Under The Cherry Blossoms

prologue // an unwanted beginning

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Did I oversleep again?

Seriously, why didn't anyone wake me up?

When I felt the annoying rays of sunlight basking me in unneeded warmth. I opened my eyes due to pure instinct, looking straight at the place where the window blinds were supposed to be. I was appalled at the fact that - that there were no window blinds, and the sun was directly shining on me from above. My breath unknowingly hitched. Why was I outside?

Was this a prank?  I nervously chuckled with hopes that it really were the case. With a moment to spare, I  scanned the place to find even just a little sign of my older brother. I paused, warmth immediately rushing to my cheeks in embarrassment when I couldn't even begin to recognize the faces of the people surrounding me, even when I racked my head, no one seemed familiar to me. I was never good with being the center of attention, and thus, I could already feel my social anxiety bubbling up from the pits of my stomach clawing mercilessly on my insides.

If I was groggy before, I was definitely fully awake now. Who were they? I tried to calm my breath, but the emotions piling up made it hard for me to stay clear-headed. Did I get kidnapped?  It just didn't seem to make sense. Why was I here? How did I get here?  every single question only added to the surging waves of confusion and panic that was drowning all sense of what was left of my rationality. I blinked, pinching myself numerous times on the arm. It was undoubtedly, a stupid attempt in trying to break out of what I thought was an illusion. I tried to convince myself that perhaps if I looked away all these hallucinations would disappear and I'd be back in the comfortable sheets of my bed, and the safe haven I called my home. It didn't. They were all still staring at me with eyes that could cut right into my soul, they were all still there looking at me as if they've encountered a never before seen object. 

I want to go home. I want to go home. I want to go home.

I chanted those words in my head like a prayer. Hoping with every bit of my being that there'd be a god up there merciful enough to answer it. My escalating unstable emotions only caused me to fall deeper into the spellbinding spiral of terror, I knew myself better than anyone, and I already knew that I was at the peak before I reached hyperventilation. Suddenly, something landed on the palm of my hand breaking me out of such stupor. My eyebrows knitted together. As I took a second to look up to where it had come from. For a split second, I was mesmerized, all my negative emotions, for a moment, all just seemed to disappear.

--Cherry Blossoms?

My mouth was agape in awe. A tall cherry blossom tree entered my line of vision. The blossoms  looked so fragile, like it could be crushed with a single close of a hand, but it was by far, the most beautiful tree that I've ever seen. A tree, I had thought, had only existed in fairytales and myths. 

Fairytales and myths?

Everything came crashing down on me. The dream and that euphoric feeling I had just seconds go completely vanished without a trace the more I realized what the existence of such a tree meant. I was far from home. There was simply no way that a tree like that would exist in my hometown. 

'That can't be... ' My hands were shaking, I didn't even know if my brain was even keeping up with all of this information.  "How? Why?"

"It worked!"

"Does this mean we don't have to suffer anymore?"