Stuck.

That's what Wonwoo was feeling. Stuck.
Where was he? He doesn't know the fact himself.
How long had he been like this? He didn't know either.
He was in a coma-like state. His body unmoving as if he was in a cocoon.
It felt like he was drifting somewhere. He didn't know where.

It all irritated him. His obliviousness, his helplessness.
All he could do was let it pass. Forcing his mind to sleep.
Wonwoo didn't know if he could depend on his sense of time,
but seconds turned into minutes, minutes turned into hours.
Then he was in slumber.

Wonwoo woke up.

The breeze played around and leaves rustled above him. That was the first thing he noticed.

Though his eyes were closed, he felt sunlight dawning on him. His back was set against a tree's trunk, he was placed in a sitting position. Within a few counts, he opened his eyes. Wonwoo didn't expect anything, but what he saw was one of the things he'd last consider.
He was on the highest point of land, viewing rows of small houses scattered across the lower elevations of land. It was a small village, and the tree over him was placed in the middle of it. Scanning carefully, he noticed that a river bordered the area. Wonwoo saw that they were on a great land mass between a fork of the river. Turning to the left behind him beyond the tree, he found the other part of the river bordering the opposite side of the village. Beyond both sides of the river were vast forests.

"I see you're awake now." A voice sounded beside him. Moving his head to the right, he saw a boy his age enjoying the scene as well. He refocused his sights on him, "My name is Mingyu." Wonwoo gave him a good stare, but Mingyu returned it. "Wonwoo." He simply stated, turning back to the scenery before him.

He froze upon the awareness of a missing piece, a frown forming on his face. "You realize it now, don't you?" Mingyu picked up on the boy's expression, "Don't worry. We all don't know our last names. We're not even sure if our first names are what we're born with."

Wonwoo thought deeper and deeper, hoping to find an answer. His train of thought got interrupted, "Don't force yourself to remember." Mingyu shook his head, "None of us remember, even after months of staying in this place."

"Who's 'us'?" Wonwoo immediately questioned. Mingyu was patient, "Oh, y'know, just the guys. We're all about the same age. Including you, there's thirteen of us. Hate to break it to you, but we're all boys, not a single girl to gawk at." Wonwoo didn't feel any disappointment. There were more problems to deal with than the lack of the opposite gender.

"What is this place?" He asked. Mingyu shrugged, "A village in the middle of nowhere. As you can see, the river borders it. It surrounds the whole village and we only have one exit. It's this really huge wooden bridge, we can't seem to find a way out, though." "Why not?" Wonwoo followed up. Mingyu had to pause for a while, then he spoke again, "Every time we try to walk over the bridge, the river acts up. It suddenly floods and becomes dangerous. It's weird." He cleared his throat and continued, "When we once talked about sprinting across the bridge before it can flood, the bridge got torn down by the river before we could do anything. Then the bridge was magically repaired the next day."

Wonwoo found it hard to believe. All he could do was take everything as a grain of salt. 'I'll have to walk over that bridge myself and see what happens.' He mentally noted.

"How did I get here?" He threw in another question. Mingyu knocked his knuckles against the trunk behind them, "From here." And before Wonwoo can open his mouth, he added on to his answer, "You just slowly get out from the tree's trunk. Boring process, but someone has to watch over you in case you fall out of the trunk and land head first. Nobody wants a migraine when they wake up." A silence followed up on his words. Wonwoo took notice of the tree's branches towering over them. It was an old one, an oak tree which was at least a hundred years old.

He put up another question before the silence got too long for comfort, "Did you try chopping it down?" Mingyu nodded, "With everything we've got. The tree's just as messed as the river. We tried bringing it down but the trunk regenerates faster than we can cut it down. We tried setting it on fire, but the fire gets put out before any damage can be done."

It stressed Wonwoo. Why was this guy so calm about the unexplained? With the river trapping them, no one must've set foot outside the borders. Mingyu's words implied that all the people inhabiting this place were all boys. Where was their family? Were they not worried about getting back home?

Then it hit him. Wonwoo knew he was Korean. He was absolutely sure he was born and raised in South Korea. But he couldn't pinpoint where. He was sure he has a family, but he couldn't visualize their faces nor did their names ring. It's like he knew such things only because he was told so, not because he vividly remembers it happening. He couldn't bring up any memories.

"I can't remember anything." Panic shook his voice. He desperately attempted to fish up any fragment of his memories in his head, but it was like searching for something you didn't know was missing. He knew his name was Wonwoo, but he didn't have any memories that associated with it. He couldn't recall anyone calling him by that name. Applying the same rule, he should at least know his family members' names and not have the proof of memory, but his knowledge is cut off. It's like everything was selectively taken out. When it came to people, Wonwoo only had knowledge strictly about himself, yet even that had limits. The rest of his knowledge contained things that are commonly learned in school, like the solar system, the human body, and a variety of other subjects.

"Don't force yourself." Mingyu's voice took him out of his mental breakdown. Wonwoo shot him a look. How could he not? If they were to find their way back to civilization, their lack of memory would make it hard for them to jump back into their normal lives. Mingyu continued, "Everyone is an emotional wreck when they wake up here. It wasn't any easier for the ones who first arrived."

Mingyu stood up, patting away any dirt behind him. Wonwoo noticed how tall he was once he stood up and followed suit "The guys should be getting up by now. Come on, I'll show you around, I don't want to sit here all day." He led the way towards a lane of stepping stones, "I woke up so early to watch over you and sat here for two whole hours.." he muttered under his breath. Wonwoo caught on to every word but decided to say nothing against it.

The two boys descended down the hill and walked within the labyrinth of small houses. Wonwoo was careful not to misplace his footing on the weathered stone pathway, realizing that some stones were crumbling out loose. Most, if not all, houses were stone shacks. Vines climbed up their sturdy walls and the low sunrise casted its light between the buildings to the ground.

They soon made it down to the bottom of the hill, descending on the last few stone steps. The pathway opened up to make a wide open area, shacks lined up to the side. Straight ahead of that was the bridge, Wonwoo estimated its width to be approximately five metres. It greatly arched over the river, connecting to the other side of which would be the forest.

Wonwoo can hear the sounds of sleepy protest and shuffling. There were definitely only a few boys who were morning people. 

A voice sounded in the shack to the left, which catergorized between a groan and a whine. "Seunggwan, give that back!" The grumpy voice cracked due to fatigue. A cheery voice, most likely the Seungkwan person, replied in a teasing tone, "If you want it, all you have to do is get up and snatch it from me." A soft "Be quiet.." was stated as Seungkwan spoke, possibly from a different person.

The door swung wide open and a boy clutching a blanket marched out. It didn't take too long for him to realize the presence of the two boys, "Ah, Mingyu's here!" He didn't miss a beat and acknowledged Wonwoo as well, "Hello! You've finally arrived, huh? I'm Seungkwan. What's your name?" Mingyu gave a smack on Wonwoo's back, "His name's Wonwoo." Seungkwan gave Mingyu a look and refocused on Wonwoo, silently beckoning him to answer for himself. "It's Wonwoo." He introduced himself, mentally cursing himself for his awkwardness. A boy about Seungkwan's age came out of the shack, ripping out the blanket from his hands. He had a foreign appearance, but nonetheless, he possessed Korean features.

Seungkwan didn't seem so affected by the gesture and gripped the boy's shoulder to stay on his spot. "Wonwoo. Alright, well, it's nice to have another person here join the bunch." He gave a small smile, then he motioned to the boy next to him, "Anyway, this is Hansol. Hansol, this is Wonwoo." The boy lazily waved, "Hey, it's Hansol." unintentionally reintroducing himself. Hansol most likely hadn't paid the slightest attention to Seungkwan's words, or to anything at all, but Wonwoo nodded as a greeting despite the chances of Hansol missing the response. Having introduced himself and his blanket back with him, Hansol turned away and trod back to his shack to sleep in peace.

"Mingyu," Seungkwan successfully caught said person's attention, "you should get going. I'm sure Wonwoo would want to know how things work here." Mingyu agreed, "Yes, yes." With that, the younger boy returned into his shack, resuming to disrupt his roommates' sleep.

The guide faced Wonwoo, "Alright, we'll get going now. Follow me." Mingyu began walking without any response from him. Wonwoo trailed behind him only to bump into him as he abruptly halted on the spot. Wonwoo saw a blank expression on his face and inquired of him, "What's the matter?" Mingyu opened his mouth to speak,

"Nevermind, I can't go on without breakfast."