There was a worn pair of shoes hanging on a tree, swinging back and forth as if it was nothing but an abandoned toy although deep in your heart a faint voice said otherwise. You knew it, you felt that it was important.

With your index-finger still on the button, you took a sharp intake of breath then looked around, observing the unfamiliar land, this strange universe you’d jumped into so recklessly. Unlike your home, this place was painfully quiet and the faint cry of the icy wind brushing against your hair filled your heart with loneliness. You missed Jin and the fact that he traveled through this depressive world all by himself made you miss him even more. If only, you would have known his reasons! If only, he would have talked to you! You were damn sure that together, you two would have found a way.

Cursing under your nose like a sailor, you wrapped your hands around your body moving your palms up and down to steal back a little warmth before you made the decision to wander around in the hope of finding someone, anyone you could talk to. Closing your eyes, you spun around three times in a row with one of your index-fingers pointing ahead of you. When you stopped, you took your first steps towards the setting Sun and its colourful reign.

When the first star appeared on the sky, you almost fell to the ground while you were laying your eyes on the mesmerizing view that was quite odd for a girl like you who had lived in the capital ever since she could remember. In Seoul, the night sky was dull because of the lamp poses that kept the city alive even when its people had all fallen asleep.

‘Damn. Is this for real?’ you asked with clenched palms as your shoes crashed into something hard once again. You couldn’t believe your misfortune.

You wanted to scream so badly blaming your stupid alter ego for not putting on something other than an idiot tee when the local temperature was freaking cold literally close to zero. Or at least she should have brought a damn sweater with herself for an insane trip in the middle of nowhere. But you were way too tired and hungry to waste your energy on something childish like this not to mention that you didn’t want to die alone in another universe just because your magic watch had its limits and you was too stubborn to stay at home.

If the train hadn’t been that noisy or you had been more distracted sinking into your furious mind, you would have been flattened by the metal monster before you could say something short and stupid like bootie. And that’s when you realized that the hard thing you thought was a stone was actually a part of the rail showing you the way to the civilization, the company you were craving for.

You couldn’t be happier.

Smiling like a homeless person who had finally found her place in the universe, you followed the railway for hours restlessly just to reach an abandoned station and a desolate town.

The first snowflake fell onto the tip of your nose when your heart refused to give up so easily and your feet took control over you leading you towards the roads of Omelas. Truth to tell, you felt wronged by that eccentric shop assistant and Namjoon for not telling you the tiny detail that it was possible to use Jin’s abilities at the very same time jumping in time and space all at once. You missed the warm breeze of spring days in Seoul.

‘Is anybody here?’ you screamed from your lungs fighting the growing knot that tried to choke you alive. Your whole body was in pain but you knew that it was okay. Until you could feel your limbs, you weren’t in great danger.

You looked down at your magic watch with an ugly grimace realizing that you still had plenty of time to find your friends’ alter egos or anyone who might have met Jin in the past few days. So, you repeated your question over and over again until your mouth went dry and your voice became faint and raspy.

‘Sunny?’ a familiar voice enveloped you with a single word, a dear nickname of you and you almost let your tears ran down your crimson cheeks as your eyes recognized the boy from above your shoulder. He stood a few steps away from you, pure shock washing over his handsome face as if he had faced with a ghost and not you. ‘What are you... nevermind! Let’s come inside before you freeze to death.’

Park Jimin grabbed you by the hand harshly forcing you to follow him even to the depth of hell and you groaned at the thought how accurate Dante’s description was. You were trapped in the ice just like those guilty souls in his drama you’d hated so much in your high school years. Then, you’d found it ridiculous - that he’d feared the cold more than the fire. Now, you finally understood.

As you crossed the threshold of a run-down hotel, you had to stop for a moment brushing Jimin’s fingers off your skin as dozens of faint memories flashed across your mind. You’d seen yourself sitting by the fire, your hands shaking both from the unforgiving cold that had crept under your flesh turning your blood to stone and from your boyfriend’s sloppy kiss that had woken up the lazy butterflies in your stomach. Then, the picture disappeared and you’d seen your friends mindlessly laughing at a joke you couldn’t put your finger on. They’d seemed happy. You all had seemed happy.

You shook your head reminding yourself that these weren’t your memories, that they weren’t your friends nor this you was really you. It was a twisted version of your lives, a mockery. But Jin had told you that all realities were real and it gave you hope - and made you truly upset - that maybe, maybe he had chosen this over yours.

Chasing away your thoughts, you found yourself all alone although a loud knock lured you to the kitchen before you could feel completely lost. It was a pan falling onto the glazed tiles.

You sat on a wooden chair watching your friend cook and pulled your legs up so that your knees fitted close to your chest. Your alter ego’s nickname, Sunny, still echoed in your ears.

‘Jimin?’ you asked in a voice so faint, it was barely above a whisper. You didn’t know what to say or how to say it out loud since this whole situation was more than weird and you wasn’t sure that your saviour knew about your boyfriend’s ability to jump from a universe to another. Did this Jin have anything in common with your love? Was this Jin in love with you? Or was this Jin still yours with similar, crazy flashbacks in his mind as hidden memories tried to reach the surface?

You weren’t sure.

‘Hmm?’ Jimin turned towards you with a confused smile as he ran his fingers through his pinkish hair oh so naturally. You couldn’t stop wondering whether he had known your heart just the same reading your mind as easy as the other Jimin did. He might have already noticed the change in their beloved Sunny’s behaviour.

You your bottom lip before you let out an exhausted sigh looking at the clock hanging on the wall. It was already quarter past seven which meant you walked in the cold for more than three hours. With your pathetic stamina it was a miracle that you hadn’t laid down on the ground after the first twenty minutes. Anyway, it was late enough for you to get worried because of the deep silence creeping under your skin.

‘Where are the others?’ you asked carefully avoiding his gaze that you were sure was fixed on you. As your fingers found the hem of the dirty cloth, you started to play with it out of uneasiness.

You took aback when Jimin slapped a glass of water onto the dining table pushing it under your nose. For a moment, he seemed alerted and maybe a bit resentful too.

‘Where else? On their way back home like always. It's almost eight,’ he replied before he went back to the oven and another hidden memory came alive hearing his tone.

Your back had leaned against the tree you had seen earlier, snowflakes falling from the greyish clouds above your head. You’d sat with your face resting on your knees, crying out of frustration. You’d had a huge fight with Jimin over the new boy in town who had become just as important to you as your jealous childhood friend who had called you insane in front of your crush shouting at your face. He had told you that your feelings were unwanted and you were wasting your time. He’d had the same darkness in his voice as he had when you asked about the others.

‘Are you sure that you're okay? You seem so out of it,’ he declared as he looked at you from above his shoulder.

‘I just... I cannot wait to see them.’ You shrugged yours with a faint smile resting your index-finger on the edge of your glass gliding your gaze from him to the water. Yet, you couldn’t make yourself drink it not even a single sip although your throat felt dry and raspy. As the matter of fact, you weren’t in the mood for dinner either even though your stomach hurt since you and your alter ego had skipped breakfast and lunch too. In the morning, you had been nervous as hell. In daytime, you had got a magic watch and had jumped into another universe made of ice. You wasn’t sure of Sunny’s excuses.  

‘If you say so.’

He left it at that and you felt entirely grateful to him.

As Jimin predicted, the boys arrived ten minutes after their train had stopped at the station and they automatically came to the kitchen, that one place in this hotel that was warmish beside that room they all lived in. For your sorrow, Jin wasn’t with them.

You stood up as fast as lightning grabbing the first sweater you got a hold of. You leaned into Taehyung’s face so desperately literally breathing the same air as he did, pulling him closer with every damn word your mouth was able to form.

‘Where is Jin?’ you asked biting your lower lip, clenching your fists. Was it even possible that your boyfriend had erased this Jin too? His alter ego had to be somewhere near sleeping on a couch or anything rational, right? Right?

You could feel you friends’ gazes piercing your back but you refused to pay any attention or drew yourself apart from your victim. You needed answers and you needed them now.

‘Who knows? He left, don't you remember?’ Taehyung said grabbing your hands, brushing them off his clothes. With those dark crescents under his almond-shaped eyes, he looked exhausted as if he had been awake for days now and for a mere moment you felt guilty because of your selfish action. You should have let them live, made themselves comfortable beside the table you had left behind.

You took a step backwards.

‘Actually, I thought that you went after him,’ Jimin interrupted, mumbling under his nose and his words gave you goosebumps sending a jolt down your spine. So that’s why you had appeared in the middle of nowhere dressed into nothing but ripped jeans, your worn-out shoes and a tee. Without him, you were lost in every universe. He had been long gone and deep down you should have known this. You should have remembered.

‘Oh,’ was all you could say before your legs gave up, turning into jelly and shaking at the realization. You grabbed the first thing coming into your way and you almost pushed Jimin to the ground with your intense movement as he slid his hand under your armpit. You still had more than nineteen hours in this icy land made of sorrow and devastation.

He carried you to the chair you had sat on earlier and pushed the untouched beverage into your clenched fist as if he knew no opposition.

‘Where were you during the last two days?’ a familiar voice called you to account and the glass fell out of your hand as you fixed your eyes on the boy whose hair was as colourful as the sweetest lollipops. This Hoseok was nothing like your friend back home who had died on that chilly afternoon committing suicide. This Hoseok seemed very much alive regardless of his tired smile and the worry in his eyes.

‘I…’

‘You?’

Although the shards cut the tread of your shoes, you stood up without thinking enveloping the boy whose muscles turned into stone by the shock. You didn’t care. Jin was right, it indeed felt real. It was, Hoseok was real.

‘I… I was by the tree,’ you answered between two relieved sobs crying and laughing just the same. You might have acted nuts - and your twitching lips didn’t help either -, but you had your own reasons therefore you couldn’t care less about your friends looking at you as one looked at the patients in the madhouse. You didn’t let go of Hoseok until Jimin pulled you off of him helping with the shards sticking into your shoes. You got some nasty scars without even noticing.

After a grumpy voice demanded dinner, you gathered around the table warming your bodies up with salty ramen. You missed the familiar taste on your tongue, the meat under your teeth but you didn’t complain. It was obvious that life wasn’t easy on a land like this so you was more than grateful for the food.

From a minute to another, your eyelids became heavy and you fell asleep on the spot not noticing how exhausted you truly were until your friends started to talk about their future plans and the next months ahead of them. Their pleasant voice led you to your sweetest dream of a happy life with the boys and in your boyfriend’s loving arms.

You woke up on the couch with a fluffy blanket laying on you from your shoulder to your toes. It wasn’t that warm but at this moment you were used to the feeling of cold, the constant trembling, the sick shade of your skin and the icy air that turned your blood to stone.

The parquetry was chilly under your bare feet as you sat onto the furniture grabbing the edge to keep your balance. You were wide awake, ready to leave this world behind.

Watching the boys drooling and clinging to each other to keep themselves warm made your heart ache but your feelings didn’t much matter. So, you bid your farewell then stepped out of the room and the old motel that sheltered your friends from the neverending winter.

‘Even though my heart goes crazy for you, this world is wasted. I can’t stay. Sorry,’ a hoarse voice mumbled a few metres from you and you didn’t have to turn towards the speaker to knew that Jimin’s smile wasn’t honest anymore. He was sad and deep in your heart you were aware of the fact that it was all your fault. You didn’t think of him when you made your decision and left this place behind. You were selfish and he deserved better.

‘What?’ you asked with your head leaning onto the door frame. You couldn’t make yourself look into his eyes nor face him. The lonely snow piles seemed much more interesting.

‘His last words before he literally became one with the winter air. Yet, you go after him,’ he enlightened you, his words leaving tiny yet painful thorns in your flesh. So that’s why you couldn’t find him. He had been long gone and you couldn’t blame him. Knowing your own universe, this place was miserable. Yet, your faint memories, Sunny’s memories proved you wrong claiming that in its own way this land was indeed lovable. You just had to find your own spring, the miracles in the nature.

You smiled.

‘Because my heart goes crazy for him just the same and I won’t leave him alone. I refuse to,’ you said before you took your first step towards the empty train station on the border of Omelas.

‘Wait!’ Jimin ran after you grabbing your wrist ever so gently as he pulled you close. He took off his own sweater and gave it to you regardless of your opposition. Then, he hugged you and whispered into your ears. ‘Stay warm!’

He tousled your hair and let you go as if he had known that you couldn’t stay.

‘Thank you,’ you said without looking back at him from above your shoulder. Tears gathered in the corners of your eyes.

You stayed on the station for hours doing literally nothing until the third train finally arrived. As the metal monster disappeared behind the desolate town, you put your hand on the watch and pushed the right button. Your first twenty-four hours was over.