Ch. 1 — The Prelude
As I lift my head and rub my eyes, I can feel the sleepiness rub off away, and I slowly adjust to my surroundings. It seems that I fell asleep, but luckily, it was a free period. I strangely feel as if something is wrong, but I can't quite place my doubts yet, 'everything looks normal...' I think so I brush off my strange feeling as groggines.
**
On the other hand, an ambulance is speeding through the highway at full speed, and inside is a girl on the brink of life and death.
Paramedics surround her as one pumps oxygen through her mask. Another is holding a gauze to her bleeding forehead. The heart monitor's slow beeping can barely be heard as the siren of the ambulance and the sound of a worried mother overcomes the small space.
**
As I talk with my friend, I still can't shake off the strange feeling from before. We continue talking, and as I fish my phone out from my pocket, the lights in the room turn off. Everyone just seemed to ignore, but when the lights flickered on and off again, everyone soon became annoyed, and I could hear someone yell out.
"Can you boys stop that?? It hurts my eyes!"
A girl complained, clearly annoyed.
"It's not us! Stop accusing random people, geez!"
But just before the girl was about to yell again, a strange floating creature appeared from thin air and greeted everyone. Startling us when it suddenly spoke.
[%@#!$@%@@%!%]
"Huh? Wtf is that??"
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA WHO BROUGHT THAT TOY?"
"HAHAHAHA HEY, IT'S ACTUALLY CUTE,"
"How is it floating tho??"
"I bet I can grab it!"
Multiple chatter filled my ears, but they all just came in from the other ear and went out the other as I suffered a severe headache and clutched my head in my hands.
I thought to myself as my vision filled with flashes of images of doctors surrounding me, and my head throbbed even harder. I shut my eyes tightly as I clutch my head.
Suddenly my vision went black and when I opened my eyes I was standing in front of a door.
I reached my hand out to the door and in a second my body felt as if being pushed, and was greeted by a room that looked all too familiar. In the corner of the room, I saw a small child with black hair wearing a white shirt and brown shorts curling up in the corner.
I stood there dumbfounded, trying to process everything that's happening.
**
The hospital room is as quiet as can be, and only the steady beeping of the machine could be heard aside from two women and a doctor talking quietly in the corner. Suddenly, the machines started beeping loudly, and the patient lying on the bed's heart rate spiked up.
The doctor quickly rushed to shout for a nurse and shone a light to the patients eye.
"Her pupils are dilated. I will now check her breathing for any abnormalities."
The doctor quickly pulled the stethoscope from her pockets and put the earpieces in her ear and the bell of scope to the chest of the patient.
"Her breathing is normal,"
She once again checked the eyes of the patient.
"Her pupils are normal again," she says, breathing a sigh of relief and looking over at the parents of the girl. She checked the vital monitors once more.
"Everything seems to be back to normal now, The abnormalities we're only momentary, and we're probably just brain wave fluctuations. Still, since it only happened to her, keep an eye out for other abnormalities. She's back to being stable, but still, if the fluctuations happen, there might be a real problem with her brain. Please keep monitoring her condition. "
"Yes ma'am"
The nurse says whilst taking notes of her previous prognosis.
**
As I stand there for who knows how long minutes? Seconds? I can't even tell, still processing everything, the boy speaks up.
"U-uhm... excuse me unni? Who are you?"
The boy says his voice muffled out from his arms. I look towards the boy and steady my expression to be more warm.
"Ahh... my name is..."
"Eunji, My name is Kang Eunji."
It's not a real name.
"Eunji-nuna, my mother says not to let in strangers..."
As if I just had my brain reset, I suddenly felt myself walking towards the child, my feet leading my body.
"I'm... I'm not a stranger you know? I'm a friend of your mother... she told me to check up on you. Make sure you we're fine."
I said as I knelt in front of him, offering him a warm smile. In return, the child lifted his head up from being buried in his hands and looked up at me.
"I've never had visitors here before... are you a good noona?"
He asked naive innocence clear from his face and voice.
"Mhm. Of course I am Dokja-ya"
I didn't even have to think about it. I now know what I want to do in this world.
The child smiled up towards me, and I smiled at him back.
Suddenly, all I could hear was the voice of my friend in my ear calling my name out in panic. I looked at the child in front of me and held my pinky out.
"Hey Dokja... I have to leave now, ok? I promise I'll be back for you so you won't be too lonely, alright? Pinky promise"
The child hesitantly reched his small pinky out and wrapped it around mine.
"A- alright.."
Just as he uttered those words, I woke up with a gasp and looked at my friends worried and panicked face.