Something glimmers in the water while Jonghyun sits in front of the lake. He spends most of his time trying to collect his memories, but nothing outstanding has presented itself.

Jonghyun leans forward, feeling the coolness of the lake on his skin. He doesn't know what he's searching for, but he knows something sparkled, and he wants to know what. It takes what feels like hours (but it's really only seconds), but the water shines again, and Jonghyun's eyes land on a wedding ring. 

It's not small, but it isn't extravagant, either. He looks up to see a smiling, innocent face. He stares into the big, brown eyes and thinks that everything else about the woman he sees is beautiful. She's wearing a long wedding dress, her hair in an elegant, soft up-do. Her hair is dark brown, matching her eyes. 

Jonghyun doesn't notice that he's leaning so far in that he almost falls into the water, but he can't help but look at the woman before him. He looks to his right and sees that someone is standing next to her. His eyes widen in surprise when he realizes that it's an older version of himself. The version of himself he sees is smiling wide, so wide that It looks as if his cheeks will burst.

But Jonghyun doesn't feel like smiling. He can't remember his wife's name or even being married, and all he feels is sadness. It's perplexing, because he should be happy after seeing that he was a married man (and was obviously a happy one at that), but his breath catches in his throat and nothing really feels right at all.

Crunching of grass sounds next to him and Key appears; he takes a seat next to Jonghyun. The scene in the lake disappears and Jonghyun breathes again.

Jonghyun sits back on his hands and stares up at the clouds. That was the first time he felt so sad. He had felt it (or something like it) while being there, stuck between being dead and alive, but he had never felt it like that.

“Shouldn't I be more sad? About dying?” Jonghyun asks while still looking at the clouds.

“Everyone copes differently. Sometimes people readily accept death when they're still alive.” Key says.

“What if I run out of time? What if I never figure out what I'm supposed to do?” Jonghyun looks at Key after he finishes the question.

Key's face looks pained, like he had failed in what he was supposed to do. “You can't run out of time. You'll figure it out.”



A month passes before Jonghyun gets a roommate. He's short, much like Jonghyun, with short black hair and a muscular build. His smile is one of the brightest Jonghyun has seen (his eyes even disappear), and goes by the name Kikwang. Kikwang's guide is Seungho, and Jonghyun is positive he's never met either of them before. 

Jonghyun and Kikwang spend a lot of their time cloud collecting, which was something he was totally childlike and lame. It took Key, Seungho and Junsu's convincing before Jonghyun would give it a try. They kept telling him that their spirit world was so near the clouds that it wasn't so weird, and lots of people had clouds of fluff in their dorm rooms.

They weren't lying, either. Sometimes when Jonghyun would visit other charges in his dorm, he would see jars with fluffy rabbits or ice cream cones. Only the real lucky, hardcore cloud collectors could find the colored clouds (usually at sunsets and sunrises).

It's a sunny, clear day and Jonghyun stands outside with Kikwang, a bag of glass jars at their feet. 

“Ehhh. They're so far up today,” Kikwang comments and Jonghyun looks up in the sky. 

They had found that behind the dormitory was where the clouds hung the lowest (they were highest near the lake). All the clouds were suspended high above them, and Jonghyun's cheeks puff with air as he concentrated. 

“Maybe we'll run into a low patch. It's still early in the day,” Jonghyun says while he sits down next to a tree. “We can wait for a little while.”

Kikwang sits next to him and places the jar in his lap. It's quiet and a breeze blows, but the silence is broken when a hysterical Seungri walks behind the mansion with Junsu. 

Jonghyun and Kikwang look at each other before looking back to Seungri and Junsu. Jonghyun first focuses on the former, who's face is hard to read. It looks tear stained and can see the fear and panic in Seungri's eyes. His dark hair is disheveled and his body trembles. He's saying something incoherent and Junsu stays calm next to him, trying to soothe whatever pain Seungri is feeling.

Jonghyun's eyes then flicker to Junsu, who wears tank top. He looks closely and sees what looks like pink slits near Junsu's shoulders. He squints his eyes to see the marks better and sees that the wounds aren't open, but still wonders what could have left marks like that.

“Do you see that?” Jonghyun turns and asks Kikwang.

“Yeah. I wonder what it's from,” he answers quietly.

Jonghyun's eyebrows furrow and he concentrates on the ribbon of pink skin. 



It's dark when Jonghyun asks Key to go on a walk with him. The air is colder and the clouds ghost around his fingers in long streams of cotton, but they're nothing worth bottling. None of the clouds at night really are. 

They pass the great oak tree, about a mile past the lake, before Jonghyun says anything. 

“I saw Seungri and Junsu today. Seungri looked pretty upset.”

Key nods and doesn't say anything, Jonghyun concludes that he's not supposed to know why Seungri was the way he was. 

“I saw some scars on Junsu's shoulders. Do you know why they're there?” Jonghyun continues with his questions.

Key stuffs a hand in his pocket. “Remember when I told you Junsu was supposed to be an angel? He was born to be one; not many people are born with their wings. When he turned down the offer, they clipped his wings.”

“Why? I mean, why did he turn down the offer?”

“That's something you should ask Junsu,” Key says.

The trail they walk on starts to fade and Jonghyun can no longer see the dirt his kicks up. He wants to know more – about anything the world he now he lives in. Thinking about Junsu, Jonghyun realizes he doesn't know much about Key's job as a guide.

“How'd you become a guide?” Jonghyun asks as they enter what seems like a very dark forest.

“I died and came here. I figured it out after I realized my life lesson.”

Jonghyun stops walking, Key stopping in front of him.

“How's that possible? It's not like you knew about this place when you were alive.”

“It doesn't work that way. You don't realize you were meant to be a guide, but the lesson you learn presents the opportunity. If, when you realize what you missed out in life, is supposed to lead you to being a guide, then an angel calls upon you and does the initiation.” 

Jonghyun feels as if his head is about to burst with too much information.

“Does that mean you've never been to heaven?”

Key chuckles. “No, I've been to heaven,” he says with a shake of his head. “It's more complicated than what I just explained. It's one of those things you just know, much like when you meet a familiar person.” 

“Who was your guide?”

Key hesitates, and it worries Jonghyun. “Her name is Ji Eun. She's an angel now.” 

The smiling face from his wedding that he saw reflected earlier flashes in Jonghyun's mind. He swallows hard as realization hits.

Key smiles at him knowingly. 


A/N I hope this part made sense. And as you can see, it's turning out to be a little longer than I thought. So part 3 soon!