1 and 24 - A tripleS story ❀

Chapter 1

What was it, running in her dreams? Lights as many as the stars that paint the cosmos? Was it stardust, exploding against the pitch-black night in a million fire flowers? Or was it falling petals, dancing around them in a whirl as they ran under the starlit sky, laughing as they escaped from the tall ocean waves that crashed so loud against the shore the air seemed to blur in the mist, million sparkles of every color, and she felt so happy, a dream.

W- what is this?, Seoyeon stood at its edge. Who... who are they?

It's a choice, a voice resonated around her. She looked, but there was no one.

A choice?

The voice nodded. One of the many.

Seoyeon kept staring at nothing for a few seconds, then turned to the dream again, confused. She couldn't bring herself to understand what she was looking at, yet it felt so familiar. It was her dream, after all. Familiar, but far away. Strange, blurred, distant, and far away in time too, nostalgic like the film on an old camera. It was her dream, but it was running away from her. If I blink once, she thought, it'll fade away. So she kept looking at it, but the more she did that the more that one tear on the corner of her eye, the price for keeping her eyes open, became her heartbreak, the fear of losing what was all she could see.

And... that choice... was it the right one?

The voice sneered at her. That I can't say, really.

Why not?, Seoyeon asked, feeling terribly sad.

Because that's what choices are, young girl. A lonely, lonely business. You'll never know what's right, if you've got no one to tell you. But who's gonna tell them?

Seoyeon shook her head. T- that's not-

Oh yes, yes it is, the voice interrupted her, sly. A choice is a trade, with loss and profit. Nothing is gained if nothing is given. But no one can weigh them, that loss and profit, for you, and no one can make the choice for you either. That's why real choices are so rare, because they ask for so much courage. The courage to be alone, that is.

But I...

Seoyeon's words stuck in her throat on their way out, and her heart sank the other way instead, as if to balance them. The voice's words had introduced a background to her dream, one scary and dark like a deep, dark ocean filled to the brim with nothing. Emptiness, and in it the beautiful, sparkling and radiant dream before her eyes started to dim, fading away helplessly inside that void, and helpless she felt too, a bystander to her own many, overwhelming emotions that, too scared to come out along with the words she would've needed to express them, kept hiding away instead, leaving her dull to what she was feeling, accepting what she knew she could no longer fight.

That... feels just too cruel, was all she could say, watching her dream sink deep, then, pointing down at it: C- can't you at least make it wait a little longer...?

It's just a dream, the voice seemed to shrug, indifferent.

And why are you showing it to me?

I'm not doing anything, young girl, the voice replied, annoyed. This is your dream.

T- then why are you here?

Well, I just thought it wouldn't be a bad idea, given the... circumstances, to remind you of the conditions.

W- what are you talking about?, Seoyeon looked up, confused, but the voice was still everywhere and nowhere. What circumstances? And what conditions?

The voice took a chuckle at her worry. What!, it laughed. Nothing you don't already know, don't you? As it is, what's done cannot be undone. Again, it's but the nature of choices. Real choices, that is. The ones we manage. Remember, young girl, that real choices, maybe more than anything else in this world, are the cause of change. And change, as powerful as it is, can only go in one direction, whether you believe differently or not. You understand that, right? If a choice, and the change it brings, is never right or wrong in itself, there's no reason one should ever take it back. Once you've made a choice, you're bound with its consequences, forever. These are the conditions.

But, by then, Seoyeon was no longer listening, fallen away, lost in that dark void that covered her like an ominous cloak, lost like her dream was, alone, reaching for anything her hand could hold on to, the words she couldn't say, the tears she wouldn't cry, But I don't want to be alone!, there, yelled from the tip of her desperate fingers, reaching for anything, anything to navigate that maze that she had fallen into, a map, a piece of paper, a-

And as for the circumstances, the voice looked at her from above one last time before turning away with a scoff, I reckon we can cut you some slack on that. If you don't know them, you don't need to. We'll handle them, it's our job. Its laugh echoed within itself. And just so you know, this is not a threat, this is just a reminder. Because, even if you wanted, now there's just nothing you can do. 

Author's note -

Hello!, this was the introductory chapter, the real story starts in the next one -- hope you give it a chance!