DongHae POV

My nose picked up the smell of cooked food, raising me from my dreamless sleep. My eyes opened slowly and were immediately blinded by the brightness in the room. Cursing silently, I pressed them back together to avoid the biting light.

I picked up another whiff of prepared food. Hang on. Food? How could this be? Was there someone else in my apartment? Impossible. I live alone, after all.

My eyes flew up instantly and I tried to sit up. My arms felt heavy and a little numb, which didn’t make the process any easier. Was it because I slept in a weird position again? That must be the case.

As soon as I managed to sit up properly, my eyes started to wander around the room in which I currently found myself in. I wasn’t at home, which became clear immediately. I didn’t find myself in my little, shabby studio apartment in the middle of the poor part of Seoul as I expected, but rather in a proper bedroom without an integrated kitchen and living room. Only the size of this room alone was in accord with my apartment.

I looked at my surroundings confusedly. I saw shelving full of books and CD’s. On the other side of the room, opposite a huge window stretching along the whole width of the room, stood a table with piles of papers and magazines. No, I definitely wasn’t at home. But if I wasn’t at home… where was I instead? None of my friends had such a room in their apartments.

I slowly swung my legs over the edge of the bed. My feet touched the cold floor, which made me shiver slightly.

Just like my arms, my legs felt numb. I couldn’t in the least think of a reason why. I mean, my arms were one thing… but my legs? In what kind of a position did I sleep exactly?

I hauled myself up onto my two stilts drudgingly. I noticed them starting to tremble under my weight. Well geez, that’s going to be fun. Despite the obvious weakness my body signalled to me, I just didn’t want to simply sit back down. My goal was the window on the other side in order to provide myself with an overview of the neighbourhood, and thus finally find out where I was.

I tried to slowly move my legs forward, but as soon as I lifted one of them, the other succumbed to the weight and I found myself face-down on the cold parquet floor beside the bed instead. A slight pain flared up and spread through my whole body. I loudly up air between my teeth to take some room from the pain and pushed myself back up with my arms.

For some reason, this situation felt eerily familiar to me, but I still couldn’t align the whole situation with anything in my memories. Only when a young man stormed into my room I was finally aware why everything felt this familiar.

“Are you hurt?” asked the man as soon as he entered the room. Was I mistaken or did I hear a slight hint of concern in his voice? I didn’t answer and only looked at him with eyes widened in alarm.

The stranger tried to help me get back on my feet. But the closer his hands got to me, the farther I slipped back on the floor. I only stopped wh