The night wind whispered through the silence, as though carrying echoes of a past long forgotten from the distant mountains.
Bangkok's skyline glittered with neon lights and the hum of engines, yet within Akin's heart, there was only stillness, too deep for the noise of the world to reach.
Inside a luxury car speeding down a quiet road, Akin gripped the steering wheel tightly. His slender fingers, more familiar with the rhythm of calligraphy than speed, trembled ever so slightly.
For many nights now, he had been plagued by strange dreams.
Dreams of swords.
Dreams of blood.
And a woman clad in crimson robes from ancient times, gazing at him with sorrowful eyes, as though she had known him for lifetimes.
Tonight, the sky was void of stars. Only the pale moon shone through a veil of clouds, casting its silver light in eerie silence across the road.
Suddenly…..
Whoosh!
A silver blur flashed across the front of the car.
Akin swerved instinctively, tires screeching as rubber met asphalt. The car spun violently toward the roadside…..
Crash!
Darkness swallowed everything.
The shattering of glass echoed in his ears. Though his consciousness faded, he felt his body drifting… not falling, but floating into an endless void.
Then, colors returned.
Flashes of light.
Slow music.
Laughter.
The clinking of glasses.
Akin jerked his head, breath catching as though waking from a vivid dream. He now stood on the rooftop of a high-rise in the heart of Bangkok.
Before him, a long banquet table gleamed with drinks and soft lighting. Colleagues surrounded him, raising glasses in celebration.
"Hey, Akin! You okay, man? You look like you haven't slept in a week!"
He forced a smile, taking a slow breath before replying,
"Just… a little dizzy."
But inside, questions roared like a storm.
What just happened?
The accident... was it real?
And the woman in red... who was she?
He turned his gaze, scanning the edge of the rooftop. The wind tousled his hair, and in that moment, beneath the flickering city lights, he saw it.
A silver fox, standing at the far corner, quietly stared at him.
"A... fox?"
He whispered, eyes narrowing.
Under the pale moonlight, the creature's form slowly faded, as though it had never been there at all.
Akin froze, his breath caught mid-chest. His heart thudded hard, a deep pulse he could not explain.
This isn't just a dream...
He thought, shaking his head in disbelief.
The lights from the party behind him blurred, as if fading from his world.
He stepped toward the glass railing, eyes locking onto something across the rooftop divide.
There, on the rooftop of the opposite building, stood the same silver fox.
Its fluffy tail swayed gently, as though beckoning him forward.
"How is that even possible? A fox, on a high-rise?"
He stepped closer, unable to look away.
In the fox's deep, knowing eyes was something more than instinct...
It felt as if the creature was trying to say something, something ancient, something urgent.
And just as he was about to reach it…..!
"Akin!!"
Grab!
Li's hand shot out and caught Akin's arm just in time, pulling him back from the edge of the rooftop with enough force to save him from toppling over.
Akin gasped, his chest heaving. It felt like awakening from a trance, not a dream, but something deeper, darker.
He glanced down. The abyss of the city skyline yawned beneath his feet, the dizzying height draining the strength from his legs.
He had nearly stepped off the building, without even realizing it.
"I… I almost…"
He murmured, dazed. For a moment, the rooftop party behind him fell silent. Heads turned toward him, alarm and confusion rippling through the crowd.
"Thanks, Li…"
His voice was quiet, and his face was still pale.
Li stared at him, worry etched deep in his eyes.
"You need to rest… That was too close."
Akin nodded faintly, then made his way toward the bar near the glass railing.
He sat down, catching his breath again, and looked toward the spot where…..
The silver fox was gone.
"It's gone…"
He muttered to himself.
"What's gone?"
Li followed his gaze, frowning.
Akin didn't answer. He sat still, caught between memory and imagination.
Was it just a trick of the light? A drunken hallucination?
Or was it something more, an omen, a whisper from something beyond?
When the rooftop party drew to a close, the lights dimmed and the music faded into the night.
Akin stood alone in the parking lot, beneath a sky stripped of stars. A chill wind brushed past, and he folded his arms tightly, shivering against the silence.
"I'll drive you, if you want."
Li emerged from the lobby, swinging the keys to his luxury sports car.
"You don't look so great right now."
"I'm fine," Akin forced a smile.
"Just a bit dizzy. I'm alright."
He took the keys and patted Li's shoulder gently.
"You should head back up. I've got an early flight to China tomorrow. I want to stop by the old studio before I leave."
"Oh yeah, your first ever exhibition here was at that tiny studio near Yaowarat, right? Pretty sure it's closed by now, it's way too late. Are you sure…?"
Akin nodded. Li hesitated a little longer, then finally relented with a small nod.
"Alright, just… drive safe, yeah? No racing tonight. If you get arrested, I'm not bailing you out."
Akin chuckled under his breath and made his way to the car.
His face, however, still bore a trace of something unsettled, something left unsaid.
As the car pulled out of the parking lot, he glanced into the rearview mirror….
...and there it was.
A faint silver silhouette, standing beside Li, its presence so sudden and unreal that Akin slammed the brakes.
A red SUV veered past him just in time, cutting through the narrow garage exit on the 8th floor.
"Again…? Seriously?!"
He gritted his teeth, heart pounding. His mind screamed that he must be drunk. But when he turned around to look again…..
Nothing.
Only the glow of dim parking lights, the slow fade of footsteps, and Li…..now likely back inside the hotel.
On the empty main expressway stretched toward silence, Akin lightly pressed on the accelerator, letting the car glide along the gentle curves of the road. One hand reached for his phone, which was already synced to the car's Bluetooth speakers.
The soft, melancholic strum of The 1975's "Somebody Else" began to fill the silence.
"So I heard you found somebody else... and at first... I thought it was a lie..."
Akin leaned back in his seat, driving in silence. His eyes stayed on the road, but his mind drifted far from the present.
This was the same song he'd played on loop during the long nights in his quiet Shanghai studio, painting until sunrise.
The same song that accompanied his solitary smoking sessions on hotel balconies in unfamiliar cities.
And tonight, it played again, like a soundtrack to some unseen fate drawing near.
He let out a quiet, bitter chuckle.
"Thirty-five… and still stuck on heartbreak songs…"
He muttered to himself, humming along absently. His fingers tapped the steering wheel, his body rocking gently with the rhythm. The soft music carried on, uninterrupted. The road ahead stretched endlessly, deserted.
It felt as though the entire city had fallen into a slumber.
But then….
Whoosh!
A blur of silver dashed across the road, accompanied by a flutter of crimson silk, as if the blur had form... as if it were a woman, gliding through the night air.
The headlights caught something, fur glistening like moonlight.
A silver fox.
And yet, when their eyes met...
It wasn't a beast he saw.
For a brief heartbeat, those eyes turned into the eyes of a woman, deep, mournful, knowing.
Then…..
Gone.
Screeeech!!!
Akin slammed the brakes, tires shrieking against concrete, the scream echoing into the night.
The headlights shattered as the car slammed into the cement barrier, fragments scattering like falling stars.
"Goddammit... What the hell kind of day is this?!"
He tugged at his hair in frustration, breathing heavily, trying to calm himself.
"Is this supposed to be some kind of celebration… or what? Just my luck!"
Shaking his head irritably, he opened the door to check on the front of the car, sure it had taken serious damage.
But before he could step out...
KRA-KOOM!!!
A deafening roar, like lightning striking. The ground beneath his feet vanished. The car slid toward the edge of the expressway, where there was no guardrail.
Dust and debris swirled like glittering stars in the darkness. His hand reached out... as if to grasp something that had already floated out of reach.
And in a split second, his body plummeted from the expressway, crashing down onto the roof of a car driving below. The last thing he saw was the vast, cloudless Bangkok night sky.
Blood gushed from his mouth. He choked, gasping for air. Everything blurred into shadows. Colors became hazy. The music playing in the car above faded, note by note… swallowed by the final silence.
"Am I... dead now?"
The last voice of his final consciousness asked itself into the darkness.