"You... remember? You mean- you have all your memories?!"
Hun gave a curt nod.
"From your past life!? When, when you were alive?"
Your words were scrambling for understanding as your brain attempted to catch up. Another nod was all the response you received, and your body slouched to the ground in disbelief as the kid seemed confused by your sudden shock.
"Doesn't everyone eventually? I mean, everything was scary and confusing and blurry at first, but they came back. That's what everyone's trying to get to come back, right? Memories? That's what they're obsessing over?"
"N-No!" You exclaimed, legs brushing the dirt of the bottom of the tent as your fists clenched in disbelief. It didn't take long for your wide eyes to focus in on Hun as you tried to allow your words to come out properly. His brown eyes wavered as he processed your words. "Hun, none of us ever remember anything about our past lives. They're trying to get memories written on paper... That means-"
"I'm different," he cut in, face suddenly growing solemn. "Of course I am."
You were surprised by the turn the conversation took as the kid breathed out shakily and his eyes narrowed. You could just make him out in the flickering candle light. Hun only seemed to be 10 years old, which is an age of intrigue. On one hand, 10 year olds seem to be filled with the innocence of youth.
They still play at play grounds, dream of adventures, and yearn for affection. On the other hand, they begin to mature. The reality of the world becomes daunting and weighs on their small shoulders. Sometimes, they have a hard time coping.
Hun was just a child, but somehow the weights on his shoulders seemed so heavy that a maturity and fear had coated his form.
Your thoughts were all over the place, but Hun continued on in a way that only confused you more.
"That's another reason I was starting to like this place," He admitted, pulling his legs closer to himself as he hid his face. "I thought everyone was the same. Even though we all look different, we can all understand each other at least. Guess I'm still different."
These words were shocking, and at first all you wanted to do was protest.
"No, Hun, we aren't all the same here," You found yourself saying. Your heart was heavy as you recalled the work 19 put into every day in the truck. "I know you don't know about this, but there's ranks. You know Jimin? He's gold, and I'm bronze. That means he has a better life here. So, everyone's different and-"
"No," The kid protested, "Jimin hyung has nice clothes, but his eyes look just as tired as everyone elses. Everyone looks hopeless. Which is sad, but at least all the same."
Hearing these words from a child shocked you and finally made you think. Was he right? Your heart dropped when you thought back, and although Jimin's life in the Between seemed finer on the surface, the reality was that he carried many burdens and just as much sorrow as the next number. Just as much as anyone else, and maybe more.
"O-Oh," Your voice trembled. "I see what you're saying then. And when you said we all understand each other, it's because all of us feel the same?"
Hun's eyebrows furrowed as he rolled his eyes. 10 was also the age of rebellion and snarky comments.
"I mean I guess, but that's cheesy. I meant we all speak the same and understand each other's language."
His rude tone made you want to discipline him as your eyes narrowed and cheeks flushed in embarrassment, but then, you understood what he was saying.
Language?
It was no shocker that every number of the Between looked different. Different skin tones, ethnicities, hair colors, etc. But... there was one thing that wasn't different, and that was the communication.
Jimin and Hun looked very different, and while your memories of your personal past life were gone, there were staples of life you still understood. For one, items. You remembered that you needed clothes, and had to brush your hair. For another, you remembered the concept of the sun, and how to walk.
For another yet, you apparently remembered countries of origin. While it was only a guess, Jimin possessed features that seemed Korean, while Hun looked more American or European. While interchangeably anyone of any ethnicity can grow up anywhere... it was certainly odd that everyone perfectly understood one another without any sort of language barrier in the Between.
There was too much for you to take in at once, so you quickly shook your head and waved your hands for a moment in order to get the boy to stop talking. If he continued on, you'd need more things to process, so you needed to slow down.
"W-Wait," You stammered, Hun looking a bit displeased with your constant confusion. "So, not only do you have your memories, but you're saying you can tell that we're all talking some language that's universal so we can all understand each other?"
The boy nodded, his brown hair moving with him. His smudged and pinkened skin caught your attention before looking into his brown eyes.
"So, it's better here," He concluded.
These words shook you to your core. For a child who remembered his life and could compare it to the Between, saying it was better to be dead than alive was haunting and made you tremble.
"My name isn't 100, but it isn't Hun either." He confessed, using a finger to trace the dirt of the floor, "But I like Hun better than the name my parents gave me. None of the other kids liked my real name either. It was too different."
He looked away, and your eyes trailed towards the glass littered on the floor beneath the tent flap. Your mind wandered to the curtain and the time you would give anything to see behind it. Now, you were just as curious, but not in an excited way. You dreaded knowing what Hun was going through, but for his sake, had to know equally as much.
Bad memories.
"Hun, you promised we'd talk through everything, right?" Your throat was dry. "So, tell me about yourself. What do you remember? I want to help you in any way that I can, so please, keep communicating with me. Don't run anymore."
For some reason, his eyes seemed rather broken. What had he said earlier about everyone's eyes in the Between? They looked sad and hopeless. But, even under the brokenness, he still had that twinge of hope that every child should have. That, in return, gave you hope too.
"Just... don't decide you don't care about me anymore after this," He begged, an edge to his voice that held a sort of warning and fear. "Please, don't leave me here alone. I was scared and didn't want to trust you, but you are being nice to me and my guardian angel said I should give you a chance. So please, don't forget about me."
"I won't," You were quick to agree, jaw clenched as you felt awkward but determined. He didn't seem to want physical touch or a hug as most 10 year old boys usually rejected such things, but he now looked more hopeful just hearing your promise.
You clearly weren't good with kids, but you were determined to be good with this one.
"Alright," He played with his fingers before quickly pushing himself up off the floor and facing the tent flap. "This way then, I guess I should just show you."
Even the way he carried himself felt more mature, and that in itself made you naturally get up to follow him.
You weren't sure what you expected as the child managed to pull back the flap, but it certainly wasn't whatever it would have been if you had managed to imagine anything to begin with.
What you saw in front of you was a mirror maze.
A common attraction at any fair, the twisting paths of reflected surfaces were known for entrapping and confusing those who wandered into them. Usually however, there was a lightness to them.
They were fun. A game.
But this mirror maze was broken down completely, and if not for the candle light may have been pitch black. You felt as if wandering too far into the mirrors may cause you to be lost forever, and you stiffened as Hun reached down to pick up one of the candles in order to better illuminate the entrance area.
The mirror to your direct left was half shattered; as if an amount of force had been thrust upon it but had only managed to break it half way.
"W-What is this," Your trembling voice made out and echoed in the space, you freezing even further upon facing what should have been a mirror without seeing your own reflection.
"Step back," Hun instructed, "Just a little bit."
You obeyed, and stepped closer to the entrance so just the kid was standing between all the mirrors in sight. His face was grim as he held the candle in a way that better evenly distributed the light. Then, you saw it.
Before the mirrors had seemed to only reflect darkness, but now, different images began to appear in the glass. And they all, in some way, included Hun.
Some were blurry, some were more defined, and some pictured him at a younger age, but all the images involved the boy in front of you.
"My mom and dad worked a lot," He spoke, looking towards one of the reflections. It showcased a young boy that was definitely Hun playing with a toy car in an office. It seemed as if you were looking through a reflective window to see him, and you watched as the young boy shrunk when the office door burst open.
An upset man stomped in and sat at the desk, seemingly barking orders at the kid who obeyed and stopped playing to get off the floor and sit in a chair.
"I don't think they wanted me, really," Hun admitted, fist tightening around the candle. "And I was stupid for thinking they did. After all, they only married because they knew they were going to have me."
You swallowed hard as you looked around to see more images of a young Hun sitting in cars and offices. He was silent, obedient, and... content.
"I thought all parents were supposed to love their kids if they behaved, so I did. I thought for sure I was doing it right, but one day, they told me we were going on another business trip. I was used to those, but this one was apparently in Korea. I was excited, and at first it felt just like any other business trip, but..."
It was hard for him to speak then, and you knew it was because of the mirror with the shattered glass. You slowly turned to face it, and in the top half that remained clear, you saw maybe the most heartbreaking sight you had ever seen.
His hands.
The glass must have bore a memory so painful for him that he had clearly punched at the surface in a willingness for it to go away. The glass had embedded itself into his skin, but he hadn't cared. You could see it so clearly, this kid screaming and crying as he tried to break the glass that continuously showed his own abandonment.
"They left me," He spoke simply.
And there he was, an 8 year old alone and confused running through the streets crying. He got looks as the glass reflected the blurry image of him passing people in the streets, eventually speeding up but not getting anywhere.
He tripped and fell, you unable to hear anything through the mirror but clearly seeing him scream the word "mom" as tears fell down his cheeks that were puffed red from the cold and his sobs.
To see Hun in such a way was both horrifying and heartbreaking, and you quickly looked away when he asked you to.
"Don't look at it, noona." He requested quietly, and you obeyed without question. Still, the sight you had glanced at had summoned liquid against your lids and they freely fell as you silently allowed them to.
Now Hun was standing tall, terrified in a world existing past death, but still somehow looking stronger than the child abandoned on the streets.
"It's better this way."
"A-Anyway, they couldn't locate my parents so, so they put me in an orphanage. I didn't even know how to speak Korean, so I never fit in and I struggled to learn it. Even when I got better the kids wouldn't speak to me. Maybe it was because I was too different."
So the world was this cruel. Casting aside those unwanted, and avoiding differences. Your heart sank.
"So... how did you-"
"Die?" He cut in, intelligent as always in predicting your words. "I remember it, actually. Very well. I didn't like it there anymore, and the only kids who were nice to me had already been adopted, so I decided to run away. I figured I was faster than anyone who would try to stop me, so I snuck out onto the roof trying to escape. It was storming and raining hard. I thought I could climb down, but I guess I slipped. Next thing I knew I was here."
Tragic, heartbreaking.
At first, all you felt was despair. These were the true horrors people were wanting to remember? A life of misery? The last tear fell down your cheek, and you almost collapsed right there, but soon another reflection caught your eye.
Hun had mentioned some kids were kind to him. There was a reflection that seemed to be the perspective of a mirror in a bed room. At first Hun was alone as he curled up on one of the beds, but a smiling girl soon joined him. She held a small cake with a candle on top, and eagerly presented it to him.
You thought maybe she mouthed the words Happy Birthday, and the memory of Hun smiled.
So, even in the worst of times, there was good after all. There were people willing to help spread positivity and help. And now...
You breathed out heavily before placing a smile on your face.
"Hun, I don't know what's going to happen to us here," You admitted, "But, I can promise that to the best of my abilities, I'm going to make things good for you with the remaining time I have left. Because, it doesn't have to be like this. No matter what happened back then, we can make the most of things now, right?"
At first he looked skeptical and hesitated towards your sudden brightness.
"Don't pity me," He requested quietly.
"I'm not," you were quick to say.
You stepped forward, and suddenly the images on the mirror shifted. They were no longer Hun, and no longer dark. But rather... blurry yet familiar...
You stiffened, and Hun seemed confused as well as the glass shifted.
"H-Hey, Noona, why are your reflections so blurry?" He questioned, moving closer to one of the mirrors. Indeed they were, and you were mesmerized by what the glass held. The images seemed hard to distinguish and far away... yet...
"I figured the mirrors are reflections of past times using mirrors we looked into or were reflected in in life," Hun wisely stated, kicking one of the pieces of broken glass. "But now that I think about it, if I'm really the only one with memories, then can anyone else see anything in this place?"
Your lips parted as you continued to stare at a few of the mirrors. If you looked hard enough... you could just make something out. Your eyes, your eyes looking in the rearview mirror of a car. Another reflection showed you in your pajamas. Staring across a sink.
You swallowed hard and shook your head, but the moment you did the images grew fuzzier.
"Guess so," Hun determined. "Because when the mirrors see you they aren't reflecting anything very well."
But... they were. They almost did.
Your dreams... that's why those reflections had been familiar.
Suddenly you remembered the more pressing matters at hand. Hun seemed embarrassed and was avoiding you, reminding you of someone else.
Someone that had a lot in common with Hun. Someone who had also been hiding things from you.
The glass under your foot crunched as you tried to avoid looking in the mirrors. You would return to this place in due time, but until then there was something you had to confirm. There had been a rising suspicion growing in your mind as time in the Between went on, and although at first you had brushed the notion away and declared such insights visions or dreams, suddenly the glass staring at you made you think otherwise.
"What, are you special or something?"
You shook your head to clear it, knowing that you had to put your growing suspicions on the side lines. For now, you had new goals, and you were determined to complete them.
"Jimin," You spoke suddenly, catching the kid's attention once more. "He's alone right now, and I meant to get back to him. You can come with me, and we can both keep you out of sight! Don't worry, we won't let them take you. You can stay with us and not have to stay here."
There was that hopeful glimmer you would do anything to see. It clearly reflected in his orbs as you took hold of his shaking hand and he avoided eye contact to pretend as if the hope didn't exist.
"I-I think we have a lot in common, Hun," You admitted, his hand trembling in yours. "And to be honest, that scares me. Because you're right, we are different. But..." You forced a smile, and this action alone caused your shoulders to lighten, "At least we aren't alone in being different. We have each other."
Hun seemed to understand your words as he looked at the glass one more time and blinked. Then he looked up at you.
"Can we get food?"
His sudden question surprised you, and you burst out into laughter before pulling your hand away and fondly patting his head. He was quick to protest, and you simply shook your head and sighed as smile escaped your lips towards his whines.
"Alright, let's get food. Then you'll stay with Jimin and I, right?"
"I guess."
He was trying to act nonchalant, but you could clearly see the excitement perking in his eyes.
"Thank you for showing me this Hun, and for telling me about yourself," You made a point to say as the two of you left the maze of mirrors behind you and left the tent completely in order to enter the darkness.
You were thankful. Somehow, this interaction had been exactly what you needed. Things with Jimin had been going poorly, and you had been loosing your spark. Now, you had a goal to help Hun and more things to ponder.
More questions surfaced with the knowledge of potentially being able to reclaim your memories with Hun as an example, and you had a lot of thinking to do regarding yourself in all this.
You had just seen blurry snippets of your life... and although they were hard to recognize, you had seen them and known what you were looking at. It felt like dejavu or a distant dream.
Even though you now had more unanswered questions, you didn't mind. All you wanted to do was talk to Jimin, and although he had recently been unwilling to communicate, you figured maybe he would if you made a point to sit down with him. The both of you had so much to talk about, and... you were excited.
Anxious to get back to your friend and his long lost brother, you found yourself sprinting even in the dark as the lamp post became recognizable in the moon light. Hun followed closely, and soon you could see the food truck in the distance.
"We'll stop and get food, then find a way to sneak the both of us into Jimin's apartment," You whispered, Hun nodding enthusiastically towards the notion of food.
You stepped into the light that the lamp post emitted and noticed Hun hanging back. He was still too scared to show himself in the open, even as late and as empty as the Between was at that time. You figured he would stay close so made your way to the food truck, looking around to make sure there was no one to see you opening it so late.
There seemed to be no one around, so you quickly fetched the spare key to the truck from it's hiding place and entered to grab some quick snacks while Hun waited. You figured Jimin may have more food in his apartment, so didn't grab much.
You locked the truck up and stepped out, only to immediately stiffen when you suddenly heard rushed footsteps coming your way. It sounded as if someone's shoes were colliding heavily with the dirt floor in a rushed run, and in a sudden panic your body lost the ability to move.
Who was out this late?!
Hun quickly backed further away from sight, startled as well towards the sound of someone running to the food truck... and the both of you.
The running stopped, and you listened to someone's frantic breathing before the person in question rounded the truck to appear in front of you. You jumped and dropped the snacks you were holding; not sure what to do upon being caught and praying Hun had ran far away.
To your surprise, you happened to recognize the form in front of you. It wasn't a very familiar one, but you did none the less identify the male panting so heavily from his run.
His dark eyes scanned your form and stopped at your neck, a relieved light hitting them before he straightened his spine and anxiously looked about.
"I-I'm sorry," He stammered, you still completely shocked by his presence. "But, you're 79, right?"
At first you didn't know how to respond, but your lips parted all the same to emit a trembling response through your confusion.
"Yes..."
"Good, I'm so glad I found you," The male made out, interrupting and quick to continue on before you could even question his presence. The number 05 on his neck moved with his anxious motions as he breathed out as if preparing himself.
"Look, this is about 62. Park Jimin."
Your heart stopped, and suddenly the food on the floor and the male in front of you were the least of your worries as you took a sudden step forward. Your panic said it all, but you still managed to make out the words that consumed your mind.
"Jimin... Where. What. Tell me."
He seemed shocked towards your sudden fearful yet demanding tone, and he anxiously clenched his fists as his breath remained shaky.
"I... I don't know what happened, but he made me and I've been trying but-" His face grew grim and worried as he swallowed hard and made out his next words. "Jimin is in the tent," He confirmed, your heart dropping at what the hypnotist said next.
"And, he's not waking up."