Note: This chapter doesn’t really have anything to do with Alice in Wonderland, in all honesty.

...Huh? Where am I?

Hyungwon opened his eyes to see the sky spinning above him.

What’s going on?

   “HYUNGWON! ANSWER ME!” A scream echoed through his ears.

Minhyuk? W-why was Minhyuk screaming?

   “Kid! We need to get him help!” Another, older voice shouted.

Help? Why? What’s going on!? Huh? Huuuh?!

---

   “Woooah, good job!” Minhyuk feverishly clapped his hands together after Hyungwon lifted his hands from his piano. “That was the one you’ve been practicing forever, right? It really paid off.!”

Hyungwon turned around, still heaving from all the adrenaline. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and smiled.

   “Thanks, man. Really appreciate it.”

Minhyuk helped him clean up the practice room, and the two of them set for their apartment. The early fall air was cool, and crisp, and made Hyungwon zip up his jacket. The sky was getting dark, though it was only 6. As they reached the street, Hyungwon looked to his right side. No cars, no problem.

   “Any cars on the left side?” Hyungwon asked, as he and Minhyuk stepped on the street.

   “You know hardly any cars cars come from the left-”

Minhyuk was interrupted by a loud, blaring noise. Hyungwon whipped his head around, to see two bright headlights glaring at him.

   “Watch out!” Someone screamed from inside the truck. Too late. The last thing Hyungwon felt was a giant impact on his left side, causing him to fly across the street, as the world went black.

---

  “So that’s what happened.” Hyungwon sighed, sipping on his cup of tea with his pinky raised elegantly. He turned away from the widescreen TV, and went back to the puff pastry he was eating earlier. Currently he sat at a table, enjoying a tea party with a guy wearing a fedora. The guy wearing the fedora clapped his hands twice, and the TV turned off.

  “Yes, yes.” He nodded, taking a macaron from the plate of desserts. “Quite tragic, if you ask me.”

   “Hm.” Hyungwon agreed. He looked around. This place was a typical, fancy dining hall- except that all the tables were empty except for the one he sat in. Chandeliers hung all across the room, and the floor was an elegant, checkered pattern. He took another sip of his tea, and turned to Fedora Man. “I have a lot of questions.” He started, “But first, who are you?”

   “I’m the guy who owns this place.” Fedora Man answered. “My name is spelled as Beezowdoodoozoopittybopbop1241226xxx7, pronounced as Johnny.”

Several pellets of sweat dripped down Hyungwon’s nose. I want to go home…

   “So, is there anything else you would like to know?” Uh...Johnny inquired, taking another macaron.

Hyungwon thought long and hard.

   “Am I dead? Where am I? How can I convince your parents to legally change your name?” He asked, after around two seconds. Johnny raised his hand to silence Hyungwon.

   “I’m not really in a place to answer these questions.” He calmly explained. “I-”

   “Then what do you even do, Jackass-I mean, Johnny?” Hyungwon interrupted, drowning the contents of his tea. “Do you guys have any vodka? I could use some of that right now.”

   “How rude!” Johnny sniffed arrogantly, pouring himself six shots of vodka, “Youngsters are so unrefined these days, asking for vodka. I’ll have you know, we just ran out.” He then drowned all six shots in one go, shouted “Whoooooooooo!” and roundabout slammed his head onto the table.

   “Yeah, but do you know who can answer all my damn questions, Jackass?” Hyungwon impatiently said, his voice raised. “Or can you be even more useless?”

   “You didn’t even bother correcting yourself, dip!” Johnny slammed his hands onto the table, raising his head. “I’m merely an underling here! Of course I don’t know how to answer your damn questions! I don’t care whether you’re dead or not, I don’t know where this is, I haven’t been let out of this dungeon in nine years! Please, help me, I NEED TO DEBUT HELP! ME!”

   “Yeah, I’ve got nothing, Johnny-I mean Jackass.” Hyungwon clicked his tongue, examining his fingernails.

   “YOU DIDN’T NEED TO CORRECT YOURSELF!” Johnny screeched. “Ugh, fine! I’m sending you to the boss!”

   “Wha-”

Johnny snapped his fingers twice, and a giant hole opened up in the ground, revealing a giant, golden spiralling staircase.

   “I’m doing you a favour!” Johnny shouted from his chair, “I could make you walk, but that might take days.”

The the only thing Hyungwon saw was the staircase spiralling around him as he fell down and down and down into what felt like an eternal abyss. Where did this hole lead to? Why wasn’t he scared? He was falling- quite possibly to his death. But then again, maybe, he was already dead. Is that why he felt so weightless, like he was floating instead of falling. Could he possibly grab onto one of the rails on the staircase and save himself? Or would that just rip his arm off? Looking beneath him, he could faintly make out some blue amidst all the gold. Hyungwon squeezed his eyes shut, and braced himself for the landing that was to come. Another minute or so passed. Was land that far away- Splash! Hyungwon felt his entire body being engulfed in water. Suddenly, everything around him felt heavy, as if all his surroundings were trying to push him back up to the surface. Yet, he kept on sinking and sinking, into the eternal sea.

   “Yeah, it’s been tough for you, hasn’t it?”

Hyungwon bolted up. He was sitting on a couch now? Was he? He looked around at his surroundings- he was suddenly in a dimly lit room. Only the light from a lamp and a fireplace shone in the room. The place had a rather cozy ambience.

   “You’ve woken up, I see.”

Hyungwon looked beside him, where the voice was coming from.

   “W-Who are you?” He asked, sitting up.

   “I’m the author of this story.” The person said, eating a biscuit.

   “I see.” Hyungwon said. “Can I go back to sleep? This couch is comfy as .”

   “No, you can’t.” The author deadpanned, stuffing another biscuit into their mouth. “So, for the sake of not revealing my actual name, you can call me Goku.”

   “Please, you’ll never be as cool as Goku.”

   “Do you want me to answer your questions or not?”

   “Yes, Goku.”

Goku sighed, and looked at the notebook on his table.

   “So right now, you’re in a coma from getting hit by a car.” Goku explained, “You’re in a hospital, and it’s been about a day since you’re gone down.”

   “So I’m not dead?” Hyungwon asked, hope glimmering in his eyes.

   “Well...no and yes.”

   “WHAT!?”

Goku buried his head in his hands in annoyance as Hyungwon continued to shriek.

   “Allow me to elaborate!” He shouted, silencing Hyungwon. He motioned for Hyungwon to sit back down on the couch, which he did. “Now listen carefully. In this story, you have a rather...well strong personality, I should say. You with me?”

Hyungwon nodded, and Goku smiled in relief.

   “I’ll have you know,” He carried on, “That in real life, people don’t really have personalities like that. People in the real world are too afraid to be judged, so they’d rather fake being nice than show their true colours. Like your friend Minhyuk for instance, but let’s not go there.”

   “I always thought he was naturally just pure and golden?!”

   “Oh, really? Then he’s part of a select few, but back onto topic, you aren’t really realistic.” Goku scribbled a few things down on the notepad, and looked back up. “Although I do like writing your character the most out of the bunch, critics like realism nowadays. Take all those reviews I read on other stories on AFF. There’s always criticism on how a character isn’t realistic, or how it’s too cheerful, or too cynical, or how blank would never happen in real life, yadda yadda yadda. Honestly, it brings the fun out of writing, but that’s what people like these days!”

   “Ugh, that is so true.” Hyungwon rolled his eyes, and grabbed a biscuit.

   “So, we’re gonna bring realism into the story, and make a few tweaks into your character.” Goku announced.

Hyungwon dropped the biscuit.

   “What the did you just say, Go- Yourself?”

   “I said, we’re going to bring realism into the damn story!” Goku exasperatedly said, “Like what you said just now! That isn’t realistic! Would you say that to someone you just met in real life!?”

   “Well, no, but-”

   “Exactly! It isn’t realistic!”

   “But this story isn’t supposed to be realistic! Remember what happened last chapter? How can you expect to make a realistic story out of that!?”

Goku sighed for the upteenth hour.

   “That’s why I’m working to make it realistic, kid!” He shouted. This seemed to make Hyungwon go quiet.

   “So what you mean by saying no and yes to whether I’m dead or not…” Hyungwon started, “Is that my physical body is still alive and kicking, but the me everyone knows and probably hates,” He pointed at himself, “Is gonna disappear? Am I gonna be a whole different character from now on!?”

   “Yeah, basically.” Goku said, stuffing another biscuit into his mouth. “So now that you have the gist of it, can I send you back into the real world now? You’re awfully annoying.”

Hyungwon blinked.

   “ NO, OLD MAN, I’M NOT LEAVING HERE WITHOUT MY CHARACTER! I’M NOT GONNA CHANGE FOR SOME GEEZER WHO JUST WANTS TO THE OF ALL THOSE ING CRITICS, GIVE ME MY CHARACTER BACK-”

And that is how Hyungwon got Kamehamad back into the real world.

                                                                                                                          To be continued...

A/N

I wrote this all in one night what is life. And yeah, this is the first real story arc! And no, I'm not actually an old man that goes by Goku.

References:

Johnny is a member of NCT that hasn't debuted yet even though he's been training for a hell of a long time. (Let him out of the dungeon.)

Goku and the Kamehama are from the anime Dragon Ball Z.