| Fan Fiction |
by Take_Flight
Ri In was standing in a gallery. An Art gallery to be exact. With odd-looking paintings hanging on the walls. “But why here?” Ri In wondered as she stepped onto the icy cold floor. She glanced down and saw that she was wearing a white plain dress and bare foot as well; as she wriggled her toes. Just then, a deep familiar voice called out her name. Ri In’s head snapped up and gaped at what stood in front of her. There were many flights of steps, going up and down and she could see doorways and windows leading to a garden outside. She gingerly stepped onto the nearest stairs when the voice called out again.
‘Yah Yoochun! Stop playing around!” Ri In shouted to the empty room, her voice echoing. But all she got was a chuckle followed by a loud bang. Ri In immediately climbed up the stairs only to realize that the journey was never ending.
“Mwoh? What kind of a place is this?” Ri In wondered as she stopped to take a breath. She heard Yoochun laughing again and she cursed loudly. “You’re a coward!” she yelled, as she gripped onto the railing when she felt something skittered away. She screamed when she saw a few black lizards scampering around her feet.
Ri In heard Yoochun laughing at her, his voice getting deeper by the minute. She had no choice but to climb the steps, her legs muscle screaming in pain. Ri In then noticed that the stairs were leading her around the room, and nowhere else. Not even outside. She reached a landing and ran straight to a stained window, pressing her nose against the glass to see the garden outside. She started banging on the window when she saw a figure, his back facing her, sitting on a bench. But who was she kidding? That guy could not even hear her.
“Help!” Ri In pleaded, hot tears streaming down her face. She gulped when she felt something brushing past her bare legs. “No…not the lizards again!” she said as she made a run for another flight of stairs. “God I hate this place!” she shouted as she went down this time. Just as she reached another landing, a hot prickly pain seared through her left foot. Her shrilling scream filled up the entire empty room and she curled up on the floor, clutching her injured foot. “Stop mocking me!” Ri In sobbed when she heard Yoochun snickering. “Yah Yoochun! You beast!” she hissed as she clamped her eyes shut, hoping to wake up from this bad dream.
As she lay on the cold hard floor, blood oozing out from her foot, she heard footsteps coming her way. Ri In sniffed and called out his name softly. “Y..Yoochun? Is that you?” she whispered.
The figure stopped directly in front of her and then kneeled down, brushing her hair from her face. “Hush..I’m here” he said softly, caressing her face and smoothing down her hair.
Ri In let out a bitter laugh and tried to sit up. “Y..You’re here…Y..Y..Yoochun..oppa…” she stammered.
“Who’s Yoochun?” the guy asked. Ri In pushed herself up with one hand while the other was clutching her injured leg. Her heart stopped beating when she met face to face with……
“JUNSU?!!!
BBBRRRRRRRRRRRiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnngggggggggggggggggggggg~~~~!!!!!
Ri In flew up from her bed, her heart thumping wildly. She had accidentally knocked her alarm clock off the dresser and it was lying face down on the floor, still ringing. She hastily grabbed it and turned the device off. “Omo…what…the hell was that…about?” she wondered, her breathing becoming faster and heavier. Ri In got off her bed and went to open the windows and noticed her hands were shaking.
“It’s just a dream Ri In…just a dream” she kept repeating, like a mantra as she sat back on her bed, running her hands through her messy hair. She then felt something hard poking on her butt, and she fished it out from under the covers. Her eyes widened when she saw the hardcover book she was holding.
“M.C Escher?” she mused. There was a bookmark placed in between and she flipped to the page where it showed a full-page of a lithograph print. The print was entitled “Relativity” and she remembered browsing the book last night before going to sleep. No wonder there were nonsensical stairs in her dreams! It was all thanks to the book.
Ri In glanced around her room and then stuffed the book inside the bottom drawer of her study table. She then realized that the bottom drawer was where she chucked in a few of her memoirs with…Yoochun. The stalk of rose with the dried petals: which she wanted to make into a potpourri someday. A photo of them together by the beach, with Yoochun’s arm around her waist, and the wind blowing in their face. “Throw it away” a voice inside her head said.
“I…can’t…” Ri In whispered, staring at the photo, the good memories coming back like a tidal wave. If she hadn’t blurted out the whole fling thing to Nadine, then she won’t be in this powerless state. “Throw it away! You’re an idiot if you don’t do it. He DOESN’T love you!!” the voice was saying with urgency. As if Ri In’s hands have got a mind of their own, she started shredding the picture into pieces and tossed it into the bin. The stalk of rose was a keeper but she decided to get rid of it as well. Her eyes then fell upon on the bouquet of lilies in the vase by the window. She groaned and stood up. “What to do…what to do..” she muttered helplessly. The flowers were still fresh and alive and she didn’t have the heart to throw it away, but as she fingered one of the petals, her mind drifted off to the part where Junsu was keeping her company on that particular weekend. How he had fed her, listened to her talk and him making lame jokes but she ended up laughing anyway. And then there was the image from her dream. How he had touch her face and calming her nerves with his soothing voice. Ri In immediately touched her left cheek, the spot where he had caressed so lovingly. It had felt so…REAL.
Ri In let out a whimper. She barely even knew the guy and yet she just had a bizarre dream of him. She’s not falling for him isn’t she? Ri In shuddered at the thought and walked over to her study table where her planner lay opened. A lime-green post-it was pasted beside today’s date with the words “IMPORTANT” scribbled on it. “Center Stage…Book Fair…? Oh! I almost forgot!” Ri In gasped.
She glanced at the clock on the wall and sighed with relief. It was still too early and the fair has not even opened. Ri In and a few other librarians had volunteered to get a few books to add to the library’s collections. “They are mainly books for recommended readings and for doing research” the senior librarian had told them. The library committee usually make it a habit to “stock up” on the materials during the school’s one week break, and this time, it was Ri In’s turn, much to her delight, since she’s a bookworm herself.
Ri In stepped outside to the quiet living room, and withdraws the curtains, bathing the space with the morning light. She assumed Nadine was still sleeping since her door was closed. After she showered and got changed, she made a fresh pot of coffee and placed it on the dining table. Since she did not have the heart to wake up Nadine, she scribbled down a note, informing Nadine where she was heading to. She placed the note beside the coffee pot and left the house.
Center Stage was a massive convention centre in the middle of the bustling town and it will usually take about one hour for her to get there. But since it was the school one week’s break, traffic was a bit congested as she knew most students will take this opportunity to purchase those discounted manuscripts. As she tapped her fingers on the steering wheel and observed the snail-pace traffic, the radio deejay was enlightening the listeners about how one can tell a person’s personality by the different nose shapes. Ri In finds it ridiculous and fascinating at the same time, how there are people who will actually go to great lengths to decipher life’s unsolved mysteries.
Ri In then thought back about the dream. Wait, there are usually books about dreams right? There are people who wrote books about what messages a dream could bring and she heard that some of them are true, but not one hundred percent accurate. Ri In was not into superstitious stuff like this, but heck, she might as well give this “dream book” a go if she wants her conscious to be clear.
“Can’t believe I’m getting paranoid just because of a dream. UNBELIEVABLE” she told herself as the Center Stage building came into view.