“IT WILL BE GOOD IN THE END. IF IT IS NOT GOOD, IT IS NOT THE END.”

***

“Ugh! What am I doing here?”

Chaewon grunted as she landed on her bum after she is swallowed by some blinding lights. She looked around and found nobody within her sight. She sighed and wake up from her spot, caressing her bottom with her left hand. She looked around again, hoping to see someone but there’s clearly no one around her.

She strolled around the white space which seems to stretch endlessly, wandering without knowing what to do. She clutched her bag and sighed. However, she is surprised as she do not break even a drop of sweat even though she is walking for quite some time.

“What am I doing again, before?”

She scratched her head and reminiscence about incident occurred just before she suddenly heard something weird. She snapped her finger as she slowly recollecting her thoughts and nodded her head.

“I think I am on the roof after meeting those dumb es. Ugh, what a life. So what? Am I dead? I don’t think I jumped from the roof, right?”

She is debating with herself when suddenly, something is echoing around the space.

SECOND PERSON SAFELY TRANSPORTED.

Suddenly, a girl who is holding a mop appeared in front of Chaewon. That girl is wearing a yellow jacket and seems quite confused as much as herself.

Chaewon hesitated to call out the girl and greet her first, however, the girl is quacking loudly upon seeing Chaewon a few steps in front of her.

“Oh hey, redhead! Are you the one making those ridiculous sound from earlier? I tell you it’s not funny quacking around me, you know?”

She said with her husky voice while pouting .

She really resembles a duck.

Chaewon draped her eyes as the girl inched closer towards her. She flinched and stepped back as she merely know this stranger. Heck, they just meet each other a few minutes ago.

“Oh hey, why are you not answering me? Don’t worry, even though I am strong with these muscles, I don’t actually bite or beat people!”

The girl in yellow exclaimed while flashing her muscles that is almost nonexistent towards Chaewon while making her trademark face which is pouting .

Chaewon cannot stifle her laugh anymore and she bursted out. The girl in yellow stood dumbfounded watching this particular stranger in front of her laughing as she showed off her muscles.

Oh hey, she is not a bad person. Her voice is not similar with the one quacking inside my head.

She scratched her head sheepishly and rolled back her sleeves. She walked over towards the rolling girl on the floor and extended her hand.

“My name is Choi Yena. May I know your name?”

“Kim… Kim Chaewon. You can call me Chaewon. I’m sorry, but you are quite funny.”

Chaewon hold Yena’s hand and get up. Now that she is standing side by side with Yena, she noticed that their height is almost the same.

“Nah, it’s okay. Better than getting bad mouthed at when you do nothing wrong.”

Said Yena bitterly out of sudden. Noticing the girl’s sullen, Chaewon tried to initiate conversation even though she herself is not that friendly to begin with.

“Say, earlier you asked me about some ridiculous sound, right? I also maybe heard the same sound as you! In fact, I just arrived here, maybe 20 minutes earlier than you to be exact.”

Yena gasped as she find out that she is not the only one hearing some unknown voice echoing in her head.

“Thank goodness! I think I am going crazy but you hear the same thing as I am right? If they say I am crazy then you must be just crazy as I am!”

She exclaimed happily. Chaewon didn’t know how to react towards Yena claimed. She want to agree but at the same time she want to fight that statement too. At the end, she just shaking her head.

I never know I can talk this well with strangers, how spectacular.

Chaewon shrugged at her own thought. She then pointed out at Yena’s mop.

“What are you doing before coming here? I don’t think you are a janitor as we are almost at the same age, right?”

Yena just realized that she is transported together with the mop in her hand while she is carrying her punishment alone. She grunted as she remembered those incident and ended up spilling her story towards Chaewon.

Chaewon nodded her head as she heard Yena’s story. They exchanged their story and just sitting, waiting for something to happen. Their surrounding is surprisingly cool and quiet, and only their breath filled the air as they ran out of topic to talk about.

Suddenly, another announcement echoed and that made both of them stood up.

THIRD PERSON SAFELY TRANSPORTED.

FOURTH PERSON SAFELY TRANSPORTED.

“Oh hey! It’s another two person right there, let’s go and greet them, Chaewon!”

Yena grabbed Chaewon and running towards the two newly arrived people. Chaewon surprised as one of them is sobbing hard and thus she approached her.

“Hey, what’s wrong? Are you hurting anywhere?”

She asked out of concern and the blonde girl lifted up her face. Chaewon can see her puffy eyes, indicating that she is crying for quite some times and she instinctively hugged the blonde.

“It’s okay. Everything is going to be fine. My name is Chaewon. What is your name?”

Chaewon awkwardly comforting the blonde as she cried even louder upon hearing Chaewon’s voice.

Oh God, is she afraid seeing my red hair? Am I resemble Satan or what for her to cry this hard?

Chaewon frantically thinking hard as the girl continue her crying. She gestured Yena for some help but that girl is busy talking with some fluffy cheek girl. She gritted her teeth, trying to escape this awkward situation.

“My… My name is Lee Chaeyeon. Thank you for your kind words, Chaewon-ssi.”

(People usually added honorifics towards another higher position people or just out of courtesy. In Korea, they added -ssi or -nim after the person name.)

Fortunately, Chaeyeon seems manage to subside her sadness and politely greeting Chaewon back. They broke their hug and stood face to face. Chaewon can finally see Chaeyeon’s face which is bloating due to her cries from earlier but find out she have unique charms despite all those scene from earlier.

“No need to use honorifics. You can call me Chaewon.”

“Okay, Chaewon. Again, thank you for your words. I have some bad things happened before.”

She extended her right hand and greeted Chaewon. She just realized her surrounding after calming down and she excitedly looking around the white stretch of space.

“Say, have you heard something weird before coming here?”

Chaeyeon asked Chaewon and the latter surprised.

It seems like its not only me and Yena can hear that voice huh? What is this all about?

Chaewon frowned and mumbled to herself. She felt something suspicious is occurring but she cannot pinpoint what is it so she choose to kept mum for this matter for now. She gestured Chaeyeon to follow her and meet another two person which is absorbed in their talk with each other.

***

While Chaewon heading towards a crying blonde, Yena approaching a mochi cheek girl which appears unusually composed. Yena greeted her first and introduce herself,

“Hello, my name is Choi Yena. What is your name?”

The other girl seems startled upon listening to Yena. She take a deep breath before replying,

“Oh, hello. My name is Honda Hitomi. Nice to meet you.”

This time, Yena is the one gaping widely. She quickly closed it after a few seconds and cover this time.

“Y-you are Japanese? How can you talk so fluent in Korean?”

“Eh~ No, no. I am the one who should praise you for your Japanese skills. You sounds perfect.”

Both of them looked at each other, clearly confused upon listening to each other.

Never in my life I learned Japanese. Is this girl alright? I speak Korean with her though.

Yena whispered in her head while trying to come up with a topic to talk with this girl.

“Oh yeah, you can call me Yena. Do I call you Honda?”

Yena realized that she just introduce herself without telling the girl what she should address her.

“Eh, no no. You can call me Hitomi. Nice to meet you, Yena.”

They greet each other and stood awkwardly, not knowing what to do next. However, Yena tried her best to break the ice and started talking with Hitomi.

“Say, you are quite calm upon arriving here. Do you know where is this?”

“No but in fact, I am also quite surprised. Guess it is not that obvious, huh?”

She chuckled and her cheek shaking along with her laugh. Yena need to remind herself to behave nicely in front of strangers and holding her desire to poke at those fluffy cheek. She also resist her temptation from biting Hitomi’s cheek as it reminded her about some scrumptious bread.

“Yena? Are you okay? You seems quite blank over there.”

Hitomi waved her hand in front of Yena as the girl just suddenly stood frozen in front of her. She snapped her fingers in front of Yena and that made Yena coming back to reality.

“Huh? I am sorry. Have some inner battle with myself.”

She smiled apologetically. Hitomi laughed again hearing Yena's ridiculous explanation. She seems to have good impression of Yena and she think that this person in front of her is really being herself.

“It’s good to see you girls enjoying yourself.”

Suddenly, another unfamiliar voice approached them and make Hitomi flinched. She cowered behind Yena and look again at the owner of those voice.

“Don’t be afraid! I am a person just like you.”

Chaewon frantically explaining herself. Her thoughts reminded her again to change her hair colour as this is the second person scared upon seeing her.

I must be really resembles Satan.

Chaewon closed her eyes, mouth is curving down, feeling dejected after receiving such reaction twice in a row. Out of sudden, Chaeyeon approaching Yena and Hitomi before greeting them politely.

“Hello, my name is Lee Chaeyeon but you can call me Chaeyeon. This angel behind me is Kim Chaewon, or also known as Chaewon. Nice to meet both of you.”

Yena just smiled and greeted her back. She explained that both her and Chaewon already acquaintance with each other and introduced shy Hitomi towards Chaeyeon and Chaewon.

“H-hi. I am sorry for my rudeness from earlier. My name is Honda Hitomi.”

Hitomi nervously greeted Chaewon as she can feel her cold gaze piercing her body.

On the other side, Chaewon is startled as she is greeted by the girl that is hiding behind of Yena out of sudden but she managed to maintain her poker face.

“Kim Chaewon. Call me Chaewon. It’s okay. People always say my face is the villainous type so I am quite used to it.”

Hitomi clearly shocked upon listening Chaewon’s reply. She quickly clasped Chaewon’s hand and said,

“No way such beautiful face with your soft voice resemble villainous! I am just startled to be greeted as I never realized there’s others aside of me but yeah, your aura is quite scary but I’m fine now!”

Both Chaeyeon and Yena just laughed at them as they watched little drama live in front of them. They settled in and started to ease up around each other and exchanged stories.

Hitomi teared up upon listening to Chaeyeon’s story and Chaewon comforted her. Yena just furrowed her brows as she cannot believe how can people hurting this precious person in front of her which seems so sincere in every of her action.

“People can really act like , huh? No wonder bad things happening all around the world.”

Yena commented as she give big hug towards Chaeyeon.

“Thank you for your kind words. I am glad I can meet you girls today. You are nicer than I thought.”

“Yena is really nice, right? Such a happy pills. Yellow suits you really well.”

Hitomi added and they laughed together. Suddenly, another announcement echoing throughout the space from nowhere.

FIFTH PERSON SAFELY TRANSPORTED.

SIXTH PERSON SAFELY TRANSPORTED.

SEVENTH PERSON SAFELY TRANSPORTED.

“Hey, it’s three more person coming here! Let’s go and search for them, shall we?”

Yena stood up followed by the other three.

“I think we better split up as there’s three more people arrived here. I will move alone, the rest of you shall split, with whom I shall leave those decision in your hands. See ya!”

Yena blurted out her words and dashed off, leaving those clueless gals behind. They just sighed and shaking head, speechless seeing Yena’s energy to meet new people.

“Say, may I go with Chaewon? I want to know her more.”

Hitomi declared and grabbed Chaewon hands. Chaeyeon nodded her head and moved alone towards another direction from the couple and Yena, hoping that she can find the new person which transported here.

Hitomi is grabbing Chaewon and scampering away with her. Chaewon just chuckled watching Hitomi running with her, as if they are competing in a sports tournament or such as Hitomi’s eyes burning with fire.

“Hey, I thought you are afraid of me?”

Chaewon stepped up her speed and running side to side with Hitomi, hands still linking together. She didn’t feel awkward anymore around this fluffy girl and she do not know reasons behind this.

“I am not afraid of you. Just taken aback a little bit.”

Hitomi puffed her cheeks while replying and Chaewon smirked. They noticed some girl is sitting on the ground, looking dumbfounded and scared. They speed up their run to approach the girl.

***

Yena is running energetically, trying to find another person which just transported here. She felt some kind of wanting to be there for the newly arrived people as that person might be scared upon arriving at an unknown place, just like her. She luckily meet Chaewon whom quickly found her and they settle down to be friends.

Yena want the other person to feel safe and thus she is trying her best to find them. She noticed a girl with auburn hair and bangs covering her forehead is slumping on the ground, crying hard.

She felt rushed of panic as soon as she see the girl is crying hard. She decided to call her out loud even though the distance between them is not that far, just a few meters away from each other.

“Oh hey, girl! Are you okay?”

Upon hearing another unfamiliar voice knocking her eardrum, Yuri lifted her face and stunted. There’s a girl in yellow shirt running towards her at full speed, looking worried. Yuri gasped as the girl is literally bathing with sunlight, looking radiant and attractive.

Within seconds, Yena arrived at the girl and kneeling in front of her. She grabbed her shoulder and pulled in the girl into a tight hug.

“Everything is okay. Don’t cry. You are not alone.”

Yena tried to calm that girl which seems dumbfounded only to make her cry even more. She clasped on Yena’s back, crying out loud.

“Oh hey. Chill. I don’t bite, really. Who are you? My name is Choi Yena, call me Yena.”

The girl sniffed before replying,

“Yuri. Jo Yuri. Thank you for your kind words, Yena.”

Are you my flashlight?

Yuri saved that question in her heart and take a look again at the girl when they break their hug. Yena instinctively wiped tears away from Yuri’s cheek, making the girl blushed at the kind gesture

“Don’t cry, you will ruin that beautiful face of yours.”

Both of them just stay silent after Yena muttering that words.

W-what in world had I said just now? Didn’t it counts as flirting? I am not flirting with her, right?

Yena is gay panicking inside her head as she just realized her uttering those words without thinking. She can see Yuri widened her small eyes upon hearing Yena’s words.

This is it! I am 1000% sure she is my flashlight! For my wish to be granted this fast, I thank you anybody who's responsible for this!

Yuri screamed in her head after listening to Yena. They turned away their gaze, feeling shy towards each other.

“Ahh, err, let’s go. There’s others in this place you know. We can all be friends.”

Yena stuttered but still stretching out her hand at Yuri and pulled her up. Yuri just gaped upon knowing that they are not alone.

“You mean there’s more people in here? Are you all living here?”

Yuri asked as she is utterly confused. She looked into Yena’s eyes, begging for some explanation while pouting .

Yena, restrain yourself. This girl is a stranger and I am not doing anything indecent towards a stranger.

Yena trying her best to be composed as this is her second time feeling like biting people’s cheek but this girl named Yuri give her different vibes. Yena feels like protecting her with her own existence. She falls back into reality as she can feel Yuri is tugging her hand, wanting some explanation.

“Yes, there’s more than both of us. I have meet three of them and they are really good, I tell you. Another two person arrived just like you and that’s make us seven people now.”

Yena smiled at Yuri, hoping that her simple explanation will suffice. Fortunately, Yuri is smiling as she heard Yena’s talk.

“Your smiling face is more beautiful than your crying one. This suits you more.”

Yena blurted out.

“Thanks. I like your voice too. It’s husky just like I am.”

Yena feels butterfly fluttering in her chest at the moment. As if she is floating in the air and she do not understand why she feels this way. They joined their hands and Yena swear that she can feel electricity jolting within her palm.

Why am I being like this?

Yena questioned herself and ushered Yuri to go back with her. They slowly walked together as Yena lead them back towards their meeting place.

***

Chaeyeon is walking leisurely as she already spotted a girl who is squatting dumbfoundedly while looking around. As the girl glanced at Chaeyeon, the latter is utterly at loss of words.

The squatting girl looks ethereally beautiful that Chaeyeon need to pinch herself to make sure she is not hallucinating. The girl with purple blouse is holding a coral backpack and rummaging its content.

Holy smoke! Is she a real person or is she an angel?

Chaeyeon contemplated at her but she is even more shocked as the girl bring out some confectionary and digging in. Chaeyeon cannot help but laughing out loud upon seeing the girl’s comical side, opposite with her looks. She walked over towards the girl and squatting in front of her with her sincere smile.

“Hi there, beautiful. My name is Lee Chaeyeon. Can you give me the honor to know your name?”

The latter is shocked upon hearing Chaeyeon cheesy line and she curved into smile.

“Pleasure to meet you. I am Kang Hyewon. Call me Hyewon.”

She is startled as she heard Chaeyeon is laughing again. She cannot help but joined in with the happy virus too as her laugh is contagious.

“Oh, I am sorry. You are so funny, Hyewon.”

Yet so pretty. I am jealous!

Chaeyeon smiled at her as they greeted each other. To her surprise, Hyewon replied,

“No need to be jealous, Chaeyeon. You are pretty in your own ways too.”

Hyewon ruffled her hair as this is the first time she heard such pure inner voice without any hint of jealousy or bad intention. She eased up in front of this girl and even offered her some candy which she stashed inside her bag.

“Aww, so sweet of you, Hyewon. You are pretty yet so humble. I think I like you.”

Hyewon startled at the sudden confession but Chaeyeon is oblivious of it as she is chattering happily about some other friends she meet here.

“And so, I think they will like you so much! I can’t wait to let you all meet and we can share our stories again.”

Hyewon smiled as she keep listening to Chaeyeon. Every and each of her words is sincere and there’s nothing lurking inside her heart which spat anything bad about her so called new friends. Hyewon feels eager to meet them as Chaeyeon kept boasting about them.

“Hey, let’s meet them! I really think we all will click well, as if we are destined to be together!”

Chaeyeon pulled Hyewon up and helping her with the backpack.

To think that I am feeling something which I thought I had lost it long ago. What is this? What power do they possess to make me feeling like this?

Hyewon whispered as they strided away, holding each other hand dearly, hoping that this time, their wish will come true in a beautiful way.

***

“Hey girl. You okay?”

Chaewon cooly greet the girl who seems about to cry as they approached her. It seems Chaewon is wrong. The girl already have puffy eyes, indicating that she bawled earlier.

I swear to God, if this girl is crying because she see me again, I will shave my head instead of changing my hair colour.

Chaewon breathed anxiously as she tapped the girl’s shoulder. Suddenly, the girl sprang up and hugged her, leaving confused Hitomi alone as they fall down together due to the impact.

“Oi, girl? You okay or not? Why do you tackle me? Are you mistaking me with some beast?”

That’s it. Goodbye my hair.

Chaewon frantica