CH-3 What is this place?

~21.12.22~

"Haa...When did my bed get this uncomfortable and cold" Said Seoyun to himself in discomfort. "And... did I wake up before my alarm or did I just sleep through my alarm? Even if I slept through my alarm mom would have woken me up. Let me just sleep for a few more minutes." He thought to himself these things. But little did he know that his life was going to take a really big turn from this moment onwards. He slept for an hour or so, wondering why it was wet and cold, but he did not care about how his bed was. He just enjoyed his sleep. Soon he woke up and opened his eyes, he wasn't able to utter a word in the shock of what he saw. "NO! NO! NO! What is happening here!? This isn't my house! Am I dreaming!? I don't think dreams are supposed to be this real. Or did my life really get more interesting!?" Said Seoyun to himself. He wasn't in his house nor was it a dream, but unfortunately he still wasn't able to figure that out. He was still half asleep. He blinked his eyes a few times, but the scenery didn't change.

At this point, he accepted the fact that this isn't the usual world. He went to discover the place a bit, it was partially dark, instead of the sun or the moon there was a blue ball in the sky, the place was really cold, and it smelled of blood and rotten animals. Although this place is completely different from the usual world it seemed somewhat familiar. He wondered where he saw this place before but, to no surprise, he wasn't able to figure out where he saw this place before. Yun(We shall be calling him this as it is much easier) started to miss his family, his mother's cooking, his sister teasing and fights he had with her, and his friends with who he spent a large part of his childhood. His mind was completely blank. He didn't know what to do in the shock. Yun lost all of his hopes for escaping.

When he was in his worst state he heard a female voice.

"Hello is someone there?" Asked the female in a shaky voice. " Umm....this is me, and uh...I'm a human. A-Are you a human too? If you are not a human please don't come here, from anywhere you are." Yun said these words in a shaking and scared voice hoping it was a good human.

"Oh yes I am 100% human, and you need not worry I'm just like you. I don't know how but, I was in this place when I woke up. I'm not able to see clearly in this dark so would you mind coming here?" Said the voice somewhat happy and relieved. "Sure! I'll be right there!" Yun said these words in the most relieved way he ever had. He saw a girl! A human girl! Yun asked her many questions such as "How are you this brave and unbothered by this place? Doesn't it scare you? This coldness and darkness?".

"If you want me to answer these questions for you, you should give me some space to talk! Now the answer to your questions, 1st, I like adventures so, this is a bit exciting for me. 2nd, No this place doesn't scare me. 3rd I like cold and dark places. Now let's move to the actual questions, what is your name? Where are you from? What do you do? How should I trust you? How can I be sure that you are not a bad person? Do you know anything about how and why we reincarnated to this place?" She asked these in a threatening and bold voice.

"My name is Han Seo Yun, you can just call me Yun. I'm from Gangnam, Seoul, South Korea. I'm a student. You can trust me because I too have absolutely no idea about how I came here, and I'm sure this answers all your questions. Now I request you to answer the same questions." Said Yun a bit sad that the first person he met in this place doesn't trust him.

"My name is Ko eun byeol, you can just call me byeol. I'm from Busan, South Korea. I'm a student too. I have no idea how I came here either. So, I guess I answered your questions too." Said byeol.

"Let's go explore this place a bit now shall we?".

"I already explored it. It's just a plain, old place with a weird smell of blood and rotten animals". Yun said exhausted. "You sometimes just need a fresh eye to clear things up. So let's go or you can just be in this cold and dark place alone." Byeol said teasing. "Ugh! Fine! Let's go" Yun was annoyed by Byeol. It was clear at this point that those two don't get along well. They explored the forest a bit and found a glowing tree. It also had a board in front of it saying 'Tree of life'. "See! I told you we just needed a fresh eye," said Byeol happy and proud about herself. "Like my eyes are not fresh. why should I be traveling with a person I completely hate?" Mumbled Yun to himself.

"Well, what does the 'tree of life' mean? And are those some kind of berries in the tree?" Yun growled. "I'm just as clueless as you but let's take some of these berries it may help us in the future" Soon after saying this she started to collect the berries. "What if it doesn't help us and just end's up taking our space?" Yun said this. As he was too lazy to carry these berries around. "Better safe than sorry! And as we need a name for these berries let's name them the 'berries of life'. Let's go explore more of the place now." Byeol started moving forward. Even though Yun didn't want to carry all the berries in the dark he was more afraid of being in the dark, alone, so he followed Byeol.

They were walking for a long time and discovered a pond, but the smell of blood and rotten and dead animals was very intense there. "I've never smelt something this horrible in my life before. It smells really bad!" Yun said these words with a disgusted face, nearly puking. Byeol just agreed to Yun with a nod and they continued their expedition through the forest and found a lake. Luckily this time it seemed to be clean and it did not smell bad either.

"I'm finally able to breathe a bit of non-blood-smelling air. That pond just straight-up smelled like dead things. So, let's name it the 'lake of the dead' and as this forest contains many mysteries let's name it the 'mystical forest'." Byeol gave a name to the lake and the forest!

"But do names really matter though, I mean I don't think any people are living here."

"We need names so if we find any other person we'll be able to describe the appearance of the places and let them know its name!" said Byeol excited at the thought of finding other people.

"Your wish" Yun gave in because he knew that he'll be the person losing the argument in the end anyway.

And so their expedition came to an end...

To be continued.....