Eyes wide open

"Yoon Doah? Are you awake?!" A deep voice with an impossibly child-like tone spoke, "oh no... I think my sister became dumb after she fell into the well."

I rubbed my eyes trying to make sense of what was going on, as a throbbing pain went on in my head.
What? What is what? Where am I? Or really, what am I? Huh? WHO AM I?
I forced open my eyes and instantly met a strangely near pair of eyes, presumably coming from the deep voice I've just heard.

"WoAh!" I croaked in shock after seeing this stranger's face right in mine, in the most frog-like sound.

"Oh my- MOM! DAD! She's awake!" The guy sped off before I could speak, as I heard a loud thud from the door slamming shut.

My eyes explored the interior of the room I was in. The entire room was a pastel yellow, looking rather warm and inviting. The ceiling was high, the bed was king-sized, felt a little too big to be laying there on my own. There was a vase of fresh flowers on the bedside table, probably changed daily. With all of that, I inferred that I must have grown up in that rich family, just that somehow, I had no memory of anything.

Before I could try to recollect my thoughts, the door smashed open. The guy from before ran in with a middle-aged man and woman following behind.

"Look, Mom! Look, Dad! Doah is awake!" The guy sped towards me as he looks at me with pure joy.

"Doah yah..." The woman looked at me with teary eyes as she caressed my face.

The level of emotions in the room was intense but my blank mind could not bring myself to empathize with any of these intense emotions. My eyes darted around the room, scanning each person. As my eyes met the middle-aged man, I realised that similarly to me, he was also not the most emotive. 

"Doah yah, how are you feeling?" The woman asked lovingly, and I couldn't bring myself to reply honestly. Because damn, I felt like but I can't tell if this supposed mother of mine would put me back to sleep for cursing, and could use some time right now to quickly speed search my memory to check if my mother was a psychopath.

"She's not talking... doesn't seem right..." the young guy scratches his head as he pulls out a rugged-looking wooden stick. He did a swish and flick motion and somehow summoned a single stalk of flower from the vase.

"WHATTHEFU-" I couldn't contain my shock. But at least I managed to hold back before I dropped the F-bomb. This was hard to deal with. Waking up remembering nothing and having to hold in my questions while seeing things that may or may not have been hallucinations. Maybe I was in a simulation maybe I was in heaven, who knows.

The people in the room seemed shocked, not in a nice way. I wasn't sure if they were offended or just surprised that I spoke loudly out of a sudden.

"DISGRACE." The middle-aged man scolded me while taking slow steps towards my bed as I shuddered in fear and may or may not have peed a little in my pants... or whatever I was wearing because I couldn't tell yet. But at least at that point, I figured, it wasn't Mom who was the psychopath, it was Dad. He frowned and looked at me sternly. Before anything else could go on, I got into self-defense mode.

I tugged tighter at my blanket, took a deep breath, and cleared my throat. Loudly. "aHeM! Ah sorry. Hey man, umm... Hey guys... I don't know what the heck is going on, I don't remember sh-... anything. I don't remember anything. This is way too hard for me. I just woke up, who the heck are y'all, why is the damn flower levitating, would be nice for you guys to understand."

 

---

My brother Yoon Dowoon

A whole day was then spent sorting out my identity, re-learning my background, and most important re-understanding that I lived in a magical world hidden away from the general non-magical population also known as muggles.

"Huh, what are the odds? You didn't even forget Korean but you forgot magic existed." Dowoon, my brother whom I now finally acknowledge said in a mocking tone.

As this whole memory-loss shenanigan went on, I observed the different ways my family members reacted. My dad was way more annoyed than anything and seemed to hate me or something. My mother was glad that I woke up but still concerned about my memory loss and kept checking if there was anything else wrong with me. My brother was cool, I liked his presence and his energy. He's was always talking to me and keeping me engaged. But one thing strange that stuck out to me was how Dowoon tried to tell me something about a long-term sickness I always had but dad warned him and told him not to speak of it. I guessed if it's a long-term sickness on myself, I would eventually find out on my own so I decided not to probe and especially not when my psychopath dad did want me to know about it.

Dowoon is 16 years old, currently studying in Hanguk Magical Institute (HMI), a school hidden on a mountain in North Korea by protection spells so muggles won't be able to see the building. He said when school starts in 2 days, he would be going back as a Year 2 student and I would begin Year 1 of High School at HMI. Apparently, our parents are pretty big deals within the Korean wizarding community, so they expected us to do exceptionally well in school. Dowoon hinted at how I was extremely stressed out by our parents back then and that could be the reason why I was sick often. He also felt slightly apologetic while saying that and confessed that he didn't do well in the conventionally important wizarding subjects, instead, he wanted to study about muggles and enjoyed reading psychology books; which probably caused our parents to put extra pressure on me.

"Wingardium leviosa!" Dowoon spoke as he waved his wand. The flower from just now levitated and landed on my hand. Dowoon beamed at me, seemingly anticipating a positive reaction.

"Dude I've seen this already. Show me something else." I said in a bored tone even though honestly, seeing it again was lowkey still super fascinating.

"Rude! Wait till you start school and have to study for O.W.L!"

"What's that? Owl?"

"Ordinary Wizarding Level. You gotta do well in that in Year 3. If you do well you are almost guaranteed a good job, or even better, enroll into HMI Uni."

 

---

 

 Snip snip

Ever so often, my head would start to hurt. I guessed it was fragments of my memories coming back to me. Sometimes they came in blurry images, sometimes in voices, and sometimes in sounds. However, each time I had these hallucination-like episodes, they were too blurry and painful for me to try and recall. In fact, I didn't even know how I looked like.
 
I finally stood in the mirror after if I'm not wrong weeks of laying in bed like a vegetable. I felt like I was one with the bed so trying to get out was hard. It was also strange how I wasn't sent to the hospital despite the times they talked about how I was sick. Perhaps witches and wizards don't need doctors? I looked at myself in the mirror, genuinely surprised by my visuals. Doe eyes with long lashes, pale skin and healthy pink lips. Just that my hair was all over. Being in a coma somehow tangled up my long, messy hair. My pale yellow pajamas also seemed a little too joyous for someone who almost died, just woke up from a coma and feeling extremely cynical about everything. Everything felt off about myself except for the one thing that seems the most out of place yet I was the most comfortable with - a small holographic butterfly necklace. It's really pretty, and it just felt so... me. Yellow is just not my color. Not sure if I was depressed, crazy or both, but I picked up the scissors I spotted from the corner of my eye and gave myself a shoulder-length haircut.

"Man, I have no idea who I even am, but this? Feels more like me." I nodded in agreement with myself as I walked back to my bed with a beam.

"Oh my... You're crazy aren't you?" I've seen Dowoon surprised many times in the hours we've met but this time he's actually surprised.

"It's not uneven right? I tried okay. If it's ugly, at least I feel like myself now."

Dowoon commended me for my casual act of spontaneity and said I'd never do that in the past, and he liked how cool I was. I tried to ask him a little more about how I was in the past but he really just avoided the question and told me I'm much cooler now. Since he said I was cool, I brushed it off. I then went on to ask him about the butterfly necklace. 

"Do you know where this came from? It's so pretty. You know, nothing feels right about myself except this necklace."

"Huh... Honestly, for this one, I have no idea." Dowoon replied, seemingly clueless.

"What... Stop being secretive!" 

"No, I really don't know... OH! But I know the butterfly is a pretty important symbol to the MaKo."

"What's a MaKo?"

"Magical Kouncil. They're like the government for the wizarding community in the Korean peninsula, K in council represents Korea. I believe our great great grandpa started it. So our uncle is the minister of MaKo now. I think one of our maternal ancestors was called Na Bi (Means butterfly in Korean) that's why the Na family treats butterfly as their thing, which eventually became a sign of allegiance towards the MCK."

"..."

"Seriously? Wah...YOON DOAH!"

"YES! Nabi Alliance!"

"Nevermind...I'll explain another day. Go to sleep, school starts tomorrow!"

 

---

 

Dorasan Station

"Dowoon ah, you'll need to take good care of Doah." Mom speaks while combing through my freshly cut hair with her fingers, "Doah are you really alright? We can stay home if you don't-"

"Ahem. It's time for them to go. Learn to let go, they're not kids anymore." Dad interrupts Mom as he walks away.

With her vision fixed on me, Mom said to Dowoon, "Update us no matter what happens, yeah?"

"Yeah yeah Mom. I know..." Dowoon replied for the hundredth time.

"Ah... Our Doah grew up so fast. I heard you cut your own hair yesterday..." She pats my head as her vision shifts to my neck, "When did you become so devoted? It looks great on you anyway."

My mom hugs me tight and then offers Dowoon a hug but he rejected. She pats Dowoon lightly on the head and waves goodbye to us and runs off to catch up with Dad. I looked to Dowoon and shook my head disapprovingly at his unaffectionate behavior while he pretends to look away.

"Dowoon!"

"Hey hey isn't it time you call me oppa? Losing your memory is not an excuse to not use honorifics!"

"PFFT! Dowoon... oppa?"

"Sup!" He replied with a smug grin.

"Will I be bullied with this necklace?" I asked with genuine concern as I removed it from my neck.

"BAHAHAHA! That's your only concern?"

"Yeah you all keep mentioning how I'm dEVotEd. I don't want to be some crazy cult follower, please. It's kinda pretty but I don't want labels on day one."

Dowoon laughed as he took it from me and hooked it on my backpack. "It's pretty! But if you're conscious about it, just hook it here it's less attention-grabbing like that." He said with a smile as he patted my back attempting to reassure me that it's alright. Then, his watch rang.

"Let's go to the bathroom. It's time." He said as he signaled at me to catch up.

"Bathroom? I don't need to go..."

"Doesn't matter. The entrance is in the bathroom you NEED to go."

"HUH?"

We arrive outside the bathroom Dowoon stops.

"You go there," he said as he pointed at the female toilet, "and I go here" and he pointed at the male toilet.

"Yeah no ?"

"No no we don't have to if we don't need-"

"Dude that's not what I meant"

After an unnecessary amount of banter, Dowoon explains that I'll have to go to the last cubicle and walk into the wall. He explains that different people will have different cubicles and toilets to go to, but on my ticket, it's been instructed to me to go from the last cubicle and for Dowoon it's also the last cubicle, but in the Gents. I frowned at the strange arrangement, but Dowoon told me that they used to have to flush themselves down the lavatory and I instantly felt grateful for my life.

"See you on the other side!" Dowoon said as he walked into the male bathroom.

I took a deep breath and walked into the female bathroom. It wasn't dirty by I wouldn't say it squeaky clean per se. I was glad it didn't smell and I walked into the final cubicle. I stared at the wall for a while and tried to put my hand through the wall. Strangely enough, my hand went through and I then felt a force pulling me through the wall as I shut my eyes in fear. As I stopped moving, I opened my eyes and before me was an old and vintage-looking train. Students clad in the same uniform as I did are getting on the train as the chit-chat. The whole platform was bustling. I was surprised at how old the train platform looked, and still taken aback by how I was into the platform by a toilet wall.

"Yoon Doah! Stop daydreaming, you don't want to miss the Hanguk Railway." Dowoon snapped me out of my thoughts as he dragged me on the train.

Dowoon brought me to this cabin with 2 guys already inside.

"Yoon Dowoon you're late today! Happy day 1 Doah! Heard you fell sick, are you feeling better?" One of the guys asked in a friendly tone. I supposed they must have known me for a while.

"Sorry Younghyun, she doesn't remember y'all. Also, it's her first day so she took a while to walk through the wall, give her a break!" Dowoon said as he puts down his backpack.

"Hello, I'm guessing you all already know me? I just lost all my memory so... please remind me of what we were again?" I said as I was about to put down my backpack, and that was when I realized that my butterfly necklace was no longer there.

"OMG DOWOON MY NECKLACE IS GONE?" I exclaimed as I rushed down the train trying to trace my previous path. As I was about to reach the door we came in from, a student closed it.

"I'm sorry! I need a minute, I lost something important outside!"

"The Hanguk Railway is leaving soon though, you might want to get your family members to help you mail it to school." The student replied.

"Please? It's important!" I plead as I rubbed my hands together, and tried to look at him with puppy eyes. At that moment I didn't know why I did that but I just felt like I had a connection with the butterfly necklace and I wanted it back.

"I'm sorry we can't let you out at this point, but I can try to get some help for you. What did you lose?" He said in the most official-sounding tone.

"It's this necklace with a holographic butterfly."

The student that had a constant straight face frowned slightly as I described my lost item. He scratched his head a little and pulled out what seemed to be my necklace.

"This?" He held it carefully over my hands.

Just as I was about to take it, he grabbed it tightly and said, "I know someone who has this exact necklace and I'm sure she's not you."

"I don't know about that, maybe there's more of these but come on, there's no way you found a necklace here so coincidentally right where I lost it?"

"Hmm..." He was speechless and seemingly slightly troubled by it as he unwillingly handed me my necklace.

 

---

 

On The Hanguk Railway

I headed back to our cabin with my necklace and from steps away I could already hear the chatters of the guys.

"Did you find your necklace?" Dowoon asked casually.

"Yeah! The guy closing the door found it." I replied.

"Ahh must be Sungjin sunbaenim. He's our JYP headboy." the guy that's called Younghyun replied.

I took a seat beside Dowoon, facing the other guy that I didn't know the name of.

"Wassup dude, what's your name?" I tried to be friendly as I asked.

"I'm Wonpil. You're so weird now." He said monotonously.

I frowned, not knowing what he meant as I looked at Dowoon for help.

"Ahahaha yeah, Doah you're so talkative and friendly now. Wonpil meant you're different! Like good different!" Younghyun said cheerily trying to lighten the atmosphere. He eyed Dowoon, signaling him to laugh along as well. Dowoon laughed awkwardly and tried to change the topic.

Younghyun bought chocolate frogs for everyone to lift our spirits. In each box, it came with a collectible card of a famous witch or wizard. I got this British wizard called Harry Potter whom Wonpil explained that he was the war hero of the second wizarding war. He got deeper into explaining the wizarding history to me as an attempt to communicate with me. Even though I tried to listen, it just sounded so boring to me that I eventually drifted off into a nap on Dowoon's shoulder.

 

---

Here's a refresher of all our characters! You can view this in Doah's POV as well! It's like little mental notes for herself. I also update the photos to match the impression Doah has of them :) Hope this helps you visualize better!

Main Characters:

Protagonist - Yoon Doah (fc: IU)
15 Years Old, Year 1 in HMI

- Yoon Dowoon's little sister
- loving Doah's new haircut

Park Sungjin 
17 Years Old, Year 3 in HMI

- JYP's Headboy
- serious dude
- found Doah's butterfly necklace
- closed the train door

Kang Younghyun
16 Years Old, Year 2 in HMI

- friendly and considerate guy
- close friends with Dowoon
- very sweet and lowkey cute
- probably used to know Doah?

Kim Wonpil
16 Years Old, Year 2 in HMI

- kinda rude, not the most welcoming
- close friends with Dowoon
- probably used to know Doah? 
- knowledgeable about history

Yoon Dowoon
16 Years Old, Year 2 in HMI

- Doah's brother
- loves to banter with Doah
- naggy towards Doah
- overall nice brother, makes Doah feel comfortable

Other Mentioned Characters:


Na Youngmi
- Doah & Dowoon's Mom
- loving and protective, especially towards Doah


Yoon Wookyung
- Doah & Dowoon's Dad
- strict and offended by curse words
- feels distant towards Doah & Dowoon