Chapter 1

Taeyeon wasn’t going to make the deadline. But then again whom could she possibly blame? She might have completed the essay had she not taken all her time wallowing in self-pity and crying into her pillow. But then again she didn’t really care whether she finished the damn thing or not. It was meaningless to even try.

With a sigh, she closed her laptop and dropped her head on the desk. She had spent only an hour and a half on her essay despite the fact that it had been assigned to her two weeks ago and that it was due in approximately six hours.  Asides from half-assing through her assignment, she couldn’t remember the rest of her day. It all seemed like a blur and it depressed her that she hadn’t done anything productive for nearly 10 hours.

She sighed again and rubbed her arm tiredly, feeling the criss-cross bumps that adorned her otherwise smooth skin. She could never stand the sight of blood but drawing her own had left her with a twisted sense of satisfaction. Why she had done that to herself she didn’t even know. It just seemed proper at that time, a painful act of self-recognition. She found it rather funny, and ironic, how the others thought she was even remotely happy when the greatest pleasure she had experienced in months was seeing her pale arm streaked with crimson.

Just then, she received a text message on her cellphone.

U okay? I missed you in class 2day.

It was from a friend. Actually she was more of an acquaintance since Taeyeon always regarded her as the ‘girl in my stat class’.

I’m fine. Just a little cold. That’s all :), Taeyon texted back. She didn’t know why she ended the message with a smiley face. It seemed superfluous to even compose a reply yet the emoticon was literally rubbing salt into her wounds. She smiled a lot, via in person and the web/text, but for whom or what did she smile really? For one thing, it wasn’t for herself.

After sending her response, Taeyeon stood up from her seat and threw herself on the bed, wrapping her arms and legs around her large edamame-shaped pillow. She closed her eyes in the hopes of falling asleep, even though she knew that sleep would never come to her. For some reason she was always thinking in bed, and doing so saddened her greatly, especially if she were having happy thoughts.

Memories of her childhood, her family, her past boyfriends. At first she’d be seized with an irrepressible feeling of nostalgia, the sort where you feel as if something warm and fuzzy is rising from your stomach to your throat and finally coagulating in the back of your head. But for Taeyeon, that same exact sensation was the catalyst to her emotional demise.

She buried her face in her pillow and soon enough she was crying.

She cried softly for five minutes, stopped, then cried some more, her heart aching the whole time. Then she stared at the ceiling with her arms wrapped tightly around her tear-soaked pillow, not caring that her cheeks were wet and salty. She closed her eyes again and let out a pitiful moan and cried a little bit more.

Then she sat up and wiped her tears away. “I need a cigarette.” She got off the bed.

The night, or more correctly the morning (since it was quarter past twelve), was cold but Taeyeon didn’t feel it, which was no surprise since she rarely felt anything. She walked in her usual sluggish way with her head bowed and her eyes on the ground. The convenience store wasn’t far from her apartment but it seemed as if an hour passed with every step she took. She bought a pack of Marlboro at the store and went to the bridge where she always smoked.

As the first few drags on her cigarette churned , Taeyeon gazed into the dark water below and wondered what drowning felt like. She imagined her lungs filling up with cold water, freezing up her insides and dragging her down into the liquid abyss below. It was somewhat appealing. All it took was a little jump and that would be the end to everything.

She smoked the rest of her cigarette and threw the stub into the water. The strange and familiar rush of nicotine surged through her body and she shivered as her head spun momentarily. Again, she was drawn to the river below her and the more she stared at the water, the more tempted she was to remove her shoes and throw herself into it.

Her eyes felt as dry as bones. For the first time that month, Taeyeon felt relieved. She raised her head and looked at the full moon, which seemed to be encouraging her to take the leap. Perhaps this was meant to be. Perhaps everything would be all right after she was gone. Yes, her friends and family will miss her, but then again, she was just another person in a world of 6 billion. There wasn’t anything she could do to make her life be any more irrelevant than it was now. She was just a shell that needed to be discarded.

Slowly, she untied her shoelaces and took off her sneakers. She turned around and placed both her hands on the railing and closed her eyes. It was going to be the last time she would ever feel the night air of New Plainsboro against her cheeks. It was going to be the end of self-pitying, of sleepless nights, of wasting away in her room, doing nothing but staring at the wall, the ceiling, and crying for no reason, and skipping classes and work and parties and missing out on many other things. It was going to be the end of a meaningless existence. The night sky was beautiful and she saw how beautiful it was. In fact, everything seemed beautiful right then. Hell, she might as well enjoy her last moments. Or so she thought.

“Why are you barefoot?”

She spun around to see a young boy standing a few feet away from her, looking at her curiously. It was dark, but Taeyeon could still make out his features thanks to the streetlights. He appeared to be no older than 17 and had round, attractive eyes that she never imagined could belong to a male.

“Why are you barefoot?”

Taeyeon looked at the ground and coughed awkwardly. “I…um…well…I was just…er…my feet…they…they hurt so I thought I should let them breathe.”

She slapped herself mentally upon realizing just how stupid she sounded and probably how even more stupid she looked standing on a bridge with her shoes off. And he was right. She wasn’t even wearing socks.

He didn’t seem convinced because he narrowed his eyes and for a moment Taeyeon was afraid that a heart-felt confession was required to make this pretty boy go away. She fidgeted with her fingers as she tried to come up with a redeeming statement.

Instead of pushing for an answer, the boy simply shrugged. “People here are sure weird.”

Taeyeon lifted an eyebrow. Surely she wasn’t expecting an answer like that. Was he being sarcastic? “What do you mean by ‘people here’?” she asked carefully.

He shrugged again. “I don’t know. They’re just weird. They do weird things like…like walk their dogs.”

She was even more confused. The boy seemed perfectly sane yet he was saying the strangest things. Her eyes trailed down the length of his slim body and she noticed that his attire was not quite ‘modern’. It looked like a cross between a traditional Chinese tunic and a hakama. She also saw that it was red with golden stripes.

“Er…I’m guessing you don’t live around here,” she said.

“I don’t think I could,” he said. “It’s too weird. But I think the weirdest thing I’ve seen so far is you standing here without your shoes on.”

She gave out a little laugh. If only he knew what her intentions were.

He came forward and stood beside her. He didn’t say anything and it was all very awkward because Taeyeon still had her back facing the railing and he was leaning against it facing the river. She turned around slowly as if doing it any faster would offend her ‘intruder’.

“There aren’t enough trees here,” he said out of the blue.

“Erm…there’s always the park.”

“The people stare at me when I go there. As if they dress any better.”

I think you’ve got it backwards, she thought, hiding a smile behind her hand. He was certainly strange, but he didn’t seem to be dangerous. She decided her suicide could wait and that she’d entertain him with a few questions.

“What’s your name?”

“Luhan. What’s yours?”

“Taeyeon.”

“Hi.”

“Hey.”

It was quiet again.

“Where are you from?”

“Far away.”

“Where, Mars?”

 “Is that a city?”

“No,” she giggled. “It’s a planet.” She pointed at the sky. “It’s out there somewhere. But I was only joking. Where are you really from?”

He blinked several times as if trying to come up with a good answer. Then he said, “Alexandria.”

She raised both her eyebrows in surprise. “Alexandria? Like in Egypt?”

Her question was met with another confounded expression. He shook his head. “No. It’s a place not in this world.”

She stared at him with slightly agape, wondering why she was even talking to him in the first place. For one thing, he seriously needed fashion counseling and also, he seemed completely serious when he said that Alexandria existed in a place other than Earth. But something kept on urging her to keep the conversation going. All thoughts of suicide were now gone. Her attention was now on Luhan and it wasn’t because he was attractive.

“It’s a beautiful place. Or at least it used to be,” he said. “There was peace and equality. Everyone had enough to eat, everyone had a place they could call home, a family. There were no monsters or bandits hidden in the forests or the mountains. You could befriend the animals and have fun with them.” He sighed. “It really was paradise until the Ice Princess took over.”

“Who’s the Ice Princess?” Taeyeon asked.

Luhan’s face darkened. “The most despicable woman you’ll ever meet.”

Silence.

“Anyway,” Luhan clapped his hands against his knees. “You probably don’t believe a single word I’m saying, but that’s okay. Everyone’s skeptical here so I’m getting used to it.” He smiled. “It was nice talking to you though, Taeyeon. I hope we meet again.”

He began walking away but stopped and turned around to face her. “Oh, and don’t kill yourself. Life is short so you might as well learn how to enjoy it.”

And with that, he was gone.

Two weeks passed and Taeyeon was still alive. She had brightened up somewhat and made an effort to go to her classes. She even showed up in time for her job at the local Starbucks, which surprised her manager considerably and led him to wonder if she were feeling alright to which Taeyeon responded with a sweet, fake smile. She was still a little depressed and felt awkward around other people, but at least she was productive.

At times she would think about Luhan and laugh to herself upon remembering how goofy he had appeared that night and laugh even harder at how it was him of all people that had saved her, albeit indirectly. Her reaction would earn her strange looks from the café patrons but she heeded them no mind. She was starting to live again and felt her old self slowly emerging from the dregs of her depression.

She definitely missed him. Not in a romantic way but more like how a kid would miss a friend’s puppy after a play date. There were times when she would glance around while walking back from the store or look up from the register to see if the customer who had stepped in bore any semblance to the boy. She sometimes wondered if he ever went back to Alexandria, wherever the hell that was, and found herself unconsciously hoping that the ‘Ice Princess’ didn’t hurt him. Then she would laugh it all off and go back to whatever she was doing.

Then one night while surfing the web, Taeyeon came across a video called “Ming Dynasty Flower Boy”. Being the avid Youtuber she was, there was no way she was going to let a video with a title like that go beneath her radar. She was taken aback however when she saw that the ‘Flower Boy’ in the video was Luhan. By the looks of it, the video was taken somewhere in New York City and the cameraman was following Luhan around pretty much everywhere. The boy didn’t seem to notice at all that he was being filmed. He would occasionally stop and look around in utter confusion and even jump in surprise whenever a car passed by him. The highlight of the video though was when he bought a hotdog and stared at it as if it were the most repulsive object he had ever seen. But his expression changed to one of delight when he bit into the hotdog and he walked away from the stand happily.

The video ended with the cameraman chuckling in the background and Taeyeon too began to laugh.

“What’s he doing in New York anyway?” she said to herself as she shut down her laptop.

She woke up late the next morning but seeing how she didn’t have any classes that day she decided to sleep in some more. Then she remembered she needed to shop for groceries and pick up her laundry so she grudgingly crawled out of bed and trudged to the bathroom to get ready for the day.

When she stepped outside it was chilly so she tightened her scarf around her neck and walked with her hands tucked into her armpits. Fallen leaves covered the streets and they crunched against her Uggs like cornflakes. She liked that crispy sound and it also made her a bit hungry so she stopped by at a crepe stand. She ate sitting on a bench and watched people walk by. She saw a boy and a girl holding hands while looking at each other lovingly and Taeyeon scrunched her nose, partly in disgust and partly in jealousy. She didn’t understand how some people could be so happy when she felt like half the time. Of course things were better now, but that didn’t mean she was happy. Then she recalled Luhan’s words from that cold night and she sighed at her selfish thinking.

“You’ll find someone. I’m sure of it,” she muttered and crammed the rest of the crepe into and brushed her hands on her jeans. She stood up and was about to go when something caught her eye.

The stuff looked like golden glitter and it was floating in mid-air like how the Northern Lights levitate in the sky. She reached out a hand slowly to touch it but felt nothing.

“What the hell is this?”

She swiped at the stuff only to get the same results. Then she realized it was flowing to the ground and to the bush behind the bench she sat on. At this point, her curiosity was significantly piqued. The groceries and laundry could wait.

She stepped over the bush and followed the glittery trail. It led her into a dirt road, which she assumed belonged to the park, and through a field of yellowed grass and down a small slope and to a dirt road once again. It was a long way but she had to find the source to this fairy-dust like crap.

Then the trail cut off as abruptly as it had appeared. She looked around frantically and realized that she had no idea where she was. Her best possible guess was that she was somewhere in the middle of the park but there were too many trees. It was also quiet. So quiet that it was unnerving.

She looked back and saw that the rest of the trail was still there. She sighed in relief. At least she could find her way back.

After looking around some more, Taeyeon gave up and turned to leave. Just then, she heard a rustle to her left. She tensed up immediately and felt all the hairs in her neck rise like needles. Without thinking, she seized a fallen branch and held it up defensively.

There was another rustle and Taeyeon swallowed. She had heard rumors of wild cats living in the forest but they weren’t dangerous as long as you didn’t provoke them. Or were they?

Whatever it was, Taeyeon wasn’t ready. Her thoughts spiraled out of control as she began speculating on the creature’s identity. What if it was some rabid dog or even worse, a bear? Her heart began to pound in her ears and sweat beaded in the small crevasses of her hands.

The rustling grew violent and the creature popped out of its hiding place, causing Taeyeon to let out a horrific shriek. The creature screamed back which prompted Taeyeon to scream even harder and vice versa. Soon the screaming died down and Taeyeon opened her eyes slowly to look at the creature in front of her.

It was no bobcat, nor a rabid dog or a bear. It was a girl, petite, very pretty, and attired in what looked like a silk dress. She was of a pale complexion and had long black hair that reached nearly to her waist. What intrigued Taeyeon however was not the girl’s beauty, but the white wings that were blooming from her back.

“Oh God, you scared me for a second!” Taeyeon said, breaking into nervous laughter as she pitched the branch away. “I thought you were a wild animal or something!”

The girl didn’t say anything. Instead, she backed away and stood behind a tree.

“I’m not gonna hurt you,” Taeyeon took a step forward. “I live around here. Are you lost?”

The girl remained silent, her eyes wide and innocent.

She’s adorable! Taeyeon thought.

“C’mon out. It’s okay. If you’re lost I can help you find your way around.” Taeyeon took another step and without any warning, the girl shot away from the tree.

“Hey!” Taeyeon called out but the girl had already disappeared into the woods. Without any thought, Taeyeon took off after the girl.

This is crazy. I should really go back. What if I actually do run into a bear this time? Oh lord, I’m so stupid!

Nonetheless, Taeyeon continued to run. The girl was ahead considerably yet to Taeyeon’s luck (and intial surpise), the glittery stuff was trailing from her back, making it rather easy to follow her tracks. Taeyeon threw her head back, gasping loudly, and worked her legs as hard as her cigarette-stained lungs could handle. It didn’t take long for her to lose steam. She stopped and fell to the ground on her bottom, coughing and wheezing. The golden trail remained however, and Taeyeon decided to finish the chase by walking.

The trail was leading her deeper into the woods. The world around her seemed to grow darker with every step she took, and she felt a bit nervous. Nonetheless, she stuck to the glittery trail and soon found herself in front of what looked like a Japanese teahouse.

Taeyeon tilted her head in confusion. Why was there a teahouse here of all places? The thing looked like it was literally plucked from the Edo Period. The only thing that was missing was a lily pond. And people of course.

Taeyeon stopped in front of the door. The trail led inside but she was hesitant to enter. Her fingers trembled slightly as her overactive imagination kicked into gear. What if the girl was some psycho cosplayer who lured people into this teahouse and killed them? Or even worse, what if it was an effeminate dressed like Tinkerbell? Such thoughts and more crossed through Taeyeon’s mind but her body responded otherwise. She opened the door and went in.

And then she fell.