ETERNALLY

Chapter 3

Blurry. Bright. Noisy. Colourful. All those words could not properly describe this new world the boy was in. It was just... more of what the words meant. It was deeper, better, more real. It was... just one of those things impossible to define, and you could only understand when you see it.

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Soobin woke up to that amazing and beautiful world. It was like a carnival, however distorted by what seemed like mirrors and water. But he was still awestruck by the variety, the colour of the sounds, sights and smells of the place, so vastly different from the boring practise room he had just left.

People milled around, warped like their surroundings, as if others like Soobin came and went every day.

And Soobin found a clear patch of grass, littered with brochures and plastic packaging.

A many-sided dice rolled to his feet, turning around and around on the ground until it came to a stop.

3.

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It burned a strange pattern in the grass around.

Then the ash returned to the ground, regenerating back into grass, covering all traces of the mysterious marking, like it had never been there. And maybe it never was. It could all be a dream. All this might not even exist.

This world might not exist.

And maybe Soobin didn't exist here either.

The tall boy bent down to pick it up.

And a little boy wearing a pale blue hoodie ran past him without a second glance. He was holding a vanilla ice cream cone in his hand.

It slipped from his grip, rolling onto the grass slowly, and then coming to a stop on the grass. The child turned back to look at Soobin.

The giant bunny couldn't help but notice that the younger boy looked a lot like Huening Kai, down to the mole on his left cheek, his hair, the way he stood and...

His shoes.

Just like how Huening Kai wore them in the practise room, this child had them on the same way. Exactly the same.

The back was pushed down to the soles.

The younger ran off into the darkness, which had mysteriously snuck up around when Soobin was focused on the dice.

He was all alone on an island of grass in a sea of darkness.

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Soobin collapsed onto his knees, tears dripping from his eyes.

He knew what this meant.

He was back in his nightmare, one he had every single night.

He didn't want his friends to desert him, like how Hyuka just did.

All he wanted was to keep the promise to the star.

All he wanted was to be with his friends.

Together forever.

He just wanted his friends.

And a ghostly white figure appeared at the opposite end of the green circle.

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She walked closer and closer to the weeping boy, who once stood tall, now crumpled into a trembling ball. Kneeling down in front of him, she put comforting arms around him in a warm, reassuring hug.

It seemed like a small gesture, but to Soobin, it meant that someone cared for him, would be there for him, and would make sure that the five of them would be together forever. He was grateful to the ghost.

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"I always tear up after waking from a familiar dream"

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