Yunjae-yah… Yunjae-yah…

Yunjae’s eyes snapped open. She had been sleeping on her brother’s bedside while sitting on one of the plastic chairs. The clock said it was near midnight.

Had someone called her? Yunjae looked around. There wasn’t anyone there. She laid her head on her arms and tried to sleep again.

Yunjae-yah… Yunjae-yah!

Yunjae snapped her eyes open again and stood up. “Who are you? Where are you?”

The room had gone suspiciously dark, but she didn’t notice it much. She looked around for the one calling her.

Over here!

“Where?”

Suddenly, light filled the room and almost blinded her. She could barely make out a frame of a doorway where the light and darkness met.

Walk towards the light. Follow my voice.

Yunjae did as she was told. Beyond the light-filled doorway, she stood in the midst of an underground mine. Precious gems and metals littered the place, some still wedged between rocks, others lying carelessly on the ground. Yunjae’s mouth dropped.

“You finally got here.”

Yunjae turned to the direction of the voice. Amongst the rocks and gems, a lanky boy stood. He looked strange to Yunjae, because, for one, he was ridiculously tall (he was a head taller than her) though he didn’t look any older than her; and for another, he was dressed in pure white clothes: white blouse that hung comfortably to his thin frame, and white skinny jeans.

“Who are you?” asked Yunjae.

“Name’s Changjo,” said the boy.

“What am I doing here?”

“You’re going to get your brother back.”

Yunjae blinked. “What?”

Changjo resisted every urge to roll his eyes. “You. Are. Going. To. Get. Your. Brother. Back.”

“Hyuk oppa is in the hospital. He’s in coma,” said Yunjae, not really understanding.

“It’s not really coma. It’s only a term used to describe someone who got lost in here. And your mission is to get him back. Or don’t you want to? Fine by me.”

“Where exactly is ‘here’?”

Changjo wracked his head for words to describe the world they were in to someone like Yunjae, but he didn’t find any.

“It’s too complex to explain,” he said, defeated.

“Why should I believe you?” demanded Yunjae.

“Because you have no choice?”

“Don’t I? I could always go home.”

“Could you?”

Yunjae felt a sickening feeling in her gut as she turned around. The entrance she had come through was nowhere to be seen. Panic constricted her.

“Let me out of here!” Yunjae pounded the walls of the mine, only to have her hands scraped and bruised. She curled up away from Changjo and sobbed.

Changjo took pity on her. Girl must’ve got some serious problems. He approached her and knelt by her side.

“Get away from me,” she said, her voice trembling.

Changjo touched her gently. Somehow Yunjae felt fear leave her bit by bit.

“You must be really scared, but if you don’t do what you’re supposed to do here, you might never get your brother back,” said Changjo gently.

Yunjae thought this over. Changjo slowly squeezed her hand for comfort. She felt better.

“Alright. What have I got to do?”

“Answer my riddle.”

“What riddle?”

“Now you stand at the very beginning. Tell me, what does your brother’s name mean?” Changjo recited those words as if he just memorized them off a poetry book.

“I’m supposed to answer that? Then what?”

“Answer it first.”

Yunjae gave it a thought. The meaning of oppa’s name? But… Hyukjae… That doesn’t mean anything…

Then it hit her. Silver’s Room. Keep out unless allowed.

“Eunhyuk! His nickname’s Eunhyuk. And Eunhyuk means ‘silver’!” Yunjae blurted out.

Changjo blinked. “That was fast.”

“What do I do now?”

“Look down.”

Yunjae did that and found other stuff besides gems that were littered on the floor. Keys of different colors were like thrown about carelessly amidst all the gems. Last time Yunjae looked, they weren’t there.

“Where did those come from?” she said, ogling at the shiny keys.

Changjo only looked and raised an eyebrow at her, but he didn’t say anything about it.

“What you must do now is find the silver key to open that door,” said Changjo.

“What doo--oh never mind,” said Yunjae. She caught a glance at the cave wall and saw a mteal door. God knows where that came from. She just refocused on the keys.

“There must be a hundred silver keys here,” she said, and looked at Changjo.

Changjo shook his head. “Nope. There’s only one. That would be a lot easier, wouldn’t it?”

Yunjae raised her eyebrows but went on to look for the lone silver key. It took her so long in picking at the keys on the floor and among the rocks that Changjo found himself a seat and was almost asleep. After a while, she gave an excited squeal.

“Is that it?! Changjo-ssi, is that it?!”

Changjo startled awake and rushed to join her, sleep still in his eyes. She was pointing at a shining thing dug deep in the ceiling of the cave.

A silver key.

Changjo gave a sigh of relief. “Wow, it took you a while.”

In one great leap he reached for the key—which was at the very top of the cave—and plucked as easily as one would pluck hair. Yunjae’s jaw dropped. She was still staring at him when he gave her the key.

“How did… How did you…” said Yunjae, quite unable to complete the questions. Changjo only smiled at her with that sweet smile of his.

“Just go on.”

Yunjae got the key and inserted it in the key hole of the metal door. When she heard the click, fear returned to her. What might be waiting on the other side? She told Changjo so.

“You won’t know if you don’t look, will you? Go on, and good luck!”

“Wait, you’re not coming with me?” asked Yunjae and looked skeptically at Changjo.

“My job is to stay here and wait for people like you.”

Instead of asking who’ll guide her, she asked, “Don’t you ever get bored?”

Changjo smiled at her again. “We’ll see each other some time again. Until then, goodbye!”

He threw the door open for her and gently pushed her in. Yunjae took a deep breath.

Well, here goes nothing.