Sunwoo wakes up, breathless from the sudden dream that seemed all to realistic. His heart is beating, pounding against his chest repeatedly, and he's afraid it will burst any second. Sweat trickles down his temple down to his eyes, mixing with the trail of tears that had unexpectedly fallen. It takes him the sight of his roommate to calm his nerves and bring him back to reality, for there is no way that Shinwoo could appear in such a dream like his.

Slowly, but steady, the male begins to regulate his breathing, and soon enough his shaking body is relaxed and regaining it's normality. He would've laughed at this—at the stupidity of crying over a meer dream that involved nothing but him falling down—but something deep inside him knows that it was not just a dream. For there is a legend, a simple children's fantasy that he had learned to love so dearly. A story about roses and garden, a place far from home, where a mystery blooms.

If only he had finished the book some time before school had ended, back in the days where it hadn't disappeared so suddenly, then maybe he could've known what it all meant, for he knew that the dream was much more than what he thought it to be. But he hadn't, therefore everything that he could've known was long gone and nowhere in sight.

At last with a loud exhale, Sunwoo laid down, deciding that it would be best to think about everything in the morning instead of the dark hour. He closed his eyes and rolled onto his side, resting his head on top of his hand in hopes of finding comfort. Soon enough he fell asleep to the sound of rain patting against the window.

—

A constant ringing wakes him up from his sleep, piercing through his ears until he opened up his eyes. He slowly shifted around until he found himself at the edge of the bed, barely managing to sit up because of his drowsy state. He rubbed at his tired eyes and let out a yawn before looking around the blue tinted room. It was rather dark for it to be seven o'clock—considering that it was already summer—and when he got up to look at the window, trying to find an explanation, he noticed the cloudy skies and large puddles, as well as the light rain shower.

If he is not mistaken, he and his friends are supposed to go hiking that morning. Sighing, he reaches for a pair of sweats and a sweater and quickly dresses himself—since his undergarments seem anything but appropriate to walk out in.

It's quiet when he walks our of the room, and the lights are all off. He would've thought that everyone was asleep had it not been for the absence of Shinwoo in the bedroom. He slowly trails down the hallway and looks over at the window, at the raindrops hitting against it. It's breathtakingly beautiful outside, here where they're at.

When he reaches the kitchen he begins to hear the calm chatter of his friends over by the living room's table. They're all talking for once instead of laughing and yelling like they always do. The scene itself reminds him of the day before, and it seems much more alike once Gongchan speaks.

"Hey, he's awake now." He says, getting up from the sofa. "We can finally make noise now."

"Oh, shut it, Chan," Shinwoo grumbles and takes a sip of his coffee. "It's good to keep you quiet for at least half and hour a day."

Jinyoung chuckles from the side, trying his best to hold back his laughter from the eyes of the youngest.

"And you," Shinwoo starts, pointing at Jinyoung. "Don't think you're any better than him." He states in a serious tone.

Jinyoung then clears his throat, also getting up from the couch and walking towards the kitchen, where Gongchan is crouched down in front of the fridge looking for something to eat.

"Want some breakfast, Sunwoo?" He asks, pushing Gongchan to the side. He ends up nodding.

During breakfast, Jinyoung explains to him their change of plans due to the weather, and that they are planning to head down to the nearest town instead just to look around and find something fun to do. He asks him if he wants to join, but he ends up shaking his head 'no' because of the word 'town,' which immediatley brings 'people' to his mind, and then says that he's okay with staying at the cabin on his own for a couple of hours. Gongchan wants to argue against it, but doesn't say much after Shinwoo gives him a glare.

When they finish eating and cleaning up the kitchen a bit, the trio begins to get ready for their little trip. It only takes them a couple of minutes since they had already showered in the morning before Sunwoo had even woken up, and they didn't really put effort into their looks. A while later they're out of the house, and he waves them goodbye from the front door.

The car speeds off, along with the puffs of smoke, and soon everything is silent again. The rain hasn't stopped, and there doesn't seem to be a single dry place anymore outside. It smells of dew and wet soil, and Sunwoo believes that it can't possibly get better than this.

He takes a seat on the doorsteps and places his untied shoes flat against the mud. He closes his eyes just to take a quick moment to appreciate the sound of the rain, the sound of silence. Back in the city, it's impossible to enjoy the sound of nothingness with all the traffic and clusters of people. But here, up in the mountains, everything is so peaceful and quiet.

He leans back, enjoying the sound of the rain falling and the slight coldness of the air. He's about to lose himself in thoughts when he hears it; a voice, calling out to him. It sounds like a whistle, loud and clear.

I'm here.

Sunwoo opens his eyes, startled. He looks around, trying to find the source of the voice, but finds nothing. In any other circumstance he would've thought it to be another one of Gongchan's pranks, but he's not there, no one is. He feels a chill go down his spine, and he shivers at the strangeness of it all.

A few minutes pass, and nothing happened. No voice, no whistles, no other sound besides the rain. It must have been his imagination, he thinks, and he believes it to be true. He trys to relax by breathing in and out in a steady pattern until he's calm enough to close his eyes again.

Come and find me.

He snaps his eyes wide open and quickly gets up in hopes of finding whatever keeps making that noise. His heart is beating loudly against his chest, and with every breath there is a visible puff of white flying and disappearing in the air. He's scared of being outside alone in such a place, but he can't bring himself to go back inside. There's something stopping him, holding him there as if saying 'stay.' 

"What is this?" He mutters, fingers digging into the sleeves of his sweater. Then there's suddenly a harsh wind, pushing him over until he's steps away from the edge of the porch, where he falls to his knees. His hair blows wildly against his face, covering his eyes until all he could see is blonde strands. He closes his eyes again, this time wishing to hear that voice.

He waits and waits while sitting on the floor, the wind still blowing against him. There's nothing but the wind's howling, and the rain hitting against his back.

"Please, please, please," he whispers, covering his ears.

I'll wait for you.

Sunwoo looks up with tears streaming down his face. He hopes and wishes to see something, but all there is is rain falling softly, no more wind. He begins to stand up, not understanding what had happened, and looks around, wanting to know if someone was there. He feels something between against his ear, something smooth and silky, and when he pulls it off his breath hitches.

Between his fingers is a red rose petal so perfectly shaped that is seems unreal. It brings a knot to his stomach, and the blonde almost swears he knows what's going on. But he can't make any rushed decisions now, so he holds the petal tightly in his hand and begins to look around.

He begins to walk towards the trees, through the trail he and his friends were going to go that morning. It's hard for him to walk further in, since the dirt trail had become muddy and slippery after the rainfall. So he stops, just a few steps inside. He stares longingly at the rest of the path. He knows whatever called him is out there, he just knows.

With one last glance, he decides to go back to the cabin and wait for the others to come back home. He'll have to wait until the path's dry to be able to get to the end of the path. Until then, he'll just have to wait.

—

"Sunwoo! We're back!" Jinyoung yells as soon as he busts through the front door. Gongchan follows behind, carrying a couple of bags which seem to be some kind of Japanese takeout.

Sunwoo is in the living room, gripping onto the red petal as he stares out the window. Ever since he had gotten back inside, his mind didn't allow him to concentrate on anything else but the voice, the petals, and the trail. He was so close to just going outside and run over and into the path, but his friends came in just in time to stop him.

"Let's go hiking," he says. Maybe they hadn't really stopped him at all.

"What?" Jinyoung says, suddenly stopping taking off his shoes to look up at him.

"Hiking," he says again. "I want to go hiking."

"It's too wet outside still, Sunwoo. We won't be able to go until tomorrow." Jinyoung says, kicking off his other shoe before walking over to the couch and throwing himself onto it. "Besides, I'm too tired right now."

"You hungry, Woo?" Gongchan asks from the kitchen, taking out the plastic containers from the bags and setting them on the counter. It smells good, so Sunwoo just nods, then glances at Jinyoung who is now purposely ignoring them, before getting up and walking over towards their counter bar.

Shinwoo hands him a pair of wooden chopsticks and slides into the stool beside him. He looks tired, as always, but also a lot more quiet than usual. Well, he's not much of a talker, but something's a bit off. That's when he realizes that Gongchan is two seats away from them, stabbing his food and muttering something under his breath.

There's so much tension, and he doesn't even know why. Jinyoung is choosing to sleep instead of eating, Shinwoo is as quiet as a ever, and Gongchan is silently fuming a couple of seats away from him.

"Did something happen?" He says, placing his chopsticks on the counter. And he regrets asking right after.

Gongchan stops stabbing his food and turns to look at him for a couple of seconds. Then he suddenly gets up, shoves his plate inside the fridge, and walks over to his room. A loud slam his heard a moment later, and Sunwoo flinches.

"," Jinyoung says, sitting up and slamming the table with his fist. Then he walks over to the front door and steps outside, also slamming the door behind him.

Shinwoo is still quiet beside him, poking at his food. Sunwoo stares at his plate. A vacation, they said, to a place they could be without worries. Well that didn't quite turn out.

Shinwoo clears his throat beside him before speaking.

"Uhm... Jinyoung, he—" Shinwoo bites his lip, closing his eyes as if looking for a way to word out what happened. "He was—well, he was just being the flirt he is, as always. And Gongchan—"

"Oh," Sunwoo sighs, knowing where it was going. It was really no secret, that Gongchan was somewhat interested in Jinyoung in more than a friendly way. Although, the younger would never really admit it.

"Yeah," Shinwoo breathes out. "They'll work things out soon, they just need time."

He nods, before getting up and taking his plate to the fridge. So much drama made him lose his appetite.

"Do you still want to go hiking?"

—

After packing some water, snacks, a first aid kit, and some other useful things, and changing into some more appropriate clothes for hiking, they both head out. It's still quite early, so they should have enough time for a short walk around, long enough for the other two to have a talk and sort things out.

Jinyoung is sitting on the porch, blasting music through his earphones, tapping along to the beat with his feet. It's what he usually does when he's angry, annoyed or anxious. Music was the best way for him to relax and be able to think clearly. He's singing too, Sunwoo realizes, quite calmly to himself with his eyes closed.

Shinwoo tilts his head over to the trail he had been looking at earlier, and then points to Jinyoung, as if to say go, I'll catch up to you later. So he begins to walk over there while Shinwoo sets his things on the floor and sits next to Jinyoung. Shinwoo probably wants to talk about a few things before they leave, some tips on how to get Gongchan to calm down and get things right with him, or something related to that.

Sunwoo stops, right in front of the opening to the trail. He looks ahead of him, as far as he can see, trying to find what was calling him earlier. There's nothing, though, nothing but trees, rocks, and a trail. But then he looks down, right at his feet, and he sees a red petal. It's like the one he had earlier.

He's about to pick it up when he sees another one, and then he reaches out for that one, but then there's another one, and another one, and without knowing he finds himself walking deeper inside the trail.

Like magic, they just keep appearing, one after another. There's no rose bushes around, or really any flowers at all, so where are they coming from?

Suddenly they stop appearing, and he looks up, startled. He feels something calling him again, but this time there's no voice, just something pulling him towards the side of the trail. He stops at the edge, and looks further into the forest. The tall, lean trees tower above him, and the long, thick grass stands only meer centimeters in front of him.

"Sunwoo! Wait up!" Shinwoo's voice echoes.

His feet move automatically into the thickness of the forest, and he slides down with the mud on his heels. He stops with a grunt, face against the muddy forest floor. There's a petal in front of him, and again the trail begins.

He pushes himself up and begins to follow the trail, the strange calling luring him further into the forest. Then his vision begins to blur, and the trees surrounding him began to fade into nothing. The petals had disappeared long ago, the only thing leading him being nothing but the memory of that voice.

Suddenly he's surrounded by fog, not being able to see anything, not even his own feet. His breath hitches, and he's suddenly trembling. Then he remembers the book, and everything that he read.

He feels like screaming when a hand reaches out to his own and interlaces their fingers, and suddenly he's calm again. The fog begins to disappear, and when he looks down he sees that pale, soft skin holding onto him. Before he knows it, he's being led further into the forest.

Sunwoo tries to look at the figure in front of him, but all he sees is a blur of colors. He can hear the twigs breaking with each step, and when he looks down he sees how the twigs change into leaves, and suddenly everything was red.

He screams, suddenly pulling his hand back as he falls onto the floor. Everything around him is the color of blood, but it's not wet or sticky, instead it's soft, like a rose petal. His fingers tangle between the ground of silk, and suddenly his vision begins to clear. When he looks up, his eyes widen.

There were rose bushes everywhere, and above him nothing else but tall, gold bars enclosing the area at the top. Everything is just so beautiful, so surreal.

Then he looks up, straight ahead of him.

Sunwoo is sure he's never seen anything more beautiful in his life.

—