The vehicle entered the suburbs of Bangkok. The sky was still dark as the driver slowed down and stopped at the side of the road.

“Where do you live?” the man poked his head out of the window and asked me.

“I live near Ladprao.”

“Then I think you have to get off here. I’m going to take the route that bypasses the city.”

“That’s okay.” I picked up the wooden tube and the knife and jumped down from the back.

“Thank you so much for the ride,” I said, walking to the front door.

“You’re welcome,” the woman said. “And good luck!”

The pickup started off again and I watched it drive away. I didn’t recognise the area where they had dropped me, but it still seemed quite far from the city centre. When I looked around, I saw large empty plots, alternating between huge industrial plants, each of them located far from one another. The street lights allowed me to see things clearly despite the semi-darkness of the early morning hours.

I waved at passing cars, hoping to catch another ride, while I walked along the road, but no one stopped. I went on until I arrived at a bus stop, studied the bus schedules and routes, and then it dawned on me that I didn’t have any money with me. How could I get on a bus without any fare?

As I couldn’t make up my mind about what I should do next, I sat down at the bus stop and took the wooden tube from my back that contained Vince’s painting. I wanted to look at it because it was the only thing that I felt connected me with Koharu. When I opened the lid and shook out the paper roll, a tiny cloth bag dropped out. I opened it saw that there was some money inside, which must have been the money from my wallet.

“How did this get in here?” I asked out loud, while I tried to recall who had last handled this wooden tube.

“Could it have been Koharu, when she told me that the lid wasn’t fully closed and then slid the money in?” I tried to remember the sequence of events.

“It must have been her who put money inside!” I said to myself.

“Yes, I took it from the bag that you had left in my house,” I heard another voice answer.

“Is that you speaking, Koharu?” I responded with surprise.

“Yes,” her voice replied.

“I’m so glad you can talk to us using the soul language now,” she added.

“Am I really using the soul language?”

“Definitely!” she answered.

“So now I can talk with Meen, Yoshida, Kyran, and all the others, too,” I said in my mind.

“Yes, you only have to specify to whom you want to talk,” she replied.

“And doing it this way, we’ll never be apart, right?”

“As I’ve already told you, I’ll always be with you, don’t you remember? I’ll be able to hear you every time you intend to talk to me. Whenever you think of me, or wish you will have the intention to speak with me, I’ll be able to hear everything that you say,” her voice rose again.

“Koharu, I love you.” These words came out suddenly, and that was what I wanted to tell her most, all the time.

“I love you too,” she replied.

At that moment, a taxi passed by and I waved to hail it. The driver had already seen me, and the taxi pulled to a stop.

“I want to go to Ladprao, please,” I told the taxi driver as I opened the rear door.

The driver didn’t say a word. He only glanced disapprovingly at my outfit and seemed a bit perplexed.

“Where are you from? Why are you wearing this stuff?” the taxi driver asked after a moment, unable to hide his curiosity.

“I went to a fancy-dress party at a friend’s house and I didn’t change my clothes,” I answered with the first thing that came to my mind.

“Ha ha, I see,” the driver laughed, “I initially thought that you had come from another dimension, ha ha ha.”

My answer seemed to have worked and allowed us to continue with our normal conversation. If I had given the same answer earlier to the people in the pickup truck, it would only have triggered more questions.

I still couldn’t bring myself to tell the truth to anyone about what I had experienced as it was too weird to believe, even for myself.

The taxi driver drove quite fast as there was no traffic at that early hour. It was almost morning and the sky had painted a light blue colour mixed with a reddish tint.

“Would you like me to take the highway?” the taxi driver asked.

“Yes, please,” I replied.

It was intended, I suppose, for me to experience the first rays of light on the first morning of my new life. When the taxi drove onto the elevated road, the bright red sun gradually made its rise from the horizon, and I watched it without taking my eyes off. I thought that probably no one could understand what I was feeling at that moment. I felt like someone who had been away so far from home and returned for the first time.

The drive to my apartment took less than an hour. My apartment was in an old four-story building with no elevator, and I had chosen to live there because the rent was very reasonable. I took some money from the tiny bag that Koharu had given me to pay for the taxi fare, and figured the rest was enough to get me through the next several days.

“Koharu!” I visualised her name in my mind.

“Thank you so much, my love, I would have encountered even more problems had it not been for you,” I thought.

“You’re welcome,” her voice replied.

“From the beginning, you already knew the series of events that would take place and that we would have to be separated from each other. You knew beforehand that I had left my backpack and wallet in your house some days before we parted, and placed it in the tube because you saw the future and knew that I would need that money,” I recalled the past events in order.

“Yes, I knew it then,” she replied.

“But why didn’t you tell me back then?” I asked as the taxi was approaching my place.

“If you had known this before, you would have tried to change things and that wouldn’t have done us any good. Sometimes, what seems right is wrong and what is the right thing for the universe may not be the right thing for us,” she explained.

“I miss you so much!” I couldn’t help but burst out.

“What did you say!?” The driver turned around and asked as I was getting out of the taxi.

“Oh, no, nothing,” I replied quickly and closed the door.

I watched the taxi drove off with the driver shaking his head and murmuring something to himself but I couldn’t hear what he said.