Array of Tales (Michaeng)

Disorder 1

She sits up in the dark room, clutching the blankets to her chest. The chill of the air conditioning sends goosebumps blossoming across her bare skin but that does not compare to the pounding of her head and the blind panic that she is drowning in.  Everything that happened last night is a blank and Myoui Mina is terrified.

Where is she? There is a strange scent in the air and on her skin, a soreness in her limbs whenever she moves. She glances at the bedside table revealing her phone and leather bag carefully arranged just so the edges lie parallel with the table. The clock says it is 3:00 PM.

Her hair is slightly damp. It might be from sweat or it might be from a shower. The lack of memory is feeding the fear.

"Think Mina" she whispers aloud comforted by the sound of her own voice nothing comes to her mind though. She swings her knees over the side of the bed glad to see that her underwear is still on.

There is a bathroom. She stumbles towards it wincing as the bright light blinds her temporarily. When her vision returns all she can do is stare.

The bathroom is luxurious yes but the most striking feature is the stark whiteness of it. Even the taps are clear, no speck of dirt to be seen. There is no color here.

She catches her reflection in the spotless mirror and is surprised to see a neat side low ponytail going down her shoulder, her hairpins keeping her bangs up.

A flash of memory- long, slender, black-tipped fingers holding her haphazardly knotted hair, sending the pins skittering across the floor as she bends over the porcelain bowl in other words toilet to vomit.

Mina finds a toothbrush behind the mirror, white of course and still in its packaging.

She unpackage it, filling it with toothpaste amd scrubs it at her teeth until the foam is pink and the sour taste is gone.

She inspects herself in the mirror slowly, because her head is still spinning. All her makeup has been scrubbed off so thoroughly she couldn't have done it herself. Maybe she did. She pulls off the hairpins and hair tie, placing them on the counter.

A sense of urgency makes her step into the shower until she lathered her hair. She finds a bump on the top of her head a little bit sore but not too large. The mystery deepens.

By the time she is done the panic has been swallowed up by a cool, blessed numbness.

She flicks on the light in the bedroom to find that it is also the same white and clean; white beddings, white furniture, white walls. Even the drapes that block out the light are white. She checks her phone again. The battery is dead.

Wonderful. Is she in some serial killer’s house? Yesterday’s clothes are folded neatly at the foot of the bed.

Her royal blue dress and her gold sandals, borrowed from her roommate Jihyo. She quickly dresses, afraid that whoever owns this house might burst in here.

There had been a party, she remembered now, at one of the fraternity houses off-campus to celebrate the end of the semester. She had gone with Jihyo, Nayeon and Jeongyeon but had gotten separated from them in the madness and then blankness. This was exactly what the media warned girls about, especially college girls.

Some letters are faintly stamped on her wrist. She brings it up to her face, surprised it survive the shower. JwhyP Domination