Undulatus Asperatus, also known as Asperatus Clouds, are characterized by turbulent, but soft undulating wave motions. They appear darm and storm-like, but tend to dissipate without a storm forming.  Little is known about how they form.

For the first time in years, Kyungsoo felt his lips pull into a broad, genuine smile. He took a deep breath, inhaling the salty gusts of wind that rushed over the sea.

There wasn’t an actual sea – he hadn’t gotten that far yet – but the dunes on his left indicated that he was getting there. Developing a world was something one had to do gradually after all.

Step by step.

Kyungsoo kicked off his brown Oxford shoes. To his surprise, he wasn’t wearing socks today. It was a bit weird, but he decided not to be too bothered and just go with it. Slowly, he curled his toes around the moss beneath him. Thoroughly enjoying the sensation in his feet, he closed his eyes and spread his arms out wide.

Here, things were perfect. He could be free here, free from limitations and distractions. He could feel like an albatross, flying through the skies and cruising over the oceans without having to worry about the world down below.

However, rather than flying, Kyungsoo preferred to keep his feet on the ground. The boy dug his hands in the deep pockets of his navy chinos and steadily started to walk. Left, right, left, right.

Most people can’t seem to appreciate how pleasant walking actually is. It’s the most natural form of exercise, after all. If Kyungsoo had his way, he’d never take the bus to school, or ride his bike to the convenience store like other people did: he’d just walk every single distance.

Then again, if he had his way, he wouldn’t be in a wheelchair.

Or in the hospital.

Kyungsoo’s pace quickened as he suddenly thought of all that was going back there – you know, in the real world. Ever since he’d woken up from that silly coma, things had become even tier than before. Apparently, the universe operated according to some sick law that guaranteed the life of Do Kyungsoo to be worthless.

It was a good thing Kyungsoo had learned how to create a universe of his own.

He softly hummed the melody to the words he always mumbled to himself before retreating to his mind palace. As he focused not on his worries, but on the current tranquillity he had surrounded himself with, Kyungsoo started walking up the moss-covered hill on which he’d built ‘Rome’ all those years ago.

Rome basically embellished his attempt at fulfilling the assignment he was given in school long ago. His philosophy teacher had instructed his students to create works of architecture in their mind palaces, to help them store information and make studying easier for them. Kyungsoo didn’t need help with good grades though; he was more interested in creating beautiful landscapes where he could walk in. But in order to fulfil the assignment, he had to create a building of some sorts.

Luckily, the mind palace assignment wasn’t too difficult to pass, since the teacher couldn’t actually look into his mind. During the oral exam, Kyungsoo elaborately filled his teacher in on the ancient Rome he had built in his mind palace, giving extensive details and describing it vividly. He passed with a perfect score.

What his teacher didn’t know was that ‘Rome’ was actually wordplay on the word ‘room.’ There was no city in Kyungsoo’s mind, since that would only clog up the open spaces. He had created four basic walls on top of one of the mossy hills, and that was all. Sure, he’d created a door for practical reasons, but ‘Rome’ had no floor, no ceiling, no windows or anything.

It had always been empty…

Up until now.

Kyungsoo wasn’t fully in touch with his senses yet, so he wasn’t able to explain why he suddenly knew someone was in Rome… but he was sure of it. An intruder had entered his mind, uninvited.

As soon as he picked up on a stranger’s presence, the sense of calm he had felt so strongly evaporated into thin air. The yellow sun, which had been shining ever so brightly, dimmed into a peculiar shade of orange, darkening the plains.

Kyungsoo wiped his palms on his slim fitted chinos, but his hands wouldn’t stop sweating. For a minute, he contemplated what action he should take. He surely hadn’t imagined anyone else in this place, so the stranger could be anyone, potentially even dangerous. But if he turned back now, he’d never know whom he was dealing with, right?

So Kyungsoo moved forward, ready to lash out at any possible form of threat. He stayed as close to the ground as he could, using his feet as well as his hands to climb up the hill. As the walls of Rome grew larger in his perspective, Kyungsoo’s heart pounded so loudly he thought it was going to explode. There were no windows and the walls were pretty high, so there was no way to check who or what was inside. He’d just have to trust his instincts on this one.

As the orange sun poised above his head, Kyungsoo reached the top of the hill. He raised an arm and visualised a baseball bat, which soon after dropped into his hand. With shaky breaths, he placed a trembling hand onto the doorknob and pushed it open.

And then, Kyungsoo screamed, louder than thunder.

He had instinctively started to scream his lungs out, in the hope that doing so would terrify his opponent. However, the only one left terrified was Kyungsoo himself.

Apparently, his senses had become untrustworthy ever since he’d woken up from the coma.

Why else was Rome empty?

Kyungsoo flung the bat in the grass behind him as he scanned the room with his dark eyes. His vision wasn’t perfect, so he quickly imagined a pair of brown round specs, which immediately formed in his left hand. He was an expert at creating small items like glasses and baseball bats, but the bigger picture always took him more effort. Perhaps he could one day imagine some sort of alarm system.

He placed the glasses on his nose, after which his line of vision instantly sharpened. However, the room was still as empty as it had been before.

Defeated, Kyungsoo stepped back outside and shut the door. He let out a deep sigh, filled with relief and perhaps a touch of disappointment. But regardless of that, he felt calm again.

This world was his after all – which also meant that he had control over everything in it. 

Kyungsoo reminded himself of the facts as he continued humming the soft melody of Slow [e] Motion, the song that he had emotionally connected to the realm of his mind over the years. He started walking back down the hill, when an echoing sound caused him to stop in his tracks.

“HYUUUUNG! LOOK, IT’S THE SEA!!!”

Kyungsoo had to blink a few times for his eyes to properly focus on the tall, well-proportioned figure that had suddenly appeared on top of one of the dunes in the distance. His palms immediately started sweating again. The distance between him and the boy was large, so he couldn’t confirm whom he was dealing with exactly. But for some reason… that voice sounded awfully familiar.

Kyungsoo’s mind went blank as his legs started running, carrying him down the hill, through the valley and up to the sandy dune.

While doing so, a can of pepper spray took shape in one of his pockets, while a small pocketknife formed in the other.

Kyungsoo slowly drew closer towards the mysterious boy, who was now facing the other way. He tightened the grip around his weapons, ready to strike, but unclasped the items when he reached the top of the high dune.

Instead of wounding the intruder like he had initially intended, he wordlessly walked up to him and halted by his side, in awe of the unexpected view.

Seemingly out of nowhere, a vast sea had appeared behind the dunes. The orange rays of the setting sun coloured the calm waves. He wasn’t sure if his eyes were playing tricks on him, but a mysterious green ray appeared on the horizon.

Kyungsoo’s smile reappeared as the weights in his pockets faded away. He’d finally done it: he’d created the sea, and it was beautiful.

Then suddenly, a pang of realization stung through his body. He frowned as he looked up at the boy he was standing next to. He was considerably taller than Kyungsoo was, and his skin appeared healthy and sun-kissed, as if he’d spent the whole day lying on the beach. No doubt, it was definitely…

“Jongin?”

The boy smirked as he looked straight into Kyungsoo’s spectacled eyes. “Kyungsoo hyung… you have no idea how much I’ve missed you.” He turned towards his short companion and spread his arms, leaning in for a hug – but Kyungsoo resolutely took a step backwards.

“Don’t- …What’s going on?”

Jongin’s expression grew solemn as he stuck his hands back into the pockets of his blue jeans. “I-I’m sorry. I’m not sure either.” He looked down at his bare feet. “One minute you’re in place A, and then the next, you’re in place B, you know? But it doesn’t really matter, as long as we’re together everything’s o-”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t know you.”

Jongin nervously started to chuckle. “Oh come on hyung, don’t be like that.”

Kyungsoo didn’t respond.

“You’re joking right?” Jongin sounded like he had started to panic. “I’m the big fat blue genie man, and you’re Emo Thumbelina, remember?”

“No, Jongin. I don’t remember.”

“What do you mean, y-you don’t remember?” Two pools of water formed beneath Jongin’s eyes.  “Don’t you feel it, Kyungsoo? How much we’ve been through?”

Those words confused Kyungsoo. What was Jongin talking about? Was he being manipulated?

“We haven’t been through anything, Jongin,” he solemnly answered. “I’m sorry, but I don’t know who you are.”

“Then… then…” Jongin’s voice had started to tremble. “Then why do you keep saying my name like that?”

Kyungsoo didn’t have an answer to that.

Feeling weighed down by the heavy emotions, Jongin collapsed onto the sand. He buried his face in his hands and started to sob.

Not knowing what to do, Kyungsoo anxiously scanned his surroundings, after which he decided to take a seat next to the boy who seemed to be shattering into pieces. He wanted to run, but the knots in his stomach told him to do otherwise. He couldn’t just leave the guy here, could he? He wasn’t that selfish.

Besides, it would be nice to actually know what was going on for a change.

“Are… you okay?” Kyungsoo asked, not knowing what else to say.

“No, I’m not.”

“What happened to us, Jongin?”

Jongin nervously raked his fingers through his dark brown hair. “I’m not so sure anymore.”

As a sign of empathy, Kyungsoo cautiously placed an arm around Jongin’s shaky shoulders – but he retracted it almost immediately. For the moment they made contact, the sun hid behind the horizon and the skies turned pitch black.

Both of them were soaked in an instant. The raindrops were ridiculously large and very cold.

“Make it stop! Please!” Kyungsoo begged as he folded his limbs into a ball. However, protecting himself from the sudden storm was no use.

“You do it!” Jongin yelled back. The rain had mixed with his tears, making them unnoticeable. “You’re the one who’s home, not me!”

Unlike Kyungsoo, who had instantly started to panic, Jongin was boisterously laughing his heart out.

And while Kyungsoo focused hard on clearing up the sky above them, he couldn’t help but laugh a little too.

As soon as the rain stopped, Kyungsoo created a large plaid blanket, which he carefully draped over their shoulders. The sun had set, but the bright constellations and the moon provided them with all the light they needed.

“So Jongin. How did we get here?”

The boy shrugged. “By climbing up the sandy hill. Duh.”

Kyungsoo smirked as he wiped his round glasses on his grey T-shirt. “It’s called a dune. But that’s not what I meant. How did we get to this point? How come you apparently… know me, but not vice versa? When-”

“What’s the first thing that pops into your head when you look at me, Kyungsoo?”

The pale boy squinted as he met Jongin’s eyes, which seemed to have a habit of staring at him. “Excuse me?”

Jongin tilted his head to the left. “You heard me.”

Feeling shy, Kyungsoo turned his head back to the waves of the sea. “Eh… Rain?”

“Oh come on, that was too easy. Try thinking of something else, I know you can do better than that.”

The two remained quiet as Kyungsoo rummaged through his memory. It was blank.

He really couldn’t come up with anything. How was he supposed to remember things about a person he'd never really met before? Was he being put to the test? Was it a trick question?

Just when he was about to give up, a word softly escaped his heart-shaped lips.

Jongin straightened his head. “What?”

“…Blood,” Kyungsoo repeated, more audibly this time.

“O-Okay. Yeah, that’s a start… I guess. Perhaps the next thing you associate with me could be a bit less vio-”

“Coffee. Coffee also.”

Jongin’s eyes adopted the shape of crescents as he grinned broadly. Apparently, Kyungsoo had given the correct answer, though he had no clue where it had come from.

“Perfect,” Jongin commented as he carefully placed a soothing palm on Kyunsoo’s cheek, which caused the pale skin to instantly flush a bright pink.

For some reason, it seemed like Jongin wasn’t talking about coffee anymore.

And it was weird to admit, but the touch of Jongin’s rough palm actually didn’t feel so bad.

Ashamed by his own distraction, Kyungsoo yanked his head out of Jongin’s reach. “N-N-No touching! I don’t want it to rain again!”

The tall boy chuckled as he pulled his hand back and adjusted the side of the blanket that had slipped off his shoulder. “Don’t worry, hyung. I think it was just a one-time shock thing. It won’t happen again.”

“You don’t know that, dummy!” Kyungsoo protested as he tried to hide his rosy cheeks the best he could.

Jongin’s eyes widened. “What did you just call me?”

“N-Nothing!”

As Kyungsoo continued to nervously fidget around with his side of the blanket, Jongin let out a sigh of content. He lifted his head towards the stars, took a deep breath and started from the beginning.

Jongin told Kyungsoo about his own life; his parents, his love for drawing and exercising, his flaws, his problems at school.

He told Kyungsoo about the grey bricks, the storm, the way he had gripped onto his leg.

He told him about their first meeting, the cappuccinos, the walks, the city, the soju, the floor they had slept on that night.

He even told Kyungsoo about the stabbing, the jump, the arguments, the cigarettes.

He told Kyungsoo everything.

Kyungsoo listened carefully, but the pieces of the puzzle weren’t falling into place. It didn’t sound like nonsense, despite the events being so unrealistic. Jongin’s enigmatic way of describing it all seemed honest.

But what did it mean?

“Hyung, I know it might all sou-”

“No, you don’t know. Let me think,” Kyungsoo snapped as he brought his index fingers to his temples.

“…Okay.”

He had met Jongin a few weeks ago… no, Jongin had met him. For some reason, he had appeared in Jongin’s mind palace – which sounded like a depressing dump of chaos by the way.

How did he get there? …He was in a coma at the time. So, did his soul wander off or something?

Why Jongin? The only connection they had was through Jongin’s parents, who had operated on his brain three years ago. Did that explain anything?

No, it didn’t.

Now that he was awake, they were here, in Kyungsoo’s mind. Jongin had managed to enter the mental world of someone else, just like he had apparently. What did that mean?

…It meant that Jongin was now the coma patient.

Jongin was in a coma, though he probably wasn’t aware of it.

The moment Kyungsoo woke up from his coma, Jongin fell into one.

Jongin turned the tables around.

Jongin took my place.

“What did you do to me?!” Kyungsoo yelled as he jumped to his feet.

Jongin frowned, clearly confused by Kyungsoo’s sudden outburst. “I… what?”

“You switched us around!” Kyungsoo lost control of his emotions, the tears now streaming down his face. “You did this to me! You woke me up from that stupid coma and took my ing place!”

“…Hyung? What are you saying?” Jongin slowly got up as well.

“Tell me! What did you do to me?”

Jongin shook his head in disbelief. “You’re saying… I’m in a coma right now?”

“I don’t know! I think so? - Jongin just- just tell me what you did to me!”

The tall boy’s eyes seemed to flicker, as if he suddenly remembered what triggered the switch. “I… I can’t tell you!”

“You have to! You have no choice! I can only save you if you tell me!”

Jongin turned his back towards his hyung. “I don’t want you to save me.”

“I don’t care! You sure as hell don’t deserve to be in my position! You have a life out there, a life worth living, and I ruined it! I need to fix this… please… please let m-me fix it.”

“Kyungsoo? Are you sleeping? With your eyes open?”

A hollow female voice suddenly echoed over the dunes. The two boys froze.

“Who… is that?” Jongin panted.

“! , , - they’re coming for me!”

“Who is co-”

“TELL ME WHAT TO DO JONGIN! NOW!”

“Maybe I should call a doctor? Kyungsoo?”

“FINE!” Jongin roared. “Call Jinsil! Three! Four! Nine! Sev-”

“I can’t memorize that! I just woke up from a ing coma, my memory is pulp!”

“Okay! Okay, slower! Threeee! Fooouuur! Niiii-”

“Kyuuuuungsoooooo…”

“It’s not working!” Kyungsoo cried. “You have to do something! Make me remember!” As the image of Jongin started to fade, his anxiety started getting the better of him.

He was losing touch, right when he needed it the most.

The sea evaporated, the constellations faded away, and Kyungsoo felt himself being surrounded with nothing.

He wasn’t on the dune anymore, but he wasn’t back in his hospital room either. He was lost.

Lost without Jongin by his side.

“Please!” he cried as loudly as he could. “Don’t leave me! No!” His voice broke, making it hard for him to stabilize his calling. “PLEASE!”

As if on cue, Jongin sharply reappeared in his vision, but this time he was only a few inches away. Kyungsoo could feel his heart beating in his throat, thrice as fast as a normal heart would.

“Don’t think, just go with this,” Jongin suddenly commanded in a deep, slightly intimidating voice.

He pulled Kyungsoo’s grey T-shirt off in one swift motion and turned him around.

Kyungsoo couldn’t react fast enough. He froze as he felt Jongin’s toned arm hooking around him from over his left shoulder. The sea winds were chilly, but the sensation of Jongin’s warm breath in his neck made Kyungsoo oblivious to the weather conditions.

“Come on now, wake up…”

“Block it out, hyung.” Jongin possessively pulled Kyungsoo closer against him. “Right now, it’s only you and me,” he whispered, “no one else.”

Chills surged through Kyungsoo’s body as he suddenly felt two of Jongin’s fingers on the right side of his back.

“Call Jinsil,” Jongin ordered, his lips subtly in contact with Kyungsoo’s pale neck.

“Three…” Jongin began, carefully tracing the number on Kyungsoo’s back.

“Four… Nine…”

Kyungsoo felt his knees weaken as Jongin caressed his neck with his low whispers.

“Seven…”

As the mysterious boy behind him worked his way through all of the digits, Kyungsoo took an oath with himself.

“One…”

Regardless of whatever might happen to him in the future, he would never allow himself to forget this exact moment.

“Six… Seven…”

The moment he realized that maybe, just maybe, he had something to live for after all.

“… Two…”

Then, the strong fragrance of dark coffee took over.

When Kyungsoo blinked, he was back in his new hospital room.

Nurse Kwon was holding a paper cup with a dark brown beverage under his nose. She offered him a bright smile. “Good morning! I knew that’d wake you right up! Always works for me.”

The woman placed the cup on the food tray beside Kyungsoo’s bed, next to a plain looking breakfast. “Rise and shine, sleepyhead! Has anyone ever told you that you sleep with your eyes open? Interesting, right?”

Kyungsoo nodded politely, like he always did.

“Anyway. I hope you’re feeling a bit better today. I’ll leave you with your meal for now; eat up! You will need some energy today… rumour has it Mr. Kim is coming back from Singapore today. Don’t worry though. All will be well. Call me if you need anything.”

Kyungsoo mouthed a silent thank you. Satisfied, the nurse winked, before trotting out of the room.

Kyungsoo whimpered. Of course, the moment he got back to the real world, bad stuff had to happen to him. He was going to be scolded today, punished, humiliated, and he didn’t want that. He really didn’t want to speak to Mr. Kim. Not now, not ever.

He reached over to pick up the phone by his bedside, and immediately started pressing the digits. His hands were trembling, so he had to start over a few times, but he had the numbers memorized.

He’d never forget them.

After waiting for what felt like an hour, a young woman with a husky voice picked up at the other end.

“Well hello, Jongin.”

Kyungsoo opened his mouth, but said nothing.

“This is Jongin, right? Geonggang, room C121… Yep, definitely you. What’s up?”

Pearls of sweat formed on Kyungsoo’s forehead.

“You’re awfully quiet today, aren’t you? I guess we’re playing games then…” The woman chuckled. “As long as we keep it down… my girlfriend’s in the other room, you kno-”

“Thi-” Kyunsoo coughed, clearing his throat. “This is… Kyungsoo.”

The line stayed silent for a while.

“…Give me thirty minutes.”

A/N:

Whee~ it's finally here! I hope you all liked this chapter, it's a bit short but I'm pretty happy with it ^^

I know my titles are a little vague - Asperatus clouds are actually one of my favourites (SO PRETTY), since they look really stormy but are actually very calm. They're really mysterious and appear unexpectedly. This chapter in particular is very dear to me, hence the title. Also a small reference to chapter two~

For the umpteenth time, thank you all for your interest and your wonderful comments, I love you! I'll update as soon as I can!

... I talk too much in my author's notes.

♥ pominizz ♥

 ps. I've been adding purple links to music throughout, since I thought it'd perhaps help portray the mood better... but now I'm wondering whether they're distracting or not?