“Where… am I?”

  Jin Yu’s voice echoed faintly, swallowed by the pitch-black void around him. No light. No sound. Just endless darkness. His pupils widened instinctively, straining to see through it—but the effort only made his eyes ache.

  “Why is it so dark? How did I get here?”

  He spun slowly in place, searching for even a flicker of light. Nothing. Not a shimmer, not a shadow.

  Panic crawled up his throat as he began to move—reaching out, feeling forward with unsure steps, hoping to find something—anything. But every direction was the same. Empty. Endless. Cold.

  Then, a sound.

  A voice—distant and muffled, like it came through a heavy wall. He couldn’t understand the words, but something about it pulled at him. Someone’s calling me…

  His pace quickened, desperate. He chased the voice through the dark, heart pounding, breath growing short. It grew louder. Clearer.

  Still, he couldn’t make out the words.

  So he ran.

  Blindly. Desperately.

  Until—

  “Wake up.”

  He stopped. The words hit him like a shockwave.

  Then—gasp—he jolted awake, lungs heaving for air.

  Bright light stung his eyes.

  A man sat in front of him, looking slightly concerned.

  “You alright? Did I scare you?” the man asked, adjusting the rearview mirror. “We’re here.”

  Jin Yu blinked. His thoughts lagged behind.

  “Huh…?”

  “Shenhua College,” the driver said with a half-smile. “We arrived already.”

  Thump.

  A single, deafening heartbeat echoed in his ears.

  Then—

  Memories.

  Home.

  His parents arguing.

  A quiet morning.

  Stepping into a taxi.

  A sense of... leaving.

  “Oh… sorry,” Jin Yu muttered, blinking hard as reality began to settle. He scanned the payment code with shaky hands.

  “Thanks,” he added as he opened the door and stepped out, his feet touching solid ground—yet his soul still felt suspended somewhere between two worlds. He felt....lost

  The moment he stepped out of the taxi, a voice called out with mock impatience.

  “Took you long enough, bro! You fall asleep in there or what?”

  Standing at the gate, arms crossed and a lopsided grin on his face, was Lin Cheng—a tall guy with dyed ash-brown hair and a messenger bag slung carelessly over his shoulder.

  Jin Yu stared at him for a beat too long.

  The school gate. The morning crowd. The familiar uniform on his friend.

  It all looked so normal. Too normal.

  “...Yeah,” Jin Yu muttered, forcing a smile. “Traffic.”

  Lin Cheng raised a brow. “You good? You look like you just saw a ghost.”

  Jin Yu said nothing, just walked past him into the campus. Lin caught up, eyeing him sideways.

  “Alright. You’re definitely weirder than usual today.”

  As they walked through the crowded school corridor, voices buzzed all around them—students laughing, shouting, phones ringing. Jin Yu moved through it all like a ghost, his eyes distant.

  They stopped by their lockers.

  “Hey.” A boy from another class elbowed Jin Yu with a teasing smirk. “Don’t forget the math quiz today. Or are you gonna pull that ‘headache’ excuse again?”

  Jin Yu’s eyes snapped toward him.

  It was subtle at first, a tightening in his jaw.

  Then suddenly—Bang!

  He slammed the locker shut with enough force to make the guy flinch.

  “What did you just say?”

  The hallway quieted. A few students turned to look.

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  The boy raised his hands. “Chill! Just a joke, man.”

  “Say it again,” Jin Yu muttered, his voice low but tense. “I dare you.”

  “Dude, relax,” Lin Cheng said, stepping in with a nervous laugh, grabbing Jin Yu’s shoulder. “You’re gonna fight someone over a quiz?”

  Jin Yu blinked. His breathing was heavy. His heart was racing.

  Then, just like that, the fire in his eyes faded.

  He looked away. “I’m not feeling great.”

  Lin sighed. “No kidding.”

  They walked to class, but the stares followed them. Whispers too.

  “That guy’s always on edge.”

  “He should seriously see someone.”

  “Crazy temper…”

  Jin Yu heard it all—but what stung more was that he agreed with them. Something inside him was wrong. Like a balloon inflated too far, just waiting for the smallest prick to explode.

  And worst of all… he didn’t even know why.

  As they walked into the classroom, Lin Cheng leaned in with a grin.

  "You seriously need to sleep more, man. You look like you just came back from war."

  Jin Yu gave a dry chuckle. If only you knew…

  Their homeroom teacher hadn’t arrived yet, so students were chatting and tossing snacks around. A girl from the back waved at him.

  “Jin Yu! Want a candy? It’s mint-flavored!”

  He blinked. “No.”

  His voice was sharper than he meant it to be. The girl's smile faltered. She slowly put the candy back in the pouch.

  “Dude,” Lin muttered. “You could just say no like a human.”

  “I did say no,” Jin Yu snapped, then sighed and rubbed his temples. “Whatever. Forget it.”

  Lin shrugged. “You’re always cranky in the morning.”

  As Jin Yu sat down, he glanced at the classroom walls—the sunlight filtering through the windows, the textbooks on desks, the posters stuck awkwardly on the notice board. Everything felt… off. Too neat. Too bright.

  A classmate nudged him from behind. “Hey, Jin Yu. Did you do the chem homework?”

  Jin Yu turned slightly. “Did I look like I did it?”

  The guy raised both hands. “Alright, alright. Chill. Just asking.”

  Jin Yu turned back, clenching his jaw. Why does everyone keep telling me to chill?

  He couldn’t explain it, but everything felt like it was pressing down on him. Like he was in the wrong place—like he’d been shoved into someone else’s life.

  And yet, no one else noticed.

  ---

  Later, at Lunch Break

  Jin Yu sat under a tree in the courtyard with Lin, poking at his rice with his chopsticks. The noise of students playing soccer on the field and laughing in groups was distant, like a muffled echo.

  “Do you ever feel like… you’re just pretending to be here?” Jin Yu asked suddenly.

  Lin paused mid-bite. “What?”

  “Like everything’s real, but you’re not. Like, you’re just watching yourself go through the motions.”

  Lin stared at him for a second, then snorted. “Bro, that’s the most dramatic way I’ve ever heard someone say they’re bored of school.”

  Jin Yu gave a faint smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes.

  He didn’t know how to explain it. How to say that every step he took felt… borrowed. That he kept expecting to wake up from this life, only to find he never really left somewhere else.

  He stabbed a slice of meat with unnecessary force.

  “You sure you’re okay?” Lin asked, this time more seriously.

  Jin Yu looked up, and for a second, his eyes looked old. Tired. Like they’d seen too much.

  “I don’t know,” he said quietly.

  ---

  P.E Class – Afternoon

  The school field baked under the midday sun as students gathered for physical education. Some groaned about the heat, others eagerly stretched, happy for a break from books. The teacher blew his whistle.

  “Split into two teams. You’re playing dodgeball today. And no mercy.”

  Laughter erupted. Jin Yu stood silently as the others shuffled around him, shouting team names and fighting over who got the fastest players.

  Lin Cheng jogged to his side. “You spacing out again?”

  Jin Yu blinked. “No. Just... deciding who I want to hit with the ball first.”

  Lin laughed. “That’s the spirit.”

  As the game began, Jin Yu moved instinctively, weaving and dodging like it came too naturally. His body was reacting faster than he intended—catching, throwing, moving like he’d been trained for war.

  A ball came flying toward him.

  Wham!

  He caught it mid-air without flinching, his grip tightening so hard the ball deflated a little. The student who threw it froze, mouth agape.

  “...Dude, it’s just a game,” they muttered.

  Jin Yu was about to retort—but stopped.

  He wasn’t looking at the field anymore.

  Suddenly, the green field around him flickered.

  He saw tall grass, blood-stained stone. The wind howled not like a summer breeze, but like war drums. His fingers weren’t wrapped around a ball anymore, but a person's neck.

  He blinked.

  Back to reality. The ball slipped from his hand.

  What… was that?

  ---

  After the P.E class – Locker Room

  Jin Yu sat on the bench, staring at his open palm. Tremors still tingled through his fingers.

  He didn’t feel tired from the game. He felt like he’d just returned from battle.

  Lin nudged him with a water bottle. “You were on fire out there. I didn’t know you were into sports.”

  “I’m not.”

  “Could’ve fooled me.”

  Jin Yu didn’t respond.

  Instead, his eyes drifted to the mirror across the locker room.

  For a fleeting second—just a blink—he didn’t see himself.

  He saw a bloodied, worn-out version of himself, standing in a battlefield.

  The image vanished.

  But the chill in his spine remained.

  What's wrong with me?!

  ---

  That Night – Jin Yu’s Room

  The night was quiet. Too quiet.

  The digital clock beside his bed blinked 12:08 AM, casting a red glow across the room. Jin Yu lay on his back, staring at the ceiling fan as it turned slowly above him.

  He couldn’t sleep.

  Not because of noise. Not because of light.

  But because he was scared to.

  His heart had been pacing since he got back from school. His body felt heavy—like it remembered something he didn’t. Something that didn’t belong to this world.

  He turned to the side and pulled out an old photo album from under his bed. It was filled with random memories: school trips, his parents’ younger selves, Lin Cheng grinning with bunny ears behind his head.

  He stared at his own face in those photos.

  He looked… normal.

  “Who am I kidding,” he whispered to himself.

  He stood up and walked over to the mirror on the wall. Flicking on the light, he stared at his reflection. He lifted his hand. The same hand that had crushed that dodgeball earlier.

  He flexed his fingers. They still tingled faintly.

  “That wasn’t just instinct. That was something else.”

  He looked himself in the eye—and that’s when he saw it again.

  Just for a second.

  The red flash behind his pupils. Like a flare of anger. Like something not quite human. Not quite… him.

  He blinked—and it was gone.

  Jin Yu stepped back, breathing a little harder. “What’s happening to me…?”

  His phone buzzed.

  Lin Cheng: “You good, man? You were weird today.”

  Jin Yu: “Yeah. Just tired.”

  But as he hit send, the lie clung to his chest.

  Because he wasn’t just tired.

  He was unraveling.

  And deep inside, something whispered:

  This world isn’t where you belong.

  ---

  Later That Night

  The photo album lay forgotten on the floor, the pages splayed open. Jin Yu had finally drifted off, though his sleep was far from peaceful.

  His breathing grew uneven. His brow twitched. In the quiet room, nothing stirred—yet something called.

  It started as a whisper.

  A low hum, buried deep in his bones. Not a sound he heard, but a pressure he felt. Tugging.

  Faint at first.

  Then stronger.

  Come back…

  He stirred in his sleep, face contorting. His fingers clenched the blanket. The pull deepened—not toward any direction in the room, but toward a place that didn’t exist here.

  Come back…

  His chest rose sharply.

  Suddenly, the walls began to tremble—or so it felt. His room faded at the edges, growing… transparent. Unreal.

  The hum became a pulse.

  Even as the false world of Earth faded, Jin Yu didn’t wake.

  He remained floating in that void—between dream and death, between Earth and Solenthia—caught in silence.

  Until something else stirred.

  A presence.

  It didn’t whisper like the void had. It boomed—silent, yet thunderous. Heavy, ancient, and familiar.

  “Jin Yu.”

  The voice didn’t speak in words. It echoed through his bones. Deep. Commanding. Like a mountain calling to a lost stone.

  Suddenly, the darkness split open like cracked glass. Threads of red light poured in, latching onto Jin Yu like roots claiming their seed.

  His body trembled.

  The name rang out again—not in anger, not in concern—but in absolute will.

  “Wake up.”

  And he did.

  ---

  In Solenthia…

  Jin Yu’s eyes snapped open with a sharp inhale, as though yanked from underwater.

  Above him, an intricate canopy of dark oak stretched across the ceiling, carved with ancient sigils that seemed to shimmer faintly in the candlelight.

  The heavy scent of sandalwood and aged parchment filled the air.

  He lay upon a broad, low bed of darkwood, layered in soft silk sheets, the fabric embroidered with golden threads depicting dragons in flight.

  The walls were lined with towering bookshelves, filled with leather-bound tomes and relics of a forgotten age.

  It was a room that belonged to a king—or a man who walked alongside kings.

  It was his father’s room.

  The first face Jin Yu saw was Jin Wei's—stern, proud, eyes like molten gold, gazing down at him with unreadable intensity.

  Jin Wei’s hand was still resting lightly on Jin Yu’s chest, as if he had willed his heart to beat once more.

  Behind him, Uncle Lin stood with arms crossed, his lined face showing a rare softness.

  Shen hovered nearby, silent and watchful, his coldness tempered by something almost like relief.

  Chen Haoran and Haozi crowded the foot of the bed, wide-eyed with a mixture of excitement and nervousness.

  He could also feel Rainbow's light weight on his wrist.

  For a long moment, no one spoke.

  Then Jin Wei’s voice cut through the heavy air—calm, yet thunderous with power.

  "You’re finally awake."

  Jin Yu tried to sit up, but a hand—his father's—pressed him gently back.

  "You’re not ready to move yet," Jin Wei said.

  His voice was firm, but his hand was steady and warm.

  Jin Yu's throat was dry, but he managed to rasp out, "How…?"

  Shen spoke from the side. "You weren’t waking up. We brought you back. He did the rest."

  Jin Yu's eyes flickered between them, trying to piece everything together.

  His gaze settled on Jin Wei, whose lips lifted into the faintest of smiles—a rare, almost imperceptible thing.

  "You heard me," Jin Wei said simply, as if that explained everything.

  Jin Yu’s chest tightened—not from fear or pain, but from something else.

  He was home.

  Finally!

  He woke up!

  Time for another adventure!