STRANGER. － c.bm + k.dh

── [０１] ──

It was meek, slurred, the quiet squeak and drag of his worn out shoes along the freshly cleaned checkerboard tiles of the lobby's floor, and yet the sound seemed to echo in the dark silence, pounding within his ears and rattling inside his skull.

His steps were small, almost neat, but as he blinked down at them he knew they were not his own. No, the legs carrying him were of a stranger; those sneakers filthied with dirt from walking down brightly illuminated streets he would not recall and smeared with grime from trudging through glum alleys he would have nightmares of.

And then they brought him to the block's elevator, a blur of silver steel before him prior to the doors parting and him stepping in with no recognition of the actions his body committed, just as his index finger pressed a button he consciously knew not which level it belonged to.

There was a hum and then a subtle jolt, nauseatingly bad music beginning to play from the circular speaker above his head at a volume low enough that he could hardly hear it as the lift began to move.

Subsequently, his sight cleared and his skin started to burn beneath the unforgiving glare of the harsh white light overhead. Every flaw upon the murky face was highlighted by said glow, and he stared, squinted and blinked, for he could have sworn he knew that person looking back at him on the closed elevator doors, expression contorted in a pathetic bewilderment equivalent to his own.

Bomin's sore eyes saw a face with no name, and as his dry lips parted in a sigh, a feeble bell dinged and all movement came to an abrupt halt.

His lashes fluttered whilst the doors pulled apart and the man disappeared, leaving him once more so wonderfully alone, standing within his metal cage.

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