|| Chapter 1 ; Phantom of  The Underneath Night Sky ||

{  Lee Seung Hyun  } 

     Lightheaded. 

          Having my eyes to open weren't an easy task after all, especially right after when you woke up from a sleep. My eyelids were still shut, they were surprisingly heavy. I supposed I could have wait for another five minutes before trying to open my eyes again. Breath in. I tried to wiggle my fingers, they were, as if, being stoned. Much to my surprise. How long have I been sleeping until it could made my fingers to crack a little bit when I tried to feel them? They were like frozen to death. I ran my fingers over my side, expecting to feel the softness of a mattress but what came to my contact was a soft feather-alike, dancing around every gap of my fingers. They were long, there were many of them, and I like to touch it. From the very bottom until the tips of those things, they were astonishingly soft, smooth, velvety, melodious, muted, mellow.

          They were as if, like the feeling of touching . . . grass. 

          Long grasses.

          I have always trust my instinct. Nevertheless, my instinct didn't rang a bell. Inside me, there was no alarm of telling me that I was in danger. But I was still feeling a bix mixture of anxiety and fright, mingle into a perfect small box. Shaking the inside of me. Ruining it. Well, the only way to stop this feeling was to check it out. Breath in, breath out. Breath in, breath out. Repeated.

          Repeated.

          My eyelids fluttered open slowly, pictures after pictures drawn over my sight came from pitch black, shady to blurry, shadowy to dim sight. And my head was spinning for a second, it disappeared all at once, like how it came. It came and went quickly without my prior notice. So I shut my eyelids down, letting my eyelashes brushed against my eyebags. And I breathed in. The smell of damp air sprinkled around in the thin air, settling down, giving in those pleasant smell spread slowly. It was as refreshing as when you smell the air in the early morning, going for a daily walk on your street. It was almost similar to the scent of lonely evening. Was it evening right now? It was loamy, the scent of cooling dampening earthy that always seems to be holding a jar of mystery scent. The scent of lonely evening was tangled with the scent of the grass, lively yet captivating.

          I supposed it was evening right now, after looking back, when the first time I tried to open my eyes, the light from the sun didn't burn my face. Rather, it was warming me.

          My eyelids fluttered open once again, slowly, little by little, and all at once. It was blurry at first, but it didn't last long as the right picture plastered over my sight. A clear picture. A ceiling of a room. On the second thought, the ceiling did look sort of odd. The ceiling that drawn over my sight was as if like a sky that was dyed with midnight blue to navy blue and down to every shades that can form from it, blanket with marshmallows shaped clouds, sprinkled in a glitter of luminous stars. It was beyond beautiful, no other words could be able to describe it better than seeing it with your very own eyes. My eyes grew widened every second as I breathed, brushing away the inky twilight that drown me into the lake of blackness and lighted a candle inside of me to fulfilled every colours in each part of me.

          I rolled my head slowly to my side, my eyes still dozing off over the ceiling before letting the feather-alike's softness to tickle down my right cheek. 

          Ah.

          Those feather-alike things were long grasses after all. 

          When my eyes lingered around over the long grasses, somehow it led me to take a look over this field then through bunch of bushes, placed in a row with a hint of some holes. Behind those bushes were a few line of trees, stood after another, trees after trees with no leaf dared to fall. A forest. The trees were all huge, with dots of twinkling lights decorating every leaves of trees, as if like tiny pieces of broken mirrors shining in bright shattering all over them. Creak. A sound echoed, like the sound of a living creature stepping on something fragile, probably a bundle of twigs. Within the seconds, those tiny lights flew into the thin air, slowly, like a confetti thrown over the air and slowly fall on the ground. They flew from the east to the west, and down to scatter all over the places, right afar above me. My eyes followed each of them, rolling my head back to stare the ceiling and those tiny lights; which were now clear to me that they were fireflies. And I blinked. Somehow, I couldn't believe that I missed a sight of this before. The sun. The sun was setting down behind those mountains, emitting a few lights from it into a cotton candy, tangle together with the midnight blue.

          A swarm of fireflies earlier flew above me, from warm yellow to mellow pink, fiery red to flaming orange, snowy blue to misty purple, from bright to pale, faded to shade colours. There were numerous colours of fireflies, beyond from every single of beautifulness. And just like that, a rattling wind swimming lightly over me, from my legs to my hair, offering the long grasses dancing around me, beneath me. The fireflies' soft whispers against the wind was as if a lullaby harmonies, soothing and warm. I laid there still, closing my eyes, enjoying the peaceful wind as a thought came collided into my mind. I jolt in surprise, causing my eyes to open rather abruptly. My eyes grew widened as the thought sipped into my mind and slowly spreading it around to connect with my files after files of realisation. Click. Silence. I wasn't in a room, and it wasn't a ceiling of a room that I stared at. 

          I was staring at the real sky. 

          I was watching the stars out of the loft skylight. 

          I quickly pushed my elbow on the ground, supporting my back as I propped myself up. I got up rather immediately, probably startling these fireflies as when they flew up afar above me back in a fast pace. Staring up at ahead of me was a long ride for a field of grass. I clenched my hands into a ball, digging my fingers lightly on my palms, then unclenched them back. Ah, I could feel my fingers again. I shut my eyelids down, lifted two fingers to my face and pinched my right cheek. My eyelids shot opened rather slowly, but nothing changed. Nothing happened. So I was wrong. I wasn't in a room, and it wasn't a ceiling of a room that I stared at earlier. I was lying on a field of grass, thousand to million of colourful fireflies swirling around me; all over this place, lingering at an open place, without a roof to protect me, having only the sky to pour down on me. As if, the stars and the clouds were mocking back at me. 

          Wait. Without my knowing, questions after questions were starting to knock into the door of my mind. Questions that even I couldn't answer at that time, I still couldn't answer them right now. Where am I? My head move, my eyes made a quick scan of this place.  Why am I here? I jerk my head down, staring down at my open palms. How did I get here? I rolled my eyes to look over at my legs. What time is it now? I took a quick glimpse on my wrist, which I happened to know that I wasn't wearing a wristwatch. What had ever happen before I fell asleep? I jerk my head up again. What had happen last night? I rolled my eyes to look at the empty space of air. What had happen yesterday? Then I attempted to take an interest to stare down on the dancing grasses. What had happen the other day? A firefly almost hit my head. What had happen last week? Last month? Last year? Ah, I couldn't even seem to bring myself to remember everything. Why I can't remember anything? Perhaps I was the kind of person to have s