The Upside-down (Norminah)

Exposure to the Past

//

I was pleasantly surprised at how peaceful and warm this dinner was. Back home, my people were quite boisterous and loud at dinner gatherings. But this was more tame. The conversation was calm, and everyone's spirits were high. Dinah and I would sneak little glances at each other every now and then. Every smile she would send my way would cause the butterflies in my stomach to do somersaults. I looked at Nala and Lána and couldn't help but smile. It seems like they got really close in such a short time. They were very much alike in personality. I then looked at Lealia and saw the slight concern in her face, which caused slight concern to arise in me. Dinah saw my change in mood and brought her attention to Lealia as well, both of us following her intense gaze towards Chaerin whose eyes were sadly cast down to her wrist. It had a marking that I had never noticed until now. It resembled one of the symbols from a card game my family and I would play back home.

"Are you alright m'dame?" Lealia asked softly. 

"Oh," Chaerin replied, looking up with eyes wide from everyone's attention being on her. "I'm sorry. I just really miss my loved ones."

Lauren's eyes slightly dulled with sadness as she looked to Chaerin, then to Ty as he met her gaze with a sympathetic smile.

"We're going to find them darlin',"  Lána said, caressing her cheek while wiping a single tear away from her eye. 

"But what if they're not there? My home was in the middle of a war when I left. I was supposed to protect them..."

 Dinah and I looked at each other with much concern. I didn't know Chaerin's worries ran this deep.

"Do you mind if we ask what happened?" Dinah asked cautiously, being careful as to not step over any boundaries. 

Chaerin smiled slightly as she wiped the last of her tear. "I can show you better than I can tell you."

Nala, Lealia, Dinah and I all looked at one another in confusion. Chaerin then closed her eyes, as did Lána, Lauren, and Ty. Soon, Dinah's necklace started glowing as was Nala's earring. My eyes started to glow as did Lealia's and we all closed our eyes. Time and space began to warp. We were in a dining room one minute, the next, we were in a foreign city... 

⚬⚫⚬

"What is this place?" Dinah asked beside me, holding onto my hand.

"This is my home," Chaerin said somberly. "South Korea."

We all looked on in astonishment. All the neon lights, the buzz of people, foreign letters. It all was surreal. It seemed that Chaerin's kingdom was far more advanced than any kingdom I visited. The technology I saw were nothing like what we had at home. We were quite old fashioned compared to this place.

"Whoa..." Dinah said from beside me. I looked at her puzzled.

"What's wrong?" I asked approaching her.

"Some woman literally just walked through me," she said with wide eyes. I couldn't help but scoff a little.

"There's no w-"

"OH MY GOSH MANI LOOK!" We all turned to Nala running through a crowd of people with arms flailing in the air, Lealia following her lead. 

Chaerin softly giggled as she admired her home. "That's because we currently aren't in the present. We're in Seoul's past. Specifically ten years in the past."

"This is amazing," I said in wonderment, "how are you able to go back in time like this?"

"I rely solely on my memories to recreate them. Coming into the Upside-down caused me to obtain cognitive powers that allow me to remember every detail of my past. So I'm able to bring beautiful memories like this back to life."

Nala and Lealia soon joined us again as we started following Chaerin to what seemed like some kind of warehouse.

"As beautiful as this is," Dinah began.

"You said that your home was in the midst of war when you vanished," I continued, "but everything looks pretty peaceful."

As we all looked to her, she began to mournfully look up to the tall buildings surrounding her.

"That's because this was the start of it..."