"How long has she been like this?" Siyeon asked.

Her mother, a bit too busy pressing a wet towel to Yoohyeon's forehead, shook her head. "Since she woke up," she admitted, helplessness evident in her shaking voice. "I don't even know what happened last night. She just came home, had a shower and went to sleep. I went to wake her up in the morning and she had this fever."

"How high is it?" Ken politely asked.

Yoohyeon's mother gestured to the thermometer lying on the bedside table. "I took it ten minutes ago, before you two came," she said. "It was a 102."

Ken pursed his lips. "That's a pretty high fever," he said. "Have you taken her to a doctor?" 

Yoohyeon's mother shook her head. "It's just a fever, luckily there's been no other symptoms," she informed them. "Probably just caused by a lot of stress. I've given her some medicine. That and a bit of rest...she should be fine by tomorrow."

"And if it gets worse?" Ken inquired.

Yoohyeon's mother raised an eyebrow. "If it does, then I'll contact my nephew," she said matter-of-factly. "He's a doctor."

Yooyeon's cough interrupted her mother's train of thought. "He's a neurologist," she said hoarsely. 

Her mother was at her side at once, running her hand through her daughter's hair and shushing her. "Don't say anything, don't strain yourself. Just take it easy, alright?"

Yoohyeon weakly nodded. "Alright."

Her mother smiled at her, pushing her damp bangs from her face. "Your friends are here," she said, gesturing to the two behind her. 

"Cool," Yoohyeon murmured. 

"They'll take care of you for a while," her mother continued. "I need to go and deal with your sister right now."

Yoohyeon nodded again, and her mother planted a soft kiss on her forehead. She then reluctantly stepped away from her sick daughter, giving a nod to her daughter's friends to take over. 

Siyeon scooted on over and took her mother's place at her side. "Hey," she said softly. "How're you feeling?"

"Lousy," Yoohyeon replied. "What're you and Ken doing here?" 

"We called," Ken offered. "You weren't picking up your phone, so we called your house. Your sister answered and said that you were sick. So we came over."

"Handong and Jiu are busy at the moment," Siyeon informed Yoohyeon. "They'll come by later to check up on you, alright?"

Yoohyeon nodded. "Thanks," she weakly said. 

They smiled at her, and Siyeon petted her head. 'Get better soon, because I hate seeing you like this," she told her friend before getting up. "I'm going to get some more warm water and change her towel," she told Ken. "Can you keep an eye on her?"

Ken nodded. "Sure, no problem."

Siyeon thanked him before taking the basin of lukewarm water out of the room, leaving Ken and Yoohyeon alone.

Yoohyeon leaned back against the pillow, closing her eyes as the heat filled her up. God, she was sick...

"Hey, I've been meaning to ask."

She opened her eyes to find Ken having taken a seat at the foot of her bed.

"When I talked to your sister, she introduced herself as Lee Gahyeon," Ken noticed. "Which is strange, because your name is Kim Yoohyeon."

Yoohyeon raised an eyebrow. "Your point is?"

"Care to explain how you and your sister have two different family names?"

Yoohyeon leaned into the pillow, throwing her eyes to the ceiling. "Well, I suppose you guys would find out some time," she sighed deeply. 

"Gahyeon and I are half-siblings."

"Half-siblings?" Ken asked. Alright, this was a different answer than he predicted.

"Same mother, different fathers," Yoohyeon explained. "My birth father was my mother's first husband."

"First husband...?"

She took a deep breath. "She didn't cheat," she explained. "He died...of a fast-progressing strain of brain cancer, just a couple of months after I was born."

"Oh..."

"That same year, my mother met another man. The next year, she remarried, and along came little Gahyeon."

Ken turned back, gesturing with his finger. "So...your Dad...isn't really...your dad?"

Yoohyeon sighed. "I never knew my birth father," she said. "That man down there? He's the only one I know to call by the name Dad. Even before Gahyeon...he loved me like his own. For the longest time, I didn't even know that he wasn't biologically my Dad."

"That's...nice..." Ken said. He was a bit unsure about how to take this news.

Yoohyeon shrugged. "People love children they adopt like their own," she rationalized. "That was the explanation he gave me when I asked him about it five years ago."

He kept quiet, and she turned her eyes to him. "Regardless of the results of a DNA test, he's still loved me like a father. He means nothing less than a father to me."

Ken smiled. "You're lucky, you know that?"

Yoohyeon nodded. "Every day."

Ken shifted on the bed. "Which begs the other question." The smile on his face faded, to be replaced by concern. "What on earth did you do to yourself to give yourself such a high fever just a couple of hours after I saw you?" 

She shrugged. "I have no idea." She exhaled, laying the back of her hand against her forehead. "I have literally no idea."

Ken immediately stepped forward to check and see if she was alright, shifting her hand slightly to use his hand to measure her temperature. Satisfied by the apparent stability of the fever, he returned to his place.

"Well, did you take anything last night?"

She shook her head. "I just got home, had dinner, a shower and then slept."

"It was probably something you ate then," Ken rationalized.

"I assume if it was something I ate, I'd be puking instead of lying in head burning up."

He pursed his lips. Yeah, that was a stupid suggestion. "Then...perhaps it was a response to the sleep deprivation," he suggested. "You hadn't slept in two days. You were seeing stuff too, right? Perhaps the fever is just a result of all that."

She nodded. That seemed to make sense.

"God," he exhaled. "I'm such an idiot."

"What're you talking about?" she asked.

"If I hadn't given you that dare, you wouldn't be dying of sleep deprivation right now!" he exclaimed.

"Don't be dramatic," she chided. 

"I promise never to send you on any more night long dares," he promised.

She nodded. "That's good enough for me." Her lips were pulled into a smile.

Siyeon then returned, complaining of how long the heater took and apologizing to Yoohyeon for leaving her with an idiot. This resulted in Ken protesting that he wasn't an idiot and giving rise to a verbal fight, causing Yoohyeon to ask them both to fight downstairs as hearing Ken's middle aged woman voice was giving her a headache. 

At the precise moment, Siyeon decided that it was time to leave and dragged a sulking Ken away, promising that Jiu and Handong would be along later in the day, and to hope to see her in class the next day.

This left Yoohyeon alone with her thoughts...and a raging fever.

She sighed, turning to her side, her thoughts wandering to the dream she had last night. It was a wonder she hadn't woken up screaming.

It had felt so real, like she had been there. She could swear that she felt the feel of the rusted metal wires of the cage in her hand, smell the scent of moss...

She had been there. She was sure of it.

Otherwise, how could she remember a dream as vivid as this one? 

Wherever...or whatever this place was, she had visited it in her dream.

And then came the silhouettes.

There were three of them, yet she only saw two. Why had she seen three of them? What did it all mean?

She absentmindedly raised her eyes to the door, only to gasp in shock.

Leaning against the doorway with his arms crossed...was the third guy.

She recognized him from his lean frame and small head. He wore black clothing, just like the other two, and his dark eyes twinkled with pity and pain as he observed her without a word.

The look he was giving her unsettled her, terrified her to the core.

It was like he wasn't just pitying her because she was sick in bed. But more like he knew what was the reason for her to lie in bed, possibly for the fever itself.

He pitied her because he knew exactly what had happened to her.