a/n:

raise your hand if you're confused lol

don't worry, everything's gonna be clearer (i hope) once you read this chapter ^^

“Hello there, young lad.”

Myungsoo heard someone’s voice, a male one to be exact, coming from the distant. Some footsteps followed after that, as he could hear them getting louder and closer to his ears, to him. Myungsoo tried to open his eyes. However, both of them were really heavy, as if he hadn’t got any sleep for a week. He forced his eyes to open anyway and finally, he could get a slight sight of the surrounding.

He could see the red brick wall all around him. The sky was totally dark with no stars at all. The night had come, he assumed. Though his vision was blurry, he could see someone standing beside him. It wasn’t that Suho who stabbed him earlier. This man was different; longer limbs, bigger build, chubbier cheeks, some wrinkles –definitely way older than him. Maybe he was on his 40s or 50s, Myungsoo wasn’t sure. He wore something like long black coat.

 Was he a police officer or such? A detective, perhaps?

“Hello there, young lad.” He squatted down beside Myungsoo and repeated his previous sentence. “Are you listening?”

“Y-yeah.” Myungsoo struggled to wake up and sit. Shivers trailed down his spine as he looked down at his own body.

To be exact, shivers trailed down his spine as he looked down at his own body which lied lifelessly beside him. His body was there on the ground, while he was sitting beside it, staring in confusion. Just then he realized that he was outside his body. His body and his soul were separated. His abdomen was literally ripped and blood stains were everywhere on his plaid shirt. He almost puked; he swore he could see his own internal organs, something like intestines or whatever it was.

It was totally weird.

“Am I dead?” Myungsoo blatantly asked the stranger who was now sitting besides him. But the man only let out some chuckles. What’s so funny? Myungsoo didn’t know.

“Is that yours?” Instead of answering his question, the man pointed at a plastic bag across them, containing two cups of tiramisu Myungsoo bought earlier.

“Yes…” Myungsoo’s mind was instantly filled by the thought of you. You were the only thing on his mind at the moment.

What are you doing now?

Are you home?

How was the cram school?

Would you be my girlfriend?

“Where are we?” Myungsoo asked another question.

“You know exactly where we are, young lad.” The man simply answered.

“No, I mean… Why am I–?”

“Do you want to go home?” The man cut his sentence. He stared right at Myungsoo’s eyes. Somehow, Myungsoo went speechless. There was something about this man that made him so.

“What do you mean?” Myungsoo was really confused right now.

"I can help you if you want." The man smirked.

"How... how can you help me?" Myungsoo tried to proceed his words but failed.

"Let's make a deal," he smiled.

***

“But what if the ‘me’ you know is not the real ‘me’ who I really am?”

“Say what? Whoa, dude. How many shots did you have, seriously?”

“I’m not ing high, Minseok.”

“Ah, here we go again, you and your mid-life crisis. Geez, you really are like a grandpa sometimes.”

“Minseok, I…” Suho stared right at Minseok’s eyes. “This is serious. I’m losing myself.”

“You what?” Minseok eyed him lazily.

“I k-killed… I killed s-some… s-someone last night.”

Minseok choked on his bottle of soju. Meanwhile, Suho was staring at his own hands. His eyes widened in horror.

"What the did you just say?" Minseok whispered. He was too shock to be able to speak louder.

"I killed someone last night." Suho started to tremble. He was crying.

"But... how? Why? What–"

"I don't know!" Suho yelled at his bestfriend.

Minseok was at loss of words. He knew that Suho was into self harm. It was actually the reason why Minseok brought him to this mountain tonight. He thought that fresh air and nice scenery would help. He was trying to prevent Suho from doing any dumber action like he did last week, when he gulped down all the pills, a whole bottle of aspirin at a time as one of his suicide attempt.

Minseok also knew that Suho was bipolar.

But he never thought that Suho would or could do such thing.

"That's why I said I was losing myself..." Suho managed to say between his sobs. Minseok patted his shoulder. Out of the blue, Suho pushed Minseok away. He stood up and took something from his pocket.

A 58 mm Swiss Army pocket knife.

"Holy , not again!" Minseok stood up as well and tried to grab the knife. But Suho ran down the hill faster than Minseok thought. He was never him once his other self appeared.

Minseok chased him down the road. It was empty. Bushes were everywhere.

"Stop!"

At last Minseok could catch his buddy.

And it happened.

Minseok grabbed Suho's knife...

...and stabbed it right into his heart.

Minseok smiled, somehow.

The chain started to form.

***

"Wake up, Kim Myungsoo."

 Myungsoo was trembling. You were crying.

"Do you remember now?" Jungyeop smirked for the nth time.