Chapter 1

Tuesday

Staring back at her with horror in the smooth glass of the mirror was Yoomi’s reflection. She had just gotten out of the shower when she happened to walk past her bathroom mirror- that was when she first noticed that something was off, no weird, about her reflection. A person’s reflection was supposed to look exactly like them, and hers did- for the most part. Like usual, the reflection she was staring at had her face, hair, body, clothing, and everything else she would expect to be there. However, it also had a little extra something that she was fairly certain she didn't have: wings. Staring dumbly at it, she did nothing but blink a few times. Unfortunately, the image didn’t go away, and that was when things started to really hit her and the expression of horror she was currently wearing began to form. Because if a reflection is supposed to look exactly like you, the key word in that sentence being exactly, then…

WHY DO I HAVE WINGS?!?!!?

Twirling around in obvious alarm, she accidentally dropped the towel that was wrapped around her body, more preoccupied with futile attempts to twist her neck as much as she possibly could in order to look at the pair of wings that had appeared on her back out of absolutely nowhere. Has she gone mad? Should she just give up and check in to a mental hospital now?

Yoomi was known for being a little dramatic amongst her friends, but in this case, she believed that her freaking out was totally justified. Who wouldn’t react the same in this type of situation? It was, after all, totally absurd. How could she have sprouted wings all of a sudden?! Things like that aren’t even supposed to exist! What was she supposed to do now? Clearly, the only rational explanation was that she really was losing her mind; only crazy people would actually believe something like this. What kind of human randomly grows wings? Wait, what if she wasn’t a human at all but some weird hybrid or experiment gone horribly wrong? What if-

What? No, that makes no sense, what are you thinking, Lee Yoomi? Calm down! You’ve been watching too many bad horror movies! She cursed herself in her head. Forcing herself to take a deep breath, she squeezed her eyes shut tightly and tried to clear her mind. When she exhaled, it came out rather shaky, which didn’t help her nerves as much as she had intended, but at least she wasn’t close to hyperventilating anymore. After a few more minutes of repeating the calming action over and over again until her breathing was much more stable, she opened her eyes again, ready to face her problem head-on now that she was less frantic and actually thinking clearly. There had to be a reasonable explanation for this, right?

The first thing she decided to do was take a better look at the mysterious wings that now protruded from her shoulder blades. Upon closer inspection, they looked a bit like fairy wings, the kind you saw drawn in children’s books and fairytales to be exact, thin and shaped like that of a dragonfly’s. They were sort of transparent and had a pretty pattern of swirls decorating them, delicate curves and arches that looked like veins of pale, translucent white contrasting with the rest of the wings. If that wasn’t enough to amaze her, she caught a slight sparkle, a shimmer really, when she turned in the light a certain way. It was everything a little girl would have dreamed of, so pretty they were like a work of art. But now was not the time to be admiring them, she reminded herself gently, shaking her head to refocus.

Assuming that they actually existed and she wasn’t hallucinating, she would have plenty of time to awe over them later. Right now, her priority should be trying to figure out exactly how the hell they had ended up there on her back in the first place. Of course, it was a little hard for the teenager to get her priorities straight when something that seemed like literal magic— something that was supposed to be impossible— was happening right before her very eyes, her fascination with the wings sprouting from her back making it hard to focus. It didn’t help that she has also always struggled with paying attention in times like this, her natural sense of curiosity almost overwhelming and leading her to sometimes ponder the most ridiculous things. This was the case now as well, her mind wandering off as her gaze continued to be fixated on her altered reflection in the mirror.

How would she sleep with them? Would they would stay forever? Could she move them? Could she fly? Had they always been there and just been invisible until now, or- All of a sudden, as if spurred on by her idle thoughts, they disappeared. One second they were there, the next she blinked, and they were gone. It was almost comical how wide her eyes got  after that. She didn’t know how to feel, torn between being happy that her reflection was back to normal, sad that the magical moment was over, or extremely worried about the state of her mental health for imagining the whole thing in the first place. Ready to write the whole thing off as an overactive imagination and a lack of sleep, she bent done to retrieve her towel. However, she froze the second she straightened back up, body coming back into the view of the glass once more. The wings were back.

Stunned, she blinked again. They were gone. Blink. Now they were there again. As if in a daze, she unconsciously began to stretch a hand back, fingers arching to touch the wings on her back and trace the patterns etched on them. She abruptly started back to reality when the pads of fingers brushed against the tip of something frail and cold. It felt so strange that she couldn’t even begin to describe it, not even if she had been wholly coherent at the time, which she was most definitely not because the instant she came into contact with the odd texture, she yelped and yanked her hand back. Cradling it to her chest as if she had been stung, she stared at her shocked stiff form in the mirror, not knowing how to properly react. Then she caught the slight flutter of the wings -her wings- from the corner of her eyes.

Scrambling out of the room to frantically pull on her clothes, she didn’t notice that her breathing had once again picked up, becoming uneven as goosebumps ran across her skin. Touching them had proved they were real, but seeing the wings that were seemingly attached to her move was just unsettling. The whole thing was insane. But it had clearly happened and she couldn’t just brush it off as her imagination anymore.

Racing back to the bathroom, she shook her head in disbelief at the sight that awaited her. As if she had expected something different, maybe thinking somewhere in the back of her mind that putting on clothes would perhaps make them disappear for good, she was floored by the realization that the silvery wings were still there. In fact, it looked like they were somehow poking through her clothes without the need of any holes for them like they were magically phasing through the fabric. It was almost as if they were intangible since they seemed to be able to pass through objects easily, but when she had tried to touch them before, she had definitely felt something. Performing the action again, a shiver traveled through her spine at the cold and almost brittle thing that brushed against her fingers. She could feel the same panic as earlier bubble back up in her chest.

"M-mom! D-dad! I have a problem!" She shouted, voice cracking a little as she bounded down the stairs into the living room where they usually were together watching TV or talking at this time of morning. Nearly falling flat on her face as she tripped going down the last step, she slid over the hardwood floor in her socks, grabbing onto the corner of the wall to stop herself. Wide eyes searching the space for her parents, she found them easily, her father clicking off the television set as her mom stood up from the couch to greet her. She probably looked like a mess, with her wild hair and loud panting, but as stated before, she had the tendency to be a tad dramatic at times, and her parents were used to her behavior by now. She was, after all, a teenager, and all parents knew that it was better to just accept their mood swings and strange behavior and move on.

"Don't yell in the house, Yoomi-ah," her mother boredly replied, dusting herself off as he stood. Suddenly, she brightened and turned to her daughter with a bright smile, clapping her hands together. "Oh and, happy eighteenth birthday, dear!"

Oh. Her brain seemed to short circuit for a minute, completely forgetting the reason why she had dashed down the stairs in such a hasty manner in the first place. That was right. Today was her eighteenth birthday. However, she didn’t have time for that right now. Blinking a few times, her mind seemed to overcome its sluggishness and return to the pressing matter at hand.

"Mom, Dad, look!" she sputtered, whipping around so that her back faced them and they could have a clear view of the shining wings that were fluttering there. She wiggled a little as if trying to show them off, anxiously shifting from one foot to the other as she waited for them to respond and start freaking out with her. It was eerily quiet for a minute, the silence making her bite her bottom lip as she didn’t hear the immediate reaction she had expected. Wanting to relieve some of the tension and rid herself of her own panic, she turned back around and began to rant, waving her hands around in a display of nervous energy.

"I don't know how this happened- they just appeared on my back out of nowhere! I found out that they can appear and disappear, seemingly at will, and they can also poke through clothes without damaging them but still, I HAVE NO IDEA HOW THEY GOT HERE!" To say that she was full blown panicking would be an understatement. Again though, she thought it was justified. She could have probably handled it better than a near panic attack and the mindless babbling she was still throwing in her parents’ direction, but all things considered, she was more worried about the lack of concern coming from her parents right now. Pausing for a moment to catch her breath after the frantic outburst, she finally glanced up and met her parents’ eyes, only to find them looking at her blankly with confused and slightly surprised expressions on their faces.

"Yoomi-ah, what are you talking about?" her mad cautiously inquired with his eyebrows raised.

"The wings, Dad, don't you see them right there on my back?!"

"What wings, Yoomi-ah?” her mom broke in hesitantly. Honestly, they knew that teenagers were supposed to be a little odd, but this was strange, even for Yoomi. “I don't see any wings. Plus, how would you be able to sprout wings out of your back?" She calmly answered while chuckling, dismissing her daughter’s words and behavior while hoping that her gentle tone would make her relax and reassure her. Instead, it had the opposite effect, causing Yoomi to freeze and her very animated expression to become slightly crestfallen and wary. When she spoke next, it was with much hesitation and reluctance, almost as if she was scared of their answer.

"You,” she paused, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth, “you guys don't see them?"

"No, we don't, Yoomi-ah,” her father talked to her softly, becoming worried when he saw the watery look that came to his daughter’s eyes at their response. “Why don't you tell us what this is all about?"

Tears began to prick her eyes, but she held them back. They were more from disbelief and panic than they were from sadness or anything else, and they showed how truly shaken up about the whole thing she was. Was she really crazy then? Had she really just been seeing things? The instant her parents noticed her eyes becoming redder and glazed over, they pulled her into a warm, comforting hug. It was a struggle for her to hold in the tears that so desperately wanted to come after that, her body now feeling drained since the adrenaline from her previous panic had abruptly vanished. It left her feeling empty and extremely tired. All she could do now was snuggle into their embrace further as she began to calm down finally. The warmth they provided was nice and gave her an excuse not to think about anything else, including the wings she had witnessed and her new doubts about her own sanity.

"Now, now, my baby, don't cry on your special day!” her mom tried to soothe her, patting her back and rubbing circles into it to ease her. “Are you saying that there are wings on your back right now and that only you can see them?" She asked in a calm voice, patting her back once more for emphasis before wiping away the few tears that had managed to slip past and make their way down her cheeks that were rosy from being so worked up before.

"Yes, I swear this isn't a prank. I came out of the shower and they were already there. I really don't know how they got there. What should I do?" Yoomi muttered lamentingly.

"Don't worry, honey.” This time it was her dad that tried reassuring her. He gave her a soft, good-natured smile, hand placed on one of her shoulders. “We believe everything you said, even if we can't see it. We will do our best to figure this out together, alright? Maybe they are a gift from the gods for your birthday? Why don't you calm down for now and go get ready for school? We will talk about it again after you get back from school, hmm? I'm sure everything will be fine." He squeezed her shoulder lightly in a sign of comfort and Yoomi nodded mutely, trying to believe their words.

With that said, the only thing she could do was trudge back up to her room, attempt to pull herself together and get ready for school. Naturally, she was left feeling odd and a little hollow after the whole experience. The wings business was just too weird to ignore, no matter what her parents said. It truly worried her. However, if they couldn’t see the wings, then there was nothing they could do about them. At least they claimed to believe her though; the fact that they trusted her and supported her no matter what made her feel a little better. But unable to do anything about the mysterious wings she had seen, there was nothing else to do but go to school like she normally would. Currently, they weren’t out anyway -she had checked one more time in the mirror before starting to get ready-, so it made it a little easier to forget, for now, she supposed. Still, though, something told her that today wouldn’t be like the other normal school days she was used to experiencing.

***

"Yoomi-ah!" A high-pitched voice sounded in the distance behind the already mentally exhausted girl on her way to school after leaving the subway station. Turning around,  she found another teenage girl her age that went by the name of Soohee, her best friend for many years now. Soohee was currently waving frantically at her friend while jogging lightly to try to catch up with her. Yoomi, at the moment, was wearing the black roller shoes she adored— a custom-made gift that her loving parents had gotten her for her birthday last year. Roller skating had always been a beloved hobby of hers since she was younger, so it was the perfect gift and she liked to wear them whenever possible. This meant that Soohee had to run in order to meet her though, having ditched the idea of only jogging once she realized that Yoomi was speeding up instead of slowing down, a trick she liked to play on her friends whenever they tried to grab her attention while in her roller shoes.

"Yah! Why didn't you wait for me?" Soohee whined, scolding a snickering Yoomi when she finally reached her. There was a scowl on Soohee’s pretty face, the question more rhetorical than anything as she already knew how her friend could be sometimes. Just because Yoomi annoyed her a little though, doesn’t mean that she wasn’