Hourglass || pjm ||

03

My eyes shot open. Blinding white light fluttering through the curtain of leaves greeted me as a breeze blew and the branches of the tree rustled and shook its crackling leaves. My head throbbed as if I had been hit by a ledgehammer. Wait, what? Where did the freaking trees come from? The last thing I remembered was in the museum on a trip... to learn history? Wait a moment there, since when do I initiate learning?

I propped myself up slowly on my elbows. A sharp pain shot from my stomach up to my heart. A burning volcano erupted within me. I assumed it was another heart burn caused by gastric.

I glanced at my watch on my wrist. It read 5.30pm. I was sure it was just pass 12 when we were in the museum. I hadn't eaten since almost six hours ago. No wonder the gastric.

I suppressed a yawn and surveyed where I was. There was a red and orange foliage around me and I was lying on comfy dead leaves. This was definitely not a tropical rainforest. Being a geographer myself, I studied forests. The view from the ground was just amazing, enough for me to forget my pain. It was just like the scene in kdramas when it was autumn and the girl and the boy takes a romantic stroll through the park. My dream was to do that to, but I'll probably be 40 before I have my dream come true. It was just a mirage.

In the distance, a pair of chestnut murias with black heads, black throats as well as rich chestnut coloured bodies and pale greyish blue bills crowed. Museums weren't supposed to have birds around.

Unless, I wasn't even in the museum anymore.

Weird. Why was I here when I was supposed to be in the museum? Beside me, a beetle, a very fat and big one, I must say, scuttled across and under a pile of leaves.

Have I ever mentioned I really hate insects? Ever since I was young, I had an unknown phobia of insects. I just couldn't help it.

I jumped from where I was in this unknown, dense forest and skadooshed out of the beetle's way, with my heart thumping wildly in my chest.

" No, beetle, do not come this way. I repeat, do not come this way or you won't have a nice consequence, beetle." I warned the ugly, disgusting beetle with a shaking hand pointing on it. My eyes stayed glued to it, in fear of losing sight of it. Not knowing how close it was to me was worst compared to its presence. This was the exact reason I always missed out on every camp, even in high school. Above me, the evening sun shone brightly through a hole in the canopy. I had never been more grateful for that ball of fire. My accusing finger was obviously trembling like an earthquake had happened and it seemed to agitate the evil beetle, which was now heading my way.

The hideous creature crawled onto a rock, basking in the sunshine with its feelers poking around in the air, probably trying to figure out where I had gone. I had my fingers crossed that it would not scurry in my direction. But, atlas, it decided to come in my direction. Just my luck.

My finger at once started shaking harder while transparent beads of perspiration dripped from my face and onto the dead leaves. At this rate, I was going to start convulsing soon.

And then, it actually started flying. I could barely muffle my scream before running backwards in the opposite direction. Running backwards without seeing where I was going always seemed to be a bad idea. The next moment I knew, I had tripped over something.

"Aaaaaahhhhh!" My frantic scream cut through the still air. The ground was about to hit me (or was it the other way?) when a pair of muscular hands caught me in mid-air. Those hands pulled me up forcefully, even before I regained my balance. My heart was still in my throat and I was not in the right mind after almost getting a concussion.

I staggered to my feet, struggling to get my balance. I was lucky someone was there to catch me. It was a close call.

Turning around groggily to see my benefactor, I blurted out in surprise: "Jeon Jungkook?"

"I guess you know me,huh," Jungkook muttered under his breath.

"W..well bts is quite popular nowadays," I answered, intimidated by his unfriendly glare.

"Here, your bag," Jungkook stuffed my backpack into my arms after picking it up from the forest floor. Guess my own bag had tripped me.

"Did you come in a lift too?" Jungkook inquired, staring at me coldly while holding a sharp,long rock which was slightly tainted with blood. I was still in utter shock that I was face to face with the golden maknae of BTS, the hottest group in Korea. By now, I was sure my eyes were as wide as saucers. But how? He was missing, wasn't he? My mind felt like a jumbled up mess.

" Rin!" A familiar voice called out to me. Sara appeared from behind Jungkook and crashed me in a bear hug. "We were worried sick about you!" Chae Yeon and Yeon Young also appeared from behind him and joined in the group hug. I sighed in relief. They were fine after all. I wouldn't want them to be hurt because of me.

"Let's go back to the campsite," Jungkook informed us and started to saunter deeper into the forest. We all followed suit.

"Rin-ah,what happened to you? Me, Chaeyeon and Yeon Young woke up lying beside each other. We tried to find you but you were absolutely nowhere, Sara asked me, her face concerned.

" I couldn't find you too. Where are we though?" I still couldn't get my head around how one moment we were in the museum, and the other we were in a weird forest, with scary bugs, I must add.

"I'm not sure, but it seems like there's something wrong with that lift we took," Sara concluded in a serious voice, frowning. A cold breeze blew passed me, tousling my hair up in every direction. I normally loved the wind blowing, but this one made me shudder. I rubbed my arms as I sneezed. My eyelid twitched. Okay, now this was all becoming very cliche.

I continued walking, dead leaves crunching beneath my feet. Good thing I wore my comfy PUMA track shoes. "Hey, don't you think that guy in front looked like Jeon Jungkook?" I asked them.

"Yeah, he really looks like him. But, it couldn't really be him, right?" Jiwoo doubted. Everything has been weird ever since we stepped into that lift. What if... this was just a illusion? I pursed my lips. This was getting as confusing as BTS theories.

The four of us continued chatting while Jungkook lookalike led us back to the campsite he was saying. Jiwoo and Yeon Young were fighting again when my head bumped into Jungkook lookalike's solid back.

He held his hand out, signalling for us to stop. "Sshh, stop walking and keep quiet. Something's here,"