Chapter Text
every time jiwoo awoke on her 12th birthday, she Remembered.
it was like torture.
to be so young and remember every little detail about your friends’ deaths. to feel the pain as they were drifting away, killed by people who had never even taken a chance to know them.
if you were to ask jiwoo why these people were evil, she would never be able to give you a concrete answer. they just were.
so, naturally, for jiwoo, whenever she Remembered, she tried to forget.
—
it started like this…
—
jiwoo was celebrating her 17th birthday when it first happened.
(she felt a ripple, a pull. something calling to her. something dark and foreign.)
she had been gathering her close friends to celebrate with her, like they always had. frilly dresses, a party in the local candy shop; just fun pastimes and no obligations.
“a little to the left!”
haewon, the second-eldest, was busy directing the actual eldest, lily, on how to hang up jiwoo’s birthday banner in the entryway to the candy shop.
jinsol, barely four months older than jiwoo but nearly a head taller, stood watching- knowing full well that she could very easily put the banner up, but enjoying the show of lily attempting the equivalent of a volleyball spike to place said banner in the entryway.
kyujin, the youngest of the friend group, and yunjin were busying themselves by making what they called “fun punch”, or rather… pouring five different sodas in a bowl and praying the fizz didn't overflow.
jiwoo herself stood off to the side with yoona, watching the chaos unfold.
“y'know unnie,” jiwoo began, sipping her “fun punch” sample and grimacing, “i think this may be the best birthday i’ve had in a long time.” she wrapped an arm lopsidedly across yoona’s shoulders. “and of course it's even better that you're here.”
yoona let out a grin, the big toothy one that jiwoo loved. “i’m glad, jjyu. jinsol and i got you a big present this year.” she reached up to squeeze jiwoo’s hand, smiling down at her. “you'll love it, i promise.”
jiwoo could feel herself getting emotional from yoona’s gentle, caring tone, but tried to contain it, blinking away the tears. “you and sol-unnie always give me the best birthdays. even if you just brought yourselves, it would be perfect.”
jiwoo made eye contact with jinsol from across the room. as their eyes met, jinsol simply smiled softly and waved, almost bashfully.
jiwoo wondered.
it had been… interesting between them lately. the three of them, that is.
there was something there.
jiwoo couldn't wait to find out what it was.
—
as the party was in full swing, jiwoo was enjoying herself to the fullest.
the candy shop owners were dancing to music played through the loudspeakers,
lily and haewon were twirling kyujin around in circles,
yunjin was regaling the postmaster with a tale of how she chased down her neighbor’s dog for her mail,
and jiwoo…
jiwoo was with yoona and jinsol, downing the “fun punch” like there was no tomorrow.
“they put crack in this, i'm telling you,” jiwoo was saying, as yoona and jinsol laughed. this only spurred her on more, leading to more revelations from jiwoo’s mouth as she compared the soda concoction to many, many different things:
- water turned to wine
- a refreshing glass of water
- more drug comparisons
- heaven, but on earth, so not really
- etc.
all while jinsol and yoona laughed their heads off at her antics.
however, as the night continued on, jiwoo noticed something odd.
there was a green glow around every candy in the shop. not extremely noticeable, but if you looked close, you could see it.
she creeped toward one of the shelves, watching yoona and jinsol refilling their cups out of the corner of her eye. they wouldn't notice yet. they were too caught up in their own world at the moment.
jiwoo’s hand closed around a small, round piece of the candy. she observed it for a brief moment. it seemed completely ordinary, save for the green, hazy glow.
“oh well, can't waste it now,” she mumbled to herself, before pocketing it. she knew better than to eat a strange candy without consulting any other parties first.
but.
it seemed yunjin had gone far past that.
as jiwoo watched her pop two small round candies into her mouth.
glow and all.
—
jiwoo’s morbid curiosity wore off as the night itself wore on.
but she couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right.
the pit in her stomach grew as she felt something almost… calling to her. something she had felt since she picked up that strange green candy.
the call lead her away, slipping outside with no one noticing, where she observed something… peculiar:
their ship, where it had once been docked near the shore, was gone.
missing completely.
“that's strange,” jiwoo muttered, “i could've sworn yunjin parked it right here.” she rubbed her temples in frustration. “i knew i shouldn't have drank so much of that damn ‘fun punch’... ugh, kyujin, why…”
as she turned to go back inside, jiwoo swore she saw something (or someone) scurry away in a hurry. thinking nothing of it and simply shaking her head, jiwoo headed on back to the party, content to leave it be.
—
“yah, where have you been, my jjyu?!”
jinsol’s voice could pierce sound barriers, jiwoo swore on it.
arm slung lazily around yoona’s shoulders, plastic cup of godforsaken “fun punch” in one hand, jinsol was swaying to the beat of some sad pop song, dragging yoona along with her.
yoona waved with a laugh, ushering jiwoo over to them.
“we missed you,” she said simply, holding out a hand for jiwoo to take.
jiwoo took it, but felt… off. like she was hiding something, but she didn't know what it was yet. she gulped it down and reached for jinsol’s free hand as well.
“i have to tell you guys something,” she said softly, “and it's really weird, and you might hate me after it, but–”
“ALRIGHT! TIME FOR THE BIRTHDAY GIRL TO GET CAKED UP!”
“haewon-unnie, that does not mean what you think it does-”
“SHUSH, KYUJIN, IT MEANS EXA-”
lily slapped a hand over haewon’s mouth, side-eyeing the punch bowl as she did so.
“there's not just soda in there…” she uttered under her breath before continuing on: “what haewon is trying to say is, it's time for the cake!”
as haewon and kyujin pulled her toward the brightly-colored, beautifully decorated birthday cake, jiwoo felt her heart pull and her stomach drop. she knew something was off, but she just didn't know what it was.
—
“yeah, so, like that was not just soda,” haewon said through a mouthful of cake. lily scolded her briefly and kept wiping icing off her cheeks, as the tipsy state haewon was in left her with absolutely zero motor skills.
as haewon attempted to navigate a forkful of icing under lily's watchful eye, kyujin gave jiwoo another cup of the punch and a squeeze on the shoulder. “feeling okay, birthday girl?”
jiwoo looked up from her cake. she looked over at the others, then at the party guests. everyone had changed out of their frilly party clothes into more comfortable wear, looking comfortable, happy, content. but for jiwoo… she had this sinking feeling in her chest, a pit in her stomach.
“i don't know, kyu,” she said softly, just enough for only kyujin to hear. “i feel like something’s off. just… not right.” she stabbed her fork into the cake and set it to the side. “i dunno. maybe i’m just drunk.”
kyujin laughed, nearly spilling her drink. “nahh, you're okay unnie. everything’s fine!”
jiwoo tried to smile, but it came off as more of a grimace.
“you’re right. maybe everything will be oka–”
her words were interrupted by screams.
a loud crash.
the smell of smoke.
“everyone get down!” the voice of the shopkeeper rang out over the crowd.
jiwoo ducked, barely missing a chunk of concrete flying past her head. she quickly made her way over to the other girls, hiding under the punch table with them.
as jiwoo curled up in between the protective barriers of jinsol and yoona, they saw what looked to be dark silhouettes at the edges of the party room. they looked oddly familiar to jiwoo, almost like the figure she thought she had seen earlier.
as jinsol and yoona hugged her tight, she felt a brief sense of comfort and relief. but she knew the figures were here.
here for her.
—
the girls stumbled out of the candy shop, soot staining their faces, hair, and clothes. their hands trembled, as their lungs struggled to adapt to the smoke and toxic fumes in the air.
haewon grasped lily and kyujin’s hands tightly. “i’m going to get them back to the ship. yunjin, where did you park it again?”
yunjin coughed, pointing in the direction of the docks behind the shop. “there,” she began hoarsely, “it… it should be right there…”
jiwoo turned to look behind the shop. “wait unnie, it's not–” but she stopped dead in her tracks, as she saw the shadowy figure again.
haewon and the others did not seem to notice the strange figure, which irked jiwoo. why was she the only one that could see it?
“now where the hell is the ship?!”
yunjin ceased her coughing briefly to look around the corner and groaned loudly. “someone must've stolen it,” she grumbled through coughs. “but how?”
“i’ll look on ahead,” jiwoo said, “i saw something that looked weird, so i need to go check it out.”
ignoring their protests, jiwoo took off running toward the center of town, yunjin hot on her heels despite her coughing attacks.
however, when they both arrived at the center of town, it seemed almost deathly quiet. no screams, no sounds. nothing.
the two circled the square for a bit, hoping to find something, someone, anything.
nothing.
“huh, that's weird, isn't it, unnie?” jiwoo said, her voice shaking. “you would think that there would be some signs of life…” when no response came, jiwoo turned slowly. “unnie?”
yunjin stood, holding her side.
red blossomed out from under her hand, accented by a faint green glow.
“i think…” yunjin began, “i think… i've made a mistake.”
jiwoo lurched forward, adding pressure to the wound. “no, no, no,” she whispered. “i have to find–”
yunjin covered jiwoo’s hand with her own. “there's nothing we can do, jiwoo,” she let out weakly, her knees beginning to give out from underneath her. “i just… i just know…”
as jiwoo helped lower yunjin to the ground, she saw the figures of two of the others approaching in the background, her mind a mess from the situation not allowing her to process who it was.
at this point, jiwoo was sobbing, desperately trying to wipe up the blood seeping into yunjin’s clothes as she slowly bled out.
“it’s okay, jiwoo-yah,” yunjin said, reaching her hand out to shakily wipe jiwoo’s bangs out of her face, “i made a foolish mistake. i should've known… they were always very clever…” jiwoo could barely make out the end of yunjin’s sentence, but by the time she processed it, yunjin’s eyes fluttered closed.
yunjin inhaled one last time.
—
as jiwoo tried to control and slow down her tears, she realized yoona and jinsol had approached her, concern written across their faces.
“she's gone,” she sniffled. “like… really gone.” standing up, she rubbed her face of any extra tears that may have resided.
that was when she noticed that both yoona and jinsol looked extremely distressed.
“well, we- we have to find haewon-unnie. and lily-unnie! they ran off to go find you guys and- and kyujin’s… kyujin- she's… she-” jinsol choked up, clutching jiwoo’s shoulders tightly. yoona gently came over and took one of jinsol’s hands, releasing jiwoo from part of her vice grip.
jiwoo swallowed, because she knew. she knew what she had to do. and jinsol and yoona were not going to like it.
“listen to me,” jiwoo breathed out harshly, grasping tightly to both jinsol and yoona’s hands. she swallowed down the fear and apprehension building up and looked them both in the eyes. “i love you both. like love you, love you. and i will find you again, i swear it. no matter what happens.”
jinsol’s bottom lip began to tremble and she squeezed jiwoo’s hand tighter as yoona clenched her jaw in an attempt not to cry.
jiwoo sighed, reluctantly letting go of their hands to run her own through her already mussed up hair. she turned briefly, about to step away when something stopped her in the tracks. telling her to do something before she regretted not doing it.
yoona furrowed her brow, stepping forward slowly toward jiwoo.
“jiwoo, wha-”
but that was all she could get out before jiwoo swiftly turned on her heel. jiwoo marched forward, pulled yoona forward by a handful of her bloody sweatshirt, and kissed her.
yoona immediately shut her eyes, savoring the moment and kissing her back because she knew. she knew.
when jiwoo pulled away, she turned to look at a stunned jinsol, who was not prepared for jiwoo to also grab her by the neck and kiss her square on the mouth. but, in a matter of seconds, jinsol recovered and seemed to be almost sobbing into the kiss.
as yoona watched one love of her life kiss the other, she felt a tear slip down her cheek, unbidden. she swiftly wiped it away.
she knew how this would end.
—
when jiwoo finally tore herself away from jinsol and yoona, she gave them both one final kiss, patted their cheeks, and ran off into the rubble, hoping and praying to find someone. anyone.
however, what she did find made her blood run cold.
haewon, motionless, lying in the rubble. holding tightly to lily and kyujin. protecting them even in her last moments.
jiwoo choked on a sob, crouching down and gently reaching out to touch haewon’s hand one more time.
“i see you've finally found them.”
a chilling voice spoke up from behind her.
jiwoo sniffled, standing up and turning around to face the voice.
there, behind her, stood a group of people wearing plain polos, dress pants, and sunglasses. their apparent leader, the man with the cold voice, stepped forward almost robotically.
“it was the only way.”
jiwoo rubbed her eyes, tears still threatening to spill out. “what do you mean, the only way?” she sobbed.
the leader tilted his head. “well, you see. this place belongs to us. you all are protecting it. too well, though. so we have to eliminate you. naturally, you understand.”
jiwoo glared at him. “that's not fair. this place doesn't belong to any of us, it belongs to the people of Field.”
the leader smirked. “our organization understands your frustration. but trust me when i say, we win. every time. and in every time.”
he reached behind him, bringing forward a book. “this is a record of every timeline so far. of course, i am only showing you this because i know you won't remember. and because we need you to be a willing subject.” he handed jiwoo a book, filled with timeline graphs and numerical equations.
jiwoo, perplexed by this new information, but not surprised, stood there, eyes scanning the pages.
until she heard a scream.
their screams.
“no,” she whispered, shoving the book back in the leader’s arms and making to run back toward jinsol and yoona.
however, before she could even make it five steps away, a pair of strong arms grabbed her and began pulling her away.
“be careful with her,” the leader said, closing up the book carefully, “we’ll need her in one piece to get answers out of her. and then we can kill her.” he began walking away, beckoning for the others to follow.
as jiwoo struggled, her voice growing hoarse from her own yelling and screaming, all she could think about was that she had failed.
and oh how she prayed that she would Remember.
—
End of Chapter 2.