Chapter 16 - Alice Liddell-4 (1/2)

Chapter 16: Chapter 2 Alice Liddell-4

She tried to remember the last thing she could recall. She had been attempting to commit suicide after being betrayed by the person she loved. After that, it was all black. She started to believe that she had passed through the darkness into death, and her spirit had lived on. It could have been a few seconds or many years.

A sudden bright light appeared. She wanted to follow the sun-like light, but as she swam toward it, her spirit curved in a different direction and got sucked inside. No, it's not this way! However much she screamed and resisted, it was no use. Eventually, she passed the light, and that was the last thing she remembered.

The thing she wanted the most never made it into her hands—the light, nor her love.

”DongHyun Oppa…”

She had mumbled these last words before she died. It had been a long time in which she cared for her precious love. A simple mistake had shattered their love into a million pieces. She still could not understand why he had abandoned her.

But...her heart, which had always beat so fast when thinking about him, was now strangely calm. As if she was looking at an old black and white photograph, her emotions were still. Is it because I'm in another body? She felt a sense of relief about losing her love.

She came back to the present and searched the bag further. In the inside pocket was a wallet. Inside the wallet were coins and bills she had never seen before. Digging deeper, she found the ID she was looking for.

Alice Liddell.

There was no way she didn't know this name. Lewis Carroll's fairytale Alice in Wonderland was a famous book, after all. Plus, due to its unique nature, there were many other art forms that used it as their motif. But there was only one story that described the wildly gaudy sign that read ”Wonderland.”

The romance fantasy novel she loved was Wonderland. It was a story of the female lead, Alice Liddell, and the many interesting men she met.

If what she realized was true, and this was not a dream, that meant that she was the female lead. The location and the contents of the bag proved that this was the narrative's first page, where Alice ran away to Wonderland after losing her parents.

I will no longer live like a fool. I'm going to live being loved.

Alice walked toward the Wonderland sign and entered inside.

The romance fantasy novel, Wonderland, had begun.

***

The first person Alice was meant to meet was March. In the original story, March carried the unconscious Alice to his house and let her stay there for the day. The problem was that she didn't know where March's house was.

She went where her feet took her. Only later would she realize that this had been a dangerous notion, but as of now, Alice had no idea.

And 40 minutes later, she was able to confirm that she was this world's main character.

A boy with tousled brown hair and light brown skin who looked to be around the same age as Alice walked in the street. He wore layers of oversized shirts and goggles like a headband. Although he was only a side character, he had the important role of introducing her to the other important characters in the story. His name was March.

Alice followed behind him carefully. He hurried through the old buildings and wiggled through the narrow alleyways. March said he lived in the slums, and this place must have been it. March went into one of the buildings and turned on the lights inside the dark house. She quickly lay down in front of the door. The wind was cold, but because her clothes were thick, it was bearable.

The next day, about midday, Alice opened her eyes. Her surroundings were quiet. She climbed off the sofa she had been lying on and cautiously looked around inside.

”Hello? Is anybody there?” she asked in a soprano tone.

There was no response. She wandered deeper inside. There were two doors. She decided to try the one on the right. She knocked lightly, checking to see if she heard anyone on the other side, then opened it. As would be expected of a teenage boy, the room was messy. There was no one in the room.

She closed the door and opened the left one. This one was a girl's room with dainty, pretty knick-knacks. In the center of the room was a bed. Alice pulled back the thin canopy surrounding the bed. There she found a small girl asleep. It was Dor, March's baby sister.

”You're pretty. But compared to me, not so much. All I have to do is cure her?”

Dor had a curious disease that caused her to sleep for most of her life. In the original story, Alice gained March's trust by curing her. She didn't know how she would do it, but she was confident she had the skill.

Time passed, and night fell. Alice ate the cereal from inside her bag hungrily. Determined to make a good impression, she didn't touch the food in the kitchen.

Alice whimpered in boredom until March's long return. When he arrived, Alice went straight to Dor.

”Dor, your brother is here.”

His footsteps got progressively closer. Alice felt a warmth emanating from her hands onto Dor's skin.

The footsteps stopped. Beyond the door, she could feel his presence. Dor whimpered. The door opened.

”Who are you?! What are you doing to my sister…? Oh my God.”

Dor, surrounded by light, opened her eyes. She first looked at the smiling Alice, then at her stunned brother standing by the door and smiled.

”Brother…”

”Dor!”

The healing process must have ended because the light from Alice's hand slowly dissipated. March ran to hug Dor and looked hesitantly at Alice.

Alice smiled sweetly and said, ”Your sister will be okay now. I healed her. I'm Alice Liddell. And you are?”