𝗘𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗮 | Lee Donghyuck | ONGOING

Chapter One

Jieun tapped her pen on her desk, waiting excitedly for her class to be dismissed. She glanced at her hand watch, being extremely wary of Mr, Suh, the English teacher in front of her. He looked like he would soon go, 'The bell does not dismiss you, I do'. One minute left with only one sentence from the script they were reading as well. She beamed.

As soon as the bell rang, Mr Suh dismissed the class as well. Jieun had hit the Jackpot. She rushed out as soon as possible, grabbing her backpack and swinging it over a single shoulder. She ran a fast as she could to the library a few blocks away. She reached the big black doors in record time, thirty minutes before it's closing. She waited for a few seconds to catch her breath. Then, she pushed the doors open and let herself in.

Inside was a grand sight. There were long rectangular tables with many seats on either side. Lining the walls were the many colourful and faded books. The air felt clean and dry, with the calming scent of books new and old floating away like little stars. Perched away on a corner was the librarian's desk. Jieun walked over and smiled at the lady behind the aforementioned. "Good evening Mrs Lee." The said lady smiled and received the books from Jieun's hand. "Good evening, Jieun! Did you enjoy the books?"

"Of course! They were lovely! I'll be back with this week's pick!" Jieun said before walking over to the shelves.

She traced her hands delicately along the spines of the books. Her brows were furrowed and a pout was formed on her lips. She bit her lip before glancing above her, where something caught her eye. The spine was coloured a pearly white. The letters were traced from gold which glimmered beautifully in the afternoon sun. She pulled it out. Dust particles quickly spread out around her. She covered her nose and swiped her hand around in the air. The cover was just as pretty as the spine. There were flowers of pink, yellow and blue, together with juicy red apples. She opened it up to see that only two people had borrowed it and somehow, that called her to be one of them too. "Interesting choice!" Mrs Lee remarked, "few people have shown interest in this one!"

"Mom! Dad! I'm home!" Jieun called as she entered the house

"Oh hello dear, how was school?"

"Good, dad, thanks."

"Did you go to the library again today?"

"Yes, mom. I found something really cool too!"

"Nice, go ahead and change, dinner will be ready in a few."

"Okay."

The table wasn't full. It never was, but they made do. There was some rice, kimchi and beef bulgogi. Quite a decent meal for the little family. It wasn't every day they could get their hands on meat, so they were thankful. The room was lit with a few candles here and there. There were patches of moss growing on the damp stone walls. At an awkward corner was the nice little round table with a vase centrepiece full of white paper roses. At close inspection, it would be obvious that they were made from her old homework.

The meal was silent, much to Jieun's appreciation. She was soon snuggled up in her small room with the book she had chosen hours ago, 'The Living, The Dead and The In-between'. She opened it up. Soon, the ticking of the clock, the chirping crickets, and even the shouting from her parent's room faded into thin air.

There was one sentence that caught the girl's attention. It went as so; "The noises you hear when no voice can be heard, they're not just noises, not at all. Listen close, and you may hear, voices that were never meant for your ear. Oh! but beware, beware! Everybody has a voice and every voice a body too!"

She closed her eyes. The sounds that had drowned out earlier came back to her. The clock, the crickets and her parents. Soon though, it all faded once again, leaving nothing to her ears except an oh so familiar buzz. It was so close yet so distant, sounding much like the annoying trill of a badly tuned violin. Somewhat like a mosquito too, except, it didn't annoy her at all. She wanted to hear more but as soon as it had arrived, the sounds disappeared. She took out her little red diary and wrote 'badly tuned violin' before drifting off to sleep.

The next day, she arrived early at school. She sat down on the bench outside her classroom. The sun shined beautifully through the majestic trees, some light shined on her face. She closed her eyes and focused. She didn't hear what she did the day before. Rather, she heard some whispers. They were faint, of course, but definitely there. She couldn't pick up the words but could tell there were at least three distinct voices. One sweet as honey, one light as a feather, one deeper than the Mariana Trench. She heard the trees rustle above her, and a quail call from afar. She heard the footsteps of a man who seemed to be Mr Suh. She heard him sit down and place his books across from her on the table. A water drop fell from a nearby tap. Then, finally, she picked up something strange. A word. It wasn't strange because of the language, or even because of where it came from. Rather, it was strange because just then with a crack and a roar, the sky poured out all it had over the lands. The word she heard was 'rain'. She quickly wrote it down before Mr Suh spoke, "Hurry let's go into the classroom, don't wanna catch a cold."

It became her little obsession. Instead of running to the library after school, she would find a quiet place. She would sit listening to the world she wasn't meant to meddle with. One very fateful day, the voice finally spoke to her.

"Look", the one with a honey voice said. "I know you've been listening to us but you've got to stop, this doesn't have anything to do with you. You'll get hurt."

The question remains, did Jieun give that a thought? No. Did she assume she was being paranoid and delusional? Yes. Did she continue doing what she was warned against? Definitely! But did the voice ever return? No.

One beautiful day, when puffy white clouds painted the sky, the breeze blew her Southward to the library once more. She had her hair up in a little blue ribbon with a smile on her face. She wasn't trying to hear anything just then. She wasn't even thinking of it. But when the honey-like voice warned her it would rain she did what any sensible person would do, given they were not late. She turned around to fetch her trusty old umbrella. Sadly, though, she never made it further than one step forward. A sad green bus collided with her, soon enough, her body was surrounded by a pool of warm red liquid. What a surprise.

She tried to open her eyes now and then. She was no more successful than someone who tried to teach their goldfish to play the clarinet. That honey-like voice would tell her off every time, claiming, she should not have listened. Had she taken his advice, she would not be bedridden. But what was that truth in that? Especially when she did indeed take his advice when she turned around to fetch her umbrella. She was sure, she had finally crossed the thin line between sanity and insanity.