ambrosia [NCT DREAM]

5. I Wake Up in a Strange Place (Again)

Jaemin blinked his eyes open slowly, faintly recognizing the yellow cabin he was in. The freckled boy was gone and so was the horse man. Jaemin wondered if he was just hallucinating and that had never happened. He wondered if anything happened at all; the storm, the dogs, the group of odd strangers...

The tanned boy from before stood there, checking Jaemin's vitals on the monitor in front of him. He hummed and turned around to meet Jaemin's confused expression.

"Oh! You're awake again! Hey, Jaemin!" The boy smiled, his sunshiny grin blindingly bright.

"Where am I?" Jaemin's voice was still raspy and hoarse. The tanned boy loomed over him and changed the IV bag Jaemin hadn't even noticed he was hooked up to.

The boy moved Jaemin's dark hair from his eyes and smiled. "You're in Seoul. Seoul, South Korea."

Jaemin relaxed at that, nodding slightly. "I'm from Seoul." He remarks, relieved that he'd woken up at home. The other boy nods and gets up to fetch a rag.

"A few people came in to check up on you, but you had a bad reaction. You aren't in shock or injured internally or anything, but I'm going to ask you some questions, okay?" The boy's voice was soft and Jaemin furrowed his eyebrows.

"I'm not losing it? The horse-dude was really here?" Jaemin asked quietly, scared. He didn't know what was real and what his kind was fabricating at this point.

"Yes, that was real. His name is Onew and he's a centaur." The boy nodded, dipping the rag into what Jaemin assumed was water. He wrung it out and dabbed the dried blood on Jaemin's hands. "You don't have any blunt trauma or head injuries, but I can understand why you'd be... shocked. Do you remember where you last were? Before this cabin?"

Jaemin thought hard, biting his lip. "Uh... in California. And it was raining... really hard."

The other boy nodded at that. "Very good. Your memory seems to be serving you right. Vital signs are good as well." He turned to Jaemin with a worried glance. "Do you remember what exactly happened in California?"

"Kinda" Jaemin shrugged. "My school blew up, you were there, there were these dog-things, and-" He suddenly shot up and grabbed his injured arm with his untouched one. He examined it in a panic, remembering the creature who had practically ripped it from its socket.

But to his amazement, his arm was perfectly intact, as if it had never happened. Jaemin's head hurt, further wondering if he'd simply lost his mind or if anything that had transpired was actually real.

"My arm..." he breathed out, staring at the scarred tissue. His arms were scarred and stitched, but no longer bleeding. His shoulder was back to normal as well. He looked up at the boy in bewilderment, as the boy giggled.

"Blessings of Apollo, that's all it is." The boy dabbed the scars with the damp rag from earlier. "You shouldn't have gotten up so quickly, you might get dizzy." He chided, Jaemin curiously moving his arm around as a child might.

"I'm fine. How long have I been here?" He asked, stilling his arm. The tanned boy sucked in a breath, grimacing.

"One week. You were hurt pretty damn badly. We were going to take you to the camp in California, but they're taking care of... issues, right now." The boy shook his head. "So, we brought you back home, which we thought was best, according to your file."

Jaemin's face only got more confused at that. "I'm confused. I feel like I'm... missing something? Camp?" He asked, trying to get a peek outside through the flowery curtains.

"Well, this is a special camp. There's camps like this all over the world for people like us. Cairo, Nairobi, New York, Bogota..." The boy trailed off, trying to remember the locations. "And because It's a special camp, we... you know what, I'll just show you. Think you can walk?" He asked Jaemin, holding out a hand. Jaemin took it and stood on trembling legs, nodding confidently. He was fatigued, but didn't wanna show it or else he might now get to leave the cabin.

"I feel pretty fine." He shrugged, as the boy squeezed his hand gently and grinned again.

"Good, let's go. It's better if you see it than hear it."