Letters from the Void // ASTRO ✔

Chapter 1

Run, and take her with you!

The first thing she felt when she woke up was the terrible headache, and waking up in an unfamiliar environment made the pain worse. She tried to get up but her limbs wouldn't cooperate. She's just left lying on the bed, staring at the white ceiling, trying to gather up her thoughts. The first thing her instincts told her to do was to recall her own name; but she couldn't even get that to make her brain work and it required effort to freak out about it. Whatever happened before this- just whatever happened before she found herself lying on the bed, she couldn't tell. She felt weird, as if her body parts were not hers, as if someone just decided to take somebody else's limbs and attached them to her body.

Focus! She shouted in her head, begging for her to slowly figure out what's going on. She breathed in slowly, and with each breath she commanded every limb to be cooperative. It worked, though the feeling of detachment from her body parts was still there. Putting that thought aside, she slid out from under the blanket, glad to actually find herself dressed. Now she realized that the only source of light came from the lamp beside the bed. The design of the lamp made it look like as if it was floating in mid-air but she assured herself that a really thin wire was actually holding the lamp.

She faced the curtains, equally eager and nervous to find out what's hiding behind them. She gripped the edge of the cloth and split them open, expecting to find something extraordinary. She was only fed with a view of a bare wall through a two-pane window. How disappointing. Who would build a window where you could only see a bare wall? It seemed like the designer of this house (if it is one) couldn't care less about whether you would want to wake up to the morning sunshine or lie in bed on your side at night, watching the stars.

Disappointed, she turned around, scanning the whole room. It's a middle-sized room, with an attached bathroom. The only sign anyone ever used this room was the fact that there were clothes in the wardrobe. That was it, there was no personal memorabilia or anything that would tell her about herself. But first, she needed to find out whether this is actually her room. What if someone knocked her unconscious and kidnapped her? Who is she, anyway? Only a few pieces of clothing were there, and all of them seemed new. One still had a price tag attached to it, boasting a price of 100, 000 won. As quickly as she read the price tag, she shoved back the price tag inside the dress. A piece of scarf was folded neatly on the bottom of the wardrobe, the ends of the scarf frayed. She didn't know whether it was because the owner loved it so much, or the owner owned a pet that would chew on it now and then.

Not bothering herself with the unimportant question, she proceeded to the bedroom door. She had to pause before she twisted the doorknob, mentally preparing herself just in case she's captured by a dangerous gang and she happened to be the daughter of a rich man. Just in case. The scary thing about losing your memories was that you don't even know why you're in that place, or what you were doing beforehand. In fact, you could've been an important witness in a homicide case but you couldn't testify because you lost your memories. A thousand possibilities ran around in her head, not giving her a chance to calm down.

Slowly, she opened the door and left it ajar. She should be happy that a dangerous gang wasn't keeping an eye on her, but again, she's left disappointed when she could only see an empty living room. There wasn't a living person in sight, and it seemed like she's the only one in this... apartment. The living room was clean, with a three seater sofa facing a massive screen mounted on a wall. Behind the sofa was a kitchen, with a countertop lined with empty jars. One of the jars had its lid opened, as if someone hurriedly left while trying to fill the jars with snacks. There were three chairs facing the countertop, and one was pushed back.

Someone was here. Or is still here.

Maybe it was her? Maybe this was her apartment but she couldn't recall anything? Was it possible to wake up one day, without remembering anything? All of these questions were killing her, and she could barely do anything about them.