When Mingyu first entered this house after the previous owners (an old couple) moved out, he noticed something strange about it.

The old owner lady had smiled at him and told him she had to leave some of the furniture and appliances behind because they were moving far away, and if that was ok with Mingyu. Mingyu shrugged, telling the woman it was fine. He didn’t mind some of the antique looking stuff; it made the house feel more comfy somehow.

So when Wonwoo walked through the grand double doors with his suitcases for the first time, he must’ve taken notice of the same thing Mingyu saw when he first moved here. All the appliances the previous owners had left came in pairs: two identical single seater couches, two lamps, two clocks, and the list went on. Mingyu wondered if it was an old couple thing.

He brought Wonwoo up to the rooms and asked if he wanted to stay in the same one from the last time he slept over.

“Yeah sure,” Wonwoo simply nodded.

Mingyu left him to unpack and headed off to make lunch for the two of them. It was a strange feeling suddenly having someone else in this house.

Well ok, he has had Wonwoo here plenty of times, but this time it was different.

It felt different.

Wonwoo was not just here as a temporary guest, ready to wave goodbye until the next time they saw each other. His retreating back that Mingyu watched every single time with an aching feeling in his chest, was always etched into his mind.

No, this time, Wonwoo’s retreating back would wash away into nothing the moment he returned before night fell, his smiling (or more likely exhausted) face greeting Mingyu.

It was somehow a comforting thought. After all, the last time he had lived with somebody was… back in university.

Mingyu winced at the sudden name that surfaced in his head.

His didn’t want his thoughts to wander there, but they did, and far too easily.

The way his thoughts slipped away, towards his ex-boyfriend Hong Jisoo, was as easily as the way a floating dandelion just slightly escaped the grasp of an outreached palm.

“Mingyu?” a voice called out to him, snapping him out of his empty thoughts. Wonwoo was calling him, his curious voice echoing through the halls.

“Coming!” Mingyu yelled, and wiped his hands off to go see what he was needed for.

Wonwoo was standing in the room, his room now, and staring in wonder at the two identical clocks ticking side by side on the wall.

Wonwoo turned to him with a questioning look, and dumbly pointed at the clocks. “Uh is this supposed to be like some weird room décor idea or whatever?”

Mingyu just laughed.

“No seriously.”

He shook his head with a grin and casually leaned back against the wall. “The previous owners left it here and I didn’t have the heart to move them. It’s weird right?”

“Yep. It’s a waste of a perfectly good, functioning clock,” Wonwoo huffed. The slightly grumpy pout on his face was so cute Mingyu wanted to pull him into a hug.

“I suppose,” Mingyu started slowly, tipping his head up in thought. “But I didn’t buy them or anything, and I already have enough clocks where I need them, so I decided to just leave these two.”

Wonwoo nodded. “It’s strange… I don’t think this is the first pair of identical objects I’ve seen in this house…”

“Because it’s not,” he responded. “The previous owners, I dunno what kind of home design thing they got going on, but I think they really liked their pairs.”

“Oh?”

“Like there’s these two ancient lamps downstairs, and you’ve probably noticed the two old fabric couches that look they’re suited for my grandmother right?”

Wonwoo laughed, sounding light and airy. “Yes, I saw those.”

“You know,” Mingyu suddenly said. “I never really asked about it to the owner, but she told me something weird when she was selling me the house. I think it was related to the appliances…” Mingyu’s voice trailed off in thought, remembering that conversation. It was so oddly clear in his mind.

“What did she say?”

“Thank you ma’am,” Mingyu bowed politely to the old Japanese lady who had sold her house to him. She had just plopped the key in his hand as they were standing out back on the deck.

“Ah, I’m going to miss this old place.”

She sounded a bit frail, and her voice quivered as she spoke, the way many old people voices do. But still, Mingyu could feel the thought and calmness in her words, much like the steady ocean breeze blowing around them. “Lived here for 50 years of my life.”

“Oh wow, that’s quite a while.”

The lady turned to look at him with a strong gaze. Her dark pupils pierced into the depths of Mingyu, even with the soft wrinkles that surrounded her eyes. Her stare was unnerving, as if she could see, and understand every thing about him from a single glance, despite having only met him a couple times just to finish off their business.

“Take good care of this place for me Kim Mingyu,” her Japanese accent laced through her English. “This place is no longer mine on pen and paper, but I still consider it my home.”

“Of course ma’am.”

“Before I go, I’ll let you in on something ok?”

“Yes of course, what is it?”

There was a moment of pause as the woman looked at him carefully a second time. She had to look up at him, being more than a head smaller than Mingyu.

“Hmm, well I've thought about it for a while... but I can't help but think that this house is, meant for two people.”

“What?” he stood there dumbfounded for a bit.

“Do you know how old this place is Mingyu?”

“132 years if I remember correctly,” he immediately answered.

“Yes, it’s an old thing. Went through a lot of renovations.”

Mingyu nodded slowly and his lips nervously. “And?”

“There has never been anyone who’s owned this house that lived here alone in it’s 132 years of being built. You would be the first.”

“Ah yes, that makes sense,” Mingyu chuckled nervously. “It is a little big for one...”

“That’s not what I meant.” The woman’s eyes were now soft but distant, like she was on another universe already.

“Nobody wants to be alone Mingyu,” she smiled in a small, fragile sort of manner. “Even if we believe we do, this place unravels the way we truly feel. In a way, this place,” she gestured around her, “it has a mind of it’s own.”

Mingyu didn’t understand what she was saying whatsoever.

“I’m not saying this home will fix whatever is hurting you, whatever will hurt you…” She looked at him with knowing eyes and Mingyu’s stomach flipped.

Whatever was hurting him? Whatever was hurting him?

Nothing was hurting him.

Mingyu was a hundred percent ok.

So what on earth was this lady talking about?

“But it can make you understand. Understand your fears, your nightmares, your losses. It’ll make you realize that you aren’t meant to be alone,” she spoke calmly yet sounded so, definite — as if there was a kind of age and wisdom of hundreds of years trapped in her words that he could not yet understand.

There was a moment of silence until Mingyu worked his lips to speak again.

“What are you—“

“Mizuha!” A man called, and the two turned. The woman’s husband stood by the sliding glass doors that led to the deck. “We should get going.”

“Yes, yes I’m coming. Just saying a last goodbye to the old place,” she turned to look at him one last time.

Mingyu bowed once more, not exchanging any more words.

Whatever he wanted to say or ask, although he wasn’t even sure himself anymore, the moment had passed.

She curtly nodded, and there was a small, yet slightly sad smile lingering in her eyes.

Mingyu led them back to the front of the house where he watched their car and moving van drive off into the distance.

He didn’t turn away until it was completely out of view.

“Um Mingyu?”

“What?” Mingyu asked surprised, snapping back to reality. “Oh um right, what the previous house owner told me.”

Wonwoo just stood there with his head tilted and eyes trained on Mingyu — something he always did when wearing an amused look.

“She said something about the house being destined for two or whatever? So I figured maybe that’s why there’s two of everything?” Mingyu laughed slightly. That conversation, looking back on it, had been quite absurd and he hadn’t thought about it in a while.

“Oh,” Wonwoo nodded as if he understood, but his eyebrows were furrowed in confusion. “What’s that even supposed to mean?”

“I honestly don’t know,” Mingyu shrugged. “I think she mentioned how no one who’s owned this house lived here alone. That I was the first one or something. And let me tell you now that this house is ing old.”

“Hmm… well if I’m here now,” Wonwoo said, bringing his eyes back to the clocks, “so I guess you’re not living here alone anymore.”

A strange feeling bubbled inside of Mingyu and coursed through his veins, rushing to his head, feeling a little bit like happiness, and a little bit like relief.

“Y-yes. I guess you’re right.”
 

***

Mingyu stumbled back, his leg hitting the frame of the bed.

He stared at the clocks in confusion. Each pass “tick” seemed get louder in his ears, mocking him so easily.

Eventually he just ended up collapsing on the bed, burrowing his face into his hands.

He couldn’t make sense of the memory whatsoever.

He didn’t understand why he remembered all that, or what it meant.

But hey, what else was new in the life of Kim Mingyu?

It’s like all the pieces of the puzzle were there, but he just wasn’t putting them together in the right way.

Mingyu shot up from the bed in realization.

Put it together the right way.

That was right. That’s exactly what he needed to do!

He scrambled up, grabbing any piece of blank paper and pen near him.

If he just wrote down everything, maybe he’d be able to make a nice little mind map that could help him understand what the was going on.

Mingyu his lips and started to write up every detail he could conjure, from the moment he woke up on that very first day with no memories, to now.

When he was done, he squinted at the detailed mind map he had created. The web tangling in his head again and again, until it became a huge jumbled mess.

It wasn’t enough.

No no no. Mingyu wanted to cry out.

The current memories he had weren’t enough to tell him where exactly he was, and how he got here.

No matter how he tried to arrange them together, there was simply too much missing.

He sighed feeling exhausted.

His eyes lingered over to the stuff he had written down back from the first day. Every day, no matter where he slept, he’d loop back to the same place and time.

As if somebody always hit the reset button, not allowing him to go on living his life.

It was a time loop no doubt.

As he turned his thoughts over and over, an odd idea was molding itself into Mingyu’s brain and slowly taking shape.

What if… he simply didn’t sleep? What would happen?

Maybe it was sleep which triggered the ‘reset’, as he called it.

He chewed on his lips.

It didn’t hurt to try.

As Mingyu settled down, the sunset gently dipped below the horizon. It threw the sky into a mix of cotton candy blues and pinks, the colours streaking across so vibrantly.

He closed his eyes in contemplation, hoping for the best, but not exactly sure what the best even was. Obviously it was ideal if he could get out of here, wherever ‘here’ was, but he couldn’t help but wonder if refusing to sleep would only bring about a worse fate for him.

“Ok deep breaths Mingyu,” he muttered to himself, gulping the last bit of coffee in his large thermos. It could hopefully help keep him awake.

Hours later, and night had completely enveloped the house. Despite the slight newfound chill in the summer air, and surprisingly heavy winds, Mingyu decided to sit on the cushioned wooden hammock out on the patio by his pool. The house was too warm and cozy for his liking, which only increased the risk of him getting drowsy and dozing off — not that he even felt remotely sleepy at the moment (the coffee must be doing it’s job).

The cool windy air would help keep his eyes wide open and alert, along with the help of the tiny dotted goosebumps that currently lined his arms.

And so, that is what Mingyu did: he simply sat and sat as the night stretched on, with no desire to lie down and sleep.

It was around 2:00am when suddenly he heard a clear crackle, like bunches of branches being broken or stepped on.

Mingyu’s head snapped up. He was fully alert now and faced the direction where the sound was coming from. It was across the pool, past the wooden fence, and out into the thick trees that surrounded his house.

It was probably just an animal, but he had to be sure. He couldn’t let this pass.

Mingyu clamored inside of the house, grabbing the first source of light he could find.

He took one of the two old looking light bulb shaped oil lamps, quite thankful that the table they were placed on contained a drawer with the matches and oil.

He hastily lit the lamp and exited the house, taking the route around the pool to the wooden door at the side of the patio.

Now that he was entering the trees, he moved more carefully and slowly, stepping lightly on the ground. He wondered if, it, was still here.

In the midst of his thoughts, he heard a slight snap of another twig, and he knew he wasn’t the only one here.

Mingyu's pulse battered against his neck, and the sounds of the tides from the beach were far away in his ears.

He moved sideways, towards that snapping sound, deeper into the thick of the trees where more branches littered the ground.

With all the care his clumsy and giant limbs could gather, Mingyu slowly stepped out, his heel against the floor of forest, and ever so carefully set his entire foot down, as if he were lowering an extremely heavy lever.

He was about to move a bit closer, putting his other foot out, when suddenly a flash of movement blurred his vision. He yelped, stepping back and almost dropping his lamp.

It must have been an animal, because he could catch nothing but a slight blur, and then, it was completely gone.

He was left there standing in the cloak of the