Fushigi Yuugi Fan Fiction ❯ Only In My Heart ❯ My Best Friend ( Chapter 2 )

Disclaimer :: Nope still don't own Fushigi Yuugi…

This is my first fic, I know its slow going & there are bound to be mistakes so plz be gentle with me. Also remember, this is my story, I can do whatever I like with it, ie: change characters slightly, lol.

Chapter Two "My Best Friend"

Jenna stood in front of the mirror as she brushed her long brown hair. Her violet eyes were blood shot from crying over the dream. Pulling her hair up into a bun, she poked the jeweled chopsticks through the bun to hold it in place.

She began thinking of the dreams she had as a teenager. They were fragmented but she remembered them vividly. Not one made any sense to her. Her mother called them childhood fantasies. She looked at them as past life memories. Unfortunately, she had them so frequently her parents made her see a shrink.

It did help her to have someone to talk to about them but the doc never really helped her to solve the mystery of why she had the same dreams all the time since childhood. Eventually they slowed down when she got to high school, probably because she was so involved with studying all the time. Now that she was working and was a part-time college student, she had a little more time on her hands.

Being in school was a breeze, a refresher of sorts since she had the same subjects in high school. Her job was part-time too, although she often put in extra hours just to have something to do at night. She hated going out with her friends. All they ever wanted to do was go to bars and meet men. She wasn't interested in those kinds of men. Drunken fools, she called them.

She was startled out of her thoughts by a pounding on the door. "Hey, Jenna. You in there?" Jenna took one last look at herself before going to the living room to answer the door. `Yup perfect, except for those damn circles under your eyes'. She sighed and went to answer the door.

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As she opened the door, her best friend pushed it open, banging it against the wall. "Damn, Korin to do have to be so brutal?"

Korin laughed and winked at her. "You know, you look like shit Jenna." Jenna laughed as she walked to the kitchen picking up her purse. "Gee, thanks." Korin followed her. "Really Jen, you look like you haven't slept in days. You're not having those dreams again are you?"

Jenna walked to the door, opening it. "I really don't want to have this conversation. Okay? Will you please just let it go?" She began to walk down the steps from the apartment as Korin slammed the door shut.

"Damn it Jen! I worry about you! You're my best friend."

Jenna turned to look at her friend. They had known each other since the 6th grade when Korin moved to America from China. When they got into high school, Korin told everyone they were twins. They did look very much alike, same hair and eye color, same long legs, and figure. The only difference being Korin having more of a bust. They also both worked at the Dragon China and even lived in the same boarding house.

Jenna sighed. Knowing Korin's concern for her was real. "Please don't worry about me. Like you said it's just a dream. I'll be all right. Eventually." She laughed, trying to lighten up her friends concern.

Korin didn't accept it, thinking Jenna should talk about it. "So, which dream was it this time?"

Jenna stopped walking and took Korin's hand. "Please, will you just let it go. I don't want to think about it anymore."

"Oh, so it was that dream. The one where your husband dies?" Korin had heard it many times before. It was the most frequent of Jenna's dreams. The guy always dies and then Jenna mopes around for days on end.

Poor Jenna, Korin sighed. She was glad it wasn't she who had these dreams. Of course, her dreams were almost always about being killed by a wolf so was this any worse? She laughed at her thought.

They walked the rest of the way to the restaurant in silence, both deep in their own thoughts. As they entered the restaurant, they noticed there weren't any customers.

"Hmm, looks like it's gonna be a slow day." Jenna mused, almost to herself as she walked towards the kitchen.

"Good morning Aunt Betty." She walked over to the short, dark haired woman and planted a kiss on her forehead. "Looks like business is slow this morning."

Aunt Betty sat down by the counter and sighed. "I guess people just don't think of a Chinese restaurant as a place to have breakfast." Jenna giggled and took a seat next to her as a waitress came over pouring them both coffee.

Korin came out of the back room holding up her uniform. "Aunt Betty, look." She held the uniform out in front of her and pouted. "Someone forgot to take the uniforms to the cleaners again." Her uniform was soiled across the top from spilling someone's meal when she bumped into another waitress.

"Opps, me bad." Replied Jenna. "I had cleaner duty last night. I forgot all about the uniforms." She stood up and walked into the back room. She returned a few minutes later with another uniform.

"Here, this should fit you." She started to laugh as Korin furled her eyebrows together. "Just what are you implying!" Korin stuck her tongue out.

The uniform Jenna held up was about twice the size of the small figure that her and Korin shared. Although they both stood 5' 10" neither fit into the standard size uniforms the restaurant purchased for the other girls. They both had theirs custom made for length. The standard uniform was either too short for their long legs or too large across the top making for a tent like appearance.

Aunt Betty giggled. "Will you two stop tormenting each other. It's okay. You girls can take the day off and take the uniforms to the cleaners."

Korin jumped up. "Really! Aww, you're the greatest Aunt Betty!" She turned to look at Jenna. "Come on, let's get to the dry cleaners and then go to mall! I think we can use a little bit of shopping!" She over emphasized the word `shopping' making sound like she was singing the word.

Jenna cringed. She hated going to the mall but she knew there was no way of getting out of going. Korin would insist and then probably tell Aunt Betty about her having the dreams again. She didn't want Aunt Betty to worry so she gave in.

"Okay, Korin. The mall it is but you have to promise me something. No flirting with guys, okay?"

Korin smiled the biggest smile she could muster. "I promise to be good." Jenna picked up her purse sighing. "Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of." Korin started laughing as she walked into the back room to get the other uniforms that needed to go to the cleaners.

As she came back into the kitchen, she smiled slyly. "You know if you would lighten up a bit, you might actually find this dream guy someday."

Jenna laughed at that, pushing Korin ahead of her and out the door. "Will you please give it a rest already! I have."

They walked down the street to the dry cleaners then walked 2 blocks over toward the boarding house. As they came to the parking lot Jenna saw Korin's car parked at the far end. "Why do you always park so damn far away from your building? You do know that space in front is for your car?"

Korin laughed then tapped Jenna on the arm. "Tag your it!" She took off running towards the car with Jenna lagging behind. She opened the door and jumped in just as Jenna opened her door. "Beat ya' again." She started the car, waiting for Jenna to put on her seat belt before putting it in gear.

The ride to the mall was done accompanied by listening to Godsmack blasting through the small speakers in the door panels. Laughing, they both sang along to the tunes, bobbing their heads up and down.

After parking the car and getting out they did their ritual thing of bowing their heads up and down, saying, "Yah, Florence Y'all." As they looked up at the water tower that was the trademark of the Florence Mall.

They began to laugh and run through the parking lot seeing who would make it to the door first. Once inside they calmed down a little but still giggling as they ran to each window looking inside the shops.

After two hours of looking in windows and only making one purchase of a new hair clip, Korin spotted the food court. "Yahhh, food! We can't come to the mall without stopping at that cool Chinese restaurant for orange chicken!" She took off into the crowd as Jenna tried to follow behind.

By the time Jenna caught up to her, Korin had already ordered them both a plate of food with noodles and spring rolls. Sitting down at the table, Jenna looked down at the food and felt a sadness envelop her. For some reason, the food made her think of the man in her dream. This was highly unusual since she ate this food everyday at the restaurant. Her hands shook as she picked up the chopsticks.

"Hey Jen, what's wrong? You're trembling." Korin reached across the table and took her hands.

A tear slipped down Jenna's cheek. "I'm sorry Korin. I don't know what's come over me. The image of that man in my dream just popped into my head again."

She tried to laugh as she wiped the tears away. "Okay, go ahead and laugh. I've been having fun all day with you and looking at those damn noodles made me think of him. I'm so pathetic."

Korin laughed and reached across the table to take Jenna's hand in hers. "Oh, come on. I don't think you're pathetic. Obviously, this dream has upset you more than I thought. Why don't you talk about it, maybe that will help ease the pain you're feeling."

Jenna looked into Korin's eyes. "You are such a good friend. How did I get so lucky to have met you?" She began telling Korin the dream from start to finish.

By the time she was finished telling Korin about the dream, Korin herself had tears in her eyes. "I don't know why Jen but that dream of yours has really affected me too." She wiped at her eyes. "All the other dreams you had seemed different somehow but this one is so deep and sad."

Jenna leaned over handing Korin a napkin to dry her eyes. When their eyes met they both began laughing. "I think we better eat our food before it's not edible anymore." Jenna said through her laughter. Korin nodded. "Nah, there's enough preservatives in this food for it to last a life time." They both began laughing again.

When they finally finished eating their food, Jenna stood up. "I'll be right back, I want to see if they have any jasmine tea." She strode off towards the restaurant stand.

Korin sat back in her chair, cracking open her fortune cookie. Pulling out the fortune, she read it silently to herself. `You love peace.' That was all it said, she flipped it over expecting to see the little `learn Chinese' thing on the back but it wasn't there. "Bummer."

"What's a bummer?" Jenna placed two styrofoam cups of tea down in front of them. Korin pouted. "I didn't get a cookie with the learn Chinese on the back of it."

Jenna laughed, picking up her fortune cookie and cracking it open. Hers read, `It is better to deal with problems before they arise.' She flipped it over. "Ahh, yes. I got the learn Chinese on mine!"

Korin reached for it but Jenna pulled it away, a frown crossing her face. "Jen? What does it say?"

"It says, Xing-xing, Star and it has the character for it. See." Jenna handed the fortune to Korin. A frown crossed Korin's face too and she slipped the fortune into her pants pocket. "Let's get out of here Jen. This is really starting to freak me out."

Jenna reached for Korin's arm as she stood up. "Why is it freaking `you' out?" Korin turned to look at her double, a soft light showing in her violet eyes. "Because now you got me thinking about someone I once dreamt about now." She turned and walked toward the exit.

Jenna caught up to her and grabbed her by the arm again to slow her down. "Hey, Korin. Come on, you're freaking me out now. What are you talking about?"

Korin shook her hand off as she reached the parking lot and broke into a run towards the car. "Tag you're it!" As she said it, memories of something tried to break through and she came to a halt just as Jenna caught up to her.

"Shit Korin!" Jenna yelled as she smashed right into Korin almost sending them both to the ground. "What the hell did you stop like that for?"

Korin turned a pale face to Jenna. Jenna stared at her as a car honked at them to get out of the way. "Korin, you're pale. Are you okay? Let's get to the car." Jenna took Korin by the arm and led her towards the car.

Once inside the car Korin started to speak as if far away. "Jen, do you believe in reincarnation? I mean, do you seriously think the dreams you are having are from a past life?"

Jenna didn't have time to answer. Korin kept speaking. "Describe for me what the monk in your dreams looks like. I mean I just had the strangest feeling of dejavu. First when I saw the character for star but that's not all. Then when I said tag you're it, this image of a monk popped into my head as if I were playing the game with him."

Jenna put her hands to her mouth. "Oh my god, Korin! Did my dream rub off on you?" She began to giggle but stopped as Korin turned in her seat to look her in the eyes.

"I'm serious Jen. Describe him to me."

Jenna took a deep breath before speaking. "I'm sorry, I really can't. I know he's been in a few of my dreams but I never really paid that much attention to him. My focus has always been on the man that I appear to be in love with."

Korin put her head down. "Shit, Jenna, I really wished you paid more attention." Korin banged her hands on the steering wheel. "Damn it Jen! I'm serious."

"Okay, okay. Let me think. He had long hair tied back in a ponytail. I guess you could call it a sort of dusty gray color. Although he wasn't old… Oh I know something that's unique to the man. His face, he had a scar across one eye."

Korin gripped the steering wheel until her knuckles turned white. "Okay Jenna. This might be a coincidence but I think I've dreamt about this guy too."

Jenna giggled. "Okay Korin, you had your fun with me. Take me home now please." Korin released her hold on the steering wheel and turned grabbing Jenna's arm and squeezing.

"Oww. You're hurting me!" Jenna tried to pull away from her but Korin had a death grip. "I'm am serious Jen. What if we knew each other in a past life and the memories are coming back? That character on the fortune cookie, it made me think of a dream I had when I was a kid. There was a guy in my dream, he had that same character on his neck."

Jenna stared in shock at her best friend. Is this why they became friends? Were they together in a past life? She couldn't tell Korin the man in her dream also had that character on his neck.

Jenna turned to look out the window. "I can't really remember Korin. Like you said it was just a dream. Can we go home now, Aunt Betty is going to start worrying if we don't get back soon."

Korin sighed as she started the car. "If you're sure that's what you want." She had a frown on her face that told Jenna she didn't believe her. "We will talk about this later. I have to know if we're dreaming of the same man."

They drove back to the boarding house in silence. Jenna felt like she was going to throw up. All she could think about was the photograph in her dream, wondering if Korin was the girl in the photo…

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