One little boy stood by himself, outside, in the middle of the night. He stared bleakly at the burning house he used to call his home, watched it crumble to ash before his very eyes. It began to snow.

Hair prickled on the back of the boy’s neck, a cold shiver trembling through his body, as he watched in complete silence. The crackling fire a stark contrast against the darkness, but this did not upset him. Fire was dangerous, but he knew of something much more dangerous than fire.

Tears stained the young boy’s cheeks, leaving tracks of salty wet against his frozen face. With blank eyes, he continued to watch the flames, though he felt nothing. Nothing could replace the memory of mere minutes ago. Nothing could ever compare to the true terror of that night.

“I know you,”

“I know you.”

“Minseok-ssi!”

“Minseok!”

Minseok awoke to Luhan gently shaking him from his slumber. With a groan, Minseok rolled over and tried to regain the remnants of his nightmare, but it was too late for him to fall asleep again. Luhan shook him again, a little more this time, babbling about classes and how late it was.

“Wait, what?” Minseok rubbed the sleep from his eyes and glanced at the clock on his bedside table, “Oh crap!”

“I’ve been trying to wake you up for almost twenty minutes,” Luhan sighed as he watched Minseok lunge from his bed and towards the closet, pulling out the first few clean articles of clothing that he saw - a burgundy hoodie he was sure was not his own and a pair of faded jeans.

“This is mine,” Luhan hummed, picking up the hoodie as Minseok struggled to get into his pants, mumbling something about not remembering last night at all.

“I’m borrowing it,” Minseok defended, slipping the sweater from Luhan’s fingers before throwing it on over himself.

“What time did you come back last night, anyway?” Luhan asked curiously, helping Minseok by shoving his textbooks into his bookbag while Minseok fought with a pair of socks.

“What do you mean?” Minseok looked over his shoulder at Luhan with a raise eyebrow, nearly losing his balance as he did.

“You left last night, remember?” Luhan said worriedly as he zipped up Minseok’s bag, “You said you remembered Professor Byun before storming out of the dorms.”

“Uh,” Minseok muttered stupidly, “I did?”

Luhan frowned, eyebrows furrowing in concern, “What’s wrong with you this morning?”

“I don’t know,” Minseok made a weird face as he pulled on his jacket, “I don’t remember going out last night.”

“Were you drinking then?” Luhan scrunched up his nose, “It’s like you out or something.”

Minseok slowed down for a moment, once he had wrangled on his shoes, and rubbed the back of his neck in confusion, “I thought I had gone to sleep after we got home last night…”

Luhan shook his head, “No. You said you knew Professor Byun, whatever that meant, and then you disappeared. I fell asleep before you returned… You’re worrying me, Minseok.”

“I’m worrying you?” Minseok asked in exasperation, “I’m worrying myself! Did I really go out last night? Because I don’t remember at all.”

“Maybe we should skip classes this morning,” Luhan suggested, “I can take you to see the nurse instead.”

Minseok thought this over for a minute. Sure, if he had gone out last night and didn’t remember a single thing about it, then he should probably see the nurse about it. Lately, Minseok had found himself doing some rather strange things and asking for help seemed like a good idea. However, Minseok didn’t want to miss a full day of classes when he wasn’t actually feeling ill.

“I can see the nurse some other time,” Minseok decided finally with a nod, “It’s only the first week of the semester, I can’t start it by missing classes already.”

“You can’t help it if you’re sick,” Luhan argued as they both stepped into the chilly winter air of January.

“But I’m not sick.”

“But you’re forgetting things.”

“That doesn’t mean I’m sick.”

“There’s something wrong there, Minseok.” Luhan stopped walking for a brief moment, causing Minseok to stop as well, “I’m just worried about you.”

Minseok smiled at Luhan, to show that he was feeling fine, “Okay, mom.” he teased.

Luhan snorted and hooked his arm with Minseok’s, “I just want what’s best for you,” he said in a mom tone and Minseok mock shuddered before laughing.

“I promise, I’ll see someone about it after classes.” Minseok said, reaching to link his pinky with Luhan’s.

***

“What are you doing here?”

“Thanks for the warm welcome, Junmyeon-ssi.”

Junmyeon dropped the papers in his hands back on top of the stack upon his desk and took the glasses off of the bridge of his nose before folding them up and placing them on his desk. He fumbled with his tie as he rose from his chair, rounding the desk and then properly greeted his surprise visitor.

“I didn’t mean it like that, Baekhyun,” Junmyeon mumbled, “I was surprised to see you is all.”

“You weren’t as surprised last night.” Baekhyun sighed as he let himself further into Junmyeon’s office, gently clicking the door shut behind himself.

“Yes, well,” Junmyeon cleared his throat, “I wasn’t as tired last night.”

Baekhyun nearly snorted, “Why do you work a day job anyway?”

Junmyeon shrugged, “I like daytime. But I can’t sleep at night. It’s a struggle.”

“I can only imagine…” Baekhyun hummed, looking around the office and noticing some pieces of decoration that hadn’t changed in nearly three decades.

“What are you doing awake? Didn’t you have a busy night last night? I figured you’d be sleeping.” Junmyeon said as he leaned back on his desk, arms folded across his chest.

Baekhyun rolled his eyes, “You know I very rarely sleep.” he sighed before running his fingers through a film of dust collected on an old bookshelf.

“I know you said you wanted to talk after last night, but I wasn’t expecting you so soon.” Junmyeon said honestly and Baekhyun, had he been paying attention, would probably have some snarky comment to respond with, but something had caught his eye.

He plucked an old frame from Junmyeon’s shelf, rubbing the dust off of the glass with his thumb and staring at the picture within for a moment. There was a sigh from somewhere within the room, it was Junmyeon’s, but Baekhyun ignored him in favor of staring at the people in the photograph. So much life had been in this photo, but now there was only stillness.

“I’ve been meaning to put those old things away,” Junmyeon spoke as he came up behind Baekhyun, “Those photographs have been so hard to look at, I simply left them as they were.”

“I wish I could show this to him,” Baekhyun sighed as he observed one of the men in the photo, the one he spoke of, “I wish he could understand who he is to me, but mortals have a difficult time accepting and understanding these things.”

Junmyeon nodded in agreement, “They tend to… Because they don’t see it. Their lives are always changing, but we always stay the same. We’re stuck in a single life while they live multiple.”

“Strange, isn’t it? They live on in different lives and we live on in the same one, but it never really is the same life, is it?”

Junmyeon smirked slowly, “It’s far too early for this type of conversation. Why don’t we skip this and jump right into the reason why you’re here.”

Baekhyun took one last glance at the photograph before putting it back on the dusty shelf and turned to face Junmyeon, “Yes, let’s talk about last night, shall we?”

***

“I know you,”

“I know you.”

“Minseok, what are you doing here?”

“It’s you.”

“W-What do you mean?”

“You were there.”

“What are you talking about?”

“January 22. Thirteen years ago. You were there, weren’t you?”

“Last night was a blur,” Baekhyun sighed, “I wasn’t expecting that he would be registered for my class.”

Junmyeon looked surprised, “He’s registered for you course? After those memories… I can’t imagine why he would take a course in vampire studies.”

“Neither can I… Minseok… He’s been through so much. I had no idea.” Baekhyun hung his head and buried his face in his hands, “If only I had known, I could have protected him.”

“No one knew that it was him, Baekhyun, you can’t blame yourself for that. It wasn’t your fault.”

“Who else can I blame but myself for that night?” Baekhyun choked on his tears, “Who else can you blame? They never did find who it was, but that description, it-”

“You didn’t do anything,” Junmyeon shifted in his chair and reached out to touch Baekhyun’s shoulder, “There was nothing you did that night and there was nothing you could have done to prevent it.”

“...What about that night, Minseok?”

“So it is you. I should have known it was you from the start.”

“Minseok, I think you should come inside and sit down-”

“No, you’re dangerous, you’re one of them.”

“This is all a misunderstanding.”