A week went by without incident.
Then...
***
Wonho woke up. Looked around. Looked down. Looked at his hands. Looked around again. Looked down again. Pulled the blanket back, stared at his legs as though affirming that they were his own, and they looked like his, but there was a weird disconnect. His legs weren't the thing that was wrong; it was everything else.
That wasn't his blanket, and this wasn't his room.
"Hey," he said, his voice falling flat. He didn't know who he was addressing, but he felt like he needed to address someone.
This wasn't his room.
"Hey," he said, a bit louder, looking around, looking up at the corners of the room.
Is that...is that a camera?
A shuffling noise from the other side of the room startled him, and his head snapped down to watch as what had seemed like a limp pile of blankets earlier shifted, a head rising from the mattress. "Nathan?" a bleary voice, full of sleep, confusion. "What's wrong?"
"Who's Nathan?" Wonho asked, staring at the boy. "Why are you here? Where am I?"
The boy stared at him. "You're-" His voice faltered. "You...were Nathan."
"Where are we? Who are you?" Wonho asked, his eyes flitting around as he drank in all the visual information in front of him. A bare room, three beds, one door. Camera in the top right corner. A boy, looked to be young, but his face was aged by weariness and knowledge he shouldn't have had. A thin shirt was slipping off one of his shoulders, exposing one of his collarbones, the other side holding on at his neck. It wasn't a provocative sight, but it seemed too vulnerable a display between strangers, and the discomfort of seeing it made Wonho turn his head away. "What's going on?" he asked, looking back up at the camera. "What is that for?"
The boy hesitated for a moment, and when Wonho looked back at him, there were too many emotions held in his eyes for Wonho to decipher even a single one. "I'm Hyungwon. You don't...you don't remember me?"
"Remember you?" Wonho frowned. "I've never met you before. Do you know why we're here? What is this place?"
The boy frowned, his lip wobbling before he teased it between his teeth. He draped his blanket over his shoulders so he was fully bundled all the way up to his neck. He looked conflicted, as though he knew something but couldn't say, and Wonho frowned, standing up and moving toward the boy.
"Hey, you know what's going on, don't you?" Wonho accused, glaring down at the boy, who was just staring blankly at a wall. "Hey," Wonho said, trying to remember the boy's name. "Hyungwon. Hey, answer me," he said, raising his voice. He was starting to feel scared, and his panic was quickly manifesting itself into anger and intimidation. He reached out to touch the boy and snap him out of whatever trance he'd fallen into, but the only displayed skin was from him neck upward, and as Wonho brushed his fingers against the boy's neck, the boy shot backward, his spine and head smacking into the wall with a harsh thud as the boy's eyes met Wonho's.
"Don't- don't touch me," he said, and the blankets covering him trembled along with his body. He brought his knees up to his chest and held them, rocking slightly in the fetal position, clenching the blanket around himself.
"Hey," Wonho said, frowning. What game is this kid playing? What the heck is going on? He reached out again, but the boy flinched and quickly changed his position so his arms were covering his head, elbows out.
"Leave me alone," the boy said, still shaking, curled up on his bed, his body language defensive.
"Look, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you, okay? Are you all right? Do you need...help?" Wonho asked, feeling somewhat guilty despite his confusion, but the boy didn't respond to any of his questions or prompts for the next except to say, "Don't touch me" several times.
A bell or alarm of some sort rang as the lock on the door disengaged, but Wonho didn't process it until two boys opened the door and peeked in.
"Hey, are you two up? We're gonna be late for breakfast," one of them said, his eyes wavering uncertainly as he leaned into the room, hanging by one arm from the door frame.
"You okay there Nathan?" the other said in a kinder tone.
"Why does everyone keep calling me that?"
