If you close your eyes all you see is darkness.
An eternal sea of black vastness, so close and yet endlessly far away at the same time.
It is assumed that there is simply nothing. But has it ever crossed your mind that you could be merely blinded by darkness?
That the simple absence of light makes you miss out on whatever might be there?
Not everyone was blind.
Some people were able to see.

Whenever he closed his eyes, he would see. There was the world he knew, yes. But as soon as he closed his eyes, he saw the other reality.
Slowly he sat up and looked at the plain room. Then he closed his eyes.
The plain walls were now lost behind countless green roots. Luscious green plants that covered the walls and crawled down to the floor to hide the earth beneath. There were also a few tangled around him, but they did not show any sign of resistance as he carefully freed himself.
When his bare feet touched the earth, the moistness made it stick to his skin immediately. The air also seemed so much more humid. On huge colorful flower petals were droplets of water tinkling mysteriously in dim light. Where did the light come from? Suddenly a static-like sound pierced hit his ears violently. With a yelp did he cover his ears. But it was then that he heard it.
A piano.
The notes were high-pitched and the melody seemed distorted and jumpy.
It was calling out to him. And he knew who it was.
Slowly he padded through the moist earth, carefully avoiding getting tangled in the long roots. When he lifted a veil of plants and stepped behind it, he was greeted with a long, lone corridor. The earth slowly vanished to reveal a polished stone floor. However, various puddles of water were blinking in the semi-darkness. While he wandered along, his feet making splashing sounds against the watery surface, his gaze wandered along the walls.
Close to the ceiling were keyholes. Hundreds of them, all in different shapes and all by far out of reach. The water was slowly flowing out of them, staining the copper it touched. The water was flowing slowly, but steadily. And with every step he took, he could feel the puddles getting deeper, until they reached up to his ankles.
At the end of the corridor, he was met with a blank wall.
But there it was, the tinkling piano notes, along with the biting static. He needed to proceed.
So he opened his eyes.
The plain corridor was back, with an equally plain glass-door in front of him. He opened it with numb fingers and behind it was an open area with people casually lingering around. They didn't seem to take notice of him, but he was well-aware of the deceptive nature that things had. He closed his eyes.
And the people were all standing there, blankly staring at him. They did not move, and he knew they wouldn't. Still, it was eery to feel the piercing looks they gave him as they stood there, frozen. For a moment, he took in the scenery of a pale blue sky and the millions of tiny pieces of colorful broken candy flooding the floor.
They kept pricking his feet as he stepped on them. But the piano kept playing in the distance and he was sure it was louder than before. The people did not chase him. They merely looked to the spot he had ben standing, rooted into the sparkling ground.
He was on the right track. Almost could he hear his voice already.
"Soo! Listen to this, I wrote a new song. Will you sing to it?"
Even here, the air was moist and it made the candy all sticky. There were huge icebergs  rising out of the rainbow-colored sea he was stepping through. They seemed to be made from crystals, but as they were melting, they only added to the sticky ground.
The number of them rose and soon his path was blocked by huge blocks of half-transparent crystal. Maybe he should open his eyes to search for another way.
"Sing to it, please!"
But weren't his eyes open already? He closed them.
And the surroundings shifted into a huge hall. Wherever his gaze traveled, it was met with clock faces. Clock faces on the wall and on the stone pillars. There were old-fashioned ones with romanian numbers and modern ones. What they all had in common, though, was a lack of clock hands.
They littered the floor as well, but as he stepped on them, their surface smeared and the numbers became unreadable. When he reached the only door at the end of the hall his feet were covered in black tint, leaving dirty footprints on the floor.
He looked at the rather small door made of heavy granit. With a deep breath, he opened the door and was met with... A blank stone wall.
"Thanks! You're the best brother in the world!"
Calmly, he took a step backwards.
And closed his eyes.
There was a half-transparent veil now. As soon as his fingers touched the flowing fabric, however, a cracking sound behind him was heard.
He whirled around to see a boy standing there. He, too, was staring at him. His figure was lanky and everything from his curly hair to his big eyes was entirely unfamiliar.
Unlike all the other persons, though, he suddenly moved as he calmly shook his head in a negating manner.
It scared him. Why did he move? Would he chase him?
Hurriedly, he stepped behind the veil only to be met with more fabric, so close it almost enveloped him completely. There were lights coming from somewhere, painting the veils in mysterious shades of blue and warm orange.
The next step made a rustling sound and he noticed the floor was covered in paper flowers. A sea of intricately folded flowers. Only then did he realize, that they were dry. Even the air had lost its' suffocating humidity and the dust was dancing before his eyes in the blue light. Slightly at a loss, he looked around.
"You sing so well! Let's become singers, when we grow up, okay?"
Carefully, he lifted another veil to advance, noisily crumpling the paper beneath him.
"I'll practice a lot, promise!"
He flinched as he was suddenly met with the tall boy from before behind another piece of fabric. Again, he silently shook his head, never breaking their gaze. His look did not seem hostile. Trembling, he let go of the fabric and turned in another direction, his breathing turning heavier.
The piano sound was getting louder and louder, and so did the static noise. His head began to ache.
With every step, his feet sank deeper into the ground, deeper into the masses of paper flowers. Soon they were reaching half-way up to his knee.
And finally, the fabric veils ended.
There, only a few feet away in the sea of paper, stood the piano. And a small, lithe boy was sitting on the far too high stool, his feet dangling in the air as his pale fingers were skillfully flying over the keys.
Strange, he thought. Baekkie used to play more beautiful, didn't he?
He waded another step towards him, when he saw the lanky figure again, looming next to the piano. And again he shook his head.
He was scared. But his brother was right there. Only a few more steps.
Only a few...
A light suddenly glowed in the side of his vision. It was that damned boy again, holding something up. And as he firmly held his gaze and let go of the object, he realized it was a burning match. With widened eyes he saw the paper flowers catching fire one by one.
The flames across the sea of paper, devouring it at a frightening speed. Still, he was rooted to the spot, torn between fleeing into safety and running towards the piano, where the sounds became more and more distorted.
As he hesitated, the first flames began to nip at his legs, shooting an unbearable pain through him that caused him to stumble backwards and fall.
The singeing paper was clouding his vision, burning in his eyes, and so...

He opened his eyes.

And gasped for fresh air. He was lying on the ground.
"Oh my God, finally I got you! Did you want to kill yourself?!", an exhasperated voice was coming from above him. He heavily blinked against the soaring sun as a shadow blocked it.
"What were you thinking, wandering around this area? There's nothing but dilapidated buildings and train tracks! You almost gave me a heartattack, wandering around the tracks like that!"
Big hands pulled him into a sitting position and wrinkled his dirty hospital gown even further.
"Gosh, you're not even wearing shoes, look at your feet... Take mine for now, I don't know whether I can carry you all the way."
Kyungsoo looked down at his feet. They were covered in cuts and bruises with blood leaving wet trails. And at the sight of the liquid dripping onto the dusty ground below, he remembered. Remembered the tight space, the cold and the dim colours. Mossy plants and clothes clinging onto his wet skin. Wet from the water that was flowing through every crack. Water that was closing in.
"B-baekhyun-", he stammered, his voice raspy and his lungs burning at the effort.
"Shh, you're terribly cold...", the deep voice murmured as he rubbed his arms in an attempt to warm them.
"My b-brother... He's... He's-"
His voice cracked as he stared into space with wide eyes.
The stranger pulled him into a hug, his skin warm and dry against his sweaty one.
One hand gently tangled into his messy black locks while the other one steadied him as another wave of trembles overcame his petite body.
And finally he began to cry.

The world you could see and the one you could see were fundamentally different.
Like an opposing angle to the same thing, a perfect negative.
Yet, there was this boy that remained unchanged, unwavering.
A flaw in the negative.
And this boy became the reason Kyungsoo didn't grow afraid to close his eyes.

*picture credits go to bureauofbetterment.com - it's an amazingly designed fog room~!*
Yeah. This was kind of weird? I keep experimenting!
Maybe, if you mentally go back the symbolism makes more sense.
Feel free to ask questions, though, if there's something unclear!
In case you're interested, I've pictured the piano to sound like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_icwOOWINg
This woman will be the death of me(my characters if she keeps inspiring me)!

Anyways, thank you very much for reading this~
I'll now return to my fluffy chaptered fic that's been calling out for me.
Any kind of feedback is well-appreciated ♥

Love,
Sugar-and-Salt ♥