She breathed in the fresh air with a small smile on her face, swinging her groceries back and forth. The bright sunlight warmed her body from head to toe leaving her feeling energized and excited.

She didn’t know why, but she felt like today was going to be a good day. A day full of excitement, of adventure.

She chuckled under her breath. When had she had a day full of adventure in this mundane life of hers? Not that she hated it or anything, but she knew she wasn’t the type of person to suddenly announce that she wanted to do anything outrageous. But still, she liked to live the day to the fullest. Even if it only meant going to the supermarket to buy some food.

The busy street next to her buzzed with life with buzzing cars and trucks speeding to their next destination. She liked hearing the white noise to her; it calmed her.

She smiled at each person who walked passed her, and each looked back in surprise with the random act of kindness. And each person who saw her smile began to think perhaps that today wouldn’t be so bad.

She glanced at her watch and slightly frowned when she realized how long she spent on simply walking. She began to pick up her pace once realized that she needed to chill her produce before they spoiled.

She then heard some incessant honking and turned her head toward the street to see what the commotion was all about.

And there she saw a pure white cat sitting in the middle of the road, not making a single twitch to move out of way. As if it was merely curious of what would happen. As if it wanted to be run over.

And on the other side, a black sleek car that was braking heavily, not knowing whether to risk hitting the cat or hitting the other cars passing opposite of it.

And she didn’t know what possessed her to do so, but she dropped her groceries and ran. Ran toward the white cat, which whipped his head to her with dark golden-brown inquisitive eyes, and watched as she grabbed him while she closed her eyes and winced for the eventual impact.

When she woke, she knew she was lying on the floor. She slowly sat up, moving her body cautiously and wondered where exactly she was as she eyed her surroundings.

She was in the middle of a white endless hallway with even more hallways lined down both ways. The area was lit up with lights, but she could not see any lamps or other sources of light. As if the room lit itself up from inside out.

 “Hello?” she called tentatively. She was met with an echo of her voice then silence and cringed as she felt her head throb. And slowly she remembered what happened.

She was walking home from the market when she saw a car about to hit a cat. She remembered feeling panicked and confused. Because it looked like it wanted to get ran over. But she still ran to save that white cat. She remembered grabbing the cat, closing her eyes, and bracing herself. And then nothing.

She didn’t remember the impact nor did she remember dying.

At least she thought she was dead. Why else would she be here in a white endless place? And if this was heaven, it sure was bland.

She wondered where everyone else who was dead was; why she was the only one here.

She continued to sit there and checked her body which looked nothing as she imagined it. Normal. No blood, no bruises, no scratches. Nothing. Nothing that indicated that she was hit by a car.

“Hello?” she called out again, hoping for someone to answer or at least something to happen. Perhaps an angel would come lead her to the other world? Or perhaps the devil himself would personally her to down below?

She stood up and looked around once more. Perhaps she missed something. But she didn’t see anything.

She shrugged and picked a random hallway to walk through. If no one was going to help her, she might as well see if she could find someone or something rather than waiting.

Plus, she was hungry. It was funny how getting hit by a car did a number on her stomach.

“You’re taking this rather easily,” a male voice called out once she put her foot through the first threshold on the hallway she had picked.

She froze mid-step and slowly inched her head to the voice behind her.

She didn’t know what she expected. An angel? The devil? His servant? Or maybe God himself? Or maybe no one at all?

But she saw a human. Or she thought it was human. He looked human enough with the appearance of a young man. He looked slightly older than her. And to a certain extent, fashionable.

He was donning a pure white suit that had gold buttons that were neatly buttoned. White suit pants and white shoes complimented his ethereal look. He had dark brown eyes that twinkled with the tilt of his head. His hair was parted three-fourths of the way and his fringe was styled back. And it was a reddish pink color. More red than pink she observed.

She continued to stare at him because in all honestly, she did not expect anyone there at all. She didn’t see anybody the last time she checked. It was as if he had appeared out of thin air.

The young man smirked, his full lips parting away to show pearly white teeth and bright pink gums. “What?” he grinned. “Never seen a man as handsome as me, Kang Myunghee?”

That broke at her stupor and watched him with large eyes as he sauntered closer to her. “How do you know my name?” she asked inquisitively.

He smiled back and laughed humorously. “I know many things, and your name just happens to be one of them.”

She blinked at him confusedly and decided in this odd white place, nothing should make sense and decided to go with it. “Ok, erm, Mister…” she trailed off.

He thought for a moment before brightening up with excitement. “Oh! Call me Dongwoo! Jang Dongwoo. I’ve always liked that name.”

She stared at him oddly. “Ok, Mr. Jang.”

He grinned. “Please, call me Dongwoo. Mister makes me sound old.”

She stared at him and shook her head. “Ok then, Dongwoo. Do you know where we are?”

“Ah,” he mused. “That seems to be the question. Where are we? Who are we? Why are we here? How did we get here?”

“I just…” she started in confusion.

He put out a hand. “Let’s start with where we are. We are in a place what you people call limbo, the halfway point.”

“You people? That makes him what then?” she thought, but before she could continue with her thoughts, Dongwoo kept talking.

“Limbo because you are almost dead. Your life is hanging on a single thread that could break with a snap of a finger,” he smiled, snapping his fingers with the last phrase for extra emphasis.

“And if you look here,” he gestured behind him, “you can see two destinations that you may be where you go next.”

Myunghee tilted her head to look behind the man to see two staircases she had never seen before. One was white cased with gold and silver lining and circled up in a spiral. And the other was black decorated with a red railing and red roses leading straight down.

She was pretty sure that those staircases weren’t there before, but that was besides the point. She looked back to Dongwoo and pointed. “Heaven and Hell?” It seemed a bit too obvious for her tastes. Not that she minded.

He smiled. “Well, aren’t you a smart one?” he said mockingly.

She didn’t take his sarcasm to heart and asked, “There isn’t a third choice?”

He looked at her with confusion. “What do you mean?”

She shrugged as if it was obvious. “I mean back to Earth.”

He stared at her before leaning forward with huge peals of laughter. He kept laughing while Myunghee blinked at him, waiting patiently for him to stop.

When he did, she felt the air go cold, the light dim darkly, and the hair rise on the back of her neck. Goosebumps scattered across her arms, and she rubbed them to keep herself warm.

His already dark brown eyes darkened to black and pierced hers with such intensity that she couldn’t look away. He narrowed them and hissed murderously, “And what makes you think that you had a choice to go back?”

She stared at him with mild shock at the sudden change in personality and replied calmly as if his split personality did not affect her at all, “I didn’t. I just simply wondered since you said I wasn’t dead yet. Which means that there is a possibility of me going back to Earth.” Then she shrugged. “But if you say that I can’t, then that means the only path is death. And I’m assuming I’m supposed to be led to either Heaven or Hell.” She nodded as if she had finally come to that conclusion.

He stared at for a while before smiling once more and the whole atmosphere turned back to the way it originally was. Bright light and warm air.

“You are a noticeably easy-going person,” he said as he looked at her curiously.

She shrugged again. “I suppose. Though I don’t know how that changes anything.” She walked around him and towards the two staircases. “Shall we go?”

He stared at her as if he was coming to a conclusion of his own. “Hold up. Do you really want to die now?”

She blinked at him. “Isn’t the obvious answer ‘no’? But it’s not like I have a choice.”

The man didn’t seem to listen to her as continued on. “You are right. You are supposed to be led to one of these places,” he spoke as he motioned to the two staircases. But! I’m not going to. I’m going to send you back.”

She looked at him with confusion. “Um. What? Didn’t you just say that I couldn’t?”

He mused over his decision and then clapped his hands in glee. “Yes! That’s right! This is an excellent idea,” he crowed to himself. And he pointed to Myunghee. “And you’re an interesting person! I like you.”

“Thanks?” she said slowly. Then she frowned. “And why am I interesting?” she asked, wondering if he meant as a compliment or as an insult.

He grinned, “Because you didn’t cry in the beginning when you didn’t know where you were or when you thought you were dead. You didn’t beg me desperately to make you alive again. You didn’t proudly assume that I was going to take you to Heaven. And you simply took everything well. All together; interesting.”

He spun her around by the shoulders and patted her back, forcing her to walk in the other direction from the staircases. “Come along now. Much to do. Much. To. Do.”

She walked away from the staircases, giving them a glancing look before looking up at the young man. “Aren’t you going to get in trouble? I mean, I’m dead or going to be dead. And you’re not leading me to one of two locations I’m supposed to go.” She arched an eyebrow. “Aren’t you an angel? So doesn’t that mean you are obliged to listen to your superiors’ orders, whatever they are?”

He gave her a little laugh. “Oh, don’t worry. My status is definitely higher than an angel.” He grinned and looked at the Heaven staircase. “And even if someone’s mad at me for doing this, they won’t stop me. Actually, they can’t stop me.”

Myunghee took one last look at both the staircases which were slowly disappearing from view and the man who was leading her to who-knows-where and settled on doing what he said. What else would she do? And plus, it looked like the man was letting her live. She wasn’t going to argue with him.

Dongwoo suddenly stopped and turned to face Myunghee. He rubbed his hands in excitement and told the girl in front of him, “You want might to close your eyes for this.”

“What do you mean?” she managed to say before a bright flash of light came from his hands and encased them with it. She quickly closed her eyes before it blinded her, and felt dizzy. She began to lose conscious and before she out, she thought she heard him say, “This is going to be fun.”

She opened her eyes and immediately heard a steady beeping. She slowly turned her head to look at a heartbeat monitor and then slowly turned to face what was in front of her. A nurse was milling around, flipping though sheets of paper on a clipboard in her hands.

She heard the sudden movement and looked at the patient. She brightened up when she realized she had woken up.

“Where am I?” Myunghee croaked softly.

“The hospital, dear,” the nurse said soothingly.

“What happened?”

The nurse smiled happily. “It’s a miracle! They said you were almost hit by a car head-on, but apparently it barely missed you. Plus, when they brought you to the hospital and examined you, you had no injuries! A miracle, I say. You were unconscious for a while, but the doctor said that you would wake up in no time.”

She walked over to the top of the bed and gently fluffed Myunghee’s pillow. “You’re lucky. Really lucky. Someone must have been watching over you.”

“Cat,” Myunghee mumbled.

“Hmm? What was that?” the nurse asked, leaning closer.

“Do you know what happened to the cat?” Myunghee said louder.

The nurse frowned. “No, I don’t believe anyone mentioned a cat. Sorry. Why?”

Myunghee shook her head. “It’s fine. Just curious.”

The nurse smiled. “You saved a cat? It must have been good karma then.” She walked to the door and turned to Myunghee. “Just take a good rest and before you know it, you’ll be discharged.” And with that, she closed the door behind her, leaving Myunghee to herself.

Myunghee, on the other hand, felt horrible. Her head throbbed and her vision was still a little blurry. She could hardly move her body without feeling stiff and sore.

She remembered that bizarre dream she had, with the young man in the full white suit and pinkish-reddish hair. She remembered him leaving the two choices behind her and sending her back to the living.

So was it true? Did that other being bring her back to life, or rather let her live? She didn’t know, and she as a bit confused at the fact that even though she wasn't hit by the car that she felt sore all over. She concluded that she could think clearer when she didn’t feel like there were needles stabbing her everywhere.

She sighed and resigned on sleeping the pain away. But as she was about to close her eyes, a dark shadow crossed the bed sheet in front of her. She painstakingly turned her head to see a small window where a small pot of flowers was standing. She stared to see if anything moved, but only the flowers moved briefly from the small breeze coming through the window.

Myunghee shook her head to clear her thoughts, thinking that it was a trick of her mind since she was tired. But then she heard a clinking noise from underneath the bed. And before she could do anything, a small white object blurred from underneath and jumped on top of the bed and furthermore, onto her lap.

She widened her eyes and tried as quickly as possible to sit up despite the pain she felt.

There sitting serenely on her lap was the white cat she saved. Or tried to save. She cautiously held a hand out which the white cat sniffed and petted him with it.

Myunghee smiled lightly and said softly, “So you lived.” The cat meowed softly.

Her eyes traveled from his face to his neck where a pinkish red collar was attached. A color similar to that man’s hair color. She made a confused face. She didn’t see that before when she tried to save him.

She touched it lightly and it to the middle where a dangling medallion hung. She brought her face closer to read the engraving and dropped it in shock.

Dongwoo

It said Dongwoo.

And she looked back at the cat, which was now sitting up-straight.

And Myunghee swore that if cats grinned, then this white cat was doing the exact same thing.

A/N: Dongwoo! Ah, Dongwoo. You have every reason to be loved.

So how did you guys like the chapter?

Thanks for reading!