the idols race for love, are you ready? | book one | utapri

chapter fifty-four

ａ ｃｕｒｓｅｄ ｐｒｉｎｃｅ

『 your p.o.v 』

          Waking up in the middle of a forest, I slowly sat up on the dirt path and looked around some. It's the middle of the night, moonlight peeking through the leaves of the trees just ever so slightly, and the sound of crickets chirping off in the distance rings out into the night.

Where am I? I remember going to sleep after talking with Haruka and Tomo-chan a little more after we called Reiji and just- is this a dream? It must be. There's no other reasoning for me waking up in the middle of some random forest and it's not even winter anymore. It feels like it's mid spring...

Just what kind of dream is this?

Making my way down the path, I continued to glance around in hopes of finding something. There's nothing else for me to really do other than walk until I wake up. Though after a few what I think were minutes spent walking down this path in the moonlit forest, suddenly bright green fireflies began to light up the area in front of me.

The further into the forest I walked, the more dense and tall the trees became until I was now walking through a large jungle of sorts. The air was slightly humid, though still cool as the fireflies continued to guide me through the vaguely familiar area. It feels almost as if I've been here before but can't quite place my finger on when or why I would have ever come to the jungle in the first place. Even in a dream this is pretty weird.

The faint sound of a cat's meow came from further down the path through the jungle. I continued following the fireflies until a certain emerald eyed black cat came into view, just sitting on top of a fallen tree and tilting his little head slightly as our eyes meet.

"Kuppuru?" I said almost in shock just as the cat meowed once more and then jumped off the log only to run further down the path. "Kuppuru, wait!" I called after him. Though by the time I managed to run and make my way over the log, he was already gone and I was met with a large semi-cracked staircase that leads up to some ancient ruins. If I listened closely, I could just barely here Kuppuru meow one last time from the top of the ruins.

Shaking my head some, I began the long climb up the weathered staircase that looks as if it was built centuries ago. All of this feels so strangely familiar now; the jungle, the ruins, seeing Kuppuru here, and the brightly glowing fireflies that dance around the dark jungle, illuminating it in the most beautiful way possible. There must be something I'm forgetting...

Finally making it up the last of the steps and reaching the top of the ruins, I was surprised to find not a cat but rather a handsome tanned young man dressed in royal middle eastern attire waiting for me. Those striking emerald green eyes instantly reminded me of Kuppuru's, though I'm pretty sure that even with this being a dream and all, Kuppuru is by no means a handsome guy.

The emerald eyed boy walked up to me and knelt down on one knee, taking one of my hands in his and kissing the back of it like a true prince while his other hand was placed over his heart. "___, I'm so glad the god's have allowed me to see you again." He said softly as he looked up to me with a breathtaking smile dancing across his lips.

"Again?" I repeated, hesitantly taking my hand out of his as well as taking a small step back. "I don't... Wait, you're the boy I dreamed about after I lost mom's laptop!" I said with widened eyes as realization struck me harder than a falling brick wall.

The boy chuckled as he stood back up and ran his fingers through his dark brown hair. "I'm glad you remember me ___. You're doing much better now than you were back then. I'm so proud of you."