"Hey, wake up! I'm tired of playing alone!"
I opened my eyes to find Jisso crouching in front of me. "Yeah, I'm up," I replied with a long yawn.
"Great!" She sprang to her feet and skipped down the grassy hill while I slowly stood and stretched. Sometimes, standing beside her made me feel like an old man; keeping up with that energy all day was exhausting. Not that we were in any rush. We had all the time in the world.
By the time I reached the bottom of the hill, Jisso was already sitting beside a narrow creek, staring into the water. The moment she turned toward me with that wide grin stretched across her face, I knew it could only mean trouble.
"Look at this!"
She pointed into the creek. The water was crystal clear, smooth as glass beneath the sunlight, but aside from that, nothing seemed unusual about it.
Then she shoved me forward.
I crashed face-first into the creek. The water was barely deep enough to stop my handsome face from smashing against the rocks below, though I definitely felt something slip into my mouth. When I pushed myself up, all I heard was laughter—her laughter.
My clothes were soaked, my perfectly natural hair ruined, and something wriggled in my throat. I spat it out and watched a fish flop onto the rocks. A damn fish had swum straight into my mouth like something out of a cartoon.
Jisso's giggling practically shook the earth beneath us. This was humiliating. Truly humiliating. Getting outplayed by a kid might've been a new low for me. Still, I laughed it off.
Don't get me wrong—my pettiness runs deep. I wanted to drag that little gremlin into the creek and give her a taste of her own medicine, but she'd already skipped well out of reach. Besides, Liyu would probably kill me for getting a girl wet.
Wait.
Liyu?
Why did that name feel familiar? It slipped into my thoughts so naturally, yet I couldn't recall ever meeting anyone by that name. Lately, strange things like that kept happening. First Alista. Then Orista. Gryan. Now Liyu.
I sat there in silence, staring blankly at the flowing water, then slowly looked up. Jisso had finally calmed down. She walked closer and held out her hand.
"You're seriously going to sit there all day, Jagger?" she asked. "And don't even think about pulling me in, or I'm stuffing another fish down your throat."
I stared at her hand for a moment before finally taking it. Not that any of this really mattered. As far back as I could remember, it had always been just me and her in this world.
"Try to keep up!"
Jisso hopped across the creek on scattered stones, heading toward the tree atop the hill—the same tree we always slept under, the same tree she always climbed while I sat below reading my book.
Book?
What book?
I didn't own a book.
I stopped walking.
No… this was strange. Why did these memories keep appearing? I'd never seen a book before. I'd never met any of those people. It was always just me and Jisso. Always.
I glanced down at the creek again. The water reflected a man staring back at me—not me, but a young man with dark curly hair and rough stubble. His eyes looked hollow, lifeless. He mirrored every movement I made. He always had. Jisso couldn't see him. Only I could. Every single day.
"Jagger!"
Jisso's voice rang from the hilltop. I gave the reflection one last glance before climbing the hill at my usual slow pace. We had all the time in the world, after all.
But somewhere, there had to be a beginning. So where was ours?
As far as I remembered, we had always been here, wandering these endless fields. But since when?
I stood frozen in place, trapped in the thought. Jisso groaned in annoyance before stomping back down the hill and grabbing my arm.
"Come on, slowpoke."
She dragged me along while I stumbled after her. It didn't hurt, and honestly, I didn't even want to resist, but her grip felt strangely forceful.
Jisso dropped beneath the tree and pulled me down beside her before resting her head on my lap. She smiled softly, closed her eyes, and hummed to herself while my thoughts remained tangled around that question.
Was there truly something beyond this world? Somewhere else? Somewhere before this?
"Jagger?"
Her voice suddenly cut through my thoughts.
"Yeah?"
"Are we having fun?"
I blinked. Her eyes were open now, staring blankly up at me. The question came so suddenly that I couldn't tell whether she was joking or not.
"Yeah," I answered. "It's fun."
And it was. Playing together all day. Telling stories. Fighting beside the creek. I couldn't think of anything else I could possibly want.
At least… I thought so.
Then she asked:
"So would you stay here forever?"
The question hit me like cold water. My mind blanked.
"Huh? What kind of question is that?"
"Just answer."
Her voice was flat. No smile. No teasing. For once, Jisso sounded completely serious.
"Well…"
I hesitated. This place was peaceful. Beautiful, even. But those questions never stopped clawing at my head. The strange names. The missing memories. The feeling that something existed beyond this world.
I had to know.
I needed to know.
"No," I answered quietly.
The moment the word left my mouth, Jisso sat up and turned away from me. She mumbled something under her breath.
"Again…"
Then:
"Why…?"
I crawled closer and touched her shoulder.
She turned around.
Tears streamed down her face.
And suddenly, something clicked inside my head. I had seen this before. This exact moment. Under this exact tree. Again and again and again.
How had I forgotten?
"Couldn't you just forget about them?" Jisso sobbed. "Why do you always remember? Why can't you just stay here?"
She shoved me onto the grass and started pounding weakly against my chest. The punches didn't hurt, but the tears splashing against my face did.
"A hundred times… a thousand times…" she cried. "I asked you the same question, and you always gave the same answer…"
Her punches gradually weakened until they stopped completely, and then she collapsed onto my chest.
"I don't want to go back there," she whispered. "To that world. To Father. But I don't want to lose you either."
She stayed there quietly for a long time while I lay speechless beneath her. I wanted to comfort her. I wanted to say something—anything—but I was terrified of making it worse. At moments like this, I hated how cowardly I was.
"But I guess I can't force you to stay…" Jisso murmured weakly. "Just… please don't forget me."
Then the ground beneath me began to sink. Grass swallowed my body whole, dragging me downward as though the earth itself were consuming me. I reached toward her desperately.
"Jisso!"
But she didn't move. She simply sat there beneath the tree, tears dripping from her chin, before finally speaking the words I never wanted to hear.
"Farewell, Jagger."
**************************
I flailed wildly, but my body felt unbearably heavy. Was I buried?
No.
It felt more like drowning.
I opened my eyes, and everything around me glowed orange. The last thing I remembered was locking myself inside my room. Wrapped my head around Jisso's disappearance.
I couldn't breathe.
In front of me floated some kind of membrane, thin like a translucent wall. I pushed against it, but something yanked me backward.
A tube.
Something was connected to my neck.
Panic surged through me. I grabbed the tube and tried to rip it away, but agony exploded through my body the instant I pulled. It felt fused to me, like tearing off one of my own limbs.
Pain shot through every nerve in my body. Blood spilled from the wound and dissolved into the orange liquid surrounding me. I gasped instinctively, losing the little air I had left.
Just a little more—
With one final pull, the tube snapped free.
I tore through the membrane, and the thing surrounding me burst apart like a bubble. I collapsed forward, coughing violently as thick orange fluid poured from my mouth. It tasted revolting.
Behind me, something twitched. The severed tube writhed frantically across the ground, searching for me—or maybe for another host—but as seconds passed, it slowly dried out. Its movements stiffened until it resembled nothing more than a dead branch.
After a while, my vision finally began to clear. Darkness surrounded me—not ordinary darkness, but the kind that felt like wearing a blindfold.
I reached out carefully, feeling along the walls around me.
Rough.
Dry.
Wood.
I froze.
…Am I inside a fucking tree?