Kaelsu's hand froze mid-air. For a loud heartbeat, neither of them moved. The echo of Junwoo's words heavy in the air.
"Dead?" Kaelsu breathed. It wasn't even a question; it was a plea, fragile and breaking. "Junwoo… are you saying you're…"
Junwoo didn't speak. He only gave a small, curt nod. A motion too controlled to be anything but fear.
Kaelsu's arm fell to his side, and his head dropped with it. His eyes fixed on the ground, unblinking, as if staring hard enough could rewind reality. "What… what makes you think that?" he whispered.
Junwoo exhaled through his nose, a rough, shaky sound. His fingers curled around the silver earrings. He emitted a puff of air that surfaced as a weak chuckle. "I remember what happened. Th-there was a car and a lot of noise and–"
His words dissolved.
His thoughts spiralled too fast, slipping through his grasp the moment he reached for them. His mouth moved ahead of his logic, scattering broken fragments onto the ground between them.
"An accident?" Kaelsu gasped. "Wait, hold on a second."
He firmly grasped the fox's hand with strong hands and with a firm, but gentle tug, pulled him to his feet. His hold was firm, yet gentle as if he were fragile.They reappeared within the quiet borders of Kaelsu's territory.The familiar grassy terrain was somewhat grounding for Junwoo, the world has stopped spinning. Yet, his heart still raced in his chest.
"What are we doing back here?" The stain of tears left a streak down his cheeks.
"One moment. BRB."
And then… he stopped.
Kaelsu's character stood still with Junwoo's hand still in his own. Junwoo pulled at his own hand, trying to release it but to no avail. The still figure had completely clocked out, unmoving as if he were frozen in time.
—-
On the other side of the screen, Kang Min tabbed out of the game with hands that could barely obey him. His fingers trembled against the keyboard. His gaze lingered on an empty plate next to his keyboard, and cold breaths bubbled between his lips.
He hadn't turned off his computer in days. His browser was a graveyard of open tabs: regional news sites, forums, accident reports, hospital directories, PDFs of missing persons, a sheet full of local hospital contact numbers and other various research material. He thought he was on a roll, he couldn't let anything disturb the process. He thought he was being productive. He thought if he kept researching, kept digging, kept going, the answer would appear.
But all he wanted to do was spend more time with Junwoo. The fox was fragile. He wasn't an NPC or pet, but a real person. Now with the news that Junwoo was dead – no, COULD be dead. He can't be dead?
A tight, twisting knot coiled in his chest, pulling tighter with every desperate breath. He never considered the reason behind all of this. It crossed his mind a few times, but only for brief moments which were cast aside once he logged on and saw the soft golden fur run up to him.
His eyes flitted across his screen until they landed heavy, captivated by his own fears inscribed in the pages.His chair screeched backward as he stood abruptly, arms knocking into his desk hard enough to make the monitors shake. Before his thoughts could ground him, fingers snapped keys off the desk and he already unlocked the latch on the door.
But he stopped when face to face with the cold breeze of the evening air. It was an invisible barrier that knocked some sense back into him. The cold wave crashed over his panic.
"What am I doing?"
He breathed in the foggy air, only lingering for a moment before reversing his actions: closing the door, ensuring the latch is locked, putting his keys back and sitting back at his desk.
A half-empty glass of water sat beside him.
Keyboard pulled forwards Kang Min unconsciously started typing on the keyboard once more, allowing himself to be pulled back into the virtual world. All because Junwoo was waiting.
He was there. Junwoo sat on the floor, bored, unable to release himself from Kaelsu's hand. Until the taller character shuffled.
He flinched when the stillness broke with movement and words, "Junwoo."
"You're back?" Junwoo stood up and stretched. There was a pained expression on his face.
"I've been searching for some time now. About what could've happened. Or where you went." There was a moment of silence where they stared into each other's eyes, searching for the emotions of the other.
"I don't think you're dead."
"B-but-" Junwoo stammered. "I remember the accident, and–"
He cut himself off when his voice cracked.
"Do you remember where it was? Or when it happened?"
Junwoo's face twisted as he strained his thoughts. But nothing came through. Shaking his head, he raised a clawed finger to his cheek, wiping off a stray tear.
"When we progressed in the game, it brought your memories back. There's another unique item we can try to find…" Kaelsu's eyes looked at Junwoo's ragged form. "If you're up for it?"
A mix of emotions flashed across Junwoo's face. It was some unbalanced combination of hope, fear, eagerness, yet despair. It was almost as if something was renewed in him. But it started to vanish.
Kaelsu brought out his map and Junwoo ambled over to try to get a look at it. He cursed his form for being so short while he struggled to see on his tiptoes.
"Okay. It's in the north of Seashaw, the pirate colony." He pointed somewhere on the map, somewhere just out of Junwoo's line of sight. "We're going to need to fight our way through, reclaim the stolen treasure and bring it back to the NPC."
Kaelsu could see the colour drain out of Junwoo's face, slowly but surely.
"Are…you okay?" His voice was full of concern.
He nods, trying to brush it off, but Kaelsu could see the war raging beneath those golden eyes.