WISH BOUND

It was a Thursday night, around ten 'o'clock. Minho finished visiting some friends and family back home in South Korea and was getting ready to leave for China since tomorrow was Christmas Eve.

This was his last night in town; so he and his other friend who will be staying back in decided to go grab a couple of drinks since Minho insisted that he will drop his friend back home.

They drove to a local site in the village area where a small pub was situated. As they walked in they headed to the pub to order some cocktails and sat on the small stool situated beside the counter.

They talked about their life, enjoying the drinks they ordered.

Both the young men had been lucky; Minho was a successful lawyer, and his friend Changbin had succeeded in getting an ancient estate that had belonged to a distant friend of his; it was to view this new place that this Christmas gathering had been got together, and Minho was looking forward to visiting the place for his next holidays. Maybe by next year, he assumed.

Waving at his friend he steer out along the hard road, leaving the lights of the village behind him.

Suddenly his car entered a dark roadside where each side looked like it was surrounded by forests which made him confused.

It wasn't there before when he went to his home, now where did this come from?

Minho thought as he sped up a bit and suddenly out of nowhere a white transparent figure jumped in front of his car resulting from a sudden jerking--Minho's head hit on the steering wheel and his vision started forming black dots and within a second he fell unconscious.

A few minutes later, he opened his eyes, groaning. He blinked until his vision got cleared and slowly leaned back.

What happened? He thought and suddenly looked at the diesel indicator and groaned at his stupidity, seeing it was showing the red empty sign. He cursed at his bad luck, thinking about why it's happening today out of all day?

Fortunately, his car didn't break in between the road but rather on the very corner of the road, or else it would have been a big hassle to move it with his strength or call a motor vehicle technician which will take 1-2 hours because it's Christmas and it's heavily snowing.

Cursing on his luck, Minho opened the car dashboard and took out his wallet, a small pouch, and stuffed the necessary items like a small torch, candle, and lighter. He then leaned back in the backseat and took the winter coat with a muffler.

Without wasting another second he wore it and got out of the car taking the car keys and pouch. Minho looked around and groaned, not knowing where to go.

His route was to go straight but if he goes straight he doesn't know when he would see a street because he doesn't know when or where this forest will end.

To Minho, he has never crossed paths with this forest but he was sure that this wasn't the same route he was taking for all the years of his visit. Sighing he turned around, opposite to where he needed to go, and walked.

A few minutes later he could see the street he rode before but it seemed different? Way too different.

The street which had buildings covered in various neon lights before was now lighted with old-fashioned bulbs and the buildings aren't painted like before, in fact, you could see the bricks. The street lights-- scratch that--- the place itself looked straight out a history book.

As he walked further through the all-around changed street, he saw the people wearing old-fashioned dresses which made him curious. "Is it some kind of theme for Christmas Eve?" He mumbled as he never heard about it before and it was new to him.