~Chapter One~

“W...what is this place?” The boy asked quietly, frightened that if he spoke too loudly or moved a muscle or even if he simply opened his eyes, this fragile reality would collapse in on itself for good. His words disappeared into the void in front of him, echoing off nothing as if the space around him was endless and empty, he’d almost begun to believe that he hadn’t said anything at all until something spoke to him like he knew somehow that it would.

“Why don’t you open your eyes?” a voice said, it was hard for the boy to tell where it was coming from, everything sounded weird here, as if each sound made was coming from all directions at once. He was afraid to listen to the voice, something deep inside of him, in the distant recesses of his mind told him that it was wrong, yet against his better judgement he found himself utterly enticed. He felt like he’d heard it before but he didn’t know where.

“I am afraid to,” he replied truthfully, trying to sense where he was by touching the ground around him but he couldn’t feel anything at all. He was aware that he was somehow sitting down but when he scrambled to move or to get a grip onto something he came up short, his hands grasping at air and he began to panic. He flailed his limbs with all his might, trying desperately to move or to feel something but every time he felt a force pushing him back down, rendering him motionless and frightened. This was the first thing he’d felt since he woke up in this strange world….although he wasn’t sure if he’d actually ‘woken up’ here at all, time was measureless and meaningless here. His heart beat fast with anxiety and somewhere faintly he heard the sound of a sort of mechanical beating sounding in time with his body.

“Don’t be,” the voice said, it was so close that he could feel a warm breath on the back of his neck. He snapped his eyes open and his senses were immediately overloaded.

What he thought was going to be a cold, sterile, expanse was actually a warm and inviting landscape filled with flowers and sunshine and the pure essence of life. It seemed to span for miles, the rolling hills topped with vibrant green grass disappearing into the distance for as far as they eye could see. However, all of this seemed to be very very far away and only now did the boy notice the loud crashing sound that he was sure was not there a few seconds ago; it was coming from a large waterfall that cascaded down from the cliff that seemed to be above him. Looking around himself frantically, he noticed that he must have been in a crevice of a cliff because he was surrounded by crumbling rock besides the side upon which the waterfall fell, the few gaps in the water sheet giving him a glimpse of the untouchable paradise beyond it.He had been so shocked by his surroundings that he almost forgot to look for the owner of that mysterious voice. Almost.

He turned his head to the side and,  as if he had been summoned by the boy’s thoughts, the owner of the voice seemed to form from the rocks, a human form taking shape from the material, becoming more life like and solid until a man stood in front of him. He was completely but somehow it didn’t seem to matter, everything about him was natural, including his hair that flowed like a black river just reaching his shoulders. He seemed to belong here, in the place untouched by anything, the boy was sure that they were the only two people in this entire world.

The man looked at him with his almost alien beauty and said in the same lilting voice as before, “What is your name?”

They boy froze at this question, because the strange fact was that he simply did not know and he replied as such, “I-...I don’t know,” he said, worry creeping under his skin as he was again reminded of the niggling thought at the back of his mind that things weren’t quite right.

The man walked closer to him, his feet glided across the ground as if he was walking on air, he stretched out one golden tanned arm and reached across to the boys chest, as if to touch him. The boy was so paralysed by the evangelical glow of calm flowing from the man that he lay perfectly motionless, arms limp by his side as the hand was brought to his chest, receding almost seconds later with a necklace in it’s grasp.

“You wear a key around your neck, perhaps I shall call you Key then,” he summarised, letting the metal key slip out of his fingertips, falling back onto the boys chest with a cold thud. As with everything in this world, he was sure that the necklace had not been there moments before, everything seemed to be fabricated and too convenient and only appeared when he took notice of it. He tried to develop the thought but it was too vague and the more he tried to chase the idea, the further it ran away from him until it completely dissipated and he was left with the boy in front of him.

“So what is your name then?” he countered. The man looked at him with a fond smile upon his face, the question seemed to have far deeper meanings for him than what he had intended.

With a smirk still upon his face, the man answered, “Why is it, I wonder, that you never remember my name? It was you after all who gifted it to me.”

Key was taken aback by this….did this man know him? Did he know him? Like everything else, he could not remember and he had learned by now not to dwell upon these thoughts, it only wasted energy. Instead he looked to the man for answers, he seemed to hold the missing knowledge; the friendly nature that he had displayed up until now provided him with no reason as to why he should not divulge it.

“Why don’t you tell me?” Key asked.

Again the man smiled that fond, playful smile, “Instead of telling you who I am, I would much rather show you,” he said, and in such a way that left Key with no doubt that he would do just that.

The man knelt down on the hard stone ground in front of Key, at first it looked like he was bowing to him but almost too fast for him to detect, the man leaned in with an unnatural speed and pressed his lips to Key’s. The kiss was so fast and so perfect that it stole his breath right from his unsuspecting lungs….and it completely stole his heart.

All too soon the kiss ended, the man’s lips left his and he moved his face to the side and his lips were now mere inches away from Key’s ear. He whispered three simple word, so soft and so sweet that it tickled his soul.

“You love me.”

“Jonghyun…” Key said, the name rolling off his tongue and as soon as it escaped his lips he knew that it was correct. That name seemed like music to him, a sweet melody enveloped his senses and he was flying, soaring, he wanted to call that name until his throat ran ragged, he had a feeling that he’d be starved of it for a long long time, an eternity.

Jonghyun had still not moved from where he was, so close to Key that his lips brushed the lobe of his year and one golden hand, the same hand that had discovered his name, came up to meet the skin of his neck, cupping the back of his head in a loving caress. He was home.

All of a sudden that same hand, so full of love, gripped the back of his head so tightly that a few of his rooted hairs were pulled away in a fist full of malice. Jonghyun moved with a speed that now seemed petrifying,  to face Key, his breath cold and sour dancing across his skin as he said the words that he’d somehow been expecting and fearing the moment he had arrived in this world.

“But I’m killing you.”

“N-No!” Key cried as he suddenly found use of his legs, propelling himself off the wall and into a starting run, trying desperately to catch up to Jonghyun who was rapidly floating backwards, his form dissipating behind the waterfall and out of reach. Despite this his legs kept moving, as if they were working excessively to make up for the stillness that his heart was exhibiting. His efforts were left unfounded, his repeated cries of Jonghyun’s name going unanswered and as he ran out of ground to run upon, his foot slipped over the edge of the precipice and he was in freefall into the abyss.

There was no impact for the fall as could be logically expected, instead Key jerked back into his own body, into the present, where his physical being had remained while he was in the world. Everything felt normal now, he was aware that he was in a room now instead of the fabricate precipice, his hands able to feel the starched bedsheets beneath him. His eyelids were too heavy to be opened in the beginning but he could hear things around him, it seemed that two people were conversing about him by his bedside.

“...third time admitted this year…….episodes are getting worse…...hallucinations….” he could only hear snippets of their speech but the beeping of the heart monitor next to him helped bring him back to reality and he found that after a few moments he was able to finally open his eyes.

“Quick doctor he’s waking up,” the nurse said, rushing to Key’s side as he tried to sit up himself, she put a firm hand on his shoulder, shoving him back down onto the bed.

“Mr Kim,” the doctor said, appearing by his side and immediately going to check his vitals, “do you know where you are?”

“Yes,” he droned, having said the same words in the past more times than he could count, “I am at the Seoul Psychiatric Hospital.”

“Correct. Mr. Kim, this is the third severe Schizophrenic episode this year, are you taking your medication? Each time you go into a hallucinogenic stupor your immune system weakens. If you don’t take your medication you could significantly shorten your life…” he bumbled on.

He’d heard it all before and so Key looked past the unfeeling doctor to the chair that was positioned at the foot of his bed, he was happy to see that Jonghyun was sitting there. When Jonghyun was sure that he’d notice him, he smiled that same bright smile he’d seen many times before, getting up and and strolling casually to the foot of the bed, resting his elbows on the railing there.

“Our visit was short this time,” he said, his smile tinged with sadness. Key wanted to reply but he couldn’t risk it with the doctor by his side, he didn’t want them to force another antipsychotic injection into him. Despite the fact that he wanted to stay in his own little world with Jonghyun, the doctor forced his attention away from his love.

“Sir, you were mumbling the name ‘Jonghyun’ while you were unconscious,” he paused for a second, flipping through his notes briefly, “it says here that that is the name you gave to your imaginary soul mate, is that correct?”

“Yes,” Key sighed, turning his face away from the man in the white coat in faint disgust.

“Mr. Kim, may I ask, are you seeing ‘Jonghyun’ now?”

Key looked at Jonghyun as he drifted down the plain stifling room that was the ward in the hospital, he paused at the door, looking back at Key with love in his eyes as he said,

“I’ll see you soon, baby,” before he disappeared completely.

Although he could feel the tears welling up in his eyes, his voice was dead when he replied with one blunt and simple lie,

“No.”

.

.

.

.

.

.

Well hello hello hello there :P  I hope I didn't confuse you too much with this XD

I'm MrsKibummie for those of you that don't know me, I wrote this one shot because the idea popped into my head and I had to get it written down or else it'd stop me from writing my other fanfic :O

This is a one shot but if the response to it is good I might consider adding a few more chapters ;)

So, what do you think? Leave comments and subscribe <3