It was the 27^th of March and they had made no progress. The end was 5 hours away. Every further lead had turned out a dead end.

Minhyun hadn’t slept all night. There had to be something they could do.

He met the others at breakfast, but nobody showed much appetite. Going by their bloodshot eyes, they hadn’t been able to get much sleep either. Baekho looked gloomy but smiled at him as he sat down. Junior and Ren were next to each other but didn’t interact. The fifth boy was pacing.

“What if,” Aron said, running in circles, “I commit to just destroying one hemisphere. Then your future sense should reveal if the end will still occur. If it does I commit to the other hemisphere instead because then we know the cause of doom is there. Once we have the hemisphere down, we split it in two again and continue like that. Binary search.”

Junior shook his head. “Making decisions just to test their consequences through me doesn’t work, especially if it’s unlikely you could actually go through with those actions. We figured that out soon after I came here while testing my ability’s limit. And we don’t even know if you’re capable of such widespread destruction. And what if the device has a force field like the CS building. That’s pretty likely if you think about it.”

“So,” Minhyun said, “What happens now?”

It was on Junior to answer since he had the closest contact to the higher up staff members. “The non-essential personnel is at home with their families although most of them haven’t been told much. Special troops are on high alert all over the planet in every branch of the organization just in case we figure something out last minute.”

“Is that likely?” Minhyun said, hinting at Junior’s ability to make information pop into his head in times of crisis.

“I have no probabilities. I sat in the captured agents’ cells and did what I could to make my past-sense respond but they just don’t know anything important. I think they were fed more false information than we. I was told the mole was caught, by the way. But he didn’t know anything either.”

Junior let his head sink into his hands and Ren gave him a back hug. It was frustrating for the boy not to have any information to supply. Minhyun didn’t need Ren’s ability to know that.

***

“M-Minhyun?”

Aron’s head pocked into the room.

Minhyun got up from the lotus position. ”Sorry, come in. I didn’t hear you knock. I was meditating.”

“I’m jealous you can still do that with- with all this going on.”

“Yeah. So… why did you want to talk to me?”

Aron was clearly uncomfortable. Whatever he was about to say, he looked like he was forcing every word. He avoided eye contact and couldn’t keep his hands steady.

“See… Since this is maybe our…last day? I just…I though…would you go on a date with me? It’s totally fine if you don’t you probably have plans for the last few hours and I’m not saying you have to-“

“Yes.”

“Yes? Like really yes?”

“Don’t tell me you didn’t think about what you would do if I said yes.”

“I did!”

Minhyun waited while the beaming boy took a few deep breaths as the nervousness of asking someone out fell off him.

“Actually,” Aron continued, “I could only narrow it down to two things. Picnic on the roof, overlooking the city, or a more classic coffee date in that tiny bakery around the corner.”

Minhyun shrugged. “You pick.”

“No, you.”

“No, y- Fine I’ll toss a coin.”

***

One hour until the end and Minhyun was having fun. The bakery made exquisite pastries and having Aron feed them to him bit by bit made them all the more enjoyable. They were sharing stories from their childhood with no inhibitions.

If this was how the world ended, Minhyun was surprisingly contempt with it. He didn’t look at any clocks. He didn’t want to know when the moment came.

***

It was the 27^th of March and they had made no progress. The end was 5 hours away. Every further lead had turned out a dead end.

Minhyun hadn’t slept all night. There had to be something they could do.

Junior was mumbling to himself at breakfast and everyone kept their distance from him. Maybe he had gone crazy from the stress. Ren – who certainly had a clearer picture of the leader’s emotions – didn’t seem too worried.

Aron was pacing. He looked at Junior as if he had something to tell him but didn’t dare to interrupt the quiet ramblings.

Finally he exploded. Minhyun froze in mid motion as Aron yelled at Junior. “Hey! If you could shut up for a moment maybe I could focus, you know. Actually I though what if I commit to-“

Junior groaned. “My sense that gives me random information must have gone into overdrive again, but this is the first time I can’t figure out how to use the knowledge. I clearly remember living through today already, but in those fake memories is nothing to be done.”

The group fell silent. Minhyun realized they were likely all thinking the same thing and didn’t dare to speak up. If Junior’s information was useless there was probably nothing they could do. The boy’s ability was telling him that there was no way out.

***

“Actually,” Aron continued, “I could only narrow it down to two things. Picnic on the roof, overlooking the city, or a more classic coffee date in that tiny bakery around the corner.”

Minhyun shrugged. “You pick.”

“No, you.”

“No, y- Fine I’ll toss a coin.”

***

It was in the middle of the day so the romantic atmosphere of a sunset was not granted to them. Regardless, the roof picnic was pretty dreamy. Aron was laying in Minhyun’s lap, getting grapes fed to him. They were shaded by a simple screen Aron had transfigured from the roof’s concrete.

Since they weren’t in public there was no need to pretend speaking was necessary. It was much easier to communicate via mindscape. They shared their secrets openly. Minhyun got to delve deeper into Aron’s mind than anyone else ever had. With the end approaching there were no inhibitions.

He didn’t look at any clocks. He didn’t want to know when it was going to end.

***

It was the 27^th of March and they had made no progress. The end was 5 hours away…