Unveil | Choi Yeonjun

08 - COINCIDENCE?

I stare at the wall beside my bedroom door, eyes unblinking. Dried tears stick to my face like caked mud, sweat slicking my back as I lay coiled in my position on the bed.

The nightmare replays in my mind, each moment consistently warped and magnified through the irrational lens of fear. All I can think of is that scene, that feeling of being submerged by an endless ocean. An endless blackness.

What scares me isn't the darkness itself, but the thought of having no way out.

I shut my eyes, feeling those smothering fingers of night seize me once again.

Yeonjun had been my only way out. My only hope. But now that he's gone, I have no one else to ask for help.

Speaking of which, where is he?

It's almost been a week since I visited the faerie realm. Ever since then, Yeonjun would appear in my dreams every night, ensuring grisly nightmares became pleasant daydreams. It was the first time in nine months that I actually slept.

Until last night.

The faerie's sudden disappearance sets off the alarm bells in my head. Is he okay? Did something bad happen to him? What if the darkness attacked his village again? Worse, what if he's—

I lurch into a sitting position, worry surging through me like a crescendo.

No, surely not. Him easily defeating the three beasts at the village square shows how powerful he is—and how hard it would be to take down someone like him. I shake off the anxious feeling.

My body, however, moves of its own accord.

The pull of a bedside drawer, the rustling of scrap paper inside. I'm clutching the party bubble bottle in a hand before my brain can even register the action. Morning rays of sunlight glance off the small pink container as I turn it over in my palm; Yeonjun's signature item for creating a portal.

"Just in case you want to return, take this." Yeonjun hands me a bubble bottle. "All you have to do is blow a bubble in front of an open doorway or window. If you fully believe it with your heart, the bubble will transform into a portal."

I gaze up at him. "What happens if I don't?"

"Then you'll fail," Yeonjun explains. "Which is why you should never doubt the outcome."

I nibble on my bottom lip, the absurdity of the notion making me wonder what exactly I've gotten myself into. But then again, I'd rather be embroiled in this mess than face the mundanity of my own existence.

Pushing all worries into the back of my mind, I focus on the task at hand.

Firstly, I need to figure out what happened to Yeonjun because if something did happen, I need to save him; not only to ease my concern but also to get back at him for vanishing without a word. Sure, he's probably busy with the village's matters, but the least he could do is tell me beforehand because now I'm worried as fuck.