normal would not be the word pranpriya would use to describe her childhood. in the midst of wealth, restrictions, and reputations, a lot of pranpriya's earliest memories consist of pretending that she cared and then lying about pretending. as the daughter of two government researchers, pranpriya never minded the fact that she was often left to tend to herself growing up. a young girl with a good head on her shoulders, independence was a trait that grew easy and unlike other kids - being alone was how she liked it.

it wasn't until she hit her last year of primary school that she befriended a rather short boy named junhoe. he was in all her classes growing up and while they had always kept their distance from each other, it was their love for science that brought them together. friends 'til the end was something he promised, and with that promise came a new nickname: lalice (from her love of alice in wonderland in combination with his terrible english pronunciation). as a duo, they were unstoppable but it was when their circle began to grow that they became invincible. minsung came third, a boy from changwon with an incredible knack of knowing too much about everything. armed with a unqiue taste in music, he was always the first to answer his walkie-talkie past curfew. changkyun came last, a stuttering american citizen who proved to be the missing puzzle piece to their little jigsaw of geeks and misfits. as a quartet, they battled through life's ups and downs the same way they would during their late night campaigns of dungeons and dragons: with teamwork, luck, and a lot of rock/paper/scissors to make a decision.

evenings at their sacred treehouse became increasing and the three boys whom she's come to adore became more like a family to her than her own parents. middle school rolls around as quick as lightning and she remembers fondly of the time they've spent together locked up in the science lab conducting experiments made out of pure imagination. when minsung goes missing, lalice remembers how hard her world shook and the heartache that engulfed her upon confirmation. being questioned by the police was daunting in itself, but she managed to push through the panic with the help of her two remaining soldiers. minsung was never the type to do things on his own. at least, not without letting one of them know ahead of time, and so it didn't take her long to figure that her friend had been taken against his will. the police proved to be less than useful with their search efforts, questioning all the wrong people in all the wrong places; and for the first time at such a young age, lalice felt helpless.

it was only when junhoe proposed that they take matter into their own hands that lalice realized she'd do anything for these boys, even if it meant laying down her life for them. when night would come, they would be out there on their own, flashlights in their small hands as they searched every inch of home that they could. their treehouse was meant to be their safe haven, protected by the spells casted from their endless roleplaying games, but when they found their property breached - lalice knew they were facing something much bigger than what mere middle school kids could handle.

to say in the least: yerin's introduction into the group came in a flurry, overridden by panic and desperate pleas for answers. it wouldn't be an understatement to say that lalice stayed wary of her in the beginning, threatened by this new company who seemed to have all the answers in regards to minsung's disappearance. it felt too staged, too coincidental for it to just be fate, but when lalice gets into a spat with junhoe about yerin's presence - she finds herself in a place where she can only follow and hope for the best.

the best would not be something that would describe the situation they willingly walked into. upon yerin's declaration of knowing where minsung was and that he was alive, the group wandered into untouched territory that seemingly turned their world upside down. darkness is all she can really remember, the sky no longer housing the moon and the ground no longer reflectant of light. there was a distinct odor of something not human that still haunts her til this day and claws bigger than her face that still plagues her nightmares. the nightwalker: a being so grotesque and unimaginable was the thing that hunted them that night, unwilling to let a breathing minsung go without a fight. as young babes, the only thing they could do was run. run and hope that they'll be able to survive this just as they were able to survive life together up until this point. lalice's powers didn't manifest that night, but oh how she witnessed the beauty of changkyun, junhoe, and yerin's combined effort to save them.

that night was the last she ever saw of junhoe and yerin, junhoe's voice echoing out to them to keep going as yerin's body dissolved into blinding lights just before her. pushed out of the portal with a labored minsung in her arms, she watched as the Inverse closed forever behind them and cried with a heart so broken over the loss of their two friends.

after the incident and after much police questioning, lalice was sent to live in thailand for the last few years of middle school. her mother believed being away from the trauma would help lalice cope and recover, but it only proved to lalice that she had to return home to korea as soon as possible. she grew up well, skin sunkissed by the bangkok sun and beauty flourishing past her awkward teen years. by the time she's seventeen and a junior in high school, her mother proposed that she fall into an arranged marriage with a boy from an upstanding family. arranged marriage was where she drew the line and she fought tooth and nail to return back to korea to finish out her last year of high school. as much as her parents visibly displayed their dismay and concern, being reunited with the soldiers of her past was more of a blessing than being away from the trauma that plagued her dreams. by eighteen, lalice gives up her thai citizenship in favor for her korean citizenship and is accepted into KAIST where she plans on becoming a neurologist.

however, lalice's happy ending is still way past the horizon as her dreams tell her of a different story. junhoe and yerin call out to her in her dreams, fighting for life within the Inverse. it's enough to stir her intuition that what her subconscious is telling her is true and thus, the battle against the Inverse starts up again. she doesn't know when they'll have to fight, but when the time comes - she knows they'll be ready.