The night the stars disappeared

Into the stopped time

The clock tower was old and looked like it might collapse.
It's now 3:04 in the morning.
The clock hands stopped and did not move.

“You said we had to turn back the clock, right?” Taehyun cautiously entered the tower.
Soon after, Beomgyu, Yeonjun, Soobin, and Huening Kai followed suit.

The interior of the tower was more complex than I'd imagined. It was dark, devoid of any light, and the walls were painted with something.
An hourglass, a spring, and… a child's face.

That was when.
“Tink… tink…”
Somewhere, the sound of clock hands moving was heard.
The clock that had stopped began to turn back little by little.

“Wait, this is it!” Huening Kai shouted, but it was too late.
Time began to flow backwards, and the bodies of five people floated into the air.
What unfolded before my eyes was… the day they first met.



“Are you a trainee?”
An awkward first conversation.
An expression of mixed tension and excitement.
The first dance we practiced while holding hands.
The dawns of the practice room where I laughed until I cried.

Those memories came back to me.
But within it…
Something was off.

There was no one.
Someone who was always with them—another ‘member’ who was in their shadow.
I can't remember his face exactly, but I had a feeling he had to be there.

“It’s strange. There are five of us… why do I remember six of them?” Soobin said.
"His memory was erased," Taehyun whispered. "Time... hid him."

At that moment, the clock tower bell rang.
“Thump… thump…”

In the memories that flowed like sand, one scene remained, shining.

Someone was waving.
White hair. Eyes that sparkled like starlight.
“Remember me.”



And then a second key appeared before my eyes.
It was a piece of memory, a shining crystal key.



The five returned back into the clock tower.
Everything fell into place.
Time was flowing again.

But my mind was complicated.
“There’s someone we’re forgetting,” said the Fed.

“That key, it’s probably related to that child.” Soobin stared at the second key.
At that moment, the sky split open and a voice was heard.

“The third key is in the ‘forgotten space,’ the garden on a moonless night.”