"I heard something." 

          He looked over at his friend — high cheekbones and messy hair, a pair of thin lips with two eyes that were covered in darkness — and raised a brow, "What sound?" 

          He saw his friend furrowing his brows as he gestured to somewhere behind him, "It came from your side. Can't you hear it?" 

          He kept silent and listened, trying to catch whatever it was his friend heard but there was nothing. 

          "I don't hear anything," he shook his head before looking back at his friend whose lips were pursed. 

          "No?" His friend sighed when he shook his head, "Can't you at least check it out? Make sure that it's nothing." 

          He huffed in annoyance, adjusting the cap on his head before pointing to the general direction that his friend heard the sound from and stating, "You can check it out yourself if you want, because I sure as Hell know that I heard nothing." 

          His friend pouted, feet shifting from side to side before he nodded, "Alright then, if you say so." 

          The moon hung high up in the night sky as it shone brightly down onto the earth, bathing the land in its white glow. The stars were blinking curiously at the activities happening on land, which was not much considering the time of day. The breeze was chilly, carrying along with it an eerie whistle that rang loudly in the quiet night. 

          It was his and his friend's turn to stand guard for the night — the two soldiers before them already back in their tents for the night and probably already deep into their dreamlands. They stood by the gate with their guns hugged to their sides, a fence surrounding their base and trapping their tents inside the circle. They scanned the deserted land before them, keeping an eye out for any suspicious figure that might make their way towards their base of operation. 

          To say that he wasn't tired was an utter lie — fatigue was basically eating his whole body up from the inside as he stood tall and still by the right side of the gate, fingers tapping the stock of his rifle as if the motion could keep him awake. He could feel his eyes drooping and threatening to close, his head lolling forward and backward as his brain slowly started to fail him in supporting his heavy skull. His legs felt wobbly too and he forced himself to move in his stance, jumping up and down and swinging his arms left to right to stay awake. 

          He was immediately snapped back into focus when he heard something dropping, turning his head over his shoulder to the tent some meters away from where he stood. The sound was rather loud and it was coming from somewhere around the tent he was staring at, creases forming on his glabella as a frown made its way onto his face. He thought he was just imagining things, but his friend was staring at the tent too when he turned around to look at him. 

          "You couldn't possibly not heard that," his friend said as he turned to look at him and even though he couldn't see his friend's eyes, he was sure they were as wide as saucers. 

          He bit his bottom lip, balancing his rifle with both hands now instead of one as he commented, "I'm going to check out what made that noise. You stay here." 

          His friend nodded, "No need to tell me that." 

          He turned to the tent and raised his rifle with the stock pressing back into his chest, chucking the rifle ready before walking towards the tent. His steps were slow and quiet — as much as they could be — as he neared the tent, turning the corner to behind it. He relaxed his finger for only a moment before gripping his rifle tightly again, the pad of his index finger on his dominant hand gently pressing the trigger but not pulling it. 

          His eyes adjusted to the darkness behind the tent, brain registering every single detail. There wasn't really anything out of the ordinary and he slowly lowered his rifle, though his eyes still darted around and scanned the back of the tent in case there was anything that he missed. Just to be sure that there was really nothing, he decided to step into the darkness and take a closer look. 

          He inhaled deeply before entering the space between the back of the tent and the fence, plunging himself into the darkness and letting the shadow wrap him up in its cold embrace. He looked up to the night sky and to the brightly shining moon, momentarily reminded of a certain someone before he shook the thought out of his head — now wasn't the time to be thinking about these sort of things. He looked back forward and froze in his spot, finger hovering above the trigger as his eyes landed on something — no, more like someone — that he didn't think he noticed before. 

          The tent had blocked the moonlight from shining into the dark space, disabling him the ability to get a closer inspection on the person that he caught. Judging by the shape outlining the shadow though, he could tell that this person was a rather tall one — definitely not as tall as him though — with a normal built — not lean, that's a definite too. He figured that the person was a soldier, considering the long sleeves and the cap along with the boots that gleaned ever so slightly in the dark. 

          He swallowed down a lump as he called out, trying his best to steady his voice, "Report your name, soldier." 

          The person said nothing — all he did was to stand right there, in front of him, unmoving. He frowned and took a few steps closer, minding to keep a distance between himself and the stranger as he slowly raised his rifle in ready. His finger was twitching above the trigger and he feared that he might accidentally pull it. 

          "I asked you a question, soldier," he commanded again, raising his rifle up. 

          And that was how it happened. 

          The figure suddenly rushed towards him, tearing a gasp from his throat as he quickly brought the rifle up to aim at the figure. Unfortunately, the figure proved to be faster than him as he slapped the gun upwards and managed to point the nuzzle away from himself, immediately disarming him and tossing the rifle to some few feets behind them. All he could do was to watch helplessly as his rifle went out of reach and the figure came towards him. 

          He could see the figure's eyes then — feral, bloodthirsty, and familiar. Something in his brain clicked as an image of those same pair of eyes flashed in his mind, seeing them every time before he out and moved on to another scene of his story when he's in dreamland. Those were the same eyes that greeted him everytime he's in deep slumber, going through slides after slides of his life and looking back at what happened to him in his previous lives. The eyes were basically the only pair in his dream to ever be shown — all the other times, the people in his dreams had their eyes crossed out to cover up their identity. But this one, these eyes were as clear as day — maybe it was because the others were harmless and even if he met them, they won't hurt him; whereas this person, if he ever meets him, it'll only mean one thing- 

          Death. 

          He raised up a hand then, fist curled and fire surrounding it as he brought it up to the figure's face. There was a split moment where the figure's eyes widened before he jumped back, protecting himself from the attack and keeping a distance between himself and him — out of reach. It was brief and it didn't last for more than a few seconds, but he definitely caught a short glimpse of the person's face — and instantly, memories of the person's identity flashed in his mind. 

          He gritted his teeth and growled, "So it's you!" 

          The figure said nothing — all the figure did was to raise a hand up and he watched as shadows started to creep up to him like a pack of wolves hunting down a prey. His eyes widened — he knew this power all too well — but he made no move to run away from the attack, instead he dug his heels into the ground as if trying to get himself ready for the attack. If there was anything that he learned from past experiences, it was that the figure's power could never be dodged from, so he might as well just take it or fight it. 

          He glared at the man whilst pulling a hand back, whipping the hand forward at the male no soon after he pulled it back to beside his head. A burst of fire combusted from him and the gesture sent waves of flame towards the man, the flames moving like a heat wave and not touching the tent to his left even as it moved towards the man. The man could not help but to pull his arms up to shield himself from the attack, his movement causing the shadow that had been creeping towards him to disappear. 

          The fire passed the soldier before dispersing completely, setting the soldier's clothes on fire the moment it made contact. There was a hiss as the soldier dropped to the ground and started rolling around, putting out the fire on his body with dirt. The soldier didn't stop with what he was doing until the flame was completely out, leaving his clothes to be slightly charred and showing a bit of his skin — red in colour due to the burn. 

          The soldier looked up to him with his teeth bared, eyes filled with a spark of unmistakable anger and annoyance as the soldier growled at him with frustration lacing his tone. He raised an amused brow, daring a smirk to grace upon his lips as he leaned back in his stance, widening his base area while still staring back at the soldier with challenge in his eyes. The two did nothing for a while and only stared at each other while also keeping their distances, wanting to have a good look at one another and their movements. 

          They heard somebody calling, but none of them dare to look away from each other as they heard hurried steps coming their way. The sound of footsteps soon stopped and he caught the soldier's eyes flicking momentarily to whoever was behind him before snapping them back to him, absolutely ignoring whoever had arrived to the scene. 

          There was a beat of silence before the person who stumbled upon the scene spoke — he recognised the voice to be his friend's, "Our shift is over." 

          He nodded absentmindedly in reply as he started walking backwards to the opening, his eyes still trained on the soldier in fear that if he looked away for even a second, the soldier would strike. The two kept their gazes locked with one another, both eyes fierce and thirsty for either one of them to fall. It was not until he was at the opening when he finally tore his gaze away from the soldier, feeling his wrist being grabbed by his friend and being dragged away. 

          "You can't run forever." 

          It was the last thing he heard before he was pulled away from the place completely. 

Chanyeol couldn't help but to wonder: Does he ever had a stalker before? 

          It all started off a week ago — the same time all those unexplainable fire incidents happened around him — when Chanyeol couldn't help but to feel like there were a pair of eyes watching his ever move and a pair of legs following his every step. It was a weird and unpleasant feeling, but the worst part was he couldn't help but to feel that this presence was with him everywhere. It was an upsetting feeling, but what bothered Chanyeol even more with this stalking experience was the fact that he felt as if he had went through this before, like a deja vu scene. 

          That day was no different — Chanyeol found an empty seat in the cafeteria and brought his tray over, sitting down on the chair and setting his meal down onto the table. Chanyeol was tempted to start his meal when he felt it — the stare that had been following him for a very long time now. Suddenly, Chanyeol's appetite was thrown out the window as he lifted a fork up weakly and stared poking his food with it, humming to himself uninterestingly as he prodded at the vegetables until they became a mush. 

          Chanyeol was tempted to look behind him and find the cause of his worry — the person who was stalking him all this time — wanting to end this nonsense. However, another part of Chanyeol felt scared that this was all just his imagination and that he might accidentally accuse someone of something that they didn't do just because he was being paranoid. So, all Chanyeol could do was to stay quiet and act as if there was no pair of eyes boring holes into his back. 

          After some minutes passed, Chanyeol heard someone calling in front of him, "Hey." 

          Chanyeol felt his shoulder being patted and he lifted his head up, blinking a few times as he stared up at his classmate and friend — Kim Jongdae. The elder male was holding his tray with one hand and he set it down opposite of Chanyeol on the table before taking a seat across from the tall male, picking up his fork and spoon but not diving into his food immediately. Instead, Jongdae opted to just stare at Chanyeol who had went back to jabbing his food after the former sat down. 

          Jongdae didn't know whether it was his imagination, but Chanyeol looked even more dead than the last time he had seen him. Sure, all this time that Jongdae had known about Chanyeol, the latter always looked dead — it wasn't just an opinion, it's basically a fact — but that day he looked like he was going to die for real. The thought of it caused a wince to appear on Jongdae's features, as if he just got hit by something. 

          There were bags under Chanyeol's eyes, like the black haired male hadn't been sleeping for some time already and this prompted Jongdae to wonder just how much sleep had the younger lost and just how exhausted he was. Chanyeol's skin was pale too — the colour drained from his face like a person on edge — and his plump lips were dry — the flesh not as rosy red as they had always been and was instead a pink colour with a greyish hue. Basically, Chanyeol's whole appearance looked terrible and Jongdae wondered just what was going on in Chanyeol's head for him to look like he had just gone through the worst zombie war in the world. 

          Biting his bottom lip, Jongdae cleared his throat to gain Chanyeol's attention — which he successfully did — and asked, "Is there something wrong, Chanyeol?" 

          Chanyeol blinked a few times before shaking his head, frowning as he looked at Jongdae, "No. Why'd you ask?" 

          Jongdae pressed his lips tightly together, before answering with a soft and barely audible sigh, "You seemed a little-" 

          Jongdae gestured with his hands, pursing his lips as he tried to find the correct word to describe Chanyeol's state, before settling for, "Distant." 

          Chanyeol stared at Jongdae, blinking a few times as if trying to register what he was just told before letting out an 'oh', "Is that so?" 

          Jongdae nodded and Chanyeol hummed, looking away from the elder and not saying anything in reply to the nodding gesture. There was a look in Chanyeol's eyes, like something was bothering him but he didn't feel like telling anyone about it in case he causes trouble for them with his problems. Chanyeol had always been like this — thoughtful about others but not so much with himself. 

          Jongdae contemplated for a moment, before slowly and carefully asking, "Do you want to tell me something?" 

          Chanyeol looked at Jongdae, sizing the elder up, "No." 

          There was a stubborn tone in Chanyeol's voice, so Jongdae prodded, "Are you sure?" 

          Chanyeol only hummed at the enquiry, looking away from Jongdae in hopes that he wouldn't have to look at the latter and change his mind about telling the elder his problems. Jongdae frowned at Chanyeol's stubbornness, closing his eyes while taking in a deep and slow inhale. That was it — Chanyeol left Jongdae no choice now but to use his trump card against him. 

          "All right then, I won't ask too much," the elder said with a — note, feigned — defeated sigh as he scooped up a spoonful of clear soup, bringing it to his lips but not drinking the liquid immediately and instead letting it hover there so he could continue with his sentence, "But, Chanyeol, please know that I'm your friend, and that if there's anything — just anything — that is bothering your mind, then please don't hesitate to tell me about it." 

          Chanyeol paused in his musing and looked up at Jongdae who was drinking his soup, squinting his eyes at the elder as he looked up when he noticed the younger's stare. Jongdae raised a brow as he slowly pulled the spoon out from between his lips, his Adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed down the soup in his mouth. There was a judging look in Chanyeol's eyes and acting as if he didn't know why the younger was looking at him like that, Jongdae raised a questioning brow at Chanyeol. 

          "Is there something wrong?" Jongdae asked. 

          Chanyeol growled and spat, "I hate you." 

          Jongdae blinked a few times — acting like he was surprised by the sudden confession — before smiling sweetly and replying, "I love you too, my sweet Chanyeol~" 

          Chanyeol made an exaggerated gagging noise before downing his cup of orange juice, slamming the cup down as he let out an exasperated sigh. Jongdae stared at Chanyeol as the latter stabbed his fork into a lettuce and brought it up to his mouth, munching on the vegetable once he settled it inside his mouth. There was some time of silence between them as Jongdae watched Chanyeol eat quietly, waiting patiently for the younger to tell him his problem. 

          Finally, Chanyeol placed down his fork which prompted the elder to sit a bit straighter in his seat, staring at Chanyeol expectantly as he waited for the younger to say whatever was on his mind. Chanyeol leaned back against the backrest and caught his bottom lip between his teeth, chewing on the plump flesh as his fingers played with the hem of his shirt. Jongdae could see the contemplating look in Chanyeol's eyes and the former figured that the latter was trying to find the correct words in his head, piecing the sentence together before saying it out loud. 

          Some time passed before Jongdae heard a sigh from Chanyeol as he spoke, "I think I'm being stalked." 

          Jongdae raised his brows in surprise, smirking suggestively as he cooed, "What's this? It seems to me that someone has gotten himself a fan!" 

          Chanyeol laughed humourlessly at Jongdae's teasing and shook his head, taking the plate of custard pudding from his tray with one hand while the other balanced a spoon between his fingers. The soft and flexible yellow body of the pudding jiggled as it got lifted and moved, swaying from side to side even after the plate stayed still in midair and only stopping its movements after a couple more shake. Once the pudding stopped moving, Chanyeol dug his spoon into the soft dessert and brought it to his mouth, tasting the explosion of sweetness from the pudding. 

          There was a hum from Chanyeol and Jongdae watched him took a few more bites of the pudding before saying, his voice low with an unsure tone in it, "It feels weird though." 

          Jongdae didn't ask anything — he didn't need to say anything — just sit there patiently and wait for Chanyeol to continue, which the latter did after a few more swallows of his pudding, "I know that the feeling of being stalked is weird in general, but this one felt..." 

          Jongdae stared at Chanyeol, watching the younger as he gestured exaggeratedly with his hands like he was trying to find the correct words to use for his next sentence, "I just feel like I'm being threatened, like whoever is watching me is a danger to me." 

          Chanyeol could basically hear the dumbness in his explanation and he let out a frustrated sigh, waving his hand dismissively as he told Jongdae, "Never mind, let's just continue with our meals." 

          Just as Chanyeol ate another spoonful of his custard pudding, Jongdae asked, "When did this start?" 

          Chanyeol stared at Jongdae with round questioning eyes, his brows slowly furrowing as he answered after swallowing down the dessert trapped in his mouth, "Some days ago, around the same time the small fire incident in our classroom happened." 

          Chanyeol was referring to the day when they were doing an experiment their professor gave which included many shouts from students around them and himself, hoping Jongdae could get a general idea on when the stalking started but pausing when he noticed how tense the elder went at the mention of it. Jongdae had his eyes wide as he registered what Chanyeol told him, his mouth slowly parting as the realisation slowly dawned on him. Jongdae closed his slightly agape mouth and swallowed thickly, focusing back on Chanyeol who had a mixed expression — a look of confusion with a touch of worry and concern — on his face as he looked at the elder. 

          Jongdae shook his head and offered a nonchalant shrug — well, as nonchalant as it could get at least — smiling nervously at Chanyeol as he advised, "Let's quickly finish our meal. We still got some things that we have to settle for the upcoming test." 

          Being reminded of the test had Chanyeol wolfing down the rest of his food, not bothering anymore to enjoy the sweet taste of his custard pudding. Jongdae also tried to keep up with the younger's speed, basically swallowing all of his food without chewing them — except for the soup, there wasn't any need to chew on anything except for the vegetable bits in the liquid. Within a record time, the two finished their meals. 

          Chanyeol was practically manhandled by Jongdae as the elder yanked him out of his seat — Chanyeol almost fell onto his and the tray almost dropped because he barely had a good grip on it when he was suddenly pulled — and dragged him to the pails prepared by the cafeteria for university students to place their used dishes in — Chanyeol tripped on his feet more than once because he couldn't keep up with Jongdae. Chanyeol watched Jongdae weirdly as the elder placed the dishes away into the pails, separating the dishes accordingly and putting the tray to one side before turning to Chanyeol and staring at the tray that the younger still held in his hands with a raised brow. Chanyeol blinked a few times at Jongdae's expression, looking down at his tray before looking back up at Jongdae. 

          "Aren't you gonna dump that?" Jongdae asked as he gestured to the tray with the used plates, bowl, cup and silverwares on it, glancing up at Chanyeol afterwards. 

          Chanyeol blinked, as if just snapping out from his daze, "Right..." 

          Chanyeol put away the dishes and the tray and before he could process what was happening, Jongdae was already tugging his arm and making their way towards the entrance of the cafeteria. There were many people all around them who were walking around with trays of food held in their hands, probably trying to find places for themselves to have a seat in and have their meals peacefully at. The two of them bumped into some of these people along the way which earned them a few grunts and glares — Chanyeol smiled awkwardly at them and waved before quickly following after Jongdae. 

          Chanyeol could barely catch up to Jongdae — his long legs crisscrossing each other as he tried to catch up to the elder's quick steps, and it took another few more bumps into other people and a couple more metres before he could finally walk in a straight line with his legs underneath him and not looking ready to knock into each other. There were still student entering the cafeteria — some in groups while others by themselves — and there were also some who were already exiting the cafeteria, just like the both of them. The two of them followed the crowd that was waking out of the cafeteria, entering the hallway and taking a left turn down somewhere. 

          Chanyeol thought he saw Jongdae texting someone with his other hand — the elder's grip on the younger's hand not loosening by a bit — before the latter quickly pocketed the phone and turned to the former, flashing a grin as he suggested, "How about we walk around for a bit?" 

          Jongdae made it sound like Chanyeol had a choice, but in the end all the latter could do was to let the former drag him to God-knows-where to do God-knows-what. 

          Meanwhile, on the other side of things, a male had been spying on them — or rather, a certain tall lanky baby faced guy — ever since he entered the cafeteria to get his lunch. It was not at all difficult for the male to trespass into the university and act as if he was also a student there — blame the poor security, or praise him for being too good in whatever he does. It was also not difficult for the male to pinpoint the tall male when he entered the cafeteria — there couldn't possibly be more than one six feet tall guy with a baby face in this university, could there? 

          He had watched the male for as long as he had been having his lunch, quirking an interested brow at how the male didn't put any of the food on the plate into his mouth yet. He was wondering if the male did not have any appetite when he noticed someone approaching the male, watching the scene with raised brows as the new guy patted the male on the shoulder to get his attention. The male was back facing him so when the new guy turned around to sit opposite of the male, he saw the guy's face and immediately his blood boiled — eyes seeing red and his teeth grinding against each other. 

          It was him, the man who killed his friend. 

          He took in a low and deep breath, trying to calm himself down — after all, he wasn't here for the guy, but rather the male who the guy decided to sit opposite of. 

          When he snapped his attention back, he realised too late that the male and the guy were already gone — the seats that they had previously taken already empty. He shot up from his seat in a hurry, the screeching sound of the chair against the tiled floor catching the attention of some of the students around him as they looked disapprovingly at him. He could barely bother though, eyes darting around as he tried to find the