A U T H O R ' S P. O. V

"No, mom and dad please don't go!" pleaded an eleven year old Lisa as she held her father and mother's now bloody hands.

Their once joyful house was now in a state of both chaos and silence. Shattered glass, tables turned, a lone storybook laying open in a corner, they were all evidences of the distress that entered their family's residence.

The only sound that was cutting through the deafening silence was the married couple's occasional coughs and their daughter's pained cries.

"I'm so sorry sweetheart, please forgive me and your mother if we won't be able to take care of you anymore." Lisa's dad muttered softly with a sad tight lipped smile.

"Please promise us to be always strong no matter what happens okay?" The young girl turned to her mother this time, her voice was soft and fond as her eyes slowly becomes heavier and heavier by the second. This action only causesd the young girl to cry even more.

"I love you both mom and dad, always." Young Lisa said, causing her parents to smile one last time. Oh how much Lisa loved her parent's smile, she was told countless times before that she inherited the exact same one, so if it wasn't for the situation she would have smiled back.

"We love you too, angel." Her parents chorused, their voices becoming blurrier as seconds pass by.

"NO!" Lisa Manoban screamed in terror as her eyes snapped wide open, she looked around and soon realized that she was in her dorm, sitting up on her bed. She briefly reached for her face and felt tears flowing down her cheeks.

The rays of sunlight that slid through the curtains swaying before her window prompted her to squint her eyes, before she closed them altogether as a frustrated groan escaped her lips.

Not again.

"Lisa! Are you okay?"

Lisa opened her eyes and turned her head towards the direction of where the concerned voice was coming from. There she found her bestfriend hastily entering the room while looking at her, worry evident on her face. The sight at least made Lisa relax a bit.

The alarmed voice belonged to none other than Park Chaeyoung, Lisa's roommate slash best friend along with their unnie, Kim Jisoo.

The three of them always found comfort in each other at times like this, one reason is because they vowed that they would always look out for each other, a result of the strong bond they formed within the years they spent together, and another is that because maybe fate decided to bring together these three different girls with the same experiences.

It was common for the three of them to have occasional nightmares, as to having lived a tough childhood. So this resulted into them understanding and relating to each other more than anyone else, they were all put in different but somehow alike situations when they were still young, so their concern and words for one another were always more genuine.

They liked to always joke that they must have been destined to meet each other in one way or another.

"Are you having those bad dreams again?" Chaeyoung worriedly asked Lisa as soon as she reached the side of the younger's bed before slowly sitting there, the latter only gave a nod of her head. "Aw, poor maknae, don't worry your beautiful unnie is here!" Chaeyoung exclaimed before giving her a tight hug, she sneakily stole a glance at her bestfriend, before relief flooded her whole when she finally saw a small smile making it's way on Lisa's face.

"Don't worry Chae, I'm fine." Lisa muttered as soon as they broke the hug.

"You sure?" Chaeyoung asked once again with an accusatory stare, all the while wiping the tears from Lisa's face. If there was one thing she learned from being Lisa's friend for years, it's that she would believe everything she said except when she says she's fine.

"Very sure." Lisa assured her, putting a wider smile on her face to indicate that she was more than fine. It had some truth to it anyway, as Chaeyoung was now by her side.

"Okay then." Chaeyoung reluctantly said, before remembering the reason she came to Lisa's room before she heard her outburst.

"Oh and by the way, Jisoo unnie is already cooking downstairs, I'm also going back down to set the table while you, need to prepare already, we still have classes you know." Chaeyoung gave Lisa's head one last pat with a small smile before walking towards the door.

"Okay Chae, be there in a few." Lisa simply replied, now with a more cheerful tone.

As Chaeyoung closed the door, Lisa released a sigh, though it was not as sullen as earlier as she was just thinking about what happened a few minutes prior. Ever since her parents died, she would always have these peculiar dreams, but there were ones that were more frequent and consistent.

An example would be the usual bad dreams about her parents, which she would always dread because it only reminded her of the heart shattering scene she had to witness as a child.

But there was also another one, which she had just a few nights ago, that she always considered weird and odd. In this dream she would see herself standing in the middle of a forest, and it wasn't an ordinary one at that. The longer she thought about it the said forest somehow had a strange aura that she really couldn't pinpoint what it is. In her dreams it was silent and dark, but her vision would always be aided by the luminous fireflies lounging around.

It was truly a magical sight, too nice to look at that sometimes when she wakes up she would feel light and contented, until it went on to a point where she learned to not pay it any mind.

So she ignored it at first for she thought it was only caused by her love for reading fantasy books, and this one specific story her parents used to tell her every time. She thought it just was made up by her naive, young mind as a child.

So it really would've been normal, but as time passed by, she realized that it's been the subject of her dreams in countless occasions that she questioned why that was the case.

But then again it's been reoccurring for years now that over time she just accepted it.

"At least my life's not that boring after all." Lisa commented lamely to herself. The silence in the room then made her eyes trail towards her clock, causing her to jolt in surprise and curse silently to herself because she got too lost in her thoughts once again.

Jisoo was going to kill her.

She decided to shrug her previous thoughts off, before going out of bed and rushing inside the bathroom to finally start her usual morning routine before a certain chicken lover decides to barge into her room and drag her there herself.

° ° °

As the mini living room made it's way into Lisa's line of vision, Jisoo's voice was the first thing that greeted her as soon as she was at the last steps of the staircase.

"Finally! After a thousand years, you're done!" Jisoo exaggerated the second she saw Lisa as she fixed her own uniform. The youngest of the three just rolled her eyes playfully, she wasn't sure if the older girl was genuinely pissed or joking, her unnie was good at being unpredictable because one second she's sulking, and the other she's suddenly happy, but nonetheless she still loves her with all her heart.

"Good morning to you too, unnie." Lisa remarked making Jisoo laugh. This caused the younger girl to conclude that she was indeed joking which was a good thing because she didn't want to be scolded right now.

Meanwhile, the red-haired girl who was currently making herself comfortable at the couch as she listened to their conversation, decided to tease her older friend a bit. "Guys! Stop being immature we need to be ready for class!" Chaeyoung said in a mocked scolding tone.

Between the addressed duo, the younger one merely continued on fixing her things on the table, while the older one whipped her head towards the grinning red-head.

"Yah! how dare you call me immature and compare me to this child, you chipmunk come here!" Jisoo exclaimed, genuinely offended as she put emphasis on the word dare. The oldest of the three then began to chase Chaeyoung, whose laughs echoed within the four corners of the room as she already had a head start.

She knows very well that her Jisoo unnie was actually the opposite of immature, after all she is the standing mother of the group and was the one who was responsible most of the time, but true to Chaeyoung's words, she does have her moments and she tends to be too hyper sometimes, though not at the same level as the younger two.

Lisa and Chaeyoung even made the nickname 'Fake Maknae' just for the sake of antagonizing Jisoo while the latter just denies it everytime.

"Guys, stop it already we're literally going to be late at this point." Lisa managed to say in between her laughs but it did nothing as the two continued their shenanigans. So she shook her head with a smile and cleared her throat, "Guys!"

Lisa's voice which was much more louder this time around finally managed to stop the two from chasing each other. Tom and Jerry, as Lisa now called them inside her head, simultaneously looked at her, the youngest merely pointed at the clock to reinstate her previous comment.

"You know what? Sometimes our maknae can be more mature than us." Chaeyoung said playfully as she glanced at Jisoo with a glint of mischief in her eyes.

"Well haha!" The eldest sarcastically laughed.

Lisa just simply snickered at the sight because this was an everyday occurrence for them.

Soon when they were finally able to calm themselves down, the three finished eating and preparing and took off to start another day at the university.

° ° °

After a short five minute walk from their dorms they finally reached the main gate of the school and was once again greeted by the humongous sign;

Merveille Academy.

It was nothing new for the girls as the gigantic silver signage was always there to welcome them practically everyday so they continued to walk further inside the building.

The three of them were walking peacefully, planning to head to their first class which was Korean Literature as they all have identical schedules in the morning, but that was until a certain brown-haired girl with cat like eyes and an aura as cold as ice, bumped into Lisa causing all of her things to scatter on the marbled floors of their school halls.

"Sorry." Lisa mumbled quietly to avoid trouble as she knew pretty well who she was dealing with.

"Lisa why are you saying sorry? You clearly did nothing wrong." Chaeyoung said as she furrowed her brows at the the owner of the cat like eyes who was just standing there, unbothered by the events. The girl was known to be sweet, sensitive, and was usually friendly with most people, but there are certain exceptions, especially towards people who treat her bestfriend like how Kim Jennie just did.

"Oh she better say sorry." The brown-haired girl's annoyed expression was now replaced with a mischievous one as she taunted, patting Lisa's face playfully while sporting an evil smirk on her face.

Lisa silently clicked her tongue before shrugging her hands off, Here we go again. She thought in her head and got up, she would've let this go in another time, but for some reason that comment really ticked her off.

"Actually," Lisa straightened her posture and stood on her full height, giving her the privilege to look down on Jennie, who rolled her eyes briefly at the jab on her height, but she still kept her smug expression nonetheless. "I take that back, but we really don't want to deal with this right now." Lisa said nonchalantly, wanting to end this as soon as possible because she just wanted to go to class already.

"Oh? I see you're acting strong now huh? Say Manoban, what gave you the audacity to actually talk back to me? Are you really that tough? Or are you just stupid?" Jennie spat back with her trademark cheshire grin.

Lisa internally sighed, she really didn't want to waste her time on useless arguments, "You know what Jennie? I would really love to continue this conversation but unfortunately we have to head to class, good day." Lisa uttered in the calmest voice she could possibly muster, but as she was about to continue heading to their classroom Jennie vigorously held her arm back.

"Where'd the attitude go? I swear it was right here just a second ago." Jennie said, sarcasm evident in her tone.

"Jennie, stop we really need to go." Jisoo who finally spoke for the first time, gave the other aforementioned girl a pleading stare.

She did eventually avert her attention to Jisoo, but only gave her a cold response, "I didn't ask for you opinion."

Jennie profusely let go of Lisa's hands and stared hard at the three girls for a few seconds, before releasing a scoff.

"We're not done yet." Jennie glared at the three. She gave them one last glance before pivoting her heels towards the opposite direction, walking away.

The three watched her retreating back slowly blend with the other students who were all minding their own businesses, until she finally disappeared from their sights. They wondered why Jennie couldn't do the same thing but then again Kim Jennie will always be Kim Jennie, it was her hobby to pick on others because she said it was 'fun'.

Chaeyoung was honestly about to give Jennie a piece of her mind, but it was a good thing that Jisoo and Lisa were there to restrain her. "I'm seriously so done with that girl!" Chaeyoung sighed out loudly, clearly annoyed.

Lisa shook her head and pointed out, "We all are, Chaeng."

Jisoo huffed exhaustedly before looking at her two friends, "Let's just go guys." The other two begrudgingly nodded towards their eldest before they finally resumed to walking to their classrooms.

° ° °

C H A E Y O U N G ' S P. O. V

"This class is so boring!" I whispered to Lisa, my seatmate who thankfully looked as bored as I am so it must mean I wasn't alone with my sentiments.

Why do we even need to have this class? We're Koreans for God's sake! We already know most of these stuff so I see no need to repeat it over and over again.

"Just listen to Mr. Han, Chaeng." Jisoo unnie who apparently heard what I said looked at me pointedly.

I stared back at her with defiance for a few seconds, before giving up and averting my gaze, I then swore I saw unnie smiling in victory at my actions at the corner of my eye, "Fine, I just really wish this would be over now." I said in the same tone as before.

So I resorted to just staring right out of the window. It was sunny today in Seoul, if the scorching heat was any indication, but from my seat I could still hear faint voices coming from outside the window though, must be the underclassmen playing at the yard.

Well at least they're having fun, unlike us here.

And then coincidentally, as if God heard my wish, Mr. Han clapped loudly and finally said those two words I've been wanting to hear for an hour now, "Class dismissed." All the students immediately started to fill out of the room one by one until we three were the only ones left.

"Guys, Mr. Han said earlier that our next teacher is absent, so what do you want to do?" Well what do I expect? Of course Jisoo unnie was listening, unlike me and Lisa who looked at her in confusion for a brief second before replacing our expressions with excited ones.

"Why don't we go to the the library?" Lisa suggested with a cheerful voice. I personally agree and I know unnie will too, for the three of us are really fond of reading books in our free time. So as expected, Jisoo unnie nodded and I did too, and the next thing we knew we were on our way to the school library.

We were about to enter when we felt a pair of eyes staring at us, no correction, glaring at us.

Kim Jennie goes to the library? That's new, this would be the first time we saw her here.

I turned to look at Lisa and Jisoo unnie who appeared to be shocked as well, but for the sake of peace we decided to ignore her despite this morning's events, we didn't want to start a fight, let alone in a library.

"Good morning." Our silent musings were then suddenly interrupted and we all turned our heads to find Ms. Kang, our young librarian approaching and giving us a welcoming smile. "Good morning to you too, Ms. Kang." We all smiled back.

Ms. Kang rolled her eyes playfully. "I told you to call me Seulgi, I'm too young to be called like that." Seulgi unnie chuckled causing us to do the same, but true enough, she was too young and busy to be a librarian at this time, but that's exactly one of the reasons why we look up to her because she was actually a working student, though we weren't too sure which school she goes to.

"Woops, we forgot." Lisa snickered wanting to tease the monolid woman, who merely scoffed good naturedly back at her.

"Anyways, we'll be reading books like the usual, talk to you later unnie!" Jisoo unnie gave Seulgi unnie a smile who returned it and nodded in response before going back to her station.

As we finished greeting Seulgi unnie, my eyes roamed around the library until it landed on an empty table. I pointed at it so the three of us approached the empty seats while discarding our bags from our shoulders in the process. After putting our things down, we went to scan the shelves to find books that piqued our interests.

While scanning, there was this one particular book that caught my sight as I found it odd, I gingerly grabbed it to take a closer look and seemingly out of nowhere, there was this weird feeling that bloomed in my chest as I ran my fingers through the book's leather cover and golden edges.

"This book seems old." My voice managed to grab the attention of my best friends as they stopped whatever they were doing. "How come?" Jisoo unnie asked, confused.

"Take a look." I replied as I handed it to her. As she was scanning the book I found, I glanced at Lisa and came to notice the shocked expression on her face, but she quickly replaced it with a curious one.

I furrowed my brows at her peculiar behavior, now it was my turn to be confused.

"What does it say?" Lisa asked almost urgently, my eyes never left her face out of confusion but after a few seconds I finally looked at the book cover again to answer her. "It says here. . ."

"Enchancia."

° ° °

My Goodness I finally finished my first chapter whooo!!! Sooo how was it guys? (chuckles nervously)

(As if someone's gonna read this crappy book) Buttt if there really is I would like to thank you sooo much!!! I really hope that I can update frequently but no promises thoo

Anyways guys don't be a silent reader and comment down below so that I can read your opinions regarding my book.

Luvv y'all!!!!

Here's a picture of this cute little mochi to brighten up you day!😉

Author-nim outtt

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Note from present me: Not gonna lie I cringed multiple times when I edited this lol, and also rip the inline comments.

Edited as of 07/08/21