The Party That Killed || Hyunlix

42 🕸️

3rd person pov.
Seungmin opened his eyes and realized he was once again in a strange place. Standing on an empty, unlit street, he felt as though time had stopped. Thick fog surrounded him, making everything seem surreal. Instead of the usual city sounds, there was only silence—piercing and unsettling.

Suddenly, he noticed something at the end of the street. A figure. A man, standing still, staring at him. It was a boy, but he didn’t look familiar. He wore a long, black coat, and his face was blurred, as if trying to disappear into the shadows.

Seungmin felt a strange tension in his stomach, as if his body knew this dream held something important. It seemed like the boy was looking at him with a hidden message, but he couldn’t grasp it.

"Who is that?" Seungmin asked, but there was no answer.

And then he felt something tightly grip his heart. In the distance, a sound he recognized—a faint hum, like a camera recording. It reminded him of the feeling he’d had watching Chan’s recordings. He hesitated, then looked away from the blurred figure, turning towards the sound.

In front of him appeared a photograph, projected onto a wall like an old, yellowed family photo. And in the photo... another boy. In the blurred face, he could only make out a shadow—a shadow that seemed familiar yet foreign. It was someone he knew from the past, but he couldn’t remember who it was. He remembered Chan’s recording, the photos with the blurred face. This was it. It had to be it.

At that moment, the street began to blur as if the dream was unraveling. Seungmin felt himself losing his footing, as though he were falling into a dark abyss. He screamed but couldn’t hear his own voice. All he heard was a quiet laugh—familiar, yet indistinct. Someone from his past? Was it his brother? Or... Chan?

Before he could answer these questions, he felt himself slipping into darkness, and the dream ended, leaving him in complete blackness.

≈🎃≈

3rd person pov.
Seungmin walked into the room, his heart racing as he noticed the space was calm and quiet. The room was bright, with a large window that let in gentle light. He sat in a chair across from the desk, trying not to look at the clock on the wall that kept reminding him that the session was nearing its end.

The psychologist, an older woman with a gentle gaze, smiled at him, encouraging him to speak.

"Seungmin, I’m glad you’re here. How are you feeling?" she asked in a calm voice.

Seungmin was silent for a moment, staring at his hands. Images flashed through his mind—Chan’s recordings, the dream, memories that made no sense. Everything was mixing into chaos, like he was losing control over what was happening around him.

"It’s all... overwhelming," he said, his voice uncertain, as if he didn’t believe his own words. "Lately, I’ve been having strange memories. And dreams. I feel like I’m losing a part of myself, like something’s slipping away."

The psychologist looked at him with interest, careful not to pressure him. She took a deep breath.

"It’s natural to feel lost when life surprises you with such events. Can you try to describe these dreams? What scares you in them?"

Seungmin hesitated, wondering if he should talk about his dreams, about what he saw. The blurred image of the boy, the strange feeling in his heart that wouldn’t leave him. But on the other hand, he felt like he had no choice—he had to share it with someone.

"In my dreams... I see a boy I don’t know, but he feels familiar. And I keep feeling like something’s slipping away. Like a forgotten memory that returns and disappears whenever I try to grasp it. And then... I see pictures. Family photos, but with some blurred boy I can’t remember…" Seungmin fell silent, feeling another block within him.