03.

Time was completely still, not a second passing on the clock that hung decoratively on the wall. Sahyun had already picked up on that fact. It was the eerie kind of still, one that left you feeling restless and even a little agitated. 

How could things even exist without the concept of time?

She was a lot calmer now, and more than a little drained, mentally. A plate of unidentifiable substances sat on the table in front of her, far too gray and squishy to be considered food by her standards. She couldn't even bring herself to try taking a bite of it, bile rising in from the mere thought.

"You should eat."

It was the tenth time that Jun character uttered those words at her, his eyebrows furrowing a little deeper with each statement.

Sahyun didn't bother replying this time.

She assumed Seungkwan must have finally gotten fed up with watching her stare at a plate and do nothing, because he sighed for the thousandth time and marched his way over to the table, looming over her in what was probably meant to be a threatening manner, but she was too far gone to feel anything from it.

"Do you have a death wish? If you don't eat, you'll die, idiot."

Again, she didn't bother to reply.

"He's right, Darling. Things happen differently in this world, especially for mortals. Your energy drains a lot faster and you were already here for nearly a week of mortal time."

That finally caught Sahyun's attention enough to look Jun in the eye. "A week?"

An entire week had passed with her lying like a dead person on a bed in a place she knew nothing of. But, how, when it had only been… she wasn’t sure, but it certainly hadn’t been a week wherever she was at.

Mortals?

She had hoped this was a dream and that the people before her were nothing more than her imagination, but the more she sat there, the more the realization that what was happening was very real came crashing down on her like a ton of bricks.

These people weren't human. She was no longer on Earth. And she had officially lost her mind.

"Oh, so she knows how to speak." Seungkwan grumbled, rolling his eyes at her before picking up the silverware and waving it in her face. "As much as I don't care what happens to you on a personal level, it's already bad enough Soonyoung brought a damn mortal into the Middleground. Things will only get worse for us if you die here."

Sahyun stared at the silverware distractedly, once again drawing into herself. Anxiety piled in her stomach and suddenly, the need to vomit didn’t stem from just the substance they were attempting to shove down .

“Oh dear…” She faintly heard Jun mumble but didn’t register him moving toward her until his hand was on her chin, gently bringing it up so she would look him in the eyes. “This is a stubborn one with her emotions. It’s hard to keep a grasp on her.”

It was a miracle, how fast the anxiety dissipated then, calm once again taking over her body. She found herself comfortable enough to ask him one of the many questions weighing on her mind. “What exactly are you?”

“A lunatic.” Seungkwan muttered, earning a glare from Jun, who gave her a warm smile when his eyes met hers once more.

“I’m a Compeller. I can control emotions, and occasionally the actions of others, but they have to be weak-minded for that.”

“Oh.” Was her reply, her eyes unknowingly shifting to Soonyoung, who had stood quietly in the corner the entire time, his eyebrows furrowed, clearly lost in his thoughts. She had meant to ask what he was, as well, but found herself observing him instead, the way his lips set into a frown, the sharp shape of his eyes piercing even when he wasn’t looking her direction. Her breath caught in when he suddenly turned to her, sensing her eyes on him.

He didn’t say anything to her, just simply stared back, a whirl of emotions evident behind his dark brown orbs. An image of crystal blue flashed in her mind, somehow familiar to her despite not remembering having seen them before in her life. A splitting pain invaded her head at that moment, and she winced, breaking eye contact with him as hers shut tightly in response to the pain. 

Her ears began ringing, sounding oddly like a car horn, and lights flooded behind her eyelids, an intense sense of panic taking over her entire body, and she couldn’t even hear herself when she began to scream. The only sound in