⛓️

Seonghwa stood at the end of a long, narrow road that seemed to stretch on for eternity. Darkness encompassed him, so much so that he couldn't even see his feet as they'd been sunk into the shadows.

He'd never been here before, and the hairs at the back of his neck stood on end. The air was still and eerie, betraying no sound except for his steadily increasing heartbeat.

Where am I?

Seonghwa's inner voice was like an echo, loud enough to shatter the silence that covered him. He took a step forward, the ground feeling like rough granite beneath the exposed soles of his feet.

Something out there suddenly called out to him, the sound as feathery as the spring's breeze. But it unsettled him, because that voice sounded apprehensively familiar...

As if he was tugged around by invisible ropes, Seonghwa inched forward, his breaths growing more and more unstable.

Laughter cut through the darkness, bright and sprinkled with mischief. Seonghwa felt his heart swell with terror.

Come a little closer...

Seonghwa didn't want to come closer, but his body wasn't listening to him. With each step he took, the road got narrower and narrower, making him feel extreme claustrophobia.

Abruptly, an unknown force slammed itself into him, pushing him further and further down the road, and Seonghwa couldn't stop it. His heart raced, trepidation pounding through his core.

He wanted to scream -- to shout -- because maybe then someone could come and save him. But no sound came.

A beam of light sliced through the dark, the force behind him rushing him along until Seonghwa was only mere centimeters away from the foreign light.

In a second, Seonghwa was staring into what appeared to be a mirror. Slowly but surely, a figure began to materialize on the other side, striking even more fear into Seonghwa's heart.

The shadow in front of him continued to twist and turn like a pillar of dense smoke, until something that resembled him remained.

Seonghwa wanted to run, but it was like his limbs had melted into place. The thing in front of him slipped out of the mirror, all crooked smiles, terrifying scarlet eyes and long, gnarly fangs.

Then it grabbed Seonghwa.

In an instant, the dark haired male sat up like he'd been resurrected, inhaling huge breaths that did next to nothing to shatter the sheer horror he was feeling.

Seonghwa knew he'd just had a nightmare, but that didn't mean it didn't feel as real and as vivid as ever.

The strangest part was how he'd never had a nightmare this surreal before, and that made everything more fear-inducing.

"Fuck," he silently cursed, planting himself back on his bed. Unease still simmered inside his chest, but soon enough wrath mixed with it.

This was primarily Hongjoong's fault. If he hadn't come along with his stupid unusual abilities and meddled in Seonghwa's affairs, Seonghwa wouldn't be having these nightmares right now.

'You're so interesting, Seonghwa. You always tell me to leave you alone, yet you clearly want me around you...'

Seonghwa tightly shut his eyes as he tried to will away the shorter's nagging words.

I don't want you around me, he thought. And, I guess I was right, because I do remember the stuff we did earlier. Hah.

Seonghwa's nose crinkled at his thoughts. You're so goddamn cringe.

Hongjoong's elated giggles rippled inside his mind, causing Seonghwa to tightly press his pillow against his head. Maybe suffocation would stop him from thinking about the shorter and finally go back to sleep. That sounded like a good plan.

Hongjoong's giggles only got louder. Fuck.

⛓️

It'd been a highly stressful Saturday for Seonghwa so far, with him going to in detention that morning all because of Hongjoong, before heading to the cafe he worked part time at on the weekends, catering to snappy old people, depressed teens and rude helicopter moms. It was nothing but terrible.

Thank god his shift was ending in a few minutes.

"Hey, you can leave now," one of his coworkers for the day, a nice college student by the name of Jung Nara told him then. Once Seonghwa met her gaze, she grinned, jokingly flicking his arm with a napkin.

"Really?" Seonghwa asked even when his mind was literally cheering. "I still have like, twenty minutes left."

Nara stepped behind Seonghwa, quickly undoing his apron for him. The first few times he'd spent working here, her touchiness had sort of irked him, mostly because he wasn't into physical affection, but then he learnt that's how she usually was with her coworkers. And even when Seonghwa was mostly used to it now, it still made him a bit iffy whenever she initiated contact with him.

He never spoke up though. Nara was his boss's daughter, after all.

"Don't worry, Seonghwa," Nara assured behind him. "What's twenty minutes anyway?"

Seonghwa let out a breathy laugh, itching for Nara to finish untying his apron already. "Right. Thanks."

"You're welcome," she answered. "See you tomorrow!"

Seonghwa grabbed his bag, giving her a hasty wave and smile before leaving the cafe altogether. He couldn't head to Mingi's house right now because the taller was currently busy with babysitting his cousins, which was quite the bummer.

Seonghwa couldn't help but chuckle a bit when he read his friend's latest text messages.

- mings
heeellpp
domi and jigyu are killing meee

- mings
theyre so cute but theyre like little demons that crave all my attention

Seonghwa peered at the setting sky, the orange clouds igniting a sense of dread in him despite how picturesque they appeared. Hongjoong's eyes flashed at the back of his mind.

Stop thinking about him.

Seonghwa typed his reply.

- seongs
lmaoo
are you good now?

- mings
you replied!!
and yes, im good
mostly

- mings
i wish u were w me rn

- seongs
sorry haha
but my house and my bed are calling out to me

- mings
:,(
are you done with work?

- seongs
yes

- mings
i'll come over later tonight
would that be okay with u?
it'll be like a sleepover

Seonghwa wouldn't have minded that, to be honest. His father was probably not home, and staying at his house alone made it more difficult to not think.

- seongs
yes, sure

- mings
(づ￣ ³￣)づ thank uu

Seonghwa frowned at his friend's text, especially at the emoticon. It reminded him of Hongjoong's note for him on Wednesday, and his heart squeezed.

- seongs
dont send that emoticon again

- mings
huh, why?

- seongs
i dont like it

- mings
ok, duly noted👌🏻

A boy of around twelve years passed Seonghwa then, muttering a quick 'excuse me' as he fiddled with his scooter on the sidewalk.

Normally, Seonghwa wouldn't have paid much mind to him. The boy was a stranger and did nothing to spark his attention, but something ended up catching his eye.

The kid had a shadow. No -- two shadows.

One was the direct replica of the boy with his scooter, while the latter was rather wide and lengthy, stretching more and more upwards with each second that passed.

Seonghwa stood still in shock, not really knowing what to do. The second shadow had him remembering what Hongjoong'd fought that night they'd first talked, and it made him more anxious than ever.

To make matters worse, no one else appeared to notice a thing, not even the boy.

Like tearing off duct-tape from the wall, the shadow rose from the ground and started to corner the child.

And then Seonghwa was moving, rushing past a rather irritated lady who'd been in the way of him getting to the boy. He barely had time to apologize however, because right there in the distance the dark figure was closing in on the boy like some cloak of evil.

Seonghwa continued to run, because he had to find a way to get the kid out of there even if he had no idea how.

But before he could be within arm's reach, something grabbed him by the arm and shoved him into an alleyway.

The suddenness rendered Seonghwa speechless, and when he registered who'd just manhandled him, his breath hitched in his throat.

Hongjoong.

But Hongjoong wasn't even looking at him. He stared in the boy's direction, his cold fists on Seonghwa's chest sending chills down his back.

Seonghwa felt like he couldn't breathe, like he was drowning right under Hongjoong's fingertips. "Get.. get off me."

Hongjoong looked back at him, his yellow eyes as warm as the dimming sunset. "What were you trying to do back there?"

Seonghwa grabbed the shorter's wrist, only for Hongjoong's piercing eyes to burn more intensely. "I tried to save that boy, so let me go."

Hongjoong did and stepped away. "You wouldn't have been able to."

Seonghwa stared out the alleyway, realizing the boy was now nowhere to be seen. "Shit. You stopped me from helping him."

"Like I said earlier: you wouldn't have been able to," Hongjoong pressed. He pushed past a fuming Seonghwa and jutted his chin at someone next to a shop. "Yun, you good?"

Seonghwa's ears perked at the name, the aforementioned male showing up only a few seconds later.

Yunho froze as soon as he saw Seonghwa. "Uh...Hi, Seonghwa." He tried to put something away, only for Hongjoong to shake his head.

"No use," the shorter played with the sleeves of his bloodred cashmere sweater. "Seonghwa saw the Mon."

Again, Seonghwa was the only one feeling confused out of the three, but right now he was just too tired to question what Hongjoong just said.

So he decided to go with the next best thing. "Hey, Yunho. You got the shadow thingy?"

Yunho laughed, his blue eyes twinkling in amusement. "Well, we should probably sit down and talk about it."

"Sure," Seonghwa nodded. Finding a free table for three in front of a convenience store, Yunho and Seonghwa sat side by side while Hongjoong took the one right across from Seonghwa.

Yunho placed a silver compact mirror on the table, his movements a bit cautious.

"Can I touch it?" Seonghwa asked.

"You can't," Hongjoong spat from across the table. It was obvious he was still a little mad at what had took place between him and Seonghwa earlier. "Unless you wanna get sucked in and die -- "

"What he means," Yunho cut in, "is that it's only us that can hold it."

Seonghwa kept watching the mirror, observing the exterior. To others, it would've probably looked like a normal compact mirror, and maybe that was the point. Seonghwa couldn't ease away his curiosity though. He wanted to feel it, see if it was truly real.

"You guys aren't human," he uttered.

Yunho put the mirror back into his pocket. "Not really."

Seonghwa locked eyes with the taller. "What'd you do to the shadow thing?"

"They're called Mons," Hongjoong added, but he went virtually ignored.

Yunho chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. "Well...I got it away from the kid, subdued it somewhere dark and used the mirror to get rid of it."

"So...that's why I couldn't touch that thing. It's because I'm human and you guys aren't fully one?"

Yunho smiled. "Yeah, kinda like that."

"This is weird," Seonghwa said. "I mean, no offense, but this whole thing still seems unreal."

"Yeah right." Hongjoong scoffed with his arms crossed. Seonghwa glared at him, noticing the stray red streak in his hair and his many earrings, and he wondered how the shorter had the time to dress so outlandish every single day.

"Please, shut up," Seonghwa said, not letting Hongjoong's glare bother him anymore.

"You wish." Hongjoong leant over the table, his eyes never leaving Seonghwa's. "Now that you said that, I'm gonna annoy you every fucking day from now on."

Yunho awkwardly patted Seonghwa's back. "Don't mind my brother. He's kidding."

"I'm not."

"He is."

"I am not."

Seonghwa could only groan as to what was to come from Hongjoong's incredibly burdensome self.

⛓️

a/n: just realized dreamcatcher songs go very well with this book.

thoughts? ( because i love comments )