◈  Chapter One  ◈

“Breaking News. The trend EXO group that is popular nowadays throughout Asia reportedly had an accident on the highway around Suwon while heading back to Seoul after their fan sign activity in Daegu. Based on the chronology submitted by the local police, EXO-M car was got hit first by a large truck from behind. Shortly after, the truck also hit EXO-K’s car that is in front of EXO-M’s car. According to the truck driver acknowledgement, the road visibility because of the blizzard and slippery road became the reasons that accident happened. When the incident occurred, a heavy snowstorm was hit that area.

All 11 members and the managers were miraculously managed to survived and only had minor injuries despite of the conditions of the wrecked car. But unfortunately the twelfth member, main rapper of the group, Park Chanyeol 22 years old, is currently in coma state and the medical team who examined his condition informed that he suffered severe brain injury.”

‘…where am I?’

Chanyeol asked that question many times but nobody answered him. He wanted to move, get out from the darkness, but his body can’t do anything. He called his mother, father, noona, the members, and still no answers. In fact, no one can hear him.

Once again, with difficulty he’s trying to get out from the darkness and opened his eyes. But suddenly a dazzling light pierce into his eyes makes him instinctively blocking the light with his hand. When the light was slowly fading, he opened an eye, and found he was in a large grass field with the woods as the borders. Behind him was a small hills with several kinds of flowers and plants he never seen before. It was really a lovely scenery.

“Please, please forgive me, my friends, please don’t leave me alone!” His ear was startled to hear the sound of a girl crying. He walked closer to find the source of the sound.

“I’m sorry my dear, but we don’t have any authority to forgive you. And we had to go back to them, we can’t stay here any longer.” A soothing lady voice was answering her.

“Then what about me? I can’t go back to him and I don’t want to stay alone here again... please don’t leave me...” The girl sobbed.

“You must finish your task. Heal him and bring him back. Then you will be forgiven. You will have your wings back, and your inner. I am sorry my dear, they are going to awake and still weak, we should go now and protect them. You’re strong. You can get through this.”

“But—”

“Here I gave you my half strength, even it can’t be compare to your lost wings, consider this as a temporary replacement. We’ll be waiting for you down there, okay?” A sweet male voice rubbed his hands to her shoulder and sparkling dust surrounds his touch.

“Goodbye our beloved Jangmi.” They’re fading with the light and left her.

Chanyeol was in the prone position behind a hill and watched the separation moment just now in dazed. He gulped nervously and wonders if he was dead or something. Or if he was going insane after the accident. He slaps his cheek and winced in pain after realized he wasn’t dreaming. He saw a red haired-girl slump down below a big tree. The girl was familiar to Chanyeol.

‘I think I saw her somewhere…’

Suddenly the girl’s eyes found him and straight up walking to his way. Chanyeol jerked up and was surprised to see her teleport and appear suddenly right beside him. That was when he gets to see the figure clearly. She’s not pretty, she had scary red eyes and dark circle around her eyes. Her face was white pale and has many fresh cuts on the cheek, corner lips and nose. She was close resemblance to witch.

“WHOA! Wh-who are you?” He raised his hands in defense.

“Oh, I’m sorry I scared you… Chanyeol-sshi. When did you get here?” Said the girl with apologetic look.

“A-a few minutes be-before your separation with your… f-friends. Wh-who are you? How did y-you know me?” He stammered and walks backwards, afraid to the girl.

“I’m your life guardian. And I know you’re scared by my appearance right now, it’s because… I was failed to save your life…” She said quietly. Her eyes fell to the ground.

“Failed?? Do you mean I’m DEAD?! Oh no—” He panicked, racked his brown hair and started walk back and forth.

“I guess—” She tried to explain to calm his panic, but he didn’t listen.

“—oh, this is bad, this should not happen… how about my career? I’m still young—”

“Chanyeol listen—”

“—I have many dreams that yet to be achieved… how about my family… the members… the fans… how—”

“Listen to me Park Chanyeol! You’re not dead yet!” She snapped, making him halted on the spot and look at her in widened eyes.

“R-really? I’m not dead? Then… then why am I here? What is this place? What do you mean you failed to save my life?” Obviously, he couldn’t calm himself with that good news.

She sighed. “I will explain, but you have to calm yourself first. Here, sit down,” She pressed the palm of her hands together and cast a spell quietly. Chanyeol blinked fast and made sure he saw a glass of clear water suddenly appeared from her palm when she opened it.

“Oh God! What did you doing just now? Is that some kind of magic trick?” His mouth opened in amazed.

She raised her eyebrows, “Uhm... yes, in your world it would be called a magic trick, but actually we all guardians had the ability to do that. Here, drink it to calmed yourself. Then I will tell you.” She handed the glass to him. But Chanyeol just cannot believe her. He squint his eyes and moving his head forward to look the glass of water in her hand.

“How do I know that drink wasn’t poisoned?” He straightened back and cross his hands.

She knows what he was thinking by read his mind, and feels offended that she has suspected by human that she had been guarding all this years. “Ugh. Seriously human, my job was to protect you, not to kill you! I’m not your crazy stalker who would do such dirty things! Now drink this!”

“O-oka…ay,” Chanyeol was taken aback with her short-tempered personality. Now she totally scared him to death.

He followed her order and took a note mentally not to make her angry because her expression was really scary as if she could eat him alive. His hands tremble to receive the glass from her and drink the water in one shot. After he drank it, the girl expression back to the smiling face. He could feel the effect already. He feels calm, soothing atmosphere around him. He takes a deep breath and releases it slowly.

“Look, I’m sorry I yelled at you earlier. My mood just easily swinging in this form. Don’t be scared of me, please. I’m here to fix my fault and to be forgiven…” She said with her eyes glistened guiltily.

“It’s alright, I-I was panicked. If you would, please explain to me now.” Chanyeol sat on the grass and cross his legs comfortably.

“My name is Jangmi—” Her sentence cut off.

“Jangmi as in rose?” Chanyeol interrupted.

“Yes, that Jangmi. All guardians were named by beautiful thing like flowers, elements, and plants. Every human has one guardian. And I’ve been chosen as your guardian.” He nodded tried to understand what she was saying.

“So, the other members also have the guardians too?” He asked curiously.

“Yes, my friends... that you saw earlier who left me are their guardians.” She said, her eyes glistened again when she mentioned ‘friends’.

“But they’re all have a good appearance. Beautiful and handsome, and they had wings from what I saw. Much different from... you,” He said eyeing her appearance.

“Yes, they are. I was supposed to be like them too but something happened beyond my control. I have failed to save your life from the accident. You should be survived like the others, but I was too late to protect you. I looked scary because I lost what I used to have as a guardian. I lost my wings, my light, my inner, and half of power I possessed. That’s my punishment.” Jangmi lowered her head. Feeling guilty for her carelessness.

“Then what happened to me? Why am I here if I’m not dead yet?” He asked confused.

“In the world, you were coma. Your soul was here to get another chance of life. And I’m the one who responsible for doing that to be forgiven. This place is Gimlé, a place when human’s souls after death or live between death were selected to go to higher level. If they have a second chance to live, the guardian must help to get that person back to world. I’m—” She paused, closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. She was distracted by reads Chanyeol’s mind.

“Oh, Chanyeol-sshi can you stop interrupting my explanation?! Save your question later, please!” She opened her red eyes then scolds him.

“What? I-I didn’t say anything…” Chanyeol jerked back in surprised.

“But your mind did! I can read your mind, which distracts me a lot.”

“Ho-how do I know you can read my mind?” He moves backwards clutching his beating heart. “O-okay, okay I will listen t-to you first, without thinking anything.” Chanyeol muttered quietly. He back to his position, slightly set more gaps between them. She already scary with that look, and when she snapped at him, it make her scarier to him, as if she would crushed him into ashes.

“Thank you,” She sighed before continue, “So… you’re coma. You would not dead, as long as you stay alive in here while I heal your soul. All of your members were safe because their guardians saved them in time. They only had minor injuries. And… I can give you bit views of them in the world… wait a moment…”

She came closer and suddenly wrapped her hand to close his eyes. And slowly a motion picture is shown to Chanyeol. He saw his family and the EXO members gathering in one place, his mother were crying in his noona’s embrace. Behind them surround by their guardians who hugs them soothingly. Then the picture switched to the unconscious Chanyeol, his head bandaged and some wires and tubes attached to his body.

She feels his emotion rose. She immediately releases her hands and the motion pictures are gone. Chanyeol blinked, his mouth agape, hard to believe what he just saw.

“I had to heal you as soon as possible, so you can go back to your world. Then I will be forgiven and got back what I lost.” She stated.

“How long is the healing time until I can go back?” His face slightly pale because of what he had just seen.

“The longest time is 3 nights Gimlé time. Because your soul is also hurt, it takes more time to heal it.”

“Whatever it takes, do your responsibility to heal me as soon as possible. I had to get back to my real life.”

“I would, Chanyeol-sshi. Now come, follow me. I would take you to the place where you can rest before I started to heal you. You had to gain more energy.” She said, walking towards the woods.

◈◈◈

Jangmi take him to a beautiful garden in the middle of the woods. There was a huge tree with a tree house stood firmly on top. Not far from the tree house, a river with clear water flows. Chanyeol glanced around the scenery. Then he realized, he walked with bare feet. But he felt like walking on the cotton. The grass he stepped on is very soft and occasionally tickled the soles of his feet.

The place gives him a sense of comfort and serenity. He felt free. The freedom that he couldn’t get when he was being Park Chanyeol, the member of EXO. The tight schedule of performing on stage, practice, fan meeting, and performing in a TV shows has become his daily life. He had to act in front of people, showing the side of his life as celebrity. He suffered, have to hiding the fact that his body was tired, but he had to keep smile and make the fans pleased.

He breathes a very clean and fresh air, much different from all pollute air in the world. He wants to stay longer here, but it was impossible. World is where he belonged. He couldn’t leave people he loves.

He was guided to enter the tree house by following Jangmi’s way. He caught hold of hanging roots and it slowly rose up. When he got at the top of the large tree, a wide tree branch leading to the entrance of the tree house greeted him. He entered and found himself extremely amazed by what he saw.

 The floor and roof was made of strong glass and allows him to directly see the view below and above. Fortunately he has no fear of heights. There is only one room inside with only one bed and a desk, no other furniture other than that. The bed was made of woven tree branches and coated with thick broad leaves covered with foam-like cotton on top. Fresh wood fragrance fills the room.

It was the most beautiful tree house he had ever seen in his life.

“You can rest here. You must have been suffered from all things that happened to you. I’ll be right here to protect you, don’t worry.” She smiled, showing her beautiful dimple on her cheeks, and made her eyes shaped into crescent moon. He didn’t know that the scary girl could be so pretty when she smiled.

‘Beautiful…’ He thought.

“Beautiful? What is beautiful?” She asked, tilt her head. Chanyeol cursed his mind secretly, totally forgot that she can read his mind.

“The... the tree house. Beautiful,” He awkwardly pointing at the roof.

“Oh... of course. Sometimes I came here to lie down and enjoy the sky. But... it was long ago...” He senses a sad tone in her voice. Her smile disappeared replaced with sad expression.

“What’s wrong?” He asked.

“N-nothing. Emm... are you hungry?” She said to change the subject.

Chanyeol raised an eyebrow suspiciously but let it go in the end, suddenly remember his empty stomach. “Yeah, I’m hungry.”

She nodded firmly then swung her hands gracefully on the table. A shimmering light and sparkling dust adorning her hands movements. And when it fades, a plate of waffle with maple syrup presented on the table. The aroma immediately fills his nostrils. His eyes widened in awe and mouth agape. He should be getting used to seeing magic things like what she done.

“I don’t know what you would like, but... I hope you can eat this. This is pixie waffle, it has a magical effect that one bite can make you full already.” She smiles sheepishly. Chanyeol blinks, fascinated with information he received.

“Really?”

She nodded, “Go, and try it. And here’s your drink.” She pointed to empty space beside the plate, glowing dusts came out from her finger and magically a glass of milk appeared.

He was about to eat the food, but had to ask her something that bother him. “If I sleep here, then where are you going to sleep? The bed was clearly for one person only.”

She shook her head. “I never sleep. I would stay here until you’re completely asleep. I like watching you sleep, and wondered how your dream is.”

“Never? Even once? Didn’t you feel sleepy?” He asked amazed.

“No, we Guardians never sleep. I was once tried to sleep like you did, but feels nothing. It was just like blinked my eyes.” She blankly explained.

“Go, eat your food before its getting cold.” She continues.

Chanyeol scoop his waffle and eat it. The taste is very delicious. And what was she said is true. He is full already. However, because of the taste, he scoops two more spoons then he gulps the milk. Shortly after, he feels his eyes were heavy because of drowsiness. And he fell asleep. She tucked him in the blanket and sit on the floor, watching him sleep.

◈◈◈

I did some research about mythologies and Gimlé is one of the afterlife places in Continent Germany Mythology.

And Gimlé is still included in the line of Asgard worlds according to Norse Mythology. 

How's the first chapter? 

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