The minute she was back in her room Ryujin sprawled across her bed, propping herself up by the elbows to browse through the diary. Yeji diligently stood guard outside her room, insisting she had no time for childish things and wanted to keep a lookout for potential threats.
So according to the person who had also experienced the wonders of the well, a glass piece was needed to pass through the barrier of the two worlds. Without it, you'd be stuck at one side, unable to return home.
There was no specific explanation for why such a well existed in the palace gardens, it was just there for as long as anyone remembered. The well on the other end, too, had been there for ages.
The author described the different world so vividly Ryujin couldn't believe this was fabricated. This had to be real. Someone had experienced this before as well.
The diary ended in such an abrupt way that made Ryujin believe that the author chose to remain in the other world, that is, Seoul or whatever.
Or, a more pessimistic way of thinking, as Yeji would have pointed out, something could have gone terribly wrong with the well, which explains why the author was never heard from again.
But, Ryujin prefered to think positively, and decided to go with the thought that the author had abandoned the life of magic and royalty for a simpler, different one.
Wouldn't that be nice?
With a sigh, Ryujin tossed the diary aside and wondered how Beomgyu was doing.
-
Taehyun found Beomgyu lying down in the apartment, after days of being absent, apparently passed out. Poking his side for a while, Taehyun grew concerned when the other boy didn't stir.
"Hey, you okay?" Frowning as he struggled to haul the boy to a seating position, Taehyun grappled to collect the symptoms that Beomgyu seemed to be having.
Beomgyu didn't have a history of chronic illnesses or anything, so that couldn't be it. And Beomgyu hardly caught a cold in the five years Taehyun had known him.
A cool hand on the forehead confirmed that Beomgyu was having a fever. He didn't seem to be getting up at any time, so as he bit down complaints and swear words, Taehyun plucked his phone to call for an ambulance, wondering what the hell was wrong with the older boy.
-
The hospital was a familiar place to him, but he didn't expect he would be here like that.
Taehyun sat beside Beomgyu's hospital bed, quietly sunken in thought.
His friend was sick. And not in the small, easily waved off kind, like a cough or flu.
His friend was dying. What pained him the most was that he didn't trust him enough to tell him. No offence, but Taehyun reckoned he was important enough to Beomgyu to be the first to hear from him.
The doctors had said that they gave Beomgyu medicine, so he should be waking soon. Then Taehyun will slap him so hard he goes unconscious again. Just kidding. Maybe.
Beomgyu twitched and exhaled softly as his eyes squinted and eventually opened. Taehyun shot out of his seat to check on him. "You okay?"
Another graceful groan as he struggled to sit up. After a quick glance around the room, Beomgyu asked, "What-why am I here, I was literally-"
"Dude," Taehyun sighed, "You were gone for like two or three days, then I come back and find you fainted on the floor with a fever."
It took some time for Beomgyu to process the information, or rather, the latter part. "I fainted?" Beomgyu sipped a cup of water offered to him by his friend. Taehyun stiffly nodded, before deciding to address the main issue.
"Why are you dying."
"That is literally the worst way to say-oh...how did you find out?"
An exasperated glance, "I'm literally the only person around you, the doctors dug around for your file before they found out, then told me. How could you not tell me? Wait, forget that-how..." Taehyun's eyebrows scrunched up as if he had a headache, "How much longer do you have."
The hum of the air conditioning was all they could hear for a few moments, before Beomgyu meekly replied, "A couple months."
Then he'll be gone.
Taehyun buried his head in his hands as Beomgy helplessly looked at his already grieving friend.
Going, going, gone.
YOU ARE READING
Through the Looking Glass (TXT x Itzy)
FanfictionA perfect princess was raised to take the throne, but one day decided to take a walk through the palace gardens. When she sees something seemingly fly out of nowhere and towards an old well in the gardens, she followed it, and just like Alice in Won...