I wasn't much of a screamer, but when a hand comes and clamps down on you out of nowhere you can't not react. I didn't scream but I did sort of choke on my breath and let out a strangled whine at the same time. My body was much more sure of itself; my arm wrenched away from the alien grasp and the rest of me lurched forward out of the way. Rather than run, I turned around.

It was Jongin who was behind me. I was half relieved and half on high alert. On one hand, I knew Jongin. On the other, I didn't particularly trust Jongin. Especially not right then and there.

Jongin really was the visual opposite of the ninja boy, but they were still so much alike it was uncanny. The intensity in their stares was the same, and there was something about the emotion in them, too. There was a dual confidence and confusion that only shook me up more, yet kept me compliant and waiting.

Jongin didn't say anything. He just kept looking. It was both creepy and uncomfortable. And it was a stupid thing to notice at the time, but the kid was so damn handsome. He'd always been handsome, but I'd never just stood there staring at the kid. And I didn't really want to. Ever.

Jongin shifted and parted his lips. In another belated observation, I noted how tall he was. My hairline was at level with his chin.

"Who are you?" Jongin asked. The question registered as strange. But then I was distracted by Jongin's voice itself. It was deep, deeper than I'd expected. People usually said that kind of thing about Chanyeol, but his voice had never thrown me off like Jongin's did.

I didn't answer right away. The whole situation was just messing with me, making my head fuzzy. Why did Jongin not know who I was?

Still, I had to humor him. The ferocity I‘d been feeling before was gone. Long gone.

"I'm Ahri-Yung," I said. It felt sort of weird to speak, to introduce myself to someone I should have already known. "Ahri. Chanyeol and Baekhyun and Kyungsoo's friend."

I waited a few beats, searching Jongin's face for recognition. It never came.

My brows pinched and I prompted, "We've met. At the arcade, I think it was."

Jongin gave me nothing for feedback.

I pursed my lips. "Sehun was there, too. And Joonmyun."

Jongin’s expression stayed blank. I wanted to be angry with him, so angry, but at the same time I felt like such an idiot myself. Was I really such a forgettable person? How crazy must I have looked to him?

I averted my eyes and ducked my head, hiding. For all of the sassy self-talk I'd done about Jongin being my junior, I was the one feeling small. 

Jongin peered at me with a poker face, but there was something almost accusatory in his eyes. "What did you call me earlier?"

I all but gawked, letting confusion flash across my face with full force. Jongin kept staring at me the same way, with the same emptiness, wordlessly dominating me.

"What do you mean?" I questioned. I voiced my guess slowly. "Jongin? Your name, Jongin?"

Jongin's eyes narrowed just a bit more. He stayed quiet for an elongated moment before a light snort left him. "That's not my name."

I couldn't figure out what he was trying to say. Did he just want to throw me off even further? I was positive his name was Jongin. 

But I was doubting myself more and more. Maybe I'd fallen down and bumped my head. Maybe Jongin had bumped his head. Nothing was adding up or making sense. It couldn't be real. None of it could be real. How could it be real?

I wasn't dreaming, though. Every one of my sense was in tune with the world around me. If I could think I was dreaming, there's no way I was dreaming. I wished I could stop thinking. Stop everything. Go home. Sleep.

Jongin's eyes left me and moved somewhere behind me. His posture was unguarded, nonchalant. Everything I should have gotten from Jongin and had wanted to get from Jongin -- comfort, camaraderie, care, compassion -- was nowhere to be found. I was almost more alone with his company than without it.

I took a step back. I wondered if I'd been wrong, if I should just leave Jongin and find help somewhere else. He clearly didn't want me around, and I his rejection was a little more than I could handle.

I was still trying to get a grasp on what my next move would be when I heard footsteps scraping against the ground. I whirled around and gaped as yet another boy approached. How many boys were going to pop out of the night?

The newcomer didn't unnerve me as much as everyone before him had. He had more of an unassuming look to him; his face was small, his eyes wide, and his cheeks round. Rather than glare, he was watching me with genuine curiosity. Nothing more and nothing less.

That was my first impression of him, anyway. When he noticed me looking back his demeanor flipped. A smirk came to his lips and his eyes lidded.

I angled myself so that I ended up moving away from both him and Jongin at the same time, taking myself out of the middle of them. My gaze stayed on the second male. I doubted that Jongin would do anything to hurt me, but I was on edge with the one approaching.

The new guy left some space between the three of us, stopping at a point that made us form and equal-distance triangle between us. There was a glitter of amusement in his eyes when he smiled at me.

"Who's your friend?" he questioned. He was looking to me but he couldn't have been talking to me.

With some reservation, I glanced at Jongin. Jongin had his eyes on the other male, but he didn't seem suspicious or threatened. They must have been together. Was that good or bad?

Jongin brought his attention back to me. He examined me like answers were just going to spontaneously project out of my forehead. "That's what I wanna know," he said.

I moved back even more, taking a few steps instead of just one. My eyes darted back and forth between Jongin and his partner. They moved closer together -- really, the second male went over to stand beside Jongin -- and teamed up for a stare down. I felt like a specimen. I hated it.

"I'm Ahri," I implored. "I told you that. I'm Chanyeol, Baekhyun, and Kyungsoo's friend."

It was one thing to forget me, but Jongin wouldn't be able to deny knowing the other guys. That had to get me something.

When Jongin did nothing but gaze at me with that same indifference, I could have thrown something. What was wrong with him? There was definitely something wrong with him, not me.

More out of reflex than anything, I looked to the other boy. His head was tilted, his eyes narrowed. I could have just been desperate or delusional, but it seemed like a sign of recognition, or at least deliberation, and that felt like a miracle.

I felt my expression lift up and lighten. "Do you know them, too?"

The boy took a moment to think it over. I waited on baited breath.

Finally, Xiumin opened his mouth. "Who's Kyungsoo?"

More questions. No answers.

I wasn't sure how to respond, so I asked a question of my own, the first that came to mind.

"Who are you?"

The boy blinked once before smiling. It was more of an actual smile, not another leer, and it somehow made him more human to me again. "Xiumin."

I nodded, letting the name run through my mind. It didn't ring any bells.

"You know Chanyeol and Baekhyun, though?" I pressed, taking half a step towards Xiumin and Jongin.

"You know Chanyeol and Baekhyun?" Xiumin shot back, quirking a brow. My expression tightened again, but Xiumin missed it when he cast a side glance at Jongin. "And Kai, apparently?"

I shot a quick look towards Jongin, who remained impassive. Kai? Was that a nickname? A gang name? An alter-ego?

I wasn't particularly concerned with Jongin or Kai or whoever he was at the time, so I fixed my attention on Xiumin, boring him for more information. He straightened up and surveyed me silently, testing my nerves.

Xiumin angled his head again and parted his lips. "Where did you come from?"

My chest swelled with my inhale. I didn’t want to play that game. I didn’t want to be asked anything. I wanted to be the one doing the asking. What kind of question was that anyway?

“What do you mean?” I wondered, letting my features scrunch up a little more harshly than they would have if I were only innocently inquisitive. “I got out of school a while ago. I’ve just been looking for someone ever since...”

Xiumin’s expression turned even more quizzical. “School? So you’re saying you live here?”

I nodded a few times, not getting it. A little smirk teased the corner of Xiumin’s lips. I glanced to Jongin for a second opinion, but he had a similar soupcon of amusement playing on his features.

“You’re not from this place,” Jongin told me, his tone as patronizing as could be. I tried to send him a sort of stink eye, but my heart wasn't in it. What the hell was he talking about? We went to the same school.

As strong as my feelings were, there were just too many to translate into words. I shot daggers at Xiumin and Jongin in turn, demanding something from each of them. Jongin’s eyes continued to sear with dark humor, and Xiumin seemed to meander between sardonicism and pity.

“Trust us,” Xiumin said, sounding firm but not necessarily high-and-mighty. He looked me dead in the eye, and I didn’t dare look away. “You’re not where you think you are.”

I maintained eye contact with Xiumin, but my mind was a million miles away. What a freaky thing to say. What did he know about where I came from? Who was he to tell me? Where were we if it wasn't where I thought we were?

My rational mind was whirling around around like a sock in a dryer. How could I not be home? I wasn’t blind. I wasn’t stupid. I could see where I was and it was the same place I’d always been. Maybe it did feel a little off somehow, but so what? That didn’t mean anything. That couldn’t mean anything. What could it mean?

My jaw was clenched and I hoped Xiumin wouldn't notice. I hoped he wouldn't notice how wide my eyes were, or how determined I was to keep them open, to not blink. I hoped he couldn't see that my fingers were balled up in the pockets of my coat, or that my arms where shaking from the amount of pressure I was putting into my fists.

Xiumin did notice, though, or he was at least intuitive enough to pick up that there was something wrong and actually give a crap about it. I hadn't really considered his eyes hard until they softened; he himself hadn't been too intimidating until he turned back into into the glossy eyed, round cheeked boy that I'd first seen coming towards me however many minutes before.

Xiumin's eyes roamed towards Jongin briefly before they resettled on me. The corners of his lips curled up in a tiny smile, but the gesture was more prominent in the way he looked at me, with his eyes pinched into slight crescents.

"It's good that you're not a native," Xiumin said, bobbing his head. "And that you know the others. It means your on our side."

That was probably meant to comfort me, but I didn't take it like Xiumin had intended. What would have happened if I wasn't on their side? What made him so sure I was who he thought I was? I had no idea what he was talking about. Who did he think I was?

Xiumin spared another askance glace at Jongin. I faintly wondered how old Xiumin was and where he stood on the social hierarchy. Was it he or Jongin in charge?

Xiumin oggled at me. "You're coming with us. Right?"

Going with them where? I wanted to ask. Xiumin really was asking me, too, as in giving me the chance to say no. Should I say no? What would I do if I didn't go along with them? What would we be doing together that I couldn't do alone?

I didn't know how to answer, but somehow I ended up nodding. Xiumin's cheeks puffed up in pleasure, but I hesitated to see Jongin's reaction. When I did scan him over from my peripherals he wasn't quite as stony as I would have expected him to be. He was neutral, neither upset or uplifted. As small of a thing as that was, it sort of calmed me. Maybe my choice hadn't been a bad one.

"Let's get going, then," Xiumin said, jerking his chin in the direction he had originally come from. Again, I wondered if he knew where he was going, if there was a real destinatioin he was leading us to.

There was a sinking feeling in my gut, because once I looked in the direction that Xiumin had indicated I laid eyes on the frozen blocks that were once cars.

Xiumin had come from the direction of the cars. He'd come from the same direction as the ice that'd covered the cars.

For the second time, someon grabbed me. For the second time, it was Jongin.

Jongin regarded me, unhostile but still unkind somehow. Impassive, inscrutable.

"My name's Kai," the boy stated. He hovered there for another second, still holding into me, letting the sentence sink in. When he was satisfied that it had, he pulled his hand back and brushed past me. He and Xiumin lead the way forward.

I wasn't sure if I should follow or run.