{August 14th, Seoul, South Korea}
{8월 14일, 서울, 대한민국}


"Mimi-ge and I are going out, you guys. Wanna come?" I ran down the hallway to ask them. Most of the others seemed to have gone off to take care of their own business, because only Han Geng was still in sight, sitting comfortably on the couch and probably not intending on moving anytime soon.

He smiled warmly at me as he answered in Mandarin, knowing it would be easier for me to understand. "I would like to come with you two, but I'll have business to attend to in a moment. Promise me you'll have fun, Xian Hua?"

"Yeah. I fully intend on having fun." Giving him a thumbs up, I zipped up my hoodie halfway and jammed my favourite baseball cap over my hair to hide the fact that I hadn't bothered to brush it properly this morning.

"Henry, you ready?" Zhou Mi was already at the front door of the apartment. He tapped his foot rhythmically.

"Yes, I–" I patted my jeans and hoodie pockets in confusion. They had seemed oddly light, but I had thought I was just being stupid... "Wait! I forgot my phone."

"Okay, well, hurry it up then."

It was an uphill struggle to remember where I had last used my phone. I hadn't touched it yesterday... had I? Then... that would mean that I had last used it before the run-in with those thugs, when I looked for a map of Seoul. I forcibly suppressed a shudder at the thought of them.

Stepping back through the apartment in my socks, I glanced around the door to my and Zhou Mi's room. I found nothing.

"Mimi-ge, have you seen my phone anywhere?"

"Uh, I think Sungmin put it with the rest of your stuff when he brought you here," he called.

"And where would my stuff be?" I yelled back.

"Why don't you ask him yourself?"

"Ask me what?" Sungmin's voice came from behind me, seemingly out of nowhere. I whirled around to find him standing casually as if he had been there for a long time.

My jaw dropped. "Where did you come from?" I said incredulously.

"I've been standing here for a while now..." He raised one eyebrow at me as if it was the most normal thing in the world to randomly undergo deposition.

"Really? You sure?" I shook my head in disbelief, but decided to let the issue go for now. "Anyways, do you know where my phone is?"

"A white one, right? In that case... it should be with the rest of your things, inside the wall closet in your room. I kind of shoved them there in a hurry... sorry about that," he shrugged.

"It's fine. I'll just grab it and go."

Another five minutes of searching revealed it wedged underneath my bag and on top of a stack of papers.

"There you are!" I said, relieved. I yanked it out roughly, accidentally dislodging a small piece of paper in the process. It floated softly to the floor. "Whoops," I mumbled to myself. "I'd better put that back or Sungmin might kill me." I picked it up and looked at it curiously. It looked like the back of a very old photo; however, it was still in fairly good condition minus the frayed edges. I flipped it over. It was so old that the colour had mostly faded, but the people in the photo were still easily distinguishable – and when I realized exactly who they were, I flinched and dropped it as if it was on fire.

I sat back on my heels, shuddering. My hand starting to shake, I reached out to pick it up again, hoping desperately that I had been mistaken.

I wasn't.

There were two people in the photo, close together. They both were wearing what looked like suits and had huge smiles on their faces. On the left was Sungmin, hair a little shorter and face a little younger, but definitely him all the same. His face was joyful, grinning so wide that his teeth showed.

And the person on the right? Somehow, the young man with Sungmin on the right side of the photo... was me. My hair was different, and I was wearing some sort of weird fluffy hat. But I looked about the same age as I am now, maybe a little older. How could this have happened? When did this all happen? I didn't know Sungmin until one or two days ago at the very most, and I certainly wouldn't have had the time to take such an aged picture with him.

As I stared at the photo, I started to feel strange. The more I thought about it, the more I felt that I did remember taking that photo with Sungmin, in a different time and place. But when? And where? At the same time, I was sure I had never done such a thing. After all... hadn't I just met him for the first time yesterday? Or did I know him from somewhere else, and it was just that neither of us remembered who the other person was? But how could that be possible, if in the photo he looked younger and I looked older?

"Henry! Hurry up or I'll drag you outside and feed you to the dokkaebi!" Mimi's voice bellowed, clearly impatient. Now wasn't the best time to be thinking about this. I attempted to shake the weird feeling off, grabbing my phone and running out. I left the photo lying there in the middle of the floor.

---~***~---

"Huh..." Sungmin pondered, bending down to pick up the aged photograph lying on the ground. He had almost forgotten about it. After all, it reminded him strongly of things that he wished hadn't happened. "So Henry must have seen this... it's probably only a matter of time before he finds out, then."

"This can't be good." Kangin mumbled. "Ya think we should tell 'im now, Fox?"

"I believe you already know where I stand on that issue... I'd like to keep it a secret as long as possible. It'll be less dangerous for them if they don't know everything..."

"But they do deserve to know the truth. We're gonna have to tell 'em someday, y'know."

Sungmin sighed. "I know. That being said, when they do find out, I am not looking forward to seeing their reactions..."

---~***~---

"Wow, you must consider shopping an Olympic sport or something if you can keep it up this long," I snorted.

Zhou Mi gave me a dull stare as if I was crazy or something. "It is. Don't you know, you idiot?" He laughed at the blank look on my face. "It's okay, Henli. I'll buy you some food later if you want it."

"When do I ever not want food?" I poked him in the side. "I thought you knew me better than that, Zhou Mi!" I placed my hand over my heart dramatically.

"You're such a foolish little kid. Stop mucking around, okay? We have a very important mission to complete."

"To you, maybe it's a mission. To me it's just walking through stores and spending money on clothes. How much clothing do you even need to live, gege?"

"A lot, that's what. Henli, you'll never understand the glamorous world of fashion, since it’s obvious that you didn't even brush your hair this morning. Am I right?" He flicked at the brim of my cap playfully, the cheerful twinkle in his eyes betraying that he already knew the answer.

I straightened it with my hand, mock pouting. "Oh, shut up. When do I get my free lunch?"

"When I decide it's lunchtime. Which should be soon, so don't go fainting of hunger on me."

"Uh... I'll manage. So, what's on the menu, then?"

"I don't know. What do you want to eat?"

"Hey, you decide! I don't know anything about the eating options in downtown Seoul yet," I shrugged.

"Fine, then. Uh... oh, right!" He snapped his fingers. "I have a good friend who works at a place near here, and her food is amazing. We can go eat there and I can introduce her to you. You okay with that?"

"Yeah. And while I stuff myself with food, you can go catch up with your friend." I waggled my eyebrows suggestively.

"Are you serious, Henli?" Zhou Mi rolled his eyes.

"Of course I am."

The 'friend' he was talking about turned out to be a young woman by the name of Victoria Song, or merely 'Qian' as he called her. She worked at a small, but cosy ramen bar.

As we sat down, a girl with light brown hair waved at us. "Good afternoon, Zhou Mi!" She greeted him cheerfully.

"Hi, Luna," he nodded at her. "Any chance that Qian would be in today?"

"Last time I saw, she was in the back. I'll try to get her for you. In the meantime, why don’t you guys order?” She replied as she bustled off through a door that presumably led to the kitchen.

I stared at the menu posted on the wall. All of the choices looked good, so which one should I pick? I eventually decided on miso pork ramen, while Zhou Mi picked tonkotsu.

We waited for a minute or two for our food in a comfortable silence. The smell of ramen wafting through the air was delicious, and I grew hungrier by the minute. A small bird flew through the air and landed neatly on the counter near me. I looked at it more closely. It had dark blue feathers with odd bright red on its wings, and friendly brown eyes that seemed to be looking at me. Now, I failed biology miserably in grade ten, but even I was pretty sure that this was no ordinary bird.

"Hey there, little guy. You hungry for some ramen too?” I said to it, wondering if it would understand me. It chirped in response, bobbing its head. I laughed, taking that as a yes. "Me too. I'd share with you when I get mine, but I don't think that would work out too well."

"Henry, who are you talking to?" Zhou Mi raised his eyebrows at the sight of the little bird. "That animal?"

"What? I was bored. And it seems to understand me." I defended myself.

"No, I mean I swear I've seen the same bird around here before." He said, confused. "There's not too many species of birds in Korea with that kind of colouration." The bird must have heard something that we didn't at that moment, because it took off and circled above our heads once before disappearing.

"Aw, you scared it off," I started to complain to him, but was cut off by a young woman coming out from the back.

"Qian," Zhou Mi greeted her.

"Zhou Mi! Luna told me you were here, so I came out as quickly as I could."

She was quite pretty, I supposed, and seemed nice enough. But how many times had I met someone that was kind and sweet on the surface, only to turn out absolutely despicable deep down?

"Hi," I said, a bit awkwardly.

"You must be Henry, right? Nice to meet you!" She smiled at me.

"How do you know my name?" I asked, feeling a bit creeped out.

"I know a lot of things about you," she said mysteriously.

"Actually, I’ve just mentioned your name to her a few times before. Don't listen to anything she says," Zhou Mi snorted.

Our ramen came at that moment, so I busied myself eating instead of listening to Zhou Mi and Victoria talk. From what I heard from their conversation, they seemed to be very close. And Zhou Mi was right. The food was absolutely delicious. I mentally made an attempt to add the name of the bar to my list of eating places, forcing myself to try to remember it.

"Henry?" I looked up. Zhou Mi was nowhere in sight, and only Victoria was there, in front of me.

"Where did Mimi-ge go?" I panicked slightly. I didn't want to be alone, in a place I didn't know too well, with a person who I wasn't familiar with.

"He went to the toilet. He'll be back soon." She replied calmly as she wiped off the counter with a cloth.

"Oh, okay."I breathed out.

"So..." Victoria sat down, resting her chin in her hands. "Zhou Mi says you'll be here in Korea for a while, which means I'll probably see you again."

"Yah." I mumbled.

"Why don't you tell me a bit about yourself? I'd like to get to know you better." She smiled widely.

"Okay," I said cautiously. "Um, I'm Henry Lau, or Lau Xian Hua in Chinese. I come from Toronto, and I travelled here for my school studies."

"How'd you become friends with Zhou Mi?"

"I met him when I was five years old. I was visiting relatives in China at that time."

"So you two have been friends for a long time, huh... you're an okay person so far. I believe I can trust you to be good to Zhou Mi," Victoria mused to herself, seemingly not noticing how odd her words sounded.

"How do you know? You've never met me before," I challenged her. "I might have killed... I dunno, Jesus in my last life or something."

"You didn't," she said strangely. "I'm sure you didn't. You're a good person, Henry. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise."

"How do you know that? You've never met me before," I repeated, confused. How was she so sure that I wasn't an ? I guessed that so far I had been reasonably polite, but still! I was starting to feel uncomfortable, not because of Victoria herself, but because she seemed to know something that I didn't about me. And I didn't like that.

"Well... it's..." She started hesitantly, but trailed off at the return of Zhou Mi.

"I'm baaaack, Henli!" he exclaimed with a flourish of his hand. "Come on, we should head home soon."

I nodded slowly, only saying, "Okay."

"Bye, Qian." He waved to Victoria as we left.

"Bye!" She called cheerfully. She seemed to be acting normally again in front of Zhou Mi. Was it that she had something to hide from him? But weren't they friends?

What a weird day this was turning out to be...