一。Pilot

Gonjiam, the mental hospital for the rich and insane. Every day, at the of ten it was medication time. Today was no different. At exactly ten, Lee Taerin strolled in with the new hire Kim Hyojin pushing a cart full of medication. “Line up.”

The patients in the room stopped what they were doing and lined up in an orderly fashion. Hyojin observed the long line of patients in various ages. One in particular, caught her eye. “Taerin, who’s that?” Hyojin asked and points to the girl standing several meters away dressed in a white nightgown, long luscious black hair fanned out around her shoulders She looked like she was around their age.

After making sure the patient standing in front of her took the medicine, she turned and followed Hyojin’s pointed finger. “Oh, that’s Im Yoona.” She replied.

“What’s she in here for?”

“Ummm,” Taerin handed the small paper cup of medicine to the next patient. “Schizophrenia, she sees people. Or actually just one person. She says she's stopped him when she entered ”

Such a shame. Hyojin thought to herself as she stared at Yoona who was only five feet away from her now. At a closer glance, Yoona was even prettier than Hyojin thought, she had the face and body of a celebrity.

They were talking about her. The new nurse was shamelessly staring at her, but Yoona didn’t give any indication that she knew. Playing dumb was the key to her getting out of there.

“Next.”

Yoona stepped forward, avoiding the two nurses eyes. Grabbed the paper cup, dumped the contents into and placed the cup back down. She opened for examination and waited a second for their approval before walking away. She was getting good at this.

Ten minutes later, the two nurses pushed out the empty cart, leaving the patients to their own agendas. Yoona looked around the room carefully as she sat down across an elder. “Yoona ya.” The elder placed her hands over Yoona’s.

“Grandma.” Yoona greeted back the white-haired woman with equal endearment, her hands tightened around Mrs. Kim wrinkled ones. “I thought about what you said a couple days ago, I’m going through with the plan tonight.”

Mrs. Kim tilted her head in confusion. “What do you mean dear?”

Yoona forced a smile and shook her head. “It’s nothing, just take care of yourself okay?” She patted the elder woman’s hand gently, her eyes growing teary. Mrs. Kim had dementia and her memories were deteriorating with each day. Back when Yoona first was tossed into the mental hospital and still going through withdrawls, Mrs. Kim had taken the young adult under her wing and took care of her. Mrs.Kim wasn’t really her grandma but she was the grandma Yoona wished she never had.

╰ ❅╮

Tangled Webs

This was it. Yoona thought as she laid in bed waiting for the lights to turn off. She still had an hour left to execute the plan. Door, nurses locker, locked door, main gate. She went through once more in her head. She was ready.

A little over two weeks ago, it was one of the rare occasions where Mrs. Kim was thinking clearly. “Yoona dear,” she beckoned the young lady to the sofa she was sitting at. Yoona obediently does what she’s told. “Have I ever told you about my friend Miho?”

“Not that I remember.” Yoona shook her head. Mrs. Kim has told her many stories of her life and the young lady loved hearing them. The twenty year old had a thirst for them since she never had a chance to live out hers normally.

“Well, how about I tell you right now.” Mrs. Kim waited for a nod before continuing. “Miho was one of my best friends in college. In our second year she fell in love with a rich third year that wouldn’t even give her a second of his day much less cast her a look. Our friends and I tried persuading her that he wasn’t worth it, there social status were too different he didn’t even respect her but she wouldn’t give up. A week after summer break she comes back to school with him and he’s head over heels for her! Our friends and I couldn’t believe it because three days before that we had ran into him and he basically told her he could never fall for a pathetic low class like her. We probed her on she got him to fall for her but she wouldn’t say and eventually we dropped it. Anyway, a day before their fifth anniversary, Miho suddenly showed up at my house distressed. I asked her what was wrong. And she told me how she got Changmo to fall in love with her. On the day he told her off, it finally got through to her that they were never going to be so she buried her diary at a crossroad. Why a crossroad she never mentioned. But she told me a few minutes later, a businessman showed up out of nowhere offering a deal of a lifetime. She would get five years with Changmo and she in return will have to die on the night of their fifth anniversary. I laughed and praised her for her imagination but the next day she died with no medical reason.”

Mrs. Kim paused for a moment to let the story sink in. Yoona used the opportunity to grab a tissue and helped the elder woman wipe a tear off her cheek. It’s clear that the woman who Yoona viewed as a grandma once deeply cared for Miho.

“Now I’m not sure how believable this story is but if it is true, I think this is how you can get rid of your friend.”

That was the day she decided she would give the crossroad a try. And since that day, she’s been pretending to her pills. She needed a clear head if she was ever going to pull of the plan. And surprisingly she hasn’t seen Jungkook around even after she was off the medication but she had a feeling he was lurking somewhere not too far. Yoona rolled over in her bed. Now that she rethought through her plan the whole idea was stupid, out there and reckless. She was basing this all on a old lady who on most days couldn’t even remember her own children’s names. A businessman at a crossroad? A wish in exchange that only lasts five years and then death? Would it really be worth it to have just one wish? She was only twenty, she still had a full life ahead of herself.

No, she didn’t. There was no future for her, not if she was going to be locked in this hell hole for the rest of her life. Her parents had made it pretty clear they gave up on her. She hasn’t seen them in over a year. And most likely won’t ever again. It would be worth it if she got five years of a normal life. This was what she want, she decided.

At ten o’clock the lights are turned off with each patient locked in their own room. Around a quarter after ten, a guard comes by waving his flashlight around to make sure the occupants are asleep. Yoona got up after the guard swept past her room. She waited another ten minutes for the coast to be clear before pulling the door as quietly as possible. Thanks to one of the patients crafty skills, she managed to make her door unlockable.

Yoona peaked her head out the door frame and glanced both ways, the guard was nowhere to be seen. She slipped out of her room and headed for the nurse changing room as quietly as possible. Once in the changing room, she opened each locker one by one. Thankfully it only took three tries before she found clothes she could fit in. The lock took a little while for her to open but nonetheless got it open, another skill she picked up from her fellow druggies. She grabbed the car keys off of the top shelf as well as all of the cash from the nurse’s wallet and then locked the locker again. Almost there.

Five minutes later, the twenty-year-old is standing outside of the hospital, breathing in her first breath of fresh air in three years. It's winter now and terrifyingly cold, she hugged the nurse's coat closer to her body. Sticking to her plan, Yoona pressed the panic button on the car key and waited for a response. As soon as the car beeped she held the panic button again to silence it. First stop, food.

After stuffing one seafood pancake, large of bowl jjangmyeon, plate of ttebokki and a pot of army stew all into her the bottomless pit, known as her stomach, Yoona was ready to get down to business. On the way to the restaurant she stopped at a gas station and bought a notebook and a shovel. Hopefully,that would do as a placement for the diary. Instead of getting back into the car, she took a right around the corner and two blocks later she was at a crossroad. It took a while but she managed to dig at least a foot in. “Here goes nothing.” She took in a deep breath and dropped the notebook inside. Place the soil back into the hole she waited.

And waited. But nothing happened. “This was stupid.” She knew there was no guarantee. Just as she was about to leave she hears a familiar voice.

“You’re supposed to write your wish on the paper, then bury it.”

Yoona gulped, the hairs standing on the ends of her neck. It was him, she was sure of it. Slowly she spun around and sure enough it was the man who caused her to be in the asylum in the first place. “You.” She spat out the word, eyes flashing in anger and hate. “Stay away from me, I’m warning you!”

One side of Jungkook’s mouth curved into a devilish smirk. “Or what? You’re going to wish me away?”

“How did you-” There was something different about him. What was different, she couldn’t quite put a finger on it, but from the way he was smirking he looked almost happy.

“Know? Like I said you have to write down your wish and then bury it.”

Had he been watching her this whole time and choose only this moment to appear? Yoona fell to her knees and desperately clawed at the ground to dig up the notebook. Her nails were chipping and getting dirty but she didn’t care, she just wanted to get rid of him. As she dug for the notebook, Jungkook walked up to her and bent down. He leaned in closely to her ear causing her to stop the frantic digging. “By the way, I’m the businessman you’re looking for.”