one shot cafe ┃ kpop one shots and short stories

eyes closed. (haseul - loona)

I couldn't see anything.

It felt like my eyelids were sewn shut. I couldn't open them at all. I stumbled around my empty living room. I didn't bump into anything, however. Where was the furniture? Where was the wall that separated the kitchen and the living room?

I bumped into a hard, cold wall. I furrowed my eyebrows. This doesn't feel like my living room wall, I thought. I brushed myself off and continued to walk around, slowing my steps every few minutes.

After a while, I stopped walking completely. I decided to stay still and listen to my surroundings.

It was quiet. I could hear nothing but my own breathing.

I was scared. Where was I? Why was there no one else but me?

I cautiously sat down on the floor. As soon as I crossed my legs and put my hands on the cold floor, something heavy was lifted off my eyes. I was hesitant at first, but I opened my eyes. The bright light hurt my eyes, so I had to squint and shade them with my hand. I breathed in slowly, and blinked a few times so I could get adjusted to the light.

As soon as I could open my eyes completely, I looked around. The entire room was white, with a single blue table in the middle of it. I started to panic. Was I dead? Was I in a coma? I slapped my arm roughly and winced. This was all real. I pulled my hair, my eyes going wild.

"SOMEONE TELL ME WHERE I AM!!" I screamed. No answer. I felt tears welling up in my eyes. I can't be dead. I couldn't be. I was perfectly healthy. I was fine. I couldn't have just died like that.

I collapsed to the floor. "Someone, please...just tell me where I am. I don't want to be here." 

I heard a loud beep from the blue table that stood in the middle of the room. I wiped my eyes and stood up shakily before making my way over to the table.

When I reached the table, I noticed that there was a blinking yellow square in the upper right corner of the table. I frowned. What was that square supposed to do? I decided to place my right hand on the square to see if anything happened.

Something flashed on the wall of the seemingly endless white room. I gasped.

"You have to solve this puzzle to get out of here," a voice said inside my head. My eyes widened. I knew what I had to do.

Once the yellow square disappeared, another one reappeared but with a green square flashing at the bottom left corner. I put my hands on both buttons according to the pattern. The image on the wall seemed to grow less faint and more clear. I could picture it in my head. It was the park near my house, but only the outlines of the trees and the benches made it onto the wall.

The next pattern that appeared on the table was a yellow square, a green square, and a pink square that blinked twice in the center of the table. I put my hands on those squares once again, and the image became clearer each time I successfully copied the pattern.

On the seventh try, however, I missed a square, and the picture began to grow faint. I was slowly beginning to panic again. If I messed up this puzzle, I'll never make it out alive.

The table grew warmer and warmer each time a pattern appeared. It got so hot at one point where I almost burned my hands, but no signs of injury were seen, which was weird to me. The table also became really cold a lot after the twelfth pattern. I was overwhelmed by all of this, but I tried to focus on completing each pattern.

On the sixteenth try, the image on the wall was very clear now. I could see people running through the park, couples sitting on picnic blankets with baskets and containers of food, and children playing with their dogs. Almost there, I thought to myself.
On the twentieth try, I had completed the pattern that was shown before me. But after I did, nothing else showed up. The image on the wall disappeared, and so did the table in front of me. I froze. What was going on? I put my hand out in front of me, but I couldn't do much more before everything went black.

Do you really want to go back home?

I opened my eyes. I saw nothing but darkness.

Do you really want to go home?  The soft and sickly sweet voice repeated again. I nodded frantically, but I said "Yes" since I was pretty sure the person speaking could not see me. Or at least I thought they couldn't.

Why?

"Because I have a family to go back to. I have friends to hang out with. I have a life to live."

But don't you want to stay here? Where you REALLY belong?

I was confused. What did the voice mean when they said I belonged here? In the darkness?

"No, I don't." I replied nervously. "I want to see light. I don't want to be covered in darkness. I don't even know why it's so dark."

But this IS light. This is not darkness. Many people live here, but you just can't see them yet.

My heart stopped. Other...people?

I began to hear other voices coming from all sides of me. Some were kind, but some were cruel. Many seemed to try and tempt me into staying in this darkness, but all the voices began to collide and it sounded like one huge, noisy mess. I wanted to cry. I was so confused and scared and overwhelmed and I didn't know where I was and I needed help please help me help me help me help-

"HASEUL?!"

I opened my eyes. I was lying in a bed, in a hospital room. Yeojin and Heejin were staring at me with wide, terrified eyes. Yeojin was clutching Heejin's arms tightly, big tears falling down her cheeks.

"Huh...? Wha...why am I in the hospital?"

Heejin slowly reached out to touch my arm. "You collapsed on the floor last night. You were hardly breathing. The doctors said it would be difficult for you to recover. We were so scared we were going to lose you, but you're awake now. You're alive." She said, her breath quivering.

I looked up at the ceiling and let out a long, quiet breath. I had somehow blocked out all those voices that were trying to keep me in the dark. I solved the puzzle without knowing.

I'm alive.