Footsteps clattered outside their door, asking if now was the time to move. The window at the end of the room shone a piercing yellow, the sun making its way upward. ViVi picked up her bag and walked over to Lip.

             "... You up?" She pondered, her eyes wide open.

             "Yeah, I'll- I'll just be a minute," Lip yawned, squeezing the blanket fabric into her hands. "It's what, Wednesday?"

             "Don't worry, we still have about half an hour," Haseul's voice resonated from the back. "But don't be too late, otherwise all the good breakfast will be gone."

             "I laid out your uniform right here," ViVi cut in, getting up and giving the foot of her bed a pat. "It's all white, which is a pain to take care of, but we also wear a red vest most of the time. You like red, right?"

             Lip sat up to look at it. "Yeah, sure."

~ ~ ~

             "So, where would she be?" Haseul unscrewed her water bottle cap and took a sip. Class had carried them for an hour at this point, and their focus on finding people made everything dull in comparison.

             "Hyunjin even brought a map," Lip said from behind. "Do you think she'll end up that far away?"

             "She and Heejin have been here the longest; somewhere along the way, they must have found a need for it." She swiveled around in her seat, "I'm just wondering what we must look like to them, just stealing them away into some fantasy. What was it like for you? Are we still, what, a crime organization from the outside?"

             "Not really," Kim Lip pondered, "but I'm getting all curious about how different we all are. Maybe when I see something incredible, I'll be able to wrap my head around it all. And about… being told I'm part of it all, I think I felt the gravity of it all just a bit. What was ViVi talking about, the end of the world and all?"

             Haseul started drawing in her notebook. "I think all of us, so far, have encountered something; you had that one repeating day, for example. Those things… shouldn't be happening. If time is a law, then someone, or something, is breaking it. The only trails we find dead-end, go beyond where we can go. Somewhere out there, our name is being called, and we're calling theirs. That's why we need you, and everyone else who has yet to be found… we'll learn who we are, what we're here for."

             Lip scooted her chair up to her desk, her stomach against the edge. "Nobody's gone there?"

             "Well, we know it exists, but not much about what it looks like or where it even is. Heejin said she's working on finding out how to get there. What we're here to focus on, however, is not getting lost trying to find some alternate world, but to save lives. Two more people is all, then maybe all the clues will have gathered together by then to understand it and fix everything."

             Rubbing her hands together, Haseul made eye contact with her. Her eyes darted across Lip's face, taking in each feature.

             From Lip's perspective, however, moods shifted. The smallest of twitches, moods pushed and pulled somewhere past Haseul's eyes. Since the beginning of class, she had begun to adjust herself in her seat more frequently, her hands coming together and letting go back and forth, acting on their own will. "What is it," Lip finally spoke up, "with you all and being mysterious with everything? We're making progress, right?"

             Haseul put her pencil down. "... I just don't want this to go wrong. What you said about being in a loop, I think we've been in one for a really long time. I have messages from myself that I found at the house, telling of all the things we're able to get done before it resets again. Somewhere along the way, I must have elected to forget about it all. I kept them as a charm, as motivation to get us out. But now, you're here, and nothing I've found gives any mention of you. I've written about you just to mark the next step, but right here, right now? Nothing kept secret: this is new," she said, taking Lip's hand. They felt soft, almost warm when in the sunlight streamed in through the window. "I don't mean to put pressure on you, but if you're able to understand what we've overlooked tens, if not hundreds, of times, then it might be up to you."

             Lip gave her hand a squeeze. "Hey. If I chose to be with you all this time, I'll be with you the next time, too."

             Haseul gave her a look. "You didn't, you just ended up here because you were following Jinsoul."

             "What, no… I had a feeling something was going on…"

             "Uh huh…"

~ ~ ~

             On the bus home, Lip sat with ViVi. The rest sat behind them in various seats. ViVi's eyelids began to droop slightly, but she was the first to speak up.

             "I think I have something."

             "Like what?"

             "Well, it wasn't today, but last night. Whenever it's getting late at night, I find it hard to fall asleep. Either my blanket just feels awful, I'm constantly thirsty, I'm anxious, or any combination of the three. After a certain point, I'm able to fall asleep, but whenever I'm in that zone, I start hearing things. Distinctly. As in, "we're in the middle of a forest" type noises."

             The streetlights flew past them. "Is that like when you figured out who Jinsoul was?"

             "Exactly. The only difference then was that it was at random times. When I sensed something from you, there was only that brief window to find and get you. But now," she tapped against the window, "it's in a rhythm. I wanted to see if anything would happen at home now that we know."
             Heejin poked her head in from behind them. "Mirrors, right? Hyunjin, what'd you say happened again?"

             She sat slumped, her hat covering her face. Startled, her hand shot up and took it off, showing her winced face, half-asleep. "It was just one time, but we were walking around in a field one day. I had my phone out, and suddenly, in its reflection, tons of birds flew by. I ducked in response, but no birds like that flew near us. Whatever has reflections out there starts acting really strange."

             Lip cleared . "Have you seen anything recently happen? Out of the ordinary? If anything happens, I want us to make the most out of it."

             "Uh… not much that I can think of." she remarked, falling back into her seat. ViVi gave Lip a look. Suddenly, something clicked.

             "Wait, wait, wait," Lip shot up, "what happened with those cherries? You or whoever handed me one and that transported me here, right?"

             "We don't have tons of those, and we still aren't sure how they work. All we know for a fact is that it takes you from your world to ours."

             "So… shouldn't you be taken back to my world if you eat it again?"

             ViVi pursed her lips. "Come on, now… imagine you take one and you don't end up where you wanted to. Say you end up in the middle of the ocean. Take one there and you're somewhere completely different. We have no idea what the possibilities are. We aren't risking your life on random chance just because you want a certain thing to happen."

             "Aish… What about your whole plan with Hyunjin?"

             "That was the whole mirror plan. Then, you just take the cherry and end up back here with us, hopefully with someone else. Or something else, if anybody left anything behind. That's what I'm saying, though. I want to see if anything happens at home, now that I'm "closer" to the other side, or something. If not, we'll just have to go out and find that field."

             "What if we just sleep?"

             "... What? No, get up."

             "Please," Lip slid halfway down her seat.

             "No, no, no, no," ViVi slid her arms under Lip's armpits, hoisting her back up.

             "I want some candy."

             "My bag at home has some."

             "Really?"

             "Of course not. Sit down."