“And I’m the princess?”

“Of course. The most beautiful princess in the world. But stop being trapped in the tower. It’s exhausting.”

Liam burst out laughing and leaned his face into my embrace. His shoulders shook with laughter. It was quite annoying that he didn’t even try to suppress his laughter, but I didn’t show it.

After laughing for a while, he taught me.

“Greenwich was drawing out my power so I wouldn’t go berserk. If I lost control unconsciously, this place would be a mess. That’s why the plants were necessary. They absorb magic. What couldn’t be extracted was hanging in the air. Think of it like the relationship between oxygen and carbon dioxide.”

I could feel the flow of magic. It spread gently in the air like dust, slowly swirling towards one point. That point was Liam.

“So it’s returning now. No wonder the flow felt strange.”

“You can feel the flow?”

“It’s strange if you can’t, Liam.”

Liam’s eyelashes trembled. His gaze, filled with some sadness, was clearly visible to me as I sat on his lap and looked down at him.

Suddenly, an answer popped into my head as if someone had flipped the script for me.

‘I see.’

He knew that I had fully stepped into the boundary.