Daeyeon wakes up with a startle - taking a deep inhale, clearly gasping for oxygen.

She sits up from her lying position and holds a hand around her neck. The feeling of suffocation just moments ago seemed so unreal to her.

"That was terrible," she thinks, "It was as if I stopped breathing for a moment there."

"But you did, my child."

A voice answers her and at this does she realize that she's not in the water anymore. She stands up, looking down at her clothes - it was her school uniform with the track pants. Her hand feels her hair - it's dry. She was dry. 

"I'm.. dry. How am I dry?"

"You are no longer where you thought you were," the voice says again, "This is not your world anymore, dear child."

Startled by the mysterious person's ability to read her own thoughts, Daeyeon looks around. There was nothingness around her - an empty void. Daeyeon swallows down her saliva, "Am...Am I dead?"

"Correct," it answers. They knew there was no point in sugarcoating words at this point, "But no worries, everyone dies at some point. It's a cycle of life - everyone goes through death."

Daeyeon sits back down, "I'm... I'm dead."

The memories start flooding back. The cold river, Minrae's face, the yellow umbrella, the brach knocking her head, the feeling of water filling her lungs, the desperate feeling of wanting to continue living - she remembered it all again. 

A hand suddenly holds her shoulder, "There's no use in dwelling over your death. However, I am sorry for how young you were."

Daeyeon turns around to see the face of Minrae staring back at her. 

"..Min-Minrae?" She moves away from the figure, terrified of suddenly seeing the face of her own best friend. Had Minrae died as well?

"Is this what this body is called? Forgive me, I usually turn into a familiar person in your life so that you feel more comfortable. Do you not like this person?" it asks and the voice coming out being completely different than Daeyeon's friend.

"..." Daeyeon stays silent for a while before she asks, "What about the boy I saved? Did he make it? Is he dead too?"

Minrae - or the thing that looks like Minrae - replies by smiling at her.

"That's what I'd like to see," they placed a hand on Daeyeon's head, "You just died and yet the first thing you thought of was the person you saved. He will be sick for a while but he'll live to become a very very important figure in your world. You saved the person who will change humankind as you know it."

Daeyeon let out a sigh of relief - her heart felt relieved to know that the boy was safe.

"What happens now?" she asks, looking at the nothingness around them.

They don't answer, instead, they took her by the shoulders, "Walk with me. Conversation flows better when humans do this."

So, they began to walk through the void.

"Is there anything that might ease your feelings while you're here? Looking at nothingness tends to frighten most humans and they feel better when there's something familiar around them. A house? A classroom? Office? Anything you can think of, Daeyeon."

"A small garden," she answers after a while of thinking, "... My grandmother took care of it really well and it always made me feel at peace. A little pond and a bunch of beautiful blooming flowers." 

The image of her grandmother's personal garden is clear in her head. The place where she always felt most at home and comfortable was always at that place. The scent of the flowers, tea, and biscuits as her grandmother listened to her talking were