Hazeh did not breathe for, what seemed to her, eternity. There was someone inside the mirror, he was talking and waving to her. Slowly, she stepped back, scared that he would do something to her if she did one wrong move.

"Please, don't leave just yet!" The boy's smile wavers. "Please don't be scared of me, I'm harmless, I swear!"

She crept backwards towards the small door she came from, trying to not think about what was happening.

"I've never hurt anyone, I would never inflict pain on a girl." He says quickly, trying to persuade this new person to stay. "I haven't talked to anyone in years, please don't leave!"

Quickly, Hazeh ran out of the room and slammed the door shut, pushed her bed to block it and fell to her knees.

"I am going mad." She whispered to herself. "I am completely mad."

Looking towards the small door she realised she was home alone, she was alone with the boy.

"He was quite good looking for someone stuck in a mirror for years.." Hazeh mumbled. "What am I saying? If he is real, isn't he a ghost or something? This house is haunted after all."

She got up and stood over her bed watching the small door.

"He looked Eastern Asian, he looked too pale to be from the Philippines and he didn't have the facial structure of the Chinese or Japanese, maybe he's Vietnamese?" Hazeh guessed. "Why was he wearing such an expensive looking suit? Who even wears suits anymore unless they have to?"

What Hazeh had not realised was that she was only speaking to herself about the boy so she couldn't go in the room again, her curiosity will become the murderer of her one day.

"I can't believe I'm actually curious of that boy, he could be a demon for all I know and yet here I am thinking how handsome he is!" She threw herself onto the bed. "If he's really not real and I'm just going mad, then there is no harm in talking to him, right? He's just my unstable brains' imagination, he's not physical so he can't hurt me."

Nodding to herself she sat on her bed cross legged her eyes wandered towards the windowsill, what happened there was definitely not her imagination, what if this is the same?

"There's only one way to find out." Hazeh said rolling off the bed and pulling it out of the way. "I'll just have to talk to him."

Opening the door again to darkness she softly crawled in and stood, waiting for the mysterious light to envelope her surroundings, before long it did just that.

"Are you going to run off again?" Hazeh turned around to find that the boy had switched mirrors and was now sitting cross legged reading what looked like manga. "I'd rather you not."

"I'm not going to run off," Hazeh said walking to the mirror and sitting down cross legged opposite the boy. "It was a bit of a shock, you know, you being inside a mirror."

"Ah, yes, well, that's a long story." He put down his book and looked towards Hazeh. "I'm glad you want to be my friend!"

"Let's introduce ourselves before we jump to things." Hazeh stammered, slightly taken back by his friendliness. "I'm not your friend, I'm your acquaintance."

"Oh, my name is Jimin Park and I'm Korean, I was twenty one years old before I got trapped in here and I like ramen and-"

"My name is Hazeh, I'm a Syrian refugee of sorts and I am a Muslim. I am eighteen years old I, live here with my parents, a random cat and I guess you as well." Hazeh interrupted, annoyed at his continuous talking. "To most people I'm a terrorist and my people are not humans suddenly."

"A random cat?" Jimin asked, forgetting about Hazeh's rudeness. "How can a cat be random?"

"Eh?" Hazeh was confused, he only cared about the cat and not everything else she said? "My mum found it in the house, it's a scraggly, thin looking cat. It looks like it had been ran over by a tractor."

"Do you mean Jwi?" Jimin's eyes lit up. "She's still alive?"

"Jwi?"

"Is your cat black like coal, has wide dark brown eyes like trees after a storm and has a scratch on her neck?" He smiled looking down at his hands. "After all this time.."

"It's black like the night sky, has cute eyes and I'm not sure about the scratch, I didn't really look at it." Hazeh shrugged her shoulders. "Why, is Amal yours?"

"Amal?"

"It means hope in Arabic, my mother chose it."

"Ah, 'Jwi' is mouse in Korean."

"You called your cat mouse?"

"I was five."

"Then," Hazeh watched Jimin's hands fiddle with each other. "How old is Am- Jwi?"

"I'm not sure, she was about to die the last time I saw her from old age, she was about sixteen years old."

"How long have you been here?"

"I'm not sure, the last year I remember is 1951."

"1951?" Hazeh nearly shouted. "1951?"

"Yes, my family and I were escaping the Korean War, who won or is it still ongoing?"

"I'm not sure, which part of Korea were you from?"

"South."

"You won but North Korea is a pain in the backside to the world."

"We won." Jimin smiled. "I wonder if my friends are still alive."

"I think it was around 140,000 people from South Korea died, we studied the Korean War in history class."

"Probably mostly soldiers," his smile fell. "My friends are soldiers."

"Jimin," Hazeh said softly, getting his attention. "Don't you want to know what year it is?"

"No," Jimin's shoulders slumped a little. "If you're learning about the Korean War in history I don't want to know."

"All I'm going to say is that it's impossible Amal is Jwi."

He nodded before looking into Hazeh's eyes.

"You have pretty eyes."

"Hazeh?" Hazeh's father shouted from downstairs. "Where are you?"

"I've got to go." Hazeh stood up quickly. "It was nice meeting you-"

"Are you coming back?" Jimin asked as he stood up. "Please do, it gets ever so lonely here."

"I-"

"Hazeh?" Her father shouted closer.

"I have to go." Hazeh said before she ran to the door, crawled into her room, pushed her bed back and sat on her bed just before her father knocked on the door.

"Hazeh, may I come in?" A soft voice calls from outside the door.

"Of course." Hazeh replied.

Her mother came in the room with the cat asleep in her arms, her mother was already quite fond of Amal and loved her dearly even if it had only been a few hours since she found her. She finally had someone to talk to.

"I want to introduce Amal to you properly." Her mother smiled meekly and sat beside Hazeh. "Do you want to hold her?"

"No," Hazeh watched the cat suspiciously. "She seems rather comfortable with you."

"It's like fate brought us together, isn't it?" Her mother beamed at her new child in her arms before she turned to Hazeh. "You don't mind me, I mean us, having Amal do you?"

"No," Hazeh lied. "If you're happy I'm happy."

"I am happy." Her mother smiled again, it had been a while since Hazeh had seen her mother as happy. "I am very happy."

"That's good."

"Are you happy?" Her mother asked Hazeh. "Now, don't lie."

Hazeh's thoughts wandered towards Jimin.

"I guess, I'm beginning to be."

"That's good, it's a start at least!" Her mother stood up slowly to not wake up the cat. "I have to make a start on dinner, is there anything you'd like?"

"Not really," Hazeh replied. "As long as it's not cat food."

"I promise you I won't give you cat food." Her mother laughed.

Hazeh wasn't sure if she meant it as a joke or not.

"Goodbye, mother." Hazeh said before her mother closed the door.

"Bye, Hazeh." Her mother replied before quickly putting her head round the corner. "Oh, and before I forget, I  think there is another cat or a stray dog near the house so make sure Amal is safe outside."

"Why do you think there is a cat or a dog?"

"Well, Amal has a nasty scar on her neck, it look's like something attacked her."

"Oh."

"Bye, Hazeh."

"Goodbye, mother."