After the toast, Lana couldn’t help but wonder if she would ever get the chance to see Kyungsoo bake the perfect cinnamon roll. After all, if all went well, she would be back home safe and sound as soon as the time-traveling teenager could get his confounded heap of metal on wheels working properly. Yet something gave Lana the feeling that that kind of wishful thinking was pure naiveté at this point. It seemed fate was having fun playing games with her—especially when the bus took off again that night only to end up in the furthest place imaginable from 2033 Seoul.

The bus had landed on the outskirts of a grimy, dirty farmland crawling with barefoot people that looked greasy and hairy even from afar. An odd stench of mixed musk, wood, and sweat perforated through the metal walls, accompanied by the distant booming of an incredible rendition of what sounded like the American national anthem. In the distance, Lana could make out sets of wooden scaffolds and a large stage around which the majority of the concertgoers had gathered.

“We’re in 1969!” Kyungsoo exclaimed from the dashboard. “Groovy!”

Lana peeled her gaze away from the window to narrow her eyes at him. “So basically we’re right back at square one?”

“Yep,” he chirped unaffectedly. “Ever heard of Woodstock?”

“Of course I have,” she tutted, turning back to the window. “A long, long time ago, a bunch of hippies gathered to listen to music and get high, and the only reason people even remember it today is because it was peaceful and—”

“Let’s check it out!” Kyungsoo interrupted, causing the girl to roll her eyes behind her friend’s back. Of course he wanted to explore the event; by now Lana had learned to never expect less from the adventurous teenage boy. As he started strolling down the aisle, swinging his arms with every step, he added, “If we don’t wanna stand out, we’ll have to dress the part!”

To Lana’s surprise though, he didn’t head to the back of the bus for the Clothesatron 10K. Instead, he stopped beside the round table and dove into the tall stack of everything that ever existed, rummaging through it in search of who knows what. A good three minutes later, he finally snapped back up, holding up a pair of glasses for his friend to see. The shades had circular, rainbow-colored lenses and a wiry metal frame. Lana nearly gagged as he tossed them toward her and almost let them fall to the ground on purpose. Though she probably would have preferred to see them shatter into a thousand pieces, she caught them at the last second anyway.

“What am I supposed to do with these?” she asked, eyeing the shades critically.

Kyungsoo smirked, oblivious to his friend’s apparent disdain. “Wear them, of course!”

Of course. She groaned mentally and slipped the glasses on, deciding she would rather be the one wearing the hideous accessory if it meant she didn’t have to look at it. Of course, she had neglected to take into account that the lenses would dye the whole world in seven new headache-inducing hues. Suddenly the teenage boy blinking back at her was no longer merely tan but rather a contorted mixture of every color imaginable slapped on top of his natural skin tone.

Lana held her hand before her face, twisting it from side to side to take in the colors in motion. “This is so...”

“Psychedelic?” Kyungsoo finished for her. He searched the junk pile again, this time pulling out a chain of plastic daisies linked together. He placed the flower loop around the crown of Lana’s head as a makeshift hippie headband.

Once he was completely sure Lana looked like a passable tacky ‘60s mess, he dug through the heap for one last item, a tiny vial filled to the brim with a light-brown liquid. “Last but not least,” he announced, “Patchouli oil! If we really want to fit in with the hippies, we gotta smell like them.”

He unscrewed the cap, took a whiff, and then held it out for Lana to try. She took the vial from his hand and held it below her nose, inhaling slowly. It smelled like dirt—dirt, musk, earth, and everything else that was seeping into the bus from the air outside, only a thousand times more concentrated. It wasn’t a bad smell per se, but definitely not one Lana would feel like being associated with on a normal day.

“You weren’t kidding about smelling like them,” she coughed, shoving the oil back toward him after reluctantly dabbing it onto her wrists.

Kyungsoo giggled as he applied some of the scented oil to his own skin. He proceeded to pull off his mustard-colored sweatshirt, leaving his chest bare and shirtless, and kicked off his worn-out sneakers.

Now wardrobe ready, Kyungsoo decided the time had finally come to alight the antique bus and venture out onto the concert grounds. Lana watched as he bounded down the steps before finally sliding out of the diner booth. She was halfway down the stairs when she noticed Kyungsoo walk face first into a tall, scruffy man in what looked through the rainbow glasses to be a green shirt and brown slacks. While the teenager jumped back in surprise, the man didn’t seem to react until thirty seconds later, when he finally yelped, “Zoinks!”

On closer inspection, she realized that the man’s eyes were red and droopy. He was accompanied by a shorter, bushy-haired girl in a tacky, presumably orange turtleneck and thick-rimmed glasses. She pushed the spectacles up the bridge of her nose and mumbled, “Jinkies.”

“Like sorry, man,” the guy apologized in a dazed tone of voice. “Like we thought this was our van. Like come to our tent and hang out, man.”

Without another word, he grabbed Kyungsoo by the arm and yanked him away. Lana gaped at the boy in horror, but he just shrugged nonchalantly as he stumbled along behind the other man. She was left with no choice but to trail the group into the campground that lay in the long stretch of land between the bus and the concert.

Author's Note
Hello! So Lana and D.O are now at Woodstock, thanks to a suggestion by MusicalAnarchy! ^-^ There are two very special guest characters here! Can anyone guess who they are? LOL I think I made it pretty obvious. My friend suggested it as a joke, probably not realizing I would actually put them in... >_>

Please comment, guys! I’ve had three chapters sitting on my computer for a week now, waiting to be posted, but I couldn’t motivate myself because there was a steep drop in comments for the last chapter. Was it too long for you guys? I’ll keep them shorter if that’s the case. I split this chapter into two parts for that reason. :(

I appreciate all comments, even if you can only take a second to do it. Even a short “loved the chapter” is better than nothing at all. Just to let me know if I’m doing a good job and you aren’t bored of the fic! And it motivates me to update etc. etc.

Anyway, I will try to reply to more comments this chapter. ^o^ I was super stressed last week, but I have a six day weekend ahead of me, so I’ll hopefully have plenty of time to respond. xD