Hush, My Sweet Darling

Chapter 44: Fickle Finger of Fate

A small section of the wall dividing the baggage claim area and the public arrival hall was made of transparent glass. Jared was still holding his phone to his ear, listening to Claire's ringback tone when he caught sight of a familiar side profile standing outside in the public arrival hall.

It was a figure that had been vividly imprinted in his mind, even though it had been five years since he'd last seen it—at that beautiful urban stream, and under the glowing moonlight at that bus stop.

Underneath him in his bed...

Jennifer.

It was her. He knew it was her.

Like the first time he'd seen her, she was donning a white turtleneck top and a dark blazer, although this time, the skirt she wore was of a striking blue polka dot motif, not a dull-colored one.

Claire's voice rang in his ear.

"Are you almost here? Hello? Honey...? Jared...?"

"Sorry, Claire, I can't make it today," he merely said before abruptly hanging up the phone.

He dashed toward the exit. 

But you see, luck could be such a tease. Meeting Jennifer was serendipity. Finding her again after five years of searching was fortuity. Alas, the Dame Fortune loved to shilly-shally. So fickle was she that instead of providence, she bestowed upon Jared a misfortune—one in the form of a customs officer suddenly singling him out, forcing him to open his luggage.

At this point, Jared knew resisting the search would only delay him further. So, he complied, praying that Jennifer would still be there when they were done checking his luggage.

It was only five minutes before they okayed him to go. He hurriedly closed his luggage and sprinted toward the spot where he'd seen her standing.

She was no longer there.

Heaving, he swept the place with his eyes. Still, Jennifer was nowhere to be seen. He turned around, planning to look for her on the other side of the hall, and right at that instant, a reflection of a blue polka dot skirt—the very same one he'd seen on her earlier—appeared on a store's glass window.

He turned to the source of that reflection and saw just a piece of the garment swaying and vanishing as the person wearing it turned left into a junction that said Trains to City.

He ran after it, but as soon as he made a left turn into the same junction, he was greeted with another intersecting point that would lead him to either the MTR station or the bus terminal.

Which way now?

Following his guts, he chose the path to the underground MTR station.

He had just arrived on the platform inside the station when he saw a train departing. Praying earnestly that she hadn't just left with that train, he combed through the train platform.

But it appeared that she wasn't waiting for the next train to arrive either. He asked around if anyone had seen her, just to be sure—no one had.

Perhaps she'd gotten on the train that had just left, as he'd feared. But Jared refused to give up and ran back up the stairs, making his way toward the bus terminal to meticulously search for her over there too. Alas, it was to no avail.

Certain that any search efforts would be fruitless at that point, he let out a sardonic laugh. He was sure it was her. He'd been thinking of her more often lately, so her face was at the forefront of his mind; nostalgic and familiar. But the gods were either so mischievous they were playing a prank on him or magnanimous they were reminding him that it was something that had never meant to be.