Chapter 1: The Lunatic (1/1)

Waking up on a bed of rose would have been the perfect ideal setting. Unfortunately for me, I ended up waking up in a library on a bed of books. An aching feeling situated in my head was soon gone as I looked around the fascinating room which was lit up by enormous windows which allowed sunlight to peep in. I didn’t remember even falling asleep in such a place but somehow I did.  I shook that creepy and haunting thought out of my mind as I tried to retrace my thoughts, but that just gave me a giant migraine. With no memory of how I ended up in a library, I decided to do a little exploring. I lifted myself onto my feet, dusted myself off and walked around the endless corridors of the library. With a sudden curiosity for one particular book, situated on a small shelf by itself, I picked it up and found myself a small desk to sit at. I ran my fingers across the hardback book to sweep away the dust it had accumulated and found the title to be a little dull; “Divining Land of the Lords” “What on earth is a divining land?” I thought to myself. Though the title lacked character, I found myself drawn to the book, turning onto the first page and then onto the next and onto the next...“A divining land can be split into billions of branches which all lead to different or parallel points in time. Be it thoughts or dreams, a divining land is always present with you. However, those born with holes in their timeline will find themselves in this divining land in a real perspective and may find themselves lost forever in their thoughts...” After flicking through the rather bizarre yet eye opening and interesting book, I went in search for another book to read. I placed the small hardback book onto its shelf and started exploring again. I allowed my hand to run across the spine of every shelved book as I walked along the empty aisles passively.“What are you doing here?” The sudden sound of a voice made me jump up in shock. I followed the source of the voice a found myself looking at a tall, handsomely well-dressed man before me. His facial features looked so familiar yet so foreign. His eyes suddenly perked up as I made eye contact with him.“Chaerin?” he asked with the sound of hope in his voice as his face visibly lit up.“Yes” I automatically answered though I didn’t remember telling my lips to say such a thing. “You’re back,” he mumbled and stepped closer towards me and placed his hand on my left shoulder, “and you’re not a dream” I pinched his cheek hard, making his hand fall off my shoulder, and yelled, “Does it feel like a dream?” “Ow,” he yelped and rubbed his cheek as my pinch left a small red mark on his face, “I’m guessing you don’t remember me?”“Remember you?” I quickly tried to look back through my memory only to be stopped by the tall man. “Don’t try to remember! You might disappear again and I can’t take the risk of us possibly meeting again” he said in a slightly desperate manner before he sighed solemnly, “I really can’t lose you again”“Lose me again?” He had completely lost me. What was he talking about and how did he know me? “Sorry. Forget I said all of those things,” he shook his head and stuck his right hand out, “I’m Nam Woohyun, nice to meet you” he grinned widely.  “Chaeri,” I mumbled as I shook the strange man’s hand. I was still unsure of my name. “I know” he smiled sweetly. For some unfathomable reason, I just couldn’t hate this guy. He was sweet as icing and seemed to have a kind heart from the peculiar aura he was giving off. “You must love books to always fall into a library” he chuckled. I didn’t get his joke but smiled politely and pretended to laugh along with him.He digressed with a small sigh, “that’s how I first met you and lost you”“Okay” I said slowly, trying to figure out what he was trying to say. Apparently, we had met once. Of course, I wouldn’t have remembered since I didn’t even remember how I even ended up at this empty library. For reasons I couldn’t explain, I felt at home. That feeling seemed to have been lost for so long; I nearly forgot what it felt like.“Even though it feels like home, you always seem to leave” Woohyun huffed as his bright smiling face suddenly fell into this solemn expression, it was almost as if he had read my mind and was suggesting we had met more than once. Was he some sort of lunatic? Or was he really someone close to me? A painful feeling in my head stopped me from thinking any further from that matter. Suddenly his solemn face disturbingly brightened up and the wide grin I had been greeted with suddenly reappeared. His moods seemed to change within just seconds. “This library has been closed for a while since you left-“ he abruptly stopped mid-sentence and mumbled to himself to “stop saying things like that” as apparently, he would lose me again. “You probably think I’m crazy,” he mumbled as he awkwardly bit his lip, “I’m not crazy, I promise. I just come across as a bit of a lunatic sometimes”“I can see that,” I said with a slight chuckle coming out of my mouth. This guy was a lunatic. Bananas. Crazy. But if he could help me figure out how I ended up in this library and help me miraculously remember everything, then he would be most useful to me. Also, admittedly he was quite handsome and cute and he seemed willing to help me. “You must be hungry, I know a great place to go!” he excitedly said as he grabbed onto my arm and tried to pull me along. I held back and pulled away from the lunatic’s grip and insisted that I would follow him only on the grounds that he would never pull me around, he agreed.“Sorry” he apologised and continued to walk without my arm in his grip. It might have given the impression that I was a cold bitch but I just didn’t want a strange guy already touching me and pulling me away to this supposed “great place”.I followed him deep into the heart of some kind of gangster movie. Goosebumps started appearing on my skin and started picturing several horrific scenarios where I always ended up as a dead. “Stay close” Woohyun whispered as nearby onlookers started to stare at the two of us as if we were their dinner.Without a single hesitation, I quickened my pace to meet with Woohyun’s and stuck by him closer. After walking through gangster town, I was then lead to a much darker area. “This is where I’m going to die” I thought to myself as I took a big gulp. “Here” Woohyun unexpectedly stopped in front of a small cafe. “You brought me through all of that, just to eat here?!” I exclaimed angrily. He nodded with a smile and chuckled whilst patting me on the shoulder, “don’t worry, it’s nice in here”I gave him an unconvinced look before following him inside. I looked around in awe as the cafe looked nothing like the exterior aesthetic of the building. It was full of cute anime-like ornaments and had a neutral beige and peach theme throughout the whole room. Modern round, red and white tables and chairs were placed neatly around the room and small Polaroid pictures hung from the walls. I quickly retracted my thoughts on Woohyun’s taste in cafes as I had completely fallen in love with this one.“I’ll get some food and drinks. You just take a seat” he smiled as he gestured towards a free table. I nodded and pulled up a chair and sat down. The more I looked around the cafe, the more I loved it. It was warm and cosy and had the cutest decorations sprinkled around giving a very personal touch.After a few minutes of waiting, Woohyun had finally sat down with a tray full of assorted cakes and some weird looking drink I had never seen before. “It’s bubble tea. You’ll like it” he placed the cup of bubble tea in front of me and started to drink from his own cup. With slight hesitation I slowly lifted up the cup and drank from the ready placed straw. A small pearl suddenly slipped into my mouth and I started to chew slowly. An overwhelming feeling of warmth and wonderment ran through my body as my taste buds enjoyed the delightful honey-like flavour of the drink as it entered my mouth.“It tastes great, doesn’t it?” he asked as he continued to slurp up his own bubble tea. I nodded in reply as my mouth formed a small smile. “Here, try some of this” he held out a spoonful of some sponge cake in front of me and insisted that I should open my mouth. I took the spoonful from him and fed myself. We weren’t on some sort of date so I refused to do such a cheesy thing. “So,” he awkwardly started, “I’m guessing you still don’t remember anything and I assume you have nowhere to stay”“You assume correctly,” I nodded, “I guess I can stay in the library until I remember where I live” “Or you can stay in my apartment” he beamed.“Your apartment?” I scoffed. I had just met him and he was already offering me a place to live. What made this lunatic think that I would accept his offer?He nodded, “you’ll have a proper place to live and I’ll help you get a job”This guy surely made a point. Even if I did have a job, I had no memory of it so I would need a new one. Also, I would need a proper place to live in rather than staying in a dusty library.“Great! It’s settled, you’ll be staying in my apartment from now on. I warn you though, my roommates are a little weird” he said without waiting for a single word from me.“Roommates? You have roommates as well?” I asked feeling a little worried that I would be staying with a bunch of guys.“There’s four of us,” he explained, “me, Sunggyu, Sungyeol and Dongwoo”“It sounds like there won’t any room for me; I think it’ll be best for me to stay in the library” I muttered. “There’s loads of room! We have a spare room since Myungsoo left,” he smiled, “it’s the biggest room in the apartment as well”I sighed as I agreed to stay with the man. In response, he excitedly beamed and started to talk about his roommates. “I’m going to regret this” I thought to myself as I took a large sip from my bubble tea and watched as Woohyun continuously  babbled on about how much of a control freak this Sunggyu person was.