The glass fell from my fingers as I stared at the man across the street. Shards scattered everywhere, clattering with a noise that couldn't reach my ears properly. There were gasps of shock as I stood there, frozen, and accusing shouts from my manager. All the same, however, none of it mattered. Not now, not anymore.

Tearing my sight involuntarily from the man who had attracted my interest, my eyes flitted around the patio area. There were still numbers everywhere. Every person I laid eyes on displayed their numbers like tattoos. I hadn't lost sight of the numbers, so why did that man not have any?

"Wait!" I called to him as the real world came rushing to me.

The sound of the glass shattering smashed into my eardrums finally mixed with the noises of the people and things around me. My mind couldn't make any sense of the sounds as I hopped the fence of patio and ran into traffic. My manager screamed something about me not bothering to come back tomorrow as horns blared and my voice, calling out to the mystery man, all muddled together into pure chaos.

"Come back!" I called again, reaching out to grab the sleeve of the man with no numbers.

He turned to me with a look of utter confusion and cast his gaze at my death grip on his sleeve. There wasn't so much a look of distaste as there was bewilderment in his eyes as he shifted his gaze towards me.

"Can I help you?" He asked, his severe features unmoving.

"I..." I gasped for air unable to say anything both because of my hard breathing and my lack of something to say. I had run after him in all my craze, but I hadn't a thing to say to him. No one could see the numbers like I could, so how could I explain it to him?

As his puzzled eyes searched mine as if my lost words could be found there, a sudden look of terror filled his features. His eyes left mine to flit through the crowds of people, scanning. When he returned his gaze to me, his palor turned while and he seemed to struggle with swallowing.

"You see them too..." I breathed, barely audible, as I recognized his reaction that mirrored mine.

"Sorry?" He shook his head lightly, regaining a certain steadiness in his demeanor.

"You see the numbers," I repeated. "You see them and you can't see mine."

"I don't know what you're talking about." He shook his head violently this time and started to slowly back away.

"Yes, you do." I nodded in earnest, tightening my grip on his sleeve.

"I really, don't know what you're talking about." His voice was faltering, fearful. His tone didn't match the severity of his facial structure which I would have found almost comical save the context.

"Don't you lie to me. I've lived with this curse all my life and if there's someone else out there like me, I'm not letting them get away!" I hissed, an urgency in my voice. I knew nothing about the numbers or why I could see them, but if there was someone else out there who could see them too it could be a clue.

"Look, I don't want to make a scene." His eyes scanned around us cautiously as he lowered his voice. "I live around here. Come to my apartment and we can talk about this."

"I don't know..." I trailed off, suspicious of him. "I don't think I should be going to a stranger's place alone."

"Your call." He shrugged. "But if you're anything like me, I know you aren't going to just let the fact that we can both see the numbers go."

Balling my fists, I bit my lip. He was right, I couldn't just leave this be. I had no clue who he was, but I couldn't just forget about him and how he was like me. After a moment of contemplation, I nodded and followed after the brunette stranger in silence.

"My name is Sehun," he said casually as he brought tea in from his kitchen.

I nodded in appreciation as he handed me the mug and looked around his bare apartment. There was only the couch we were sitting on, a coffee table, and a television cabinet with a plasma TV above it mounted on the wall. On the right side of the room was the kitchen where Sehun had retreated back to and was now emerging with cookies on a small plate. On the other side of the room were two doors that I guessed led to the bedroom and bathroom.

"Ren." I spoke up for the first time since I had agreed to go with him. I was still on edge, unsure if I could trust him.

"Pretty name." Sehun smiled and finally settled on the other end of the couch.

"Thank you." I nodded before taking a tenative sip of my tea.

From the corner of my eye, I watched as Sehun nibbled at a cookie. He seemed harmless enough, but his sharp facial features were a tad off putting. He seemed so severe despite the fact that he was childishly dipping his cookie in his tea. His brown hair had a reddish tint in the light that looked like the product of dye. The longer I looked, the more absorbed I became. Not only in the fact that this man had no numbers, but the fact that he was so handsome. He seemed almost unreal.

"Help yourself." He gestured to the plate of cookies, bringing me out of my thoughts.

"Yeah," I managed, reaching out and grabbing what looked like shortbread.

"So you said you had it all your life," Sehun said suddenly. "The numbers, I mean."

"Ever since I can remember, I've been able to see them. It wasn't until my mother and father passed that I figured out what they were," I spoke into my mug of tea, hair streaming down like a scarlet waterfall to hide my face.

"Mine started when I was twelve. I was in a car accident and I woke up in the hospital and suddenly everyone had numbers." I looked up to see Sehun staring into his mug of tea as well, a sort of spite in his eyes.

"I thought there was no one else." I shook my head in wonder, staring at him in confusion.

"Maybe it's just the two of us, who knows?" Sehun shrugged, looking up from his tea to me.

"But why? How?" I leaned forward as if expecting Sehun to have the answer. "It shouldn't even be possible!"

"I don't know. I wish I knew. There are stories and legends, but none of them make any sense. Not like this makes sense anyway," he grumbled before downing the rest of his tea and placing the mug on the table.

"Stories?" I asked, my interest piqued.

"When I first saw the numbers, I tried scouring the internet for answers. There are tons of myths about people who could see when people would die," Sehun explained, crossing one leg over the other and leaning back to look at me.

"What kinds of myths?" I asked again.

"Well, there's one about decendants of the Grecian Fates who didn't have strong enough powers to see the past, present, and future, but could see when an individual was going to die. There's another about Lucifer wanting to torment God's humans by giving them the ability to see when people would die so they would suffer knowing when all their loved ones would leave them. There is also one about how reapers started to have offspring with humans and those childeren could see when people would meet their end." Sehun listed off on his fingers before stopping and shrugging. "There are plenty more, but they're all a little crazy."

"A little?" I laughed. "We can see when people will die, that's a lot crazy."

"I guess you're right." Sehun made a face and reached for another cookie before adding, "it's miraculous we found each other."

"I'll say. The chances are one in a billion." I agreed, sipping the rest of my tea.

"Say, do you want to investigate with me?" Sehun proposed suddenly after a moment of complete silence.

"Investigate what?" I raised an eyebrow at him.

"I don't know, try to see if there are others?" He suggested. "I feel so useless just sitting around here and living with this curse. Don't you want to know if there's something we can do about it?"

"No offense, but what do you expect to find?" I asked, incredulous at his eagerness. "Like I said, the chances are one in a billion. No one's going to listen to you, and if they do they'll think you're completely mad. There's no use trying to find out what's wrong with us!"

Sehun was quiet for a moment after I finished speaking. My words had been a little harsh, but I felt as if Sehun was taking this too lightly. The way he proposed investigating almost made it sound like a game. This was no game.

"I understand why you think that way. It's a lot easier to do that, but I can't sit around. It was nice meeting you and if I find something, I'll find a way to contact you," Sehun said quietly and stood up to show me the door. 

"Thanks for the tea," I said softly, feeling a little bit guilty.

"Yeah." He nodded.

"I'm...I'm sorry," I said before he could close the door.

"For what?" He looked at me quizzically.

"That you have to live with it and that you can remember a life without it." I shrugged, eyes fixed on my feet.

"You don't have to be sorry. There has to be a reason, and I'm going to find it out."