Yeon's POV
Chaos.
I'm suffocating.
The rush of the water in my ear.
The force of the torrent tosses me side to side.
"Yah!" I scream at the top of my lungs, trying to push against the beating rain and stream.
"These bastards" I scream once more, gasping for breath as the water pushes me to my knees.
I'm going to die.
If no one helps me, I am going to lose my life and it would be the end of Gu Yeon, the orphan bastard from the village.
In my struggle I squint my eyes and see a man leaning against a stick with a smug look on his face.
"Save me!" I yell to him but his smile only widens.
I gasp once more as the stream takes me with it, the force of the water pushes me down into the river and I give in.
Fine, fate.
Keep being a bitch, fate, don't save me.
Above me is the moon shining down like it's a normal day. It's not.
I'm dying and no one will know.
"I know" a voice says and with the snap of a finger I am on the river bank sputtering and gasping.
My body is shivering but it's more of a psychological response than a physical one.
I'm not cold. I'm not wet.
I'm just…here?
"Are you?" The voice says and I scramble to turn around, on my knees with my eyes wide open.
I growl at the source of the voice.
The man that watched the water knock me into the river; maybe I should give him a fun experience by throwing him in too.
I look up, the rain is dripping still but I feel nothing, I lift my arm to watch the phenomenon.
The water is going right through my skin and bones and dropping to the floor.
"Wh…what is this?" I stutter and the man laughs, a long and loud laughter that makes my skin crawl.
What is this?
"Yah! Yah! What is funny? Why are you laughing?" I ask the man and charge at him with my hands open, ready to grab and strangle him.
My body goes through his just like the water went past my arm.
"T-this…what is this?" I ask, a chill finally settling on me, not from the atmosphere, I can't even feel it. It's dread.
"Gu Yeon" the man calls my family name and mine, making me freeze behind him, he snaps his fingers and nothing.
"What are you?" I finally ask and he snaps his fingers again, I don't feel pain but my hands, they start to break down into bits, like fine sand.
I stare at them in shock and horror.
"You are dead, do you know?" He says and I turn my head to the side, my body is there in the water, lying face down and floating.
I'm dead?
"I can't be dead…I can't be dead, I need to show them what I'm made of" I say angrily, rising to my feet to return to my body.
The man watches me as I run to the river with that annoying laughter, I don't look back before jumping in, trying to get back to my body.
But, nothing.
I can't touch my body, I can't feel the water, I can't do anything at all.
"Ahjussi" I call from the water, it's starting to sink in, Gu Yeon has died in the yellow river.
Thrown in by the storm that he was sent into mercilessly by his 'family' members.
I can see it, the village alphas coming out to find the body of the proud omega they wooed.
Dang it, maybe if I had accepted at least one of them, I would be in a warm house with servants and maybe a dog.
But I didn't, I stayed with my aunt and uncle, the drunkard and the unfaithful woman.
"Ahjussi…I can't be dead yet" I say and drag myself back to the river bank, I can't be dead yet.
"AHJUSSI" I yell and run at him, my eyes are burning, I know I shouldn't feel anything but they hurt.
"What can you do? Huh? You are not normal, I can tell, what can you do?" I say desperately.
I want to live.
I can't die yet, I have too much to do, too much to prove.
"Then come to me" he says and I do, the roar from the river sounds terrifying and there is something beating inside me, I know it's not my heart.
"Sit" he nudges his chin to the floor and I obey.
I sit on the soft sand and keep my eyes on him.
"Gu Yeon, you died today at 7 o'clock, just after the heaviest part of the storm" the man says and I sigh.
'Of course I know that, bastard' I am tempted to say.
"I have something for you" he says and stretches his hands, they look like he's hiding something in them, I'm sure he is.
I'm dead and he's playing…peek-a-boo?
"The dead take this door to the afterlife, you are free to go now, look at it" he says and a door appears by his side.
It's open and glorious.
I blink at the brightness of the door, I look inside and see the lush grass, the blue sky and everything is so beautiful. So serene. All I have ever wanted since my parents death.
"And I have something else for you, you can choose to stay here, on earth, alive" he says and I look behind me.
The river is boisterous with the ongoing storm, my body is floating about like a meaningless object…perhaps it is meaningless.
"I have options for you, will you take it?" the man asks, opening his hands to show me what he had been holding in his fists.
One has yakgwa and the other has Gangjeong.
"Life" he says and thrust the Gangjeong forward.
"Death" he says and thrusts the Yakgwa forward.
I look at my floating body, the open door, the old man's face and make my decision.
This.
No waiting, no delaying, I want this.
I snatch it out of the man's hand and stuff it into my mouth.