Lu Han's head throbbed dully as he sank down into the contraption. He felt sluggish, his mind had been foggy since last night. He barely remembered anything before he was in bed, and after that he did not dream. Despite the haze in his head, he felt strangely empty, clear-headed, ready for... something, something he knew not what. There was no doubt in his mind that his drink last night had been spiked. He could only assume that since Minseok wanted him for this task, he would not therefore be murdered before it was accomplished. 

The machine fit him better this morning. His legs were relaxed, arms in a comfortable position. A cushion had been added to the headrest, to which was attached the same electric blue wires he had wondered at the day before. This time, when Minseok had finished assembling everything, there were no loose wires. Every one had a joint and a slot, and they wrapped around Lu Han's head, neck, chest, arms and legs at strange pressure points. 

Lu Han closed his eyes and had a moment's panic that he was floating somewhere else. Quickly his eyelids flashed open. He found Minseok looking at him with a smirk. 

"Try to remain calm, if you please. This will make it much easier for you if you do."

Lu Han tried to nod; he found himself unable to. Quietening his nerves appeared much harder to do in practice than in theory. 

"What's... what's going to happen?" he asked.

Minseok pursed his lips in contemplation. "Hopefully, nothing bad." 

Lu Han's blood suddenly boiled in his veins. "What?"

But Minseok was smiling. 

"No. I have a queer reassurance that you are the one. It will work. It will work." He was not looking at Lu Han. His gaze had narrowed, hid mind somewhere far away. He flipped a switch and Lu Han's mind turned even more hazy. In the last second before he lost consciousness he heard his host whisper one last time, "It's just got to work..."

Lu Han was in a dream. 

A warm breeze rushed past his temples. The sound of waves, seagulls. The smell of salt spray and something floral. Roses, maybe. 

Lu Han blinked. He had the distinct feeling of being completely immobilized. He gasped and felt suffocated. Air rushed from his lungs and was trapped in his throat. He was dying... asphyxiating.

Then just as suddenly as it had come, it passed. He wheezed. Arms he could not have felt a moment earlier flew to his chest where he pounded his airways. His legs burned. He itched to move them, but they too were bizarrely immobile. Lu Han struggled a good while before manage to dislodge them. Finally, he was free again... He could move! There was another wisp of salt spray, calling his attention to where he was.

"Waves, seagulls. Waves, roses," he tried out his vocal cords. His voice was groggy, a little bit throaty, but it worked. Looking down he saw himself standing on sand. He was wearing a familiar set of clothes, and they were not beach appropriate. The dampness pressed upon his shoes; a small wave had washed up upon his calves before retreating back into the ocean. It was unpleasant, and dirty. His mind crinkled, conjuring an image he could not on his own power have divined. In under a moment he was barefooted except for a think strip of sandal, wearing shorts and a striped shirt with no sleeves. And his first vague thought was, "I'm !" 

Someone in the distance shouted an undistinguishable word. Lu Han spun around, suddenly reeling from the realization he was not entirely alone. The beach was littered with dozens of people, some singles, some families. Each was 'unclothed' as he was now, in the same state of undress, if not more so. But that was not the craziest thing. 

The skyline... It was incredible. It was a city undoubtable, but none like Lu Han had ever seen. There were towers as high as the heavens, gleaming metallic monstrosities. Before it all was a road so wide it could have fit ten carriages easily. Carriages did rush past, but they were not anything Lu Han recognized. The speed of it all, the sound of it all... it pressed him from all sides, furiously roiled in his brain. He felt his knees wobble. His ears rang suddenly from a high pitched squeal that could only be coming from inside his head. Throwing caution to the wind, he pitched his knees down into the sand and threw his hands over his eyes. He tasted bile in the back of his throat. Moments later he was vomited over the sand. 

Time roared past, but he knew nothing except his own sickness. Fear and pain mixed with his earlier panic of immobility, but he refused to let it win. He thrashed and spun, fighting the urge to fall, to sink back into the despair of his consciousness. He was winning... he was losing...

"Lu Han?" 

There, there... that voice! He knew it. From somewhere. It was known. It was unknown. 

"Lu Han? Look at me."

Someone took his arms. 

"Come on, you can do it. Open your eyes. It's okay, I've got you."

That voice, so melodic, sweet. The voice of a friend. 

Lu Han opened his eyes. He expected to be somewhere else. Visions of a chair, a contraption, a haunted, lonely mansion, swam before his eyes. 

"Lu Han? Lu Han, it's Minseok. You're alright. I've got you. You... you're here... you're actually here. This is incredible!"

Minseok stood before him, but he was nothing like the Minseok Lu Han had known. They still stood on that beach with the people with the wrong clothes and the skyline that was unmentionable. But Minseok was dressed like him, and his hands were warm. He was solid, he was human. He smiled and the image of that was enough to make Lu Han want to swoon from the sheer beauty of it. 

"Minseok?" Lu Han's voice no longer warbled. It was solid and strong. It felt real; Minseok felt real. 

"Yes. It's me... You're here. You're finally here."

Lu Han shook his head. "I don't know what you mean. Where is here? I don't know this place at all. This place is... it isn't right."

The smile on Minseok's face trembled only slightly. He renewed his grip on Lu Han's arm and smiled again, earnestly, softly. "You know me though, don't you?"

Lu Han squinted. "I do, but... not from here I don't. Minseok, what is this place? I was sitting down, and then I was here."

The man Lu Han knew and did not know closed his mouth and nodded a couple times. He pat Lu Han's arm reassuringly. "I think I understand. This is your first journey, isn't it. I've been waiting for you. I've been everywhere and in every place you have already been, but for you this is just the first. Lu Han, you have to tell me something."

"Tell you what?" Gravity threatened once again to drag him down. He blinked, and he swore his body had flickered once, disappearing, before appearing again. 

"Tell me~" Minseok was saying, but Lu Han could almost not focus. 

"I don't... understand."

"Lu Han!" 

He struggled to focus, to hear Minseok's words, but it was growing increasingly difficult to do so. Something was calling him back, back home, back somewhere else.

"Lu Han, you're the one. I know, but my other self does not! He needs to know!"

Lu Han squinted, trying to understand. He was light-headed again and fighting his own existence.

"You've got to tell me, Minseok, the first Minseok, that it's worked. You have to tell him! Past, present, future, you are the one and the key! Lu Han, tell him you met me, and that all of me, every body, every image, every trace that's been lost throughout time... every one of us has met and known you~!"

"I don't... und...er...stand..."

The last thing Lu Han heard before experiencing the jolt of a fall was Minseok's resigned sob and the words, "Lu Han... we'll meet again. So many times... we'll meet again."