All narraration in Courier New is Chanyeol's POV

All narraration in Times New Roman is Baekhyun's POV

     I avoided Baekhyun like the plague. I saw him everywhere I went but I hid well. The great thing about modern society is that there are such things as large buildings with many, many rooms. You can literally hide anywhere, so long as you're not breaking any trespassing and loitering laws.

     Baekhyun looked rather sick these past couple weeks. Even though I avoided him, I still watched him from afar. I may sound a bit stalker-ish but I can't help it. I don't want to avoid him now that I know he's alive but he's already sick. I can't let him die.

     Today is Saturday so I thought that he would stay at home. I came to the Neuroscience and Psychology Research building AKA the Penfield Building. If you don't know who Penfield is, he is a famous neurosurgeon and he studied epilepsy. Long story short, he mapped out the functions of specific parts of the brain. He was pretty accurate and doctors still use his brain maps today.

     Anyways, enough with history lessons, the Penfield Building is my favorite hiding place here. There were so many different rooms and random labs that I could casually walk into and no one seemed to judge. I know they have a clinic here so they probably thought I was a patient or something.

     The 8th floor became my place of solace. I know this is the floor that Dr. Yoon had her office and that Baekhyun came up here occasionally, but there was something great about this floor. It was always bright here and it was the closest way I could be with Baekhyun and not be with him. God, I sound like a melodramatic teenager.

     I looked off the balcony. All the floors were designed so that you could see them from the Atrium. I looked down at the cafe and I couldn’t help but think it was a clever name. The cafe was the heart of the building. All the students, professors, researchers, patients, and family members of the patients gathered at the Atrium sharing conversations over Ethiopian Roast coffee and bagels. Oh and their crepes too. Those things are so good.

     Just when I thought I could be able to avoid him today, I saw the flash of soft hair and doe eyes. Baekhyun came into the building preoccupied in thought. He all but got in the door when his face quickly turned into a grimace. He grabbed his head and he stumbled, leaning against the glass wall behind him. He grabbed at his chest and throat. It looked like he was trying to say something but all he did was stand there. I could feel my nails dig into my palms. Somebody, please help him.

     I called out his name loudly. I don’t know if he could hear me. I ran down the corridor to the stairwell and took the stairs down because that was faster than waiting on an elevator. When I opened the stairwell door, people were already surrounding Baekhyun’s body. I pushed the crowd aside and no one had touched him. I pulled him into my arms. His heartbeat was weak and he wasn't breathing. I started CPR right away.

After 30 chest compressions, he still wasn't breathing. I gave rescuing breaths but I knew it was best to call for a doctor. After all, I'm technically only a 19 year old college student.

“Grab a doctor from the building, there’s tons of them in here!” I yelled at some frightened kid who was probably only a freshman. He ran across the room and grabbed a random lady with a stethoscope around her neck.

I turned back to look at Baekhyun’s face. His cheeks were red due to a fever but his lips were turning blue because of the lack of oxygen.

“Baekhyun? Please stay with me. Please.”

           "Be careful, okay? It's slippery," a man said. There was laughter in his voice. He sounded happy.

           “Don't worry, I will,” a deeper voice answered back. I know that voice. That’s Chanyeol’s voice, wasn’t it?

           My sight started clearing up and I could see a clear stream in front of me. The sun was shining intensely and I could see Chanyeol standing in the water with a net. His brow was furrowed with concentration. He was trying to fish something out of the water while wearing a light blue and white hanbok. Obviously, I'm dreaming. He looks like the same person but from a different time. I felt like I was watching a historical drama of the late Joseon Era, so somewhere in the 1800s.

           Chanyeol suddenly lifted up the net after a long moment of complete stillness. There was a small fish stuck in the trap, flapping rapidly. Chanyeol’s broke out in a large smile, “Junmyun, I caught it! Junmyun!”

           The other man, Junmyun I’m assuming, started laughing. “Chanyeol, that’s not going to feed us. It’s tiny!”

          “Well, I’ll catch more. Just wait,” Chanyeol said excitedly. He came ashore and placed the fish in a large bowl that looked like it was made of clay. It was a tight fit but the fish looked rather peaceful.

          “Ah look,” Chanyeol said as he pointed into the bowl. A yellow flower had fallen into it. It floated on the clear water, leaving ripples around it. The flower is a forsythia, they grow all over Korea and when they grow, it’s a sign that spring is just around the corner. The fish tried to eat it and Chanyeol laughed.

          “The forsythias are lovely, aren’t they?” Junmyun said. I couldn’t see Junmyun’s face but I could hear his voice like if it was in my own head. I saw Chanyeol reach for something and he was talking but I couldn’t hear him. He looked genuinely happy... and then everything went black.

“Look, he’s waking up,” someone said. That voice is definitely Seulhye. I was dreaming. I've never had a lucid dream before but what's even weirder was that I was dreaming about a man I didn't know. In fact, I don't even think he likes me and I'm dreaming about him. Now that I'm gaining consciousness, everything seemed really foggy and muffled but that dream was so clear and vivid, like if it had happened in real life. It felt almost like a memory, actually.

            “You should go home and rest. I’ll take care of him. Thank you so much Chanyeol,” Seulhye said.

            Chanyeol? He’s here?

            “Well then, I’ll take my leave,” he said.

I wanted to call out and tell him to stay. I couldn’t say anything. My mouth wouldn’t open. I heard the door open and close and I could feel that he was no longer in the room.

“Baekhyun?” Seulhye said in my ear. I felt her hand take mine, “Baekhyun, you’re crying. Does it hurt?” I couldn’t say anything to her either. I felt stuck. My eyes wouldn’t open. I just nodded my head no. I was crying? Why am I crying? I don’t feel any pain but I feel really sad. Chanyeol was here but he said he didn’t know who I was and that he didn’t care. He was on the 8th floor when I out, I’m sure of it. So why was he here? Did he come down to help me? I don’t know what it is but I want him to be here.

“Thank you for saving him,” Dr. Yoon said to me as she handed me a vending machine canned coffee, "You know, the way you handled that situation made you seem like a doctor. The success rate of CPR performed by someone without medical training is less than 18%. About 98% of the time, people will come out of CPR with some sort of brain damage. Baekhyun started breathing again and he had no more brain damage than he already had. I'm impressed."

“It was dumb luck,” I said and took a sip. "I honestly only did what I saw on those medical shows."

Seulhye laughed quietly. We were standing outside Baekhyun's hospital room and I was relieved that he was going to be okay. He hasn't woken up since he got here but his vitals all looked clean. If he died today, I think I might have lost my sanity. I wouldn't even care that people were watching.

"But really, you did a good job," Seulhye praised, "I would have thought you had medical training."

She's pretty perceptive, isn't she? Even if I did a good job, there's no way she could know for sure I had medical training. I still looked like a teen so there's no way she'd suspect that I had an MD and license. Besides, Dr. Park Chanyeol of Hemotology is dead.

I faked my death certificate of that particular "Chanyeol" awhile ago. What about modern society is that everything is documented. Back in the day, you didn't need birth certificates or death certificates. I suppose it's for the better, just not for me. Obviously, the South Korean government wasn't thinking about how inconvenient it would be for an immortal. I only made up 0.00000002% of the population, after all.

“You know, this happens a lot," Seulhye said. "Baekhyun getting sick. He was my patient at one point but I couldn't do anything. I’m always worried he might get sick when no one is there to help him. I’m glad you were there.”

    “There was a lot of people around, it could've been anyone that helped him. I guess I just got out of my initial shock faster so I could help. I don't even know the guy but it would to see someone my age die.”

    Seulhye didn’t answer to that. I know I probably sounded like a jerk but I was doing it on purpose. I don’t usually feel bad about lying but for some reason lying about this hurt a lot. Probably because I was still in shock and the adrenaline hasn’t worn off yet. My whole existence hated trying to deny Baekhyun but this is the way it has to be.

    “Baekhyun is a funny kid, you know,” Seulhye continued without missing a beat. It looks like she ignored my last comment. How big of her.

“He’s incredibly loyal but also fiercely independent and fearless. When I first met him, his brother was trying to consult me because he was diagnosed with Huntington's. It's a horrible degenerative disease and despite having that diagnosis, Baekhyun oozed optimism. When I told him Huntington's wasn't cureable and that he'll die, he smiled and told me, 'It's okay. I'm not afraid to die.' He was the youngest Huntington's patient I had and I didn't want him to die. He never complained, not even once, about the pain he was in.”

    My heart sank. Please don't tell me more.

    “It turned out his diagnosis was wrong. He had gone through some of the most painful and riskiest procedures medicine had to offer but we still couldn't figure out what ailing him. I feel helpless. I don’t know how to help.”

    Seulhye sighed, looking at the floor. I'm sure most doctors would be interested in Baekhyun because curing him, or at least diagnosing him correctly, could get their names in the history books. But I could tell Dr. Yoon had other reasons for helping Baekhyun. I didn’t necessarily need to know her reasons. Whatever her aim, I was glad there were people out there who genuinely cared for Baekhyun. Seulhye was a good kid.

“He thinks he knows you, Chanyeol. I know you said you don't know him but are you sure?”

     I was taken back by her sudden question. There was no malice in it and yet it seemed accusatory. I didn’t know how to answer. It’s not like I can say that Baekhyun and I have technically known each other for about 200 years and that I was deeply in love with him. Even though it’s true, it sounds absolutely ridiculous.

    “No, I don’t,” I answered her, “I’ve never met him before. Maybe there’s someone who looks like me that he has mistaken me for.”

    Seulhye looked at me with no readable facial expression. She’d play a good game of cards with that pokerface. I couldn’t tell what she was thinking. Maybe she knew I was lying or maybe she was considering the possibility that I really did have a doppelganger.

    “Baekhyun doesn’t say anything but he’s very hung up on you. He’s positive he knows you but he just can’t remember. Even if it seems a little crazy, please bear with him. He’s very ill,” her voice sounded unstable.

    “He probably doesn’t have much time left.”

    This is a fact that I already knew but time and time again, it was a tough pill to swallow. I looked up at the young doctor and tried my best to smile, “I understand.”

    I’ve made my decision. I’m dropping out of college and going back home. It will hurt to not see Baekhyun even though I know he’s alive but if he can live a little longer, I’ll do anything.

"Hey! What are you doing there? You're going to fall off the edge!" A man yelled at Chanyeol. He was yelling in a different language, Chinese I'm sure, but I understood the man perfectly. Chanyeol was nonchalantly looking down at the dizzying height below him while sitting on the edge of a cliff. He was rather calm about it, like if falling off to a painful death didn't phase him in the least. He turned his head slowly to look at the owner of the voice and he looked rather shocked. He covered his mouth with his hand, shaking his head in disbelief. A tear ran down his cheek.

I jolted awake.

Another. That was another one of the many dreams that I have had of Chanyeol. Nevermind that I hadn't seen the guy in the past six months, I was still dreaming about him and I couldn't forget him. He was always there, in the back of my mind. It irritated me to no end. Why was I so hung up on him?

After my fainting incident at the Penfield Research Building at HongIk University, I was kept in the hospital for a month. I could have been discharged after a week but due to my insanely complicated medical records, the hospital thought it would be best to keep me there until I was fully healthy. Well, as healthy as I could be. Seulhye tried hard to keep my brother from forcibly pulling me from school and I was surprised he folded. He allowed me to stay but I had to come home every weekend. That did not bother me at all. I just wanted to study music while I can.

I never saw Chanyeol again. Seulhye said he dropped out of the university a couple days after I was hospitalized. He didn't tell her anything except that he was going back home. He never mentioned where he lived. Since then, six months have already passed. I was feeling better and I even had more energy. My brother thought some kind of miracle had fallen upon us because I was actually getting back good health results from the hospital.

I know better. I know it's too good to be true and yet it was kind of exciting. I mean, what if I don't get sick again? What if I'm finally recovering? Yeah, it sounds a bit far-fetched but a man can dream, can't he?

And speaking of dreams, every night since I got fainted six months ago, I have had incoherent dreams that sends chills down my spine. They all seemed like memories, real events that I had gone through, but they didn't make any sense. I lot of them were set in the past. I don't think I've actually dreamt of anything in my lifetime. But one common variable in each dream was that Park Chanyeol was in every single one.

Every. Single. One.

The other night I dreamt that he was dressed in an outdated student uniform. They were the typical male school uniforms in the early 1920s during the Japanese annexation of Korea. The Korean Independence Movement was starting and nothing was safe then. I could tell Chanyeol was being very cautious. In the dream, he walked out into the middle of nowhere during the dead of night. He almost got caught by Japanese soldiers who could have killed him on spot but he ran quickly to a large underground space.

There was a lot of people there who were taking shelter during those hard times. This place was obviously a huge secret and if anyone were to find out, all of the people there would be killed. Chanyeol was trying to play the Aejang which is a traditional zither instrument with 9 silk strings strung across a forsythia wood body. He was a novice at it but he played it with such passion. He kept talking to a man named Kyungsoo and the name sounded familiar. Kyungsoo wasn't necessarily a rare name but for some reason, I felt like I might know who this specific Kyungsoo was. It was the scariest thing.

I've had my fair share of strange and scary dreams but the scariest one yet was of Chanyeol fighting to save someone named Sehun who had gotten into trouble with a gang. This time period was probably the 1970s or 1980s when Korea went through an industrial boom. When the Korean War ended in 1953, Korea was one of the world's poorest countries. With shear determination, Korea miraculously grew the economy during the 60s through the 80s. With big money being made and little regulations to stop lucrative and unethical practices, gangs and mobs were starting to form.

Sehun sounded like a troublemaker and he had gone and done something stupid. Chanyeol didn't seem like the violent type but I could tell he deeply cared for this Sehun character. Chanyeol beat up two guys looking for Sehun before a group of five men overpowered him. The gangsters beat him with sticks and he was bruised and bleeding all over. He held out and still kept looking for his friend. I woke up in cold sweat. It broke my heart to see him hurt like that. I mean, it was only a dream but it felt so real.

Sometimes, I wanted to look for him. I can tell he doesn't like me but I still wanted to thank him for saving my life. I also wanted to bombard him with tons of different questions. I didn't need to know why he seemed to hate me or why he helped me that day I fainted, but I just wanted to know about him. Like what his favorite foods were and what kind of music he listened to. Was that strange?

Even though our encounter was brief, I felt like he knew more about me than I knew about myself. Still, I didn't know anything about him. I know, it sounds deluded and psychotic but I can't help it. Something kept telling me that I knew Chanyeol from somewhere.

I think I should go find him. I bet he won't even remember me after six months. I'm going to die any day now and if I don't go and talk to him, I might regret it on my death bed later. So I'll do it. I'll go find him. But how do you look for someone who has disappeared like the wind? Do I start with the census? Or the phone book, maybe?