The streets of London were cramped. They always were, but today it seemed like every citizen in the city had decided they had somewhere to go. Jongin pushed his way through the crowd, bumping into others and getting cursed at for it.

The coat he wore, which he had borrowed from the back of a store, was billowing behind him in the wind; it made it harder for him to round corners with being spotted. If he wasn’t mistaken, he heard the shutter of a camera go off somewhere to his right. If only he could get to a rooftop.

Most buildings locked their roof’s access to avoid any incidents, instead separating a room or balcony for the smoke breaks if it was an office block. The apartment complex he lived at didn’t, but that was at least five blocks away and Jongin didn’t dare turn back.

Down the street he could see the old company he worked at as an intern; the roof was always accessible for anyone. Taking a sharp turn, he took the subway station as not-so-short shortcut, hoping the throng of people would help him loose whoever was chasing him.

Because Jongin was more than sure someone was after him; he’d known for weeks now, ever since he had made it out of the labyrinth and woke up disorientated and dehydrated in what he later found out was London, England. Earth; at least he was on Earth, as they had planned. He had no way of knowing where the others were, unfortunately. Somehow he had scored a spot in the toner company, mostly serving coffees and running errands, but it was enough to get him by while he figured out what to do. Back home he had been but a baby, barely nineteen years old, but here on Earth he was almost twenty one and considered an adult in every country.

At first he had wanted to just wait around for one of his hyungs to find him (he found out there was a country called South Korea that used the same honorifics and language they did, which made Jongin wonder if perhaps his kind had come to Earth before,) but he quickly shook off the thought; that didn’t sound so heroic, and he didn’t want Sehun to be disappointed in him.

Jongin wondered where Sehun was, if he was safe; if he had made it out of the labyrinth or not, if he was with someone else. Jongin hoped he was with Lu Han; their hyung would die rather than let anything happen to Sehun.

The station was, as predicted, swarming with pedestrians; everyone was going home for lunch, so of course they were waiting for the subway. However, Jongin was only interested in getting through the other exit, so he pushed away whoever got in his way. Somewhere along the line he lost the coat, uncaring of the weather; sure, he’d be cold for a little while, but all he needed was to get to the rooftop and then he could travel somewhere sunny. He’d read about a place named Greece where it was always warm.

As he emerged from the underground, the feeling of being followed only intensified. The company was right in front of him, across the street. He could see the security guards sipping on coffees and talking among themselves. The lady who always walked her dog around the block was right on the clock.

Jongin strode forward, turning his head from side to side to look over his shoulders as best as he could. His heart nearly pounded out of his chest with how hard it was beating; truth be told, he was terrified. He was all alone in a world he didn’t know; that was too much even for someone who was considered old enough to drink himself stupid in this planet.

He nodded shakily in greeting to the security guards. Technically, he was late to his shift, and they seemingly knew that because they both gave him pity looks. Without sparing them a second thought, Jongin raced down to the elevators and nearly broke the '10' button.

Thinking he was safe, Jongin let himself relax. But as soon as the doors opened he was face to face with a stranger. A stranger with a needle.

Jongin tried to dodge past him but the stranger was too fast and Jongin felt the distinctive pinch of the needle before everything went black.