All around the woods, there were animals running around. Myungsoo could feel their presence. Even though he was in no position to be resting, he sat still on the ground, eyes closed. So far, all he could sense was the animals. Deer were prancing and feeding to his far right. Two squirrels fought over an acorn on a nearby tree. The low beat of a hummingbird's wings behind him. Nothing suspicious was going on.
He opened his eyes and looked ahead of him to see that there was a person standing there. No emotion appeared to his face as he looked up at the person. Howon smirked as he bent down to greet Myungsoo.
"Good to see you again. Need help?" Howon asked humored. "Or am I here for nothing?"
"What do you want?" Myungsoo was annoyed by the presence of this man that had been showing up lately. What did he appear for anyways?
"I'm not the one wanting something. You are. Why do you think I'm here?" Howon asked with a smile. "Kim Myungsoo-ssi, I am your shadow."
"My shadow? What are you talking about?" He thought he had become mad under the pressure of being hunted. He looked down to his left and laughed. "This has got to be a joke."
"This isn't a joke. And if it was, you would be laughing harder." Howon said. "Now let me explain how this works."
Hoya took something out of his pocket and hung it in front of Myungsoo's eyes. His eyes grew wide. Hanging right in front of him was the key to the Pandora's Box.
"How did you get that?" Myungsoo asked surprised. "That was in MY pocket."
"I didn't do anything. I am simply just your shadow. And this is not the real key." Howon watched as Myungsoo put his hand in his pocket, only to find that the key was still there. "See?"
"Explain."
"Well, you see, I've been with you for a while now. Ever since you became the target of the Prophet." A sly smile came across Howon's face.
"How do you know that?" Myungsoo asked curiously. "Even I didn't know that until that Hunter came after me."
"Like I said, I'm a SHADOW. I hear everything and see everything." Howon lifted his hand as the key faded into thin air. "This is what I am. I can do anything I want."
"Okay... If you can do anything you want, why do you want to help me?" Myungsoo asked. This wasn't really making any sense whatsoever, but he still listened. "And why does it have to be me?"
"Because, like I said before, you've been asking for it." Howon explained. He lifted his right hand and placed it on Myungsoo's forehead. Myungsoo closed his eyes and saw the same dream that he had been dreaming for months.
A vivid scene in an empty city. He was all alone with nobody in sight. The air was cold and an icy frost was spreading quickly. From the corners of his eye, he could see someone running from inside of the ruins of a building. How had he not sensed this before?
Quickly, he ran into the building, only to see that it was filled with mirrors. What was going on? Everytime he was in this dream, the same thing happened. He would run into this room full of mirrors. Was something supposed to change?
"What's wrong?" A voice came from behind him. Myungsoo turned around, surprised, only to see that it was Howon. "Don't you see? Wherever you go, you will only run into yourself. And this is the part where you ask for help."
"Don't tell me what to do."
"I'm not telling you what to do. This is how your dream usually ends. When you arrive here, you cry for help. You're alone. You're tired. You're sick of being here. You want someone to rescue you from this cold and corrupted place." Howon said with a serious face. "But you will never be rescued from here until you open that Pandora's Box and that is why you have the key. But that Pandora's box is hard to find, isn't it?"
"How would you know? You've probably never seen it either." Myungsoo said angrily. "Only one person has ever seen it and that person is the Prophet."
"Exactly why you would like to see it with your own eyes. It's a treasure to some, but to others it's a prize." Howon walked closer to Myungsoo. "And to you, it's a dream."
Howon snapped his fingers and Myungsoo opened his eyes. He had come back to reality. Back to the forest that he had been sitting in. Back to his senses. Howon had also disappeared from sight. Myungsoo snorted and mumbled. "...Didn't even give me his name...".

A delicious scent came from the oven as Sungjong lied on the couch and read his book. He was baking cookies for no reason. As the timer went off, Sungjong got up and looked outside. The sun sure looked beautiful today. It was brighter than usual, but that gave him a reason to be suspicious. There was something going on today and it didn't make sense that the sun was becoming bigger.
Quickly, Sungjong took the cookies out of the oven and put them on a cooling rack. Each and every one of them were cooked to perfection. Again, he picked up his book and began reading it. This time, he walked around to the kitchen table, where a warm coffee was waiting for him. As he sat down, he felt something underneath him. Sungjong took his eyes away from the book to see that there was a key.
Sungjong picked it up and noticed that it looked ancient. Connected to it was a chain with a single white feather. It seemed odd that it would be in a place like this. What would it be doing here? Instead of investigating further, Sungjong just shrugged and suggested that it was some part of a collection he had started a while ago. As he hung the key on the key holder, he turned back to his book and coffee. He sat down and began to read again. Over his shoulder, Sungjong could feel someone staring at the book.
"Why do you always read that?" Sungjong turned his head to see Howon, his other half, peeking behind his shoulder. "What's so interesting about books like those?"
"What would you know? You'd rather play jokes than listen to a story." Sungjong bluntly stated. "Besides, it's something that wouldn't interest you anyways."
"Try me." Howon said playfully.
"Fine then. It's about-"
"BORING!" Howon yawned loudly. "You're right. I'm not interested."
Sungjong sighed heavily as he watched Howon plop himself onto the couch. His day seemed to be a little busy. The smell of cookies lurked in the air and it made Howon hungry. Quickly, he got up and walked over to the cookies.
"These look tasty. Did you go back into baking again?" Howon was his lips like a hungry lion. He stared at them for a long time before grabbing one off the rack. "Wow. They even taste good. Yup, you've definitely gone back into baking."
"Lee Howon-ssi, if you're not going to do anything worth my time, can you please get out? I would like some privacy." Howon seemed to be everywhere today. The way he traveled, of course, would take him anywhere at any time if he pleased. "So do you have something important to say or are you just going to loiter like an idiot?"
"Well it's not like you're doing anything important." A frown came upon Howon's face.
It was true, though. All Sungjong was doing was reading. He didn't even do anything but bake some mere cookies. But his book had become interesting with its new plot. The story that seemed to be leading nowhere had finally explained itself.
"Look, you're distracting me from my book, so do what you have to do and then get out afterwards." Now Sungjong was just talking nice to Howon. Instead of yapping away at something he wouldn't listen to, Sungjong just went back to reading his book.
After two more cookies, Howon finally took his leave. But that wasn't all he took. The key that had once been hanging on the key holder had disappeared. Then again, it didn't seem all that important. Just thinking about it made Sungjong tired. Maybe he needed a nap?
Instead of listening to his head, he just shrugged it off and went back to reading his book. The book was about a man who traveled everywhere to find the answer to how he was born. Even though this was a fiction novel about the ancient days when there were kings, it interested Sungjong. These types of books were ones that he would usually read. If not books like those, he would have probably been reading mysteries.
Before he knew it, Sungjong had knocked out while sitting and reading his book. Sometimes, he fell asleep like this. It was an odd habit of his, but it happened. As he slept, he fell deep into a dream.
He was in a cold town, showered by snow falling everywhere. Not even a drop of sunlight hit the ground. The clouds were dark and the ground was covered in a shaky layer of icy frost. Sungjong looked around to see that all the buildings around him were in ruins. Just what was he dreaming of?
As he looked into a building, he saw something move in the corner. Quickly, he walked over to it, only to find that it had moved to another corner. He tilted his head to the side and waved it away. This dream must have been trying to tell him something if he was here.
Instead of staying in the building with whatever was running around from corner to corner, Sungjong decided to go into a different one. Maybe there was someone somewhere else that would decide to tell him everything. As he walked into a different building, he could see mirrors all along the walls, surrounding him. But when he walked over to see his reflection, he saw that he had become someone else.
He looked into the mirror at himself, only to see someone else's body. This man was a little taller with a sharp jaw line and a key in his hand. Sungjong blinked and looked at his own hand to find that nothing was there. But in the reflection, there was a key in that man's hand.
Whatever the reason seemed to be, Sungjong had no time to be dreaming other peoples' dreams. There was a life that he needed to lead but this dream was distracting. There was not a single sign of life other than himself and that thing in the corner.
With a jolt, Sungjong woke up from his odd dream. He sat up immediately and looked around. It was still light out and he was still sitting on the chair in front of the table. He saw that his coffee had become cold. He sighed and closed his book. Sungjong couldn't focus on reading after the dream he had seen. The key in that man's hand was the exact same key that Sungjong had just seen today. Something weird was going on and Sungjong wanted to know. Howon was hiding something and that man was a part of it. No matter what, Sungjong had to figure out this puzzle or he would be bothered by it forever. For the time being, he decided to just deliver some cookies to an old friend.