The Unbreakable | An ATEEZ Sci-Fi AU | Part 1 Of The Peculiar Saga

Fool's Paradise

The water washed over the white sand leaving behind small, broken seashells as the crashing waves made a hollow, deep sound. Inhaling the salty air, Eunhee opened her eyes to stare at the horizon. One glance at the blue ocean and dull orange sky, and she had closed her eyes once more, exhaling deeply. 

The sea smelled simple- briny and fishy. Yet somehow, it smelt unique. So much so, that Eunhee chose not to dissect and label the odour fishy, salty, watery, fresh-airy and so on. Instead, she chose to let the blend of smells calm her. 

"Isn't it refreshing?"

Turning her head to the left, Eunhee was met with the visage of her mother. She looked exactly how she had the last time Eunhee had seen her years ago on the porch of their house in Daegu. Slender and tall, dressed in her much loved white shirt and jeans, with her long hair flowing down the sides of her shoulders and a gentle smile spread across her lips. 

Not a single wrinkle on her face.

"Well, it's no Jeju sea view."

Turning to her right, Eunhee saw her father. Standing as tall as her mother, and obviously a few inches above Eunhee, he was also staring at the ocean ahead. His sharp facial features were unchanged and a familiar pair of round thin-rimmed glasses rested on the bridge of his nose.  Much to Eunhee's relief, there was a familiar smile playing on his lips. And much like her mother on her left, Eunhee's father looked like not a single day had passed since the last she had seen him.

Eunhee knew she was dreaming. 

Yet, she didn't want to waste this opportunity to share a dialogue with them.

"Where are we?" she asked. 

"Somewhere only we know," her mother replied. 

Eunhee scoffed, "Of course you're going to make this into a riddle ."

"We can't help if you look at all our words like they're riddles," said her father wistfully. 

"Very helpful, dad," Eunhee tsked, "Way to sound all intellectual."

Her mother caressed her hair gently, "It's alright Eunhee. It's alright if you're mad at us."

Eunhee whipped her head in her mother's direction, "Don't patronise me. You're the ones that left us and vanished to god knows where while we're here living our lives like a fucked up action thriller."

"Language," her father sternly remarked. 

"No," Eunhee shook her head, taking a few steps back so that both her parents were in her view, "No way do you get to act all 'parenty' when you've not played the part for years. Do you have any clue what Tae and I have been going through? And let's not forget the fact that I am a freaking science experiment!? It's like everything's been upended by these storm of events!"

Her parents just looked at her somberly. There was a slight apology in their eyes, but still no indication of an actual apology coming out of them. 

"Not all storms come to disrupt your life, Eunhee," her father said, "Some come to clear your path."

Eunhee let out an exasperated sigh. Her parent's cryptic words only reminding her that she's in some twisted dreamscape and the parents she saw were just an embodiment of her own subconscious. 

"Of course you'll say that," she said, "You're not the ones on the run, dodging bullets and knives and creepy doctors that want to experiment on you."