His headaches were getting worse, both in intensity and durance. He didn’t know if they actually ever went away anymore. He couldn’t remember a time were they weren’t there, an ever present throb in the front of his head. If they were the cause or effect of his jumbled and confusing overlapping memories he didn’t know, and he simply didn’t care, he just wanted it to all go away. All these weird memories of Luhan, Jongin (or should he call him Kai now as that apparently was his real name?) and a third man that he didn’t know the name of yet that he at first had assumed were elaborate dreams but that he now were sure were nothing of the sorts. He now had two sets of memories and he knew that the most sensible thing to do most probably was to discard the Kyungsoo ones and instead focus on remembering all the “real” D.O ones. But he didn’t want to. He’d much rather have his other memories to be real. He’d much rather have the memory of his first meeting with Jongin to be at his locker in high school with the younger trying out cheesy pick-up lines on him than the near death experience it actually had been. He’d much rather remember Jongin becoming his best friend and then finally asking him out in the most rom-com way possible than Jongin voicing his feelings while Kyungsoo himself was being attacked by a giant octopus looking creature which Jongin seemingly didn’t see, being too preoccupied with being embarrassed. And he’d definitely much rather remember his normal childhood with loving parents and great friends than the ruthless training period he’d been put into immediately after being born just so he could develop his powers to protect his planet’s life source.

But no matter how much he wished he could, he couldn’t simply erase the memories that suddenly had appeared. They were memories, real memories, and it’s impossible to completely suppress them just because you want to. So now his head was a mess and he just wanted to sleep and wake up to realise that this was all a dream. He didn’t even care which world he would wake up in if he just could escape this place. If he just could get out. Get out and sleep, and process all these memories in his own time. Process what was happening to him.

But they didn’t let him sleep. They didn’t let him wake up of his own. And he couldn’t get out.

~ * ~

Yixing was sitting in the teacher’s lounge looking out the window on the bustling streets outside. He was the only one left, all the children as well as all the other kindergartner teachers went home an hour ago, but he couldn’t leave just yet. Not even flinching at the sound of a loud crash coming from the restaurant next door he continued to peer through the window. Watching… Searching… Waiting.

His dreams about three men coming to get him had become more frequent since last month and he could now expect the same dreams every night, with only some slight alternations. The one with them arriving at the kindergarten in the afternoon when the traffic were at its worst was always the same (and the reason for Yixing to stay at work later than usual) but sometimes he also dreamt about the four of them traveling through amazing fantasy forests together. He always remembered the dreams completely and he had started to paint sceneries from them, scared that one day they would evade his memory and then nothing of the beautiful, colourful woods would remain.

Usually Yixing’s paintings and drawings were of abstract landscapes, colours not matching the natural presence of nature but all the same realistic and graceful. However, today he found himself absentmindedly sketching the line art of a unicorn head. The picture had appeared in his dream last night, and although he couldn’t remember in what way or form he knew the image was important.

He glanced at the clock above the door to the lounge and then out again on the street. It was already half past seven and he couldn’t stay any longer. He would just have to hope that tomorrow was the day that they found him.

Before he left the building Yixing taped his drawing to the window, hoping it would work as some sort of beacon.

~ * ~

They were walking through a different part of the city today, or for all Jongin knew it could be the same as yesterday but that would be both unlikely and unproductive. He knew that he probably should keep more tabs of the environment they were walking through, in case of him ever getting lost and/or having to find his way back there, but he just couldn’t keep his thoughts on that matter.

The streets were busier than the ones they’d walked by yesterday and Jongin didn’t know if it was because they were nearing the rush hour or if it just was this part of town. He was walking beside Luhan, Chanyeol was walking a bit behind them, looking out over the people walking past. Trying to find this Lay dude had proved to be harder than he thought, one reason being that neither he nor Chanyeol actually knew what he looked like. Luhan had tried to describe his appearance but since his description basically was “around Luhan’s height, should have black hair but could actually be any other colour too, hairstyle unknown, usually looks kind of tired but not always, adorable dimple (one, not two, remember that!), actually he’s all adorable… Look for an adorable guy around my height and that’s him!” it was kind of impossible for Jongin to know what he was looking for. Also since there wasn’t that many people not around Luhan’s height. If Lay had been a giant (like Chanyeol who were towering over everyone) or miniscule it would be easier to notice him if they ever walked past him. Jongin was beginning to dread that they’d actually had been at the right place at the right time but due to far too many other people in the same area they’d failed to see him and now they were doomed to fail. Or doomed to waste another month at least.

Jongin was just about to turn left and cross over to the other side of the street when he noticed that the looming footsteps that had been following them all day suddenly were gone. He turned around and just as he had suspected Chanyeol was gone. Quickly nudging elbowing Luhan in the stomach Luhan he swiftly explained that Chanyeol had disappeared. He had only needed two words. Chanyeol and Gone.

He had expected at least a bit of panic from Luhan but the older only nodded like it was nothing out of the ordinary to have one of them disappearing.

“He’ll probably catch up to us soon, I saw him walk into an antiquarian a few minutes ago and I figured we didn’t need to stop and wait for him to finish whatever business he needed to do there.” Luhan said only stopping in his tracks because Jongin had.

“You won’t even let me go 10 metres in a different direction than you but him you allow into a strange shop without batting an eyelid?” Jongin asked, eyes wide, eyebrows high. He had once decided to walk over to the opposite sidewalk because he had thought that he saw someone with a dimple but he hadn’t even made it halfway over the street before Luhan had run after him shouting at him that he couldn’t just disappear like that and a million questions that he couldn’t answer. It felt like his relationship with his parents all over again. So why Luhan had let Chanyeol enter a store without caring was really crazy.

“It’s not that I don’t trust you.” Luhan said, ignoring Jongin’s muttered retort, “But I saw what it was that gained his attention and thought it was best if he got it himself.”

“What wa-“

“LOOK AT THIS AWESOME, SUPER COOL RING I FOUND IN THAT OLD SHOP OVER THERE!” Chanyeol suddenly appeared in his all excited glory, shoving his newly bought ring so close to Jongin’s face that he really couldn’t see what was so cool about it.

“I also got this really old book for free BUT LOOK AT MY RING!” He continued and finally freed Jongin from it as he put it on. His smile could cure cancer as he looked at his newly adorned hand.

“What’s so special about that ring?” Jongin inconspicuously whispered to Luhan while still looking at the very happy Chanyeol.

“I’ll tell you all about it later. I’m interested in that book though…” Luhan answered and Jongin decided to look at the book Chanyeol held by his side. It was really old judging from the yellowed, torn pages and worn leather binding. However it didn’t seem like Chanyeol found it as interesting as Luhan did as he held it carelessly, obviously not caring whether it would break even more or not. When Luhan didn’t say no more about what could be so interesting about the old book Jongin decided to ask Chanyeol himself, he had bought the book after all.

“Why did you get the book when you bought the ring? And what’s it about?”

“I don’t really know.” Chanyeol answered, finally lowering his hand and stopped admiring his ring. “But I wasn’t supposed to get it for free. It was supposed to be the other way around, like buy the book get the ring for free. As children’s magazines you know. Free toy. And as the design on the ring matches one of the drawings in the book I guess that’s why the owner of the shop paired them up.”

Luhan looked suspiciously happy about this and Jongin tried to steal a look of Chanyeol’s ring (he hadn’t really been able to see it before as it’d been too close to his face). He guessed the connected lines were supposed to be a bird of some sorts but he couldn’t be sure, and he didn’t know why Luhan seemed to find all of this so important.

“I didn’t really want the book though, but neither did the owner as he said that I couldn’t leave without it and I could even get it for free if I just brought it with me. It must be really useless.”

“I doubt it. Keep it.” Luhan answered and then they all started walking again.

They had been walking for a while, Jongin scanning the crowds for adorable Luhan-tall people with dimpled smiles and haircuts that could look like whatever, when suddenly Chanyeol stopped and told them to wait. Jongin turned around to ask him if he had found another strange store he wanted to check out but when he saw the other quickly checking through his new book his question died on his tongue.

“Aha!” Chanyeol whooped when he finally found what he was searching for (scaring a couple of innocent pedestrians in the process). “I knew I had seen that image before.” He explained as he showed them a page in the book. In the middle of the page there was a roughly drawn picture of a unicorn head and beneath it there was some text that really was too small for Jongin to make out. When he looked up from the page Luhan was already on his way over the street towards the kindergarten that Chanyeol was pointing at and the drawing of the same unicorn that was plastered to the window.

AN:

I've just moved halfway across the country and I'm living in a dorm for the first time in my life and I'm not scared it's okay I'm lying shhhh

First day tomorrow - scary

First normal day with dance classes on thursday - scary

Brännboll on friday - kill me now

But I'll probably survive it and love it (I mean, what's not to love with studying dance?) except the brännboll part of course... I hate brännboll... Who invented it? I need to have a sserious word with that person because no. Just no.

But a new chapter, yay :D it was supposed to be longer but I thought that was a good part to end it. So next chapter hopefully quite soon (soon for me at least) as I'll probably flee into my room whenever I get scared of the people living in the same corridor- I mean I'm not scared ^^' It's okay, I'm totally fine ^^'