Ch 1: A Break from the Boring
Olympus
A/N: One more chapter for the week! ^^
Suzy found it hard to focus on anything these days. Sitting in a classroom full of cursing boys and gossiping girls, she ignored their senseless words that triggered her ever-present headache even more. She had been jumpy and restless lately, worrying about everything and nothing. She had this feeling that something big will happen soon, yet days and weeks continue to pass by uneventful. Still, she kept a careful eye on her brother.
The first time she and Wooyoung realized they weren’t exactly normal was when they entered middle school. Most girls their age wasted their breaks fawning over boys and painting their nails bubblegum pink—a color Suzy finds to be sickening—while the boys would spend their breaks playing sports or chasing girls. They, on the other hand, would sit in quiet corners, each with a sketchbook or a music sheet. People used to stare at them, but later on they knew to ignore Woo’s cold demeanor and Suzy’s blank stare.
But it wasn’t those differences between them and those deemed “normal” that convinced them of their own strangeness. No, it was the strange dreams—recurring dreams that grew stronger every year even until now. Suzy was at first afraid and disbelieving that she simply brushed it off until Wooyoung confided in her that he was having them too. Foggy dreams in which three cloaked women spun dull threads of their lives and then people they’ve never seen before but seemed familiar made these strands gold. The dreams were frightening, but they sparked some hidden part of the twins’ minds.
Their existence became even more questionable when they turned eighteen, and from then on, it felt as if they were constantly walking a border between fantasy and reality.
“You don’t belong here.”
Suzy’s head snapped up, startled in her reminiscence by a uniquely smooth voice. Leaning on the wall next to her desk was a boy with soft-looking lilac hair which seemed weird and out of place. For a while, she thought it was a wig but the fit made it look like he was actually born with it. His creamy, barely sun-kissed skin was swathed in a plain white shirt and a black leather jacket, ripped grey skinny jeans and dark boots, and completing the outfit was a tiny seashell earring in his right ear and a sternum-length amulet holding an aquamarine stone that appeared to have its own life.
It was his eyes, though, that held Suzy’s attention. At first glance, they are an intense cobalt blue, but if you stare at it longer, the color swirls and swells, growing deeper to almost blueberry then back again, swimming past cobalt before fading into an icy blue.
The more she stared at them, the more at ease she became. She could literally feel the tension slowly dissipating from her body. “No, you’re much different from them,” he stated.
Suzy’s brows furrowed, her own eyes flicked across the room, darting from one classmate’s face to another, and she immediately wondered why it looks as if she was the only one who heard him despite him he speaking fluently and loud enough to be heard. Not to mention his mere presence was enough to draw attention; but all heads were turned the other direction.
It was like his being there made them both invisible.
“Why can’t they…” Suzy started to ask.
“Mortals,” he said dryly. “They’re so blind and so unknowingly afraid.”
The register in his voice was bored, almost empathetic. However, Suzy was able to pick up the underlying meaning of his words. They’re mortals, he is not. And apparently, neither am I.
He introduced himself as Junho, offering no last name as if he didn’t have one or didn’t care to remember it. Like it was a name he had abandoned quite a while ago.
“Come on, let’s wait for your brother outside,” he stated as he started leaving.
Bewildered but unable to find her voice, Suzy simply nodded and followed him.
xxxxxxx
On the other side of Yonsei University, Wooyoung was dragging his feet to another music class not really interested in learning what he had already perfected, when he heard an angelic voice sing. He saw his classmates standing around someone playing the piano, and they all seemed entranced. Woo knew that his voice had a quite similar effect, but there’s something different about the way this person sings; it had an ethereal quality about it, like he was flowing with the music itself.
Suddenly, the guy stopped singing and everyone seemed to snap back to reality as they went back to their proper seats. This new, unfamiliar guy turned to meet Wooyoung’s gaze with a slight smile curving his lips. They continued to stare at each other, and when the bell rang, the singer went up to him and introduced himself as Minjun. And just like that, he took Wooyoung’s hand and led him out of the classroom, mumbling that Suzy was waiting for them.
Before this, Wooyoung had been happy enough to muddle through whatever life he and his sister were living, even with the lack of warmth they knew were supposed to come from family and friends. He was content enough, as long as Suzy was by side. But somehow, his instincts told him that going with Minjun would be the right thing, that he could trust this guy with the beautiful voice.
Minjun led them through the university without a word and paid no mind to the crowded hallway. In fact, the students parted down the middle in avoidance, in unconscious submission. It was strange for Woo and it coincided with his vivid dreams too well. Their kind—his kind—was avoided.
He had always assumed the avoidance was due to their uncaring demeanor, but it was abundantly clear now that the nervous glances were the byproduct of class superiority. Apparently, they were exuding an aura that was too intimidating for most people.
Soon enough, they found themselves at the edge of the forest they didn’t even know existed behind the university. Suzy was there with another guy, waiting for them. No words passed between the twins; they simply took each other’s hands and had a silent conversation through their eyes, before nodding and turning to follow the two mysterious strangers.
xxxxxxx
Junho and Minjun followed an invisible trail in the forest, their footsteps twisting and turning in circles the twins didn’t understand. At certain points the twins were sure they were lost, but then Junho would shake his head and speed up, ducking under one branch or another without pause. While he and Minjun seemed comfortable enough in the forest, there was a subtle uncertainty in their movements and breathing—something the twins noticed even inside the campus. It was as if they didn’t belong in this dimension.
Out of the blue, Junho stepped forward and disappeared behind a huge sprawling tree. After a few seconds of nothing, his head popped out of the tree trunk. “You guys comin’ or what?” he said before disappearing again.
The twins paused, overwhelmed at the surreality of the situation.
“You’re afraid,” Minjun stated rather than asked. “That’s to be expected. But you and your sister don’t belong here. You are children of…well, you’ll find out soon. I’m sure you have plenty of questions; they will be answered later.” A mysterious smile crossed his face.
“How about the family we’ve grown up with? Won’t they look for us?”
It wasn’t that they were going to miss them, because although they’ve been shown baby pictures and even a traumatizing video of their mother giving birth to them, they’ve always known that those were not their true parents. There was no real affection between them. Nonetheless, Woo and Suzy were rather hesitant to just leave them like that. They didn’t want to seem ungrateful to the people who had been kind to them for the past twenty-one years.
“They will not remember anything about you. The same goes with your friends and everyone else you have come in contact with. It will be as if you never existed in this world,” Minjun answered with a hint of sadness in his piercing baby blues.
This made up the twins’ minds. After all, they weren’t really close to anyone else. They had nothing to lose. Besides, there’s something about the way Minjun said “this world”, like there’s a new life waiting for them on the other side of the strange tree.
So with their hands clasped together, they took a step through the portal, the air shimmering behind them, and didn’t think again of the world they never belonged in.
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