Completely awake now, Heesoo decided to pass the time by opening and trying on the set.
After a while, the foreigner next to her chuckled and struck up a conversation again.
“Lucky Silver, huh?
I hope it brings you good luck.”
“Thanks.”
Feeling guilty for having disturbed the foreigner’s sleep with her rustling, Heesoo tried to force herself to sleep.
The ’lucky’ necklace, ring, and bracelet she was wearing made her feel somewhat at ease.
Even if something bad happened, she felt she would be spared.
This vague belief helped alleviate any guilt over her impulsive purchase.
‘Europe will be more fun than the U.S.,’
She thought with a smile on her face.
She was now no longer worried about the Bermuda Triangle.
Feeling content, Heesoo soon fell asleep but was abruptly awakened by a blunt impact to her face.
“Oww!”
Something dangling from above had hit her.
As she was trying to figure out what it was, a deafening scream filled her ears.
Horrifying screams erupted from all directions.
At the same time, the sound of emergency alarms began to ring out.
“Emergency! Emergency!”
The sound of people panicking and the flashing red lights made her wonder if she was dreaming.
She was caught between reality and unreality.
“Emergency! Emergency!”
In the midst of the chaos, Heesoo belatedly realized what had hit her face.
Her heart sank when she saw what it was.
Oxygen masks.
The oxygen mask that the flight attendants had demonstrated for emergencies had fallen in front of her.
Heesoo couldn’t spit out a single word.
Everything around her seemed blurry and slow.
Moreover, her body kept tilting to the side.
A cold draft hit her face.
She was so close to the window that her body was almost pressed against it.
A hot, lava-like sensation rose in her throat.
Tears burst forth uncontrollably.
Without realizing it, she looked to the side.
The foreigner was praying with his hands clasped.
The silver watch on his wrist flashed.
Heesoo grabbed his hand, driven by instinctual fear.
CRASH!
A deafening echo followed.
Her body, secured by the seatbelt, swayed violently.
Heesoo vaguely thought the plane was crashing into the sea.
But that wasn’t the case.
Through the window, she saw a flock of black birds being sucked into a giant vortex.
The plane headed for Paris began to be drawn into a huge hole in the sky.
* * *
Her body ached, and her face felt raw.
Plus, there was an unpleasant feeling surrounding her entire body.
Heesoo struggled to open her eyes, only to feel a light current of water gently hitting her face.
The feeling of dampness and discomfort was due to being drenched.
But where she was and why she was wet weren’t her biggest concerns at the moment.
Her head throbbed painfully, as if she had been hit hard on the back of her head with a baseball bat.
Struggling to get back on her feet, she saw a vast lake before her.
It seemed she had been washed up from that lake.
When she looked in the opposite direction, she saw a green forest in the distance, connected by a wasteland.
She was at the highest point where everything around was visible.
“…Is this the Grand Canyon?”
Heesoo had seen the Grand Canyon from a small plane, flying high up in the sky.
The terrain of this mysterious location reminded her of that magnificent landscape.
‘Why am I here?’
She had to recall what had happened before she woke up here.
She had boarded a plane to Paris, and then…
a series of horrifying memories hit her.
「Emergency!
Emergency!」
The urgent cries of the flight attendants, the beeping of the emergency alarm, the plane’s interior engulfed in red light, and the sounds of people crying and praying all around.
“Was it a dream?”
Heesoo looked around blankly, checking her body, wondering if her last memory was indeed real.
‘I’m at the Grand Canyon now.’
Could it be that she had gotten lost while touring?
Logically, if it had been a plane crash, chances are that she would have died immediately on impact.
Yet, Heesoo was standing here in the middle of no man’s land, relatively unharmed.
She had some scratches here and there and a tingling pain around her legs, but nothing was broken or severed.
Moreover, it made no sense to wake up in a desert lake after falling into the ocean.
“Anybody here?”
No matter how much she looked around, there were no signs of people.
It was as if she had fallen from the sky, all alone.
She was baffled by the situation.
She couldn’t tell if her memory was incorrect or if this entire situation was just a dream.
Had she even actually boarded the plane to Paris?
“It’s hot here….”
Despite being soaked in water, she still felt hot.
The sunlight was intense.
As Heesoo fluttered her wet clothes, she squinted at the sharp glare reflected by the sun.
Shielding her eyes with her hand, the light intensified.
The source of the glaring light was the bracelet she was wearing around her wrist.
A duty-free purchase she made on the plane.
‘Lucky Silver….’
It wasn’t a dream.