01. The Encounter

           I don’t remember how it happened, or why, but it just did when I was going home from school one day. It was as if the whole city changed in the short six hours and not a single soul even noticed. The buses never came, roads were deserted and well, the city was practically a graveyard. Everything was torn to pieces like the land after a war. It felt really odd because I was the first one to leave school, first one to enter the deserted convenient store and the first one to notice these drastic changes.

           I asked the people around me if they saw it too, but they told me I was crazy and that I needed help. At first, I believed them and decided to sleep it off, but when I woke up the next day, the city around me was the same as before; dark, apocalypse-looking Seoul. Was I imagining things? Was my mind playing tricks? Or was it simply because I read too much supernatural stories? When I stepped out of my house, I noticed a small green flame in the middle of the road. I didn’t know what it was, but something from above came down on top of it and created a large hole, distinguishing the flame.

          I rubbed my eyes until they started to sting. That’s when I realised the “something” that came from the sky was not a bird, but a real-life person. It turned to face me, with its bright green eyes and started to advance towards me. What did it want? Why was it looking at me as if it wanted to kill me? Suddenly, someone pushed me to the side and I fell onto the grass. A tall, brunette faced the person and in one swift motion, he took a blade and it into its chest. It groaned and laid lifeless on the road.

         The brunette turned towards me with his blade still in his left hand. He offered his hand, but all I could do was stare directly into his eyes. This boy just murdered someone and yet not even my neighbour (who was watering her flowers) said anything or called the police. I didn’t understand this situation and slowly started to back away from the boy. He frowned and quickly grabbed my wrist, hoisting me up and onto my feet.

            …

        “Who are you…?”

   I woke up in my room the next day after my alarm clock went off. It felt like a regular day and everything seemed perfectly normal. The roads were flooded with cars, students walked to school and the buses came on time. The sky was its normal blue colour and the buildings were proudly standing tall. Was everything just a dream? I couldn’t comprehend what was going on as I continued to observe my surroundings that changed once again.

   As I entered my first period classroom, I noticed something different (And it wasn’t the desks that happened to be rearranged), a mysterious person who sat in the back of the room in which no one noticed stared at me. In fact, the students who brushed passed him walked right through him as if he was a ghost. I shook it off, rubbing my eyes before taking my seat in the front. I really did read too much supernatural stories. I thought to myself as I tried to pay attention, but I felt very uncomfortable. Slightly turning around, I saw the mysterious person staring at me yet again. His face was a mix of Baekhyun from EXO and Daehyun from B.A.P and his hair was a light orange hue. I couldn’t understand why people couldn’t see him, or why he was here. Maybe he used to go to this school… He could possibly be a ghost if no one can see him. But then yet again, how can I see him if he is a ghost? I brushed off the thought and went to the lunch room when the bell rang, hoping that lunch would distract me.

   I entered the lunch room and saw the mysterious person sitting at my table where I usually sit. It was creepy because I didn’t see him walk past me, heck I didn’t even see him leave the class! I tried ignoring him, but I could still feel the heat of his eyes lingering on me as I walked past him to the next table. He got up and sat down in front of me, staring intensely as I ate.

   “Can you please stop staring at me?” I asked feeling slightly insecure. I could hear the whispers of the students walking by, saying things like “Who is she talking to?” or “I guess she really does have an imaginary friend” while some gave me weird looks. Can they not see this guy? I mean even if you can’t see his face, they could at least recognize that there’s a person sitting in front of me with hair that could potentially blind someone.

   Then, a boy in his first year took the chair that the mysterious person was once sitting on and dragged it towards his friends.

   “Hey, can’t you see that someone was sitting on that?” I yelled, but the boy looked at me with a blank expression.

   “I’m sorry Sunbae (senior) but no one was sitting in front of you. Did you hurt yourself or something? You should go see the nurse.”

   “What do you-“

   I quickly looked back and noticed that indeed no one was sitting there. I wasn’t imagining things, was I? Muttering to myself, I quickly grabbed my things and walked out of the lunch room. Around the corner, I found the orange haired boy sitting on the ledge of the window, staring at me yet again. Seriously, what’s his problem? Standing up, he brushed past me sending a small shock down my spine as his shoulder bumped into mine.

   “You’re an interesting girl,” I heard him say, but when I turned around I was only faced with the empty hall. Who was he…?

   Waving goodbye to the few friends that I had, I ran out of the school and realised that the world around me changed for the third time. The apocalypse-looking city reappeared before me as I continued walking. It was four o’clock in the afternoon and around this time, people would be coming home from work but all I could notice was the empty roads and streets that did a complete 360 degree change from this morning. A gust of wind blew past me and there stood the brunette from yesterday, slaying another person with the very same blade.

   “Are you crazy?” I shouted and ran towards him, body chucking him to the ground. “Why are you killing these innocent people?” He looked at me with a slight frown.

   “Who are you?” he asked, his voice was a deep alto slightly contradicting his perfect face. “How can you see me?”

    “What do you mean? I’m sure if the people around me paid attention to what was going on, they too would be able to see you as well.”

   He shook his head and stood up, “You don’t understand,” was the last thing he said to me before disappearing. Why is everything so… bizarre these days?

   Entering my room, I placed my bag beside my bed before falling onto it. The day was long and I still could not comprehend what was going on. Staring out the window, the city looked dark and gloomy and the mist didn’t help at all. When I went into the kitchen, I noticed a green flame yet again. What was it doing here? I didn’t know, but for some reason I felt like it wanted me to do something. It hovered above my stove before bouncing onto counter of the sink, jumping up and down as if already did not get my attention.

   Abruptly, the front door flew opened and a shady figure ran towards me, inhaling the green flame. Right behind it, the brunette took his blade and it through.

   “Ignorant fool,” he said, turning to look at me. “You really like attracting these ugly things.”

   “Who… are you?” I probed, but the boy purposely ignored me as he searched the cupboards. “Hey, I asked you a question!”

   “You have a lot of these here,” another green flame sat happily at the top in the corner of the refrigerator while a second one rested on the dish racks.

   “Why are they here?”

   “Who knows, but it seems that these things like you.”

   A broken window was not what I needed, but the black, shadowy people decided that it would be fun as several entered my house through the window.

   “Stay back,” the brunette warned me.

   I woke up in a room that looked like a male’s and on a bed that smelt like playboy cologne. “Where am I?” was the question of the day as I sat up in the bed. Posters of characters from Maplestory and Nintendo games flooded the wall as well as a certain logo that I couldn’t make out hung on the door. A loud thud interrupted my thoughts as the door flew opened and several boys bickered among each other.

   “You didn’t even know her and yet you let her sleep on your bed?” the one with shades yelled at the brunette from before, who scoffed and argued back.

   “You don’t understand Nam Joon, she’s special! She clearly saw me kill that Unknown and for God sakes, I even made physical contact with her!”

   “You’re crazy Jin! She clearly can’t see you nor us, so just send her back to where she came from!”

   “Can you please stop bickering? I’m getting a headache here,” I said, and the two immediately stopped fighting and seven pair of eyes looked at me.

   “She really can see us,” the pale boy whispered.

   “Jin, who is she?” the boy wearing a snapback asked. Jin gave the boy an annoyed look and stuck his thumb at me.

   “You should ask her while she’s here in person. Don’t expect me to know every single thing about every single person.”

   “Shouldn’t I be asking you that question?” I retorted, “I’ve been obviously kidnapped by you guys so you better have a good explanation why you were gossiping about me in front of me.”

   “It’s going to take a while. Why don’t we get you breakfast before explaining,”

Posted on: March 8/14

Last Updated/Edited: August 3/15

Word Count: 1,759