His back fades away fast in the foggy air, disappearing slowly from Kai’s sight. Kai thought he needed to run but the wind wasn’t helping and he had trouble breathing in the cold air. 

All Kai could see was that he turned to an alley. Kai took long strides towards the alley, then as he turned, the person disappeared. He was nowhere to be found. 

Kai groaned inwardly, feeling hopeless already. He crouched down, his arms hugging his knees, before he saw a red string. 

He stood up and followed the trail, as the fog faded away. Kai looked straight ahead, and nearly stumbled back at the realization. Then his head started aching, but he didn’t care.

The filthy alley resembled the maze in his dreams. The red string must’ve been a trail left behind, but Kai questioned who did it. 

Kai followed the red string carefully, taking a few glances to his surroundings. He founds himself in another turn, and the red string continued on. It ended to an old abandoned building. 

Kai felt a twinge of disappointment, until he saw a symbol carved on the wooden door of the building.

The symbol was a triangle with a swirl inside it. Kai had seen it in his dreams, which lightened up his hope of finding answers. 

He opened the door, finding himself in a dimly lit room but surprisingly warm. Kai dared to walk inside of the building, a table right in front of him, as his eyes adjusted to the room. 

He could make out a figure, sitting across the table, probably staring at Kai. 

Kai spoke up first, his voice came out trembling, “Who are you?” The light barely showed the figure, all Kai could make of was that he or she was sitting on a chair. 

The figure shifted closer to the table, arms crossed on the table, “We’ve been expecting you, Kim Jongin.” 

Taken aback, Kai ended up shouting, “Who are you? How do you know my name?” 

“Calm down Kim Jongin, we don’t mean any harm,” another voice answered, who was moving across the room, before a light bulb was switched on.

Kai widened his eyes, it was the tall person he met in the café. He was grinning widely at him, feeling more creeped out. His gaze shifted to the person sitting, and he gasped, his head throbbing much more painfully.

The person sitting grinned, “Perhaps, now you can recognize me.” Kai couldn’t open his other eye, the headache was too much to bare.

“He’s Park Chanyeol,” the person being called waved his hand as a greeting, “and I certainly know you’d recognize me, but regardless, I am Oh Sehun.”

He froze, standing still as he saw the said Oh Sehun standing up and turning on more lights. Kai took in the interior of the building, but there was nothing much.

Only a table and a few chairs, a stove and a sink beside it, his gaze landed upon a shelf stacked with jars and a few books. The jars were filled with flowers and leaves as they seem to be herbs.

Everything seemed old and Kai couldn’t hide his discomfort, when he realized Sehun was staring at him, a small smile on his lips.

He was at the stove, stirring what appeared to be porridge. It heated up fast, puffs of smoke from the contrast of the freezing air and the hot porridge.

The mention of food got his stomach grumbling again, he remembered leaving his drink and food back in the café in following Chanyeol. 

Speaking of Chanyeol, he was sitting on an old sofa who was torn up here and there, pieces of the cotton torn out.

Se