Chaeyoung isn't sure what the hell she's doing. Her confidence in her final destination doesn't exactly seem to be sure-fire, either. The train tracks beneath her ricochet in a steady hum, as she consumes the last ray of warmth streaking across the violet sky, lining parallel to the grassy weeds of the countryside. A fuzzy voice rings throughout the cabin, coated in the grey haze of Chaeyoung's parchment brain.

2 hours until the last stop

Chaeyoung sighs, dismissing an offer of tea with a polite smile. Her head bobs with the slight rise and fall of the windmills in the visible distance. She hadn't thought anything of it when she'd left. It'd felt like her legs had been drawn on a puppet string, steered by something uncontrollable within her, and she could only be its pawn. She decides, now, to rest her nape on the fabric of the comfortable-enough train seat, urging slumber to overtake her. 

Miss?

Miss?

Chaeyoung ruffles awake when a crew member gently rocks her to and fro, and his voice barely registers before she finds herself walking the path of a long, dirt trail. It's dark; it's cold. Really, she should know better. It isn't until what seems like hours later that she finds herself in front of a heavy wooden door, emblazoned with the emblem of the Blue Sky with a White Sun and a large knocker that'd been shaped to resemble an unsettlingly realistic looking macaque. A parasitic anxiety starts in her belly, and she gulps it down as it grazes the back of her teeth. The door seems to grow taller with every passing second and the knocker looms bigger than her fist, the macaque's metallic eyes boring into her dizzy ones. She opts for the door bell.

A harsh, fluorescent light is blinding as a sleep-drunk figure clambers into view, wiping at her eyelashes with a groan. Some eye crust snows atop the peak of her cheek, decorating it. Chaeyoung's palms start to sweat as she hears the grey outline of a voice that sounds achingly familiar; quiet and deafening all at once.

Chaeyoung really doesn't know what she's doing here. It hasn't been that long since Chaeyoung had last seen Tzuyu; not more than a few months, she'd reckon. Still, she scrutinizes her from head to toe. Tzuyu hasn't changed much, save for the tousled hair and the adorable pajamas that are a few inches too short for her. Meanwhile, Chaeyoung had gone through a few trims, styles, and at least two hair colors in the passed time. Sometimes she'd lose track, until Tzuyu would consistently remind her that her hair would fall out before she was 35. Chaeyoung had always insisted that it was toner and did no harm, and it'd never been a lie, but still - Tzuyu had always given her a pointed look, with as long as the capriciousness isn't telling of your actual personality.

Chaeyoung hears something delicate waft into her ear and it isn't until her eyes happen to catch Tzuyu's worried ones that she's brought back to reality. She'd been doing that a lot lately: disappearing into a basement within herself; where things didn't