2. Hidden Identity

His eyelids felt extremely heavy.

His eyelids flutter open slowly, gaze unfocused. The vision in front of him is a mess of blurriness while his head is in a dull hammering pain and dizziness. Felix blinks his eyes repeatedly for a couple of times before he felt well enough to take a look around and make out where he could be.

Where am I?

Instead of possibly freezing to death in the snow, he found himself in shelter and slight warmness. It looks like he is in a small room of some sort. The ceiling is rather crude, clearly showing the dried thatch roof of the house. There's a small heating stove not far from him but the light was quite dim and the heat wasn't enough to cancel out the freezing temperatures from the outside completely. The room itself is rather small, lacks furniture with only just a couple basic pieces even the mattress of the bed he's laying on seems to have been in use for a long time. 

Someone opens the door and Felix immediately sat up in defense.

"Oh you're awake!"

A youth walked in unhurriedly and exclaimed happily once he saw that Felix had woken up. The youth looks to be of similar age as Felix with a wide smile on his face, dawned in a simple practical garment. Felix unconsciously flinched away when he saw the youth approaching him. The youth's eyes squinted slightly from smiling, his face could be considered good looking and has somewhat of an innocent youthful aura to it. Felix suspects the boy could be someone who works in the sun from his warm skin tone.

"How are you feeling?" The youth asked with a smile and hand him a bowl of water "Here, have some water,"

Felix looked at the innocent smile then back at the water bowl in his hand. He hesitated for a while before nodding and received the bowl and drinking the content. The warm water washed his throat making him feel much better.

"Where am I?" Felix asked, his deep voice still hoarse

"This is our house. It's just me and my mom."

Seeing the youth answering him so naturally and without any hint of deception, he relaxed a little bit more "How long have I been out for?"

"Two days and two nights" the youth sighs. He came forward and check Felix's temperature with his hand and continued "I was about to go look for a physician if you still haven't woken up"

Felix didn't know how to feel and he could only stare at the youth in front of him blankly. In his heart however, an overwhelming feeling took place. On the verge of death and having lost everything, even his own identity, yet here he is being rescued by this humble and innocent youth. They have no connection, he doesn't know who Felix is, but he helped him nonetheless.

"Thank you for saving me" he felt the need to bow at his savior

"No, it's okay." The youth held him back up quickly "How can I not help someone at the verge of dying? You were practically freezing to death in the woods"

"Was I alone when you saw me?"

"Yeah, you were so pale, I thought you were already dead but thankfully you were still breathing lightly." The youth sigh once again. He then lightly smiled, pushing the harsh topic out of the conversation "What's your name, by the way?"

"I'm Yo-"

Don't tell people who you are, don't use your real official name. No one has seen your face before, they won't know who you are. From now on you're Lee Felix, you're no longer Lee Yongbok. Remember?

Jung Jin's voice echoed in his mind. Felix blinked rapidly and stuttered "I-I'm Felix. Lee Felix."

"What an interesting name! It's foreign, isn't it? My surname is also Lee. I'm Lee Cheon." The youth, Lee Cheon as he came to know seems to not notice that he changed his mind mid sentence 

"Heh... it was a nickname... but it stuck and became my real name." Felix could feel his own breath hitched as he told what's pretty much a half truth half lie, his eyes dart around unable to look at the youth

"Well, I think it's cool that it stuck because I think your name is very unique"

"Thanks-" He couldn't complete his sentence as a wave of coughing fit took over

"Oh, you should go back to rest so you'll recover quickly." Lee Cheon rubbed his back and push him back down to the mattress, tugging him in the blanket "I'll come bring you some porridge later"

Felix nodded lightly and Lee Cheon left.

❄️

From that day onward, Felix slowly recovered and stayed at Lee Cheon's house. He came to know that the youth is a regular humble villager that lives a bit far from the city meaning the route he randomly took in the forest had led him even further away from the city outskirts where his house was and to this random village.

Life in this village is quite peaceful. Everyone in the village is nice and they led a peaceful life together, granted the villager were not in the best conditions overall but they could provide for themselves with their daily needs. People either would go hunting or work at home. Felix also followed Lee Cheon to get firewood from time to time and together they look after Lee Cheon's sick mother who's unfortunately bedridden many days of the month.

No one questioned his stay nor his identity. The mother and son duo just accepted him kindly and treated him like their relative. Felix was also sincerely happy to help the both of them as much as he could. He felt very grateful that he met the both of them especially when he thought he wouldn't be able to belong anywhere anymore yet they welcomed him with open arms and such kindness that he'd never forget.

One would assume he could rest assured at this point but there's still something lurking in his mind all this time...

It's the middle of the night, the cold wind blew outside the small thatched house frenziedly and the small heating stove inside could barely help warm up the people in it against the harsh weather. Felix is asleep in his bed yet soon after his body started to trashed around, face scrunched up in distress and beads of sweats form on his forehead. Whimpers escaped his lips as he frown from whatever happens in the dreamland. He jolted up abruptly with a scream.

"No!"

His breath hitched loudly as he's gasping for air rapidly, his whole body shakes uncontrollably. Felix shuts his eyes tightly and both of his hands tremulously reach up to cover his own face, tears rolled down his cheek like a broken dam.

"Felix?"

A small voice broke into the heavy silence. Felix flinched harshly at t