Run. Breathe in.

Run. Breathe out.

Keep running. Keep running like your life depends on it, Mira. And don't look back. Not now.

Wearing nothing but leggings, a long sleeve, and sneakers, Mira found herself wondering deeper into the city. She kept pushing herself to keep running even though she began to run out of breathe. 

The cold breeze constantly pierced through her face and body as she ran, leaving her numb from winter's air. It was beginning to get dark and going far would be unwise. Her only transportation was by foot and all she had were her keys and her phone wallet that contained her phone and a little bit of money.

Coming up to a bench, she plopped herself onto it and stretched to regain her breathe before pulling her knees up to her chest.

"It's g-getting c-colder..." She managed to get out of as she hugged her legs to keep her warm.

Luckily the boba place that she usually goes to was within walking distance and contemplated if she should go in there or not. "Huh, I didn't even realize I was so close to the shop," she mumbled to herself. She wasn't sure if Sehun and them had already figured out that she left. If so, there was no doubt that they would contact people to ask if they knew her whereabouts.

 Knowing how protective Kris can be, he would most likely contact Sehun if he knew of her location. Even if he wasn't there and if it was just Suzy or Seulgi, they would probably gossip to Kris, therefore leading to him telling Sehun or her parents.

There was no reason to bring Kris into the situation, too. She couldn't allow that to happen and rapidly shook her head, throwing out the previous ideas. "No, I can't let Kris know... It'll be only minutes before the others back home find out I'm missing."

Ring, ring! Ring, ring!

"That was sooner than I thought." She watched her phone ring continuously but didn't even attempt to answer it. Spread across her screen, it read Kai. She couldn't get herself to face any of them right now so she changed her phone setting to silent.What possessed them to want to tell her tonight? What held them back from telling her sooner? 

How could her friends do that to her? Were they even her friends? If what they all said was true, then they would be considered as her friends ever since they were little. The picture from Kai's room couldn't lie. It had her and all of them in it. The atmosphere from the picture was strangely similar to the dream she recently had. It almost felt like deja vu, but maybe because it really did happen in the past.

Come to think of it, she's been having more of these dreams lately after meeting Kai, Baek, and everyone else. She used to believe that her dreams were simply just regular dreams, but now they seem to be getting more repetitive and continuous. Now she had faces to put with the people in her dreams and even though it made sense, at the same time it didn't. It would also explain that time with Chen at the mall.

"Agh! What the hell does this even mean?!" Mira cursed to herself as she ran her hands furiously through her hair, not minding the minor pain. "How could we have been friends already? I don't even remember meeting them until recently! Ugh!"

Tears started to form in her eyes but she tried her best to prevent herself from crying. In a low whisper, she tried to lay out all the facts and asked herself questions, "So if they knew who I was... Them meeting me, was it on purpose or by coincidence? I feel like they didn't even want to be friends with me, but with the old me. That's not fair... That's not fair."

This time she couldn't hold back her tears and she released all the confusion, anger, and loneliness she was feeling. In a way, she felt used. She felt betrayed. She felt like all of this has been a lie. Especially starting with Kai, she should've knew it was fishy from the start. Him entering her life, him mistakenly calling her 'Mimi'– she trusted him and allowed herself to open up to him.

"That was a stupid and reckless thing to do," Mira continued to curse at herself as she continued to cry into her arms laid across her knees. "I can't believe I was dumb enough to trust him. Them. All of them."

What made it worse was that her parents and Sehun knew all this time. They knew that she had troubles trying to remember the past, but the doctor who treated her before for her depression said to just live normally and to just live in the present. He said that with the traumatic loss of her mother and leaving of her father, it would leave a dark hole in her past and she didn't want that.

She wanted to forget everything and move on. She had to in order to live a better life. But she was still young when all of that happened and you can only imagine how difficult it was to grow up without your real mother and father. Fortunately and highly grateful, Mr. and Mrs. Oh happily took her and Jae in. Without them, she doesn't know where her and her younger brother would be. And Sehun... 

She exhaled deeply at the thought of him. Sehun was her friend and her brother; he helped her even when she didn't acknowledge or admire him when he tried. She pushed him away countless times, but he never gave up and tried his best to make her happy again. That's what made her trust him in the end.

It was only a matter of time before they come searching for her and she already knew that the boba store would be one of the places where they would look. Wiping away her tears, Mira got up and distanced herself from the shop. Thankfully there were a lot of people out tonight, so it was easy for her to blend in and she didn't have to worry about being kidnapped; plus it gave her a chance to warm up from all the body heat.

"Where can I go without getting found?" Mira was basically walking aimlessly around the city with no where to go. "I can't go to the boba shop. Or The Lot. Or the mall. Or the library. I'm so lost..."

Just then an idea popped into her head and so she took out her phone, only to be surprised that everyone was trying to call her. She already received 26 missed calls. Ignoring them, she opened up the internet and looked up parks that were nearby.

There were four different parks not too far from where she was. The nearest one was about twenty minutes away by foot which was the one near her parents' restaurant and the others ranging from ten to fifteen minutes away from each other. If she was going to be alone to gather her thoughts, then why not do a little research while getting some fresh air.

As she held her keys and phone wallet tightly, she ran to the second nearest park in search of any truths or facts. If there was any chance that one of these parks could be the park from her dream, then she was going to take it. What worried her was that she was putting in so much trust into her dreams. 

What if such park didn't exist? She would just be chasing an endless dream that could never be caught. The park she arrived at didn't have a hill next to the playground area or the big tree on top of it. Plus the playground didn't look the same, so she slumped in her disappointment. Still determined to find it, Mira continued her way to the next park.

But still no luck. This one had a hill, but it didn't look the same. Trusting her gut feeling, she ruled out any possibilities that this park could be the one she was looking for and was back on the road to look for the last park. Five minutes passed. Then ten. Then fifteen. Twenty. Twenty-five. And then thirty.

Finding herself at the foot of a hill, she stopped and studied it. It looked like any other hill, but where was the playground? She questioned herself and wondered if there was even a playground at this park.

There were multiple trees on the hill, but she remembered there being distinctively only one tree on the top of the hill. Again, there she was putting too much trust into her dreams. Determined, yet tired, she power-walked up the hill and when she reached the top, she looked down to observe the other side. 

To her surprise, there was a playground.

It looked a little more shabby and rusty than the one in her dream, but it still looked a lot alike. But because of the similarities, it frightened Mira and at the same time, amused her. To think that such place that she saw in her dream could exist and be in front of her right now was eye-opening.

"No way," she spoke lowly as she started to head down the hill to observe the playground. There was little light coming from the rising moon and it seemed like it was only her who was at the park. Her feet sunk into the sand as she walked towards the swings.

Grasping onto the chains, she balanced herself on the swing, leaned back, then let herself go as she swung back and forth. Doing so helped relax her mind and body; she was able to let go of all of the stress and worries for the time being. 

She allowed herself to get caught in a fantasy as she closed her eyes and let the winter air engulf her into its endless abyss. The rustling of leaves as the wind blew past them gave off a natural and serene atmosphere, something Mira definitely longed for.

Opening her tear-filled eyes, she stopped herself from swinging to look up into the stars.

"Mom... I don't know what to do. Please help me figure all of this out. I feel like all of this is a big mistake. I'm not sure who to believe–" Mira tried not to cry, but got choked up a few times, "– them or my judgment."

As if her mother's spirit was responding, a light breeze washed over Mira which gave her chills and minor goose bumps.

Mira smiled to herself while she thought about the possible chance of her mother actually listening and responding to her problems, something she was unable to experience with her mother after her death.

"Mom, please help... I feel so lost right now. I like all of them, I really do. I haven't felt so cared for and protected in so long. But after tonight... I don't know what to expect or think. I wish I could just disappear for awhile. Maybe go on a vacation with you," Mira continued to talk and smiled to herself at the thought of her and her mom going on a vacation together. Just then, a sightly stronger breeze rushed over her.

Mira's hair was flying all of the place and the gust of wind sent shivers down her body, so in response she hugged herself and rubbed her arms to warm herself up. A few seconds passed before the wind died down.

Snap!

Mira immediately turned around and searched for the creator of the noise, but didn't see anything but darkness.

Snap!

She started to freak out and didn't have any item that could act out as a weapon. Paranoid, she stood up and turned around so her back was facing the playground. As she slowly backed up closer to the playground, she kept her eyes on the trees and bushes to snipe out any person or animal who made the noise. Maybe I'm overreacting... She thought, but still didn't let her guard down.

"Hey."

In a quickness, Mira turned around and noticed a dark figure standing on the other side of the playground. Oh god, what have I gotten myself into?! Mira started to panic and was ready to attack the person if they end up coming at her.

"Don't even think about doing anything because I can easily call the police and scream my lungs out so people–"

"Don't! I mean, I'm not here to do anything to you," a smooth velvet-like voice replied urgently.

Mira wasn't going to let her guard down, "Yeah, says you! Now why don't you just back up and walk away?" She threatened the stranger but he took a step closer, which alarmed her.

"HEY! DON'T. MOVE!"

"I said I'm not going to do anything! Trust me!" The tone sounded a lot more urgent and concerned. Psh, trust? What's trust? Anyway, why should I trust you? A stranger.

Trust. Funny how they even bring that up since she's having a dilemma that involves trust. "You can't fool me," Mira replied coldly and unlocked her phone to click her camera app. She swiped her finger across the screen to right to bring up the video action, then pressed the lighting option in the corner, and began recording which suddenly made a flash go off.

"Ahh!" The stranger covered their eyes from the sudden light flashing in their direction.

"Don't do anything fishy! I'm recording you!" Another threat left Mira's mouth as she directed her phone towards the person and began walking away from the playground.

The person put their hands down but still squinted from the blinding light as the person grabbed a pair of sunglasses and placed it on their face. As soon as they put the glasses on, something caught Mira's attention. "Huh?"

"Wait... I think... I-I think I know you. Kind of," Mira spoke in a low and quiet tone. She looked closely once more. "Yeah! I know you! You're that one guy I bumped into that one day in front of my parents' shop!" She gasped and turned off her camera which shut off the light.

The guy tilted his head and tried to regain his memories. "Dancing mascot?! Is really that you?!" The two walked up to each other and stared in silence before breaking out into laughter.

"Oh my god, are you really the dancing mascot?" Mira smiled and re-enacted the dance to the guy, making him laugh uncontrollably. "Oh yeah, it's definitely you hahaha! Wow, you're a lot cuter in person!"

Hearing this made Mira smile and blush. She didn't know where this overwhelming confidence and courage to speak up came from, but it was definitely a good thing to keep her distracted. The Mira a couple of hours ago would have never done what she was initiating now. "Funny how we meet again. In a weird way."

"Seriously. Wow, I can't believe it's really you. You almost gave me a heart attack! I was freaking out and was so scared that you were going to call the cops!" He chuckled and Mira just giggled as she apologized and turned off the camera app. Forgetting what happened and wanting to move on, they both sat on a step of the playground.

"So how come a beautiful maiden like you are out at a park alone at a time like this?" Asked the guy. Mira's smile faltered a bit and brushed some hair out of her face, "Just problems at home."

"Ahh, I see..."

"How about you? Why are you out here?" she asked curiously, wondering if this was out of pure coincidence or...

"Just needed some fresh air. I'm actually on a 'date' with my grandparents," he chuckled. "I haven't seen them in so long and I'm back in town so they wanted to take me out to eat, but they ended up going to the karaoke bar afterwards. I just told them I would go out and shop for a little in the meantime."

Mira giggled softly, "Wow, your grandparents sound fun. Back in town?"

"Well, a little too fun for my taste," he joked around. "Yeah, I lived in America for awhile with my relatives because I attended school there for awhile. My dad is in the navy, so we moved around a lot." Mira nodded and was actually surprised to hear about some of his life. His sounded a lot more simpler than hers.

"Wait, so you work at that shop you were promoting, right?"

"Yeah, it's my parents' restaurant. Well, actually–" Mira hesitated and wondered if she should say it was actually Sehun's parents, but that would too long time to explain. "– I mean, yes. Why?"

"My friend told me something about the owners of a restaurant and their family being close to his family's bubble tea shop. Maybe you know him?"

"Kris??"

"YEAH! Kris! He's my best friend! I was actually meeting up with him that day I bumped into you!" They both had amused and surprised looks on their faces, clearing fascinated how small the world actually was. She remembered seeing Kris moments shortly after the awkward and embarrassing scene with the random guy. So that's why I saw Kris in such a hurry to see his friend...

He closed his eyes tightly and looked like he was thinking about something. "Wait... You must be... Mira. Am I right?"

This time Mira titled her head out of confusion and was curious as to how he knew her name. "Yeah, that's me..."

"Nice to meet you, Mira!" He held out his hand as she slowly reached out to shake it. He smiled his usual charming smile. "My name is Suho. Kim Suho."

"Damn it! She's still not answering!" A frustrated Kai dialed Mira's number again but was met with three rings and a voicemail... Again.

"Calm down, ma