wake up. | nct/wayv

07

LEVEL SEVEN : YESTODAY

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UNIT : THE VISION

PLAYER : TEN
JANUARY 2021

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> the plaque of the black cat was glossy and reflected the artificial light around him, yet those yellow eyes still managed to pierce into his. he allowed his eyes to close for a moment as thoughts ran rampant in his head.

it was january. ten woke up in this room one month ago after finding himself lost on an empty road and blacking out. he couldn't remember where he was going or why he fell unconscious. all he knew now was that nothing was going to be normal from this point onward.

a few minutes later, he found himself walking down the hall. the floor was cold against his bare feet. the pants that were too long for his legs dragged with each step he took.

small movements caught his eye and he looked to the left. a door with the plaque of an elegant white crane stood before him. he shifted his focus to the large window next to it, where a man who couldn't have been much older than him sat alone. he was on his bed, feet swinging gently below him.

ten looked at the name on the plaque and read aloud to himself. "moon taeil..."

his eyes were on him once again. taeil was built smaller than most of the other subjects he'd seen in the facility. his hair was shorter and blonde and his face held no sign of aggression. rather, it was soft and scared.

ten continued down the hall. he passed the plaque with the deer. donghyuck was drawing on a table. the plaque with the morpho butterfly: jaehyun was swinging at a punching bag. the plaque with the tiger: yuta was asleep.

it continued like this—some of the rooms were occupied while others were still empty for the time being. he walked until he reached the end of the hall, to the door with the plaque of a green, menacing serpent. there were no windows to see inside, unlike the others, but ten knew... he always knew,

it would be vacant until the very last moment.

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THE PLAZA

JENO AND JISUNG

> "you... remember?"

jisung sighed as he stared at the floor between them, a solemn expression on his face. "not exactly. i don't remember the people. i only remember where i used to live, and where i used to go. what i did for a living, things like that."

"oh..."

they sat like this, on the second floor of an abandoned shop. they were accompanied by boxes in the corner and some wooden planks thrown around the room. jisung missed birds chirping and wandering squirrels and whatnot—and also missed the silhouette of a person he could not name.

it was like he was standing in the dark, reaching out to this shadow but everytime they got so close to touching, jisung would get pulled back. who was the person of his memories?

a startling noise snapped him out of his thoughts: an explosion in the distance. they remembered the same thing had happened when they were in the city in one of the earlier levels—tear gas had been the obstacle then.