Arabella | totcf au

Chapter 1: Arabella Henituse (1)

When he woke up, he noticed something different. He felt a familiar sense of gravity taking over his body. But he also didn't notice what was wrong at first, like literally.

Despite opening his eyes fully, Kim Rok Soo couldn't see anything. A lesser man would've panicked, but Kim Rok Soo isn't a lesser man, nor was he ever normal in the first place. So he inhales and steadies his breathing, slowly moving all of his limbs and fingers to make sure he's still whole, and runs his tongue over his teeth to count them. Finished with his self check-up, he closed his eyes and slowly opened them once more.

What greeted him was a pastel blue ceiling, and mahogany drapes at the side. A canopy bed, he thought. Said bed was very soft, as well. A luxury for people in their situation, so there was no way his team members would pull a prank on him. Especially when his apartment was at the edge of the city.

Moving on from his observation, he saw a darkened but furnished room, but the colors were still clear for him, the curtains pulled over the windows to hide the sun's rays. From what little he could see, the room's owner was rich, possibly a chaebol's child(there was just no way a young man would have this design, and blue!), but that didn't answer the question as to why he was here. Had he been kidnapped? And he didn't wake at all?

(Seeing the blue colors felt nostalgic to him.)

He then tried to feel himself internally, examining himself once more. He then remembered the weird gravity of his body. Because of one thing, the gravity of a man and a woman are two different things. He should know, he was once a woman before being reborn as Kim Rok Soo.

This is a woman's body, his mind hissed. He could only sigh internally. There has to be some divine intervention of why he was in a woman's body.

The door suddenly opening made him, no, her instinctively close his eyes, face passive despite wincing internally at the way the outside light burned his sight. When she heard nothing, not even the sound of footsteps or clothes shifting, she clearly opened her eyes again.

Which turned out to be a mistake. Fuck, great going me!

An old man—butler, judging by his clothes—was looking at her as if she was an anomaly, eyes slightly wide and jaw slack. He was holding what seemed to be a basin of water with a soft-looking towel hung over his arm, most likely for washing one's face. Was that for her? Why didn't the butler knock, then?

WAS THAT NORMAL!? She freaked out in her mind. There was no way right!?

"Who—" she coughed, the dryness of her throat making her cough(this body hadn't spoken for a long time then, it was either this body was sick or was in a coma), and a warm hand gently helped her sit upwards as a cup of water found its way on her shaking hands.

A gloved hand supported her weak grasp, and the butler wordlessly helped her drink, the sounds of her gulping the water down breaking the dreary room's silence. Letting out a relieved sigh, she wiped a stray droplet of water away with the back of her hand, and regarded the silent butler watching her from the side.

He had an amiable air around him, and the wrinkles on his face made him seem kind. His gray hair had streaks of black that showed he wasn't as old as Kim Rok Soo first thought of him to be, but the blank expression on his wizened face made goosebumps trickle her skin somehow.

She looked at the old man, there was something in her that was telling her, regardless of how dangerous this man is. She could trust this man, and her gut feeling has never been wrong before.

Clearing her throat, she asked, "Who are you?" Her voice was a bit hoarse, but it was understandable. It was feminine, confirming her suspicions, "Where am I?"