The first thing Seo Hyunwoo noticed was the cold.
It wasn't sharp enough to sting, nor heavy enough to weigh him down. It simply existed, seeping into his back and shoulders, spreading slowly through his limbs like damp air settling into abandoned walls.
He could feel it even before he fully realized that he was lying down. The surface beneath him felt uneven, not solid enough to be ground, yet not soft either. It reminded him faintly of wet stone left in the shade for too long.
He opened his eyes. There was nothing. No ceiling. No sky. No floor that he could properly see. Just an endless dark stretching outward in every direction, deep and heavy, as if it had depth despite having no form.
It wasn't pitch black, either. There was a subtle gradient to it, layers of darkness folding into one another, making it feel less like emptiness and more like something vast that simply hadn't decided what it wanted to be yet.
