Inyun’s 8000 layers of love.

There’s a beautiful Korean word — “Inyun.”

It’s about destiny and fate, but it’s also about something deeper, something that tugs at the heart.
Have you ever wondered about the magic of Inyun in your own life? How it gently nudges us to connect with someone special?
Love often finds its way through obstacles, just like two hearts drawn together against all odds, but Inyun is what Koreans say when they’re trying to captivate someone’s heart, to seduce them.

Love, you see, often happens unexpectedly. People realize they were meant for each other, but there can be obstacles, questions, and doubts.
We wonder if the person we love feels the same way, if they miss us as much as we miss them. Will they fly a million miles just to be near us, to hold our hand and listen to us talk? And if we were to leave, would they still love us, staring at our picture all day? Would they wait for us, look for us, date us, or maybe even break up with us? Would you build a life together? Even if we were married to someone else, would they come to see us one last time?

I, too, have felt this way. I fell in love with someone I’d never seen, heard, or touched. But when we finally met, it was as if those layers of destiny had been waiting for us to connect. It’s as if, when our clothes accidentally brush against someone, there are 8000 layers of Inyun between us.
But how do we know when we’ve brushed against the right person, even if we’ve never met them before? I know, love can be a mystery.

It’s the Inyun’s gentle touch, weaving its threads between two hearts.
Because we never saw each other, we never knew each other.
We don’t even know who we were before we said we love each other.
We fell in love despite not knowing each other’s pasts,
Yet, when we finally met in flesh,
it was as if we had 8000 layers of Inyun connecting us.

And he came looking out for me when I was far away, just as much as I missed him, he missed me too. He’d listen to me talk for hours; he would just stare at the ceiling all day, listening to me talk next to him and fall asleep just like that. He’d cross a million miles to be with me.

And these questions lingered in my mind. What if we had never met? What if we had never found each other? But I know the answer because, at one point, I was a million miles away from him, not knowing if he’d know my existence. Yet, he did, and I still remember, like today with tears in his eyes, he told me not to go to my hometown, afraid to miss me.

Why do I love him? I may never know, but I cherish every moment of it. I cherish that he’s mine, amidst those 8000 layers of Inyun. I love him, and I don’t always understand why, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is that I do, and I’ll keep loving him with the same passion for the rest of our lives, even if we never knew each other before we said those three little words: “I love you.”

And as I reflect on all of this, this beautiful movie, “Past Lives,” that inspired me to write this tale. It’s a reminder that love knows no boundaries and that Inyun has its own delightful way of bringing two souls together, against all odds.