As he well expected, he woke to a dull ache in his shoulder and a cramped up neck where he’d fallen asleep curled up on the park bench. His ears were cold and his nose was blocked up. Slowly and deliberately he turned himself upright, tweaking his nose to make sure it was still there and giving his numb ears a rub. His hands were alright, having been easily retractable into his long coat sleeves, a blessing he counted, because the rest of his body ached for one reason or another. Benches weren’t exactly the most comfortable places to shack up for the night.

A small cling chimed as he sat up, drawing his attention to the floor. He felt his cheeks flush with embarrassment. Someone had put a coin in the rim of his beanie. Did he really look homeless?

Disgruntled, he straightened himself with a little more attitude, grumbling along the way.

Yunho decided, for some reason, that it was a brilliant idea to just go straight back to work rather than go home to change. There, he would have to endure his mother. He’d freshen up in the toilets, he thought. They have mirrors and sinks and stuff there, right?

His logic was acceptable, but it also made him really, really wish he’d at least looked at his reflection in a shop window or something so that he’d realise he was making a grave mistake. He looked absolutely awful. There was a twig stuck in his tie, his hair was more like a nest than ever and the bags under his eyes could probably carry his shopping. He tenderly touched his face as he assessed the damage sleeping rough had done to his appearance. Maday, he thought. Major assistance needed- perhaps today, a paper bag with a smiley face drawn on it would be the best option.

-----

Yunho spent his day avoiding human interaction as much as possible, making sure to keep his head down and ignore unruly neighboring fortresses. Pretty average, really. Nobody wanted to talk to him either, so it worked.

His phone buzzed against the fake wooden desk. Odd, he thought- Jiyong was usually at work at this time, and he couldn’t think of anyone else that would be trying to reach him.

Hey dude are you okay?

It was from Jiyong. He frowned. Nothing had happened. He sent back a quick query and slowly turned back to his work.

You didn’t go home last night.

Well, that was oddly psychic, he thought. No, but it’s fine. How do you even know?

Your mum called me to ask if I’d seen you this morning.

Alarm bells rattled his brain. He was under the distinct impression she couldn’t give two s, she never did before when he went missing for a night or two. The furrow of his frown deepened. Wow. Why?

Apparently someone got his by a car and ended up in hospital in a street near your house.

Yunho’s brain was whirring. He wasn’t entirely sure how to feel about his mother’s concern, seeing as it was so unusual. It was to the point of being unsettling.

“Yunho, are you okay? I was kind of kidding last time but now you’re worrying me- you actually look like death.”

A feminine voice graced his ears and threw him into further perplexity. He turned to see Jessica again, worry etching lines around her eyes. With his face revealed, she leaned closer in inspection. Irked, he slightly leaned away. Aside from the edge of Tiffany’s briefcase, this was the closest one of his coworkers had dared approach him before.

“Really, I-I’m fine…” he replied, although his unused vocal chords betrayed him with the grainy rasp only achieved through not speaking to anyone in at least 12 hours.

A faint ‘my goodness’ was mumbled as she squinted at him, reaching out a hand to his forehead. While he wouldn’t normally accredit himself as being touchy, he swatted her hand away in annoyance. But in the brief contact of their skin Jessica took the sharpest intake of breath and instantly paled. She looked like she’d just seen a ghost. Yunho just gave her a look of ‘what the hell is going on’ but all she managed to do was squeak out “must be seeing things” before hightailing it.

What was it? Was there a bird dropping in his hair that he completely missed?

He decided to shake it off. That is, until Tiffany came along.

“Jessica told me how awful you looked so I thought you might need a pick-me-up.”

The smell of fresh coffee hit his nose before the sentence could properly process, cup placed gently on his desk.

“She’s right, you do look awful. Get more sleep, yeah?”

And then, at lunch time, when he went to the fridge (having forgotten he never actually prepared lunch for today) there was a box labelled ‘Yunho’, not in his handwriting. His graphology was telling him it was from Human Resources guy. Was it guilted? Was it poison?

He was hungry, so he did find out it was actually delicious. He had a thing for cold pizza, and this was unadulterated, refrigerated goodness.

He decided to let the rest of the day go, seeing as so far nothing made sense.

-----

His walk from home was breezy and light, jacket slung over his shoulder as usual. There was something different, though, something he couldn’t pin point (as usual). Maybe it was the full stomach, or the lingering alertness from the coffee.

He’d left work later than usual, and it was dusk, just as the street lamps were coming to life, casting a dull auburn glow on the pavement below. Just as he was coming round to his house, he hesitated to cross the road. He could barely make out the dull outline of the car beyond beaming headlights stopped on the wrong side of the street. Warily, he crossed the road, as the car was stationary and no one else was in sight; his shadow cast slender and black across the road.

Why was it stopped askew like that?

He didn’t stick around to think about it. All he wanted to do was get back to his room, the last safe-house for his sanity.

The lights were on in his home, illuminating the curtains a gentle pink. He noticed them twitch as he made his way towards the stairs up to the front door.

Just as he was standing under the shelter of the frame searching for his keys, the door flung open and he was taken into a smothering embrace. His mother was hugging him. Time stopped around him. He could smell the alcohol, and he wondered if that was why, but his crying mum held him tight, held him close, and finally he broke. His mind screamed out for answers, but what he got in return was hardly what he asked for.

Yunho could hear his mum, but there seemed to be some delay and echo on her already incoherent sobbing. It was then he realised that actually… time had stopped, or at least warped, because nothing around him was moving. He could feel a grip, and not just that of his mother’s arms. The same spinning he’d felt the night before began to rock his world. This time it really did floor him, his grip on consciousness slipping with every distorted spin.

For a while all was black; and when he eventually squinted through blinking eyes, he found himself nestled back on the park bench.