There was no in between. There was no whoosh as if one were sliding down a slide. Or a sudden change of pressure as if one had dunked one's head into the water.
It was not a slow gradual shift as she lost control of her own body. It was not a pleasant exchange in which she was given time to understand what was going on. She was just there in the crowd, surrounded by warm bodies and screaming fans. The next second, she was not.
The onslaught of sudden, very different feelings was hard to grasp. Her mind was unable to register exactly what was going on, and her heart raced beneath a chest that felt much wider than her own.
There was a lightness to this body, a sudden absence of weight at her front and there were new feelings. Too many new feelings.
It was only because this body had already adjusted to the environment that she didn't keel over or react violently. If it hadn't been, Amber swore that she would have vomited her guts out right then and there. Her mind wanted her to vomit. It wanted to protest and scream. It wanted to spasm and go into cardiac arrest.
The change was a sensory overload that was too different and too stark.
It was bright. Very, very bright and yet her eyes didn't adjust to the light. For a brief second, her mind blanked and she couldn't comprehend anything. She couldn't see; she couldn't hear; she couldn't speak. It was a moment of acceptance, of understanding. Of her mind given the needed time to comprehend the change.
Her brain slowly started to accept the feelings. It started first with the little soft changes that weren't too scary. Like the brush of bangs on her forehead; the press of something wrapped around her body, holding the soft silky shirt in place; the airy lack of a bra. Her skin was missing the cling of stretchy fabric and the sting of a digging wire. Then there was a sudden presence of something sensitive between her legs.
It stuck to her thighs, soft and dangly...Amber exhaled, her breath coming out in quick pants as she swallowed. The strange feeling of different shaped teeth was prevalent. And she could taste sweet mint on her tongue but these things were familiar, very familiar and it was nothing like the—she swallowed nervously—the thing hanging between her legs.
Whatever it was…(Honestly, Amber knew exactly what the hell it was.) It was highly disturbed by the tightness of the leather jeans. It was pushed into a position that was strangely uncomfortable to the tender appendage.
There was a sudden change in height and a distinct lack of softness in her body. Each twist of her frame was coupled with the stretch of aching muscles. This body was warm. It was as if she had just done some intense exercise leading to an inner heat from within. It was pumping with adrenaline that made her want to run for miles and jump a thousand times.
She was disoriented. Her fingers were quivering as she gripped tightly onto something metallic and cool in her hand. Amber inhaled sharply and a distinct scent hit her nose, wafting around her body—a cloud of natural sweetness.
It was a natural scent that reminded her of the sweet musk of vanilla, with the spice of pears. It was coupled with the odd burn at the back of her nose that was reminiscent of the sea. It was subtle and refreshing, hidden by the sharp dose of some form of deodorant. A chemical cloying fragrance that masked the saltiness of the sweat dripping from her body.
If she tilted her nose away from her pits, aka the area doused with deodorant, she swore the amazing smell got stronger but it took a lot of sniffing to get a good grip of the scent.
Speaking of smells, the nose before her eyes was really sharp. It stood out from between her vision with its high bridge. It kind of felt like an insult to the flatness of her actual nose.
Amber frowned. She was not used to the length of her eyelashes. She was not used to the length of her hair. She was not used to the lack of boobs nor the sudden gain of something meaty in her pants. She was not used to everything. What the hell was going on? She took a steady step forward.
Then she stopped and just—
Stared.
Moments passed as her eyes flickered across the scene before her. Her pupils were darting around rapidly as she surveyed her new environment. Stage.
It was a concert. She was dizzy—bewildered, even— as her eyes swept across the many darkened faces and the bobbing sticks of light. Their perplexed gazes pushed her to take steps back as she smiled nervously at the hundreds and thousands of strangers before her.
The feeling of eyes on her person made her pulse quicken within her chest and her muscles cramp up a little. There was a sinking feeling in her gut. Her stomach was churning, squeezing and aching with her emotions. Her body was swept by fear. Gut-wrenching fear.
Calm the fuck down Ambrosia Momo Pei. She soothed in her mind. Calm the fuck down. She inhaled and exhaled through her teeth, trying to register everything. And she was suddenly made aware of the familiar tune that pounded in the background. The deep base vibrating beneath her feet and over her skin. Amber was spinning on her feet to look and distinctively she heard people screaming as she stared at the familiar minimalistic icon.
It loomed over her, looking even more threatening than the clock in the exam room. It was even more ominous than the stickman outside the toilet at the hotel. It was like seeing the red balloon after watching the It movie.
It was like the feeling she got, when she was at the top of a roller coaster. And she suddenly realised that she was fucked because her seatbelts had just exploded apart.
This was the fucking IDOL concert.
She pressed her fingers to her lips. No. His lips. God...no, no, no. NO. She glanced back at what she thought should be where her original body stood. Her eyes were darting over each head, trying to find the familiar red of her best friend or maybe Da-hee's short bob. Maybe even her own pixie cut. But, it was too dark which made it difficult to see, especially when there was a bright spotlight burning her retinas.
Her mind was too frazzled to make good judgement, and she was pretty sure that if one brought her out to the garden and asked her to point to the soil, she would point at the sky. She was pretty sure if you asked her what 1 + 1 was, right now, she would say 11.
Damn it.
Amber was that messed up in the brain right now.
Her mental self was screaming...hyperventilating. Her mental house was not only on fire. There was a tornado approaching, a tsunami was three seconds away, and there was also a Richter magnitude scale ten earthquake.
Amber was going to cry.
She inhaled deeply thinking back to the thousands of calming videos she'd seen online. The ASMR of someone eating chicken. The voice of a Youtuber trying to hypnotise her and convince her that her past self was a caveman. The sound of an IDOL member talking. Amber froze at that thought. NO. NO. NO!
Keep calm. Act normal, don't fuck this up. She repeated in her head like a silent mantra as she was suddenly extremely aware of the millions of eyes on her. Her eyes traced over the people surrounding her, the cameras that rolled around the edges of the stage. Everyone was looking. Everyone.
Oh God, help her.
Who was she? Her eyes spun frantically as she tried her best to act normal as she walked across the stage, giving what she hoped were smiles to the screaming fans. It must have worked because a weak quirk of her lips sent them roaring. She was walking quickly to the nearest person on stage.
When her eyes met Ezra's, she stopped and for a second, a very small second, she stared.
He was beautiful. His hair pushed back with a red bandana that exposed his forehead, silver rings clipped to the edges of his earlobes. His skin was really pale. Just as pale as he had been in that music video she had seen.
Hell, he was so white that everything stood out on him. The soft dark purple glitter of his eyeshadow, the glimmer highlight on his cheek, the tinted mint of his hair.
"What is it?" He drawled, lips curling as they moved.