Gaeul

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She was weightless. She was immensely delicate and light.

Gaeul was falling. Although, it didn’t feel entirely like falling—not quite.

Opening her eyes, shielding herself from the initial blast of light that beamed right into her face, she was surprised to find that there was nothing but darkness—nothing but the void. Taking a deep breath to try and steady herself, she glanced around her.

There was nothing.

Raising a brow, Gaeul lifted up a hand towards her face. She could still touch it. She could still feel the rather cold texture of her cheek against the underside of her thin fingers. But as she waved it up in front of her eyes, she gasped and widened her eyes at the sight of it.

There was nothing there. There was nothing in front of her.

Staring down at her entire body now, she was frightened to death to find the exact same situation: nothing. She had no torso, no limbs, no digits, no neck, no chest. Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

And just as she was about to scream for her life, quickly learning that she had lost her voice too, a rope of light laced itself around where her waist should have been and pulled her in.

This invisible lasso reeled her in rapidly and continuously.

The last thing she remembered amidst all of this confusion was being yanked through what seemed to be a roughly cut hole through the darkness. The last thing Gaeul could remember was being blinded by the light once more before being tugged into what seemed like an iridescent ocean of colors.

Shimmering. Blinding. Bright.

Is she even the eldest of the group? She’s too childish and immature for her age.

“Don’t look back, Kim Gaeul.”

Gaeul sat up in a cold sweat, wiping her eyes as if trying to scrub out the last bits of light that clung to her irises. She didn’t remember what she was dreaming about. Was it the rent due this week? Was it the months-overdue project she had yet to submit for general sciences? Or was it … that again?

Whatever it was, she didn’t want to think about it. She had other things to worry about—her empty stomach and the ringing in her head. There was no time to ponder on that feeling of dread.

She’d make sure there was no time for it at all.

Scanning the entire width of her pitifully small single-room apartment, she groaned at the sight of the entire mess that stared back at her. Her clothes were still in a pile to one side, swallowing her hamper whole with dirty laundry. Her cupboards were creaking as one of the doors swung open out of nowhere—rats again? She could even still hear the dripping of the leaky shower through the open door in the bathroom from all the way across the bed.

Shrugging, she stretched her arms up in the air, lifting her sports bra up along with it before slamming back down on the bed without a care in the world.

“It’s the weekend anyway, so might as well sleep in~.”

Unfortunately for her, her alarm began blaring once more. Little did she know that this was not a weekend. In fact, this was the sixth time she had slept through her alarm for the day, making her miss not just one but three consecutive classes on a rather busy Wednesday morning.

This was the average life for the Kim Gaeul—non-major at Seoul National University.

Blowing a bubble, Gaeul watched as it grew to the size of an orange before popping, staining her lips and chin a bright pink before she sucked it all in her mouth again, continuing her chewing. She paid her classmates no mind as she ruffled her hair, which was barely held up in a messy bun atop her head, passing them by and accidentally grazing some of their elbows and forearms with her bare legs, not stopping to apologize for any of it.

Her friends all chuckled at her in the back row as they pointed in her direction. Rolling her eyes, she skipped a little faster towards them and leapt into the empty seat, making a large crashing sound, which merited the attention of their professor.

“Miss Kim, late again are we, and already making quite the ruckus?” he indicated, pushing his glasses up his nose. “That’s the ninth time this month. One more, and I’ll have a word with you in my office.”

Swatting a hand at him shamelessly, she crossed her legs and leaned against her desk. “I bet you’d like that, wouldn’t you professor?”

That earned her a few sneers and chuckles from the class, forcing the professor to quiet them down once more, ignoring the snide remark.

Sohee tapped her arm furiously and raised up her phone. Gaeul instinctively held out two peace signs and blew a small bubble—just in time to pose well for the Instagram reel. “Ya, that’s a good one~! Hey hey, what happened to you? You missed more than just the first period. That’s rare of you. Busy night?”

“What could she be busy with, girl? She doesn’t do anything in that miserable room of hers,” Eunji interjected without looking away from her phone. “Oh, he’s kinda cute—anyway, have you cleaned your room out yet? I don’t want to go there tonight if it still smells like ass. I told you you should have applied for the school dorms with us, bitch. Make your, like, family pay for it or sum’in.”

Gaeul gritted her teeth and just chuckled. “Right … I-I’ll look into it next sem~. Maybe there’ll be an opening by then.”

To her left, Sohee leaned closer and snatched Eunji’s phone from across Gaeul’s lap. “Hey! I was texting him! Ya, you better not mistype, Hwang Sohee!”

“Relax, girl~! You don’t need him. Know why?” she raised, glancing around her to see if anyone was eavesdropping on them. In a hushed tone, she smirked at her other two friends and giggled. “Because I got the three of us spots on the Kappa Mu thing happening soon~.”

Gaeul gasped and gripped both of Sohee’s hands tightly in hers. “Really? Shut the fuck up, are you for real!”

“Miss Kim,” their professor warned, clearing his throat as he pointed a blunt chalk at her. “Silence, or feel free to leave.”

Rolling her eyes at him, Gaeul ducked behind the seats in front of them and resumed their discussion there. “Are you kidding me—because you better not be. Kappa Mu? This late into the sem? Shut up!”

But Sohee nodded with an air of confidence in her. “My roommate Yeorum has a cousin who’s dating the brother of a Kappa Mu sister. I asked her to pull a few strings for me, and as it turns out, they could handle three more joining in last-minute. Perfect timing, don’t you think~?”

Even the more apathetic Eunji was impressed. “No. Fucking. Way. Bitch, I’m in. I’m so in—super duper in. Because if we make it past their hazing or whateva’, we get in, right? We’ll be part of the soro’.”

“Part of the sorority …”

As Gaeul repeated Eunji’s words under her breath, she couldn’t help but feel a fluttering in her chest. She was nervous. She didn’t expect something like this would be happening to her. But as she clenched her fist atop her ripped denim shorts, she took a deep breath and nodded.

This was exactly the thing she was looking for: a change. Something different. Some growth.

Anything away from there.

Holding her hand out in front of her, she nodded at Sohee. “I’m in. If we get into Kappa Mu, then we have—.”

“Free rides. Free admission to Kappa Mu parties. Occasional tickets to KPOP concerts. And most importantly?”

Her two friends placed their hands on top of Gaeul’s and clutched each other’s digits before squealing, “Monthly mixers with the frats! AHHHH~!”

The sound of an eraser slamming against the floor was enough to snap them out of their discussion and sit upright. However, their professor was not having it. “You three. Out. Now. Now!”

Without feeling a hint of guilt, Gaeul stuck her tongue at him and spat her gum out, pressing it against the back of someone else’s chair. Returning to her friends, she nodded excitedly. “Kappa Mu?”

And like the insensitive chatterboxes that they were, they all screamed in unison in the middle of their classroom. “Kappa Mu!”

Shatter.

“Don’t look back, Kim Gaeul. You—.”

Swaying from side to side, barely even able to stand up straight and dance, Gaeul slumped herself onto the countertop and raised a wobbling finger sleazily in the air. “One … urk … one more martini please. For … for me—HRKK!”

Just before she could throw up, she took a deep breath and pinched her nose. Smiling, she shot back up into a straight and stiff stand, locking eyes with the older bartender across her who was hesitating to give the drunken girl another drink. Gaeul chuckled childishly as she pointed at him. “Whaaaaaat? I’m old enough to drin—HIC—drink~. So just shut up, take my money, and slip another drink into my empty hand will you?”

“The money, ma’am. Pay first, drink later,” the man said promptly, already very concerned over Gaeul’s behavior. Gaeul fished through the contents of her purse, scattering some of her makeup products and nicknacks onto the floor. Sighing, she kicked them aside and slammed her wallet on the counter.

“Ma’am you … you’re out of money.”

“Oh yeah?” she challenged, wobbling forward once again as she stepped over her lipstick. Grunting, she smirked at the man and grabbed the bottom of her cropped top to yank it up. “How about this for paym—?”

Within seconds, Gaeul threw up all over the bar and her wallet, staining it in a foul mix of alcohol and cheap packed nuts.

Shatter.

Bang bang bang. Three hard knocks emerged from the other side of the door. Groaning, Gaeul groggily pushed herself off of the bed and glanced around her. Scratching her eyes, the banging sound grew louder and louder as she heard the voice of a grumbling woman call out to her.

“Gaeul? Gaeul! Where’s my money? You said you’d pay me the three months you owe me today! Where the hell is it?”

Gaeul kept quiet and snuck back underneath her heavily wrinkled sheets. However, she nearly screamed when she felt an arm suddenly wrap around her and pull her to the other side of her mattress.

“Rough morning?” the stranger in her bed said as he pressed his nose up against hers, smiling at her invitingly. “Seems like a bad time to do the walk of shame. Landlady?”

Blushing, Gaeul crinkled her nose and nodded, wrapping an arm around him too. “Yeah, rent’s due today. Sorry about all this, but could you stay here a while longer? Until she leaves?”

“I’ll do you one better,” he replied in a low sultry tone. Before Gaeul could figure out what he had meant, he disappeared further within the sheets, and within seconds, Gaeul let out a few moans as she tugged against his hair to guide him.

Meanwhile, her landlady kicked her door in frustration and growled at the lack of a response. “Ya—Ya, you think I can’t hear you? The audacity of kids these days! Not in my complex, you hear me? Go get it on somewhere else—Jesus Christ!”

But Gaeul was too busy with some ‘oral worship’ of her own to even care.