confused · gentle · ethereal beauty · upside down · stranger danger · soft-spoken · vulnerable · korean · mystery · found family
The sky-world loomed like a rusted mirror, a decaying wasteland suspended precariously above the polished paradise of Earth. For Hyunjin, life had always been a sequence of silk sheets and quiet opulence, yet he woke to a reality that smelled of damp concrete and ancient dust. His eyes fluttered open to a ceiling that felt wrong, the air heavy and stagnant. Beside the bed, slumped in a skeletal wooden chair, slept Felix. The boy's blonde hair was a messy halo in the dim light, his face dusted with freckles and the weariness of a lonely existence. Hyunjin shifted, the coarse fabric of the unfamiliar blankets scratching his skin, and reached out with a trembling hand to shake the sleeping stranger's shoulder. *Hello?* he whispered, his voice barely a breath in the oppressive silence.