CHAPTER 14: BETRAYAL

It did not surprise me the night was extremely restless – add nightmares about the hunt yesterday to the fact I could barely sleep anyway, and I woke up after four very irregular hours of sleep, sitting on the bed with messy hair and a swollen face. I yawned while stretching and glanced out of the window. From between the curtains I could see today was quite gloomy and rainy. Even the weather matched the fact I was now basically a prisoner in the house. With a sigh, I got up from the bed and walked out of the room to eat some breakfast. I had gotten used to eating my meals with the maids downstairs, so now that I was closer to Seungcheol and his father again felt a bit awkward in a way.

We ate in silence. The fact we knew there was a bunch of hunters running around free outside really did bring the atmosphere down, a lot. After wishing each other good mornings, we didn’t exchange a word. Seungcheol still seemed to be mad at me which made me feel a bit uncomfortable – he had been my best friend here for while so losing him made me feel bad. Dr Choi, then again, just seemed very worried about the whole situation. There was a deep wrinkle between his eyebrows and I could tell he was trying to think hard.

After breakfast I quickly washed up and changed into the housekeeper’s uniform before starting my day. The maids were running around, working busy as always, and I tried my best to keep up with them, trying to look like I was doing something important as well – I didn’t want to look like I was slacking off.

A little before noon I was preparing tea and some snacks for Dr Choi who had decided to stay and work from home as well for the time being. As I was pouring the tea into a cup, I noticed Seungcheol walking past me from behind – his lectures seemed to start later than usual today.

“Have a nice day”, wished him.

The boy seemed to get a bit shaken about me opening my mouth first and glanced at me. At first, he just humphed but ended up nodding at me. “Thanks.”

I watched as he disappeared downstairs and continued with my preparations. I put the teacup and the snack plate onto a tray and took it into Dr Choi’s office. He was quick to call me in as I knocked on the door. I stepped in and flashed the man a smile as he motioned me to bring the tray to his desk.

“How are you feeling today, Dami?” the man asked as he took a sip of the tea.

“So far, so good”, I replied. “I couldn’t really sleep but I haven’t felt dizzy for a couple of days.”

The man’s expression got curious. “Oh really? Could it be you’re slowly getting used to the… environment?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t know, hopefully so. Ah, I was supposed to ask you a couple of days ago. You told me you would help me learn to use my ability. When could we start with that?”

“Oh, I had completely forgotten about that”, the man said, scratching his neck. “I’m sorry. If it’s alright to you, we could start as early as this evening. After I finish my work.”

I nodded. “Sounds good! I’ll wait for that.”

As I headed out of the office, I felt like my heart has just gotten lighter. He would help me. This world was too dangerous for me right now. If I could learn to use my ability, I could even return home for the time being. I could return back for Wonwoo later.

I worked hard for the rest of the day – I took part of the maids’ work as well since I didn’t really have a lot to do of my own. I helped to clean and cook and then, after my working hours ended, changed into my casual, comfortable clothes and stood in front of my room’s wide window, staring out and sighing. I wanted to go out. But now I knew it really was too dangerous to do so. Multiple of the hunters seemed to know of my location and this time there had been no guards to catch them, so the information of my whereabouts had probably spread among the hunters.

Still, I graved for fresh air – I loved how the air got fresh and moist after rain, and it hadn’t rained for a while before today. I was walking around the house as I remembered seeing flower pots on the roofs of pretty much every house in the neighbourhood. There must’ve been a way to this house’s roof as well!

There were no stairs leading up from the floor I was on right now, so I returned downstairs and opened a door after another – and finally found a door that led into a staircase. With a smile, I stepped in and made my way up. As I opened the door at the end of the stairs, I let out a gasp.

A beautiful, green garden opened in front of my eyes, a garden that covered most of the building’s roof. In awe I walked around, sniffing the flowers that were blooming beautifully, touching the soft leaves of the bushes and small trees I could see. Letting out a thrilled gasp, I sat down on a bench near the edge of the roof and looked over Seoul’s view.

I closed my eyes and breathed in the fresh after-rain air. Of course it wasn’t as fresh as the air you could breathe in the countryside, but it was definitely fresher than the early spring pollen-infected air. I was about to lean back and fall on my back to stare at the sky as I heard footsteps from behind me. I quickly stood up and turned around to see who it was. At first I was relieved since I recognized the outfits of the guards that had been strolling around the house’s yard for a couple of days. But then I noticed the guns that were pointed towards me and the menacing expressions on the guards’ faces.

I understood right away I was in danger. I wasn’t sure why it was like this, but I was, in fact, in danger. I tried to look around me to find a way to escape before they’d harm me as I noticed Seungcheol walking further in the garden.

“Seungcheol!” I shouted, my voice reaching a very high pitch. “Help me!”

The boy stopped and turned to look at my direction. He seemed to frown a little bit as he tried to examine the situation. Then he started to walk in our direction. For a while I felt ensured – he would help me. But then something started to feel wrong. Why didn’t the guards move at all, they just stood there, pointing their guns at me without doing anything? Why did Seungcheol seem so calm? Wait a minute, hadn’t he headed out for his lectures just a few hours ago – he shouldn’t have been back yet.

I felt my muscles tensing up again and I felt like screaming the moment Seungcheol stopped walking as e reached the guards and stood next to them.

“Capture her.”

I felt like my whole world came crashing down. Why was Seungcheol doing this? Was he the enemy? Had it been him this whole time? I was so powerless I couldn’t even resist when the guards grabbed my arms forcefully and started dragging me towards the door I had used to come here in the first place.

“Stop!” I screamed. “Seungcheol, why are you like this? Why are you doing – “

“Shut up”, the boy groaned, cutting my sentence short. “I’m doing this for my dad, not for myself.”

I couldn’t understand his words. What did he mean? I let out a yelp as I was forced to walk the stairs down with the guards dragging me from my arms – I couldn’t keep my balance and stumbled every other second, twisting my ankles continuously. My yelps and screams of “help” didn’t stop until the other guard seemed to lost his cool with me and slapped me across my face.

I felt horrible and scared. Slowly I stopped resisting, and with my head hanging low and my legs being dragged after me I was forced downstairs into a basement room that reminded me more of a prison cell. It had the bars and everything. I was thrown in and the door was closed and locked behind me. I landed on the hard, cold concrete floor and let out another yelp of pain.

The guards left the room and only me and Seungcheol were left. I was lying down on the floor, staring at Seungcheol from between the bars. “What did you mean? By doing this for your father?”

The boy brindled. “He’s the mastermind behind all of this. He plans on purifying this country from the drifter gene.”

My eyes widened. “What? Dr Choi is behind this all? Why?”

The boy ignored my question. “How are your symptoms? I bet they disappeared for a couple of days since you spent so much time out of the house. You didn’t eat the food here… and not the pills.”

I frowned. What was he talking about? I let out a groan as I sat up. I had hurt my wrist as well as my ankles. “Stop beating around the bush and tell me what are you talking about.”

“Dad has been slowly poisoning you. You couldn’t drift in your dreams, so you couldn’t sleep – after a while your health would crash and you’d end up dying. That was his plan. But you were stronger than he thought. That’s why the guards have been pestering you.”

I couldn’t open my mind. I couldn’t come up with anything to say. I was too shocked. This revelation was too much for me. How could this be true? So Dr Choi hadn’t actually been taking care of me but… examining my health to see if his poison was working? I felt like throwing up. I looked away from Seungcheol. To think I had trusted this kind of people. I stared at the grey concrete wall, waiting for the boy to leave the room. And as he did, he opened his mouth to tell me his last words.

“Wonwoo is next.”

As I heard the door closing with a bang, I fell onto my stomach and let out a long, loud cry of desperation. At this point I really wished this everything would’ve been just a long, horrible nightmare and I’d wake up in my own world, where my parents would be fighting over money and I fell asleep during lectures. I was exhausted. Exhausted from yesterday’s running, then working my off, and then being in shock and dragged around. Slowly my sobs changed into deep breaths and I drifted off, falling asleep.

The moment I smelled the fresh air, grass and flowers I recognized my surroundings. I couldn’t believe it. I hadn’t been to the meadow in my dreams even once since arriving in the future. The only time I had seen it was when Wonwoo actually revealed that the place was real. Wait. Maybe I was free. Maybe Wonwoo had somehow saved me and brought me here. I slowly opened my eyes and looked around me while still lying down on the grass. It really was our meadow. The maple trees had big leaves now that it was spring and the grass was green as ever, some spring flowers blooming here and there. There was no sun but a beautiful crescent moon and stars that brought light to the meadow.

I tried to get up just to realize my head was resting against something comfortable and familiar. It was someone’s lap. My eyes widened and I sat up quickly, staring at the person who was with me. It was Wonwoo, and based on his warm, loving smile, I knew it was my Wonwoo, the dream Wonwoo I hadn’t seen in months. I let out a cry and rushed forward to hug him, wrapping my arms around his neck and crying against his shoulder.

“Tell me it’s really you”, I sobbed.

“Of course it’s me”, the boy said with a quiet, deep voice as his arms wrapped around my waist, lifting me to sit on his lap. “Who else would I be?”

I let out a relieved sob-mixed-sigh and leaned back a little bit to see the boy’s face. “I missed you so much.”

“You’re not the only one”, the boy whispered. “What happened? It’s been forever.”

“I found out I’m something called a drifter. And I time travelled into future. I haven’t been able to dream or even sleep there”, I explained to the boy hastily, not even sure if he understood anything. “And I met you there. You don’t know me, you don’t remember these dreams. But it’s you.”

One thing I noticed was that Wonwoo didn’t seem surprised at all. Like everything I told him was already familiar to him. I noticed myself frowning a little bit as I tilted my head. “You’re a drifter too, aren’t you?”

“I thought it was obvious. How else could have we been meeting for three years?” the boy said softly, caressing my head with his hand, his long fingers brushing a strand of hair off my face.

His words were so right and true it almost hurt. I had just been too stupid to realize it. “Why did you never tell you live in the future?”

“It’s not future for me”, the boy chuckled. “It’s the present time for me.”

I sighed. “I guess you’re right.”

We sat in silence for a while, just staring at each other like we would never see each other again. Well, with me living in that world, it might be like that. I didn’t even know whether I’d survive after being imprisoned in that cell in the Choi family’s basement. I let out a sigh and shook my head, trying to forget it. I was with my boyfriend now, I wanted to enjoy the moment.

“I found this meadow”, I whispered. “It’s the back yard of your home.”

“You’ve been to the library?” the boy asked, sounding a bit surprised.

“I have”, I chuckled. “I’ve been there a couple of times. It’s beautiful.”

“You seem to come along with me quite well even if I don’t remember you”, the boy pointed out, chuckling a little bit.

I let out a fake groan. “It’s so frustrating. He doesn’t remember me… No. I mean you don’t remember me but you like me and want to be with me. I feel like that would be cheating on you… with you. Ah, so complicated.”

Wonwoo shook with laughter. “That’s pretty bad. I guess we’re really made for each other if I develop a crush on you even without remembering.”

“I just wish you would remember”, I sighed. “It feels so good to actually talk with you now.”

The boy looked at me softly and gently touched my cheek with his hand. Then he smiled and placed a sweet kiss on my forehead. “I’m sorry. I hope I’ll remember.”

I looked at the boy for a second with doubt on my mind. He must’ve noticed my expression getting darker as he tilted his head with a curious look on his face. I sighed. I wasn’t exactly sure if I should tell him what was going on with me.

“Actually”, I started. “To be honest, I’m scared right now. So scared. I’m currently lying on a concrete floor, trapped in a basement. There are people who want to kill me, Wonwoo. And they want to kill you too.”

I felt my voice breaking and my eyes forming tears as I spoke. The boy’s expression changed from curious to confused and worried. “Why?”

“Because we’re drifters. There is someone who wants to hunt all of us down. He said you’re the next”, I felt panic arising in me as I spoke, my speech got faster and probably harder to understand, and my breathing got faster.

Wonwoo’s eyes were shaking a little bit. “Who would do that? Dami, listen to me. You have to – “

I almost shouted from the startle as Wonwoo’s sentence stopped, he yanked forward and his eyes widened. He looked like he was in pain. I started shaking as I grabbed the boy’s shoulders and gently shook him, trying to keep him in his consciousness.

“Wonwoo?” I called his name as I watched his eyes roll back. He was going to pass out.

The last thing I witnessed before everything going black was Wonwoo, with a silent grunt, falling face ahead to the grass – where he lied unconscious.