hydra | svt

CHAPTER SIXTY TWO.

wonwoo

barely a week has passed since the incident, for a lack of a better word; part of my brain still refuses to process exactly what happened that night, only being able to recall how my anxiety lead to cold sweats and shaky hands.

that day, my time at school had been so boring and... usual compared to the horrors that occurred barely 12 hours earlier. i'd walked to school with mingyu and minghao, attended all my morning classes as normal, had lunch with everyone before completing my afternoon lessons too. according to all the mumbling that the school's headmaster had done during the morning assembly, the school's clubs and extracurricular activities will be cancelled this week for a reason i had not cared to remember. so instead of loitering around the drama club like i usually did at half past three, i walked home alone.

for a person as introverted as i am, something about suddenly being alone after being surrounded by people all day will put you in a strange mood; at first it was simply just a feeling, walking alongside me and purposefully aligning our steps. the voices of my friends, clueless to the events of the evening by my selfish choice, danced around my head. they circled my own inner voice and at the time the distraction had been a welcome one. however every step towards my home - no, my house - muffled them one by one until i was just left spinning in the empty carcass of each thought, dizzy and disorientated.

i'd forcefully shaken my head to rid myself of any thoughts before teleporting straight into my room from the street below my window. i seldom even went downstairs now, opting to keep my necessities as close to me as possible. at this point, the money i'd spent at the local convenience store could probably fund my whole university degree; for the past seven days i've been living off of bottled water and ready-made meals, or the coffee and cakes from orbit cafe when i felt like a change.

despite basically living out of my room now, nothing else had changed. no attacks, no ransackings and not a hair out of place for my friends either; they confirmed that their families were acting normally and no one seemed suspicious, which put my heart at ease for them slightly.

in a way, i'm sort of thankful that the rings were nearly stolen and the person closest to me turned out to be playing for the other side. don't worry, i haven't gone crazy yet: strengthening my powers has been the perfect distraction and considering how much mental fortitude i need to be able to teleport to an exact place at an exact time, my metaphorical hands are always full. my best record is the time when i was able to teleport all the way to the doorstep of orbit cafe (it was late at night so no one was around to see me) and successfully return to my bedroom in the span of around 2 minutes. it's only happened once, but the fact that it has happened has made me feel such confidence in myself that i haven't felt for a while since the start of this mission.

that was a few days ago, on thursday. today is saturday and a glum one at that: sleet coloured clouds swarm above korea, threatening to release a torrent of rain at the sleight of a hand. the humidity of the whole city clings to my skin as i head towards the cafe, disappearing as far as possible into my hoodie and jacket. the weather trains my gaze to the ground, not that i feel like looking around me anyway, and i hurry across the road towards the familiar bustle of orbit cafe and my friends lounging in one of the booths by the window. just as i reach the other pavement, my shoulder collides roughly with another.

"oh, sorry-" i begin to apologise but whoever i had bumped into just marches on, ignoring me completely.

i decide that meeting my friends takes priority over this mysteriously sulky stranger and so i'm about to let it go when i see a flash of white flutter to the ground.

"excuse me, i think you dro-" i reach down to pick up a folded piece of paper, pristinely white even after being on the ground for a few seconds. i turn to face the stranger and pull my hood down to get a proper view only to be met with an empty street and an unsettling breeze that sweeps the leaves over my shoes, changing the entire scenery of the area so nothing was where it was 5 seconds ago.