Darkness covered Do Kyungsoo's eyes as he opened them for the first time after the surgery.

He was confused. The darkness was still there, it didn't go away but then slowly, when he came into conscious, he realized something was covering him up from seeing.

The doctor gingerly, but proudly began taking off the bandage around his eyes.

He was edgy, fevered but at the same time eager and excited.

At long last he could see the world he had always heard of, he could see people smashing cigars under their feet and he could see cats sleeping on the trash cans and he could see Byun Baekhyun.

"Alright, now slowly...open your eyes."

With each heavy breath, he commanded his eyes to move. Stuck eyelids, unstuck. Wet lashes, dried.

In front of him was a blurred lone, thin figure in a blue hospital gown.

Bony hands and legs, average in height but and with big eyes.

"Now blink a few times."

He blinked.

Blink.

Blink.

The figure got clearer. Wide set of round eyes, reddish cheeks, and heart shaped lips were Do Kyungsoo's features.

He looked down at himself, body too weak and fragile.

He looked up at the doctor and the nurses.

He looked around him.

This feeling, this strange feeling Kyungsoo was feeling, he couldn't express it but could only sense it.

And then there came this sudden urge of seeing Baekhyun.

The faceless friend he was so close with.

He looked around, searching for an exceptional smile which he imagined.

"My boss needs my help in something so, I will be back before you can open your eyes alright?"

He sighed.

Maybe that's why no smiles matched the one around him.

But he had already opened his eyes, and Baekhyun wasn't there.

 

For hours Kyungsoo waited at the reception for him.

The clock ticked away, the nurses even questioned him whom he was waiting for, however all Kyungsoo said was, "My friend."

Twelve am and Byun Baekhyun hadn't shown up.

 

"You remember our address right?" Baekhyun asked as they were headed to the waiting room.

"Yea."

"Repeat."

"Street no.5, Jung Shik society, door no. 08."

"Bravo."

 

"To street no.5, Jung Shik society, door no. 08." Kyungsoo said and sat in the cab.

Everything was so new to him, and he stared outside the window like a new born baby who had just opened its eyes.

The speeding cars, the different types of people, the animals, the shops, the scenery, the buildings, the views, the air, the lights, the beautiful night, he noted each and every one of them.

He even scrutinized the insides of the cab, and the cab driver.

 

The society was as Baekhyun had described, friendly-looking, greenery and civil.

"There's a spare key under the mat so if my friend comes just say its under there." Baekhyun once said.

Flipping over the welcome mat, he found the silver key and unlocked the door.

The directions and the steps were familiar, the strange feelings were distinct and memories were discrete.

The walls he had been living in, the couch he had been sitting on, and the room he had been with Baekhyun seemed all like broken echoes of the past.

New, but old. Different, but same.

 

He couldn't sleep. He wanted to see Baekhyun after all.

 

He opened his eyes, and the brown ceiling greeted him for the first time.

Bright and colorful shades of everything, jingled in Kyungsoo's eyes.

"Baekhyun?" He called out, lethargically descending the stairs, but as hopeful he was as last night, there came no reply.

"Baekhyun are you there?"

No response answered his question.

 

Leaving a note at the dining table, "I'm headed out to explore the world, if you read this then find me at our usual place, hopefully I would find it myself - Kyungsoo."

 

“On the left is the tiny fruit shop which has the tastiest mango’s I have ever eaten, and on the right is a weird antique shop. There’s a rumor that there lives a fortune teller who could see someone else’s future, though not the type with electrical globes or such.”

Kyungsoo chuckled as everything was as it was as Baek had described it.

 

“-And here we are, to our usual spot.” A black bench, with rough but pretty handles was in the middle of the footpath.

 

Kyungsoo sat on it, and yes, it was the very bench.

He knew the texture of it, the bumps on it and the little scraped paint on it as well.

He touched the handles and yes, he had held it a million times to forget it that easily.

 

A breath of animated relief escaped from Kyungsoo's lips as he closed his eyes and took in the noises, the chatterings, the yellings and the barkings, and he opened them again, only to feel all of it differently.

 

The newspaper kid, who would always yell the breaking news was now in sight.

He threw the papers inside shops, gave them to the passer-bys and threw one on the bench beside Kyungsoo.

It was the kids last job working at the newspaper factory, so he had decided to leave it free of cost. As luck would have it, someone had gotten him into a school for him to study and work hard.

 

Reading the paper for the first time, Kyungsoo took his time to read what little he had learned.

Words and numbers were similar to Braille, but difficult to implement.

Head-lines-Dancer Kim Jongin meets with an accident.

 

Saved in the last minute, truck tries to runs over the CEO of Kim Company, Kim Junmyeon.

 

Singer Park Chanyeol scheduled to perform in Seoul on the eighteenth of March.

 

He flipped the page, and on the corner was a tiny article.

 

Old woman saved by a young boy at Gongtae downtown when a bunch of petty thieves were trying to steal the old womans bag.

However, when a witness had called the police, the young boy had been shot twice in the chest.

"An angel." The old woman had said with unstoppable tears for the young boy.

A few other witnesses around the downtown plummeted in shock when they noticed the dead boy who was a regular at their shops.

His name they said, was Byun Baekhyun.

 

Kyungsoo froze.

 

His name they said, was Byun Baekhyun.

 

There was no photo of him, just the name.

Sure, they could be other Byun Baekhyuns, but the Byun Baekhyun that was in Gongtae downtown, that went to save the lady and that came back to Kyungsoo was just one.

 

I'm sorry, there were these goons who were trying to snatch a old lady's purse, and a couple of people were trying to tackle them so they got hurt. Fortunately, somebody had called the police and the ambulance so there's no need to worry now."

 

But he remembers clearly, Baekhyun was there. He was in front of him. He held his hands, they talked, they laughed, they walked back home, they ate and they made promises.

This can't be true.

It must be some other Byun Baekhyun, someone whom Kyungsoo doesn't know.

It's not his friend, his best friend, his room mate, his companion.

Its someone else.

 

Nevertheless, deep inside he knew that it was him.

His eyes swelled up, became as red as a cherry and hot tears slowly but surely fell.

His tears blotted the name of Byun Baekhyun.

"Baekhyun" He called out but there was no one respond him back.

 

"Baek...where are you?"