Chapter Five - Replace Me

”Are you sure you want to go there alone?” Seohyun looked at Yoona who was staring out the living room window of Seohyun’s apartment.

“Yes, I can do it. I have to,” Yoona answered looking at the traffic down below, fully packed and cramming the busy streets to its brim.

It was early morning and Yoona was still staying at Seohyun’s apartment. It had been three days since she had first arrived there because of her experience. They had worked hard and gathered all the information they could about Soonkyu and finally decided on the location that Yoona should go to meet her. Yoona wanted to go alone.

During the day Seohyun had to go to work so Yoona was left to her own elements as she had the whole week off from work. She used the time to rest as for some reason she constantly felt really tired. A possible reason was due to the fact that her mind kept on jumping into Soonkyu’s mind. The human brain consumed a huge portion of the body’s energy so Yoona figured this could be the reason.

Seohyun walked over to Yoona and lowered herself down to be at face level with her. Yoona looked away from the window at her friend and smiled, tilting her head slightly. Seohyun placed her hands over Yoona’s head, her eyes piercing through into the depths of Yoona.

“Promise me you’ll stay safe,” Seohyun kept her gaze on her friend, her expression serious and full of concern.

Yoona kept smiling. “I promise, don’t worry.”

Suddenly Seohyun pulled Yoona into a hug, wrapping the other girl into her arms and tucking into her chest. Yoona could feel the warmth of her friend spreading and the fruity floral perfume whiffed into her nostrils, the brightness and warmness of it comforting Yoona. She in return pulled her arms from under her body and wrapped them around Seohyun. “I’ll be alright.”

Seohyun pulled away and smiled gently at her friend. “Send a message when you head off and once you reach the café before meeting her. And then also after meeting her and when you get back, okay?”

“I will,” Yoona looked confidently at her friend assuring her that everything would be alright. Although sometimes she felt that Seohyun was a bit over protective, in the end she was really happy and thankful that she had a friend who cared for her so much. It was rare enough in life to have such friends and she was not planning on ever letting go of this friendship.

“Now you better hurry or you’ll miss work, and it’s unlike you to be late,” Yoona prompted Seohyun who dutifully stood up and walked over to the kitchen counter to pick up her bag.

“That is true. I’ll be waiting for those text messages and if you fail to send them to me I’ll hunt you down and lecture you till your ears fall off.”

“Alright, I told you I will didn’t I? No need to threaten,” Yoona rolled on her back as Seohyun walked past her towards the door.

“You have been warned,” Seohyun faked a serious expression before smiling. She waved at Yoona who replied in kind. “See you later!”

“Bye!”

Seohyun closed the door behind her and the room fell silent as it slowly filled with the warms rays of the rising sun. Yoona could barely see any dust floating in the air; a testament to Seohyun’s ability to keep the house perfectly clean. Her friend was truly a perfectionist in everything she put her mind to or worked on. She wasn’t too flexible and her range of abilities wasn’t necessarily very wide, but what she knew she did well.

Yoona had a couple of hours to kill before she had to leave to reach the meeting location of Soonkyu on time. Unfortunately for Yoona the location was quite a distance away almost on the other side of town, which meant it would take her almost an hour to get there.

With nothing else to really do Yoona sat up on the couch and reached for the TV remote. Flicking the TV on she mindlessly flipped through the channels to kill time until her meet up.


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Yuri woke up to the sense of someone partially on top of her, an arm wrapped around her waist, a hand on her and felt fingers move faintly across it. Yuri opened her eyes and peered to her right to see Taeyeon still asleep. Her right hand was around Yuri’s waist and the two were sleeping awfully close to each other. They were practically breathing each other’s air.

Yuri carefully moved herself trying to inch herself away from Taeyeon. Their cover had already fallen off the bed probably due to them kicking it off during the night. She had moved her upper body far enough, but as she attempted to move her legs and her hip out of the way Taeyeon’s hand clung onto her cheek.

“Yah!” Yuri shouted as she wrenched her body waking Taeyeon in that instant. She noticed what her hand was grabbing at and her eyes widened in shock and embarrassment. Taeyeon released her grip from the soft cheek of Yuri’s and rolled to the other end of the bed, falling off the edge onto the floor with a loud thud.

Yuri was standing on the other side of the bed staring where Taeyeon had fallen. Her light yellow pyjamas were a snug fit which accentuated her figure. This had allowed Taeyeon to get such a wonderful grip of her .

Taeyeon slowly peered over the edge of the bed to look at Yuri. She was standing with her arms to her chest covering it as if she had been violated. Her expression was slightly uncomfortable but more than that she was just surprised.

“I… I’m sorry I didn’t mean to- you know…” Taeyeon said, her eyes wide open asking for forgiveness and clearly showed remorse.

“It’s alright, I was just surprised that’s all,” Yuri answered giving a weak smile before fading back into the same uncomfortable expression.

Silence hung in the room; the only sound was the ticking of the alarm clock and the coffee machine brewing in the kitchen. The sounds emanating from the kitchen caught Yuri’s attention and she looked at wall in the direction of the sounds, as if she could see through it to the other side and see what was happening there.

“It seems our guest is awake, we should…”

“Yeah we should,” Taeyeon quickly agreed and got up from the floor. She turned around in an instant and walked briskly out of the room across the hallway in to her own room to get changed.

Taeyeon was the first to get changed and made her way to the living room. The kitchen was adjacent to it and she heard more sounds coming from within. Someone was frying something. At the doorway to the kitchen she was greeted by a black haired woman wearing Taeyeon’s cute duck apron, frying some toast.

“Good morning Miyoung,” Taeyeon greeted her as she took a few steps into the kitchen. “What are you making?”

“Good morning Taeyeon. I’m doing one of the few things I can do well; French toast.” She looked at Taeyeon her smile beaming cheerfully. “I’ve got one ready there on the plate, go ahead and try some.”

Taeyeon walked next to her and looked at the plate with the French toast. It looked delicious and the smells that were surrounding the kitchen made water even more. She was really hungry.

“There is also fresh coffee in the pot if you want some. I already had my coffee,” Miyoung continued.

“You didn’t have to do breakfast you know. You are our guest,” Taeyeon said as she took the plate in her hand and walked over to the coffee pot. The strong aroma of black coffee filled her nostrils and it made her morning already much better.

“It’s the least I can do for letting me stay here.”

Taeyeon placed the plate on the table and took her favourite cup, one with peapods on the side, and poured a fresh dose of coffee into it. She took a whiff and was filled with warmth all over her body as she hugged her mug and took in the sweet aromas.

“Hey, good morning,” Yuri said as she walked into the kitchen. She eyed Taeyeon who looked at her before her eyes trailed off to the side, still embarrassed about what had happened earlier. Yuri walked next to Miyoung and looked at her smiling who returned the smile, her eyes once again forming perfect crescents. Yuri felt better already. Beautiful people brightened her day. “What are you making?”

“French toast. Here, the next one is ready,” Miyoung answered as she lifted her cooking from the pan to the empty plate on the counter. She gave another smile as she handed the plate to Yuri who appeared slightly awe struck. Taeyeon looked over at her and the silly grin she had on her face. As usual; weak in front of pretty people.

“So, about yesterday…” Taeyeon began, interrupting Yuri’s awkward stare and so stealing the smile from Miyoung’s face. A serious expression replaced the beautiful smile and Yuri turned to look at Taeyeon, glaring at her with annoyance and mouthing ’What was that?’. Taeyeon merely lifted her shoulders with nonchalance as she commanded Yuri with her eyes to move out of the kitchen. They needed to talk about the previous day’s events.

Miyoung finished frying her French toast and placed it on another plate. Yuri and Taeyeon filed out of the kitchen into the living room and sat down on the couch. Miyoung followed the two out into the living room and made her way to Taeyeon’s leather office chair. She pulled it closer to the coffee table that was next to the couch and sat down facing Taeyeon and Yuri.

“What is it you would like to know?” Miyoung asked, cutting a piece of her breakfast taking the first bite out of all three. Yuri followed the fork as it left the plate into . She was allured by this woman.

Taeyeon glanced at Yuri. Damn it, she was entranced by… that? Somebody was thirsty.

Taeyeon’s eyes focused on Miyoung who looked back at Taeyeon, who instinctively shied away looking at the floor. Okay, she understood why Yuri was so fixated on that woman. Miyoung had one powerful stare that caught everyone off guard.

“Well first of all, who are you and what do you do?” Taeyeon began. Yuri shook her head as Taeyeon’s talking broke her stare and she quickly took a bite out of her own toast so she could focus on something else.

“My name is Hwang Miyoung. I’m twenty-seven years old and I have a PhD in psychology and a Masters degree in neuroscience and brain research. Basically I study the brain and how it works in all its regular functions and the abnormalities. Lately I’ve been concentrating on the brains functions during sleep and now especially with all these coma patients, the activity of the brain when in a comatose state. I’ve been trying to find out what connects all these patients who have suddenly been rendered comatose.”

Taeyeon had taken out her notepad and was rapidly scribbling down all the details she could, the sound of her black point-three ink pen scratching against the course paper, while Yuri ate her breakfast and listened intently to Miyoung.

“So, what have you found out and what was that machine in your apartment? What does it do and why does it do what it does?” Taeyeon continued with her questions.

“Well,” Miyoung paused for a moment. She noticed Yuri staring at her and a small grin spread on her face. Taeyeon caught this and promptly elbowed Yuri in the ribs. The latter clutched at her side and she turned to Taeyeon with an annoyed expression about to tell her off.

“It’s rude to stare,” Taeyeon told her. Yuri realized she was caught and her face flushed red, dipping her head down in embarrassment. Taeyeon looked back at Miyoung. “Please continue.”

“As I was saying, I was studying these comatose patients. Their brain activity patterns showed similar signs to someone dreaming. But what I found odd was that the pattern never changed, it was as if they were in an endless dream. I… well I used to work at a dream research facility. We had lots of different research topics simultaneously, stuff that I’m not at liberty to discuss, but the gist of it is that we were making progress in developing a machine that would allow conscience people to enter a person’s dream, to see what they were dreaming and interact with the people caught in the dreams. Originally this was meant as a way to treat psychiatric patients but then…

“Our initial funding was cut off and the research was forcibly shut down, and all the information was taken away from us, by who I ca-… don’t exactly know, but it was taken. Luckily, the smart girl I am, I remembered the details of it and knew that this research had valid real world applications that should be available to the public at large and not for independent corporations or governments to own. So I created that machine in my apartment together with my good colleague who shared my views.

“So our machine allows you to go into the dream world. As unbelievable as it sounds, the place our minds go to when we are dreaming is actually a separate proper world of its own. This allows us to interact with everyone dreaming at that moment, or more precisely with the ones that are close to your mind at that particular time. I was attempting to find out more information about the comatose patients in the dream world when I met someone who was in a comatose state but understood fully what was going on.

“Most people in the dream world, as you know, don’t realize they are dreaming. This is the same case with these comatose people. But this one woman was in control. She is the one you met Yuri, the tall beautiful woman. Her name is Sooyoung. She has been helping me understand what is going on altogether. She guides people; like me and some others who are aware they are actually in a dream world.

“Now how you two found me and subsequently were forced to help me is something I don’t understand but I’m glad you did. See the program and machine had a timer installed. You would only be allowed to be in the machine for a certain amount of time and then it would wake you up. There are risks in staying too long in the dream world, your mind might get lost and such. This is why it’s important to help these recently comatose patients. They are stuck in a perpetual dream state and it will eventually wreak havoc to their brains.

“So I had it set for the usual six hours but someone tampered with it after I was asleep. They set it so that there was no time limit which meant that I would have been left dreaming forever. Only someone who knew about these machines and especially knew about our custom built machine could have tampered with it. I fear my colleague was either forced or did it of his own will…”

Miyoung paused for a moment and looked to the side out of the living room window. The notion of her colleague, someone she thought of as a dear friend doing something like that to her was unnerving.

“So you suspect your colleague to be behind you being stuck in the machine?” Taeyeon asked carefully.

“Yes I do,” Miyoung looked back at Taeyeon and Yuri giving a sad smile, “But to conclude this all, I had installed a fail-safe that not even my colleague knew about. Two fail-safe’s actually. The message that popped up on the screen which you were supposed to use originally and a personal one that we had to use in the end. I made it so that if the program ran for more than two days it would show the message which you two saw. Since I had been in the machine for over two days it showed it and you two showed up to save me… I thank you.”

Taeyeon wrote down for a moment longer all the details she had gathered while Yuri observed Miyoung. She felt sorry for the way her colleague had betrayed her and hoped that they could help her. The desire to help her was very strong.

“So let me get this right,” Taeyeon began, “You research dreams and that machine allows you to go into the dream world. You met up with this person, Sooyoung, who helps people in the dreams. Your colleague betrayed you, possibly, and tried to put you in eternal sleep and we saved you, or Yuri did, by diving into the dream world.”

“That is correct,” Miyoung nodded after Taeyeon finished reading her notes and connecting the dots. “So who are you two exactly?”

“I’m Kim Taeyeon and this is, as you already met, Kwon Yuri. We are private investigators.”

“Who hired you to find me?”

“Nobody did. We were researching the comatose patients and trying to find out the cause when our search lead us to your apartments address.”

“So I got lucky you guys came around?”

“You could say so.”

Yuri had been quiet this whole time. Her mind was trying to grasp all that Miyoung had told them and the experience she herself had when she had been in the machine.

“So what I saw there in the machine or whatever, it was all a dream?” Yuri asked Miyoung. “Whose dream was it?”

“Yes it was a dream and it all was linked to the dream world. Basically all dreams in the world are linked by pathways and doors, but in this particular case since you were a secondary unit hooked up to my machine, you entered my dream. Though in reality my dream was hooked up with the dream world, and essentially every persons dream in the whole world etcetera…”

“Oh… okay,” Yuri answered though she was still slightly confused. She didn’t want to seem like a total idiot and decided to wait so she could ask Taeyeon for some clarification later. Together they could figure it out and connect all the dots.

“So you don’t know who did this to you?” Taeyeon asked again from Miyoung who had been smiling a little more after explaining it all to the two. Her face darkened at the question. Taeyeon would not let her go easily. “What is your colleague’s name?”

“My colleague I… I just don’t really have a clue who was behind it,” Miyoung’s expression became more serious. Taeyeon was asking too many questions to her liking.

“Then what is the significance of this picture and the text behind it?” Taeyeon pulled out the picture she had picked up the day before from Miyoung’s apartment, the one that had her and an older man smiling.

Miyoung saw the picture and quickly moved forward snatching it from Taeyeon’s hand.

“Where did you get this?!” She demanded to know her eyes as if on fire piercing through Taeyeon.

“I found it on the floor of your study. It says it is from your dad and talks about dreams. What is its significance?”

Miyoung looked at Taeyeon. She didn’t like this short girl. She was too sharp and witty. Too many questions. She would have to look out for her to not reveal what she didn’t want to.

“It’s just an important memory of my father. He… has moved on,” Miyoung said lowering her head.

“I’m sorry to hear that. I didn’t mean to be rude. I apologize,” Taeyeon said bowing apologetically.

“It’s okay, you couldn’t have known,” Miyoung gave a weak smile before turning to face Yuri. “You seem to have finished your food. Was it tasty?”

Yuri blinked a couple of times. Miyoung was addressing her.

“Ahh, yes it was delicious. Let me get that plate from you, I’ll wash it.”

“Not at all, let me help you wash up,” Miyoung told Yuri. This girl she preferred more. She was less hostile and suspicious of her than Taeyeon and clearly fancied her. She could better work her ways with Yuri, possibly enough to deter Taeyeon from asking too many questions. She needed to get closer to her.

Taeyeon watched as Miyoung and Yuri both got up and walked into the kitchen to wash the dishes. She returned to look down at the coffee table and her own French toast and coffee. Both were cold now and she hadn’t even touched her breakfast. Taking the fork on her plate into her right hand she cut a piece of her toast and put it in . Miyoung was not telling her everything and she would find it all out eventually.

“Whoa,” Taeyeon let out a small sound of glee. This was some good French toast.


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The hustle of the subway station was busy as usual as Yoona got off at her stop and walked up the steps out into the open street. The sun was behind clouds now which allowed for some shade and helped with the burning heat of the day. She looked around the area trying to remember which way she had to walk to reach the location she would meet Soonkyu at. It was a café that the girl went to every day to get her coffee from at lunch time. Eyeing the correct street sign she began her walk to the café.

This was it. She was going to meet Soonkyu soon. Yoona didn’t have a clue about what she would do and say to her. Maybe the moment they met each other they would just understand what was going on and no words would have to be spoken? That seemed a little farfetched and convenient. But whatever happened she had to confront her today. She needed to know what was going on with herself.

It was a short walk from the subway station and Yoona noticed the sign of the café she was going to and stopped a short distance away from it. Taking a deep breath she gave pause to rethink her situation over once more. Was she really going to go through with it? If Seohyun was here she would have felt more comfortable but she needed to do this alone.

From a distance she saw a short woman walk round the corner of the building. It was Soonkyu. It had to be. Even from this distance she could make it out. The woman entered the café through the front door. She had gone in. Now was her time to move.

Yoona continued on down the street and finally stopped at the entrance of the café. The sun had come out now and was shining onto the glassed wall of the café limiting her view inside. There were some wooden blinds that had been partially pulled in the way to block the sunlight so she could not see inside.

Standing outside the café, still hesitating whether to actually go in or not Yoona knew this was the moment she had been waiting for. She had been working so hard to find out all the information that led to this moment. Just beyond that glass door was Soonkyu, the one who she had been possessing, the one she wanted to talk to, the one she wanted answers from. Whether she would be able to provide them was a whole other question, but it was her best chance.

Another person walked past her opening the door to the café and walked inside. As the door was closing Yoona took a peek inside and tried to see Soonkyu in the café line. Next to the muffin stand by the coffee beans stood a short hazel haired girl with a short cut. It was her. It had to be Soonkyu.

Yoona made her mind up. It couldn’t wait any longer, she had to do it now or she would get too scared. This was the reason why Seohyun insisted on coming along. If she was here she would encourage Yoona to take the next step. But she couldn’t always rely on her friend. She would have to learn to make her own decisions and to go through with her plans on her own. Seohyun followed the plans that she made, so would Yoona.

Slowly she reached out and took hold of the chrome handle, pulling open the opal glass door. She stepped inside and moved a little to the right to avoid being in the way of the traffic of people moving in and out of the café. There were multiple tables and chairs spread in front of her, people taking their time conversing and having coffee. Some were on their laptops; others were talking on their phones while some were reading a book or the newspaper.

Yoona looked over the mass of people, over the buzzing of the café and towards the counter where people stood in line waiting for their food and beverages. And there in between, almost reaching the counter, stood a short girl dressed in black jeans and a simple light blue t-shirt covered with a black vest.

Yoona could feel how her palms began to sweat and the tension within her rising. The more she looked at the girl the more she felt like running away, the insides of her stomach churning uncomfortably, urging her to do something before her breakfast would be out on the café floor. But she would not leave, she couldn’t. She had to be sure it was Soonkyu. Before she went to talk with her and make a fool out of herself she should confirm it.

Clasping her hands together in front of her Yoona hesitantly closed her eyes, her breathing was shaky and the uncomfortable feeling of her sweaty hands caused her to scrunch her nose. She reached out to look through Soonkyu’s eyes. And the moment she did it, she knew it.

Yoona was now looking through the eyes of Soonkyu. She could see the café counter with one customer ahead of her waiting for their beverage. She was holding her hand on the counter, trying to balance herself as a wave of discomfort washed through her. It was like an instant migraine had hit her and her head began to pound as she could feel her body turning pale. She felt flushes of hot and cold and her footing became unstable. She felt like something was ripping her apart, a lightning from the sky had pierced right through her. Something was taking her away. Soonkyu knew that Yoona was looking through her. She knew.

Slowly Yoona felt the body turn around, the counter left behind her, the paying customer about to receive their beverage left to the side and before her laid the multiple tables and chairs full of customers. Her eyes peered over the tables towards the entrance, and then she could see her. She could see herself through the eyes of Soonkyu standing to the left of the entrance with her eyes closed. Soonkyu, and herself were now staring at her own body. She knew it was her, and she was looking directly at her.

Yoona panicked and opened her eyes. She was staring directly across the tables, straight into the eyes of Soonkyu. Yoona felt her body shiver as it seemed like something was digging through her, something that could’ve been guilt. Soonkyu’s eyes were looking at her piercing Yoona with their gaze. But they were not angry or scared, they were sad. Tired. Depressed. Lost.

The two continued their stare, neither one of them moving nor looking away. They were stuck in their own dimension. Behind Soonkyu the barista was trying to grab her attention as her beverage was ready but Soonkyu couldn’t hear her. And while Yoona stared at her eyes, the knowing sad eyes of Soonkyu, the girl smiled. A helpless, defeated smile. Immediately Yoona felt horrible for ever invading the other girl. The pale look of her sent shivers down her spine. All Yoona wanted to do was escape. So she ran.

Quickly flinging the glass door open she ran out of the café, out onto the street zipping through the crowd of people. She wanted to escape. She just wanted to go home.

Yoona was so lost in thought that she almost crossed the road when the lights were red. A bystander caught her by the hand before she stepped into the traffic causing her to lose her balance and fall onto the ground, sitting on the sidewalk her face pale. The pedestrian asked her if she was alright but Yoona couldn’t answer. She just looked at the person with a lost gaze. The person quickly hailed a cab, one stopping in front of them and Yoona was helped inside and once she was sitting in the cab she finally heard the driver’s voice.

“Where to?”

“Home…”

“Alright then. What would be the address?” The driver asked calmly.

Yoona looked up at the driver slowly beginning to understand where she was. She told the address and in no time she was home, the trip across town flashed in an instant. She entered her apartment and locked the door behind her immediately walking to her bedroom and dropping her bag on the floor. Her phone alarmed of an incoming message. She picked her phone up. It was Seohyun.

Hesitation filled her as she looked at the lit screen with her friends name on it. But she couldn’t answer her. Not now. She turned her phone off.

Slipping under the covers of her bed still fully dressed she just sat on her bed, her back leaning against the wall holding onto herself under the duvet. She stared at the wall across the room and it was that same spot she stared at for the rest of the evening until night arrived and she finally fell asleep.

Dawn made its entrance and the sunshine forced its way into the room through the light curtains. Yoona had forgotten to pull the blinds in the way, or she had not felt like doing it, and so was greeted by the sun with its usual glare. She squinted and turned around in bed, avoiding the harsh rays of the sun. Still snug in her bed under the duvet she noticed that she had put her pyjamas on. When had she managed that?

She got out of bed and walked over to the window and lowered the blinds to hide the sun. It was way too early for that. She was feeling much better after a good night sleep and felt confident that she could challenge the new day and what she had to face bravely head on. But first she needed some clothes.

Next to the bedside table was the chair where she had apparently left her clothes on at some point during the night. They were neatly folded and she walked over to pick them up. A light blue t-shirt was on top of her black jeans. She quickly slipped off her pyjamas and got changed before looking where her phone had gone. Then she heard it ring. It was somewhere under her duvet on her bed where she had left it last night.

With a sweeping motion the cover flew off her bed to find a ringing phone right at the centre, slightly dipped into the bed. She fell back on to her bed before answering the call cheerfully. She was definitely in a good mood.

“Heya! Good morning!” She chimed into the receiver.

“Yah! Sunny! Where the hell are you? It’s almost noon and you didn’t answer my calls last night. I was worried!”

“Yeah I’m So-…” Yoona paused for a moment. Sunny? Did Seohyun just call her Sunny?

“You’re still feeling sick aren’t you? You should have called.”

That wasn’t Seohyun’s voice at all. She took the phone off her ear and checked her screen. Glowing bright green was the name of the caller; Hyoyeon.

Yoona instantly hung up and dropped the phone onto the bed backing away from it. What was this? What was going on? Was she still sleeping and dreaming? She was seeing through Soonkyu’s eyes again wasn’t she?

She looked over to her left where a huge cupboard stood with a mirror on one of the doors. Getting off the bed she walked towards the mirror. The phone began ringing behind her again but she ignored it. Hesitantly she walked, slowly making her way towards the mirror. Just one more step and she could see herself. Just one more.

Yoona stopped. Her mind was filled with fear of what she was going to find out. She didn’t want to find out. This was not supposed to be happening. It was not. It was all a dream. It had to be. She stepped in front of the mirror. The phone stopped ringing.

She was… Soonkyu. A short girl with boy cut hazel hair. Luscious full lips and slightly dreamy eyes that made her look as if she was always a little sleepy. She was well endowed in front as well as… well all the right places and was… she was not herself. But this meant she was once again dreaming right? She was going to wake up soon to Seohyun’s call.

The phone on the bed began ringing once again and Yoona turned to look at it screaming in frustration.

“I’M NOT SOONKYU! STOP CALLING ME!”

How… how was she able to control what her body was doing and saying? How was she able to hear what Soonkyu would hear? How did…

There really was no other explanation. Unless this was a horrible dream she was going to wake up from soon enough, which she dearly hoped was the case, she was in Soonkyu’s body. She was the cute little girl. The phone stopped ringing.

Yoona felt fear grip her and she looked around the room. It definitely wasn’t her room now when she looked at it more carefully. With walls of light purple and yellow curtains, it was the same room she had seen when her possession dreams had first started. The computer on the desk seemed to be very expensive with a proper surround sound system and underneath the desk on their own separate little shelf were two different gaming consoles.

It appeared that she was able to control her actions, which was not the same usual dreaming she had done so far. This was something on a level of its own. Yoona thought that she should do something ridiculous to see if she was actually in control.

Over on the desk there was a small makeup pouch and she walked over to it picking it up before scouring through its contents. Inside there was lipstick which she promptly pulled out taking the cover off it. The amaranth pink lipstick had a softness to it and while gazing at it Yoona walked back in front of the mirror. She lifted the lipstick to her lips, lips that were very luscious and looked tasty. Putting on lipstick was too mundane though. No. She had to do something senseless.

Yoona moved the lipstick a centimetre higher and let it flow freely to her right across her cheeks. The pink lipstick moustache really suited her. She moved it down to her chin. The goatee she made was a masterpiece. Yoona closed the cap on the lipstick. She was definitely in control of Soonkyu’s body. A lipstick beard was not something people normally would do.

Moving over back to the bed she looked at the phone lying in the midst of the sheets. It began ringing again causing her body to flinch. Her nerves were so on edge that everything made her jolt. She looked at the flashing screen and the green name blinking as the phone vibrated in rhythm with the song. She would have to answer it eventually.

Gathering her courage she reached over and answered the call.

“H- hey.”

“Sunny what is wrong?! You just cut me off and didn’t answer! Are you alright, should I come there? I’m coming there.”

“Hyo-… Hyoyeon?”

“Sunny, tell me what’s wrong.”

Yoona was quiet for a moment. It really was Hyoyeon on the other end and her own voice, it was not her own, it was that of Soonkyu’s. She didn’t recognize the voice as her own and Hyoyeon obviously recognized it as her friends. She definitely was experiencing something new altogether. New and utterly terrifying.

“Sunny, talk to me.”

“I-” Yoona hesitated for a moment but she knew that avoiding the problem would get her nowhere; regardless of the anguish and pain caused by the fear she was feeling. “Please come here.”

“Alright, I’ll see if I can call Hyomin in to take my place. Luckily today there are barely any kids here. I’ll call you when I leave. Don’t worry, I’ll see you soon.”

“Thank you. Bye,”

“I’ll call you,” and then the line went dead.

Yoona placed the phone back on the bed before climbing in it herself. It was not until now that she realized how different the room looked and how odd it felt to be so short. The world was a different place now. She wrapped herself into her duvet and sat on the bed, her back leaning against the wall.

How was she going to explain to Hyoyeon that she wasn’t Soonkyu but actually somebody different? That she was Im Yoona, a tall, skinny, prankster of a girl somehow trapped in Lee Soonkyu’s body.

It wasn’t until now that Yoona began to wonder; if she inhabited this body, where in the world did Lee Soonkyu disappear to?