I wrote this using google docs, so the formatting is kind of weird, but idk how to fix it. the chap I had here before is now in the foreword, and this is kind of like a 2nd prologue? because it's too short to be an actual chapter haha

Anyway, I'm back~~ Hopefully you all still want to read this sequel, even though it's been such a long time and my writing style has kind of changed (yet again) ^_^

    Sunday.

    Afternoon.

    Finally.

    Sehun navigated through the crowded town square, eyes focused on the ground as he tried to make his way to the outskirts of town, where the landfill was. Where his friends were.

    He looked forward to these weekly hangouts, but everything was different now. It had always been him, Jongin and then Baekhyun, but it was as if the latter two had gone on, moved on, and left him in the dust. He felt so removed from the lives of the Entertainers and their respective Cleaners. Sehun was just a Worker, who spent his days doing random that no one else wanted to do.

    He wasn’t bitter though. Not really. After everything that had happened, he preferred to stay in the background, safe and unassuming. Like all the other Numbered, he probably accepted fate too easily, but there was no place for dreams.

    And also, there was absolutely no space in this damn square.

    Someone stepped on his foot. Sehun’s head snapped up, trying to see who it was, but all that greeted him was the faceless mass of the Numbered trying to go back to their dorms for rest. Muttering curses, he grit his teeth and pushed past the last bit of bodies.

    Finally on an empty and unpaved road, Sehun heaved a sigh. He hated all those people, suffocating him and cutting him off from refuge. It reminded him of-

    “Sehun?”

    That voice.

    He froze mid-step. There were only four people- four voices- who still called him by his name, and that was not one of them.

    “Sehun!”

    This voice, closer now.

    He heard footsteps approaching and he turned slowly.

    And the moment he saw the owner of that voice, the moment he saw those sparkling eyes (how could they still shine after all these years?), Sehun regretted it and stared down at the ground.

    “It really is you!” the Elite exclaimed. “Sehun-”

    “Sir,” the Numbered interrupted. Doing so broke so many rules, but not ending the conversation now would be even worse. “You’ve mistaken me for someone else,” he said to his sandals- so worn out, so sad, compared to the other’s polished leather shoes.

    “Sehun,” the not-stranger repeated, pleading but adamant, stubborn as always. “I know it’s been years, but I know it’s you. I’d be able to recognize you anywhere, any time. And I really can’t believe I could run into you after all this time. It must be fate . . .”

    The man’s voice faded, Sehun’s hearing taken over by a thundering sound.  He couldn’t believe it either. He had forgotten those memories long ago, buried somewhere under piles of dust.

“I have somewhere to be,” he finally managed. And without waiting for a reply, Sehun lowered his head even more and turned back around, facing the direction he was supposed to. They were meant to go separate ways, down opposite roads. That was fate.

“Are you going to the landfill?” he heard as he walked away, the voice growing more and more distant. “But that’s our place!”

Our place, Sehun thought, heart clenching. They had no place for each other in their lives, no place other than in the past, and not even then.

See, Kyungsoo was named by Jongin, Chanyeol was named by Baekhyun, and Baekhyun named himself. But Jongin and Sehun?

They were named by someone with sparkling eyes and a name that meant “dawn.”