Orla:

The early morning was still dark when Milo shook me awake. The night air clung to my skin, and for a second, I had to remind myself where I was. The rough bark of the tree pressed against my back, and the ground beneath me had left my legs stiff. Or maybe I was still feeling the effects of yesterday—of being sick, of exhaustion. When was the last time I had water? Or food?

“Good morning,” Milo whispered. “Sang-min and I figured it’s best we move before dawn.”

I stretched, shaking off the stiffness, and glanced around. The forest was still blanketed in darkness, shadows stretching long between the trees. Raven stood nearby, already saddled, his ears flicking at every small rustle.

When had all this prep happened? How long had Milo and Sang-min been awake, making plans without me? A twinge of something—hurt, maybe—settled in my chest. It wasn’t like I wanted to be in charge, but being left out felt... off.

Sang-min sat off to the side, looking unbothered as usual, his gaze lazily scanning the trees as if last night’s attack had been nothing more than an inconvenience.

I pushed myself to my feet. “Right, then. Let’s go.”

It didn’t take long to gather what little we had. I mounted Raven while Milo walked beside me, his hand on the reins. Sang-min followed behind, his cart creaking softly in the quiet. Every twig snap had me glancing over my shoulder. The weight of last night still sat heavy on me.

The world around us was slowly waking up. The sky began to lighten, the first streaks of dawn breaking through the trees, melting away the night’s chill. With every step forward, the tension in my chest loosened, though we remained on guard. The paranoia of last night eased into a quiet wariness, the hush of the forest slowly shifting into the soft sounds of morning.

Sang-min, ever unfazed, started whistling a soft tune. The carefree way he did it, as if nothing about this situation was strange or dangerous, made me shake my head.

Milo, on the other hand, was quiet, lost in thought. Then finally, he spoke. “So… was working on set the reason you came to South Korea?”

His question caught me off guard. I hesitated. I hadn’t exactly had time to catch up with Felix once rehearsals began. His training had been a spectacle, eyes always on him, and we never got a real chance to talk.

“Uh, well… not exactly. I came to get away. The stunt job just kind of… happened.” I glanced down at him, wondering how much I should say. Talking about it now, here, felt surreal—like I was recounting a different life entirely.

“Get away from what?”

I hesitated, my mind flickering back to Logan, the wedding I’d left behind, the life I had abandoned. “My life back home wasn’t great. I needed a change.” The words came out before I could stop them. “I don’t know if you remember, but I wasn’t exactly in the best traveling outfit on that flight.”

Milo chuckled. “Oh, I remember,” he said, a grin tugging at his lips. “Not every day you see someone in a wedding dress at the airport looking like they just survived a war. I figured there had to be a story there.”

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I sighed. “Yeah, well… there’s a story, but it’s not one of my favorites.”

Milo’s amusement faded, his voice quieter. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. I just remember thinking you looked like you’d been through hell.”

I let out a humorless laugh. “That’s one way to put it.” I exhaled slowly, knowing I couldn’t avoid it forever. “Let’s just say I found out my fiancé wasn’t who I thought he was, and I couldn’t go through with it.”

Milo was quiet for a moment, his hand resting on Raven’s reins as we walked. Finally, he asked, “Did he… hurt you?”

Hurt me? I scoffed internally. More than you know. “If you mean catching him red-handed with my bridesmaid in a janitor’s closet at the venue, then yeah, I’d classify that as hurt.”

Milo’s jaw tightened. He stared ahead, silent. Had I said too much?

“That’s fucked up.”

I huffed. “Yeah, you don’t have to tell me twice.”

Another pause. Then, in a voice lower than before, Milo muttered, “What a coward.”

Something about the way he said it caught me off guard. Was he… mad?

I hadn’t really thought about it before, but maybe I was a coward. I ran. Instead of facing everything like an adult, I bolted. “I wouldn’t say I’m a coward,” I said defensively. “Sure, I ran out of there without—”

“No. Him.” Milo turned to me, stopping in front of Raven, forcing the horse to slow. “Why would you think I was saying that about you? He cheated, in front of you, instead of calling the whole thing off like an actual man. That’s a coward. Who the fuck does that?”

I blinked, taken aback by his reaction. “Oh.”

He just stood there, staring at me, something unreadable in his expression. Then, after a beat, he turned away and started leading Raven forward again. The silence stretched, awkward and heavy, until I decided to shift the conversation.

“What about you?” I asked. “Was acting something you always wanted to do?”

Milo took a breath, like he wasn’t quite done with my situation, but he let it go. “Not really. I mean, I’ve been in the entertainment world for a while with the whole K-pop thing, but acting… it just kind of happened. Figured, why not give it a shot? It’s not too different from performing on stage.”

“Except for the whole getting-sucked-into-a-parallel-world part,” I said.

He laughed. “Yeah, that part wasn’t in the job description.”

The shift in tone was a relief. The awkwardness lifted, replaced with something lighter.

As we continued, the sun rose higher, casting a golden light over the forest. Sang-min’s whistling picked up again, a carefree tune that made the night’s fear feel like a distant memory. Despite everything, there was something calming about being here—about talking to Milo. I listened as he rambled about his dance routines, his stories easy and familiar, making me feel like, for the first time in a long while, I could let my guard down.

It was easy talking to him. Almost too easy. My mind drifted back to that flight, to how natural it had felt sitting beside him. There was a comfort in his presence, one that made me wonder why it hadn’t been someone like him instead of Logan. Why had I wasted so much time with someone who made me feel small, when talking to Milo felt like breathing?

We walked in a comfortable silence for a while, the gravel crunching underfoot, until Milo spoke again. “Do you miss home?”

The question lingered longer than I expected. Did I miss home? Or had I run so far that I didn’t even know what home was anymore?

“I’m not sure,” I admitted. “If you mean modern-day Earth, then yeah. But my life back in San Francisco? I don’t know if I could ever go back to that.”

Milo frowned. “Why’s that?”

I hesitated, then sighed. “Because I don’t know if I was really living… or just going through the motions.”

Before he could respond, Sang-min’s whistling cut off abruptly, sending a ripple of dread through me. Milo and I turned instinctively, finding him frozen, his gaze sweeping the trees with a dark, wary expression. Beside me, Milo tightened his grip on Raven’s reins as the horse shifted nervously before coming to a halt. My pulse quickened, a heavy sense of apprehension settling over me.

“What is it?” Milo whispered.

Sang-min didn’t answer. He just motioned for us to be silent.

Something was wrong.

©Sky Mincharo