Almost as soon as Chu Hua had spoken the rain stopped. Oddly the wind seemed to calm down, too, and the tall crops around us that had been shaking quite violently before, slowed down to a gentle swaying motion. If my senses weren’t fooling me, the air had actually gotten warmer.

“You feel it, too, right?” said Chu Hua.

Again she didn’t speak Korean or any other language I had ever heard in my life… but I understood every word of what she was saying.

Chu Hua furrowed her brow.

“You can understand me… right?”

I nodded and she gleamed and actually did a little jump of joy that caused the plants around us to jitter.

“What’s going on?” I said and immediately clasped my mouth with my hands.

I hadn’t spoken Korean either. I had spoken a language I had never learned in my life.

“A gift from the gods!” said Chu Hua, smiling from ear to ear and spreading her arms as though she wanted to give praise to an invisible entity.

How in the world was I speaking a language I had never learned, yet alone heard spoken? I was paying close attention to the thoughts in my head. To my amazement they weren’t in Korean any longer, but had changed into the unknown language, too! It was thrilling and terrifying at the same time!

“How am I speaking a language I don’t even know?” I asked Chu Hua, amazed at how easily the words were flowing out of my mouth.

“It’s the magic of He Xiangu, I believe,” said Chu Hua. “I have been praying to Her Greatness for the past year and she has heard me. Although I believe Sun Wu Kong is having a hand in it all – doing his best to mess things up.”

I was soaking up all the strange, yet familiar words that were coming out of Chu Hua’s mouth. Oddly I could understand what she was saying, but I still had no idea who He Xiangu was – although I knew now that Sun Wu Kong was a sort of mystical deity. The language – whatever it was- was quite pretty actually. Melodic and smooth.

Suddenly words were filling my head: Dozens – hundreds of them! I started spouting them, like one would have spit out water while laughing:

“Gras!” I said. “Green! Trees! Sky! Blue!”

Chu Hua was laughing her beautiful laugh, while I was turning around myself gazing at the green surrounding us, blurting out random words and giggling like a little schoolgirl.

“You are suddenly cheerful,” commented Chu Hua, when I had stopped spinning because I had started to get dizzy, “The first time I entered your world I was so freaked out by my own words and thoughts, I didn’t speak for an entire day. And I was scared out of my mind thinking I would never find my way back.”

We were looking at each other and for the first time I felt there was an unspoken understanding between us. Something weird… something crazy that only we two shared.

“We’re not in South Korea anymore, are we?” I said, surprised by the odd sound of my country’s name in the unknown language.

Chu Hua shook her head: “No, we’re not. This country –“ She spread out her arms again, “This is Cathay.”

I repeated the word ‘Cathay’, like a little kid who had just learned a new word. Odd thing was – I knew the word. Just like all the other words of the strange language, it was somehow already there – hidden in my brain, waiting to come out.

Was this magic? Was it? Were we really in a different place?

I jumped to try and see over the tall green plants around us, but I was too short.

“You want to see more?” asked Chu Hua.

I nodded.

Fear had fallen from me. Somehow the fact that just maybe… magic or whatever it was… was a real thing excited me and at the same time pleasantly dazzled my senses. As I followed Chu Hua through the grass I felt like nothing would surprise me any longer.

Again we walked through the field of high crops, pushing them aside as we went along, but this time it seemed like Chu Hua knew exactly where she was going. We were heading distinctively in one direction and I wondered how she knew where to go, because to me the view looked exactly the same in all directions.

In my mind I was going through everything I had learned about Chu Hua so far: She was not from this world, she was some sort of noblewoman and she lived at a royal court. Taking into account that my thoughts and my speech were now in a language I had never learned – but seemed to have perfect command of – all that she had told me so far moved into the realm of ‘possible’. Yet the question lingered of course, why we looked the same and why there was any traveling in the first place – from South Korea to… Cathay and the other way around.

Looking over Chu Hua’s shoulder I could soon see the green of the field crops thinning and a landscape unfolding behind it. Oddly enough, as we stepped out of the field, we found ourselves opposite to a tall grey stone wall, that had definitely not stood between forest and field, back when we had arrived at the bus stop in the countryside.

The wall stretched all the way to both left and right and was so long I could not see the end of it. Not far from us stood several bamboo plants that had grown close to the wall.

Towering above the wall - which was tall itself – was an even taller sort of round sand-colored tower, which had to be standing on the other side of the wall. It was a pretty building with a colorful curved red roof. Overall the construction in front of us was so huge, that I was sure it could not have been hidden between field and forest.

We were truly no longer in the Korean countryside – we were some place entirely different.

“What is this?” I asked, “Where are we?”

Chu Hua, who had patiently waited while I gaped at the wall, replied: “This is the 3^rd and most inner wall of the royal palace – the inside of it is also known as the Forbidden City.”

“It’s huge!” I squealed, now feeling quite at home with the strange language that was coming out of my mouth, but still overtaken by what was physically in front of me.

“Yes, the Inner Wall stretches very long. But you should see the Second and the First Wall – they are even longer. And if you think about it – this is just the southern side of the wall – there’s a eastern, northern and western side, too.”

“I’m not under some kind of hallucinogen, am I?” I said, wanting to abandon any last bit of doubt.

“Not as far as I know,” said Chu Hua laughing. “Believe me, this place is quite real. But I had the same doubts when I first ventured into your world. When I reached the road and saw my first car… that was shock I remember until today. Oh, and my first ride on a bus. I almost puked all over the other passengers.”

I was intrigued like I never had been before: I had just traveled back in time… or switched universe. It was indeed possible and I had been chosen to experience it.

“Do you wanna go inside?” Chu Hua asked, the smile on her face now showing a hint of cheekiness.

“Am I allowed?” I asked.

“Well, you have my permission,” said Chu Hua, “If you want, then no one will see us. We’ll just take a quick look at the temple here and then go back. Believe me, I know what it is like to see too much of the other world in one day. We can take it slow.”

I nodded excitedly, but then frowned.

“Do we have to walk until we reach a gate?”

“No, silly!” said Chu Hua, who had started heading towards the piece of wall, where the bamboo was growing.

“We’re going to climb?” I asked and my smile faded. I was an okay climber, but the wall looked terrifyingly high – at least 10 meters, if not more.

“It takes a bit of practice,” said Chu Hua, who had reached the bamboo and grabbed to canes that stood fairly close together. “Watch what I’m doing and just do the exact same thing.”

I slowly walked towards the bamboo, as Chu Hua climbed up the wall, while holding on to the two bamboo canes with her hands and stemming her feet against them, too. Careful motion after motion she moved up the wall, until she had reached the top of the wall.

“This is the hard part!” she called down to me and I could hear the exhaustion in her voice, “You wanna make sure you get one leg over the wall, before you let go of the bamboo!”

In one quick motion Chu Hua had flung her leg over the wall and moved her body on top of it, while the bamboo canes that had been bent towards the wall flung back and shook the entire plants. Resting shortly on top of the wall, Chu Hua waved at me, motioning me to come up.

I stood in front of the bamboo canes, eying them with suspicion. I felt quite exhausted by everything already – I had been on the most extreme emotional roller-coaster of my entire life and wasn’t really prepared to risk falling to my death.

“Just try getting up a few meters!” called Chu Hua from up above, “Practice a little first, if you want to. We have plenty of time before sundown.”

I looked up at the sky above the tall grey wall. Indeed the sun was still high up in the sky, although my feeling told me that by now it had to be advanced afternoon.

Was time running differently in this place as well?

“Come on! Try it!” Chu Hua called encouragingly. “We have the same height and weight. If the canes can support my weight they can take yours for sure!”

I gulped, gathered all my courage and then put my hands around the two bamboo canes.

“A little higher!” called Chu Hua.

Following her instructions and moving forwards slowly, while ceaselessly sweating, I actually managed to get up to about six meters. Then however I made the mistake of looking downwards and immediately got the urge to climb back down. It took some convincing and persuading, before I tried again. The second time around I reached even higher, but my hands got sweaty and I almost slipped while trying to push myself further up. I started grabbing the canes so tight, it hurt my hands. Chu Hua’s optimism however could not be swayed and she talked me through it, until I gathered the courage to continue climbing and reached the top of the wall.

“See, that wasn’t so hard!” said Chu Hua, “It took me a lot more tries to get back up. You’ll see down is much easier. But now, swing that leg!”

I did as I had been told and swung my leg in one quick motion over the wall and let go of the canes. As my body landed on the wall I felt some pain in my pelvis, but nothing got seriously injured and I actually had to laugh, once I noticed I was safe on top of the wall.

I looked back over where we had come from and was amazed by the view: The field we had wandered through was quite large, but I could still see a second wall on the horizon – again it was so long that I could neither to the left nor to right see the end of it.

Next I wanted to push my way – one leg on each side of the wall – a little further left to get a look at what lay behind the wall to the other side, since the tower next to us was hiding the view, but Chu Hua stopped me:

“We can’t be seen climbing the wall!” she said, “If that happens they’ll realize it’s possible to get in via the bamboo and they will cut it. Not to mention the fact that we’ll both end up in prison – or worse.”

I stared at her.

“I thought… this was your palace.”

Chu Hua chuckled.

“I live here, but I don’t own the place” she said, as though she was explaining things to a particular dense child, “I have the privilege to be a lady of court – but I am also – like everyone in this country – a servant to the royal family. I don’t make decisions around here; I do what I’m told. Mostly anyway.”

“But this is against the rules,” I asked.

“Duh!” said Chu Hua, “Or we’d be using the gate, silly!”

I felt myself go red.

“Of course. So, what’s next?”

“I can take you inside the temple here,” Chu Hua said, nodding her head in direction of the large round tower next to us, “But that should be it for today, since we don’t want to do too much in one day. I think you already have a lot to process.”

Again I nodded, agreeing to yet another thing, without really knowing what I was getting into. I felt like I was right in the middle of an adventure – a feeling that I had never felt before and enjoyed immensely.

“How do we get inside?” I asked, but looking around I quickly saw the answer to my question: Closely to the height of the wall was a round curved outer-roof that ran all around the tower, above which the building however continued and several windows showed.

“Convenient, right? The prayer room that has been assigned to me is right here,” Chu Hua said, and reached for the red-tiled outer roof, carefully and slowly pulling herself onto it.

“You can reach it, too,” she said, once she was safely on top, “And then we’ll get in through the window.”

I did as Chu Hua had done and carefully heaved myself onto the red-tiled roof, whose up-curve prevented me from falling down. Chu Hua went first and then I followed her through a window inside the wall that was just small enough to let us climb through. Inside the tower my feet finally reached solid ground again and I let go of the window sill.

I found myself in room that had the same sand-colored walls as the outside of the tower, a stone floor, a door veiled by a heavy purple curtain and embedded into the wall…

“Wow!” I said – or at least the Cathanese equivalent of it, which had an odd, but interesting ring to it.

“Yeah,” said Chu Hua, “That’s a statue of He Xiangu, the guardian deity of this temple. My family sponsored it specifically for this room several generations ago. Back when we… still had the financial means to give this sort of gift to the court.”

I had only half-listened to Chu Hua’s explanations, so enthralled was I by the statue rising out of the wall before me: It was a tall and incredibly life-like statue of a beautiful curvy woman in a long flowing gown, that – although made out of some sort of wood – looked almost soft to the touch. In her hair and at her feet were white and pink wooden flowers, whose leaves looked as though a breeze of wind could actually move them. The statue and the accompanying decoration had been painted masterfully – and although the paint had cracked and faded slightly in some places – the dress – illuminated by the sunlight from outside – shone in a beautiful light blue and the cheeks on the round face seemed radiate a rosy glow almost like those of a real person.

“It’s still beautiful, isn’t it,” said Chu Hua and I nodded in agreement. “Well, you can stare at it while I explain a few things to you. Let’s sit down and I’ll tell you more about me and my world, if you tell me more about you and yours.”

Several cushions of golden fabric lay on the floor in front of the statue. Chu Hua and I each chose one and sat down opposite of each other.

“Let’s start with this place,” Chu Hua began, “This place we call the ‘ Temple’, because He Xiangu is the patron deity of s, mothers and women in general.”

“ Temple,” I repeated, again enjoying the odd, yet pleasant sound of the strange language.

“Yes. So this building is only open to women, which means that the priests that run it are all – well, priestesses,” Chu Hua continued, “But there are seven more temples within the Inner Wall of the Forbidden City. One for each major deity. They are entirely here for the spiritual welfare of the inhabitants of the inner palace.”

I listened wide-eyed as Chu Hua started giving me a description of the other wonders that were contained within the Inner Wall – according to her there were over 250 princes, princesses and others of royal decent, over 2000 noble consorts, 4000 servants and 5000 royal guards. Between the Inner Wall and the Second Wall were fields to sustain the palace inhabitants during a siege and several important ministers, their families and their servants lived there, too. Between the Second and Third Wall lived the generals, soldiers and their next of kin.

Besides the 8 temples, there was the Large Garden incorporating several lakes, streams, ponds and innumerable kinds of flowers and trees; the Temple of Heaven – a temple reserved for the religious rites carried out exclusively by the emperor; three separate gigantic halls in which the emperor would receive visitors and hold political conferences; and of course – the living and pleasure quarters of the ladies and lords of the court.

I had only seen the Inner Wall and the Temple, but each and every of the places appeared as a vivid image in my mind as Chu Hua described them and told me a few of their peculiarities. Soon my head was spinning from too much information and I asked Chu Hua to stop.

“I know what will help,” she said, getting up, “I’ll light an incense stick. They all have specific properties and help during mediation. They’ll help you with concentrating, while you tell me more about you and your world.”

Chu Hua lit an incense stick with a pocket lighter, she must have brought with her. It looked oddly out of place in the antique looking prayer room. So did our clothes as I noticed: We were both still wearing our dark-green synthetic jackets. From what I knew about this world – Cathay – they were not exactly the clothes to locally blend in.

The incense stick caught fire and a smoky and faintly sweet smell started to fill the room. Amazingly I did feel slightly more awake, as the smell reached my nostrils.

“Where were we,” said Chu Hua sitting down in front of me again.

“It’s my turn I think,” I said and started to explain life in South Korea.

I told her a little about South Korean society – how there were no kings and queens – although admittedly there was still a gap between rich and poor. I also told her that there were many more countries in my world – hundreds in fact – which Chu Hua seemed very intrigued by. I explained a little about our education system, health care and what people did with their free time. It was a little difficult, yet interesting for me to explain my entire world to Chu Hua. There was so much information, that I got a little lost along the way and we decided to talk about our families instead.

Here Chu Hua got especially curious. She was intrigued to learn that my mother had worked, while raising me single-handedly and wanted to know all sorts of details about life with my mum as a two-person family. She also wanted to know more about how my mother and Young Hwan lived a martial life together – without being married. After I had described what had to be most of my life story to her, I felt it was Chu Hua’s turn:

“What about your family? Do they live within the Inner Wall, too?”

Chu Hua gave me a sad smile and shook her head.

“I haven’t seen them in four years,” she said. “Four years ago I began training to become a noble consort and two years ago I got selected into the inner court of his Majesty Crown Prince Lu Han. Once you enter the Forbidden City, you never leave, unless the court temporarily moves to the summer palace. My family-“ Chu Hua looked away from me and out the window, “-live in our hometown many miles from here.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” I said.

I had grown up without a father, but the bond with my mother was strong and just imagining not seeing her for four years – let alone never again – was terrible.

Chu Hua gave me another one of her sad smiles. Secretly I wondered again why the smiles on her face – although it was the same as mine – always looked so much more pretty.

“It’s alright,” she said, “I’m a grown woman. In Cathay we come-of-age at fifteen and that’s when most girls will leave their home and move into their husbands houses.”

I looked at her in slight shock.

“In your world they get married later, don’t they?” asked Chu Hua and I nodded vehemently.

“And we come of age at twenty,” I added.

“You also live longer, don’t you?” said Chu Hua, “I noticed so many old people on the streets. At first I wondered if I had run into a health resort. But then – well your hometown – it’s almost as big and endless as the royal palace here.”

We both smiled at each other. I had never had a foreign friend – but really it couldn’t get any more foreign than a parallel world, could it now? And yet, there was an understanding between us – if not the early blossoms of a friendship.

“One of my close family member’s lives within the royal palace though and sometimes comes to visit me,” said Chu Hua and an even prettier smile appeared her face, “My brother, Min Shuo. He’s a lower minister of agriculture and lives between the Inner and the Second Wall.”

“You’re close?” I asked.

“Quite so,” said Chu Hua, almost with a giggle.

I told her, that since recently I also had a brother and that his name was Park Chanyeol.

“But he is the son of Young Hwan and his late wife. So there’s no blood relation between me and him.”

“Oh,” said Chu Hua, “I see. Very interesting. And how many servants do you have?”

“We… have no servants,” I said and explained that servants were only employed by the richest in my country. The Parks had a cleaning lady who came by once a week, but she didn’t live in the house with us.

By now my head had been pumped so full with information that I couldn’t go on much longer despite the help of the burning incense. With slight shock I noticed that the sun had started setting and light was slowly but steadily fading.

“I think I should head home soon,” I said.

Chu Hua, who had just lit another incense stick, also looked out the window at the setting sun. But she didn’t reply to what I had said and instead pulled a massive handkerchief out of her pocket.

“What are you doing?” I asked, as Chu Hua covered and nose with the handkerchief.

I heard a muffled ‘sorry’ from beneath the handkerchief, then the smoke of the burning incense reached my nostrils and in the next moment – my vision started to blur.

I caught two sensory impressions, before my senses shut down and everything turned to black:

One was the pungent smell omitted by the incense stick and the other was my own eyes staring back at me from Chu Hua’s face that was half-hidden by the handkerchief.