Dr. Zi Wang Feng was part of a classified time-space cognition project headed by several of the world's most prolific scientists. The project, funded by several separate agencies, started in 2063 upon the discovery of the long-fabled Tachyon particle, but there was no real breakthrough until 35 years later, in 2098. Their laboratory, an oceanic space station off the coast of Antarctica, had massive time-space signal monitors that began to record high intensity signals about some time mid-February of 2098. A few months later, they were able to pinpoint the source of the signals in both Beijing, China and Seoul, South Korea. As investigative teams searched for the sources in these cities, no recent trace could be found in Seoul, while in Beijing, they found Lu Han.

Despite, or more accurately because of the immense implications of Luhan's radio and testimony, the investigation was kept a secret from the media. In the days that followed Luhan's meeting with Dr. Feng, his family signed a contract, moved to a new (and remarkably better) house, and their old 26th floor mansion transformed into a makeshift laboratory. Luhan was asked to make transmissions on the radio every night for a week, electrodes stuck on his skin. The entire experience fascinated him, and because of his open personality he obliged whatever they wanted to do. After every fifteen minute radio session, Luhan would take brain scans, physical tests and psychological interviews. Eventually, he had to take a break from school, which made his parents worry.

"It's okay," Luhan assured his parents. "Professor Lee is giving me the rest of the semester off and will take it as an internship so it still counts."

On the 8th day of tests, Luhan was introduced to the rest of the project heads. On the 9th, he was on a jet to Antarctica.

"You don't know how important you are to the future of the world as we know it," Dr. Feng told Luhan, the boy barely grasping the gravity in the scientist's words. Luhan nodded, not knowing what to say. I just want to know who he is, and why he knows who I am.

//

Sehun became obsessed with his radio. Every day, he would spend the hours agitated, waiting for dusk and hoping that no transmission was made while he was out of the house. In school, his notebooks were filled with lyrics from the songs the voice would sing the night before. He tried desperately to find out what songs they were. He even borrowed a Mandarin language book from the library, because often the voice would sing in Chinese and it frustrated him not to know what the words meant.

All this time, Sehun spoke of it to no one. He couldn't. Not when his dreams were now more real to him than his waking life. To be careful, Sehun kept all his daily activities as normal as possible. Also so his parents wouldn't worry. Once he tried to ask his uncle about radio frequencies, but in 1998 there was simply not much he could do to figure out where the radio transmissions were coming from. 

Halfway through the second week, Sehun had the idea of recording the transmissions so he bought a small tape recorder. He'd set it up so every day from the moment he arrived at home until he left for school, the radio and the recorder were on. Even if most of the recordings were static, he didn't record over them so that in a week, he had about 15 labeled tapes. That was when he started taking the tapes to school so he could listen to them, and somehow feel a little bit more connected to that voice, to Luhan.

Then suddenly, the transmissions started missing days. The first night that nothing came, Sehun stayed up into the morning, angry and confused. Then two nights, then a week, then a month. Sehun grew so frustrated that he started getting into fights at school. When his parents were called to the pricipal's office with him, Sehun didn't say anything, his insides fuming with pent-up emotions.

"Sehun..." his mother tried to say as they walked out of the office while his father refused to talk to him. "Sehun--"

A cellphone rang. It was his father's.

"This is the hospital, sir. Your brother, he's in a bad state."

They rushed to the hospital without a word. Sehun sat in the back seat, trying to control his feelings. He wanted to cry so badly. First Luhan, and now this. The two people that had taken up his world so intensely, suddenly gone.

That night he locked himself in his room. Even though his parents were at the hospital and he was alone in the house, locking his room made him feel safer. He kept the lights off, taking comfort from the darkness. He flicked his radio on angrily.

"I don't even know why I bother!" He cursed at the radio, the tears he'd held back in the past few hours now falling without restraint. "Say something! LUHAN!" he cried.

Then, as if hearing him, the voice was there again.

"Ni hao, my name is Luhan...

I'm sorry for missing yesterday."

Sehun froze, his entire body suddenly rapt with attention.

"I know you are there. I know you are listening."

It was like a dam slowly breaking. Sehun felt his breathing and pulse quicken, not sure what to make of those words. Luhan, he wanted to say. No, he wanted to scream, so Luhan could hear. He didn't know how or since when or why, but then and there Sehun realized, exactly what Luhan meant to him.

Luhan.

"Wait for me." Luhan's voice sounded breathless.

"It might take a while. I'll be away for a while... But wait for me. They said it's possible, so I believe them."

Luhan was speaking in strongly accented Korean, but Sehun understood completely. He nodded, even though no one could see him. 

"I know... Let me-- I'll sing for you again in case... In case it takes me longer..."

Sehun found his bed in the dark and laid down, letting Luhan's voice wash over him. He wasn't angry anymore. He looked forward to his dreams. He knew he would see Luhan there, just like he did every night, even though the past nights his dreams were short, erratic and bleary. Tonight his dream was clear as crystal and for the first time, he knew exactly what Luhan looked like. It lasted only seconds, but Sehun was able to say what he wanted to say before the fog crept between them, blocking Luhan from his view.

I'll wait for you, Luhan.

//...