Pieces in the Dark

Seo Minjae’s POV

The rain came again.

Not heavy, just a constant, whispering drizzle. It soaked the edges of Minjae’s jacket as he stood at the edge of the old campus greenhouse. It was a place no one visited anymore — rotting vines, fogged-up glass, silence clinging to every surface. But Minjae liked it that way.

He lit a cigarette with shaking hands, though he rarely smoked. The first drag burned his throat, but it steadied him. A pathetic kind of control. Something real.

Someone was watching him. He knew it.

Ever since the message last night, he hadn’t been able to rest. He hadn’t told Jisoo. He couldn’t. She’d only worry, and that would draw even more attention. He already felt like he was unraveling — slowly, quietly, like fabric torn thread by thread.

You’re not as forgotten as you think.

He still hadn’t replied.

Something about the way it was phrased felt… intimate. Personal. Like the sender didn’t want to threaten him.

Just remind him.

Remind him of what?

---

Kang Raon’s POV

Raon leaned against a pillar, watching from the shadows. Minjae hadn’t noticed him. Not really. Raon was good at disappearing, even in plain sight.

He watched Minjae exhale smoke, the curl of it rising like ghosts around his head.

He wasn’t surprised Minjae had come here — the greenhouse had once been their place.

Long ago.

Before memory collapsed.

Before Raon disappeared.

He felt the old burn return — betrayal, heartbreak, longing — but he swallowed it. Buried it, just like Minjae had buried him.

Not anymore.

Raon stepped forward, just enough for the gravel to crunch under his shoes.

Minjae turned, startled.

His eyes locked onto Raon’s — wary, calculating. “You again.”

Raon offered a small smile. “You have a talent for brooding in creepy places.”

“What do you want?” Minjae’s voice was low, guarded.

“To talk.”

“I don’t talk to strangers.”

Raon stepped closer. “But we’re not strangers. Not really.”

Something flickered in Minjae’s eyes. Fear? Recognition?

He dropped the cigarette and crushed it beneath his boot. “Stop saying that.”

Raon tilted his head. “You keep saying you don’t remember me. But your eyes are telling a different story.”

Minjae’s jaw clenched. “Leave me alone.”

Raon took another step forward. “Tell me something, Minjae… have you ever wondered why your memories are so full of holes?”

Minjae stiffened.

Raon smiled faintly. Hook, line, sinker.

“You have questions. I have answers. But you won’t like them.”

“I don’t care.”

“You will.”

---

Seo Minjae’s POV

Minjae walked away without looking back, but his steps were quick. Uneven. As if Raon’s words chased him.

His dorm felt too quiet when he finally shut the door. He stood in the middle of the room, chest heaving, unsure what he was angry at.

Have you ever wondered why your memories are so full of holes?

Of course he had.

He’d been wondering for years.

The therapy sessions, the nightmares, the fear of mirrors, the aversion to crowds — he had told himself it was trauma from childhood.

But no one could tell him from what.

He glanced at his drawer. Locked. Inside it was the sealed report he never dared open. The one he found hidden in his guardian’s things three years ago. He’d only caught a glimpse before locking it away:

> “Subject: Seo Minjae. Dissociative amnesia. Recovered from… incident. Location redacted.”

He never read the rest.

He was terrified of what he’d find.

He stared at it now.

Then turned away.

---

Kang Raon’s POV

Raon returned to the apartment he barely lived in, tossing his jacket aside.

The walls were bare. Sterile. Just like his life after that night.

He sat on the floor, pulling out the old photo album again. Flipping it open, he stopped at a picture:

Two boys. One smiling wide, arms around the other. The other one — cold expression, but a rare softness in his eyes.

Minjae.

Before everything broke.

Raon ran a finger over the photo. His voice was almost a whisper. “You promised you wouldn’t forget.”

But Minjae had forgotten.

The fire.

The screams.

The blood.

The betrayal.

All of it.

And Raon had burned for years.

Until now.

Now, it was Minjae’s turn to burn.

But part of him — the part still stupid enough to remember how Minjae had once touched him like he mattered — didn’t want revenge.

He wanted… something else.

But if Minjae refused to remember?

Then Raon would force him to.

Even if it shattered them both.

---

Seo Minjae’s POV

The nightmares came harder that night.

Minjae jolted awake, drenched in sweat, heart thudding against his ribs. In the dream, he was running through a corridor of mirrors — each reflection cracked, screaming silently, blood dripping from the walls. And at the end of the hall—

Raon.

Not as he was now, but younger. Crying. Covered in soot and ash.

“You left me,” dream-Raon had whispered, voice trembling. “You said you’d come back.”

Minjae had screamed awake.

Now, in the stillness of his room, that voice still echoed.

You left me.

But he didn’t remember doing any of that.

Unless… he did.

And just couldn’t face it.

His phone buzzed.

Another message.

> “Open the drawer. It’s time.”