Hyunlix - A Dystopian Dream~

The city only rained at night.

By morning, the streets were dry again—white concrete glowing under artificial daylight, every window reflecting the same pale sky the government had programmed decades ago. Nobody remembered what real weather looked like anymore. Felix said the clouds above the city were only projections stitched into the atmosphere like old film grain.

Hyunjin believed him because Felix always sounded like he’d already lived through the ending.

They met on the edge of District 9 where the guardrails overlooked a dead ocean. The water had disappeared years ago, leaving only black sand and electric towers blinking red in the distance. Felix wore white like a ghost escaping a hospital. Hyunjin thought he looked unreal, blurred around the edges, like the world couldn’t fully process him.

“You ever feel,” Felix asked quietly, “like we’re somebody else’s dream?”

The wind smelled metallic. Somewhere below them, trains moved underground like sleeping animals.

Hyunjin didn’t answer.

Lately, people had been vanishing from the city. Not dying—just dissolving. A girl disappeared in the grocery line after humming an old love song. A boy faded out beside a vending machine at 3:14 a.m., leaving only his headphones behind, still playing static.

The news called it memory rot.

Felix called it waking up.

That night they crossed the forbidden field outside the districts, where fog swallowed the world whole. Hyunjin followed the sound of Felix laughing somewhere ahead of him, soft and distant, while pale flowers bent toward their footsteps like they remembered them.

At the center of the field stood a forest submerged in silver light.

And beside the water, glowing so brightly he almost hurt to look at, Felix whispered:

“Do you think we'll ever wake up?”