1 Chapter 1

I flew through the night, the unsteady wheeze of my labored breathing filling my head like a storm cloud. My thoughts were fireworks, exploding hot and deafeningly loud with my pounding heartbeat keeping tempo. I could barely register my surroundings. Only one thing seemed to ring loud and clear in my brain: Don't cry. Don't fucking cry.

I could feel the tears welling up hot behind my straining eyes. I knew if I let them loose, the river wouldn't stop flowing. So I shut my eyes as I ran, desperate to go forward and forward forever so that I would never have to turn and face what was behind me. I just needed to be somewhere else, anywhere else.

Soon I started to slow down as I realized I was traveling farther out of the residential city area and into a sparser and more secluded one. I seemed to be traveling down a sidewalk with fewer buildings stretched across either side of the lamplit street. Without the tall buildings surrounding me in every direction, I could see the sky and the tops of the mountains bordering the city in the distance. It felt like I could finally breathe.

I noticed a gate some paces down the road. Behind it were trees that stretched farther than the eye could see. I felt somehow drawn to it; not in a creepy way, but in that when I reached the fence, some of my anger and frustration seemed to bubble away and be replaced with subtle curiosity. So I reached out, grabbed onto the gate with my hands, secured my feet in the rings and began to climb it. Ten feet to the top, swing a leg over, calculate the drop. The ground on the other side was short grass, but with the height it would be better to keep it safe. I carefully found footholds underneath me and began to descend.

When my feet hit the dirt, I looked back up and examined the scenery with what little light filtered in from the street. It was a forest of evergreen trees that probably stretched from here, the edge of the city, to the mountains a mile or so ahead. They were spaced about five feet apart, creating a pine canopy overhead. Now that I had time to stop, I felt my memories of the world behind catch up with my feet. A new wave of anger rolled over me. In my emotion I must've lost all practical judgement, because I (stupidly) continued trudging into the forest without another moment's hesitation.

As I walked blindly my thoughts melted from anger to melancholy. The chorus in my head started as I hate her! I hate her! and became I hate me. I hate me. The fire behind my eyes burned out and fell heavy as ash in the pit of my stomach, extinguished by the water that appeared anew. The darkness around me seemed to swallow everything up whole. It was cruel. Unforgiving. Almost as if the light of day, felt so bright and enveloping in the moment, was nothing but a false comfort. It goes suddenly and leaves behind a suffocating blanket that casts everything in shadow.

Fucking daylight.

I hate the sun. It's the worst. It seriously has the audacity to think of itself so high and mighty, when really, it's a coward. It leaves and what's left behind for Earth is the night. The night which is cold and dark and unloving. It leaves and the earth has to fend for itself, and then it comes back all bright and happy like everything's just fine. Like it doesn't know what it did. Fuck you, sun. Fuck you.

At this point my whole body was slumped with the weight of the turmoil inside me. The foolish anger dissipated and left room for the black emptiness. I was cold all over, and once again remembered that I was alone. My world was dark, any little amount of happiness I'd ever felt overshadowed by the pain of the moments leading up to the present and the bleakness of what I was sure was to be my future. My vision swam with tears and soon I couldn't take it anymore. The river flowed from my eyes, falling onto the forest floor. My legs buckled underneath me, and I fell onto the grass that smelled like rain. I curled up into a ball and shivered through the sobs that escaped my lips.

I was jolted out of my state by a harsh cry that reverberated through the woods up ahead. I pushed myself unsteadily to my feet and stumbled forwards through the trees. After ten paces I reached a wide clearing where the sound had come from. I reached into my pocket and fumbled for my phone, taking it out and turning on the flashlight.

"Hello? Who's there?" I called uncertainly. I continued to squint through the beam of my flashlight until I spotted a person lying on the floor in the center of the clearing. Oh shit. I ran forward, kneeling on the ground beside them. It was a teenage girl around my age, holding her ankle and apparently in pain. "Oh, shit," I said, fumbled around in my pockets, searching for something to help. "Hey, are you okay? Can you speak?"

"Mmph…urghhh…y-yeah," she croaked. Her face was still contorted in agony. "I think I'm okay, I just tripped over a log or something."

Aha! I found some painkillers in my back pocket that I carry around sometimes for period cramps. I took them out.

"Okay, well, ah, I think the first step in this situation would be to give you whatever I have that could help, so if you want these for the pain..." I don't think she was really paying attention to what I was saying, her focus quite occupied by the shock of her injury, but I blabbered on nevertheless. "I mean, I may be a stranger in the woods, but you can trust me-these are just ibuprofen. Nothing fancy."

She finally looked up at me, noticing that I was talking. "Oh, painkillers? Yeah, if you don't mind, thanks." She reached into the plastic bag I was holding and took a couple out, popping them into her mouth. She swallowed with a slight grimace. "Ugh, fucking sucks without water."

I glanced between her and my outstretched hand, slightly speechless. Well. That was easy. I quickly readjusted myself and returned to the important matter. "Okay, so let's see how serious this is." I pointed to her foot. "Can you try moving it?" The girl obliged, with a little difficulty.

"It hurts, but yeah."

I let out a relieved breath. "Okay, good. It's probably not broken, but possibly sprained." She nodded with a sigh. A moment passed of silence. My heart rate thankfully began to slow, and her labored breathing became less prominent in the night. Now that my urgency was diminished, I took a moment to really look at her as well as I could in the pale light of the moon. I noticed with a start how pretty she was, all soft features and long black hair tied into a low ponytail. She was wearing a simple outfit of a hoodie, jeans, and sneakers that somewhat hid her figure. My focus trailed back up to her face and we locked eyes for a still moment. I quickly turned my gaze away, feeling my cheeks warm uncomfortably. When I dared to look back, she smiled not unkindly and stuck her hand in my direction.

"I'm Park Chaeyoung, by the way. What's your name?" Even in the night I could feel the sunshine that emanated from her, and though I was a little taken aback by her friendly disposition, her smile was comforting like a warm hug. The edges of my mouth curved up minutely and I took her hand in mine.

"I'm Kim Jennie." We stayed like that for a second, unmoving as our eyes met again. I could feel her searching my face, taking me in, and after a beat I let go and stuffed my hand back in my pocket awkwardly. "So, do you live around here?" I offered, unsure of how to continue.

"Yeah," she responded. "I've lived here all my life. Do you?"

I thought for a moment before responding. "Yeah, I guess so. I just moved here a few days ago, though, and it was kind of out of the blue."

"Oh, how interesting! I'm assuming you're going to be in high school?" She exclaimed with inquiry.

I nodded, smiling slightly. "Yeah. I'm sixteen, so I'm going to be in grade eleven at Gwanyang High School, I think."

"No way." Chaeyoung's mouth was open wide in surprise. "That's where I go! I'm seventeen though, and in grade twelve."

I laughed happily- it was too much of a coincidence. "What are the odds!"

After a moment of quiet mesmerization, Chaeyoung laid back onto the grass with a contented sigh. After a still moment I followed suit, lowering myself down beside her carefully, my gaze never leaving her face. She was turned up towards the sky, observing quietly with a relaxed expression. The moonlight gave her profile a subtle glow, caressing her cheeks and reflecting off her silky hair. And her eyes-those deep brown eyes seemed to sparkle, as if they held all the stars in the universe inside, glowing brighter than what should've been possible in the darkness of night. She turned back towards me and I averted my gaze to the grass hastily, not wanting to appear odd for staring. Chaeyoung just smiled and pointed to the sky. "Look at the stars." I did, turning my head up and-. Wow. With my attention consumed by our encounter, I hadn't noticed the sky.

The stars were flecked along it in clusters, sparkling and shimmering beautifully. The black was lit up by the white light, bringing life to every corner of its reach. My eyes raked across the expanse with awe, drinking in everything I could see. Several moments passed comfortably, my eyes never leaving the canvas of the sky and the only sound reaching my ears being our quiet breaths and the faint chirping of crickets in the night. After what must've been minutes, Chaeyoung spoke again.

"Don't you just love the stars?" I nodded my head vigorously.

"Yeah, I used to go stargazing with my dad when I was l-little," my voice faltered at the memory. My throat constricted a little when I realized I was traveling back into dangerous territory. I hastily changed the subject.

"You know, the stars are far away. Like super far away. Trillions and trillions of miles away from Earth. Their image, what we see of them, travels at the speed of light to reach Earth and can take up to millions of years to get here. So that star-" I pointed to a particularly bright one above our heads, "that's not what that star looks like right now. In fact, that star could've long since exploded and might not be there at all. That's what that star looked like a long, long time ago. When that star looked like that, dinosaurs might've been walking on Earth. Or where we are right now could've been an ocean. Or it could've been before the Cambrian explosion, when the Earth was only rocks and water and bacteria." I laughed at the thought. "You know, that was 90% of Earth's existence. Must've been pretty boring." I looked back down at Chaeyoung and noticed her watching me with an unreadable expression. I felt my face warm and tried to hide it by looking back up at the sky. "So, looking at the stars is like looking into a map of history," I breathed, so quiet I wasn't sure if she heard me.

"Wow," Chaeyoung said fondly. "Who said time travel doesn't exist?" She returned her gaze upwards, content with observing the patterns created by hot spinning orbs of gas and dust from long ago.

"So, what's your deal?" Her words suddenly broke the stillness of the moment.

"Sorry?" I responded, a little taken aback.

"I mean," she backtracked, "what exactly are you doing out here in this forest? It's not exactly a warm night. Unless wandering in the woods in October is a hobby of yours?" Her voice had a playful edge to it.

"Well, not exactly," I laughed. "As for why I'm here, it's kind of a complicated story. I could ask you the same question, you know. Is getting injured and talking to strangers one of your interests?" I turned on my side towards Chaeyoung. She laughed, bright and bubbly. Its sound was sweet enough to send a slight shiver down my spine.

"No- well, not exactly. I do come here often, and it's kind of like my spot, you know?" She turned on her side as well, and now we were laying face-to-face with only a few feet of space between. "But usually not during the night. It's also a bit of a long story, but I was running and didn't see where I was going, and now," she looked down at her foot with a frown. "this happened." She sighed. "I really should be more careful."

"Yeah, you should. Next time I might not be here to give you ibuprofen." Her smile stretched wide, softened by the moonlight. "What do you usually like to do here?" I asked.

Chaeyoung looked upwards in pensive thought. "Well, I'm a bit of a sucker for the trees."

I couldn't help but smile, too. "A nature lover. It suits you."

She hummed in response. "I usually hang out with the birds and observe all the plant and wildlife. It's quite therapeutic. You should try it sometime."

I nodded. It didn't sound unpleasant.

"So how would you describe yourself?"

"Me?" I had to think about it, too. "Well, I like to read, for one."

"What do you read?"

"Everything."

It was true- I always wanted to know more about the world around me. "There's no subject that doesn't interest me."

"You smartypants." Chaeyoung grinned. "I bet you know all sorts of things I don't."

"Maybe," I said playfully. "I could tell you about it, sometime."

"I'm sure you will. We're going to the same school, after all."

After a while our brief conversation fizzled out, and we were left gazing up at the stars once more. Minutes passed and I had almost fallen asleep right there on the ground when Chaeyoung spoke again.

"You know, I think you'll like it here."

You know, maybe I would.