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The moment you decide to open your eyes, you become totally confused because you can’t see anything; it’s too dark to even see your hands in front of you.

You clumsily swing your arms around to try and find anything familiar. The first thing you touch is the ground. Okay, so you know you haven’t learned how to land properly yet, given the fact that you’re on the floor again. As if the throbbing pain in your doesn’t let you know that already.

Suddenly, the lights come on, and you’re frozen in your spot on the floor. Kai is standing at a wall near you, his hand on the light switch. “Sorry. I must’ve turned the lights off when I left last time.” Embarrassed, you quickly stand up from the ground, and look over in the opposite direction to see Sungji dusting herself off.

You take a second to look around the room that you are in, and are amazed at how organized everything is.

It’s a very well taken care of apartment, with a large couch in the middle of the room, and a connected kitchen to the far left of where you stand. You see a hallway leading to two rooms; one being a bedroom and other probably a bathroom. There’s a cute little coffee table in front of the couch with a flower vase on top of it, and to the right of that, a wooden bookshelf with an enormous amount of books in its shelves. The bookshelf draws you in immediately and you make your way to the corner of the room.

“Are these all yours?” you ask as you run your hand across the spines, taking in the glorious smell of old books. Kai smiles and replies, “Yeah. They were given to me as I grew up.”

You pull out one of the books from its place and read the cover. “Legend of the Twelve.” Still holding the book in your hands, you turn to face Kai. “You had to learn about yourself?” He laughs a bit and slides his hands into his pocket. “Well, yeah. I wasn’t born knowing that I had to save the world. Someone had to teach me.”

Sungji walks over to the bookshelf and glances at the shelves. “Who taught you?”

Kai opens his mouth like he’s about to answer, but looks away and quickly avoids the question. “We should go see Luhan.” He grabs one of his jackets from the coat rack next to the front door and walks out, leaving you and Sungji to stand awkwardly alone in the apartment. Sungji looks over at you and you just shrug your shoulders at her. You both follow after Kai and close the door behind you.

Exo is nothing like you imagined it would be.

Kai insists on walking to your destination, so you and Sungji have plenty of time to take in the scenery.

Sure, the building locations are the same, just as Kai said; at one point, you even pass the college you are currently attending and can’t help but gasp at the sight of it. The actual architecture of the building is far different than that of the one at home.

Instead of a Victorian-brick-mansion feel that your school gives off on Earth, the building here in Exo is so… ancient. But at the same time, it’s not. There’s no other way to put it.

Your raise your eyebrows at the sight of the building and examine the area. There are very few windows, and if there are any, there is no glass in them. The front and sides of the building are held up by large ridged columns that extend maybe two or three stories high. Each door and their doorways surrounding them are decorated with beautiful painted etchings and carvings, and one of the doors catches your eye.

You squint as you make out a feminine figure on the door; lion head, finely detailed facial features, a snake crown, and a blood red dress. There is something different about this door, though. Someone has painted a large black “X” over the figure’s entire body, and you wonder why someone would do that.

You look in front of you and Kai is walking at a comfortable pace, and you take the time to think. Where have you seen that carving before?

Kai suddenly stops and turns to face you. “We’re here.”

You lean to side to glance behind Kai and almost choke on nothing.

Behind him stands an enormous observatory, equipped with a telescope emerging from the roof. In the courtyard in front of the building stands several statues of planets, only some of which you recognize. Kai begins to walk towards the entrance and you can only stare as you walk past what you believe to be Jupiter.

The building itself is entirely glass; once inside, you can very easily see everything going on outside. The main entrance leads straight into a grand lobby, revealing a mini museum. There are glass encasings against the walls, each holding several items of Exo’s history, including a large map of the galaxies.

You break off from following Kai and make a detour towards the map.

From what the map is displaying, you realize that there are thousands of galaxies that have yet to be discovered by anyone on Earth. You can feel Kai walk up behind you and he stops a few feet away.

“Is it really this large?” You’re searching for your own galaxy in the sea of stars but it’s close to impossible. Kai takes a few steps forward to stand next you and hums as a reply. “There’s still more we haven’t found yet.”

You let your eyes roam through each of the galaxies as you sigh loudly, baffled. “Earth is so behind,” you whisper to yourself.

Kai laughs softly and pulls at your sleeve as he turns to walk away. “Come on.” You have to almost literally drag yourself away from the map as you’re reminded of the purpose of your visit.

At the end of the lobby, there is an extended desk with an elegant blonde woman sitting behind it. As the three of you approach the desk, she looks up and once she sees Kai, she beams right at him. “Ah, Kai,” she says sweetly. “Good to see you.”

Kai nods politely at her and smiles back. “Hey, Chaerin. Is Luhan in today?”

She giggles and points her thumb to a winding metal staircase behind her. “Go right ahead, he’s been expecting you.” Kai scoffs and rolls his eyes. “Of course he is. He’s never gonna let me surprise him, huh?”

With that, Kai nods once more and walks towards the staircase, and you and Sungji follow after him, but you look back to make sure her eyes are on you and not on Kai.

You move quickly to the staircase and begin to feel a bit awkward.

Did I just get jealous? Nope, stop it, you tell yourself.

Kai is first to get the stairs and he begins walking up them, with Sungji right behind him. You take a moment to look up from the first step and admire the circling movement of the stairs.

A perfect double-helix, you observe in amazement. If the entire building is full of surprises like this, you might end up not wanting to leave.

Eventually, you snap out of your trance and realize your fascination with the stairs has caused Kai and Sungji to be a good distance ahead of you, so you run up the steps two at a time to catch up. 

The very top of the stairs reveals a wooden floor, and the beginning of what looks like a laboratory.

Once again, fascination hits you as you notice that there are tons of books lining the walls, and standing next to the farthest bookshelf on the right is a young, blonde boy, engrossed in the book he is reading.

Kai casually saunters up behind the boy and ruffles his hair from behind.

“What did I tell you about messing up my hair, huh?” The boy looks up from his book and gives Kai a gentle smile.

You see his profile fully for the first time and the innocent features his face holds somehow pushes any anxiety you had about coming to Exo away. You watch as he, still smiling, closes the book and wraps his arms around Kai to embrace him.

A flash of metal hits your gaze and you squint at the small silver plate on the boy's arm. In the middle of his bracelet there are six circles surrounding a large center one; three circles on each side of it. His symbol, most likely, you think to yourself. 

Kai returns the embrace wholeheartedly and for a few seconds they just stand there with their arms around each other. In that moment, the childlike boy looks at the two figures standing behind Kai and his eyebrows raise. “Oh finally!” he exclaims as he releases the hug.

He immediately walks toward you and places his hands on your shoulders.

You look down at each of his hands and then turn back to his face as he states, “Where hav