The club was loud in a way that stopped feeling fun after about five minutes.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD4eUo4pY0v
Not just music loud, like full-body loud. Like the bass was actively arguing with your thoughts and winning.
Jiho didn’t really remember agreeing to come. He just ended up there, pulled in by his friends; it was already decided and he was the last one to find out. Someone shoved a drink into his hand almost immediately, laughing.
“Just drink one,” they said.
Sure.
That’s how it always starts.
The first shot burned. The second one didn’t really register anymore. After that, I stopped counting. Soon, everything started feeling like it was happening slightly out of sync with me. 56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjIyabMFJK6
Like the night was moving at a different speed, and I was just trying to catch up. People were talking around me, but it turned into noise. Faces got blurry. And it was as if time stopped ticking properly.
At some point, someone said my name.
Everything else got muted for a second, and only that calm, warm voice cut through.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxQ69tSisoU
Seowoon.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKRTbQAxzGx
“Are you okay....Why are you drinking?” Seowoon asked.
Jiho looked at him for a second too long. “I’m doing research.”
The people around them burst into laughter.
However, Seowoon didn’t laugh.
That was always the thing about him. 56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡANxKo9orRV
He never really acted like he was surprised by anything.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡznlDR4CmwZ
More shots appear in front of Jiho without him remembering asking for them. 56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpX0kGjxzPG
People were laughing, bumping into each other, yelling over music that felt like it was getting louder even though it probably wasn’t. 56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv9NoiByCKz
His phone was somewhere on the table, but he stopped checking it at some point because even looking at it felt like an effort.
Seowoon talked next to him, close enough that Jiho could hear his voice through everything else. He remembers that clearly. Not the words, just the sound of them. Calm. Extremely normal for how everything else feels.
Jiho tries to respond a few times but nothing really sticks. Like his thoughts are arriving late and leaving early.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMC5LYoxRyJ
Present Day - Jiho sits in the interrogation room and looks around before trying to pick the lock on his handcuffs.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡftlekExMCw
Flashback - Then strange things started happening to Jiho, like standing up and not remembering why. Sitting down and not remembering when. Someone grabs his wrist like they’re in a hurry. The world slanting slightly.
There’s a stairwell. Then cold air hits his face. The club noise drifts away behind him and suddenly everything feels quiet.
Myeongdo is there.
Jiho doesn’t remember when he arrived. That detail just exists in the memory like a glitch that refuses to explain itself.
He says something about going inside.
About time.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ84gA85M682
About remembering the plan.
And Seowoon.
Jiho remembers laughing once because none of it sounds serious enough to make sense.
Seowoon is somewhere inside the building after that. Jiho remembered that part vividly. The rest of it refuses to stay in order.
A door opening.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRmbHeHNrpi
Someone pulling him forward.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDEJzlQOlmo
Voices overlapping.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp92rOATeXi
Seowoon looking at him like he’s already disappointed in something that hasn’t fully happened yet.
And Seowoon saying his name once.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr77r2UvMrt
After that, it stops being a memory/telling a story and starts being pieces. Pieces that don’t coordinate with each other. Like that, the night is being played wrong every time he tries to remember it.
Because the part isn’t that Jiho forgot what happened.
It’s that every version he remembers doesn’t match the previous one.
And Seowoon is always in the middle of it.
He’s the only thing that night that refuses to come clearly.
ns216.73.217.39da2
and then Add to home screen.