Pumps of fire catapult across the screen with each click of her mouse, slaughtering overgrown viviparous lizards crawling within the vicinity. Gaze jumping from element to element, Yena's nimble fingers dance against the keys and buttons in control of her in-game character.

“There!”

With simulated blasts of magic against monster flesh, exhilarating music beats down her eardrums through the heavy-duty headphones. Even with the comfort of the soft computer chair supporting her frame, Yena can still feel her blood wildly coursing through her veins. It's a nice break from the painful mediocrity that life gives her.

“Whoo!” Yena lets out a whoop, sprite of the final lizard dissipating into gleaming crystals in thin air.

Celebratory music thunders through her headset, the bold letters of CLEAR swiping through the screen like a passing vulture. She clears the round in significantly less time than she did a week ago. A new record. It's a productive week into the semester break. It's worth turning down friends who wanted her in parties - me-time is where it's at.

“I’m such a pro,” Yena says to herself deflating against her chair with a sigh.

Stretching her limbs - she could have sworn she hears some of her joints crack, lacking extensive movement for at least three hours. 

“Were the monsters always this weak? The creators need to step up their game for real.”

The only time Yena can brazenly praise herself is within the walls of her bedroom, away from prying eyes. She loves the freedom in this bedroom. There’s just a different charm in being just by herself within her safe space, a tiny nucleus away from the world where she can freely say and do whatever she wants.

Yena's not afraid of people by any means. She just believes that she has dealt with them enough throughout the year and she deserves this much time for herself. She has an image to uphold. Cheerful bubbly Yena from the Mass Communication department - it's not exactly a falsified mask, it's just a side that she's willing to show the world.

It shines over every facet that makes up who Choi Yena is, after all.

“We’re all out?” Yena asks no one in particular in a mumble, pursing her lips in utter disappointment. 

Cold air breathes from the open fridge onto her frowning face, mind whirring about what to do next. A soft yet attention-grabbing smack on the back of her head made her heart leap against her ribcage.

Grimacing, Yena turns around to find a woman - her mom - with a frown marring her face. She's in her white apron riddled with cracked egg patterns donned around her torso - a gift from Yena two Christmases ago - she sports an exasperated expression on her slightly wrinkled face, looking down on Yena's crouched figure by the fridge. 

Motioning to the transparent plastic pitcher filled with water on the fridge door, she sighs rigidly. "We have water. Stop filling the fridge with coke.” 

Yena doesn’t know how many times her mom had already said something in this context. And not once did she, nor her brother listened to her.

“Mom,” Yena says, a whine slipping in her voice, looking up to the older woman with her naturally pouty lips curving down even lower. Straightening her legs, she stands half a head taller than her mother, lips spreading into a negotiating smile. “Do you need me to run an errand?”

Her mom looks up at her tentatively, trying to read her expression correctly. No doubt her mother will get the accurate translation of her words in no time - of course, she will, as her one and only parent. As if confirming her thoughts, her mother releases an amused huff through her nose. 

“And when will you finally stop using errands in the guise of me supporting your soda addiction?'

Yena raises her eyebrows, a mock gasp escaping through her lips. “I’m not! I just worry about your back! And, you know, how you’d rather not make trips down the supermarket and all that,” Yena says, almost mumbling away the words. 

Racking her brain cells for a few seconds, she hastily pulls the fridge open once more.

“Look, we’re out of eggs.”

Being the one who finished the little left of the eggs this afternoon in the first place, of course, she knew. Yena needed that bite of some quick eggwich to sate her hunger mid-game. Plus, Yena would rather have some eggs left for tomorrow too. Eggs and soda are like the S-tier consumables to keep in a gamer fridge. Well, this is technically the Choi Family fridge, but she is part of said family, and she’s a gamer. It’s as close as she can get to a gamer fridge.

“So, we are,” Mom muses, briefly checking the clean empty egg tray of the fridge. With a resigned sigh, her mother pulls out a roll of bills from her apron pocket, handing it to the smiling Yena. And once again, her predictions reign true. Mom is prone to sending them to quick ingredient runs, thus, the bills in her apron.

“Get some soy sauce too, you hear?”

Yena gives her a two- cheeky salute, eyes crinkled. “Roger.”

Yena is back in her dim bedroom, the light from the monitor bathing a part of the room as its only light source this evening. 

Quickly, she changes out of her sweatpants, which aren’t appropriate for a night out in a supermarket teeming with judgmental adults who will scoff at the sight of 'a sloppy youngster' as they word it.

Yena spots a small layer of fog blurring the glass of the window. 

"It's already fogging? The first snow hasn't even arrived yet…" she mumbles to herself.

Picking up a thick hoodie flopped on her bed, she slips it over her head, giving a single spin before the full-body mirror - perfect for a casual and warm comfortable night out. Her eyes flicker to the bright red scarf hanging on the clothes hanger. With a shake of her head, Yena walks past the scarf, out to the door.

“Yena-ya!” 

Sungmin, sitting on the floor in the common room, calls the moment she walks through the area to get to the entrance way. Taking out an earbud, he places the thick sheets onto the floor, eyes filled with a ray of hope like an excited puppy. 

“Going to the store?”

Yena scrunches her nose, her heels against the floor halting her track. Turning around, she walks to the edge of the doorway connected to the living room, her shoulder against the door frame. 

“Look, I know what you're gonna ask. It's Coke or nothing. I’m buying a pack.”

Sungmin's excited expression turns into a devastated one. “Just when will you stop buying that bland thing that calls itself a soda...”

Yena snorts, arms crossed, looking down on Sungmin's sitting figure. It's nice being the one looking down on her brother for once. It's a rare moment considering how freakishly tall Sungmin is. “It’s way better than your bottled diabetes."

“You got extra money! Buy me at least two cans of Pepsi!” Sungmin whines, a pout on his face that eerily looks like her own. Yena hates to admit it, but people who say that she looks like a carbon copy of Choi Sungmin have a point, she sometimes sees flashes of herself in him.

A stretch of silence follows as Yena weighs whether to humor his troublesome request or not.

Just then, Sungmin’s gaze darts briefly to the kitchen before looking back up at her, his expression now calm. 

“Just so you know, I’m craving some chocolates.”

After a few seconds of processing his words, Yena’s breath hitches at the implication in his voice.

Not her chocolate stash! 

Eyes narrowing at his smug figure, she clenches her teeth. “You wouldn’t.”

Sungmin just stares back with a familiar twinkle in his eyes. At that, countless memories of her brother keeping his words - from good to bad ones - flood from the deepest depths of her memories. Older siblings do have the power. 

After a pause, Yena lets out an annoyed huff. “Fine, I’m getting that damn Pepsi. Leave my Maltesers alone,” she grumbles.

With one last warning look at Sungmin, who just gleefully goes back to his lyric-building session, Yena jogs back to the entranceway, slipping into her sneakers. 

Giving one last rub on their puppy’s, Bibi’s, head, who shuts her eyes in bliss, rubbing against Yena’s palm, she looks back into the house. “I’m off!” 

Yena leaves the house, sliding the door closed, locking it up behind her with a soft click.

Yena weaves through the sparse crowd of people walking down the sidewalk on her way downtown, the streetlights keeping her way to the hypermart lit under the pitch-black Seoul evening sky.

Vendors in an open storefront wave at her in familiarity as she walks by and Yena smiles, amicably waving back, refusing their discount offers with humorous remarks and well-toned jokes - not too bold yet not too distant either. 

Dealing with adults in a conservative country like Korea requires balance and she can't come off as obnoxious.

In no time, she reaches the medium-sized one-story building of the neighborhood mart. Stepping through the automated doors, a voice tickles her ears, stopping her dead in her tracks. 

Yena chances a peek over her shoulder, quirking an eyebrow. Strangely, people just continue walking past her into the mart, grabbing baskets and rolling carts into the entrance.

Is she hearing things? 

“What was that?” Yena mumbles anxiously, pushing her tongue at the back of her bottom lip. 

Not a beat passes when Yena hears the voice again, making her stomach flip. It’s louder this time - a bit more demanding. 

Yena traces the voice lingering somewhere in the alleyway between E-mart and the flower shop next block. Straining her ears for more clues, Yena feels a chill run down her spine. The wind that night is a bit crispier than she expected, nipping at her exposed neck. She should have worn that scarf.

Well, it's no use whining about it now. Rubbing her hands together, she places her palms against her neck before pressing on.

Even with the neighborhood still bustling around her this early evening, Yena feels like everyone is operating outside her world. With no one paying attention to the peculiar sound she's hearing, it makes her feel as if it’s just her and the voice within the same space.

Yena soon finds her back against the wall of the edge of the mart, mind racing in caution of the possibilities, hoping it isn’t a ghost. She’s not a big fan of the paranormal. She doesn't think she can take it if it turns out to be real 

That aside, perhaps it's a girl in trouble, surrounded by a group of hooligans double Yena’s size. The type of thugs that could crush her bones like they’re crumbling Oreos. At that thought, a bead of sweat rolls down her temple. Gulping the lump forming in , she chews on her bottom lip anxiously. 

She should walk away now, and go on with her life. It's a foolproof solution to avoiding impending danger. Avoidance is better than cure.

A soft snort escapes her nose, shaking her head. Where’s the fun in that? 

She could end the night having lived to tell the tale of adventure to future parties she would be going to. What she wants right now is to crack the mystery. So, she will. Nothing - not even fear - controls her except for herself. A personal rule, if you will.

A shimmering sound soon breaks her out of her thoughts. Craning her neck warily, Yena steps in, poking her head into the alley. Bright, greenish light meets her gaze from the middle of the narrow alleyway. She instantly clamps her eyes shut. Damn it, that could have blinded her.

Adjusting her vision to the brightness, she slowly opens her eyes. Yena stares slack-jawed at the sight of an oval the size of a person floating in the middle of the dark, empty alley. Yena can’t accurately describe what the entity is. Strange and immensely out of place, stuff like that only belongs behind the screen. Fictional worlds to be exact.

Looking over her shoulder, Yena checks if anyone would stare at the eye-catching spectacle. They would be crazy not to want in on a strangely extraordinary sight like this one. Journalists would have considered that one to be quite a huge scoop, especially ones who specialize in the supernatural.

Huh? Wait.

Yena's eyebrows crease further at the passers-by walking past the alley leisurely, no one even sparing a glance in her direction as they go on about their evening. As if nothing blatantly strange is lingering within the alleyway.

“I implore you, my glorious familiar destined to be by my side… appear before me!” 

The pompous young voice flows from the mysterious entity. 

Goosebumps racing down her spine, Yena whips her phone out from her jacket pocket, clutching it with excitement rushing through her bloodstream. She should just do the honors of taking a photo, and maybe a few live videos. This is huge.

Scrolling through her phone, her gaze roams across her screen for the camera app among the other icons sitting in rows on her menu screen. Two wrong applications later, Yena sighs in relief when the camera’s viewfinder finally fills her screen. Wasting no time, she stretches out an arm, aligning the phone at the floating oval.

An alleyway fills the viewfinder - an eerily typical alleyway. Blinking at her screen, she frowns. 

“Huh?!” she blurts

Rubbing her eyes, Yena looks at the screen once more. It is indeed the alleyway, vandalisms and all. 

And it’s empty. 

Yena shifts her eyes from her screen to the floating thing. To her phone once more. To the floating thing.

Holy , was she hallucinating? But can cameras help people know they're hallucinating? Was that a thing?

Shaking her head, she squeezes her fingers around the phone. Thinking too hard about it would be counterproductive. There’s a reason she isn’t a student in the medical field. Her knowledge in these matters is… quite nil if she would word it nicely.

Pocketing her smartphone, she gives one last look at the sidewalk, the normal world where people appear blissfully unaware. With a nod, Yena enters deeper into the narrow alley, closing in on the bright entity, her eyes practically shining in awe. The unknown entity stands there in its radiant, shining glory. It looks so natural.

“Just this once. I need you. Please.” 

The voice is slowly losing its bravado, shifting into a more emotional tone. A fragile girl in desperate need of help appears in Yena’s mind, the image piquing her curiosity even more.

Picking up a small rock on the pavement sitting by her sneakers, she tosses the rock up lightly in the air before catching it.

Tossing and catching the rock a few more times, finding the right timing to throw it, she soon stops. 

With a flick of her wrist, the rock flies from her hand, disappearing into the light, no sound following after. 

Twisting on her heels, Yena skirts the oval. No sign of the rock anywhere beyond the floating light. It’s as if she’s witnessing a disappearing hat magic show. Only the performer is none other than herself. 

“That’s crazy,” Yena whispers under her shortening breath.

Yena holds out her wallet, prodding the oval. Nothing happens. 

Pocketing her wallet, Yena inhales, holding out her forefinger right after. She pokes the entity, breath hitching sharply as Yena feels a slight suction surrounding her right index finger. 

Until she realizes that touching the unknown is an incredibly horrible idea.

“, , wait!” 

Panic rises from the pits of her stomach. The slight suction slowly becomes a crazy force swallowing her forefinger. And soon, her entire arm. Planting her rubber shoes firmly on the ground, her heart races against her rib cage. 

No one is batting an eye at her struggle with the evil oval. As if she’s completely invisible. 

Before getting the chance to scream her lungs out for help, darkness consumes her being.

Body rapidly plummeting, her clothes flap vigorously around her frame. Yena can barely hear the shrill scream escaping her lips into the air as the sudden change in air pressure clogs her ears. Darting her eyes everywhere, Yena scrambles to find something to hold on to, willing her body to fight against the forces of gravitational pull. 

Once upon a time, she scoffed at the movies and their cheesy take on near-death experiences with the drama of the protagonist looking back into their life.But now, at this very moment, time seems to slow down after a time after she finally accepts the fact that there is nothing she can do at the moment and just waits until her eventual death.

Yena herself sees flashes of her life from when she was a little girl playing cars with Sungmin until the present day - her barely keeping up with submission deadlines. 

Genuine fear then swallows her whole being, blood coursing rapidly throughout her body, adrenaline taking over.

Time passes in that state. The length of time of her falling through the air calms her down significantly. She can’t even tell how long she had been falling for. It’s one… really long fall. 

Soon losing interest in screaming her lungs out, Yena does several somersaults mid-air, checking what kinds of tricks she can do.

Might as well have fun before dying, right?

It’s basically skydiving without a parachute. It will be a fun story to recall.

If she will still be alive and have a chance to recall this event in the future, that is. 

Is there a chance of survival? Perhaps she should try spreading herself like a pancake. Maybe, at least, the damage distribution would–

“Oof!” 

Her thoughts rudely get cut off as she gets the wind knocked out of her, plopping on a (thankfully) soft patch of grass on her stomach. The acceleration of her body abruptly stopped. Just like that. There were little to no signs of slowing down.

Was that normal?

Thankfully, it is remotely painless. Orrrr perhaps, it could also be that she’s in heaven. If so, she’d be incredibly disappointed. The place looks like a dystopian post-war afterlife with the thick smoke covering the area surrounding her.

Regaining her normal breathing cycle, Yena rolls on her back, sitting up. Taking in her not-so-clear surroundings, she squints her eyes through the thick clouds of smoke, trying to make images of the silhouettes she can spot a few meters away. 

From a distance, she can hear panicked chatters, along with a few sounds coming from distressed animals.

“Ventum!” 

A tremendous gust of wind instantly clears out the thick smoke blocking her view. 

The wind feels nice against her face at least. 

Clear blue skies meet her eyes, the thick green grass which cushioned her fall earlier stretching out further than she imagined.

Wait. Wasn’t it just night? Mom was just making dinner at home.  

This is wrong in more ways than one. First and foremost, it is just not possible to travel to a place with a completely different time zone in that short amount of time. It should take several hours.

Shortly, she spots people not far from her age standing around her, chattering amongst themselves. They had long, black robes reaching their shins, holding identical wooden sticks. Similar golden badges are donned on their collars, peeking out from underneath their robes.

Yena inhales sharply, seeing other creatures within the crowd. Unique animals of all sorts are mixed within the horde - a cat with a small ruby on its forehead, an owl with green spikes running along the middle of its back, a purple and red snake coiling around one student’s arm - just to name a few. 

Was she in a movie set?

If so, props to the scene director for the realism. The dragon beside the shortest girl among all of them looks just like how she imagined dragons to look in real life. 

Except it is relatively smaller than expected. Maybe it’s a baby dragon?

Yena quirks an eyebrow. A number of the young people had ridiculing smiles on their mouths, some straight-up laughing as if sharing some inside joke. What’s so funny?

Wait, they don’t seem all that interested in her. 

But they should be. Because come on, she’s a girl who fell out of the sky! It’s almost offending no