“I knew I would find you out here,” Heechul announced loudly. He walked along the old drive of a grain factory long since abandoned. Seemingly randomly placed in the center was a car, which while not as old as the factory, was still much older than himself, but in much better shape than anything around it. He could see the flowers in the open trunk had been replaced since he last saw them, and the record player at the center of the flowers was playing classical music. As he came along the side, he could see Jongwoon sitting inside the passenger side, stretched out sideways, chewing on a pen, notebook more than likely propped on his lap.

“Did you actually look here first this time?”

“Why would I do that? Your place is only a block away from mine, no reason to drive out here if you’re just sleeping in or something.” Heechul leaned back against the rear passenger side door of the car, where Jongwoon would be able to see him just by leaning a little further out the open window.

“I take it Sungmin sent you then.”

“Always. Who else would?”

“You could always be looking for me on your own. You do tend to consider me your best friend.” Jongwoon glanced over to check for Heechul’s reaction, slightly disappointed he was looking the other way.

“Just come back to work. Sungmin wants you recording today. I think. He wasn’t very clear over the phone, and I was supposed to be sleeping in.”

Jongwoon looked down at his watch, already having a general idea of the time. “Dude, you know it’s already after two in the afternoon, right? Pretty sure that’s past sleeping in standards.”

“Not when you didn’t go to sleep until six or seven in the morning,” Heechul argued. Jongwoon rolled his eyes, knowing exactly why he had stayed up the whole night. Instead of arguing, or worse, risking Sungmin himself coming to find them, Jongwoon began to pack up his stuff. Various colored pencils in their case, a couple notebooks, some snacks, and a tablet all placed back into the backpack sitting on the floor next to him. “You know, one day, I’ll get you to tell me exactly why you spend so much time out here.”

“We all spent a lot of time here as teenagers,” Jongwoon countered. He turned himself around in order to get out the passenger instead of climbing across to the driver’s side. Once out, he slung the backpack over his shoulder and waited for Heechul to make a move.

“Are you actually going without much of a fight? That’s new.”

“I don’t fight with you that much. And you’re right, Sungmin did mention wanting to do some recording today and I would rather not have him after my head because I didn’t show.”

“Scared of little Sungmin now that he’s our manager and not just the adorable underclassmen?”

“No. But when he is our manager and the one person who can actually take either of us in a fight, I’m not eager to get on his bad side too many times in a row.” Jongwoon started leading them towards the gate, hoping Heechul parked at the same gate as he did. “You said you drove, right?”

“Yeah, I did,” Heechul answered cautiously. “Don’t tell me you didn’t.” Jongwoon stayed quiet. “Seriously? No wonder I didn’t see your car when I pulled up. You didn’t walk, did you?”

“Biked. It’ll fit in your car. I can fit it in mine.”

“Sometimes, I hate you. You know Sungmin will drag me in if I show up there.”

“That’s your,” Jongwoon glanced over to one of the buildings, covered in faded posters, and hesitated as he saw a blue string leading up the stairs, “problem.”

“What?” Heechul stopped once he noticed Jongwoon barely moving and staring at the stairs. Jongwoon blinked a couple times, looked back and Heechul then the stairs again, only to find the string missing.

“Nothing. Just thought I saw something. Let’s go.” Heechul took one last look over at the stairs, hoping to maybe see what Jongwoon did. But as per usual, Heechul saw nothing.

Once the two squeezed their way through the chained gate, Jongwoon walked along the fence past a couple trees to unlock his bike. The trees were close enough to the fence that if you weren’t looking, you wouldn’t have noticed the bike chained up there.

Heechul, Jongwoon, and a couple of their other friends discovered the abandoned factory a couple miles outside of town when they were in middle school and made it a somewhat frequent hangout location. The car was already parked here, so they have never known the story behind it, but they all took a liking to it. It was where they all went when they wanted to do anything their parents would consider dangerous or stupid, like shooting off fireworks, doing bike tricks that have ended in multiple broken bikes or bones, miniature fighting tournaments, and lots of drinking. Once they were all graduating from high school and moving onto university and jobs, they stopped visiting as much. People left town, life got too busy, and that left Jongwoon as the only one to visit with any frequency.

“There you are. I told you I needed you to be on time today. We only have a short time with these guys and we need to get a couple demos made. I have stuff for you to look over in your room, I want to be in the booth in twenty,” Sungmin ordered, looking quite flustered. Jongwoon said nothing, just giving a short nod and heading off towards his designated room. Heechul attempted to take that as his chance to leave as well, but Sungmin stopped him. “Was he out there again?”

“Yeah. Sitting in the car as usual. I still haven’t gotten him to talk to me about it yet. He also thought he saw something again, I don’t know what, but it was by that same door.”

“How many times is that now?”

“Six or seven, I think. He went a few years between the first two, which is why we haven’t thought anything of it until recently.”

“I’m getting worried. Keep an eye on him outside of work, will you?”

“What do I look like? His babysitter?”

“No, his best friend. Now, since you’re here, I need a pianist for a couple hours for these demos Jongwoon is doing, and if I can have someone else do it, then I can focus on the other parts.” Heechul knew Sungmin was playing that off as a suggestion, but in reality, he had no choice but to agree.

“Fine, but you owe me.”

“I know, you said that when I called you to go find Jongwoon.” Sungmin played up one of his infamous smiles that gets most people to immediately forgive him and let him go, but Heechul knows better.

“Well now it’s doubled.” He reminded, heading off towards the studio rooms to get some practice in before Jongwoon’s twenty minutes were up.

~

Ryeowook fumbled with his keys one-handed, trying to get the right one in the lock while the other precariously balanced two very full bags of groceries. Once unlocked, Ryeowook had to shove the door open, pushing piles of books, notebooks, and well, he isn’t entirely sure what else could be piled in there, maybe CDs, records, or DVDs.

They are neat stacks and Kyuhyun could probably honestly tell you exactly where everything was, but it looked like a mess to Ryeowook. Thankfully Kyuhyun didn’t make it difficult to move around or find a place to sit and set things down. He kept all the furniture mostly clear, and room to walk without feeling closed in. The piles were also only a foot or two tall as well, so you could easily see across each room. When Ryeowook had asked him why he had stacks everywhere, Kyuhyun stated it was because it’s a small house and the bookshelves are already full, and he could group things together better. It wasn’t difficult to prove those points either, as he could see the bookshelves and see most of the shelves were stacked two rows deep and even in some cases, two rows high. Some shelves were straining from the weight.

“Kyuhyun,” Ryeowook shouted into the house. “We agreed you wouldn’t put piles in the way of the door opening.”

“Sorry, didn’t realize I had any that close.” The reply had come from the back right half of the house where the bedroom and bathroom are located. Instead of looking for him, Ryeowook headed through the only other door to the kitchen.

Kyuhyun would know to find him in there since he hasn’t been over in a week. Ryeowook frequently brings groceries with him when he visits, to make sure Kyuhyun eats. He also delivers mail for Kyuhyun that is all brought to Ryeowook’s place instead. They had this agreement for the last couple years, after Kyuhyun had been forced out here and Ryeowook found him not caring for himself.

Kyuhyun used to be a composer in the city, and a popular one at that. He wrote not only for himself, but a couple different orchestral ensembles, and a few popular singers. He had graduated early from university and was at the height of his career by the time he was in his early twenties.  However, that all ended just a couple years later, when the entire city shunned him.

The city they are from is part of is very strict and scientific, leaving very little room for religious or spiritual beliefs. It is not illegal nor impossible for people to have these beliefs, it’s generally frowned upon and kept quiet. But in Kyuhyun’s case, it wasn’t just being spiritual, it was having abilities that scared people. Originally, he was thought to be just quiet and closed off, assumed to be an introvert, and they weren’t wrong about that. In a greater reality though, he was trying to avoid everything else he was seeing. At first, he thought they were ghosts, but as it went on, he realized he was seeing another world, similar to his own, but different in so many ways. It started in his dreams, visions of places and people Kyuhyun did not know, but expanded to when he was awake. Some places, the visions would be stronger and clearer than others, and though it would seem like the same scene, the people would be different, only the location remaining the same. Kyuhyun tried avoiding the places where it was strongest for years, as elsewhere the visions would be rarer and easier on him when they did happen. Eventually, it became too much for him to keep to himself and he sought out help, which is what resulted in him being publicly outed. Ryeowook and a couple other friends had attempted to find out who told the media and prevent the backlash, but to no avail and Kyuhyun was cast out of their society to the middle of nowhere, alone.

“Did you eat everything I left for you last time,” Ryeowook asked when he heard Kyuhyun walk into the kitchen.

“Yes, and I even washed and put away the dishes.”

“Don’t be a brat, I wouldn’t ask if you hadn’t given me reason to.” Kyuhyun goes silent at that, choosing instead to start putting away some of the groceries Ryeowook hadn’t set aside for whatever meal he was planning on making immediately.

When Kyuhyun had first moved out to the house, he had been so broken, feeling like he was losing everything, his mind, his home, his career, and possibly even his friends, that he saw no point in even attempting to take care of himself. Ryeowook and their friends Hyukjae and Hangeng had spent the first couple of weeks of Kyuhyun's forced move, or exile rather, to see if there was a way for them to fight the decision that they never made it out to see Kyuhyun. The first time Ryeowook made it out to him, Kyuhyun was curled up, hiding under the blankets on his bed, looking like he hadn’t bathed or eaten since the whole situation began. Ryeowook had instantly called the other two to bring groceries and a whole list of other items Ryeowook was certain were needed. The three followed by taking the turns over the next month making sure Kyuhyun was never alone and taking care of himself.  They still visit him frequently, Ryeowook more than the other two, but it isn’t a constant monitoring like it used to be. The incident had been a couple years ago, but there have been a few times where if someone hasn’t visited in over a week or two, Kyuhyun has relapsed.

“I’m doing better, I promise,” Kyuhyun says weakly once he felt he could speak again.

“I know you are, I can tell something has changed but I still want to make sure. For both our sakes if I’m being honest.”

“Thanks.” Kyuhyun continued to put groceries away while Ryeowook began cooking, but kept looking over to Ryeowook, wanting to say something else. “And I know last time you said you were going on a trip next week, so you wouldn’t be over, but when you come back, or you can ask Hyukjae or Hangeng to do it, but I need some blue yarn.”

“Blue yarn? Are you learning how to knit? Wouldn’t you need some needles as well,” Ryeowook asked, quite confused by the request.

“No, though maybe I should. I did like that sweater.” Kyuhyun had spoken that last part mostly to himself.

“Which sweater?”

“The blue knit one that I got a few years ago, the really warm one.”

“What did you do to it?”

“Took it apart.” Ryeowook immediately turned to stare at him in shock. “What? I needed the yarn, for some reason it is a great, how to put it, conductor of spiritual energy?” The last part was spoken like a question, Kyuhyun not fully knowing himself. “I found out that I can make things appear on the other side, at least briefly, and yarn seems to be the strongest. So, I am experimenting.”

“How did you figure that out?”

“Alright, you know how we found out the house is on a weak point between the worlds?” When Kyuhyun had discovered he was looking at another world and not ghosts, Kyuhyun decided the areas with stronger visions must be places where the barrier between their world and the other one must be weaker. Ryeowook nodded when he realized Kyuhyun was waiting for a response. “Well apparently he visits this weak point frequently. Or rather he is near the weak point often but not exactly on it. If I went that way, maybe a hundred feet or so, then I would be where he spends most of his time. But I can see him from here if I focus hard enough. I started wondering if it was possible for him to see things from our world too, so I began grabbing various things from around the house to try and make visible to him. It turns out things that are blue are stronger than similar items of different colors and items that are string or cord like work best, which led to headphones and blue yarn being the strongest.

“What else did you try?”

“A book, some pens and pencils, an extension cord, some sheet music, the strap from my messenger bag, it just clips on and off so that was easy to use, a bowl of ramen, some rope, a couple scarves, and a cat,” Kyuhyun listed, taking a couple pauses to remember the whole list.

“Really? A bowl of ramen? And where the hell did you get a cat, and why did you try to use it?”

“Well surprisingly the cat sort of worked, and there are a couple stray or wild, I’m not sure which, cats that visit sometimes. It also told me whether living beings could be made to be visible to them. And as for the ramen, I was eating and debating on what to try next, so why not?”

“What else worked?”

“Well of the pens and pencils, only the blue ink one did, the extension cord did for the most part, the strap was pretty good, but that may have been because it was blue too. The rope and scarves worked pretty well, the scarf that was mostly blue worked best of them though. I thought the sheet music worked but turns out he had some of his own he had dropped earlier that neither of us noticed until I started trying to make mine appear.”

“Alright.” Ryeowook took a deep breath that could almost be considered a sigh and focused back on cooking again. Kyuhyun could tell there was more he wanted to say, so stuck around in the kitchen, waiting for Ryeowook to decide. Apparently the first meal Ryeowook cooked was their lunch, and only decided to speak up again once they were wearing at the little dining table in the kitchen, unlike their usual spot in the living room.

“Once you have this yarn, what are you planning on doing? Why do you need more than what you tested with?”

“I want to guide him to the weak point, he has never been there, and I think I can get answers once he is. He has been the only constant in this whole thing, the one part of that world that stands out and the first part of it I saw. I just need to get him there.”

“Kyuhyun, what is this red guy going to solve?”

“Really? Red guy? That’s what we’re calling him now?” Kyuhyun scoffed a little, not entirely surprised his friend came up with such a lame nickname.

“You’ve said that you saw him in a red car, and often wearing red, and in general there has always been something red with him. So yes, red guy. And it’s better than just referring to him as ‘him or he’. Now, stop avoiding the original question.”

“Fine. I figure if I find out who he is, then maybe I can find out why I started seeing his world. He is the only potential lead I have, so I’m going with it,” Kyuhyun stated quite firmly, not really giving Ryeowook a chance to speak against it before he left the kitchen.

Ryeowook went back to cooking for a while, making sure that between the fridge and freezer, Kyuhyun would have enough meals and ingredients to last him at least a week. Both Hangeng and himself had been teaching Kyuhyun how to cook more, so he wasn’t completely reliant on them for food and would eat better meals than just ramen every day. Once finished Ryeowook rejoined Kyuhyun in the living room, refraining from speaking of the red guy for the rest of his visit.

~

“Jongwoon,” Heechul shouted, walking into Jongwoon’s house.  It had been roughly a week since Heechul had to fetch Jongwoon for the demo recording, which the company liked and has since kept both Jongwoon and Heechul busy. Of course, Heechul had been put in charge of making sure Jongwoon actually showed up to work every day. Today they both were off and Heechul knew Jongwoon would eventually find his way out to the factory. But thankfully he typically sleeps in and Heechul was determined to catch him before he ran off.

When Heechul got no response back, he started to question if he missed Jongwoon already, but he knows he checked that Jongwoon’s car was parked in the garage and his bike was in its usual spot. Jongwoon had walked a couple times before but that was when both his car and bike were out of commission, which neither were this time. He checked all around the first floor, which just contained the main living areas, like the kitchen, dining, and living room. When he confirmed all the rooms to be empty, he made his way upstairs. Most likely, Jongwoon would either be in his studio, which once was a bedroom he had converted to be soundproof and fixed the acoustics, so he could record when he needed or wanted to, or he would be in his bedroom. Even if he was in his room, Heechul doubted he would be asleep, Jongwoon tended wake up to even the lightest of sounds, so it would be shocking if he managed to sleep past Heechul shouting. After checking the studio and finding it empty, Heechul was headed towards the bedroom when he stopped in front of the bathroom. Even through the thick wooden door, Heechul could hear the sound of the shower running, and faint singing. Now knowing why Jongwoon never responded, Heechul made his way back downstairs to relax in the living room until Jongwoon was finished. At some point, Jongwoon's two dogs, Kkoming and Melo, joined him on the couch from where ever they had been hiding, probably Jongwoon's bed, and curled up against him.

“How and why are you here,” Jongwoon asked as he came down the stairs to see his best friend and dogs looking quite comfortable on the couch watching TV. Heechul doesn’t speak until he has pulled out and held up a key.

“I copied it when you first moved in . Did you think I wouldn’t copy it when you handed me your key and asked me to pick up some stuff and drop it off when you were in the process of moving?”

“Fine. Shouldn’t really be surprised either way. Now what do you want? You’re never willingly awake before noon when you don’t work unless you want something,” Jongwoon questioned, moving to sit next to Heechul and attempt to get some attention from his dogs who have decided that napping on Heechul was a better idea.

“Rude, I’m still your best friend. Can’t I visit you when I feel like it?”

“No.”

“Wow, extra rude this morning. Did Sungmin yell at you yesterday or something? Or wait, was it a nightmare,” Heechul pondered, seemingly more to himself after a moment than actually trying to confirm with Jongwoon.

“Shut up. Just tell me why you’re actually bugging me during your precious beauty sleeping hours.”

Heechul stopped his random listing, sighed and leaned further back into the couch. As much as he knew this conversation needed to happen, he was dreading starting it and forcing his closest friend to talk about something he didn’t want to for whatever reason he had.

“We need to talk.” Jongwoon hesitates a moment at Heechul’s sudden switch to being serious.

“About?”

“You. And whatever is going on with you. Why you spend so much time out at the factory and it’s not just the part of skipping work.”

“Heechul,” Jongwoon started, trying to think of a way to get out of this conversation but Heechul stopped him.

“No. We are finally getting you to talk to me. I know, hell even Sungmin knows that you have been seeing stuff by that stupid door or at least the stairs. We don’t know what but it’s something and it’s worrying us.”

“How did you know I was seeing things,” Jongwoon questioned.

“You're not very subtle. Almost every time we leave together you stop like you saw something strange at that door and don’t move until we get your attention back and even then, you look back like you’re trying to find something.”

“Really? I didn’t think I was being obvious.”

“Are you being serious right now? Because I have no idea how you thought that. Even just last week when I had to go get you did that stereotypical thing in movies where you are talking and suddenly pause and then finish your sentence slowly while staring at something completely dazed. Honestly the look on your face was pretty stupid.” Heechul got smacked for the last comment, but otherwise Jongwoon was trying to think back at each time he saw something there and his behavior with it. Apparently, he had been so focused he hadn’t even noticed that Heechul was talking to him again.

“Sorry, what did you say?” Heechul tsk’d and rolled his eyes.

“I said, or well asked, what did you see last week? You can start by telling me that much, right? Especially since you know we are aware something is going on?”

“None of this is going to sound normal, or rather most of it will just seem random but be normal things.” Jongwoon sighed, rubbing his thighs, trying to convince himself to tell Heechul everything. “Last week it was string, or yarn rather, I think it was too think to be considered string.”

“Just some yarn? Like a random piece or like a whole bundle? I mean I didn’t see anything, but something small like that I could have easily missed.”

“I'm sure you wouldn't have seen anything even if you were specifically trying to find it. Like you said it’s not the first time I’ve seen stuff there. But to answer your one question, it was a long strand of yarn that was leading from base of the stairs, right to the door, maybe even beyond. It’s hard to explain but I know they are all things that should not exist right there, or even not here at all.”

“Shouldn’t exist? Like ghost objects or something? You thinking you’ve got some creepy sixth sense going on? Should we go to a couple places that people supposedly confirmed as haunted and see if you can see any ghosts?”

“It’s not ghosts. Don’t ask me why, I’m just certain of that. And right there is the only place I see anything,” Jongwoon attempted to explain, not sure if made sense.

“Fine. What else have you seen?”

“Simple stuff mostly, some rope, a scarf, a bag strap, or I think that’s what it was, a pen, stuff like that. Weird thing about them is most have been all or partially blue. There however were two cases that were not random objects. One was a cat.”

“Could it have been a real cat?” Jongwoon shook his head first before explaining.

“It couldn’t. I didn’t have anyone else with me when I saw it to ask, but for one it just stayed there, almost like it didn’t realize I was there, even when I called to it. And two, I got the same general feeling from it like I did all the other objects, so I didn’t bother trying to touch it.”

“Was it a Russian blue at least? You said all the other stuff was blue.”

“I don’t know if I even know what a Russian blue looks like to tell you.”

“Yes, you do, my cat Heebum is a Russian blue. So, it just had to look like him.” Heechul backed up his point by pulling up a picture of his cat on his phone.

“I still don’t know. I don’t really remember it’s features to say yes or no.”

“Ugh, you are so useless sometimes. But whatever, what was the last weird one.”

“Well it’s the first one I saw.”

“Two years ago,” Heechul interjected before Jongwoon could even begin explaining.

“Yes, now shut up and let me talk. Do you remember back in high school, I told you I had a couple of dreams of some boy? The one who seemed a few years younger than us, always at a piano, and kind of sad looking?” Jongwoon waited for Heechul to either confirm or denying the memory, but instead Heechul just quietly sat there. After a moment, Jongwoon caught on to what Heechul was doing and hit him for it.

“Will you stop hitting me,” Heechul shouted, rubbing his arm and hitting Jongwoon back in retaliation.

“I know I said shut up, but you can still answer when I ask you a question.”

“Yes, I remember,” Heechul admitted, “we teased you that you were so desperate for a relationship with someone who wasn’t horrible that you dreamt your perfect boyfriend up.”

“Well, what I haven’t told you, is that I still often dream of him. And the first time I saw something near that door, it was him. He looked frail and almost dead, just sitting there on the steps. No one else commented on him so I didn’t bring it up and assumed I was just daydreaming or something. Also, didn’t feel like dealing with the comments I knew you guys would make if I said anything, but apparently you guys noticed anyways.”

“I can say originally we really didn’t know what was up, you just looked a little shocked looking over at the door but seemed to recover quickly enough so we didn’t think much on it. It wasn’t until we noticed more recently that you have been seeing stuff there, that we pieced together that the first time was a couple years ago. And so, we’ve been trying to keep track and hoping you would say something before I had to corner you like this. But you weren’t saying anything, and you’ve become even more distracted at work than usual, even forgetting to go to recording days which you rarely miss.”

“I’ve been trying to figure out what it all means. Originally, I just went out to the factory because it was a familiar and peaceful place where I could work on trying some lyric writing or composing without people bugging me. But now, I also wonder if I’m going to see something new and if I’ll have any clues as to why.”

“Have you come up with anything yet then?”

“Maybe? It’s hard to tell but hold on.” Jongwoon suddenly got up and ran back upstairs just to return a moment later with one of his notebooks. “I started recording everything that I saw in here, so I could compare them. I also wrote some of my dream details since somehow they have to be connected to each other.”

“So obviously, one of your points is that most things you saw were blue.”

“Right, and most were made of a fabric, and tended to be more cord-like. All were also pointed straight toward the door. Now, I also looked some stuff up on cats and there is a lot of folklore surrounding them. Most seem to consider cats sacred and more spiritually connected and having a stronger sense for the supernatural,” Jongwoon had read from his notebook, flipping through a couple of pages, obviously summing up some if his research.

“They are. A lot of religions show them as being protected and favored by gods.”

“Yeah, I have that in here too, and even the cat was situated so that its tail pointed straight at the door. I really think this door or whatever is inside, is where everything wants me to be.”

“Well how about this, since we have no idea what is going on, or what may be inside that building, the next time you see something, call Sungmin and I. We will come straight down there and go in with you and try to find out what it is you’re supposed to find. I mean safety in numbers, right? Besides, if you start acting weird, Sungmin and I will notice.”

“Really? Are you actually sitting here telling me that you would help me instead of calling me crazy?” Jongwoon was shocked and moved to place the back of his hand on Heechul’s forehead but Heechul slapped it away as soon as he touched his forehead.

“Quit that. I’m not sick. Besides, I’m your best friend, I’m supposed to help you confirm whether you are crazy or not first. If this all ends up being just in your head so some weird reason, then I get to call you completely crazy and we get you professional help. But the amount of times stuff like this has occurred and it hasn’t all been just the same, add that to your dreams, it’s too much to not warrant looking in to. I do think you are crazy, but that’s a whole different set of issues, like debating on getting turtles when you first moved out to keep you company. If you just wanted turtles because you wanted turtles, that’s one thing, but wanting a pet to keep you company and play with you, probably shouldn’t go with turtles for that.”

“Did you just simultaneously defend me as not crazy, and then proceed to call me crazy?”

“Yup.”

~

“Thanks, Kyu. I hope we didn’t interrupt you from anything, we would’ve opened it ourselves but no free hands.” Hangeng shuffled the bags in his arms for emphasis as he walked into Kyuhyun's house. “Hyuk has your yarn by the way. But Ryeowook sent me a rather long list of things you were going to need this week apparently, and I would rather not deal with him angry at me for not getting any of it.” Hyukjae followed Hangeng in, letting Kyuhyun close the door behind them. While Hangeng went to the kitchen, Hyukjae stayed in the living room with Kyuhyun, dumping all of his bags on the table.

“So, I hope this is the blue you were looking for, checked two different craft stores and thankfully Hannie had a picture of you wearing that sweater for us to compare it with.” Hyukjae pulled out a couple skeins of a dark blue yarn and passed them over for Kyuhyun to inspect. “Wook said you wanted a lot so I got you three.”

“That should be more than enough, thanks. Color is good too.”

“Good, I was worried. Now he said those were for something you were doing that involved the red guy, didn’t elaborate on that though. But in case you wanted to do something else, I picked out a few other colors, got some beginner knitting and crocheting books, and various needles and hooks. I’m sure if the books aren’t clear enough with anything, you can find stuff online.”

“Learning to knit was kind of an afterthought, honestly. Though now I have all the stuff ready to go, I may as well give it a try.”

“Hey, we know it has to be boring out here by yourself, more hobbies can help distract you. We really are trying to figure out a way to un-shun you.”

“Is that even possible anymore, it’s been two years?”

“Perhaps,” Hangeng said as he joined the other two in the living room. “Everything is put away by the way. But for a while now we have been appealing to officials and the courts which has mostly been a lot of waiting and a lot of people telling us it’s better for everyone this way. Now though, we are actually looking into the old laws.”

“The old laws?”

“Yeah, from a couple hundred years ago before our current government system took over,” Hyukjae began to explain. “They once were very religious and it’s possible that there were other people like you and thus potentially protected under the old laws. When our current government took over, they didn’t just outright remove the old laws in order to transition people to the new ones better, so honestly the new laws, or current laws are just modified versions of the old ones, or specific new laws that overturn the old ones. You can imagine though that they never went through and wrote something for each law, nor did they create a law to completely ban the old ones. So, we have been doing a lot of research of old texts to figure out if there is a name for people like you, then trying to cross-reference the old laws, then see if there is a new law to counteract it. If we do find a group you can identify in, you have three outcomes possible. One, we find an old law protecting you without a new one reversing it, that’s the best option, two, there is no law protecting you specifically but then no law banning you, and lastly, we find an old law, but it has been specifically reversed.”

“The first two would be manageable, and obviously the third would just condemn you,” Hangeng added.

“Well, that’s a bunch information,” Kyuhyun stared blankly at the other two for a moment trying to process everything he was told. “I take it starting law school is actually having a chance to pay off?”

“Yes, some of this I learned from the year I was in law school, the rest I got from a friend of mine who stayed there and is helping out. And don’t forget, I chose to leave it, I didn’t flunk out.”

“We know, Hyuk,” Kyuhyun and Hangeng announced in unison.

“Anyways, if you guys do find anything, let me know, especially if there are books on any rituals or stuff like that. I’ve been experimenting with the red guy, but it would be nice to have some sort of guide even if it is vague.”

“Don’t worry, the moment we find anything on interest we'll bring it straight to you” Hyukjae promised. “Now though, tell us what these experiments are and what exactly the yarn is for. Ryeowook was being very elusive when we asked, and I don’t know about him,” Hyuk pointed to Hangeng, “but I’m really curious.”

“I don’t know why he didn’t bother telling you, not like I was keeping it a secret really. Well maybe I was at first bit that was just before I knew the idea would work.”

“You didn’t say anything about it until Wook asked you and it seemed like this has been going on for a little while now. I think that’s past the seeing if it works stage” Hangeng pointed out.

“Fine, I didn’t want to worry you guys in case you thought I was losing my mind. And before you say anything, I’m not losing it, maybe getting a little desperate for answers but I still have my wits. Now pick out a game so I can kick your while I tell you about it.”

“You tell us you don’t want to worry us but hiding things from us makes it worse. Our society runs on logic, use it and we will more than likely think you are alright and not losing it. Don’t forget we’re your friends and are sticking with you,” Hangeng reminded him. Hyukjae paused in his video game search to agree, but quickly went back to finding a game that he had the best possibilities of winning at.

The two remained at Kyuhyun’s place for the rest of the day, only getting ready to leave long after the sun had set. His friends only stayed the night when he first was moved in and when he has bad episodes and they feel like he needs constant watching. Kyuhyun can’t blame them though, as his collection grew and spread through the already small house, there just wasn’t room for anyone else to sleep, and the couch is only good option when it needs to be.

“As soon as we find anything, especially something that could potentially be helpful with connecting to red guy, we will be right over with it. So hopefully we will be seeing you within a couple of days with something.”

“Thanks, Hyuk, I have some ideas based on my experiments, but something more solid would be appreciated. Drive home safe and tell Wookie I’m still fine. He seems to get extra fussy when he goes more than a week without visiting.” The guys laughed, promising to pass on the message, all too aware of how true a statement it was. And after a couple more hugs and goodbyes, his friends left and Kyuhyun was alone again to continue his experiments.

~

“Ugh, this is so annoying,” Heechul whined. He had been sitting in Jongwoon’s studio while Sungmin and Jongwoon were going through some of the parts Jongwoon had recorded that morning.

“What? This song? I actually rather like it,” Jongwoon said not bothering to look back at Heechul. “I mean there are a couple parts that I would like to change if Sungmin would just let me.” Jongwoon sent a quick glance over his shoulder to Sungmin still attempting to plead his case.

“Fine, you talk with them about the changes and we will compare them,” Sungmin relented. “But you can’t complain about whichever one gets chosen in the end.”

“Deal.” Once Jongwoon had Sungmin’s approval to make some changes, he turned back to Heechul who was sprawled out on the couch behind them haphazardly, Jongwoon’s notebook on his lap. “Now what was annoying about it, Chulie? I can consider addressing it when I play with it.”

“The song is fine. Your bickering was a little annoying but that’s not what I was talking about. This,” Heechul holds up and waves the notebook, “is annoying. There is nothing new since I promised our help.”

“Yeah, about that. When did I volunteer to help?” Sungmin asked.

“You’re his friend too and have been worrying about him, so of course you are going to help. Not sure why you are questioning this. I spoke for you without talking to you first, but it’s not like I was lying, you know you’re coming with us. If anything, ever happens that is.” Heechul explained, though he practically shouted that last sentence.

“So, you’re annoyed that I haven’t seen anything in over a week?”

“Weren’t we just complaining about him seeing things too much like three weeks ago?”

“That was before he gave us, or rather me, an explanation and we got directly involved, or are trying to get involved.”

“I still am having dreams so it’s not like nothing is happening.”

“And what are we supposed to make of those? The only thing slightly different thing that happened is his friends dropped off a couple books a few days ago that he can’t stop reading and he has been playing with some yarn and that’s only weird because he has started stringing the yarn around his living room and then taking it down and redoing it.”

“Wasn’t the yarn what you said you saw the best and most recently,” Sungmin asked.

“It was. I’m not sure what exactly he is doing, but that yarn is beginning to cover most of the living room and he looks like he’s referencing something in one of the books he was just brought. I have a feeling we will find out what he is doing soon. Or at least maybe the result. I have no idea if he can see me or knows that I can sometimes see him in my dreams. But some of the stuff I see is around him and I’m certain especially with him currently playing with the yarn that he knows something and that he is the reason I see stuff.”

“So, you mean we just have to wait? That’s boring.”

“Sorry Heechul. You know, we also have to be at the factory and not at work, it’s the only place I’ve seen anything outside of my dreams.”

“Well something better happen soon or I may regret offering to help,” Heechul continued to whine.

“Please just remember that we all do have a job to do and you can’t spend all your time out there.”

“Considering we are all sitting here at work, I think we are aware of that fact,” Jongwoon decided to mention, not forgetting he is the one among them who ditches work to go out there the most frequently.

“You be quiet, or I won’t let you play with those changes on the song,” Sungmin threatened.

“Too late, I’ve already texted them and we’re meeting up tomorrow to work on it,” Jongwoon revealed, holding up his phone to show Sungmin his text messages.

“When did you do that?”

“While we were talking about his ghost boyfriend. I mean he started texting them immediately after you gave him the okay. How did you not notice?”

“Are we really calling him my ghost boyfriend? Because none of that is accurate in any way.” Jongwoon grabbed a spare piece of paper, crumbled it up, and threw it at Heechul.

“Fine, I hate both of you, I’m going to go do some actual work now.”

~

Kyuhyun had been sitting on the ground near his piano when Ryeowook had entered his house that morning. Ryeowook had just barely been able to avoid running straight into the web of yarn that crossed in front of the door or any of the piles of books that had been moved from their usual spots. He noticed that the coat rack that was normally next to the front door had been pushed closer to the couch and a chair that sits by the table had been set in front of it, potentially to prevent the yarn from pulling the coat rack forward. Taking a closer look at the way the yarn was sorted, it all lead back to the piano. The yarn had been strung carefully around the keys of the piano a few times and tied to the loose end of yarn of the ruined sweater which laid on the piano bench. There were two separate sections of yarn stemming from legs of the piano, one fanned open towards the coat rack, looped around once then headed towards an end table leg that had been pushed towards the wall between the doors to the bedroom and kitchen. While the strands were bunched together at the table and piano, on the coat rack they had been evenly spread out and as Ryeowook investigated closer, he could tell they were held in place with pieces of tape so it almost looked like the wires on a suspension bridge. Following the other strands from the piano, they stretched out to a floor lamp further down the wall near the kitchen. Just like the coat rack, the yarn started condensed but fanned out by the time it reached the lamp, however it only looped back to the piano. At the base of the lamp, a separate section began, all tight together until it reached the music stand that was placed on top of the end table and was evenly spaced the same as the coat rack and lamp were strung.

“Kyuhyun?” Ryeowook could visibly see Kyuhyun jump at the sound of his name, apparently never hearing him enter.

“Oh, you’re here,” Kyuhyun said once he recovered from his initial shock.

“Yes, just like I usually am. What is this?”

“A bridge.”

“A bridge?”

“Yes.”

“Alright, you were supposed to expand on that and give me an explanation that I can comprehend,” Ryeowook explained.

“Um, I think I found a way to connect to him?” Kyuhyun obviously wasn’t sure exactly how to explain everything, as not everything made sense to him either at least not in a conscious manor, but it felt right and lined up close enough to what he had read.

“That’s not an explanation. A reason maybe, but not what I’m looking for. How am I going to move around? This is taking up half of the living room and successfully blocking the kitchen. Have you eaten since you put this up?”

“Yes, I have. I can slip under the strands when I’m near the end table or step over them by the lamp.” Ryeowook relaxed a little bit with that answer but was still waiting for the rest. “Hangeng and Hyukjae visited while you were gone, and they told me they were working on a new route to try and reverse my shunning which involved looking at pre-reform books. They brought me some books a few days ago because they have descriptions of people like me and some had rituals written about in them. Most were interesting to skim through but otherwise useless. But there was one book I was drawn to, called ‘Whisper’, and in it they had someone contacting another person in a different world, like I’m trying to do. They talked about how to make it, at least vaguely, so I started playing around with the yarn and the ideas in the book until it felt right.”

“What else?” Ryeowook knew there was something Kyuhyun wasn’t saying, though his explanation seemed as thorough as it could be.

“I found,” Kyuhyun stumbled for words, not sure about actually saying anything at all, but with Ryeowook staring him down, he gave in. “When I flipped through the book I found a symbol of two stick figures joined together, one in red and the other in blue. It looked like it was made of yarn or string, but at the same time I’m not sure it was physically there.”

“What do you mean?”

“I could touch and feel it like if someone had glued the string onto the page, but when the book is closed you can’t see it at all. And there is something that makes me feel as though if anyone else were to grab and read the book, they would never find it. I’m certain it is representing him and me, but I don’t know what it means.”

“Well I doubt I could tell you, but the way everything else is going, it probably does represent the two of you in some weird way that the rest of us will probably never fully understand. Now, will you help me get through to the kitchen? There are some perishables in this bag and I would like to get them into the fridge.” Ryeowook held up the bag that Kyuhyun hadn’t even noticed he was carrying, though it shouldn’t be a surprise since Ryeowook has groceries every time he visits. Kyuhyun took that as his cue to finally stand up and direct Ryeowook through the yarn and into the kitchen.

For the rest of his visit, Ryeowook kept Kyuhyun engaged in other activities and outside of his yarn as much as possible, as he had a feeling that’s where Kyuhyun was going to be until he got what he needed. And if Kyuhyun’s lack of attention when Ryeowook arrived was anything to go by, he was going to have to ask the others to send him lunch and dinner reminders if nothing else. Ryeowook was already looking at potentially moving around his schedule to visit an additional day this week and maybe see if either of the others could as well. He knows it’s not one of Kyuhyun’s regular episodes, but it has the potential of being just as bad if something doesn’t come of this bridge soon enough.

~

It was only a couple of days later that Heechul was getting a call from Jongwoon saying that the blue string was back and stronger.  Heechul immediately bolted out of the studio he was working in, only giving a brief explanation of an emergency to his coworkers and practically dragging Sungmin out if a meeting. Though he complained and reminded Heechul that he wasn’t the one who promised Jongwoon and how much trouble they will both be in for him missing the remainder of the meeting, Sungmin still got in Heechul's car of his own free will. The drive out to the factory was slightly shorter than it usually was, but Heechul was more than likely breaking a law or two in order to get there faster. At the factory, Jongwoon was just staring straight at the stairs and presumably the string when the other two ran up.

“You still see it,” Heechul asked the moment they reached him.

“Yeah, it’s different this time. Normally they have been just visible enough that it feels like it’s actually there but disappear the moment I look away.”

“Like it’s a weak connection and the guy on the other side can’t hold it,” Sungmin supplied.

“Exactly my thought. But this, this is strong, and I don’t think it’s going anywhere anytime soon.” Jongwoon finally looked up at his friends, both of whom looked like they were desperately trying to see what Jongwoon does. “Heechul?”

“What?”

“Why are your glasses on the back of your neck? You look like a .”

“Huh?” Heechul was dumbfounded but reached back to feel that the glasses were actually tilted back so they were resting on his neck.

“Yeah, you do look like one,” Sungmin added.

“You shut up. I had to deal with your ing the whole ride here. And I had them on top of my head earlier, they fell back when we were rushing here, I thought they fell completely off in the car. It not like I purposely placed them there.”

“This time you didn’t but what about last time?”

“We were in college, at a party, I was making a joke.”

“Mhmm. Sure, you were.”

“Shut up, I know what you did in college too. So, I don’t think you have room to talk.”

“Guys are we really doing this now,” Jongwoon asked interrupting their argument.

“You started it,” both responded but otherwise remained quiet waiting for Jongwoon to decide what he was going to do.

“Are we going in then,” Heechul asked. Jongwoon didn’t responded instead crouched down in front of the bottom step and reached out to touch something. He gasped and jumped back looking quite shocked. “What?”

“I wanted to see if I could touch it. The moment I did, or touched the same area, I’m not sure if I physically did or not, it glowed red and it ran up the string to the door.”

“So, the string is red now, not blue,” Sungmin clarified.

“No, it's still blue,” Jongwoon said as he began to walk up the stairs, “it’s just enveloped in a red light. I think it’s trying to lead us, or rather me."

“Hey, don’t get conceited on us, maybe your ghost boyfriend wants to meet us too.”

“Stop calling him that.” Jongwoon attempted to hit Heechul again when he joined him at the top of the stairs, but Heechul dodged out of the way careful to not fall back down the stairs or onto Sungmin.

“Did either of you think to bring a flashlight,” Sungmin asked. Jongwoon and Heechul looked at each other then back at Sungmin both shaking their heads. “Really? This whole place is boarded up, I doubt there is much light if there is any at all. I don’t know how you two can be so unprepared when you have been waiting for this for a couple of weeks now. Use the flashlight on your phones.” Sungmin had already been in the process of turning his on, thankful that he had only taken it off the charger right before his meeting and thus had a high battery percentage.

“We ready then?” Sungmin and Heechul both nodded, phones at the ready for light.

“Are we sure this will even open? I mean we’ve never tried it and it’s covered in posters that go beyond the seam of the door.”

“Heechul, this isn’t the time for those questions, the only way to know, is to try it, but everything says this door, so it has to be this door.” Jongwoon wasted no more time and pulled on the door handle. With only a little bit more force than for an average door, it creaked open, posters either tearing or just falling off completely. Inside was almost pitch black beyond the light currently being let in by the door, but Jongwoon could see the red light of the string start moving further inside. It only went so far before it paused again, seemingly waiting for Jongwoon to follow it.

Jongwoon cautiously stepped inside, not bothering to turn on his own phone’s light, just following the light of the string. Heechul and Sungmin on the other hand began looking around with their phones. The building seemed to be in decent shape given the circumstances, though there was evidence of the roof leaking as the whole area was wet and paint had started peeling a long time ago. Somehow, the floor seemed to be in the best shape, but that may have been because it was a concrete slab even though it is obviously starting to deteriorate too.

Following the hallway, the door lead them into, there were quite a few large rooms to either side of them, some doorways leading into the same room. Most of the rooms were completely empty, though some did have a couple of old machines none of them would know the use of, and there was also the occasional chair or table. It seemed that whomever abandoned this place managed to take just about everything with them.

“Are you still seeing your blue or red or whatever it is now, line,” Heechul asked as they made a turn into a new hallway.

“Yeah, it’s still glowing res and as strong as it was outside. It’s leading us down this hallway though I can’t see it very well in the distance where it isn’t glowing yet. But it is starting to squiggle, not that it’s been super straight, but it definitely went from kind of winding to a definite squiggle.” Jongwoon added an extra hand movement to try and show the pattern of the string to his friends behind him.

“Well that’s good. It’d be terrible if the string was taking you in a straight line to your gay ghost boyfriend.”

“Why did you add gay to that? Was calling him my ghost boyfriend not enough?”

“I needed the emphasis.”

“If you’re done, what’s that,” Sungmin asked, shining his light onto some chairs that were in the middle of the hallway ahead of them.

Jongwoon focused his attention back to the string and followed it up to the chairs Sungmin noticed. The string split itself on the chairs making the two stick figures that Jongwoon had seen in his dream in the book the other had been looking at. However, where the stick figures connect, the color of the string switches entirely to blue instead of blue with a red glow. As he was describing it to Heechul and Sungmin, Heechul suddenly started looking around almost frantically.

“What’s wrong.”

“I just got the sudden feeling of someone watching us.”

Kyuhyun had been keeping his head down and closed in order to focus on the yarn, but when he felt the three reach the figures, he couldn’t help but open his eyes. He kept his head down barely looking over his knees that were pulled up to his chest, head still buried in his arms, refusing to actually look up yet, but he could start to actually see them and not just feel them.

“Yeah, I got that feeling too,” Sungmin added. “Jongwoon?”

“I’m not noticing anything different, but maybe that’s because I’m used to this? You guys seeing anything new?”

“No.” Sungmin had answered but Heechul shook his head as well. Jongwoon sighed a little disappointed that they still couldn’t see what he was seeing, but he couldn’t think on his disappointment for long as something pulled him back to the string. He looked to where the blue string doubled back from the chairs and down a hallway just behind them to the left. Suddenly, both colored strings seemed to intertwine and weave back and forth once in the new hallway. This hallway was much narrower than the last and didn’t seem to have any rooms offshooting from it. The only thing he could see was two chairs side by side next to a standing floor lamp that appeared to be emitting a red light that was illuminating the entire hallway,

“Guys? Is that lamp actually on with a red bulb or any light for that matter?’

“No, it’s not. Is it red to you?” Heechul answered for him.

“Yeah, the whole room appears red aside from the blue string, though I can still make out the red one too.”

“There are two strings now? Since when?”

“Probably the chairs Sungmin.”

“No, from the chairs it was just the blue one. Or maybe the blue was hiding the red? I’m not sure honestly, but since we entered this smaller hallway, there were two and they have been interwoven, constantly crisscrossing each other,” Jongwoon corrected and explained further. He continued up to the chairs where the strings wrapped together on the left chair to form a ball. The two strings, definitely made of yarn now that he can see them better no as the ball is not glowing, came out of the other side of the yarn ball and connected to a pair of earbud headphones.

“What is it,” Heechul questioned.

“A pair of earbuds. They are the end of the string.”

“So, we’ve been following earbud cords?”

“No, it has definitely been yarn, I can see where it switches from the yarn to the headphones. It’s like they are tied together.”

“What are you going to do now.” It was Sungmin’s turn to question him now. Instead of answering though, Jongwoon just knelt down and picked up the headphones. As soon as he did, the light switched from red to blue and Jongwoon looked back over his shoulder almost towards his friends, but he knew he wasn’t really looking at them.

Kyuhyun raised his head fully almost like he was looking at his ceiling if someone else was watching him, but instead he was looking up at Jongwoon who stood up while hold the headphones. The blue tint that had illuminated his room had switched to red at the same time and Kyuhyun knew it was time to act. He watched as Jongwoon moved as if to walk away, but Kyuhyun shifted so he was on his knees and reached forward actually grabbing Jongwoon by the wrist, effectively stopping him, pulling him around and forced him to lean down towards him. He’s not sure when the headphones managed to switch to being in his hands, but he placed one ear bud in his own ear and reached up slightly to place the other in Jongwoon’s. Once both had an earbud in he could hear what was going on, on the other side.

“Jongwoon, who is that?” Heechul called out watching as his friend was pulled down to look right at the new person who had suddenly appeared behind Jongwoon. Jongwoon however, was too focused on the man in front of him to answer his friends. He glanced to the side of them to see them momentarily be in a forest, then in the room he was used to seeing the man in front of him in, then outside of the factory, before finally settling again in the hallway.

“Uh, hi?” Jongwoon greeted a little unsure of what exactly was going on.

“Hi,” the man answered, Jongwoon hearing his response only through the earbud in his right ear.

“I’m Jongwoon. Uh maybe we could stand up? This isn’t a comfortable position really.” The man nodded slowly standing up but keeping his hold on Jongwoon’s arm.

“Kyuhyun. I’m Kyuhyun. You can tell your friends that too.” Kyuhyun gestured over to Heechul and Sungmin.

“They can’t hear you, right? Can you hear them?”

“I think you can only hear if you have the earbud in, I can hear everything from your world but only through the earbud.”

“So, you are from a different world.” Kyuhyun nodded. “I’ve been trying to figure that out for a while now. When did you know?”

“Shortly after I first saw you. I was able to see into your world outside of my dreams and could see the passing of time to know you weren’t a ghost or something like that. I think maybe you should fill your friends in some.” Kyuhyun had watched as Sungmin and Heechul had decided it was safe and moved to either side of Jongwoon to inspect Kyuhyun and try to listen in. Jongwoon had not noticed and jumped slightly when he saw the two were suddenly crowding him.

“Guys, this is Kyuhyun, I can only hear him because of the earbud but he can hear all of us.”

“Has he always been able to hear us? Does he know what I’ve been calling him? Is he offended? Should I be worried?”

“Dude shut up. He can hear you right now, so you could address comments to him, you know,” Sungmin told Heechul but immediately turned his attention towards Kyuhyun. “Hi, I’m Sungmin, it’s nice to meet you.” Kyuhyun nodded back in greeting to Sungmin and then looked expectantly at Heechul.

“Heechul. Is anyone going to answer my questions?”

“No, he has no idea what you have been calling him, he could only hear us once we both put in the headphones. But now he is curious,” Jongwoon explained, adding as Kyuhyun spoke to him.

“How do you think he’ll take it? Cause I really didn’t care about how you took it, since we’re best friends and I already knew, and you would have seriously punched me out if it really pissed you off instead of just being a bit annoying.”

“If it helps, my friends called you ‘the red guy’,” Kyuhyun supplied

“Do I wear that much red? I thought my wardrobe was mostly black,” Jongwoon questioned, glancing down to see that he was currently wearing a red tank top today, after he filled in the other two on the nickname.

“It’s not that, it was you wore red a couple times, but then were often in a red car, and always just something red around that stood out. Even now, the moment we could connect, everything turned red for me.”

“Well if my friends were as simple with nicknames as yours, you probably would have been the blue guy, for much of the same reasons. But sadly, that is not Heechul enough. Originally you were labeled as my dream boyfriend because these guys are rude when I told them of the first time I dreamed of you. More recently when they heard everything that was going on, Heechul renamed you my ghost boyfriend.” Kyuhyun looked down and away from them in an attempt to hide the redness he could feel rising on his cheeks.

“Oh, um,” Kyuhyun paused, “I’m not exactly sure how to respond to that. Why?”

“Usually the answer is because he is Heechul, but I guess that would involve you actually knowing him to some degree.”

“Short answer is that he is a pain who likes teasing Jongwoon about anything and everything,” Sungmin supplied. Sungmin had been leaning on Jongwoon’s right side, so even when Jongwoon wasn’t filling them in on both halves of the conversation, he could hear a least a little from the headphone Jongwoon was wearing.

“Wow, rude much? You act like this isn’t an even trade.”

“Oh, trust me, I know it is. I went to high school with both of you, remember. And I work with both of you, so I would have to be an idiot to not know that.”

“Are your friends always like this?” Jongwoon nodded. “Reminds me a little of mine, though maybe not as much in recent times.”

“What happened to change it?” Jongwoon kept his voice low to let Heechul and Sungmin keep to their bickering.

“I happened. Or rather maybe it’s you that happened, but that seems like I’m blaming you and that’s neither accurate or wanted.”

“I can’t exactly say I understand what you mean by that.” Kyuhyun shook his head and let out a breathy laugh.

“I’m not sure what your world is like, but in mine, stuff like this, uh super natural stuff, is not permitted.”

“What do you mean it’s not permitted? I mean how do you decide that?”

“Everything has to have an explanation, or a basis in science. You can claim that other worlds may exist but to claim to be able to see them in both dreams and walking around occasionally without being able to prove it, now you’re dealing with the mystical and have no place in society.”

“And when they decide you don’t have a place in society? What happens then?” Jongwoon was a little afraid of what Kyuhyun would say next, but unfortunately Jongwoon didn’t get the chance to hear it. While they were talking, neither Kyuhyun or he had noticed Sungmin’s phone going off until Sungmin hit Jongwoon in the shoulder to get his attention.

“Hey, we have to go. Boss just called, we have a meeting in twenty minutes, and it takes longer than that to get there. And no, I can’t let you skip it as it involves you. Sorry.” Sungmin threw both Jongwoon and Kyuhyun an apologetic looking knowing what their meeting was interrupting but Sungmin didn’t have much choice.

“Will we be able to talk again,” Jongwoon asked.

“Yeah, I’m always here. Just come to this spot again when you want to talk. I’ll know when you are here.” Kyuhyun explained. Both said a final goodbye, Sungmin and Heechul give a quick one to Kyuhyun and slowly walking ahead. Jongwoon and Kyuhyun hesitated, neither wanting to be the one to break the connection but eventually Kyuhyun let go of Jongwoon’s wrist and took out the earbud. With the connection broken, Kyuhyun disappeared from view along with the headphones and yarn that had guided Jongwoon and his friends in. The only thing that remained was the subtle red glow leading him back to the entrance and back outside.

~

Kyuhyun spent the next few of days sitting around in living barely moving. Originally, he had hoped that Jongwoon would have come back later that day, or at the latest the following day, but four days had passed without Jongwoon appearing. The only time he saw him was once in a dream on the second day, Jongwoon looked to be in a recording studio with his dogs that Kyuhyun recognized from previous dreams. It wasn’t unusual for Jongwoon to not visit the place with the car for a few days, but Kyuhyun had gotten to the point of seeing him in his dreams almost every night and he wished that finally meeting would have increased their connection.

Kyuhyun had definitely been feeling lonelier and more depressed since his and Jongwoon’s meeting. Between Jongwoon’s sudden disappearance and their short conversation, Kyuhyun was feeling too much in his own head. He’s certain he wouldn’t have been eating at all if it weren’t for Ryeowook’s nagging. At first, Ryeowook’s texts forcing him to confirm that he ate, was annoying, but at the moment he is rather thankful for them. He hadn’t told any of his friends about Jongwoon and his meeting yet and wasn’t sure when he would tell them.

Ryeowook, Hyukjae, and Hangeng found him curled up on the couch a couple days later, looking pale and sleep deprived.

“Kyuhyunnie?” Ryeowook spoke gently, giving Kyuhyun a slight nudge to see if he would respond in any way. “Are you okay?”

“No.”

“Oh man, he must be really bad, he answered that honestly,” Hyukjae said in mild shock, but was immediately hit and glared at.

“Are you feeling sick? Does your head hurt? Are you eating okay?” Ryeowook asked rapid fire, while also placing a hand on his forehead to check for a fever.

“I’m eating fine. Maybe a little less but still three normal meals, I didn’t lie to you. Nothing in particular hurts though.”

“Did something happen,” Hangeng asked coming over to squat down next to Ryeowook to face Kyuhyun more directly. Kyuhyun waited a moment and looked between his friends before giving a hesitant nod.

“What happened? When? Why didn’t you call us? Did someone else visit?”

“Ryeowook. Relax and let him tell us. If you keep asking him a bunch of questions at once he won’t be able to answer any of them.” Hyukjae grabbed Ryeowook’s shoulders and gave them a light squeeze to calm him down.

“Can I ask you guys something?” The three all nodded and waited for Kyuhyun to continue. “Did I mess us up?

“What do you mean?” Hangeng asked when it was obvious Kyuhyun wasn’t going to.

“We used to joke around, bicker, tease each other constantly, and play pranks, but since I was shunned out here, it hasn’t been anywhere near where it used to be. It’s my fault, isn’t it?”

“Kyuhyun, this will never be your fault,” Hangeng stated firmly. He forced Kyuhyun to sit up some so he could sit on the couch with Kyuhyun laying against him. “Yes, some things changed, and we don’t behave exactly the same as we used to, but we adjust and adapt to the world around us. Even if the tone of our friendship changes, it won’t change the fact that our friendship still exists as strongly as it ever has. The only one who can take the blame for this is our society that willingly shuns someone because of something they can’t find an explanation to.”

“Thanks, Hangeng.”

“Kyuhyun, what brought this on?” Kyuhyun hesitated at Ryeowook's question, but it was now or never, and he knew he would need and want to tell them eventually.

“I met Jongwoon and his friends Heechul and Sungmin. I saw and listened to his friends bickering and it reminded me of how we used to be and how we aren’t any more.”

“Hold on,” Hyukjae interrupted, “who is Jongwoon?”

“He's who you guys have been referring to as the red guy.”

“Oh, okay. You can continue now.”

“No, he can’t. Just cause your happy with just that much, doesn’t mean the rest of us are. What do you mean you met them? How? And again, when?”

“Almost a week ago. And I used the bridge I made. It worked. It was a strong connection where he could see the yarn and it lead him and his friends, though they couldn’t see it, right to the weak point where I could finally reach through and touch him, and we could actually talk to each other. It was also at that point that his friends could see me as well.”

“Did you get any of the answers you were looking for?” Hangeng asked.

“Not really. He knew of me at least, I’m not sure in what ways exactly but he was sure I was from another world. But our conversation wasn’t that long, so I couldn’t ask him much beyond a couple questions that came up in the moment. His friends had to pull him away for some meeting they were definitely going to be late to. He asked if we could talk again, but it’s been days and I’ve barely even dreamed of him.”

“We’ll yell at him, if that’s possible, if and when he shows up again,” Hyukjae promised causing Kyuhyun to actually laugh a little.

“It’s definitely possible, you just have to be here when he comes back. Though you wouldn’t really be able to hear his response, but you can get the visual reaction.”

“I can live with that. Let’s hope he shows up tonight or tomorrow.”

“Why?”

“Cause that’s what will be easiest since we will already be here,” Hyukjae explained like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“We will?” Ryeowook finally asked after looking to see if either of the other two had an answer.

“Yeah, we will. I mean you guys weren’t thinking of going home tonight when Kyuhyun had a breakdown and needs us, were you? We’re staying and you all know it.”

“I think we were planning on leaving it up to Kyuhyun when it got a little later into the evening, but I guess it’s not going to even be an option for him. I guess Ryeowook and I should call off work now instead of waiting until the morning to do it.”

“What about him?” Ryeowook asked pointing behind him to Hyukjae.

“He got two days off in a row here randomly, so it’s not an issue for him. Not that it’s hard for either of us, he just gets to save a step. And for that, he gets the floor this time.” Hyukjae had huge grin on his face the entire time Hangeng and Ryeowook had been talking, feeling quite pleased with himself until Hangeng’s final statement.

“What? Why am I stuck on the floor? Usually we play a game to decide where we are sleeping.”

“No arguing, it has already been decided. Ryeowook will sleep in Kyuhyun’s bed with him, I will take the couch and you are on the floor. You’re small you’ll find somewhere to sleep even with Kyuhyun’s slight redecorating in order to create his bridge.”

“Fine, but you and Wookie have to work out between the two of you who is cooking and who is on dishes. If I’m sleeping on the floor, I’m not doing them, and we certainly aren’t going to make Kyuhyun do them.”

“That’s fine,” both agreed quickly and in unison.

“Why does that not feel like a victory?” Hyukjae looked over to Kyuhyun for a potential answer and instead got hit with a pillow from the couch.

“Because you told the two who are the cleanest and most particular of the kitchen that they have to take care of the kitchen. So, no, it wasn’t a victory.”

“Come on Kyuhyun, you were supposed to be on my side with this.”

“Nope, not this time. You be stupid on your own.” Hyukjae slumped back into the chair behind him pouting and hoping for some sympathy, but the other three ignored him for their own conversation.

~

“Sungmin, please.” Jongwoon was basically begging at this point, trying to put on his saddest and most pleading look possible. Since their meeting a few days ago, Jongwoon has been stuck in the recording room at work and at home. For the first day or two it was fine, Jongwoon likes working on his music especially when he’s given a little more freedom to play with some of the pre-written songs, but after a short while it becomes tiring when he's not allowed to do anything else. Their bosses gave them a very short timeline to get everything ready so Sungmin has been watching him like a hawk.  Heechul had joined him on the second day in order to record some of the changes Jongwoon had made since Heechul plays more instruments than Jongwoon and it's easier than trying to get their usual recording band in. He was also recording some back vocals for a few songs and Jongwoon was trying to convince him to do a full song together for this.

“One night off isn’t going to delay him. We still have three days to finish everything and we are already ahead of schedule for once. Just give the dude the night.” Heechul argued in Jongwoon's favor, feeling tired himself and knowing what Jongwoon wanted to do with the rest of his evening. “Besides, you’ve been here as much as we have and need some rest too.”

“If I let you guys go now, you have to be here absolutely first thing in the morning. Like not even a minute late.”

“Thanks, Sungmin,” Jongwoon said, immediately walking out of the recording room they were working in and heading back to his usual one before Sungmin could stop him.

“Wait, Jongwoon I said ‘if’, I didn’t actually say yes.”

“Too late, you gave him the opening and he took it. You were going to say yes anyways. I’ll make sure he’s good and gets some sleep tonight. See you in the morning.” Sungmin was left alone in the studio feel a little defeated but if he’s honest with himself, he could use the extra couple of hours to recuperate too.

Heechul reached Jongwoon’s studio before he finished packing thankfully. He knows Jongwoon is planning on heading straight to the factory to try and contact Kyuhyun again, but Heechul also knows that Jongwoon never bothers driving to work and would instead either bike or walk all the way out there.

“Hey, wait up a moment for me to grab my stuff, okay?” Heechul had patted Jongwoon gently on the shoulder, noticing that his bag was all packed and ready to go and he was just about to put on his coat.

“Why?”

“I’m going with, of course. One, I actually brought my car. Two, you’re tired and I promised Sungmin I would make sure you got some sleep tonight. And lastly, just being general back up for you in order to fulfill my own curiosity.”

“You’re not going to secretly take me home instead, right?”

“Nope.” Heechul stated simply.

“Alright, then hurry up, I’ll be waiting by your car.” Heechul sighed, glancing back to see Jongwoon had indeed left, and finished zipping up his bag so he could follow just a moment later.

“Are you worried,” Heechul asked as they were entering the building, neither having said anything during the drive over.

“Yeah. You think he might be mad that I had to cut our first meeting short and then disappeared for four days?”

“No idea. We barely met him, that’s not really long enough to determine how he would react. It’s not like our bosses gave you much of an option and if his world has cell phones, I doubt either of your phone companies work cross worlds for you to have been able to send him a message.”

“I’m not sure that’s making me feel more confident about this.”

“Who said I was actually trying to make you more confident?” Heechul deadpanned. “I’m just stating facts. He’ll react how he will, you’ll explain why, and we’ll go from there.”

“Thanks.” The two continued on quietly, trying to remember their way without the help of the yarn to follow. Thankfully the chairs were all still in the same spots to be used as markers. When they got back to the chairs with the lamp, both were unsure of how to proceed. “He said to just show up here and he would know.”

“That’s all he said?”

“Yeah.”

“I don’t think that’s very helpful. How do we know he is actually aware of the fact that we are here? And how do we know he’s not going to ignore us if he is mad?”

“All he said was that he would know. It’s not like we had much time to expand on that. Besides he definitely seemed more knowledgeable on this stuff than we are.”

“Hey,” Kyuhyun said suddenly sitting up and getting everyone's attention from the movie they were watching. “He's back.”

“Who?” Hyukjae was the one to ask.

“Jongwoon.”

“What do we do? Or rather what are you going to do?” Hangeng asked.

“I want to talk to him.”

“Okay.”

“You guys can come too.” Kyuhyun stated as they all watched him approach his yarn portal as they chose to dub it earlier in the day. Once the permission was given, the three followed Kyuhyun, carefully stepping over the same low point as he did. They stood around Kyuhyun, feeling awkward especially since the space didn’t allow them a ton room to move around in, just watching what Kyuhyun did. He simply closed his eyes and held his hands in front of him, palms up. As soon as his eyes were open again, the group was no longer standing in Kyuhyun's house but rather in a dark and obviously old building's hallway with two other men staring at them. One had been sitting in one of the chairs and the other looked like he had been pacing. Once they noticed Kyuhyun, the one who had been pacing quickly approached and took an earbud from the headphones now laying in Kyuhyun's hands. They each placed an earbud in their own ears just as they had them last time.

“Hi. I'm sorry I’m late, I promise I didn’t mean to make you wait this long.” Jongwoon apologized once he knew Kyuhyun could hear him.

“Why did you then?”

“You remember we got called away for a meeting last time.” Kyuhyun nodded. “Well I’m a singer and the meeting was about my next album and they have only given me a week to put together a fully fleshed out demo. If they approve, we record the final versions, if they don't, my chances of doing something mostly self-written and some style experimenting might get crushed. So, Heechul and I have been stuck in the recording studio since the meeting. I had to practically beg Sungmin to let us go early today so I could come here.”

“You’re a singer?”

“Yeah.” Jongwoon was about to say more, but Heechul had interrupted him.

“Kyuhyun, how do you say your one friend’s name? I got Ryeowook and Hyukjae, but I’m not sure of the last one.” Jongwoon glanced over to see Heechul still sitting in the chair, but he had grabbed out a notebook and was using it to write notes to Kyuhyun’s friends that Jongwoon had barely even noticed were there but had also gained notebooks. Each notebook so far only had a couple things written most notably was their names.

“Where did you get that notebook? I thought you left your bag in your car.”

“I did. But you didn’t.”

“What notebook are you using?” Jongwoon was feeling mildly panicked by this point.

“You’re newest lyrics one. You only had like two things written in it, so I figured it would be the best one.”

“Why would you use my lyrics book?”

“Would you rather I used your Kyuhyun Journal?”

“You have a me journal?”

“Maybe, I would have,” Jongwoon said to Heechul before turning back to Kyuhyun. “Kind of. It was just notes I made from the dreams I had of you and what I saw when I was here. Like the yarn and a couple of other things, but I’m sure you know about those.”

“I’ll buy you a new notebook later and rewrite the couple of pages you had if you want. But seriously, his name, I have no idea how to pronounce it by just looking at it.”

“Oh, his name is Hangeng.” Kyuhyun told Jongwoon to pass on to Heechul. It took him a couple of tries but Heechul was able to get it with relative ease. Once Kyuhyun and Jongwoon confirmed he had the right pronunciation, Heechul gave Kyuhyun’s three friends a thumbs up.  

“Thanks, you guys can go back to your conversation now.” Jongwoon rolled his eyes, but Heechul ignored him and had already gone back to writing in the notebook to begin whatever conversation he was going to have with Kyuhyun’s friends.

“Well I guess we can talk without worrying about them now.” Kyuhyun said, drawing Jongwoon’s attention back to himself.

“Yeah, who knows what they will say though. They could spill all our secrets and embarrassing stories.”

“We can spill theirs too though. Besides, I’m not sure about you and your friends, but generally we wait a little while before we start giving away that information.”

“Usually I would agree, but Heechul is known to be a little loose lipped,” Jongwoon revealed.

“Ah, so you are worried about your secrets being revealed. Maybe I should ask them tonight if they learned anything fun.”

“Now I really am worried.” Kyuhyun laughed a little, definitely making a mental note to ask if his friends found out anything interesting.

“You said you were a singer? What kind of music?” Kyuhyun turned their conversation back to their previous topic.

“Ballads mostly. I started by doing a lot of songs for drama soundtracks. But now I have a couple of my own albums. According to Sungmin, I’m still very desired for soundtracks but the company decides which ones I do or not and when. I also have a couple of singles that are more like dance tracks, though my dancing ability is a little lacking.”

“And this new album? You said you were experimenting.”

“Yeah, most of my stuff has been written by others, including Heechul, but I wanted a chance to write my own music. I also wanted to look at other styles than just ballads, so there are a couple songs that are more rock like, a trot song, and even a punk song. I still have a couple ballads on it though, but they are written solely by me.”

“That’s quite the change in styles, are you sure they will go over well?”

“I don’t know. But I wanted to give it a shot before I regret not trying at all.”

“I think I can understand that. You'll have to let me listen to your album when it is ready.”

“Sure, I'll bring a copy along for a us to listen to as soon as it is ready to be released. But now you know what I do, what do you do over in your world?”

“Well a couple years ago I was shunned, so I currently play video games, read, and figure out everything I could that revolved around you. That included trying to figure out, why I could see you and your world, why you, if you could see me, and how to contact you.” Jongwoon was shocked at the revelation that Kyuhyun had been shunned from his society, but Kyuhyun gave him a soft smile to try and tell him it was okay before he continued talking. “Before all of that though, I was coincidentally, a composer and musician.”

“Well now, if I have to bring you some of my music, I only think it’s fair you return the favor next time too and share your own music.”

“I can agree to that. I’ll see what I have around for you to listen to when you bring me your album.”

“Awesome.” Jongwoon said. The conversation took a pause for a couple of minutes after their agreement. Kyuhyun had much he wanted to ask, but he waited as it seemed Jongwoon had something on his mind, and he decided he would wait for Jongwoon to figure out what he wanted to say first. “I hope you don’t mind me asking,” Jongwoon started finally, “but did you figure out anything about us? You said you were trying to find out why whatever force pushed us together did, did you?”

“No. I figured out how to contact you, and I may have figured out why I can, though that’s mostly based in legends, but as to why your world, and why you, I have no clue. Were the dreams the only way you saw me? At least until I started trying to contact you?” Jongwoon nodded. “So far the only references I’ve had in legends with communications between worlds have been of people with equal power to view the other. Basically, like priestesses, wizards, mages, shamans, anyone with supposed magical powers reaching and communicating with another person of similar abilities from the other world.”

“And do you count as any of those? I mean like are you a mage or shaman or something?”

“No. The closest I found to match myself is a Whisper. Mages and all of them have other abilities besides communicating with other worlds. But a Whisper's only power is to see and contact of worlds. So, no, I can’t do any kind of magic.”

“Well that certainly would have made things more fun,” Jongwoon suggested.

“May have made me a science experiment instead of being shunned though,” Kyuhyun countered.

“Yeah that part would . Worse than being shunned I imagine. So, I take back the fun part.”

“Now you have me debating on whether these guys plus whatever magically abilities I would have would be able to break me out of whatever lab they would’ve kept me in.” Kyuhyun looked over at his friends, still chatting with Heechul via notebooks, he couldn’t make out the pieces of conversation from the angle he was at, but he wasn’t attempting to. Jongwoon glanced over himself, not actually knowing Kyuhyun's friends beyond their names, but he attempted to size them up anyways. When that failed, he asked Heechul.

“Hey Chul, hypothetical question.” Heechul stopped what he was writing to look at Jongwoon which also caused Hangeng, Hyukjae, and Ryeowook to look over as well. “You've been talking to his friends, if he had actual magic and instead of getting shunned was captured in order to have experiments done on him, what do you think the likelihood would be of them being able to break him out?” By the end of the question, Heechul was giving Jongwoon a completely dumbfounded look.

“What the hell conversation are you two having that that is a question I am being asked? And from first thought, maybe. Depends on security, layout, location, how much help Kyuhyun would be once they got to him, and how thoroughly they planned. Hangeng can fight it seems like, and Ryeowook sounds like he could plan, but I don’t know if that would be enough.”

“I'm not sure what's worse, the fact that you asked him, or the fact that even though he questioned it, he gave a legitimate answer.”

“We both do it, and it annoys everyone we know. They would rather we just give the answer without questioning it or question it without a response.”

“Though, I still have to wonder where Hyukjae falls in this since he mentioned Hangeng and Wookie.” Jongwoon repeated the question back to Heechul, not needing to get his attention again since all of them were still focused on Kyuhyun and Jongwoon.

“Hyukjae seems like a wild card. He has moments where he seems pretty smart and logical, as well as athletic, but also is the person who would trip the alarm in the most idiotic way possible and ruin the whole mission or just make it ten times more difficult.”

“That sounds about right.” Kyuhyun attempted to mime his agreement to Heechul so Jongwoon didn’t have to translate.

“What are you guys talking about? What about me? Where do I fall in what, and what was said about these two,” Hyukjae questioned, getting annoyed at being left out of the conversation.

“I'll tell you later. And now I’m also curious as to what you guys were talking about so we'll swap stories later.”

“Jongwoon, you know it’s going on one in the morning, right?” Heechul asked while Kyuhyun was talking to his friends. “We did promise Sungmin that we would be in bright and early, and I promised I would make sure you got some sleep, so maybe we need to end the conversation soon. We especially need to end it soon if your conversations are getting that weird.”

“It can’t be that late already,” Jongwoon said dumbfounded.

“We didn’t leave the studio until after midnight. We only left early in comparison to staying until two. I’m not stopping your conversation, but I am saying to pay attention to the time, we need more than just a couple hours of sleep tonight.”

“Alright.”

“Everything good?” Kyuhyun asked, having been trying not to listen into their conversation when he and his friends finished their own.

“Yeah, just discussing the time.”

“You have to leave already again?”

“No, not quite yet. We still have time to talk some more. But we can’t stay too late as part of Heechul’s deal with Sungmin to leave early was working early tomorrow, or rather today.”

“Sungmin was the other one with you last time, right?” Jongwoon nodded. “He’s your boss?”

“He’s just our manager, not our actual boss. But we’ve been friends since high school. He’s a grade under Heechul and I. While we went to University for music and joined the entertainment company we’re with now, he went to school for business and music. So, when he joined our company, instead of being a musician, he became a manager.”

“Don’t they usually not put friends together in that kind of situation?”

“He wasn’t made our manager right away, but it wasn’t long before they figured he was the only one who could deal with either Heechul or myself. When we started we had separate managers, and while it wasn’t necessarily our intentions, we became notorious for being difficult and refusing to follow directions.”

“Who are you kidding? That was totally my intentions from the start,” Heechul butted in. “We said we weren’t going to take from anyone or get turned into the company’s plaything that they could change to fit whatever vision they wanted at a moment’s notice. I don’t know what you thought that would mean, but to them, it meant we were going to be difficult.”

“Anyways, since Sungmin knew us, he knew how to deal with us and convince us to do some of the things the company wants. We still argue and try to get as close to our way as we can, but Sungmin acts as the mediator.”

“Now I’m kind of glad that I basically worked for myself and didn’t have to fight with a company constantly. Sometimes I got hired by a company to write a song for an artist, but otherwise, I only had to follow my own rules.”

“It was bad to work for yourself?”

“It was worse at the beginning, but I rarely had anyone forcing a deadline on me to keep me focused, and then I had to sell my work to orchestras. Which when you are first starting out and have no name to back you up, it’s a matter of catching the right person and convincing them to listen to your work and then to buy it. Thankfully I had a former professor who would pass some of the ones he personally liked onto the orchestra director he often performed with. But beyond that, I didn’t have much until I got enough music out there that my name was recognizable. By the end, I was being requested to compose, and even performing myself with a couple of the larger orchestras. With your company, they at least handle the selling and promoting process.”

“I see how that’s troublesome. Here we don’t have the option to be without a company. Independent artists don’t exist outside of small venue performances. There just isn’t anyway to compete for recognition without a company backing and promoting you. Unfortunately, the companies use that to control their artists to being exactly what they want them to be instead of giving the artists freedom to do what they envision. We got lucky that our company allows some freedom, otherwise they probably would have immediately ended our contracts.”

“Seems like the music business is a pain in the no matter which way you do it.  As much as I miss composing, I don’t miss all the other stuff that comes with it.”

“You haven’t composed anything since your shunning?” Jongwoon asked.

“No. And even if I did, it would just be something that gathers dust here. I can’t sell anything, I’ve been blacklisted with this shunning basically.”

“Have you thought of using a pseudonym?”

“Wookie suggested that to me near the beginning but there wasn’t any way I was going to be composing back then. And even if I did, I was always told by other people in the business, especially directors and conductors, that they could always tell what pieces I composed without needing to see my name written. If my music is that recognizable, I didn’t want to deal with the backlash of trying to fool the system with a pseudonym. Besides, I would have to try to sell my stuff as an unknown again, and that wouldn’t be easy as I wouldn’t have any connections to get me started this time.”

“I’d say you could compose for my world, but I doubt there would be an actual way for us to pay you.”

“Yeah, I don’t think checks work across worlds. No way for the banks to process it. Probably. I’m not a banker and really wouldn’t know, but I highly doubt it. I’m also not sure of a way to physically send objects between worlds. I can make them visible to you, but just to you and others who can sense other worlds, but once I close the link, to leave the item behind even if I were to hand it to you as we are now, I think is impossible.”

“I didn’t even think of that part of the problem. But that’s probably because you’re the one actually dealing with the whole magic side of this. I feel like I’ve been mostly on the receiving end. Getting the dreams and seeing what you force visible to my side, the most I’ve had to do was to follow your lead. I haven’t even done any research like you have, but I honestly wasn’t entirely sure what I was dealing with to get a starting point. I probably could have tried harder to, but I just waited to get new pieces of information from you. Maybe I should start pulling my weight to figure out what’s going on in addition to what you already know.”

“I think the only thing I would be surprised to hear is that you didn’t even try to look up information on dreams. I tried, but it’s hard to come by that stuff here, even looking in the old legends and writings.”

“I didn’t think about that,” Jongwoon admitted a little guiltily. “It never even crossed my mind to look up dream guides.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, not even once. It’s not like I thought about it and never did it, the thought just straight up never occurred to me.”

“Okay, now I think you’re lacking some effort,” Kyuhyun sighed, which was quickly turned into a yawn.

“Well I know somewhere to start and can try to cross reference some things you already discovered and see what my world knows. But it looks like you’re getting tired, so maybe we should call it a night?”

“I don’t want to yet,” Kyuhyun almost whined at the suggestion.

“You’re tired, I think your friends might be tired too,” Jongwoon said glancing back at their friends, Ryeowook already leaning against Hangeng with his eyes closed, Hyukjae looking like he could fall asleep at any moment as well.  “And we know Heechul and I need sleep. So, we can stop here. It might be another couple days but I’ll be back to talk as soon as I can. In the meantime, you can figure out which songs you want me to listen to of yours.”

“Fine. I shouldn’t let them sleep like that anyways. But don’t be more than a couple of days this time.”

“I’ll figure a way to tell you if I can’t. I have no idea how, but I’ll come up with something.”

“I guess, goodnight then.”

“Yeah, night.” Jongwoon looked over to Heechul. “Hey, Chulie, it’s time to say goodnight.”

“You’re ready,” Heechul asked?

“Yeah, we’re all tired. We noticed his friends are starting to fall asleep too.”

“Alright. Goodnight Kyuhyun.” Jongwoon and Kyuhyun watched as he wrote another quick message on the notebook to show the remaining three, or rather just Hangeng as it looked as though Hyukjae had fallen against Hangeng’s other shoulder, fast asleep. When Hangeng acknowledged the message and gave his own goodbyes, waking the other two in the process to mumble their own, Kyuhyun and Jongwoon removed the earbuds, and Kyuhyun closed the connection.

“You mind if I crash at your place,” Heechul asked when they were getting close to his house. Both had just quietly grabbed their stuff and headed to the car afterward, not bothering to say anything for most of the trip back to town.

“Why do you bother asking? The answer is always the same.”

“To be polite? Or maybe there comes a night were you actually do mind and want me to leave you alone.”

“You, polite?”

“Rude.” Jongwoon managed a small laugh but it was obviously weighed down by how tired he was. He had barely noticed when Heechul pulled up to his house until the engine turned off. Heechul opened the door for them, and immediately two dogs were racing down the steps to greet them. Jongwoon felt bad for leaving them alone when his schedule was like this, but that’s half the reason he got Melo was to help keep Kkoming company. They also had free access to fenced in backyard from the backdoor and plenty of food and water, so he knew they would be okay.

“Maybe I should take the pups with us tomorrow, everyone loves seeing them at the company. I think they need to get out and get extra attention since this week has probably been hard on them too.”

“Sure. You can also hand one to Sungmin whenever he gets frustrated, that’ll distract him.”

“I don’t think we should use my dogs to control Sungmin.”

“Don’t lie like that.” Instead of arguing, Jongwoon just glared at Heechul.

“Just go to bed.” Jongwoon could hear Heechul laughing even as he headed upstairs to his room, completely ready to crash in his own bed.

~

The following day, Kyuhyun’s friends all bugged him to hear what kind of conversation Kyuhyun had with Jongwoon. After telling them about his own, Kyuhyun asked after their conversation with Heechul and was rather disappointed that the conversation was actually pretty basic. A serious of the standard questions, like age, job, how they all knew each other, and hobbies. Probably the most interesting question, was Heechul had asked them what they knew of Kyuhyun and Jongwoon’s situation, however, Kyuhyun already knew the answer to that.

His friends managed to stay for the majority of the day, which is the longest they have all been together in a long time. Between talking to Jongwoon again and having the time with his friends, Kyuhyun was feeling better than he has in years if he’s honest. And the best part to him, is that his friends have finally seen the person who has become a major part of Kyuhyun’s life in the last few years.

Since he had his friends for the day, he had forced them into helping him pick out a few of his songs to let Jongwoon listen to next time they met.

“Do you think you’re figuring out anything new since you have started talking to him?” Ryeowook asked while flipping through Kyuhyun’s CDs.

“Not much yet. I do know that he only has the dreams, so obviously he’s not a Whisper or any other type of magic user. So, I think part of the next question is why does he have the dreams? What is it about him that can let him see what I force through and why are we connected?”

“How will we get those answers,” Hangeng asked.

“Well hopefully he will be looking for answers in his world now, and well I think we need to look for any cases that are more specific to his situation and not mine.”

“So, we look for any cases of non-magic people dreaming of other worlds only. I feel like we have seen something about it already but since it didn’t meet all the requirements we set it aside. You know it’ll be extra difficult to find again.” Hyukjae said.

“I don’t remember it, but that doesn’t mean you didn’t find it yourself and not tell me because it didn’t fit.” Hangeng added.

“Probably.”

“Well I think we can get back to the library tomorrow after work. I think the librarians are going to get suspicious of us constantly studying the old books for magic based stuff.”

“We told them we were researching myths and legends for work. I’m not sure they believe us.”

“It’s not like looking at that stuff is illegal,” Kyuhyun said.

“I think they get worried we’re obsessed with it and will start believing it’s true. Though obviously we know there is some truth to it,” Hyukjae added.

“There is that one librarian who brought up Kyuhyun’s shunning when we were looking. He seemed cool and a little more level headed than most. Only seen him a couple other times though. We didn’t bother to bring up that we’re your friends or that we are researching for you,” Hangeng said.

“Who? That Siwon guy?” Ryeowook asked.

“Yeah, him. I think he might actually be religious himself, but we never asked to confirm it.”

“He was too nosey in my opinion,” Hyukjae complained. “I'm not worried about him saying anything, but he just wanted to chat and know what we were researching specifically and was just butting in too much.”

“Yeah, he was a little weird like that. But we'll bring over any relevant information or email it to you if it’s just a page or two we can scan in “

“Thanks guys.”

“Unfortunately, it'll be just Hyuk and Geng researching again this week. We've got a tight schedule at work and I won’t be able to find the time. Sorry,” Ryeowook apologized.

“You worry about your job, you’re the one amount us who has the strictest scheduling. Hyuk and I are much more flexible, besides we don’t mind holding up in the library for a few hours. You hate it though.”

“I don’t even know why. I could spend all day researching in the library when we were in college.”

“Maybe that’s why,” Kyuhyun joked.

“Shut and pick out music. Hyuk and Hangeng have already passed me three or four songs apiece to put on this playlist while we’ve been talking, and you haven’t given me one.”

“I don’t know. This is why I’m making you guys pick them in the first place.”

“You’re hopeless sometimes,” Ryeowook sighed, “You need to pick out at least one. Whichever song you feel the proudest of, even if it wasn’t your most popular. There has to be at least one that you feel he needs to listen to.”

“Fine.”

~

“Where are you going?” Heechul asked as they were leaving the company building. They had their meeting for Jongwoon's album which was almost completely approved by their boss. There were two songs he didn’t like. One he just felt needed some changes and the other he suggested with some work could be on a different album. Just not this one.  All in all, it was a good meeting in Jongwoon's opinion. Heechul was also going to feature on two songs officially and they would begin the final recordings in a week when the recording band was free.

“To the library. I want to see if I can find any information this time before I see him. It's not fair that he's been the only one to do any sort of research.”

“And what are you going to search for?”

“Well I want to see if I can find any mentions of Whisper’s or people who are like Whispers but just go by another name in our world. I also want to see if there are any references to someone who is similar to me in this situation.”

“And what would be considered similar to you?”

“Someone who dreams of other worlds only. That seems to be the only thing I can do.”

“Hey, don’t go putting yourself down like that.” Heechul attempted to sound serious and concerned but Jongwoon knew in this situation he was just being a pain.

“, you know I’m strictly talking about this situation. Now I’m leaving so I don’t make him wait all day for me to show up.”

“And leave me behind?” Although Jongwoon had started walking away, he stopped to turn back around and give Heechul a question look.

“You said you were going home to log on and play games on your computer since you had the rest if the day off.”

“That was when I assumed you were going straight to him to talk for like six hours.”

“And?”

“Well now that you’re not doing that, I’m coming with you,” Heechul said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Just to the library at least, you can still go talk to him on your own.”

“Why?”

“I said I was helping you. So that means I’m helping with all of it, including whatever research that needs to be done.”

“You know you don’t have to.”

“Obviously. Are we walking?”

“Well I was going to.”

“Alright, then let’s go.” Heechul grabbed Jongwoon, linking their arms together as he turned him around and took off towards the library.

“Ugh, this is just some poorly written sci-fi novel. Why did we grab this one?” Heechul set the book down and slumped over the table. Jongwoon and Heechul had occupied one of the larger tables in the back of the library and had it covered in stacks of books. Jongwoon himself had just walked back to the table after returning one pile of books and grabbing a new pile.

“Because it mentioned dreams and other worlds. Sometimes novels contain information that others would consider fantasy. Not everyone will, so yes, sometimes it’s just badly written .”

“We've been here an hour and haven’t found anything that seems even slightly likely. Have you even looked for a dream decoder? Wasn’t that one of the first things you were going to investigate?”

“It was. I have already looked through a couple of them. I don’t think we're going to get any useful information out of them,” Jongwoon said.

“What? Why not?”

“They were all, pull out every little item or concept that appeared in your dream and find the symbolism in that. And even trying to at least look up the symbolism of the main stuff, like Kyuhyun, the color blue, and even his house, most of what I got was, ‘a stranger represents the parts of yourself that are repressed or hidden’. Or ‘blue can represent sadness, or it can be wisdom and truth and so on’, it was all how the parts of your dream reflect yourself. In this situation, I don’t think it counts as an actual dream in the same context that these books are analyzing.”

“Well when your dreams are actually you peering into another world, they probably don’t count.”

“That leaves us searching though potentially trashy novels and maybe not so crazy spiritual books then.”

“Ugh, you could’ve left that on a more positive note,” Heechul whined but grabbed the next book to skim through.

Two hours later and Jongwoon was about ready to give up for the day. He had been keeping track of every book they looked through in his notebook with the plans of typing it onto his laptop later so the next time he came, he could check which books they had previously searched through. He was certain the book he was currently looking through had nothing of interest, and thankfully was the last in one of the piles which would make for a good stopping point.

“Hey, this might actually be interesting,” Heechul said getting Jongwoon’s attention. “This book has talked about psychics mostly, but there is a type called a ‘Dreamer’. Dreamers are psychics who receive premonitions in their dreams to varying degrees of clarity.”

“I’m pretty sure these are not dreams of the future.”

“I wasn’t done,” Heechul quipped. “It also says that some dreamers can have premonitions of things beyond their own world. So, you could be a dreamer, just a sub-group that can view other worlds in their dreams. It could just be that whoever wrote this, hadn’t heard of any dreamer actually contacting someone from another world to know that they are real time events and not premonitions.”

“I suppose that’s possible. Does it say anything else?”

“The only other thing I read was there are some who are often considered dreamers, however, the only dreams they receive are those relating to their soulmates and it’s a debate on whether these people can actually be considered dreamers or not.”

“Don’t even think it. Kyuhyun and I are not ‘soulmates’.” Jongwoon used air quotes when he said soulmates.

“I didn’t say anything. That’s just what was written in the book.” Heechul attempted to act as innocent as possible.

“You were thinking about saying something about it. I know you.”

“Sure,” Heechul said as sarcastically as he could muster. “I’m going to take this book home and take a peek if there are any similar ones by the same author really quick. You should pack up and head out to meet him. I’m sure both of you are eager to have a truly private conversation that can go on for as long as you wish.”

“Alright. I’ll mention this stuff to him, see if he happened to read anything similar.”

“I figured you would. Let me know everything later and call if you need anything. I have to head back to the company to pick up my car.”

“Sure. See you later.” Heechul had grabbed the stacks on his half of the table to put in the return to shelf bin and headed off in search for the other books he wanted, if they existed. Jongwoon quickly finished packing up his stuff and returning the remaining books before he left to meet Kyuhyun.

~

“A dreamer? I don’t remember reading anything that used that title but if it didn’t fit with what you were saying, I may have glossed over it. I can head back over in a couple of hours and see if I find anything,” Hangeng said. Kyuhyun had called him the day following his most recent meeting with Jongwoon to see if the couple of things Jongwoon found matched up with anything Hangeng had read.

“I don’t recall anything at least similar to a dreamer in the few books you brought me, but they seem to be more focused on whispers and those similar to whispers.”

“We did that on purpose you know. Anything else interesting happen?”

“I had him listen to my music. He definitely enjoyed it, kept saying how much he loved it. His album got mostly approved, but he has a small break before they really get to work on it, so we’ll have more chances to talk until then. Otherwise, we just talked about anything and everything under the sun. I think we spent around 5 hours just talking.”

“Sounds like you two had fun then.” Hangeng gave a light chuckle.

“We did. It’s weird to think that we’ve only meet a couple of times, but we click really well together.”

“Didn’t he mention something about soulmates?”

“Yes, but not in context for us. We’re not soulmates.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“As out there as some of this stuff is, soulmate is just too far out there for one. Two, we are from different worlds, we can only temporarily exist in the same space, there isn’t a logical way for soulmates to be a thing.”

“You’re trying to put logic into something that has defied everything we knew to be logical for our entire lives,” Hangeng said, sounding very skeptical of Kyuhyun’s reasoning.

“Do you think he and I are soulmates?”

“I don’t know. But, I’m not going to rule out something entirely until we can prove it’s not the case.”

“I’m still saying we’re not.” Hangeng rolled his eye, even knowing that Kyuhyun was unable to see him, but said nothing more on the subject. The two had continued talking for a short while longer until Hangeng needed to return to work.

When Hangeng returned to the library later in the day, Hyukjae was already there. He noticed Siwon was sitting at the desk and gave him a friendly nod before meeting with Hyukjae. While he did not mind Siwon, he had no desire to make conversation with him this time.

“So, Kyuhyun called you,” Hyukjae asked.

“Yeah. Jongwoon and Heechul found something, though for the most part it doesn’t match Jongwoon, but it was the only thing that seemed to have a possibility. I guess Heechul is looking into it further.” Hangeng filled Hyukjae in on all the information that Kyuhyun gave him on dreamers, and the two went to look through the books.

“He denied the soulmates part, didn’t he?”

“Without hesitation,” Hangeng confirmed. “What are you thinking?”

“To be honest, it sounds plausible to me. I mean it would answer one of the biggest questions, which is why Jongwoon. Why do his dreams and visions focus on Jongwoon? And why can Jongwoon dream of Kyuhyun if he isn’t a whisper or any other kind of person who can communicate between worlds? In all our research, we have not found any thing about a whisper focusing on a single person the way Kyuhyun is.”

“I agree. I don’t know that it one hundred percent is the answer, but I think it’s worth keeping in mind.”

“Until we find something else, it’s the best fitting explanation,” Hyukjae said.

With how well Hangeng and Hyukjae knew that section of the library it wasn’t long until they found something. A book similar to what they had been told Heechul found, had talked in detail about dreamers. The description also matched however, it did not have any mention of those who dreamed of their soulmates.

“Didn’t he say that their book said that the soulmate one was up for debate?” Hyukjae asked.

“Yeah. Maybe our world classifies them as something else. It’s kind of nice to know that there are some of these things that are the same including the name in both our worlds.”

“I know there is a book on soulmates in here somewhere. Should we look and see if they are mentioned in there?”

“Kyuhyun might not agree, but hey, he asked us to see if there was anything that matched their findings. That would also mean looking up the soulmates part.”

“I’ll go find the book, you go and copy those pages,” Hyukjae ordered. Hangeng gave him a little grief about being bossy but went ahead to copy the pages. Hyukjae had seen the book in one of the earlier research trips but hadn’t thought anything of it at the time. The only reason he remembers it, is because it was in a section that he kept taking other books from and had to keep moving it to fit them back in place. It also helped that it was bright red when most of the other books where more neutral toned. Quickly finding the book, Hyukjae returned to their table and started looking through the table of contents. Not finding anything about dreamers, he looked for anything else that could be similar in nature.

“What’s this one?” Hangeng asked. He had returned not long after Hyukjae and was scanning the pages over his shoulder.

“Sleeper?”

“Yeah, could be something useful.” Hyukjae shrugged but went ahead and flipped to the page number listed. “A type of soulmates who only view their soulmates when they are sleeping,” Hangeng began to read aloud. “Until connecting in person, a sleeper will only know who their soulmate is through images or dreams when they are asleep. The dreams can come as either real time viewing of their soulmate, or their soulmate will be a prevalent figure in more obscure dream settings based on the sleeper’s own subconscious. Sleepers are more common when one’s soulmate is further away from them. In example, a far-off country, or even a different world from their own. Frequently both soulmates are sleepers, or one has some level of spiritual ability.”

“That fits Jongwoon and Kyuhyun pretty well. Think we should tell him?” Hyukjae asked when Hangeng finished reading.

“No. We’ll keep the pages, but for now, we won’t say anything about it. We’ll just be vague and tell him they should investigate sleepers. We’ll see how their side handles it first.”

~

“How are we supposed to find information on sleepers if we don’t know what they are exactly?” Heechul complained.

A few days after Hangeng and Hyukjae’s discoveries, Heechul and Jongwoon made it back into the library themselves. Kyuhyun had passed on the message to search for something called a sleeper and could only tell them that it was similar to some of their findings of dreamers and seemed to fit well. It seemed as though they had not informed Kyuhyun of the full detail of their findings either.

“They found dreamers, so it’s possible we will find sleepers too.”

“Also, what is with all of these names? They are all so simple and rather literal, Whisper, Dreamer, Sleeper. Couldn’t have come up with something more fun?”

“Shut up. It makes them easy to remember and you know what they are. Also, we don’t actually know what a sleeper is.”

“They said it’s similar to dreamer, so I can only imagine it has to do with someone who has whatever is special about them while they sleep,” Heechul said.

“That’s a way to put it. Just keep looking.”

For their last couple of days of their vacation, Jongwoon and Heechul continued searching for anything that may have been about sleepers or otherwise fit Jongwoon’s situation, but to no avail. And Kyuhyun had not informed them of any other new information on his end of things. Heechul had continued the search online as well, even searching out self-proclaimed psychics, but could not find anything new or relevant to them. Over time, exhausting all of their resources, slowly each side began to give up their search. While most of their friends still believed that the soul mates route is the most accurate explanation, Kyuhyun and Jongwoon refuse to believe it. They rather assume that Jongwoon is just either receptive to Kyuhyun as a whisper, or he is of a group of people never written about before.

While during Jongwoon's short vacation Kyuhyun and he had met every day, when Jongwoon went to work on his new album and began all the work for his comeback and promotions, they had to delay many of their meetings. Jongwoon made sure that they had time to meet up at least once a week, more often trying to make it three times. Heechul had often needed to fetch Jongwoon so he wasn’t late to some of his schedules. By the end of his main promotions, the two had made a regular schedule that both could easily work with and keep Jongwoon out of trouble.

Though everything seemed happy and calm for the last month or so, Heechul wasn’t so sure it would remain. He had tried bringing it up to Jongwoon, but he kept insisting that everything was fine. So, Heechul went to Sungmin, hoping he would have similar thoughts.

“Consequences? Like what” Sungmin asked. Heechul had pulled him aside in one of the training rooms to talk that morning.

“I don’t know exactly, but I just have a feeling.”

“Heechul, I’m not one to outright dismiss your hunches, but usually you have a little more to work with.”

“I've tried looking, but there is very little about any of this especially to this degree and I’ve tried looking down the path of what happens to soul mates from different worlds, and I’ve found nothing other than the different types of soul mates.”

“And Kyuhyun's friends? Have they looked for anything?”

“I'm not even sure Jongwoon has brought it up to Kyuhyun for them to look” Heechul said.

“Are you sure then that you shouldn’t just take Woon’s insistence to heart?”

“No matter how many times he says there isn’t anything to worry about, I can’t shake this feeling I have. As happy as I am for him to be so close with Kyuhyun and at least know he wasn’t going crazy for years, they are constantly blurring the lines between our worlds. How long until that line becomes permanently blurred? Every time someone messes with other worlds or time in all those sci-fi books you read as kids, there are major consequences to deal with. Why would our situation be any different?”

“Those are stories, Chul.”

“We thought this stuff was just fantasy and myths until a couple months ago. Why should we dismiss this?”

“Are you sure the feeling isn’t just jealousy at maybe losing your best friend to Kyuhyun?”

“I wondered that at first, too,” Heechul admitted. “But it’s not that, I’m not jealous of Kyuhyun, I’m scared of what might happen to them if whatever possible consequences I’m fearing come true.”

“I know you said you looked, but I don’t think you can convince them without something to back up your feelings. Cause you are right, that everything we grow up reading says there are certain things whether through science or magic, you don’t mess with and this falls into that category.”

“And what more are you suggesting that I do? I've tried going through the books and other resources we found when we were looking for Jongwoon,” Heechul said.

“Didn’t you guys try to find some psychics and other spiritualists last time? Have you tried reaching out to them again?”

“Come on, it was so obvious that pretty much all of them were fakes.”

“So, look for other ones, who may not be fake.” Heechul groaned at the suggestion slouching further down the couch they were sitting on.

“If I do that, you know I’ll have to ask for time off and Jongwoon will get suspicious.”

“Of course,” Sungmin said with a smile.

“Why do you seem happy about that?”

“Because I won’t have to deal with you as much and only have to worry about Jongwoon.”

“Rude. I'm going to constantly bug you about all of this now, you know that right?”

“I would expect no less.”

“Fine, I’ll let you know when I’ll need them.” Sungmin laughed as Heechul huffily left the room, in order to search for the next person he should speak with.

Over the next couple of weeks, Heechul went on several different trips to just as many cities searching for anyone he could believe to give him an honest answer. He knew Jongwoon was getting very suspicious of his trips based on the text messages he received daily. It wasn’t completely unusual for him to take trips out of town on his own, but typically those were to visit with friends from university, or inspiration trips. When he took either of those, Heechul would tell Jongwoon exactly what he was doing and where, as well as those trips would last longer than his several one or two day trips. He fielded most of Jongwoon’s messages by telling him he was working on a project and would tell him about it when he was finished. While Jongwoon was obviously doubting him, he let it go.

After every disappointing self-proclaimed psychic or spiritualist claiming to have special abilities, Heechul would inform Sungmin of just how much a failure each was. Many he met would agree with him immediately that their world was in danger, but never elaborate or if they did, it was more conspiracy theories than anything relevant. The remaining people however, would tell him there was nothing wrong and try to discern some event in his own life that personally made him feel that way that he could fix, making it into a personal problem and not a larger issue.

Heechul finally hit his break after leaving another hoax who was just out for money. He was passing the entrance to a local shrine when he felt the need to walk up to it. At the top of the stares, a young priest, probably in training, immediately asked him to follow him to meet the shrine’s priestess. Not sure of what else to do, Heechul followed. The young priest was dismissed after Heechul entered the room, and he was invited to take a seat.

“You have been seeking the answer to quite a difficult question,” she said once Heechul sat down.

“Yeah, I’ve been search for someone who could give me an honest answer.” Over the course of his meetings, Heechul has learned to not give away any information for the supposed psychic to infer on.

“That’s all anyone wants. But your question can only be answered by specific types of people, and you will never find them advertised. Our abilities are not to be advertised for monetary gain as some sort of gimmick though there is always a price for any service.”

“I can pay.” She laughed lightly at him.

“While I am sure that is true, money is not what I require from you. I am sure we can offer a trade of information.”

“What kind of information will I be able to give you?”

“I assume you can give me the information behind the reason for your question.” She waited to see if Heechul had any further questions before answer his original unasked one. “I can confirm that there has definitely been a change in the world. Unfortunately, I cannot tell you whether this change is good or bad as is. But is the world in danger? Of course. There is no world never not in some sort of danger, whether that danger comes from the inhabitants slowly destroying it even when attempting to save it, or from the world not having enough defenses to the universe around it. Danger is inevitable. I will say though, this change has me curious. You are aware of the source of it, are you not?”

“Unless something else is going on somewhere else, then probably. My friend has been communicating with a Whisper from another world.”

“It has been a while since I have heard of a Whisper existing. And your friend and him communicate often.” While it wasn’t a question, Heechul nodded. “Then there will be a large change coming to both our worlds. My abilities can’t say what that change will be in the end, but neither of our worlds are likely to exist as is afterwards. Now before you panic, that does not have to be a negative, and we are likely to not even realize the change happened.”

“Do you have an idea of how long? Or should they stop?”

“If they stop, it would slow the pace down, but it will not prevent the change. Any contact of this degree would create this change, but it is accelerated because of who they are.”

“We had been searching for a long time, we know the one is a Whisper, but we could never confirm what my friend is.”

“You never needed to, you knew right away at the beginning of your search.” She let Heechul think on that for a moment and confirm the truth with himself. “Thank you for visiting.”

“And my payment?”

“Is complete. You filled in the gaps my abilities could not give me. That is payment enough for what you needed. And don’t worry, while it is weaker for him to notice than it is for me, your Whisper friend will notice the change soon enough.”

“Thank you,” Heechul said, allowing himself out of the room and giving a quick nod to the young priest again on his way out.

Upon his return home, Heechul filled Sungmin in on his meeting with the priestess.

“So, we’re doomed, but maybe not in a bad way and it’s all because those two are soulmates even if they refuse to admit it,” Sungmin summed up.

“Yup.”

“And there is nothing we can do but sit back and wait.”

“Yup.”

“Well that’s boring and anxiety inducing.”

“I don’t even know whether to tell them or not. It won’t make a difference and supposedly Kyuhyun will notice soon enough himself. Though I don’t know if he will know what it means,” Heechul admitted.

“Well we may as well tell Jongwoon, though if he wants to argue about the soulmates fact, we can gloss over that.”

“He probably wouldn’t believe us if we added the soulmates in there.”

“We’ll see him tomorrow, so we can tell him then.”

When Jongwoon arrived at work the next day, the two immediately pulled him into his recording studio and told him of Heechul’s discoveries. Jongwoon was mildly shocked to find out someone had agreed with Heechul that he didn’t feel was a hoax, and that Heechul was looking in the first place. He still tried to tell them everything was fine, but he was having a hard time denying everything he was told. By the end of their conversation, all he could do was promise to talk to Kyuhyun when they met again in a couple of days.

At their first meeting after Heechul findings, Kyuhyun had said he didn’t notice anything different yet. He swore to pay as close attention to any changes as he could and let Jongwoon know when anything did finally change for him. Kyuhyun did have to agree with Heechul though, surprised that the thought of their meetings having larger consequences on the world around them had never occurred to him or his friends to investigate themselves.

~

“I feel it,” Kyuhyun announced a couple weeks later as soon as Jongwoon arrived. “It’s subtle to me but I can tell there is a change. And if someone more sensitive than I noticed weeks ago, then we must have progressed pretty far.”

“How can you tell? Sorry, we've just never talked about this before.”

“Most of what I know about Whispers comes from books, stories, trial and error, and just what feels right. When whatever happened to bring my abilities as a whisper to the surface, I really tried denying it and fought against it. As I stopped fighting it and started to embrace it, everything that was so foreign to me slowly became familiar, like moving into a new home. So, now when something is off from my new normal, I can tell. But between this priestess and myself, the change is like someone slowly moving all your furniture out of place by the tiniest bit. For her, she can visually measure exactly where everything should be, so the first or second time the movement takes place, she can tell right away. For me, I’m not that exact with my visual measuring, so it takes for the furniture to continue to move quite a few times before I finally pick up on it. If that makes sense.”

“Weirdly, yes.”

“But like she said, there is nothing we can do but wait for it to happen and I have no idea how long it will be until then or if we will notice.”

“We continue as normal then?” Jongwoon asked.

“Nothing else to do, so why not.”

“Sungmin’s comment of if being anxiety inducing is right though. Not going to get it off my mind.”

“I’m sure you have a busy enough schedule with work to keep you distracted.”

“It’s slowing down again as promotions have ended.”

“Then you will have to decide on your next project. That or start making Heechul work on his album finally.”

“Nope, we always space ours a couple of months apart. That way we’re not competing against each other for the most part, and since we work so closely on the other’s albums, we can relax from the stress of the first one before we start the stress of the next,” Jongwoon explained.

“Logical, I suppose.”

“Though now we have to wonder if we will make it to Heechul’s album.” Kyuhyun stared at Jongwoon in disbelief.

“Come on! Really? I was trying to distract you.”

“Sorry. It didn’t work.”

“I can tell. You’re going to make this even more difficult, aren’t you?”

“Probably,” Jongwoon responded honestly.

~

The weeks seemed to pass slowly from then on. Each time they met, they worried it would be for the last time. Even though they tried to not talk about it, pretend like their meetings were the same as before the warning, their conversations always made their way to it.

Jongwoon placed the earbud in, it already waiting for him now as Kyuhyun knew exactly when he would show up, feeling extra anxious to see Kyuhyun. When he did however, instead of remaining in the hallway as usual, Jongwoon found Kyuhyun and himself standing outside, still on the factory grounds reminding him of their first meeting.

“Why are we out here?” Jongwoon asked.

“I’m not sure. I didn’t control this. I’m not even sure how to.”

“If it’s not you,” Jongwoon started, hesitant to finish the sentence. “Then is this it?”

Kyuhyun couldn’t even respond, instead he just stared at Jongwoon. To Jongwoon, it felt like an eternity, neither willing to be the one to look and thus just staring straight into the other’s eyes. A large flash somewhere above is what finally broke their gaze, forcing both to look up to the sky, only for it and everything to disappear behind a blinding white light.

Kyuhyun felt like he was falling backwards, and the moment that sense hit him, he landed. His upper back colliding with what felt like a door at the same moment he hit the floor. His arms had tried to brace and catch him, but they pressed into something soft yet firm which only aided to cause him to curl up into himself slightly.

The first thing he noticed was that he was between two beds, and then flashes of light out the window to his right as if he was in a moving vehicle. He didn’t have long to look at the window before a different set of movement caused him to snap his head forward just in time to see Jongwoon landing a few feet in front of him. Jongwoon seemed to have landed in a sort of kitchen area, hitting his arm against a table while his other hand managed to brace his fall slightly behind him.

Although his neck and back were a little sore from the way he hit the door, Kyuhyun ignored the pain to check on Jongwoon. Kyuhyun got Jongwoon to his feet long enough to walk him to one of the beds before sitting on the other. Jongwoon was massaging his left wrist, the one he landed on, but when asked, Jongwoon insisted he was alright.

“Where are we?” Jongwoon finally asked once the initial shock had worn off.

“I don’t know. Some RV? A Trailer? It feels like we are moving, and the light outside keeps flashing like when you drive past light posts.” Jongwoon looked around briefly, agreeing with Kyuhyun observations. While he did that, Kyuhyun took the chance to try and bend down the vinyl vanes of the blinds to see outside, but all he saw was the same blinding white light they saw before they landed here. Glancing to the front of the trailer, Kyuhyun couldn’t even make out where it began beyond the light.

“Anything?” Jongwoon asked when he noticed Kyuhyun peeking out the window.

“No. Just white light.” Kyuhyun chose to try something else and got up in an attempt to walk to the front of the trailer. Just as he walked past the kitchen space, the light became too intense to go any further, and even being closer, he still couldn’t see anything new. “Whatever this white light is, it’s keeping us here.”

“Any idea for how long?” Kyuhyun shook his head, taking a seat back on the bed across from Jongwoon, rubbing at his eyes in the process. “You okay?”

“Mostly. Constantly looking into a blinding light isn’t so easy on the eyes. But I don’t think I did any real damage, they just sting a little is all.”

“Well, you may as well try to rest, or at least relax with your eyes closed, it might help,” Jongwoon suggested. “Though I doubt we have any other options anyway.”

“We haven’t checked if the cabinets have anything in them yet,” Kyuhyun pointed out. He switched to laying down onto his side, still facing Jongwoon and pointed at the door between the two beds. “Did you check this door?”

“Not yet.” Jongwoon leaned over to reach to the door handle as he responded, twisting and tugging on it to no avail, the door didn’t budge in the slightest.

Kyuhyun gave a soft sigh, choosing to close his eyes and maybe sleep like Jongwoon suggested. Though just when he felt like he might actually fall asleep, he heard Jongwoon stand up and walk around.

“What are you doing,” Kyuhyun asked without bothering to look.

“Checking the cabinets.” Jongwoon didn’t give any further answer, and Kyuhyun could only hear him when he took a step.

“And?”

“They may as well be fake. None of the doors or drawers will open. I tried the oven door and the sink faucet too, and nothing moves.” Jongwoon sounded frustrated but went back to the bed he had been on.

“You could try to sleep too. Not like we have anything else we can do.”

“I know I’ve told you this before but I’m terrible at sleeping when nothing is wrong, and this situation is far from being considered nothing wrong.”

“Do you mind if I sleep? Wookie always jokes and says I’m a stress sleeper, except for when I have a depression episode, but I can stay awake and talk to you if you would rather.”

“No, go ahead. I’ll wake you if anything changes.” Kyuhyun just gave a short hum, falling asleep not long afterwards. Jongwoon swung his legs up onto the bed and slid back so his back was resting against the mirror at the head of the bed. He pulled his knees up to his chest, crossing his arms over them so he could lay his head on them, and try to calm himself.

Jongwoon has always been a person to seem outwardly calm even when inwardly he is anything but. Inwardly he is panicking. While he may have Kyuhyun sleeping just a couple feet from him, Jongwoon doesn’t know what happened to Kyuhyun’s or his friends, family, or worlds, or what is going to happen to them once they reach whatever destination they are being brought to, and all he can feel is panic.

Jongwoon didn’t know how long he sat there, keeping his breathing and heartrate under control to the best of his abilities, when he realized that something was different. Looking around, he couldn’t place what it was at first, but finally noticed that it felt like they slowed down, and the flashes from outside the window were happening at a slower rate as well. Quickly moving so he was sitting on the edge of the bed again, he leaned across the walkway to shake Kyuhyun and wake him up.

“What’s wrong?” Kyuhyun asked once he was awake enough to remember where he was.

“We’re slowing down.”

“How long was I asleep,” Kyuhyun asked, sitting up to match Jongwoon’s position.

“No idea, it could’ve been five minutes or five days for all we can tell.”

“True, there are no clocks or anything else to reference time off of.” Kyuhyun looked around to visually confirm what Jongwoon already informed him. When he glanced back at Jongwoon, he could tell he was tensed up. “Hey, are you okay? Honestly.”

“Honestly?” Jongwoon paused a moment, debating on really being honest or not. “Not really. But there’s nothing we can do about that now. No one is going to walk in and tell us what is beyond this light and what happened to everyone and everything we knew. We just have to wait.”

“Oh, how I wish someone would just walk in and explain anything to us. But there isn’t anyone.” Kyuhyun leaned over, grabbing one of Jongwoon’s hands gripping it tightly. “And I’m scared too,” Kyuhyun admitted. “But you’ll stay with me, right?”

“Yeah, I will.” Jongwoon squeezed Kyuhyun’s hand, almost as an attempt to express the sincerity of his words. Neither bothered to speak or move after that, other than to look forward as the white light enveloped them again.

~

“Where the hell did he go,” Sungmin asked mainly to himself as he stomped into the main lobby, attempting to dial a number on his phone again. When it failed to connect, Sungmin just barely prevented himself from screaming and pulling his hair out.

“Excuse me.” A soft voice called out from behind Sungmin. “Sorry to interrupt, but the woman at the desk said I should speak with you.” Sungmin turned around to see a young man, slightly shorter than him trying to get his attention. Once he realized it was not someone from the company, Sungmin became a little embarrassed about his small outburst.

“Yes, sorry, how can I help you?” Sungmin did his best to switch right back to a polite and happy expression and voice.

“I’m Kim Ryeowook. I’m here with Cho Kyuhyun for a meeting today,” the young man explained.

“Ah yes. It’s nice to meet you. I’m Lee Sungmin. And where is Kyuhyun?” Sungmin looked past Ryeowook for a moment, expecting to see Kyuhyun somewhere nearby.

“He decided to wait outside while I came in to find out where we needed to go. Pre-meeting nerves and all that but now I’m not sure where he wondered off to. You’re missing someone as well? Sorry, I couldn’t help but overhear.”

“Yeah, one of our top singers who is supposed to be in the meeting with all of us. He has an unfortunate habit of disappearing. And he isn’t answering his phone.”

“Any chance they are in the same place,” Ryeowook asked.

“Well we can go look, I know of one of Jongwoon’s hiding places nearby, we can see if either one of them are there,” Sungmin said, immediately heading towards the door, Ryeowook quickly following behind.

“So, if you don’t usually end up over here, what brings you to this side of town this time, Hangeng,” Heechul asked, taking the seat across from the stranger he had met and been talking to in line.

“A couple friends of ours have a meeting just down the street. We were waiting to see how it goes. And you know my friend was going to be sitting there, right?”

“He’s busy ogling the barista, so I don’t think he will mind.” Heechul gestured to another man a few tables away giving a dreamy look towards the one male barista on staff that day.

“Damn that Hyukjae. Could he also make himself less obvious?”

“Oh, don’t worry about that, Donghae is a bit of an airhead and completely oblivious to anyone swooning over him.”

“Does that happen a lot?”

“Daily. I work just down the street, so I’m in here quite a bit, and especially during lunch hours, he has a lot of women and some men who come in trying to get his attention, but he never realizes that any of them are trying to hit on him,” Heechul explained. “Now, do you usually hang around nearby to your friend’s meetings or am I just lucky that you did this time?”

“Well this is his first meeting that may result in a permanent job offer, so I think you’re just lucky.” Hangeng gave a small but cocky smile the mimicked Heechul’s when he called him lucky.

“I knew it was a good idea to come here instead of babysitting Jongwoon this morning.”

“You had to babysit someone today,” Hangeng asked, looking confused suddenly.

“My best friend, he also has a meeting this morning, but he has a tendency to avoid them and since we work together, I get tasked with making sure he doesn’t. But I’ve already talked to him this morning and it sounded like he was actually going for once on his own.”

“Oh, okay. For a moment I thought you just abandoned some child somewhere.”

“No. I wouldn’t do that. But I will be in trouble if Jongwoon doesn’t show as if I did abandon a child. So, if a small, angry, and almost adorable looking guy comes in looking for me, I give you full permission to pretend like you don’t know who I am in order to give me time to escape.”

“Thank you,” Hangeng responded sarcastically, “I’m so glad you gave me permission for that now.”

“Well once you meet me, it becomes quite difficult to want to pretend otherwise.”

“I’m sure if the situation arrives, I won’t have any trouble.” Hangeng hid a smile behind his coffee. Heechul had begun to say something else, but Hangeng was distracted by seeing Ryeowook walking past with someone else. Heechul noticed he wasn’t being listened to and followed Hangeng’s gaze to find what distracted him.

“Oh , that’s Sungmin.”

“Is that supposed to be the small, angry, yet adorable person?”

“Yup.”

“Well it’s an accurate description. But the person he’s with is my friend Ryeowook who should be in the meeting with Kyuhyun right now.”

“And Sungmin should be in the meeting with Jongwoon.” Both shared a look, coming to the same decision. “Should we follow them?”

“Yeah, let’s go.” Hangeng and Heechul immediately got up, taking a second to clean up after themselves, before they were out the door and jogging after Sungmin and Ryeowook. “Ryeowook.” Hangeng called out.

“Hangeng?” Ryeowook stopped, causing Sungmin to stop as well. “Who’s this? Where is Hyukjae?”

“Heechul,” Sungmin answered instead quite angrily. “Why weren’t you making sure Jongwoon showed to the meeting?”

“See, I’m in trouble like I was the one who lost him,” Heechul told Hangeng quietly. “Hyukjae is fine, he’s busy eyeing Donghae.”

“Donghae?”

“Good Looking barista at the café,” Sungmin explained for Ryeowook. “Don’t avoid the question Heechul.”

“I’m not. I reminded him of the meeting this morning, and he told me he was going. So, I asked him to tell me how it goes, and he just said he would. Did I have to carry him into the meeting room too?”

“Sometimes, yes.”

“Come on, he’s probably just sitting in the park not paying attention to time.”

“Yeah, because he turned his phone off and probably didn’t bother with a watch this morning. And if he’s not there, you get to be the one who goes searching for him,” Sungmin threatened Heechul. “We still have to find where Kyuhyun is too.”

“Kyuhyun’s missing,” Hangeng asked.

“He was just waiting outside the building, but when I went to get him, he wasn’t there,” Ryeowook explained.

“If we’re lucky, they managed to find the same hiding spot,” Heechul said, taking the lead towards the park just around the corner.

Jongwoon sat at a small table in a secluded part of the park where an old RV had been abandoned and some teenagers brought in a couch, coffee table, and small cheap outdoor dining set. He had his tablet and notebooks out, trying to find some inspiration. Jongwoon really liked this spot since most people either didn’t know about it or didn’t bother with it and it was secluded enough that most sounds were muffled, keeping it nice and quiet. His friends and coworkers liked that it was close enough to work for them to fetch him easily.

When Jongwoon heard someone walking up, he immediately expected to see either Sungmin or Heechul coming to get him for the meeting he was currently missing. Instead, he just managed to catch a glimpse of someone walking past him, dropping a bag at the end of the coffee table, and sitting down on the couch. Since it was obviously not someone coming to get him, Jongwoon chose to ignore the stranger, slightly annoyed he wasn’t alone anymore, but putting in his headphones, he couldn’t complain as long as they stayed quiet.

With his headphones in, listening to a song he’s heard a thousand times before, Jongwoon’s mind began to wonder to the same images that had plagued him during the night. Flashes of a red car, a dark hallway, a faceless boy dressed in blue, and red and blue strings. Jongwoon wasn’t sure what any of it was supposed to mean and been trying to use songwriting as a distraction. He had been so lost in thought, he hadn’t realized how much time had passed. He also almost would have missed the stranger leaving as well, even after removing his headphones, but he felt a harsh tug on his left foot. Looking down he noticed a blue strand of yarn tied to his shoe, that had not been there before. Following the strand, there was a knot tying it to a red strand that connected to the stranger’s right shoe. Finally, Jongwoon turned far enough around in the chair to get a good look at the stranger. Said stranger, was also staring at him, with the same confused expression that Jongwoon assumes adorns his own face.

“But, you’ll stay with me, right?” Jongwoon hears suddenly being echoed in his mind, like he’s heard it before.

“Kyuhyun.” Jongwoon’s not sure why he said the name out loud, but the stranger looked shocked to hear it.

“Jongwoon.” It’s almost a whisper and Jongwoon would have thought it was just in his head, if he hadn’t watched the man in front of him say it. And instantly, Jongwoon knew that the person standing tied to him was Kyuhyun. Jongwoon couldn’t say how or why, but he knew Kyuhyun.

“How,” Jongwoon eventually asked, though even he was unsure of exactly what he was asking.

“I don’t know. It doesn’t make sense, but I know I know you, and something about that feels right.”

“Like we’re supposed to know each other,” Jongwoon added.

“Exactly.”

“Good, you’re here Jongwoon.” At the sound of a new voice, Jongwoon and Kyuhyun immediately turned to see Heechul walking up to them, with Ryeowook, Hangeng, and Sungmin not far behind. “Now Sungmin can yell at you and not me.”

“Kyuhyun, you’re here too?” Ryeowook asked.

“You know he’ll do that anyways. Yelling at both of us seems to be his favorite thing to do,” Jongwoon teased Heechul.

“Sorry Wook, I was getting too antsy waiting at the building. We were about to head that way but got distracted,” Kyuhyun tried to explain.

“Distracted by what?” Sungmin asked, obviously annoyed with both of them now.

“Each other,” Jongwoon answered, taking a quick glance down to see if the yarn was still connecting Kyuhyun and him or not. He tried to hide his relief when it was gone, and he didn’t have to explain it to their friends. “We were just a little surprised we both ended up here and got talking, not thinking of the time.”

Sungmin eyed both Jongwoon and Kyuhyun suspiciously, but neither was offering any other explanation, so he let it go, just ordering them to grab their things so they could be on their way. Jongwoon and Kyuhyun knew they would be in for a lecture after the meeting, but it was best not to keep the bosses waiting any longer. Their friends started walking ahead of them, Hangeng and Heechul probably heading back to the café together, while Ryeowook and Sungmin would occasionally glance behind them to make sure they were following. Jongwoon and Kyuhyun walked silently behind, neither ready to have the conversation they both know will be coming. But when Kyuhyun grabs Jongwoon’s hand, lacing their fingers together, it feels right and that’s all that matters.

A/N: I finally finished this monster. I started it back in August/September of last. Originally hoped to finish it by New Years, then when I missed that, I wanted to have it done for Kyusung day....and well obviously that didn't happen either. So I'm glad it's finished now. A lot of the imagery and general inspiration came from the Whisper MV by Vixx LR, so if you want to see the reference for many scenes, I suggest you watch. (It's also a great song, so that's a bonus.)
Anyways, please let me know how you liked it, I'm still trying to get myself back into writing more again.

Thank you.