FIREFALL, OR IN EXO WONDERLAND ▷ COMPLETE

Flash Delirium

CHAPTER 30: FLASH DELIRIUM

Eun-soo was no longer in her blue dress with its puffy sleeves and white apron, but she was back in a silky black dress the same way she had first entered Wonderland. Her golden hair was left unbraided again. D.O had combed her hair neatly, showing the artistic side of the Chemistry scientist. The Resistance members, the grinning Baekhyun, the mad hatter and the two scientists applauded how nice did she look. That was a compliment too great for her. She curtsied humbly and laughed with an awkward air. "Ah, there's no need for that!" she said.

"You're not plain." Baekhyun quipped. "You're plain awesome!"

"You're a brave soul," Luhan nodded like mad until his hat fell off. "Beautiful, too!"

"Ditto." Chen placed the fallen hat back on Luhan's head.

"Thanks to you and Kris, the King of Hearts is defeated. We all owe you your selfless deeds. Thank you for fighting with us, though being foreign." Kai said with a bow. The others bowed at her as well.

"I wish you could stay longer!" Tao pouted. How odd! This young man had weather-beaten skin and rough features—yet he looked so cute when he pouted.

"Meep..." Ace voiced his opinion, echoing Tao's sentiment.

"Forgive her untimely departure, but her task is done and she has to go." Kai revealed the sad truth to his friends. "She belongs somewhere else."

Eun-soo felt bitter upon hearing Kai's last sentence. He was the one who brought her into Wonderland. This strange underground land. Had time played with her or had she gone mad that she felt at home with the strangeness and turmoil of Wonderland?

She observed the people surrounding her one by one. She'll miss Ace's appetite, Baekhyun's rectangle grin, Kai's cool demeanour, Lay's trivia and awkwardness, Tao's cuteness, Chen's teasings, D.O's cooking, and Luhan's caffeinated sprees. Still, the picture wasn't complete. She wished for the wise Suho and her saviour Xiumin to be here as well. And where's her sidekick (just kidding), Kris?

"Where is Kris?" she asked Lay who was standing beside her.

"Kris is still in the operation theatre. He's too weak to come upstairs." Lay replied, his hands in his coat-pockets.

"Sadly—" her sentence was cut short when Lay placed something in her hands.

"This reticule is yours, I presume?" Lay said whilst pointing at the thing he gave her.

Eun-soo took a look at the thing she was holding. It was her small pink handbag. "It's not a reticule, it's a handbag." she corrected.

"But they're used the same way." Lay added.

Eun-soo flashed Lay a sceptical look and zipped her handbag open. Her handbag served as a little pink coffin for her beloved Samsung Galaxy Ace 3. The dead smartphone lay silently in repose amidst some folded papers inside. Folded papers? She tugged one from her handbag and unfolded it.

It was a message.

Dear Eun-soo,

I am very sorry for reducing your black-blank timepiece to a wretched state. I knew very well that it was the very best butter and the tea smelled nice, but they were not sufficient to bring your smart-phone to life. Hence, I had washed your timepiece clean with the finest soap and the most abrasive steel-wool possible. Now, it is free from any slippery butter or bubble tea. Now, it is perfection reincarnated in a machine! Hope you like it.

Your honest hatter,

Lu Han

Eun-soo didn't know what to say as soon as she finished reading Luhan's letter. If her phone had nine lives like what people say a cat have, they might had all been used up. At last, her grandfather's gift was broken beyond all repair. Bye, bye, beautiful.