“Doojoon! Where are we going?”

It was the last day we had in London. Our concert was over and the time to take in the sights was now. Junhyung had taken Kikwang and Dongwoon to see the London Eye while Hyunseung went off on his own to shop, leaving me alone with Yoseob

“I want to explore the setting of a Sherlock Holmes novel.”

“Sherlock Holmes? I didn’t know you were into that stuff?”

“Dongwoon leant me the book.”

I kept walking with no set direction. Yoseob seemed not to notice much. He just wanted to play with everything he set his eyes on. With my eyes darting between him and the road, it wasn’t long before we arrived at the entrance of large wooded area

“Hyung? We’re lost.”

“I can see that, Seobie”

I took a deep breath and took my first step into the tall, dark-leaved trees.

“Doojoon. This is a bad idea”

“Can you think of a better one?”

Yoseob shut his mouth and followed me as we threaded the rugged dirt path. Mere moments went by before we realized we had lost sight of the entrance.

“Brilliant plan, leader”

“Ok. so we’re more lost. Let’s just look around for someone that can give us directions. The air about the forest began to cool as we advanced onward. Yoseob’s eyes darted around as we walked.

“Do you ever have the feeling we’re being watched?”

“Seobie, You’re being ridiculous. “

We continued on into the dark woods until we finally reached a clearing. The darkness of the trees gave me the illusion of a cloudy night , rather than a sunny spring afternoon. In the corner of the clearing was a old and slightly rundown house. Surrounded by strange statues and golems, the house seemed to belong to someone that prefers isolation.  “There may be someone inside that can give us directions.”

“Is that a good idea? How do we know someone even lives here?”

“Look. The light in the house is on. Don’t worry so much, Seobie.” I took a step forward as Seobie took hold of my wrist

“You really shouldn’t. Even if she gave you directions, you wouldn’t get it. Your english comprehension is terrible”

“I think I can handle simple directions.” I yanked my arm away from Yoseob, approaching the gate of black metal bars. Creaking the gate open I walked along the stone path to the door. However, before I could reach it, I stopped and turned to my right. I kneeled down and found myself captivated by the item placed in that spot. A small stone statue of a gray wolf. Every feature of it perfect. Every detail, unmissed. It was almost as if someone had frozen a real wolf in sedimentary rock.

“Hey! You!”

My attention was immediately taken away as I jumped back up to my feet and spun around toward the porch. There stood a pale white lady with ancient wrinkled skin, a dirty white and red spotted dress and an even dirtier white apron. A thick brown cane supporting her, as her hair looked as if it hadn’t been washed or styled in years. Her appearance, in a way, was terrifying.

I stepped back nervously, without realizing, as a spilled out some of the worst english ever to be uttered. “ I sorry. I  your wolf...thing...Need directions.” As my english grew worse and worse, I continued to back up more and more until I felt something  on the back of my right  foot.  A hard yet fragile item had taken away my balance. I felt my left foot swing forward, up and over me as I fell back, taking the amazing statue to ground along with me. Crash. There before my eyes, the wolf figure had broken into hundreds of pieces.

Oh No! I thought  as the old lady screamed out, “MY WOLF!” She approached me yelling in a fast language inaudible to my korean ears.

“Sorry! Sorry!” That’s all I could say. As she grew closer to me. All my english had fleeted as her grotesque face came inches away from mine. I felt scared. Unable to move. I had ruined something precious to her.

“Hey! It was just an accident!”

I turned around as my small friend had run through the gate to my side. His normal smile had turned into an angry scowl as a strong argument came pouring from his lips. Shouting in his native tongue, Yoseob proceeded to defend my honor, all-the-while adding English words to get his point across. I couldn’t help smiling slightly seeing little Seobie coming to my rescue.

“ENOUGH!!” Finally a word I could understand erupted out of the woman’s mouth. I felt my heart stop short as the fear had, at once, returned. “You children know not what you have done! You will understand! You will show respect to the wolf, one way or another!”

I could not comprehend what was happening. Her speech was still in english but I was able to comprehend every word. The lady at once picked up her cane as to show us the head. A silver skull with ruby eyes. A nightmarish figure to say the least. She began to chant in an inaudible language, neither english nor korean. A strange fog began to cover the entire clearing as the woman began to vanish from our line of sight. My chest. A sharp pain overtook me. I felt my heart moving as if fueled by pure adrenaline. What’s happening to me?

I fell to one knee, cringing in pain. I looked over to see Seobie, lying on the ground, clutching his chest. “ Yoseob!” I tried reaching out to him as my arms began to fall limp. I felt a tear fall from my eyes as I collapsed onto the stone path. Seobie. My eyes fell closed as I passed out.

This is all my fault. I never should’ve walked into that forest.... Yoseob.... Yoseob!!

I awoke as thoughts of my friend plagued my mind. Where am I? I sat up to realize I had been sitting on a park bench near the end of the day. I looked down to see sweet Yoseob’s head asleep in my lap. Was that all a dream? I turned my gaze upward toward a pond noticing Hyunseung as he stared at the water.

“Hyunseung!”

He turned around as if startled. “ Oh. It’s just you, Doojoon. Nice to see you’re awake.”

“Where are we? How did we get here?”

He diverted his eyes and opened his mouth as if to confess something but before he could form any words his speech was interrupted.

“Doojoon! Hyunseung!” Yoseob opened and began rubbing his eyes as Kikwang ran toward us! “We’ve been looking all over for you three!”

Junhyung walked up after Kikwang with Dongwoon not far behind. “Come on. We gotta go,” Junhyung commented. “We can’t miss our flight back to Seoul.”

I stood up and supported Yoseob. I decided to no longer continue the conversation with Hyunseung. What happened out there? Why was Hyunseung here and what does he know? I then decided to leave the situation alone. Justifying it as an awful dream. A dream best left forgotten.