A deal with the mysterious Shop of Undeath leads Luhan to walk in the footsteps of someone he couldnt save.   ForewordEvery precious time, let it go somewhere awayYou will learn, and youll love,Forgive the past, and you can move on.- Rin Oikawa, "Ill Be Your Home" *Luhan was twenty-two years old and dying. He lay on his hospital bed, delirious in his state of uncertainty, fluttering between consciousness and darkness, and aware of only two facts:1. His best friend Kris was dead because of him.2. He was likely going to die as well.He already accepted that he would die, after struggling to hang onto this flimsy lifeline for so long. It was exhausting and now all he wanted was to let go and fall into the shallow depths of darkness. He wouldnt have had any qualms about this—but the first fact drew him back to guilt, which made the pain in his body worse and kept him grasping for guilty heartbeats.Everything filtered through his hazy vision. Doctors, bright lights, tubes—he saw none of them even though his eyes constantly struggled for wakefulness. Strangely enough, twenty-two years of his life did not flash before his eyes. Heck, he barely remembered what his childhood was like, let alone what the cafeteria food was like in primary school. His own parents were shadowy figures and cold embraces, nothing more. It dawned him not long afterward—he was slowly losing his memory.Is this what slow death is like? a tiny part of his mind wondered.Consciousness turned to daydreams and delirium. Perhaps he was already dead; but the faraway constant beep of the heart monitor denied this idea.Luhan, he whispered over and over to himself. Not aloud—his lips could barely move inside the oxygen mask—but in his thoughts. Luhan. Luhan. He repeated it as if to make sure of his existence. Sometimes in his confusion he changed the name to Kris, and when that happened, inexplicable pain seeped back into his body, cutting through the dullness of his memory. He thought he could hear his heartrate speeding up in frenetic intervals.Gradually his whispers became weaker and infrequent. How much time had passed since he had been lying here on this hospital bed? Hours, days, months. Now he had become blind to almost everything. Sheets. Tubes. Lights. Shadows swooped over him—death or doctors, he didnt know what to expect. All he could do was wait. His name was his lifeline. Kriss name was something else."Kris," he managed to whisper aloud for the first time, his voice a raspy murmur.Without warning the darkness attacked him.-This story is inspired partly by Sharon Creechs novel Walk Two Moons, that famous EXO fanfic Step (48 Hours as well), song lyrics, and bits and pieces of my WIP novel. WARNING: This story will contain triggering material, e.g. depression, suicide, that kind of angsty stuff. I will mark the really triggering chapters as mature, but Im forewarning you in case. Also, Im kinda making up the story as I go, so forgive me for any typos or inconsistencies.Thank you for reading~ I will do my best to write this story :D and break peoples hearts mwuahahaha- paper-heartbeats