Recap

“Joon, you gotta– ” he whispered with a strained voice.

Before he could finish his sentence, I watched as his body lost the ability to stand upright and crashed down towards the floor.

Joon’s POV

I jumped out of bed and heaved Kikwang’s body up to a sitting position.

“Kikwang! You with me! Kikwang!” I cried with panic.

What am I supposed to do here? I looked back at Hyosung and even after all my loud shouting she was still asleep.

I lifted Kikwang to my chair and rested him there for the time being. Just as I started to walk over to wake Hyosung, the room suddenly went dark. Clouds rolled in and the former blue sky turned grey in colour. I gulped. I was positive the weather couldn’t change this quickly.

Two streams of light whizzed its way into my window and crashed onto the floor. When the light subsided, it revealed two familiar faces. It was the two Keepers that were hunting Hyosung for only god knows what reason, literally.

“I knew Kikwang would’ve come to warn them,” Tiffany said expectantly as she glanced at the Head Keeper.

Eunji smiled brightly, as sweet as her smile was, you could tell it didn’t mean anything good.

“It’s time to go.” She said cheerily and clicked her fingers.

I suddenly felt my body being pulled and pushed. The room was spinning and my vision blurred. Everything around me turned white and I could feel the ground beneath me crumble away. I expected myself to fall, to let gravity do its job and pull me towards the darkness, but I didn’t. I stood perfectly still even without the ground for support.

I was floating in an empty space of white. No walls surrounded me and no roof contained me. It was an eternal void of nothingness, a hollow warp of pure white.

When I thought I was suddenly transported to heaven, the space around me began to materialise. A path of dirt started to create itself under my feet. Then one by one, tall trees towered above me. The empty space I was floating in was now a forest. When I thought things couldn’t get any creepier, the ground seemed to have the ability to produce sheets of white and almost immediately, I saw snow gently falling around me. I shivered when the temperature dropped at a horribly fast rate.

As I plunged my way through the snow and called out Hyosung’s name, I couldn’t help feeling fear.

“Hello!” I shouted but only my echoes answered me.

I left a trail of footprints as I continued to venture deeper into the forest. Where was everyone? Where am I?

I called out for the umpteenth time and this time, there was another voice besides my own. My eyes scanned around me, where did that voice come from?

“Hello?” I shouted again.

“Over here,” a faint voice answered and I rushed over to where I thought it was coming from.

It started to get harder and harder to make my way through the snow. The level seemed to rise and my feet would sink further after every couple of steps. It got so deep that it eventually reached just below my knees.

As I walked, the sound of the voice got louder which proved that I was heading in the right direction.

“Over here,” the voice said again and this time, it was loud enough for me to distinguish who it belonged to.

“Kikwang!” I cried. “Where are you?”

“Joon,” he called back, “I’m just in front of you,”

I tilted my head and saw Kikwang sitting against a tree. With an enormous amount of effort, I pursued my way towards him.

His eyes were half closed and I was surprised he didn’t sink into the snow as he sat there.

“Kikwang. Where are we? No, more importantly, how are you?” I asked.

Kikwang swallowed. “I’m fine…, Tiffany just got me by surprise,” he took a deep breath, “W-we’re currently at another realm.”

“Another realm…? Like those in video games? How they teleport you to the next world you have to play in?”

Kikwang let out a smile, “Something like that.”

“Alright then…” I said slowly to allow all this to sink in. “So, where’s Hyosung?”

“She’s here too, but not for long. When the Keepers are done with examining her, she would be purified. Or in other words, she will no longer exist.”

Kikwang twitched. His right arm was still bleeding. My knees fell towards the snow.

“No… not Hyosung,” I mumbled. “She can’t. Not now… not when I-”

I stopped. I what? What did I want to say?

Kikwang adjusted his sitting position and placed a hand on my shoulder. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to let them lay a finger on her.”

I felt a sense of reassurance from Kikwang’s words but that wasn’t enough to put out the fire I was beginning to develop inside.

“We need to save her.” I stated with determination and stood up.

Once I was standing I heard running footsteps behind me. Someone was calling my name as they ran.

“Joon!”

I turned around and squinted into the woods but I couldn’t see anyone. I heard them but they were nowhere to be seen.

“Joon!” The voice called again.

This time I faced Kikwang, “Do you hear that?”

Kikwang gave me a look of confusion, “hear what?”

The voice called again. It sounded all so familiar yet there was a slight tinge in the voice that tweaked it a few keys higher.

I know this voice. I’ve heard it before. No. I’m sure that I’ve seen the person too.

“Stop looking with your eyes Joon. Look with your heart!” The voice said again.

“Joon? Is everything ok?” Kikwang asked but I was too focused on finding the voice that was calling me to hear him.

Suddenly, just in the distance. A girl in a white dress came running towards me. She was pulling he dress up to allow her legs to move freely and kept on looking behind her. I squinted to get a clearer view. When my eyes saw what she was running from, it immediately widened. A golden swirl of dust and sand twisted and turned, creating a wave of gold behind her.

It was a sand storm.

The wind started to pick up and aided the storm to it’s full potential, coming at us faster than I would have imagined.

“Kikwang, look!” I cried.

Kikwang poked his head around me and gasped. Profanities escaped his mouth and he tried to stand up using the tree as support to keep his balance.

The features of the girl slowly became clearer.

It was Hyosung.

Fear displayed across her face as she ran towards us. My legs seemed to have the ability to move on their own as I found myself running to her, taking long strides until I could close all the space between us. But as fast as my legs moved, she didn’t seem to get any closer. She was still unreachable.

“Hyosung!” I called.

“Joon!” she cried back.

Our steps finally made progress as she was almost a few feet away. The dust circulated behind her, like a dragon preparing to engulf its prey. When she was close enough I reached my arm out, she extended hers.

Our hands locked and I felt a sudden rush of relief. That was soon short lived when the storm pulled her back. The wind violently blew around us, particles of dust clouding my vision but I didn’t her let go.

Hyosung’s POV

There was like a vacuum behind me, in everything around it, including me. Gravity failed me and my body flew backwards. If it wasn’t for Joon, I would’ve been in immediately.

I had no idea what was going on but at that moment, I was scared. I was scared to never be able to see Joon again, scared to leave his side, scared to never be able to hear his voice, see him laugh, watch over him.

I willed myself to never let go of his hand. No matter how strong the force pulling me back was, I forced myself to think positively. Joon was stronger than whatever it was that was trying to take me away, I had faith in him.

With all my heart, I believe in him.

“Don’t you dare let go!” I heard him cry. The dust made it nearly impossible to see each other.

“I don’t ever plan to!” I yelled back when suddenly, I was presented with a mouthful of dust. I coughed, choking on the particles that were irritating the back of my throat.

The snow that I saw on Joon’s side was slowly fading. It was being replaced with the golden storm.

My hands felt sweaty from all the pressure I was using to keep it intact with Joon’s. No! I thought.

The palms of my hands were moving, not in a good way either. They were slowly slipping from Joon’s grasp.

“Hysoung, hold on tighter!” He ordered.

I pressed my fingers tighter around his hand but that only made it worse. I was slipping, gradually moving hair lengths away.

Joon tried to use his other hand but I could see that Kikwang was holding onto it to support him from flying towards the source of the vacuum.

My hand had already slipped half way, all faith drained away from me. I forced a smile but wasn’t sure if Joon could see it.

“Joon, there is something that I think I have to tell you. I think…,” my hand slipped further. “I think, that I have–” My fingers were barely gripping onto the edge of his hand.

“I think I’ve fallen for you…” I said and my voice lingered. I no longer felt the support of Joon’s hand. My fingers stretched in hopes of holding him again. However, it was too late. 

My body was sprung backwards. Joon and I were no longer in contact, the space between us grew further and in seconds, he left my sight completely.

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YAY! An update! Thank you for sticking with me for so long! I hope you've enjoyed the story so far ^^ 

As always thank you for reading! xxx

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