Prologue "House of Fire"   

  "After rall, everybody has at least lost one love, and they live on." ~ Bangtan Boys 'Let Me Know'   

Time stopped. He couldn’t feel himself breathing nor moving, he could only feel blood rushing through his body leaving a trail of warmness. He didn’t feel the world revolving as he stood there without visible life in him, his heart was simply racing, and that’s why he knew he was alive. The boy was so breathtaking.

He couldn’t stop staring. The tall boy stood there, his deep brown locks saturated in rain drops that crashed on the floor. His chiseled face was damped with water as the sky’s tears have been running down his visage. He pulled his hoodie down and ran his pale hand through his damp hair.

He felt his heart jump as he saw the boy ruffling his hair, trying to drain the water from his rich locks. He looked up and immediately, the latter found himself turning red. He’s been staring at the tall boy since he picked him out of the crowd that was unloaded from the bus across the street.

He felt this sense of warmness he’s only gotten from Mijoo sunbae, the pretties girl in his school. But no guy has ever made him feel like the world stopped. He felt a force wrapping its arms around him, enveloping him in a warm embrace. He felt like there was only good in the world, as if every little negative or dark force that is working in this world is gone.

“Are you Jungkook-ssi?” His voice was a pure melody that filed his body with security. He felt his head jolt out of the daze as he saw the boy was talking to him.

“Yeah, are you the new employee?” He asked, feeling his skin burning red as the other boy approached him. His walk was charismatic and so chic, Jungkook felt like the entire world was a blur and he only saw the boy.

“Yeah, I’m Seok Jin.” He spoke, his lips tugging at a beautiful smile that was making Jungkook’s breath hitch. “I know it might be awkward training me because I’m older than you but I hope you’re comfortable with me. I want to learn and adjust as fast as I can.” The older boy took a seat in front of Jungkook, his aura radiating.

He was drenched in rain water, the sky was grey and gloomy and looking down upon the world. The dark sky gave the world a sense of sadness, anger and darkness. It gave the human mind a lack of motivation and made smiles hard to find. But as Jungkook stared at the older boy, he saw nothing but felicity. He radiated this feeling of good and brightness, he saw him and saw a bright world.

That’s what Jungkook felt at the moment. His skin was hot and burning, the heat radiating from the wild flames were trying to reach out and eat him but it couldn’t. Jin was there, Jin was carrying him, and like how Jin repelled that gloom and sadness the first day he meet him, Jin repelled this sense of urgency and fright from Jungkook.

The smoke was raising, his lungs tickled and were being suffocated. Jungkook felt like there was a plastic bag over his nose and mouth, the attempt of breathing was meet by pain and shock from not being able to consume fresh air. His eyes were drowsy and he was feeling his own limbs getting heavier and heavier. The wound in his stomach was throbbing but for some reason, looking at Jin made him forget the pain that was surging through his body.

“We’re almost out, hang in there Kookie.” Jin’s voice still warmed his heart, it’s been only two years and that feeling never faded away. He knew from the past time that Jin wasn’t normal, there was something peculiar in the way he talked and the way he moved.

He felt a tear roll down his eyes, the burning smoke was causing tears to cascade over his cheeks as he remembered Jin declaring Jungkook’s claim that the older boy had great strength. Jungkook swore no twenty-one year old boy could move an entire oven from one side of the room to the other in a minute. Jin just laughed it out saying that it’s possible but Jungkook knew it wasn’t. Or when Jin was running late for his singing performence at a cafe, he swore Jin was miles away and arrived in five minutes. Jin shrugged and said that the taxies are simply that fast with the right amount of money.

Even now, Jin should have been affected by the smoke. He felt weak and he knew he was dying due to the fire but Jin was carrying him. He wasn’t breaking a sweat and his breathing as normal, as if the smoke or the burning heat wasn’t deteriorating his stamina. Jungkook knew from the moment he saw Jin, that he wasn’t normal, he was from out of this world.

He felt his skin burning as a raw scream was released from his throat at the pure pain of something surging in to his skin. It felt like something was eating at his arm, biting through his flesh and releasing a burning and acid like venom into him.

“I’m sorry you’ll have to be a mortal ph-" His words faded. He opened his eyes and saw a blurry sky, a sky so blue and so clear that he wanted to cry. Jin’s face was the last thing he saw, for the first time in the two years of being best friends with Jin, Jungkook saw something he’s never seen. He saw pain in Jin’s rich brown eyes. Then he slowly drifted into the first nightmare of many to come, the first nightmare of that maze, the only nightmare he’s had since the day he lost Jin in that fire.

He was turning mad, the maze was making him go insane. Every turn he made lead to a dead end, he was sick of seeing green moss. The squishing sound it made every single time he stepped in the patches were disturbing and irritating.

He didn't know where he was or who put him there, he just knew he wanted to get out. There was a slithering nearby, as if a snake was already hunting for him down. His knees hurt, blood trickled out of the open wound on his rasped knee, he’s fallen twice already.

His face was shimmering with sweat and mud and all he could see was the glowing green vines under the moonlight. There was no sign of the sun and everything was beginning to cool off like a winter morning. His skin was turning hard and cold as his knuckles were white, he felt like he had just grabbed a ball of snow with his bare hands. His heart fell when he heard a rock moving nearby and the slimy slithering sound continued.

"No more cold. Melt the ice." He heard the whisper and saw a shadow jumping on him. He screeched as pain shot from his arm and before he knew it, he was back into the real world. The world without Jin.