Chapter 1: Episode 1 - Open Eyes (1)

She had always wondered if the sun would ever be able to meet the moon. The sun had always seemed quite lonely to her, as if the resplendent marbled wisps in the ocean sky would prance by too fast, leaving the sun unable to greet them.

In stark contrast, the moon was very loved and popular for its intense dazzling beauty, surrounded by millions of glimmering stars each night it made an appearance.

The moon had those stars, yet the sun didn't seem to have anyone. If the sun were to have stars, would it still try as hard as it did, to shine so bright each morning? She thought that was the reason we had the privilege to bathe in its warm, pleasant light.

The sun would do so because it wanted to be noticed by somebody, just one person. As such, it was truly appreciated by us, although it was too far away to be told so.

Ahn Ji-Ho had been staring at that coarse divide between the mountainscape and the sky for what had seemed like an entire day, where the true star-crossed love of the sky and the ground tried to fulfill itself, only to be denied of the simple wish.

She had grown tired of gazing upon the intense cruelty of the ever-shifting landscape, paved stone paying heed to the waves of shadows that would roll forth upon the streets of a once-stable city.

The Decay, the despair made up of shadow was responsible for the destruction of all the beauty she had ever had the privilege to lay eyes upon. A creeping darkness, it would center itself around places where people would choose to gather together. She wondered why in her solitude, did it follow behind her?

With every step that the calamity would take, the stone underneath it and the buildings against it would collapse and crumble into a state of nothingness, leaving behind an empty memory of what once existed; it was a glutton within the quiet night.

In the face of a terrifying force, Ji-Ho could only think to let out a sigh as she parted her lips to speak.

"Even now, you would choose to follow me specifically? Am I cursed to always see you in my wake? When I find wherever home is, will you leave me, or continue to torment me? Do you really want to kill me that badly?"

The haze left behind by the brightened day had given way to the dazzling night sky in an instant, and she was left with the chill of the autumn air as she imagined those same interactions over and over again. Once, twice, it was all she could think to think of. When facing death, she stared at the stars.

She imagined it was where she would go, after it was all over.

"I wonder, within that endless plain of starlight, do you all stand there looking back at me?" Ji-Ho spoke with a straight, unfeeling expression.

Draped in a fur-lined cloak of midnight, she let her breath fall heavy on the chilled air and she smiled. It was times when she could sit amidst the frost of the night that she truly felt warmth within her own body.

It was no longer enough for Ji-Ho to be constantly on the move, It once let her mind stay focused and drift away from thought. Now the peace she found within her mind came alongside the mind-numbing rest she endured each night.

After what had been a near-eternity of wandering a razed world, she wondered if she had finally found a home in nowhere at all.

Ji-Ho sat on the edge of a building's roof, surveying the area around her as she casually searched for a route out of the current predicament. The sea of shadow groaned and creaked with each thrashing movement, tendrils of darkness erupting from its surface as it desperately grasped at the sides of the buildings.

With the conclusion of her infinitely-pondered thoughts, Ji-Ho came to terms with the fact she would never see the sky embrace the mountain and stood up to greet her apprehension. No longer would she allow her fears to keep her feet rooted within the concrete.

She looked down at the blackened street, which was starting to merge with a wispy sea of grey colours; they were enemies of thought masquerading as wisps of smoke seeking to block out the street that once stood filled with the joyous, pointless, unending noise of humanity.

The further she sat watching the calamity below her, would her window of timing sink further and further into the misty apprehension of shadow.

Ji-Ho's gaze sharpened as she looked around her. Having shut the door leading up to the roof behind her, no more could the creatures of darkness seek to berate her anxieties. In doing so, however, she had blocked off what was nearly her only escape route.

An erratic force scratched at her boot, and in an instant, Ji-Ho pulled out a knife that had been tucked in her cloak, looking down to face the expected monstrosity that had somehow made its way towards her. She did find a danger, but its only malicious purpose served to fill her heart with an overloaded sense of euphoria.

A small white cat sat nestled beside her boot, purring erratically as it scratched at her gently.

Its fur was indistinguishable from the clouds that would dance in the sky, its left eye a golden sunset, not yet ablaze, but more a bright yellow ember on the horizon.

If love was to be described, in the barest way Ji-Ho could imagine it, it would probably be similar to its right eye. A light purple, almost like the euphoric feeling of standing in a field of lilacs, still wet from a morning of water; it was a single bird off in the distance, inventing a quiet melody.

Yet, as it would stand to be, love couldn't be described in such a simple way. Love, within itself, was the mellifluous experience of a singular person.

Had it been a heart-skipping woman wearing an expensive ametrine necklace, or a light cake smothered in fresh cream, topped with a single strawberry; it would have been said that each person's experience of love was always different.

Not that Ji-Ho had known much of love. That was just her ramblings of outside perspective. It was the poetic words from the only man she had ever bound the word 'love' to.

"Where did you come from?" Ji-Ho spoke with glimmering eyes, reaching out to it.

In response, the cat sunk its teeth into her hand, a droplet of blood dripping down towards her fingertips as she smiled.

"It would take so much more than that to hurt me in any meaningful way, Gentle One." She spoke in a hushed, loving tone.

The cat, looking away from Ji-Ho, ran with swift and small steps as it cascaded toward the edge of the building. With no hesitation in its heart, it leapt off the edge with a single jump, disappearing from Ji-Ho's sight as it descended.

Ji-Ho quickly ran up to the edge, her palms slamming against the concrete wall as she looked downwards towards where the cat had jumped. To her relief, she found that the cat had landed softly on the floor of a dilapidated building far below her.

"You didn't even hesitate! Don't you know how dangerous that shadow is?" Her eyes shimmered with the strong impression of the cat's bravery.

Ji-Ho bit her lip in an aggravated fashion, heavy feelings resting upon her heart as she clutched at her chest. How could a cat do what her fears refused her to do?

Not taking a moment to weigh her apprehensions, or even to think for that matter, Ji-Ho placed her foot upon the edge of the roof, propelling herself forward as she started a freefall that wracked her entire body with an aching fear.

Stuck within hell, her whole body froze up as she felt suspended in midair. Glancing around, she was able to grasp the entirety of her situation in a mere instant.

Taking a deep breath, she exhaled sharply as her gaze narrowed. Throwing out her hand as she fell, she grasped tightly onto the edge of the building below, the texturing of the concrete digging harshly into her palms.

She felt her will falter as she tried desperately to get a foothold on the building's wall, but soaked with a previous day's rainfall, she found it near-impossible to even comprehend such an achievement of action.

It had been not even ten seconds of her struggle, but against the pain of the handhold that dug into her flesh, she did not begin to believe that she would make it.

Biting her lip, she muttered to herself as she tried to measure her surroundings.

"I could drop down further... but the impact could be too much..."

She hung needlessly, losing herself in her own rambling thoughts, staring down at the ground as she resigned herself to her failures.

"Hey, do you need some help...?" A hushed voice spoke worryingly.

Glancing up above her, a figure enveloped in the moonlight stared back down at her.