Seungwan poked at her food dejectedly. She wasn’t hungry, which wasn’t unusual in this world, but this time she couldn’t even muster up the appetite to taste her meal. The entire process of eating seemed to require more energy than her body contained, so she only shoved the food from side to side, wondering how much longer she must sit before it would be appropriate to get up and leave the hall.

Recently she’d been taking her meals in her room, not very interested in meeting other people when the only person she wanted to see wouldn’t acknowledge her presence. Unfortunately, on this day there was a small celebration over the birthday of some minor Lord and everyone was required to at least make an appearance at the feast. This included the princess, of course, who sat near the top of the table devoting all her attention to the prince and not once glancing in Seungwan’s direction.

She sighed again, not noticing that someone had appeared by her side until a tap on her shoulder nearly made her fling her fork across the room. “Lady Son? May we speak?”, Seulgi requested respectfully, back to her full name. Given how drunk Seungwan had turned out to be, she could see why Seulgi wouldn’t take her up on her offer for informalities. When she nodded and patted the empty space beside her, the captain frowned uneasily. “In private”, she added.

Energy finally flooded into her limbs, helpfully provided by the panic that began to seize her. She got up jerkily and followed Seulgi outside, sparing a wicked thought to the despicable pleasure of knowing that Joohyun would see her leaving the hall with Seulgi again. What did she even hope to achieve? She was the one who had rejected the princess, not the other way around. Joohyun was probably hurting as much as her, in her own way, so it was cruel to even think of making her jealous as a way of getting her attention.

Her thoughts returned to the captain of the guards as they kept walking, past relatively empty rooms and corridors, only stopping when they were completely alone. Was she in trouble? Secret trouble? Had Seulgi found out about Joohyun’s wish to escape, or their relationship? Was she about to be executed for treason? Was liking the princess treason? Possibly not, but not telling anyone that she was going to run away might be.

“I wanted to speak to you regarding our conversation, on the day of the feast”, Seulgi began stiffly. Their conversation? Right, when they’d talked about getting Joohyun better protected and somehow it had become her job to take care of that.

“Oh, uh, I tried to get Her Highness to accept more guards, but she refused to listen”, she immediately began to explain herself. “It might be easier to go to the king or -”

“Oh, not about that, I’ve already spoken to the king”, the captain said simply. She gazed all around the round, pointedly avoiding Seungwan’s eye. She didn’t even remember them talking about anything else. “It’s about the… curse word. Fudge”, she whispered self-consciously.

Fudge? That was what was on her mind? Seungwan had absolutely no idea how to respond, so she only stood silently and waited for Seulgi to elaborate. “I can’t stop thinking about it. It’s like a word I saw someday in a dream. Like it’s so familiar even though I’m sure I’d never heard it before”, the guard mused, her brow furrowed in confusion.

“And I’ve… I’ve thought of something else”, Seulgi carried on with wide eyes. “It’s a nonsensical string of words, but it won’t leave my mind. It’s… marshmallow caramel fudge”, she pronounced slowly, puzzled at the sounds leaving her own mouth. “I don’t even know what any of it means. Does it sound familiar to you, by any chance?”

Seungwan’s jaw fell open, the entire world seeming to shift under her feet. It did sound familiar, very much so. It was the particular kind of fudge sold in the store right in front of the library entrance. They even had a big sign announcing it. So how would captain Kang Seulgi know about it? There was one possible explanation, but Seungwan couldn’t begin to wrap her mind around it. Could it be?

“Seulgi, I’m going to ask you a few questions. I need you to say the first thing that comes to mind, don’t think about it at all, alright?”, she requested tensely. Seulgi nodded, awaiting her questions. She took a deep breath. Would this even work? “What are phones for?”

“For talking”, Seulgi replied without a pause. She blinked rapidly as she processed the exchange. “What’s a phone?”

“Don’t think”, Seungwan reminded her, nervous excitement making her fingers tingle and her stomach feel strangely hollow. “What’s your favourite cartoon?”

“Powerpuff Girls. What does that even mean? Lady Son, what is happening?”, Seulgi asked with confusion, clearly surprised at the nonsensical answers she was so readily giving.

“You’re real”, Seungwan gasped, hands landing on Seulgi’s shoulders as she nearly shook her with the thrill of the realization. This changed everything, absolutely everything. “You’re real, you’re not from here, you got into the book too, didn’t you?”

Seulgi’s eyes grew wide, parting as she seemed to come back to reality. “I was just reading, and it seemed so cool”, she said as if through the haze. “I wished I could be in the story, be a cool warrior who saved the princess. That’s the last thing I remember”, she concluded, staring at Seungwan in awe as the truth of the world around her fell into place.

So many questions rose from the discovery that Seungwan didn’t even know where to begin. But one persistent thought nagged at her. Seulgi had been in the story when she’d read it. Trapped in the book without even knowing it. She began to feel like this innocent-looking fairy tale wasn’t quite as benevolent as she’d imagined. Would she end up trapped as well, all memories of the real world gone?

“Seungwan?”, Seulgi asked, pulling her out of her musing. She seemed to have abandoned formalities now that she knew who she really was, who they both were. “I asked a bunch of people about the fudge thing before I came to you. Nobody knew anything about it, except one person” Seungwan felt her whole world hanging on a thread. A wish that she hadn’t even acknowledged became painfully evident. If Joohyun was real, if she wasn’t really a fantasy princess, then maybe they could actually be together. They could escape this book and –

“Yerim”, Seulgi concluded. Who was Yerim? Seulgi noticed Seungwan’s look of confusion and scratched her head in embarrassment. “Um, she’s Lady Kim. The princess’s lady in waiting who turned out to be a secret ninja or something” Oh. She deflated at the information, feeling a little silly that she’d ever thought it would be Joohyun. She was the main character, there was no story without her. How could she possibly be from Seungwan’s world?

“We need to talk to her”, Seungwan said decisively, brushing off her disappointment. “We need to share stories and figure out what exactly is going on. And then we need to get out of here” The safety of before, the confidence that she’d be back home once the story ended, was now long gone. If they wanted to leave, all three of them, they’d have to figure out how themselves.

(…)

Getting Yerim away from Joohyun was difficult. First, because the princess was evidently mad at Seungwan and acted painfully coolly. Second, because Seungwan had to reassure her again and again that this had nothing to do with her plan to escape and that she hadn’t told anyone about it. Third, because Seungwan made the mistake of mentioning Seulgi and Joohyun’s eyes immediately narrowed with displeasure.

After managing to thoroughly destroy whatever good faith she might still have had with the princess, she finally had Yerim and Seulgi in one room with her. The youngest recovered her memories easily, but they didn’t get to discuss any further before she remembered that Sooyoung had also reacted to her mention of fudge and they had to climb all the way to the top of the mage’s tower to recover yet another set of memories. Going up was even worse than going down, even if Seulgi let her lean very heavily on her arm.

Then all four of them sat in the circular room, Seulgi a bit distracted by the sights all around her to focus on the conversation and Yerim and Sooyoung taking advantage of any pause to throw insults at each other, so that the discussion moved forward very slowly. It also didn’t help that everybody was a bit put off by the strange furry monstrosity that Sooyoung cuddled protectively, its features hard to distinguish, although Seungwan was pretty sure that thing on its back was a turtle shell.

Eventually, they managed to wrangle their individual stories into a narrative that made at least a little sense. As it turned out, each of them had read a different story. Sooyoung’s included Seulgi’s and Yerim’s involvement, but not her own, while Seulgi’s story only included Yerim and Yerim’s story was all about a princess who got cold feet before her wedding and ran off, getting captured by bandits and their evil, magic-wielding villain and saved by the prince in a dangerous and thrilling fight. Everyone else agreed that this rescue by the prince was in their version as well, the big finale before the wedding.

“So, we read it in order?”, Sooyoung asked after a pause, the first to make sense of the discovery. “Yerim first, then Seulgi, then me, and now Seungwan”

“And we all entered the book to play the part we wished we had”, Yerim pointed out. “I wanted to be a cool secret bodyguard who beat up a bunch of bad guys”

“I wanted to be a brave warrior and keep the peace”, Seulgi added, to which Yerim raised a fist which she slowly bumped after some confusion.

“Fighter bros”, Yerim whispered at Seulgi.

Sooyoung cleared . “And I wanted to do cool magic in my tower and be mysterious. And have red hair”, she concluded, brushing through her hair with satisfaction. The thing in her arms let out a sound halfway between a squawk and a bark, and for a second, everyone else was too petrified to answer her.

“I can’t believe you wished you’d be alone and friendless”, Yerim called out with a snort, the first to recover.

“Well, I’m not friendless, am I?”, Sooyoung riposted with a scowl. “You’re my friend”, she grumbled, cuddling her creature closer as she sunk into her chair.

“Only because I feel sad for you”, Yerim argued, not sounding very convincing.

“More like I feel sad for you. I’m the only one who knew your real identity, if you didn’t have me to talk to, you’d have to be a boring noblewoman and talk about nothing but dresses and hair. No offense, Seungwan”, Sooyoung added diplomatically, but she was hardly offended. She wasn’t an actual noblewoman, after all.

“Well, now lots of people know my secret identity. The guards and the other ladies in waiting and Seungwan”, Yerim mumbled hesitantly.

“But you still come and talk to me”, Sooyoung said simply.

“Yes”

“Then I guess we’re friends”, she concluded stiffly. Yerim nodded. They both looked flustered, avoiding eye contact. Seungwan looked at Seulgi, who seemed as out of place as her.

“So, Seungwan, what about you?”, the guard asked, trying to get the conversation moving again. “What did you wish for?”

The princess’s attention. That would be embarrassing to say out loud, though. “Just, you know, to be in a cool fantasy kingdom. Nothing specific”, she said casually. A thought ran through her mind like lightning, already out before she could fully examine it, but leaving behind a tentative question that she wasn’t sure how to approach. If the others had entered the book and gotten what they wanted, and she’d wanted to become closer to Joohyun, then what did that mean about their story?

“Anyway, I had a thought”, Sooyoung cut in, apparently focused on the issue once more. Seungwan shook the disturbing question away from her mind and devoted her full attention to Sooyoung. “You’re the only who remembered coming from the real world, right? Or, in other words, you’re the only one who doesn’t have a persona here. You have the personality and memories of real-life Seungwan, not fairy-tale Seungwan” Everyone else nodded along, obviously curious about the difference.

“I think that this is like a test run. When you get into the book you go through the story and then at the end you get assigned an actual role. And then the story can start again for someone else. The next person who reads this will have you in their book”, she added with a nod towards Seungwan.

It wasn’t the most reassuring thought. Who could she possibly be? Joohyun’s lady in waiting, like the princess had wanted? Her plot point would involve the entire kingdom discovering that their princess was secretly having an affair with her closest friend. Just wonderful.

“I won’t have any role”, she said decisively, “because there won’t be another cycle. We’re going to break this spell or curse or whatever it is that’s trapping us here. I’m going to get us all out”

“Can we be friends? When we go back to the real world”, Seulgi said shyly. “I don’t have a lot of friends there. I’m not as cool as I am here”

“Of course”, Yerim replied immediately.

“I’d like that”, Seungwan added honestly. She had a feeling they’d all want to stick together after this was over.

“Well, I literally met you today”, Sooyoung pointed out. “But yeah, sure, why not?”

Seulgi grinned happily, looking between them. “Then let’s do this!”, she declared with excitement, pumping her fist in the air then slowly retracting it. “Um, what are we going to do?”, she asked sheepishly.

All heads turned to Seungwan, who thankfully had an idea. “Well, I was thinking. I keep throwing things off the rails, but the world seems to come back around eventually. Even though I’ve messed up a lot, we’re still pretty much on track. There has to be something controlling this story from the inside. Something magical. And I only know of two sources of magic. You”, she began, nodding towards Sooyoung, “and the villain”

Sooyoung mulled over the words with a look of concentration. “It makes sense”, she finally said. “Every time one of us joined the story, it had something to do with the bandits. Seulgi with that attack on the plains, Yerim with the attempted kidnapping in the princess’s room, me with the cursed flower… It could have been anything else, I could have ended up making magic fireworks for the wedding. But it was always the bandits”

“So you think we should confront the villain?”, Yerim suggested, leaning forward in her chair, probably excited at the opportunity to stab her daggers into something.

“I think I need to do it”, Seungwan said slowly. “The book only us in because we wanted to be in it, right? It won’t do anything against our will. Then, right now, I’m the one in charge of the story. If I meet the villain and I tell him I want us all to get out, he’ll have to do it”

“What if he doesn’t?”, Seulgi asked quietly, voicing the concerns of everyone in the room.

“Honestly, I don’t know. But do you have any other ideas? We can’t kill him, because that’s what happens in the real story. It has to be something else”, she replied with a shrug. To be honest, the future that began to draw itself in front of her wasn’t the most appealing. Between returning to the real world and staying in this fantasy world forever with no memories of her real self, she wasn’t sure which option cost her more.

“Fair enough”, Sooyoung finally agreed. The other two reluctantly nodded along. “So how are you going to do it?”

“As you know, the princess is going to run away from the palace and get captured by the bandits and taken to their leader”, she began cautiously. “She asked me to go with her, and I’m going to say yes. I need you three to help keep the guards distracted so we can escape unnoticed. And… keep the prince here as long as you can. It’ll buy me some time” She ignored the way the other three had begun to study her with furrowed brows, not in the mood for answering the questions they’d have.

“Seungwan, what’s going on between you two?”, Seulgi asked with some concern. It was all so embarrassing, wasn’t it? That she’d known from the start and still ended up in this position.

“Nothing”, she replied tensely, her hands digging into the arms of her chair. Reality was crashing down on her and she simply couldn’t avoid the truth. They never would have been happy together, and all questions of who the princess would marry and what would make her happy were pointless. It didn’t matter. She was just a character in a story. “She’s not real. None of this is” She got up abruptly, hoping that she could stop the conversation at that. “We’ll leave tonight. Can you have everything ready?”

The other three nodded in assent and she was out the door before another word could be spoken. Time to end this.