Time Traveler

Chapter 1

[Seon]

Have you ever travelled in time? No? That's what I thought. But still it's only logical that we are able to travel in time because time is an independent variable which means time will always exist, even if it's interrupted. We are living in the past, present and future at the same time so what is stopping us from going into another time where our consciousness exists?

But if you don't believe in logic there is also an easier way to describe how someone can travel in time, magic.

I read out the letter that had mysteriously appeared in my locker. "Who comes up with this stuff? Time travel? I mean I would love to turn back time just to avoid all of this." I said, gesticulating with my hands and almost flinging my right arm to Minnie's face. "Well at least it's not butterflies like last week." She said, stepping away from me to make more distance between us when we were walking. "Well, yeah, but imagine what a waste of paper it is going to be when people find out that this week I got a letter in my locker." I said holding the letter behind my right side so that other people who were in school as early as us wouldn't see it. "Well it's easier to hide it than other stuff." Minnie said, snatching the latter from my hand and turning it around to see everything that was on the paper. I groaned, shaking my head, trying to not think about what was going to happen when Ji-ah and her little minions were going to find out about the letter.

"Well I must say that it's incredibly easy to hide this kind of letter if everything I own is any colour except for blue and all the things that have mysteriously appeared in my locker just happen to be the colour blue." I said while trying to walk in front of Minnie so no one could see the letter. "Oh yeah, at least it looks cute, even that random sentence on it. Deachwita, whatever that is supposed to mean." "Gimme that." I said and took back the paper to take a look over it again. "I didn't see no deachwita written on it before." I said while reading over the text again that was talking about time travel. "It's on the other side." Said Minnie pointing to the paper. I turned it around and looked at the pictures on the letter that I hadn't paid attention to before. There were blue flowers on it, the same ones that had once appeared in my locker and that blue bird that had flown out of my locker just at the beginning of the school year. It was scary to see some of the blue things that had earlier appeared in my locker to now appear on this letter but there was also this clock which I had never seen before. Is this going to appear in my locker or is this a sign that this torture will end? I thought to myself, completely forgetting that I had been looking for a word.

"It's on the bottom left." Said Minnie pointing at the word on the paper that I was supposed to be looking for, bringing me back to reality from my thoughts. "Oh, deachwita." I said trying to remember from where I had heard it before. "Wasn't it a genre of Korean traditional music consisting of military music played by wind and percussion instruments or something?" I asked Minnie hoping that she would know the answer but instead she looked at me like I had killed her pet. "Let me remind you that I have been living in the states, I know close to nothing about Korea and its traditions." She said while smiling at me. I smiled back at her and gave her the letter I had gotten earlier. "Care to put it in our collection?" I asked jokingly, knowing that she loves to collect everything that is collectable from the things that appear in my locker. "I would love to." She said and put the letter carefully in her bag so it would break or get wrinkled.

"You know we could start going to school later than like when they open the school doors." Minnie suddenly said, taking me by surprise. We had been going to school as early as possible for half a year already to avoid people seeing what blue thing I got this time and also so that I could see my mom as less as possible and now she suddenly wanted to put an end to it? "Okay." I said trying to sound as confident as possible while tears started forming in the corners of my eyes. "What is it? You aren't comfortable with it yet?" She asked and I just shook my head, knowing that if I would say something, tears would follow. We had almost reached our destination, math class, and I was hoping to push this conversation further to this evening, but Minnie suddenly stepped in front of me almost making me walk into her. "Whoah, why did you do that?" I asked, looking up at her and she was looking at me with pity in her eyes. My head started throbbing from holding back tears and saliva tasting like blood. I felt breathless once again but I couldn't afford to pass out in school, people couldn't find out about my condition.

"I'm so sorry for putting so much stress on you. Are you okay, Seon?" Minnie asked, noticing that I wasn't responsive anymore. Usually, even at this state, I was able to show that soon I'll get out of my breathless state soon or not but this time. All I could do was to look at Minnie as she rummaged through her bag trying to find my medicine and soon enough poured it down my throat. Within seconds I was able to breathe again but still collapsed into Minnie's arms from exhaustion. "I'm so sorry Seon, I should have waited to tell you this," Minnie said while sobbing and gently hugging me.

This wasn't the first time that she'd had to give me my medicine, but every time she did it would end up with her crying and me feeling like I wanted to puke my whole intestines out. She already had to deal with the bullying that came along with being friends with me, and now also the trauma of her friend almost choking to death. The only thing I brought to her was negative memories and experiences, but she still wanted to be friends with me.

"I'm sorry that I scared you like that, I'm fine." I managed to whisper as I was strong enough to pull away from her and stand up by myself. "Oh Seon, you don't have to apologize for anything. It's not like you could control your condition and I was the one to upset you, I'm so sorry," said Minnie, holding her head down like she was too scared to look at me. I felt my intestines squeezing together as I saw her like that, afraid that she had hurt me, but how much had this hurt her? With all my strength I pulled her into a hug and slowly patted her back. "Just like I can't control my condition, so can't you; it can burst out randomly, for example, if I remember an upsetting memory, so no need to blame yourself, okay? I'm glad that you are always there for me." She gave me a tight squeeze and then let go of me. Her face was lit up with happiness again and her cheeks burning pink like always. That's the Minnie I love, I thought to myself, and sometimes it's needed to make sacrifices for the people you love. "You know what?" I said trying to sound as confident as possible even though my legs went numb and my voice was shaky. "I think it's a great idea to start coming to school later."