Escape?

The Sun sets over the sky which is now a palette of orange, yellow, and purple. The stars glimmer timidly across the colorful waves of the cloud, like sparkling dusts. Beneath is a plain green grass plain, with deep foliage and trees. Your eyes adjust to the scene before you- it is breathtakingly beautiful…. 

And equally horrifying.

“Where am I?” you mumble to yourself as you scan the landscape before you. You could no longer feel the warmth of an old edifice, the fragrance of age-old books and the sweet, sweet scent of the warm milk tea. Instead, you could feel cool breezes brushing across your hair and smell the petrichor around you. 

“Wait…. Wasn’t I in the library?” you thought to yourself while adjusting to the new environment.

You plop up and sit on the dewy, moist grass. You could feel your back wet with moisture and coated with earth. The soil feels cold yet comforting to your hands as you balance yourself to sit with crossed legs. While being in a cocktail of confusion, frightened, relaxed and calm, you enjoy the scenery before you. The only thing you missed was a book: the aura was perfect with wind and coolness.

“What… are you doing here?” 

You immediately turn back. In front of you is a short, lean man, with blond hair which was put on like bangs but parted just above the forehead. His eyes are grey-black and shaped like boxes underneath neatly shaped brows. His lips, which are pink-tinted, are slightly parted showing that he is curious seeing me here. You try to fix your spectacles as a reflex, only to realise there is no familiar plastic rim on the bridge of your nose.

“Wait…. Why are you poking on top of your nose?” He chuckles, making his eyes squint and nearly disappear, “And besides, why are you here?”

“What do you mean?” you ask- your confusion is now the size of a black hole.

“There is a war going on here. The last thing we need is dizzy, dreamy head,” he replies, his voice getting octaves deeper.

“Saemin,” you whisper his name, remembering the novel you were reading earlier.

“Now, I don’t know what you’re going to say, General, but could you please kindly excuse me from the lecture now? We have a battle to deal with,” he states boldly with a content smirk, enjoying the chance to admonish his Chief. Before you can even come back with a witty answer, he grabs your arm, pulling you up and leading you  towards a clump of brown and black tents. You already could see figures running hastily and doing their tasks. Nobody stopped to say hi to anyone. There are clangs and clashes of swords, spears and draggers, amidst rustling footsteps and shouts of commands. Everyone is wearing their shields and helmets, ready to jump and fight. You smiled to yourself seeing their eager faces, just as you recalled reading earlier. You noticed the familiar red triangular flag with golden embroidery on its edges. Saemin is leading you to the Camp.

You scan eagerly around yourself once you step into the Camp, oblivious to the man who still holds your arm and leads the way. You try to find the characters you read, just like you found Saemin. Amidst the crowd of busy warriors, you finally spot Taehmun. His eyes caught your attention immediately. His pitch-black orbs look like charcoals dropped on a white marble tile, which is exactly how his skin is. His golden locks are much like Saemin, except more thick and fluffy. He still has not put on his helmet like the rest. Once his eyes catch you staring, he smirks, almost showing his boxy grin. You smile back, feeling a rush of dopamine across your veins. You feel yourself at home, pushing aside the nagging questions to the back of your mind.

You feel aware that people are looking at you. Some greet with a slight nod, some smiles, some bow a teensy bit. Your attention shifts to the sky as you see two wings flapping over you. It seems like a human figure, with broad, neatly-set feathers on each of the wings. The wings are so large that they themselves could have covered his whole thin, tall form. He flashes his dimpled smile, which you recognize immediately. Within a flash of a second, Monstra already flies across half the barracks, his wings gliding gracefully yet powerfully over the warring people.

You also notice another man looking up at the flying Icarus. His messy long hair hides his sparkling eyes. His smile, like a rosy Sun across the azure sky, flashes brightly at the flying man. His head turns and follows the figure moving across the sky. You sighed, recalling how Jasha is fated in this story. This reminds you: would the antagonists be also the people of the same book? You would not want to call them the villains: they just had different sides of the whole story, and you sympathize with them. The prince who has a cold heart beneath the angelic demeanour; the Pied Piper, with the silver flute, whose porcelain pale skin rivaled the Moon; and the innocent boy who turned into a wolf by the cruel course of time- you loved them like, you hated them and you cried for them. You know they are fiction, not reality. However, standing at this moment, you really do not know what to think.

Your mind seemed to be clogged with a sudden feeling of happiness and an abrupt feeling of utmost confusion. You longed to be set free from the earthly dimensions and escape to the fictional world, but when you knew it was something never meant to happen. However, your eyes now betray that hopeless feeling, for you find yourself in the exact place and time you always, always yearned to be. 

Even though you cannot comprehend how you ended up coming to a different dimension from the Local Library on the 5th Street, you low-key enjoy the situation. You know what will happen and how the things will turn up.

Or do you?