The whistling of a friend walking by the street eased the ringing on my ears. The view of a behind that was the utmost familiar to me. A hair that was partly disheveled and drenched with sweat and the crumpled school uniform. During the time when the sun is going down, we stopped halfway on our walk and that friend turned to me and wears a frown. The friend was holding a pair of someone else's shoes and began crying as soon as our eyes met. A memory that was long forgotten. A memory that had sunk within the consciousness. A memory that became the price for the temporary happiness. That friend mumbled a name and he turned to his front. With his heaving breath, he tosses the pair of shoes towards the telephone wires. It got tangled there and left hanging. He mumbled the word again and he fell on his knees.

"Why is he like that?" I muttered.

The phone call that I received from Minah that was passed to Yoongi that was given to Jimin was hanged. I could a siren and hundreds of voices behind their voices filled with apprehension. As soon as the name echoed to my ears, I dropped the device and grabbed my pair of outdoor shoes. My father was startled when he saw me and I didn't say a word as I began running as fast as I could. There was a very unpleasant sensation rumbling on my chest. It was affecting my senses that I was unable to hear things properly until I realized that my father is chasing me. He was on his car and he blew the horn aloud to make me pause. I almost got run over by a delivery truck that was passing when I noticed my father.

"What are you doing?" he loudly asked while hastily stepping out of the car and walking towards me. I looked into his eyes and I knew that I was crying. My hands clench onto fists and I was grimacing. I lost the balance in my legs and I knelt on the asphalt ground. I couldn't speak for a while, my voice would not come out. My father embraces me and repeats his question. My mouth cracked open and produced a sound that is not exactly but close to the name that he knows well. His eyes grew wide in surprise and without an ounce of hesitation he carried me and I mumbled the train station. He drove towards there without being aware of what happened.

My father was still in his working clothes. The very similar appearance of him according to Minah when I skipped classes and went to the amusement park instead. I was gripping on the sleeve of his shirt for the entire time until we arrived to the train station and found an ambulance. We both immediately hopped out of the car and saw Hoseok being carried on a stretcher with an oxygen mask on his face and an oxygen tank next to him. He was surrounded by nurses and first aid staffs and followed by our friends. Yoongi was the first person to see us and he went to me directly and grabbed my arm. He confronted me and wondered why I was not beside Hoseok. I was being scolded by a friend and was yelled at but I have lost my reaction. My mind was clouded and all that I wanted is to see Hoseok.

"Why did you let him go alone?" he irritably said. When I responded of nothing, it drove him into an annoyance. Yoongi grabbed my shoulders and shook me until I had returned to myself.

"I had to stay at home." I quietly answered him while still crying.

"Then, you should have let him stay at home too!" he shouted at me.

"The doctor said that he'll get better once the weather cools down." I replied between sobs.

"What? Do you believe to what that doctor has said? Didn't Hoseok died four years ago?" my swollen eyes went into an astonishment. A flood of strange and odd pictures came to my head. The view of a young boy who smiles brightly and cheerfully, the young girl who was crying and pleading everyone to help her and the man who was in between adolescence and adulthood.

Yoongi lets go of my shoulders and he pushes me away. Jimin extended his hands towards me and I tried to reach for it. However, the scene in front of me blurs and my body lands on the surface. It was water. Knowing that I did not learned how to swim, it was struggle for me to get my head above and breath. The realm where I am once existed inside of me, inside of my dreams and sometimes my nightmares. The darkest ocean turned came to life. The sky that is filled with misery and isolation was now upon me. The faint light was staring at me and waiting for me to open my eyes wider. However, I couldn't and I realized that I going to die. It was a such foolishness to keep Hoseok on my mind even though I am about to disappear. But what can I do? He's the solely reason why I was only able to see myself as a human. Whenever I couldn't find him, I would always feel that I was rather a monster that is lost and unable to determine whom itself.

When I thought, expected and cried that I am about to find my death, I saw a silhouette in form of a human coming to my direction. In spite of the darkness, I was able to see his face. He reached both of his hands for me and he had a pair of eyes that are glowing. Unreal, that's how I could mutter as soon as the tip of our fingers touched each other. The man put his arms around my torso and he swims upward. It wasn't an ocean, there is no shore to go to. It was a swimming pool. The sky was not a sky, it was a ceiling with only one light on. I was fooled by my own senses, it's silly. I don't know where I am and how I ended up almost drowning in the water. My gasps reverberated to the tiled walls and I was blinking constantly. The man held me carefully and carried me to the empty waiting bleachers. Behind the bleachers was the lone light, rolled hoses and folded fabrics with vibrant shades.

"It's been a while Allison. How have you've been? It's been four years since you last called me." the man was smirking. My mind was all blank and vacant until he hovered onto me as if I was one of his possessions. I was neither afraid or terrified but somehow I did crouched and closed my eyes. The man who had a pretty face but a masculine presence and muscular built. He was unreal, I haven't seen such a person with a pair of ice blue irides, daisy yellow hair and dark thick eyebrows. His smile was rectangular and his lips had red as blood. I do not know him but he knows my name and by the way that he approaches me it seems like he read what I have been thinking and my heart's content.

"Don't be afraid of me Allison. I'm not an enemy. I am your friend." the man's voice was deep.

"Who are you?" I uttered as I try to console my shock and confusion. I wandered my sight around and the surroundings was still in a swimming pool. I rubbed the corner of my eyes again and shook my head harder. I might be only dreaming. Alright, I might probably be. I squinted my eyes tight and when I opened them, the man was still there standing in front of me with a mischievous grin and a sinister stare. Is he a human? I'm uncertain. I haven't met or encountered one who is alike him.

"You couldn't remember me anyway. You traded your memories that involves me to save that sick boy. How is he doing?" the man cups my face and I became obligated to look only to his eyes where I could sense darkness and joy at the same time.

"What are you saying?" I intentionally spoke insolently to intimidate him. Instead he became amused of my behavior and patted my head the same way that Hoseok does.

"See, you really couldn't even remember a grain of who I am. You did not looked at me like that before. Oh my Allison, you've gotten bigger. It's been only four years but you have changed a lot. You are now looking like your mother. You are becoming prettier and dangerous." it was followed by a playful smirk. No matter how much the man tried to make me remember, even though he did gestures that are similar to Hoseok, I was at lost. Automatically I began to feel terrible for him for I couldn't recognize him at all.

"Alright I give up. Now, I'll ask you. What memory are you going to sell to save that boy?" he shrugged and sighed. It had put me into a greater perplex. My eyebrows furrowed and looked at him in a bittersweet expression.

"What happened to you? Your response grew slower. The last time we met here, you were forcing me to hurry and do it because it was a matter of life and death. Goodness Allison, what am to do now?" he frowned in frustration. I attempted to recall a lot of things but a part that he may exist wouldn't come to me. I had knocked my head, shook it harder and closed my eyes and reminisced all in the sixteen years of my life, but there wasn't anything that leads to him.

"I'm sorry, I honestly do not know you. Anyway, why am I here? Why are you saying that I look like my mother? Why are you talking about my memories? Does my memories that interesting to you?" somehow, strangely and funny I became comfortable around him. There was a hunch that I have seen him before and we had interacted like this too, but my heart was whispering that it was just a hunch and not a truth. For a moment, I became unshackled from my worries and fears. This man's presence is too alike to Hoseok's. I wonder if they are the same person. No, they are not. Hoseok do not have a sinister look in his eyes and he doesn't talk nonsense. He may crack jokes frequently, but he never meddles on the words like memories and how I have grown. Also, it's impossible for him to be this grown. After all, he's just a child like me in front of our parent's eyes, teacher's view and to everyone who knew us.

I immediately brushed off the whimsical idea from my mind and began focusing on what the man has been saying. He sighs a lot and smiles too but the dark look in his eyes was permanent. He sits down beside me and awaits for me to speak. Therefore, I couldn't carelessly talk since he was a stranger and I had no idea on why he was asking for a memory that I own. The single light bulb that was on reflected its light on the stagnant water in the swimming pool. The silence lingered to me and it wasn't new to me since I used to spent such kind of moments with Hoseok in the library that he likes.

"I couldn't remember anything about you, sorry. Can you tell me who you are again?" I snickered while scratching the top of my scalp. The man's eyes opened wider, he was surprised.

"Are you sure?" he raised a brow.

"Why? You asked me if I know you but when I want you to introduce yourself why are you stunned by it?" I folded my arms. The wetness of my clothes made my skin itch and feel sticky. The man picked up a towel from the stacks behind the bench and hands me of it. I thanked him for his deed, but he did not smile and instead he looked burdened.

"I was not sure if I should tell you of who I am because you might regret it. Do you the prize for gaining knowledge? Those who are not permitted to eat the fruit of awareness will get punished. They will be wiser but they will suffer eternally." there are throbs between his words. There was a poke of a needle between his breaths. The man slowly, eagerly and solemnly looks into my eyes and I remembered the view of the dearest person reaching out to me with his pupils dilating in suffering. His dry and cracked lips said two words and he vanishes into a morning light. The surroundings have changed yet the stack of neon towels and the bench itself remained. The indoor swimming pool became a raining field surrounded by withering plants and parched ground. It was devastating to me all of a sudden. Then, my terrible headache comes that it almost took away my consciousness.

The man crosses his legs and he places his one hand under his chin. He was waiting, anticipating and seemed like he already holds a prediction. My reflection in his eyes dims and I heard my mother's voice. She was not calling out my name. She was not in search of me, but she was asking me a question. "What would you do?" that's what I could understand from all the echoes coming from different directions. I asked of myself of it too. What would I do? What will I decide to be of? Why am I pondering? Why do I am having this overbearing pain in my chest? I don't know. Why am I suddenly at lost and confusion? What's happening to me?

"It's saddening that I can only meet you when he is half-alive." the man stands and lands both of his hands on my shoulders. The ringing baffle stops at that moment. The answer came from him. I was there to save a someone's life that is at stake. My eyes grew wide in the better realization of what is the situation. This was the third realm, the place that only I could be in. The place what I was once been four years ago. This was the realm that exists in the borderline of the world with my friends and the world with myself alone. I remember it now, this man was nowhere a human or a monster. He was a hybrid and an in-between being.

"My fear of heights. I'll trade that memory. Will that be good enough?" I spoke before my mind successfully fathom everything. I looked into his eyes and he smiled swiftly. He nods and removes his hands from my shoulders.

"Yes, that memory of yours is sufficient enough. Your fear of heights is an important part of yourself. I shall grant that boy an another chance to live. That person, Jung Hoseok will live as long as you live." there was a devilish snickering and smirk. The man encloses my eyes with his palms and whispered to my ear. It was his name. He told me a little about himself and I was nowhere surprised to find out. The coldness and the wetness that lingers on my skin disappears and as soon as I opened my eyes, I was on my bedroom and I saw the sun rising outside the window. I got up, I was on my pajamas and as I lifted the curtains I saw Hobi standing in front of our house. That person was wearing a working apron, the snapback and looking to my window. As soon as he received a glimpse of my head, he raised both of his arms and waved them enthusiastically. It was not a dream. No, it cannot be a dream. Nothing of what have occurred was a dream.

"Good morning Alice!" Hoseok greeted in high energy. I smiled at him but covered half of my face quickly for I feel embarrassed of meeting him without even combing my hair and washing up.

"I'll go to you upstairs. You better hurry up." I heard him shouting of this. It is a brand new day as far as I am aware. Nothing will be repeated anymore, this is what I kept on my mind as I hurried to change my clothes into a school uniform. When I went out of my room, Hoseok was already standing in the hallway and waiting for me. I burst into laughter and I pretended not to see him as part of my playfulness. He follows me downstairs and when we are reaching the kitchen, he asked me of the camera. The one that he worked so hard just to buy it as a belated gift for my past birthday. I did not answered him and I rushed upstairs to get it. I was planning to bring it to school and take several photos with our friends and keep it as part of the collection. It happened. When it was lunch break, we took couple of shots underneath the oldest tree in the garden. Photographs with our widest smile that are filled with youthfulness, inner strength and beauty. The last one that we took was the prettiest since our faces appeared clearly and no one was covered by too much sunlight or shadow. It when Hoseok was behind me and his hand was on my hand. Yoongi was beside me with his dispirited grin and Minah was holding my hand while having the camera with her other grip. Hanna shone upon in her beauty and Jimin's happiness glowed in his eyes. It instantly became my favorite photo of us that we had decided to produce five copies for each other to keep.

The first and original piece was left to me and I kept it on the box hidden under my bed. It was a secret treasure shoe box that I own. Even Hoseok doesn't know that I was keeping a lot of our photographs there. From our childhood, from the first day of us entering middle school and until we had worn our ill-fitting high school uniforms with an awkward yet joyful grins on our faces. Those were the best days that I had longed for and I had forgotten to reminisce during my loneliness. The days that we ran under the pouring rain and hot sunlight. The days when we laid on the snow and laughed our hearts out. The days when the spent our youth to its fullest. Later that day, I only realized that I was no longer alone. It was me who was isolating myself. I was not walking on the zigzagging path alone for these five people are with me holding my hand and we are altogether passing through it.

Since then, I have began living Hoseok's advice. I had wiped off my frowning and painted over abundant smiles on it. Though I still bear the same sadness and apprehension, I try to live to its fullest. I had regrets and remorse, but every time I see this dearest person dancing in the sunlight and singing in the moonlight, all of it fades as if a magical spell has been casted. It was no longer the darkest ocean. It was no longer the sunless sky. Instead it became a sunflower field with a breeze of summertime. The wind was blowing peacefully and the brighter clouds are in the up above. At the end of that place, there exists the bench where I and that man sat. From that day on that we were reunited, I see him in my dreams. I would always find him standing on the side. There was a gleam of sadness and sinister in his eyes. He was looking solely onto me but is not reaching out his hand. There was no elation neither gladness. There was only dismay and agony.

Several weeks have passed after Hoseok's pulse died. He was alive and it was a great relief. He was brought to the hospital quickly so he was saved. However, the doctor told us that it was because he was being brought early to the place that is why he survived. It was because of a miracle. When no one have expected and hoped to revive him, his heart rate suddenly returns and he was breathing again. During that situation, Hanna and Yoongi was crying aloud. Minah and Jimin were praying at the chapel with their knees bend and eyes shut tight. Mrs. Jung hurriedly arrived and she stood alongside with my mother and father in front of the emergency room. I was only sitting at the hallway's corner and waiting silently. I was wearing a bashful grin on my lips and my eyes were opened wider. The trade has been fulfilled as far as I know and when I had seen a black feather falling upon my palms, the doctor and nurses in-charge of taking care Hoseok came out in a presence of success and conquer.

"The boy lives!" they exclaimed. They rejoiced in the victory. They clapped their hands and faced our parents with proudness and gladness. A celebration at a local restaurant was held after Hoseok's discharge. Everyone ate wholeheartedly. A cake was bought for him and even sang as if it was his birthday. Everyone was grateful to the heavens and to God. During their celebration, I was on the second realm and quietly watching over the things outside the glass where I was confined for hours. The only one who had seen through my silence was Jimin. In order to properly ask me, we had to step outside for a brief moment. We were allowed by the elders and Yoongi reminded us to return as possible as we could. We both agreed to come back and as we made it out, Jimin grabbed my hand and told me to spoke softly while looking to his eyes only.

Jimin has done the similar deed before but remembering it was now vague. The instance in one summer day became a distant picture to me. Almost all of it. I was like being pulled so far away from past and is now only tend to live in the present and look forward to the upcoming future. It was not like I have changed, I was still the Alice from when the Jung Family arrived in the neighborhood. I was the a daughter of a baker and a novel editor. I was still the same student who doesn't study well before.

"Are you alright?" it was expected. I know that Jimin would immediately utter this three words. It was not only him, even Hoseok, my father, and a lot of people have been constantly asking me if they see unusual in me. I nodded for I wouldn't want to cause unnecessary worrying to him. Jimin was more matured when it was the two of us. His voice was deeper and the way he speaks was polite and precise. He became this after the misunderstanding that we shared. It turned more noticeable and remarkable to me every time we get lone.

"Don't lie to me. I can tell that you're upset. Is it because of Hobi?" he was not convinced. My act, my false and big smile was not good enough to hide how I truly feel. On that night, I had the heaviest grief and sadness in me. It was too much that even my tears will not come out. I just couldn't breathe well and it seemed like I have been tied. Jimin squeezes my hand and I wince at it.

"I'm not upset." I responded. I was almost stuttering. I was crouching in the pain, he did not let go despite of my mute pleading. Jimin pushes me to the wall and tells me to look into his eyes.

"You must have realized it now. Alice, I can't stand seeing you sad. I don't know how Hoseok feels when we are both staring at the same view. Alice, you should be more honest to me. I'm your friend." he asserted. There was no argument boiling between us but there was tension. Strangely, I was not being fearful. There was no fright in me to the very least. What came to is a blank mind and a freezing body. I slowly averted my stare from Jimin, then he lets go of