KEY.

               "Mine did," I say.

  She turns and looks at me, head tilted as if she is trying to figure out if I am lying or crazy or both. "You need to get more sleep, Kibum," she announces. "Mom, I'm serious-"

  "You simply saw something you overlooked before," my mother says, and she puts on her jacket. "Lets go."

But it's not something I overlooked. I know it.

  The whole way to school, my backpack sits on my lap. My mother and I talk about things that don't matter- what time she is coming home from work; if im ready for my Algebra test; if it's going to snow- when all i can focus on is that faint little chessboard scrached into the sand of the beach on the last page of the fairy tale.

  Our car pulls up in front of the building. "Have a good day," my mother says, and I kiss her goodbye. I hurry past a kid plugged into his earphones, and the popular guys giving a nerd a wedgie. The school's current "it" couple, Kevin and Eli- or Elvin, as the they're known- are wrapped in each other's arms across my locker. "I'm gonna miss you," Kevin says. "I'm gonna miss you too, baby," Eli murmurs.

  For Pete's sake. It's not like he's leaving on a trip around the world. He's only heading to homeroom. I don't realize I've said that out loud until I see them both staring at me. "Get a life," Kevin says.

Eli laughs. "Or at least a boyfriend."

  They leave with their arms around each other, hands tucked into each other's rear jeans pockets.

  The worst part is, it's true. I wouldn't know what true love feels like if it hit me between the eyes. Given my mothers experience with romance, I shouldn't even care- but there's a part of me that wonders what it would be like to be the most important person to someone else, to always feel like you were missing a peice of yourself when he wasn't near you.

  There is a crash on the metal of the locker beside mine, and I look up to see Dongwoon smacking his hand against it to get my attention. "Hey," Dongwoon says. " "earth to Key?" Today he is dressed in a black shirt with a skull on it with some skinny black jeans and some grey high tops. "Where'd you go last night?" he says. " I sent you a thousand texts."

   I hesitate. I've hidden my fairy-tale obsession from Dongwoon, but if anyone is going to belive me when I say that a book cheanged before my eyes, it's going to be my best friend.

 "sorry," I say. " I went to bed early." "Well, the texts were all about about Soy Boy," I blush. At 3:00 a.m. during our last sleepover, I confessed to him that O thought Zach the american exchange student from my Earth Science class was possible future boyfriend material.

 " I heard that he hooked up with Jiyoung last weekend." Jiyoung had hooked up with so many guys in our class that his nickname was the Fisherman. I let this news sink in, and the fact that I had thought about Zach this morning before reading my book, which seemed a thousand years ago.

  "He's telling everyone he slipped him a real burger instead of a veggie one and it overloaded his system. That he has no recollection of doing anything with Jiyoung."

"Must have been some really good beef," I murmur. For a second, I try to mourn Zach, my potential crush, who now has someone real, but all I'm thinking of is Jonghyun.

  "I have to tell you something," I confess.

 Dongwoon looks at me, suddenly serious.

  "I was reading this book and it... it sort of changed."

 "I told understand," Dongwoon says. "The first time I saw Attack of the Killer tomatoes I knew my life was never going to be the same."

    "No, it's not that I've changed- it's the book that changed." I reach into my backpack and grab the fairy tale, flipping difectly to the last page. "Look."

  Prince? Yup, standing right where he usually is.

  Princess? Ditto.

  Onew? Wagging happily.

  Chessboard?

It's missing.

It was there less than a half hour ago, and suddenly it's gone.

  "Key," Dongwoon asks. " Are you okay?"

  I can feel myself breaking out in a cold sweat. I close the book and the open it again; I blink fats to clear my eyes.

     Nothing.

     I stuff the book into my backpack againa and close my locker. "I,um,have to go," I say to Dongwoon, shoving past him as the bell rings.

     Just so you know, I never lie. I never steal. I never cut class. I am, in short, the perfect student. Which makes what I am about to do even more shocking. I turn in the opposite direction and walk toward the gym, although I am supposed to be in homeroom.

  Me, Kim Kibum.

I walk to the locker room. I know it will be empty this early in the morning. Sitting down on a bench, I take the book from my backpack and open it again.

  Real fairy tales are not for the fainthearted. In them, children get eaten by witches and chased by wolves; women fall into comes and are tortured by evil relatives. Somehow, all that pain and suffering is worthwhile, though, when it leads to the ending: happily ever after. Suddenly it no longer matters if you got a B- on your midterm in French or if you're the only guy in the school who doesn't have a date. Happily ever after trumps everything. But what if ever after could change?

     It did for my mom. At one point, she loves my dad, or hey wouldn't have gotten married- but now she doesn't even want to speak to him when he calls me on my birthday and Christmas. Likewise, maybe the fairy tale isn't accurate.Maybe the last line should read something like What you see isn't always what you get.

 There is still no chessboard on the sand.

    I start flipping through the pages furiously. In most of them, Prince Jonghyun is in the company of someone or something- his dog, the villain Minho, Princess Jessica. But there is one illustration where he is all alone.

Actually, it's my favourite.

   It comes toward the end of the story, after he's out-smarted the dragon Pyro and left the beast in the care of Captain Crabbe and the pirates. Afterward, as the pirates load the dragon onto the ship, Jonghyun is left alone on the shore looking up the cliff wall at the tower where Jessica is being imprisoned. In the picture on page 43, he starts to climb.

     I lift the book closer so that I can see jonghyun more clearly. He is drawn in color, his brownish hair ruffled by the breeze, his arms straining as he scales the sheer rock face. His bottle green velvet tunic is tattered: singed from Pyro's fiery breath and torn from his escape from shackles on the pirates ship. His dagger is clenched between his teeth so that he can grasp the next ledge. His face is turned toward the ocean, where the ship slips into the distance.

     I think the reason I love this illustration so much is the expression on his face. You'd expect, at that monet, he'd be overcome by fierce determination. Or maybe shining loce for is nearby princess. but instead, he looks...well... like something's missing.

  Like he'd almost rather be on that pirates ship.Or anywhere but where he is, on the face of the rocky cliff.

     Like there's something he's hiding.

  I lean forward, until my nose is nearly touching the page. The image blurs as I get close, but for a moment, I'm positive that Jonghyun's eyes have flickered away from the ocean, and toward me.

    "I wish you were real," I whisper.

  On the loudspeaker in the locker room, thr bell rings. That means homeroom is over, and I have to go to Algebra. With a sigh, I set the fairy tale down on the bench, still cracked open. I unsip my backpack and then pick up the book up again.

     I gasp.

  jonghyun is still clibing the sheer rock wall. But the dagger cleched between his teeth is now in his right hand. Steel to stone, its sharp tip scratches the faintest of white lines into the dark granite, and then another, and a third.

     H

  I rub my eyes. This is ot a Nook, a Kindle Fire, or an iPad, just a very ordinary old book. No animation, no bells and whistles. Drawing in my breath, I thouch the paper, that very spot, and lift my finger again.

   Two words slowly appear on the surface of the rock wall.

    HELP ME.

                                                                ~To be continued~

Hello everyone!! Im back ngehehehe. Anyways the holidays started (WOHOOOOOO.) and i just wanna say thank you for all the comments and here's a REALLY LONG UPDATE. I took 2 hours to write this #nojoke.

I hope you guys liked it and i will update tomorrow IF! Only if i get some comments. Yes Im greedy hehe :P

PLEASE COMMENT, SUBSCRIBE AND PROMOTE THIS :DD 

xoxo,

Jessica =)

(GG)

Btw, do follow me on twitter if you have one --> @jongkeyshipper

Thanks lovelies <3