“You look like death.”

“Thanks for noticing.” Yunho replied without looking up. He sorted files on his desk and settled down for a new day in hell. He was surprised Jessica was talking to him, seeing as he and her best friend were involved in the latest love affair storm around the office.

“Sorry about… you know.”

All activity in his little nest stopped. Hesitantly, he turned round to look at the young lady innocently smiling at him. Are you new here?

“...What they’re like.”

Aghast, he simply stared at her blankly, only acknowledgement he was on the same planet in the form of a nod.

“Anything gets their imagination going, really…”

Yunho must have started to weird her out with the astonished, unblinking eye contact. So, she awkwardly dismissed herself and went on her way.

After a few more seconds of staring into space, he slowly turned back to his desk and continued what he was doing in a daze. Well, that was by far the least expected thing to happen in the office. He wondered if he was dreaming.

Alas, his luck was not to last long. Unlike himself, Tiffany had no arduous feud with the human resources guy, and she was bent on causing him misery.

These people ran a ruthless autocracy- one with the slogan ‘join forces to stamp on employee Jung’.

-----

Yunho took his usual route home, dragging his feet and wondering what possessed him to take a briefcase of work home. Perhaps he was being overly optimistic, because of the dramatic turn of events (someone being half civil at work today). Whatever it was, there was definitely something completely off. Something was out of balance, and it was upsetting his chi.

Had Jiyong been there, he would have accused Yunho of having a complete disregard for his life, because he walked right on out into the road without checking to see if he could actually cross. Needless to say, a pair of headlights and a screech forced life to blink back behind his eyes as was narrowly missed by the swearing driver. Startled, he hurried out of the way, heart rate considerably faster and memories flashing before him.

Narrowly avoiding death (what he considered an occupational hazard anyway), he continued his journey home with his eyes slightly beyond his shoes for once, incase he tripped and knocked himself out on a park bench or something. God forbid he ever walked into another forsaken lamp post.

-----

Sometimes Yunho just needed some time to think.

In amongst all the work, the arguments at home, the deadlines, all the things he had to make work when he didn’t even understand how they worked- and let’s not forget all the in between- Yunho needed time to think. Time to remember that that low growl and pain in his gut was in fact hunger telling him he should go eat some food; after all, it had been trying to tell him for three days now, but his brain just wasn’t listening. Time to walk away from both the workload and the consoles which distracted him from the growing pile of nonsensical drivel on his desk. Time to leave behind the stress, the frustration, and the guilt of setting it aside despite not feeling smart enough to do it anyway.

The park was the perfect place at night to clear his mind, he’d found; rather than on the cold tiles of the bathroom floor with a razor in his hand, like before. Serene in the pale blue shine of night, a brisk walk in the witching hours would pace away his problems with every scrunch of the heel in gravel footpaths.

Hands shoved in his pockets to ward off the bite in the chill, Yunho rolled soft fabric between his fingers as he dwelled on nothing in particular for once. He was really starting to feel as if, in this sanctuary, he could be ordinary for a while; no medication, no hassle, no problems.

Passing a rather inviting park bench just in front of a long row of looming trees, Yunho went ahead and plopped happily into the centre of the plywood and iron construct. Beyond him was a tall, sighing tree, gnarled with time, an air of wisdom about its drooping boughs. He vaguely remembered his mother telling him about all the different kinds of trees and flowers as a child, before things changed, distant memories of the birds and wildlife which lived with them. This tree was majestic and yet bowing humbly before him. Even in the ghostly moonlight, the demure pink blossom blushed, glimmering with dew. There was something haunting about the weeping horse chestnut.

After a little time, Yunho rose from his seat. Something drew him closer to the tree, until it’s shadow was cast at his feet.

Yunho frowned. The shadow didn’t reflect what he was expecting. In fact, it was rather drastically different. Curiosity overtook, not another thought in his mind but puzzling over what he was seeing with his very eyes.

It rather looked like a tall, intricate gate was painted into the ground by the night. He didn’t understand. Well, how could it? There was no way it was a gate. But then, he spotted very clearly a handle at the centre, one which he found himself pacing towards, absolutely fixated.

He reached out, the shadow of his hand clear on the grass. He stretched out his fingers, kept reaching, reaching, until his shadow hovered over the gate handle; and as ridiculous as it seemed in the back of his mind, he closed his fist around nothing at all. But then… he felt something.

There was something in his hand.

He pulled whatever it was towards him. And, lo and behold, he opened the gate.

His world began to spin around him. His head was bound under a sudden, pressing weight, eyes rolling backwards as his confused body tried to counteract the oppressive force. At once, he felt like his feet hit the ground after falling even though he never moved an inch. He felt dizzy and disoriented, but as he looked around everything appeared normal. The shadows were a mere reflection of the weathered tree.

And yet, still something irked him. After recovering his bearings a little, he made great effort to turn around. There was a person standing there, pied in a half black, half white suit, with checkered hair and a rather dapper top hat. His hair was drawn into a stump of a ponytail and he had on his person a fantastic cane. Yunho had never seen something quite as comical, but in the moment, there was nothing out of the ordinary about it, almost as if he’d come to accept he was dreaming on the plywood park bench.

The stranger said nothing. Instead they looked at each other with sharp, raven black eyes. While Yunho knew this person was a complete stranger, in those moments he felt as if they played an important part of his life, deja vu sweeping over him. It made his spine tingle.

The stranger reached out with glossy, unblemished hands. There were no lines or creases. A thin, silver chain hung from their grasp, winking in an ethereal white light which seemed to emit from the being ever so softly. The two of them, locked in an eye contact fathomless as the ocean, communicated without words. Yunho held out a waiting hand, and the being dropped the shining object snugly into his palm, taking his hand in theirs and closing his fingers over the smooth bulb. He felt as the being had just entrusted him with far more than this item alone. There was a plea and a promise in their eyes, something swirling in those mysterious orbs.

The mystical being with checkered hair disappeared before his eyes.

Not the weirdest thing to happen today, he concluded.