JONGHYUN (Part 2)

  He laughs."Change it. Change the story. Yeah, that's a good one, Jjong. While you're at it, why don't you turn the ocean into grape juice and make the mermaids fly?" Maybe he's right, maybe it is just me. Everyone elso in this book seems to be perfectly happy with the fact that they are a part of a story; that they are enslaved into doing and saying the same things over and over, likr in a play that gets performed for eternity. They probably think that the people in the Otherworld have then same sort of lives we do. I guess I find it hard to believe taht Readers get up the same hour every morning and eat the same breakfast every day and go sit in te same chair for hours and have the same convo's with their parents and got to bed and wake up and do it all over again. I think more likely they lead the most increadible lives-- and by increadible, I mean: with free will. I wonder all the time what that would be like: to feel te book opening yet not beg the queen to let me go on a quest. To avoid getting trapped by fairies and run ragged by a villian. To fall in love with a guy whose eyes are the color of honey. To see someone I don't recognize, and whose name I don't know, I'm not fussy, really. I woudn't mind being a butcher instead of a prince. Or swimming across the ocean to e hailed as a legendary athlete. Or picking a fight with someone who cuts in front of me. I wouldn't mind doing anything other than the same old things I have done for as long as I can remember. I guess I just have to believe there's more to the world than what's inside these pages. Or maybe it's just that I deperately want to believe that.

  I glance around at the others. Between the readings, our real personalities show. One of the trolls is working out a melody  on a flute he has carved from a piece of bamboo. The fairies are doing crossword puzzles that Captain Crabbe creates for them, but they keep cheating by looking intp the wizard's crystal ball. And Jessica....

  She blows me a kiss, and I force a smile. She's pretty, I suppose, with her silver hair and eyes the color of violets in the meadow near the castle. But her shoe size is bigger than her IQ.(A/N NO HATE!! I actually love Sica unnie ALOT. She's like my favourite SNSD member. I just wanted to put her as the 'princess' cuz' she and Jonghyun oppa re really close so.. . Sica-effect jjang ;D) For example, she honestly believes that just because I save her over and over again as part of my job, I must truly have feelings for her.

  I'll be honest, it's not a hard day's work to kiss a beautiful girl repeatedly. But it all starts feeling same old, same old after awhile.I also dont have any intrest in girls, if i must say. It's like, their not attractive to me, at all! There was this one time where a Reader was reading a part were Im the only character in there, and just for a chance, I glanced up to see the Reader's face. It was a very handsome boy, with big bubbly eyes. He looked around 8-9 years of age. Thay's when i knew i wasn't- what the Other World would say- straight. People from the Other World like to call guys like me, gay, if im correct. But im fine with that 'calling'. Anyways, I certainly don't love Jessica, but that little detail seems to have escaped her. Which makes me feel guilty every timr I kiss her, because I know she wants more from me than I'm ever going to give her when the storybook's closed.

  Beside me, Onew lets out a long, mournful howl. That's the second reason I feel so guilty kissing Jessica. He's had a crush on her for as long as I can remember, and that makes it even worse. What must it be like, watching me pretend to fall in love with a girl he's crazy about, day by day? "I'm sorry, buddy," I say to him. " I wish she knew it was just for show." "Not your fault," he replies tightly. "Just doing what you have to do." As if he's conjured it, there is suddenly a blinding light, and our sky cracks open along a seam. "Places!" Onew cries, frantic. "Everyone! Into your positions!" He runs off to help the trolls dismantle the bridge, only so that they can rebuild it again.

  I grab my tunic and my dagger. The fairies who were our chess peices rice like sparks and write the words SEE YOU LATER in the air before me, a trail of light as they zoom into the woods. "Yes, and thanks again," I say politely, intent on hurrying to the castle for my first scene.

  What would happen, I wonder, if I was late? If I, dawdled or stopped to smell the lilacs at the castle gate, so that I wasn't in place when the book was opened? Would it stay sealed shut? Or would the story start without me?

  Experimentally, I slow my pace, dragging my heels. But suddenly-

~To be continued~