I wake up and find myself lying in my own bed with Jenny holding my hand gently and Kwangmin coming in with a cup of warm tea. No one says anything but Jenny helps me sit up and Kwangmin hands me the cup of tea. I sip it and for a while, no one talks and i had a feeling I knew what was going on.

“He knows.” I finally say, breaking the silence. For a minute, no one says anything but then, there were nods coming from the both of them.

“Well, you see, I wasn’t given much choice by how IU acted.” Jenny tried explaining. I nodded understandingly.

“I know.” I say softly, my throat feeling dry all of a sudden. I sip my tea again and clear my throat. But I wasn’t the one who talked. Kwangmin was.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” he apologized. I looked down at my cup of tea and then back at him.

“It’s alright. It wasn’t your fault. Actually, I should be the one who should be apologizing. You’re covered in bandages all because of IU’s recklessness.” I apologized back.

“No. If I wasn’t being such an , this would’ve never happened. She was only trying to protect you.” Kwangmin explained. I giggled.

“You know that now?” I teased playfully. He shoots me a glare but we all ended up bursting into laughter.

“Since we never got to go to the cafe today,” Jenny said after we have calmed down, “shall we go tomorrow.” I nodded approvingly. Then I looked at Kwangmin.

“Promise not to tell anyone okay? I mean, about IU.” I tell him. He nods and smiles at me understandingly. I returned the smile and leaned back into my pillow, feeling relieved.

The next day was a beautiful Saturday. The sun was out, the birds were singing and Jenny and I has made plans to have fun today. But no matter how beautiful it is today, something didn’t feel right. As if someone, or something, was following me all day. I just couldn’t put my finger on it. The cafe, as many has told me, was really nice. They had lounging chairs, relaxing music and a calm atmosphere that anyone can stay and enjoy in.  It was so comfortable there that I almost completely forgot about that strange feeling I had before.

But then there was a loud explosion followed by an earthquake.

In panic, everyone was screaming and running, trying to find lower ground to hide in. The earthquake was very abnormal. It would stop, then start, then stop again. At different rates and at different times. I was determined to go out and check out as to what was going on. It’s a lot better than to wait for the ceiling to crumble down on me anyways.

“C’mon Jenny! It’s not safe here!” I told her. She was on the floor with her head buried in her knees. I grabbed her arm and tugged it as she nodded, understandingly.

We rushed outside and there were abnormally huge plants growing from the cement, cracking the pavement in the ground. The plants grew over 1000 ft tall and swung their vines around, grasping for any living thing that they could get there hands on. Jenny was shivering at the sight as she gripped onto my arm. Taking in a deep breath, I took her over to the buildings side, out of sight from the gigantic plants.

“Jenny, stay here and don’t leave from this spot okay?” I told her softly. She nodded and I smiled as I got up to head back for those plants.

“Wait!” she cried, gripping onto my hand as if she’s afraid that once she lets go of me, I’ll never return. “Are you going to be okay and come back?” she stuttered. I looked and her sincerely and smiled.

“I promise that I’ll come back. Even if it kills me.” I reassured her.

“Don’t joke like that! Now’s not the time to scare me with jokes like that!” she yelled. I laughed at her and gripped her hand before I let go and headed back to the terrifying scenery. I took in a deep breath.

“I’m counting on you this time IU. Remember, your protecting the citizens. As for the plants, you can shred them to pieces however you like. Please, just, control yourself.” I told her, a little afraid that she’ll go overboard.

“This is going to be fun.” she said as she took over the body.

‘I was afraid that you were going to say that.’ I told her in her mind. She smirked and revealed her claws. Without any further hesitation, she sprinted towards the plants cutting vine after vine, helping the citizens safely towards the ground. Once she has settled them on the pavement, she would jump up and start slashing again. IU was born fast. When I mean fast, she is inhumanly fast. I think she may even be faster than the speed of sound. She can jump heights that even bungee jumping can’t take you.

The plants kept growing one after the other throughout town. Saving, slashing and the cycle goes on. There’s way too many of them and IU was starting to get exhausted.

“This is exhausting! How many are there?” she asked me, huffing and puffing when she landed herself on the roof of a building.

‘I was wondering the same thing. But don’t plants regrow even when you cut the stems off?’ I asked her. She stood up straight in realization that she’s been going about this all wrong.

“YOU TELL ME THIS NOW??” she freaks out. I kept quiet, knowing that she must be extremely pissed right now. She hops down the building and this time, when she cuts the stems off, she’ll pull the roots right out of the ground and shred it to pieces that now look like confetti. One by one, the plants tumble down and die, crushing buildings as they fell.

Soon, the sun has set and IU was finishing up the final one and that eventually surrendered and fell under IU’s hands. Shredding the last of the roots, IU falls back and takes a break, retracting her claws. She tilts her head up to see the orangey sky and laid back.

“I think I won’t be doing some shredding for a while after this.” she says.

‘Good, I tell her, ‘because it’ll be nice for you to give me back my body and give full control for once.’ Tired out of her life, she nods and got prepared to soul switch again when there was an odd clapping in the distance. IU springs up and sees a silhouette of a man slowly emerge from the wreckage and dust. The man steps out of the dust and reveals himself. In fact, he doesn’t look like any regular man. He has a traditional red, wooden mask over his face that has a long brown beard under its chin. His outfit is a traditional white korean hanbok and a tanggeon on his head.

“What the hell are you wearing?” IU asked in disgust.

“Hello IU. I have been looking forward to meeting you for quite a while now.” he claims.

“How do you know my name?”

‘No IU don’t! I don’t trust this man. I have a bad feeling about this.’ I exclaim.

“Yeah. I know, me too.” she mutters quietly to me.

“Ah, and the one you are muttering to must be Jieun.” he smirks. IU looks at him in disbelief. How’d he know? Who is he?

IU swallowed hard and dare to ask.

“Who are you, exactly?” she stuttered.

Then he takes a deep bow.

“My apologies for not introducing myself.” he says, getting back up. “My name is A Shin-Young. And I have come to take you two home.”

“Home? Where is this home exactly?” she asks, emphasizing the word ‘home’. He smirks at the question.

“Now, surely you haven’t already forgotten about your parents now have you?” he jokes. But we didn’t see it as a joke the same way he did. Instead, his answer as caused us to set up walls and defence, suspicious of him.

“Parents? They’ve died 15 years ago when we were 2. How is there any possible way of them being alive?” IU shouts.

‘Be careful of what you say! You may reveal too much to a mere stranger.’ I warned. Afraid of him being able to hear her mutter to me, all she did was nod to my warning. The man snorts.

“Well, well, well. It seems to me that our little princess has lost her memories.” he laughs. “Why don’t give her a refresher.” and with a snap of two fingers, many men with the same masks and outfits emerge from the dust. They all have swords in their hands and quickly circled around us. One of them on her left dashes towards her and she jumps up, easily dodging his attack. Determined, IU reveals her claws once again and tears him in half from the crown of his head and down. Blood gushes and splatters all over her face but IU acts as if she didn’t even notice. She gets up and focuses her beady red eye towards her next target that’s on her right. She moves swiftly like water, shredding them into pieces. They all step back, confused and scared of who will be the next victim to fall. Eventually, all of them die, with limbs, body parts guts all over the place, making the area a hellish scenery.

“Well, well, well. You have improved since the last time I saw you.” the man smirks.

“What do you want?” IU growled at him. He steps back with his hands in the air as if he is willing to surrender. But we had a feeling that he wasn’t quite done yet.

“Now, now. I told you. I’m here to take you home. Surely your mother and father have missed you for the past years.” he claims once again.

“I’ve told you! I have no such people! Go away before I tear you up to shreds.” IU threatened with her claws up and ready to strike. The man puts his hands down and takes his sword out of his sheath.

“Come at me.” he challenges. IU doesn’t hesitate and strikes. He easily blocks the attack with his sword and gets into his ready position yet. Getting angrier by the minute, she attacks again and again but he dodges them all, regardless of how fast she is. Something was up. He blocks all her attacks as if he’s been luring her to do so, knowing that she gets angry and accepts challenges easily. No. This is completely wrong.

‘IU! STOP! IT’S A TRAP!’  I scream. But I was too late. A bundle of white strands flow from his sleeve and wraps tightly around us. The feeling was suffocating. He wraps us until we were practically mummified and our vision fades out, leaving us with nothing but the sound of deafening white noise.