Chapter 1- The Boy in the Mirror

37 5 4
                                        

The first thing Soobin noticed about Room 5 was the silence.

It wasn't peaceful.
It was thick - the kind of silence that filled your ears, pressed against your skin, made you second-guess every breath you took. Even the hum of the old radiator sounded wrong here, like it came from too far away.

He dropped his suitcase by the bed, glancing once at the full-length mirror bolted to the wall across from him. The reflection stared back - neat school uniform, tired eyes, messy hair. Normal.
But it didn't feel normal.

Not at all.

Soobin shook his head and turned away, trying to laugh at himself.
It was just a mirror. Just a room. He was just tired.

Still, when he lay in bed that night, the mirror faced him like an open eye he couldn't close.
And sometime between midnight and the slow bleeding of 3 a.m., he heard it.

A whisper.
Faint, broken - not from the hallway, not from outside - but curling up from inside the room itself.

"Sorry..."
The voice scratched against his ear, too close, too human.
"But I think I keep hearing voices."

Soobin sat up sharply, heart hammering against his ribs.
There was no one there.

Only the mirror, and the reflection inside it - sitting up just a second slower than he did, eyes glinting too darkly in the moonlight.

He stared into the glass, afraid to blink, afraid to look away.
Because deep down, something told him:

The reflection was no longer his.

---

Outsiders Where stories live. Discover now