My Neverland

     Neverland. You only hear the term when the story, Peter Pan, is being read to little children at night. A land where you never have to grow up, a land that time forgot. I remember my parents used to read it to me just before I fell asleep when I was a child, and I used to always dream that someone would whisk me away into the magical world, that way, I don’t have to face reality of growing up. Now as I am near my 19^th birthday, I couldn’t help but discover a song called ‘Neverland’ by the k-pop group ‘U-KISS’. It bought back a lot of memories of my childhood and now I yearn for that wish again.

     I sighed as I sat on my futon, looking out the window into the night sky, the song playing on my tablet and I stare longingly into the distance. I brushed my curly brown hair behind my ears. ‘I wonder’, I thought to myself, ‘I wonder if there is a place like that’. A smile appeared on my face as I shook my head, ‘Nah’, I thought again, ‘It’s impossible, even though I yearn for it’. I looked at my lab-top which showed seven Korean boys dressed in black tank tops with a blue tank top over it and black jeans. I came upon the group while I was looking up dance covers for Super Junior and I came upon the music video and I instantly fell in love, especially once I looked up the English lyrics to the song. I sighed dreamily but mentally smacked myself in the forehead. I turned off the lights and laid down in my bed, snug in my blue sweats and my ‘Inuyasha’ t-shirt. I closed my eyes with ‘Neverland’ playing in the background and drifted into dreamland.

     Around midnight, there was rustling coming from outside my window and it caused me to wake up. I sat up in bed, holding my teddy bear to my chest and listened to it. Next thing I know there was a knocking sound coming from my window. ‘Wait a minute, how can that be?’ I thought, ‘I’m on the second floor and I have no balcony’. I got off my bed, and stepped towards the window and opened the curtains, only to see a face that I have only seen on posters and vidoes staring at me. I held in a gasp and saw that he wanted me to open the window. I did it silently as my dad and my brother were sleeping and the figure jumped and silently landed in the floor of my room. I looked more closely and saw that it was Eli.

      “Hello”, Eli said and smiled at me. I blinked and than pinched myself. Feeling a jab of pain run through my arm, I thought, ‘Well, I guess it’s not a dream’. I looked into his eyes and I smiled back, “Hello”, I said. Eli just chuckled and held out his hand. I looked at him with a questioning look.

    “Just hold my hand and I’ll take you to a place that you would never dream of”, he said. Something in me told me to trust him so I held his hand and next thing I knew, we were out the window and flying through the night sky. Being afraid of heights, I closed my eyes and held onto him. I felt his chest rumbled and I blushed a little bit.

     “It’s alright”, he whispered to me, “You’ll be safe, see?”. I looked up from his chest and saw that we weren’t in Tulsa anymore but more so in a castle. I blinked again and I heard another male voice holler out, “HEY ELI!” and a blonde boy tackled Eli to the ground. I blinked and gasped again as I realized that it was Kevin. Now I don’t know about you but this guy was probably the cutest guy I have ever seen, second to Eli of course. But anyway, Kevin realized there was a girl in the room and he got off and smiled brightly at me and gave me a hug.

     “OMO! Isn’t she so cute!!!!?”, he exclaimed and snuggled me. Eli rolled his eyes as footsteps were heard coming down the hallway. The door opened to reveal Soohyun, Kiseop, Dongho, Hoon, and AJ. I gasped again and Kevin lets go of me and smiled brightly at the others.

     “HYUNGS! Eli bought a new friend here to hang out with us!”, Kevin exclaimed. I blushed and looked down at the floor and my chin was tilted up so I was looking into Eli’s eyes. He winked and said, “Don’t worry, they don’t bite”. He turned around to face the others as I tried to hide my blush again. Soohyun was the first to step up. He bowed at the waist and kissed my hand.

     “Hello, my name Soohyun, and yours milady?”, he asked, his voice was practically rolling off me in waves. I smiled brightly at him.

    “Nana”, I said. My real name is Natalie but my friends gave me the nickname ‘Nana’ because it was a lot easier to tell the difference between other people with the same name. Soohyun smiled and nodded. As I was introduced to the others, I saw Eli waiting at the corner of my eye and he had a small smile on his face even though his eyes were full of sadness. As the others were chatting to one another. I walked over and stood in front of him.

     “Hey”, I said, “Are you alright?”. Eli just smiled and shook his head. He gave me a hug and pushed me towards Kevin who was eager to know more about what I liked to do. The hours passed on like that as I took turns talking and playing with the other members. I heard a chime in the background and all the boys just stopped and looked towards the clock tower nearby. I looked and saw it was four o’ clock. The boys smiled sadly at me and hugged me, telling me to take care of myself and to come visit again whenever I can. I smiled sadly back at them with tears in my eyes, ‘I don’t want to go back, I have had so much fun here.’, I thought. Eli grabbed my hand and pulled me to him in a tight embrace.

      “Promise me that we will meet again some day?”, I whispered to him. He smiled softly at me and kissed my forehead. I started to feel sleepy and before I drifted into dreamland, I heard Eli say, “I promise’.

      I woke up in the morning in my bed with the sun shining in from my window. “Was that a dream?”, I muttered to myself. I got ready for college and my dad drove me there. As I was dropped off, I started hearing whispering coming from the hallways.

“Hey did you hear? They’re holding a concert here!”, one student whispered to another one.

‘They?’, I thought, ‘They who?’. I walked towards the café located inside the school and ordered my food. As I sat down at one of the booths right in the corner. I pulled out my tablet and connected my keyboard to it and started playing my music. As the minutes rolled by, I noticed there was quite of a lot of commotion coming from the front of the café. I took off my headphones and glanced up and rubbed my eyes, “No….freakin’….way!”, I whispered. Standing there was ‘UKISS’ in all their glory and fan girls were yelling and the staff was trying to hold them back. The group grabbed their food and I ducked my head, hoping they wouldn’t spy me.

“Can we sit here?”, a familiar voice asked me. I glanced up to the smiling faces of the members and I gasped.

“So, it wasn’t a dream?’ , I asked them. All of them nodded and Eli sat next to me along with Kevin on the other side of me. Kevin hugged me tightly.

“I missed you sooo much Nana!”, Kevin exclaimed. The others chuckled and Soohyun nodded.

“Yeah, Kevin wouldn’t stop moping around along with Eli”, Soohyun started to say but was interrupted by Dongho,

 “And it was annoying the hell out of me so I insisted we come here. That way, they can stop”, Dongho said, sighing irritably and shaking his head. I laughed and thought, ‘ I never thought Eli and the other members would miss me that much!’. Eli secretly snuck an arm around my shoulder and pulled me closer to him. I gasped a little bit as the others chuckled.

“By the way, I kept our promise”, he whispered softly. I nodded and snuggled more. I’m happy now that even though I’m not in Neverland. At least I won’t be alone anymore.