This is a short story of a girl named Naia who one day wakes up with her mind empty of memories, almost buried within the ruins of a broken city on a lightning-lit night.
for my moa of a sister that is turning 19
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This time, Naia takes the time to shut the door behind her. Yeonjun watches her from the other side, a mildly anxious tilt to his smile as he waves her goodbye. She feels guilty for leaving him there, but in the end, it was his choice, and like Soobin, he might have ended up not making it through anyway.
Like the first time, she finds herself standing in almost complete darkness, apart from the sight of yet another door.
This one isn't like the ones she's gone through earlier. Instead, it's slightly shorter, and made of a dark type of wood, perhaps oak. The door handle is round and gold, with the number 17 on it like a fancy apartment. It is lit by a gentle spotlight from above, but there doesn't seem to be a single bulb in sight. It strikes Naia as odd, but then again, everything she's encountered so far has been odd, to say the least.
"Hello?" Echoes of the word fill the emptiness, loud enough to be multiple people. It sends shivers down her spine, the hairs on her arm standing like attentive soldiers. The sudden shift from warm to cool decorates Naia's skin with goosebumps, but she presses forwards anyway, knowing that she has no other choices but to.
When no answer comes, Naia decides that perhaps the person she is meant to meet is on the other side of this door, or perhaps, there is no one at all.
She lays a palm on the door, and vibrations instantly travel through her skin. She assumes that something is happening on the other side. Apprehension halts her movements, suspicion growing within her. She wonders with her right hand wrapped around the knob, whether it is safe to open it.
"You won't be able to get in."
Naia jerks back, the low voice shocking her as much as the lightning from the city. She stumbles further from the door, wondering if the voice came from inside or from the door itself, when a boy in shorts and a thin hoodie emerges from the other side, eyes hooded.
"Sorry," he says, upon noticing the hand Naia put on her heart from the shock. She shakes her head wordlessly, quickly coming to her senses. The first thing she notices about this boy is not the spikes growing from his back, but his hair, dark and soft, the white light casting a halo on his head like an angel. It's a stark contrast to the devil horns that grow from him.
"It's okay," she manages with a weak smile. "What's your name?"
"Beomgyu," he says, a small smile forming. he sticks his hand out, and Naia takes it, their dry, cold skin sliding together. "Yours?"
The slowly starting conversation somehow reassures Naia in a way. Neither Soobin nor Yeonjun had been up to talking much, but it seems that this boy is willing to get to know her.
It strikes her as weird, however.
It's almost like he's been expecting me.
Further observation on Naia's behalf uncovers a lot of things about this boy named Beomgyu. She assumes that he is quite young, maybe just out of high school like her. His calm seems much lesstrauma-induced than Yeonjun's, and he doesn't seem to have been crying at all, unlike Soobin.
