Winter Rabbit in Wonderland

Chapter 16

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.

***

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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?”

March thought he was dreaming. He pinched himself secretly. It hurt.

It wasn’t a dream. That meant his smiling sister in front of him was also not a hallucination.

White Rabbit had been right. As she had predicted, four years later, Dor had opened her eyes. March looked at Alice.

“Thanks.”

It was short but filled with emotion. Alice nodded at his gratitude.

“It’s no problem. You saved me yesterday too. You’re the one that brought me here, right? If it wasn’t for you, I would have died or been kidnapped by strange men.”

“You said your name is Alice? You’re not from here, are you?”

Here was the neutral zone. Even if you were asleep on the streets in the middle of the night, no one would kidnap you. Because if you committed a crime here, White Rabbit would annihilate you.

“Yes. I’m from the outside.”

“Count yourself lucky. If you had been anywhere else, you would have disappeared without a soul knowing.”

“I think so too.”

Alice’s pink lips curved as she answered. March noticed she laughed a lot. In Wonderland, most women did not smile much, so with that trait alone, Alice would be popular here. But as March watched her, he felt a strange emotion. In his heart, he sensed a familiarity.

Dor pulled at March’s sleeve. She was bored being left out of the conversation, so she pouted like a duckling.

“I’m hungry, brother.”

“Wait, you pig. I’ll give you food.”

“I’m not a pig!”

After March went to the kitchen, Dor and Alice remained alone. Alice placed her gaze elsewhere. She didn’t like children much. Luckily, Dor didn’t pay much attention to Alice and searched her surroundings.

“Rabbit...”

Alice ignored Dor’s voice. Dor continued to call for the rabbit and screamed for him when March returned from the kitchen.

“Rabbit! Brother, where is Rabbit?”

“Rabbit is, umm...”

March put the tray down on a table and stepped into Dor’s room. He came back into the living room with a white rabbit doll in his hands. He placed the doll into his sister’s arm.

“You’ll just have to be content with this for today.”

“This isn’t Rabbit.”

“That is a rabbit. Eat this quietly. Then tomorrow, the real Rabbit will come.”

March carried the bowl of porridge to Dor and handed Alice another bowl of stew. Respectfully, she declined once but soon happily took the stew and put it in her mouth.

“....!”

Gross! How could something taste this bad? Alice couldn’t even chew and immediately swallowed it. But even that gesture made her tongue revolt. She didn’t think she could eat this even if someone had a gun to her head, so she put down her spoon. March asked.

“Aren’t you eating?”

“No. I’m so tired, I’m not that hungry. Sorry. Could I wash up first?”

“Go ahead. The bathroom is that way.”

March looked forlornly at the bowl of stew. She knew to keep him in good spirits, she should empty the bowl, but she just couldn’t bring herself to do it.

She took out clothes from her bag. Fortunately, the shower looked the same as what she was used to. She turned the lever toward hot and stepped inside. She had assumed that by this time, the water would have warmed up.

“Ah, it’s so cold!”

Alice screamed and stepped away from the shower head. The water was icy.

“Why is everything so pathetic here?”

Guess even the boiler didn’t work in the slums. Afraid March would hear, she muttered to herself as she waited for the water to warm up.