Not even two weeks later, Lu Han walked into Minseok's workroom to find a shocking surprise. Instead of notebooks and drawings and stacks of crumbled paper trash littering the floor, there were parts... Metal objects and unattached wires and, the crudest replica of a chair. It was Minseok's time contraption moved off the page, now finally a work in progress. 

Lu Han's jaw dropped, his pulse skyrocketed. He stepped toward the table which had been moved aside to make room for the actual device. His eyes scanned the work notes, inexpertly comparing the figures to the skeleton machine on the floor.  Could it be... that after all these weeks, he was one step closer to going home?

Before he knew it, a body had stepped up behind him. 

"See something interesting?"

Lu Han froze. Two arms which were not his suddenly caged him to the table. Minseok's breath wafted hot against the back of his neck. The man leaned subtly against his body. Lu Han's eyes rolled almost entirely to the back of his head. He barely stopped himself from shuddering. Minseok had been like this recently, teasing, all the time. He knew better now than to react to it. Always, within seconds, Minseok would back away with that smirk Lu Han was now quite familiar with, and become all business-like. 

It happened now, just as anticipated. 

"Progress," said Lu Han, never taking his eyes from the machine. But before Minseok backed away, Lu Han took the occasion to crowd into his space. He leant forward over the table, ing his bum out. It connected with Minseok's hips. Seconds later, the other man had moved away, face impassive, as if nothing had happened. Lu Han noticed, however, that he was quiet for just a mite longer than usual. Where Minseok had game, Lu Han had a play to counter it. 

Minseok stood over the machine, pondering it. "I figured I should start building the damned thing, if I'm ever going to get my townhome alone again. All this company, night and day, it's wreaking havoc on my not-sleep schedule." 

Lu Han smiled. "That anxious to be rid of me, hm?" 

Minseok didn't answer. 

Lu Han continued. "You know, you should consider moving back to the country. Your estate there is... lovely, and... serene." 

Minseok made a face. "You mean, cold, empty, and grim?"

"Exactly." Lu Han laughed.

"I hate it there." And Lu Han stopped laughing. 

"It's been the seat of my family for over four hundred years. No one was happy there, as far as I can tell. Even before the curse began."

"Do you know when it started? Do you mind me asking?" said Lu Han tentatively. 

Minseok sighed. "I do mind, actually. Although there isn't much you don't already know. Why don't you wait a bit and I'll tell this when everyone is here."

Lu Han frowned. "Everyone? You mean... me and Baekhyun?" Who on earth did Minseok have left to tell in his crazy small circle of acquaintances?

"Yes. I am, having a guest this afternoon. Now that there's been some progress on the machine, I think it's time to invite him into the project."

At two o'clock sharp the doorbell rang, and for once it was not a surprise to the occupants of the house. 

"Mr. Zhang, good afternoon. So good to see you again. My what a nice , I'm sorry, ignore that last bit. Would you please come in? My friends are waiting right through there."

If anyone cringed at Baekhyun's shameless introduction, they kept it to themselves, including Zhang Yixing who, impeccably dressed as always, marched swiftly into the sitting room where Minseok and Lu Han were already assembled. 

When Minseok told Lu Han he'd invited the man, Lu Han was shocked. Minseok, the ever suspicious one? Letting in an investor when mere weeks ago he'd been content to deny everything? "I have a plan," he'd said. "And it involves the two of you so shut up and wash your face. In Yixing's eyes you're still part of this investment."

"Just so everyone's aware," said Minseok without further pleasantries, "Mr. Zhang is now in possession of a set of letters addressed to him by Mr. Lu Han upon reaching the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. Lu Han," he handed him a pen and paper, "would you please write a short manifesto containing some words of nonsense and prove to Mr. Zhang that you are indeed in two places at once." 

Confused but obedient, Lu Han did so. As he passed the slip of paper, Yixing pulled out a bundle of letters from his inside pocket. Lu Han recognized them as letters he had indeed sent ten years ago. 

"Hmm, interesting," said Yixing, comparing the two specimens. "Though I am still not entirely convinced."

"Then allow me to explain how this all might have happened."

And so Minseok began a short explanatory history of his family and their curse. Most of it Lu Han knew already, though there were a few details he was glad to hear more of. For instance, the nature of their 'illness' which caused them to wander in their dreams, how at first it manifested as either incurable insomnia or was misdiagnosed by curious doctors as narcolepsy, depending on how the bearer of the curse reacted. In Minseok's case, he refused to sleep. It seemed he wasn't alone among his ancestors in this, his father being the one notable exception. 

"I believe the one point of origin may have been my great grandfather, Kim Jongin," said Minseok at one point. 

"You think he is the one who cursed your family?" Yixing asked. He listened thoughtfully throughout, but with an air of polite suspicion. 

"I couldn't say. I only know that among family records Jongin was even more of a recluse than myself. He has never been seen by me or any of my family in the dream-wanderings, not even heard of, which is an anomaly. I have some strange family members but they tend to leave gaping trails in which to follow as they tear through history." 

Like Kim Junmyeon, Lu Han thought. 

What Minseok did know, however, was that every one in the family following Jongin suffered the curse and disappeared from it. Jongdae, who was Jongin's son and Minseok's grandfather; Mae Chang who was Jongin's daughter.

"Then there was another daughter, and two other sons only one whom lived long enough to die of it. The youngest killed himself when he realized what would happen to him. It didn't work though; he's still around out there, somewhere. 

"Then there was my father, Kim Junsu. I have two aunts, Hyemi and Hyoyeon. Neither of them had children, fortunately. In that same generation, however, comes Junmyeon. He's Mae Chang's son. She has several more children. And of the great-aunt and -uncles, there are a few more.  It's a busy world, actually, when one thinks about it. A true family of immortals." His laugh was more of a scoff.

He turned to the grimmer facts then. That every time they dreamed an echo remained. For a time, the initial echo carried on with full a memory and life force. After a time though it began to fade and the figures carried on like waifs, mere shells of their former selves. If a living dreamer revisited it, it would imbue the echo with another resurgence of energy, only to be left to rot again, their bodies aging in every dimension. 

"If you visit the family plot here, there isn't a single body. No Kim who disappeared here was actually buried here. I've always wondered about that though. Do the other versions also die and decay? Or do they too just fizzle out of existence?" 

Yixing took in these facts with a neutral expression. "Tell me then, do you remember all these lives? Now, I mean? After you've returned."

Minseok looked at him. "Yes, and no. Only the most recent ones, some I forget entirely."

Lu Han nodded thoughtfully. "You mean, you're holding so many lives and memories that it's impossible to remember them all explicitly?"

"Precisely. Anyways that leads us to the machine I have been developing. I'll show it to you presently, Mr. Zhang, but it occurred to me at some point, after my father failed to discover the origin of our curse in the dreamworld, that the problem with the Kims is that we're so susceptible to dreaming we haven't the energy to do anything else. We've been missing something. Hence I devoted myself for years to the building of a device which would allow another to dream walk with me. If, as Lu Han claims, I become successful, it allows the passenger to... in a sense, connect with my dream worlds and travel it with me."

Baekhyun, who had been unusually silent, clapped his hands at this. "Ah, I see! So you chose Lu Han to travel with you. How romantic, Minseok really."

Both Minseok and Lu Han glared at him. Yixing, however, was taking this in quite seriously. At Minseok's bidding, Lu Han filled him in about the rest of his own 'adventures' in the machine. Lu Han rather dared think it would be important in the future, when Yixing was no doubt playing the instigator. They showed him the budding machine as well.

Hours later it seemed, they showed him the door. Baekhyun left not long after that. It was late, the sun almost setting. Lu Han yawned and thought regretfully about the walk back home; he had learned to be more discreet these days, lest someone else believe he wasn't in Antarctica. If Yixing barely believed it (and Lu Han had reason to believe Minseok had paid him off), then no one would. 

He looked at Minseok, who wavered on his feet, eyes narrow but not yet closed. 

"When was the last time you had sleep?" Lu Han asked. 

Minseok grunted, for Lu Han had taken to asking the question daily. 

"Go home or go to sleep yourself," Minseok replied. "At least one of us needs to be sane if you're going to help me build this stupid machine."

Lu Han smiled at that. "I'll do whatever I can, Minseok, you know that."

The man huffed. "You really are anxious to leave here, aren't you?" 

Lu Han inclined his head. "Am I?" Sometimes he doubted it. The only future-Minseok he knew of had just had him murdered. On the other hand, this Minseok was... nicer, softer... Lu Han was more than a little bit fond.

"You haven't explained though."

"Explained what?"

"Why you've been letting me stick around. Why you persuaded Yixing not to arrest me. Why you invited him here to become an investor to your project when we all know you don't need either one of us."

Minseok's betrayed no expression other than tired. "Maybe I dreamed something important." 

Lu Han frowned. "Did you really?"

Minseok smirked. "You scoff, but how would you know."

Lu Han turned away, disappointed because this was the time when Minseok would go all vague on him and never actually explain a thing. "I'll be going now, thanks anyways." 

A hand on his shoulder stopped him. 

"Wait a second," said Minseok sleepily.

Lu Han groaned, now thoroughly annoyed. "What?" 

He expected something else, another vague mystic response. Instead what he got was his back shoved lightly against the wall and a hard kiss on the mouth. He gasped and his lips opened up. Minseok, kissing him? Well it wasn't the most unpleasant thing that could have happened. Lu Han closed his eyes and surrendered himself to the Minseok's exploration. One hand appeared on his waist, another on his ribcage. Lu Han moaned, and his hands fluttered, flapping uselessly in the air until he found himself tentatively groping Minseok's waist in return. He shuddered, now kissing back, their mouths warm as Minseok slotted his head and pressed inside.

It was over in less than a minute. Abruptly, Minseok pulled away. Then he smirked.

"Just checking," he said cryptically.

Lu Han sighed. His body was still tingling but he took the bait anyways. "Checking on what."

"To see if it felt the same," said Minseok.

"Uhh, the same as what?" asked Lu Han. He ran his hands along his shirt coat, smoothing the wrinkles there.

Minseok opened the front door, silently bidding Lu Han to leave. He smiled, and Lu Han knew before hearing the answer that he probably shouldn't have asked.

"The same as in my dream, of course. Goodnight, Lu Han. See you in the morning."