Dreams of Arcadia

2

"Sorry..." I mumbled, about to pull away again, but he stroked my back and pulled me into a room where he put me down on a sofa, sat next to me and took my hand.

"Calm down first, do you want to talk about it?" he asked me sweetly, smiling at me encouragingly, cute dimples adorning his cheeks and his almond-shaped, dark eyes shining kindly.

"Oh... I'm just having an existential crisis because my sister is marrying the love of my life, but apart from that everything is fine..." I said, sniffling.

"He left you for your sister?" he asked indignantly.

"He doesn't even know that I love him, I was going to tell him today.... Now I can never tell him..." I corrected the situation.

"Oh... that's not nice..." he sighed. I knew him from somewhere, he was probably in a band too. A second young man came into the room.

"San... can you please lend me your lip balm... um... Hi?" He stopped in astonishment when he saw me. He sat down on my other side and took a Kleenex box from the table before dabbing my tears away.

"Thank you." My crying had turned into a huffy hiccup and the newcomer smiled brightly at me.

"Hey, you look way too weepy, yet you're such a sweetie.... Shall we save your make-up?" he asked me and I nodded.

"Can you hand me my makeup bag, Sannie?" he asked the other gently, who nodded.

"What's your name?" the second one asked again.

"Kim Y/N." I answered softly and he nodded.

"Ah yes, you're there with Dreamcatcher, I've seen you with Yoohyeon a few times." he said.

"She's my sister." I explained just as the first one came back.

"I'm San and this is Wooyoung." he introduced himself and I remembered.

"Ah, right, you're Ateez members." They nodded and Wooyoung started working on me with sponges and brushes before putting them away after a few minutes.

"Perfect, no one will see that you've been crying. Can we take you somewhere? We need to get ready, we get to perform with BTS right away." San asked and I shook my head.

"Thanks, but I'll find my own way back... You've already helped me enough." I smiled gratefully before waving and leaving the room. I was just about to go back to the auditorium, to my seat, when Minji and Bora came running towards me with worried faces.

"Little mouse..." Minji called out, while Bora hugged me.

"We've already heard... how are you?" asked Bora.

"How am I supposed to be, he's marrying my sister..." i replied lamely.

"Should we kick her out of the band and put you in her place?" asked Minji and I had to laugh because they were acting more like my sisters than my actual sister.

"No, I still love her, she didn't know... Neither of them did." I reassured them both.

"But how could she not know? She's your sister, you've loved him for years." Bora said again.

"And I'm her sister and I didn't realize that they were in love. So from there..."

Minji was about to say something when we heard a loud creaking noise, followed by a rumbling that made the walls shake. We looked around in panic as all hell broke loose. The ceiling of the hall collapsed with a rumble and buried us underneath it. Bora had tried to stand over me to protect me, but we were both crushed together by a huge piece of ceiling. It happened so quickly that I didn't even feel anything before it went black around me.

Startled, I opened my eyes and raised my arms in the air, but nothing happened.

"Ah, don't worry, it's over, nothing will happen to you now." I heard a voice that sounded incredibly familiar, but I couldn't place it at the moment. Astonished, I looked around and there he was in front of me... Black clothes, black hat, goatee and glasses. My mouth was wide open and my eyes widened.

"Um... Excuse me...Mr. Depp... um... where am I?" I asked, confused, and he grinned.

"Ha, it works... No one yells just because I look like Johnny Depp!" he exclaimed delightedly.

"It's not you?" I wanted to know.

"No, I'm a grim reaper, but I can choose what I want to look like and this look helps me not to have to calm screaming souls all the time." he explained and I felt sick.

"You're Death?" I asked again and he nodded.

"Welcome to the afterlife... um..." he looked at his list for a moment "Kim, Y/N"