ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 8: 어웨이크 (ᴇᴏᴡᴇɪᴋᴇᴜ)- ᴀᴡᴀᴋᴇ

The end begins here...

Saltwater filling her lungs,
the ice-cold temperature piercing her skin...

Every inch of her body paralyzed...

While all traces of light vanished
as she sank lower and lower...

One by one, each of her senses began to fade out.
Sounds, feelings, visions...

Leaving her with the mixture of
intense fear and helplessness
that had taken root in her stomach...

And then unexpectedly...
She heard a song.

"♪𝒪𝒽 𝒷𝓇𝑜𝓀𝑒𝓃 𝒽𝑒𝒶𝓇𝓉𝑒𝒹 𝑜𝓃𝑒
𝒴𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓈𝑜𝓊𝓁 𝒽𝒶𝓈 𝑔𝓇𝑜𝓌𝓃 𝓌𝑒𝒶𝓇𝓎♪

♪𝐻𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓉𝓊𝓇𝓃𝑒𝒹 𝓉𝑜 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓇𝒾𝓅𝓅𝓁𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝒾𝒹𝑒𝓈
𝒯𝑜 𝑒𝓃𝑔𝓊𝓁𝒻 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓁𝑜𝓃𝑒𝓁𝓎 𝓉𝑒𝒶𝓇𝓈?♪

♪♪𝑀𝒶𝓎 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓌𝒶𝓋𝑒𝓈 𝑒𝓂𝒷𝓇𝒶𝒸𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊,
𝐿𝓊𝓁𝓁 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓈𝑜𝒻𝓉𝓁𝓎 𝓉𝑜 𝓈𝓁𝑒𝑒𝓅...♪♪♪

♪𝐸𝒶𝓈𝓎 𝒶𝓌𝒶𝓎 𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒽𝓊𝓇𝓉 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓅𝒶𝒾𝓃
𝒯𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊'𝓋𝑒 𝒸𝒶𝓇𝓇𝒾𝑒𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝓇𝑜𝓊𝑔𝒽 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓎𝑒𝒶𝓇𝓈♪

♪𝐵𝓊𝓉 𝒾𝒻 𝑔𝒾𝓋𝑒𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒸𝒽𝒶𝓃𝒸𝑒,
𝒲𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒻𝑜𝓇𝑔𝑒𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓅𝒶𝓈𝓉? ♪

.

....

♪♪♪𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝐼 𝒸𝒶𝓃 𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓇𝓉 𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓇...

... 𝒲𝑒 𝒸𝒶𝓃 𝓁𝑜𝓋𝑒 𝒶𝑔𝒶𝒾𝓃, 𝓂𝓎 𝒹𝑒𝒶𝓇.♪♪♪♪♪"

She kept downing in the endless enjoying her last moments and the melody....

..... Until, she felt a warm sensation. 

Unconvinced, she gathered all the strength left in her body and slowly opened her eyes, eyelashes trembling like a leaf before the storm. And they widened as the sight before her come into a clear view. 

There was the will-o'-the-wisp. 

 Without thinking twice, she tried to touch them...the moment her fingertips came in contact with it, she felt dizzy as a bewitching light emerged from it making her vision blurry.

When the dizziness become slowly bearable, she opened her eyes... 

And following that she saw an angel.

Or.... was it the doom...? 

She wondered. 

But her mind denied thinking more. Nothing mattered anything now. She just wanted to close her eyes and rest in peace. 

But it wasn't it. Destiny worked against her again. 

She didn't have the strength nor the will to open her eyes, but in dense and dark, she still could feel a hand grabbing her wrist and it dragged her body out of the water within a few seconds. 

But, she didn't want it. She didn't want to live.

What would she live for? 

There's nothing left, everything in her life was a mess. 

Her mother was long gone, she didn't know where her father was and whether he was alive or not, and now even the person she loved betrayed her. 

It won't matter anything if she lives or dies, right? None will ever remember her. She would be forgotten as soon as she dies. None will ever shed tears if she dies. She'll just vanish into the thin air with her last breath.

She was such a useless creature. 

"No-no-no-no...! It can't be! You must live!! Jebal (please)" a deep and concerned voice interrupted her thoughts. It urged her to live, knowing there was someone this desperate to save her. But she didn't know why and how she'd live after all this.

Human beings aren't just any creatures that endure everything and yet keep living through all those hardships. Rather, human life depends on their will to live and they are the only creatures who take their own life if they lose that will. It's simple yet complicated. If you never face those emotions, you'll never know. 

It'll make you feel like the most useless creature within a blink of an eye. Nothing will matter anything then, that's what you'll keep thinking. And slowly you'll be devoured by an endless illusion that'll kill you slowly yet silently. 

Yi-Ahn, just like a piece of blank white paper was drowning in that illusion. A paper that didn't have the record of her life's chapters. A colorless, vulnerable paper. What's the point of keeping the records of a useless creature? Even the shit of paper refused to do it. 

She wished she could drown in the endless like this forever. But...

She was trailed.

For a moment. 

As a glowing light sparked inside her, her ice-cold insides started to warm up. It felt so good that for a moment, she wished to live, she wished to open her eyes. 

Following that warm sensation in her mouth, as she opened her eyes slowly, she was surprised. She wasn't at all ready for the scene before her. An extremely handsome guy was on top of her, worriedly looking at her with his bunny eyes. Well, he was that type of guy to make one fall head over the hills just with a look in the eye. 

Bunny eyes, she didn't know why, but his big round eyes just reminded her of a cute bunny looking at his sick owner. 

As they looked at each other, each of them saw their own image in the other's eyes. Their looks reflect the simplicity, purity, and honesty of their hearts. Their two faces may be compared to two hemispheres that together make up a whole world. 

The two hemispheres of the faces of lovers are better than the geographical hemispheres because they do not have the 'Sharp North' and the 'declining west'. The 'sharp north' implies coldness and indifference - to which their love is not subject- and the 'declining west' symbolizes decay and death from which the lovers are free.

As she tried to open her mouth to say something, the water inside her lungs came out first. She coughed them out and then again suddenly she felt dizzy and too tired to look. she wanted to keep looking at that cute face, but her eyes along with her fortune just betrayed her. 

She didn't know anymore. She was lost in that illusion again. But it was different this time. She wanted to live, well not to live but to see that face again. She missed that cute worried look on his face. If she was in her right mind, she might've just hugged him the whole day to make his all worry go out of the door. 

✵°✵.｡.✵°✵

Blinking, Yi-Ahn tried to make the blurry view before her clear, and the luxurious colossal bedroom came to her clear view. It was decorated mostly in black and in the air, she could smell mint and Sandalwood. 

As every romance story's rule, she should've wondered where she was... 

But somewhy she didn't. Rather she just enjoyed being in there. She didn't even try to move not attempted to do anything. Only her eyes moved. 

Moved here and there, glancing at every corner of the room. As if she was studying it. "I like it," she mumbled in her mind. 

Click. 

Suddenly, the door opened and in a blink, she closed her eyes. She didn't even know why she did that, it just happened before she could think of anything. 

As she stayed like that, she heard footsteps getting closer and they stopped just beside her. Someone sat on the bed beside her. And it was silent again like before. 

She was now in a tough position. If she suddenly opened her eyes then the other person might think that she was pretending, and if she didn't she'd never know who entered the room. In movies, the girl always wakes up at a time like this, then why it was just her who was up beforehand? It was killing her. 

Her thoughts were interrupted shortly, as she felt a set of warm fingers on her forehead, stroking. 

She froze at the unexpected touch. 

"Sometimes, I wonder when you'll wake up so that I could see and memorize your eye color. And in the next second, I'm nervous thinking what I'll do once you do." the deep, whispering tone tickled in her stomach and kept ringing in her ear. It's so unexpected and frightening that this stranger's effect on her even surpasses that of her ex. 

Her heart skipped a bit as his hand trailed down to her cheek and his thumb was drawing circles against her skin. But that was not just that. 

She felt his lips on her in the next second and her heart totally sank with it. It was a peck on the head that probably meant nothing. But the way her heart reacted to it was definitely something. The way she remembered the sound of his breath, the temperature of his skin, the softness of his lips against her skin- all of it, all of it was things she should worry about. 

Well, she figured, she'd just pretend to be up now. If she wait any longer, she'd explode inside and it wouldn't take him long to notice the pink lines on her bright skin. 

 "It's time to use your acting skills, Yi-Ahn!" She mind-yelled. 

Then she slowly, at a very low speed, opened her eyes and blinked a few times afterward. Then glanced around the room as if she were seeing everything for the first time and pretended to get surprised by every little thing. Then at last, with a deep breath, her eyes trailed to the position beside her to the unknown stranger. 

Her eyes were looking into his big round ones and she immediately recognized them. He was the angel or doom whatever you call him, and also the bunny-eyed guy. He was frozen in his place for a while as his eyes grew wider and wider with every second. 

Suddenly he stood up and in a rush ran past her off the room. 

Well, wasn't she the one who was supposed to be surprised? 

After a few minutes, he entered in the room again looking uncomfortable and nervous. She even thought he was sweating for a moment.

"H-hi!" he hesitantly uttered and they came out almost as a whisper while he rubbed his shoulder shyly.

Wait, was he blushing?!

"Anneyonghaseo," was the only thing she could muster up to say and it became awkwardly silent afterward until, 

"How are you feeling now?" he uttered holding his breath in. 

"I'm alright." she shortly answered.

"Do you remember anything?" he was slowly getting easy to talk. 

She nodded, "Yeah."

"Well, the doctor will be here to check on you within a moment. Please rest well till then. I'll take my leave." he stood up, uttered those words at a breath, and left the room leaving her dumbfounded. 

She sighed and got up from the bed, memories flashing through her brain. She was promoted to captain, it was her first flight as a captain, he broke up with her, and the plane was about to crash... 

So, was she rescued after the accident? Then why was she there and not in the hospital? Who was that guy she just had a 'conversation' with?  

While strolling and thinking about these, she found herself standing before the window which was covered with black curtains. She moved the curtains and looked outside. 

Jungkook was waiting for Myeong Jo in the doorway strolling forlornly when he heard the sound of her entering the passcode. 

He ran into the living room, pretending not to care. 

"I'm home," she announced, taking off her shoes and entering the living room. 

Her eyes met with him and he was about to say something, but that's when they heard a scream from upstairs. 

Both looked at the stairs and then again back into each other in sync, and wasting no more time, ran upstairs.