The evening purple sky turned black within a blink. I sprinted inside the forest in complete darkness. I relied on the light from the stars above to guide me through this frightening forest. There was only one thing going through my mind - I needed to find Chaerin amongst this darkness. I clutched onto my chest trying to catch my breath. I’ve never ran this hard before. I was always behind the computer screen at work. I felt my leg muscles tore into pieces as everything became a blur.

THUD

I tripped over a rock. My skin opened a new wound. I wanted to scream but I couldn’t. I pressed my lips together trying to endure the pain and agony. My body was aching but I couldn’t stop moving. I was being hunted down. Jagged rocks imprinted marks against my palms as I crawled my way out.

Sweat kept dribbling down my rosy cheeks. Where was Chaerin? We needed to run away from all this mess. We needed to escape this together. Our dreams cannot be shattered. My whole body was physically drained. I couldn’t move. I just wanted to give up and lay here forever.

“Ji! I’m over here!” Chaerin jumped up and down behind the bushes. Her voice lifted my spirits. I can’t give up. I got up from the ground trying to reach her. I fell into her arms out of exhaustion and relief.

“My poor baby,” Chaerin cried when she saw the scars over my faces. She looked for tissues in her pockets and dabbed them on my face.

“I’m okay. I experienced worse.”  I barely whispered.

I smiled at her caring face.  She was glowing under the moonlight. She looked like an angel fro above.

“You’re hurt,” She cried.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” I replied back before I started to spurt out blood.

“Oh no, you’re coughing blood,” Chaerin whimpered.

I wiped the fresh blood away from my mouth trying to calm her down.  The time travel button fell out of my pocket.  Chaerin immediately took it and saw it flashed 5 minutes.

 “I’m not going anywhere without you,” I urged.

Chaerin’s sad eyes were glued at the time travel button.

“No. You need to leave,” She said firmly.

“What?”

“You need to go back to reality,”

“I don’t understand…”

“Ji. Stop pretending…. deep down you know this is some fake universe.  Your actual life is waiting for you,”

“You have 5 minutes left! Hurry and go back!” She panicked.

“No I refuse. I will rather stay here in this fake universe just to be with you,”

“Stop being stupid Ji. Do you want to live in a fake world all your life? You need to accept reality. You need to move on…”

Her cold words crushed me. It stabbed me harder than my physical wounds.

She was right.

“But I can’t live without you.” I argued.

“You are stronger than you th