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Kai is still getting used to the digital laser shaving tool. He fingers the way too smooth skin on his chin as he steals glimpses at Krystal, sitting across from him in the conference room. She’s adjusting to 2030 a lot better than Kai. She works with her older, womanly look by pulling her long black hair back neatly. She picks up on the flowy, uni-colored fashion. Meanwhile Kai’s hair is still the swept over style from his 17 year old self, and he hasn’t changed clothes in the past two days since they got there.

The conference room is sleek and clean, just like every other room and corridor in this building, which Victoria says is the headquarters for the Time Travelers’ Diplomatic Organization. It’s where all of the backward time travelers who reach Tao and Yoona get sent.

The back wall of the conference room has a floor to ceiling window that overlooks the central district of district Alpha. Kai and Krystal have both noticed how much has changed about life in 2030. But they are both afraid to look out onto such a sharp reality, and avoid the window.

The door glides open and a man who looks about Kai and Krystal’s age walks in. He reaches the head of the table and shakes hands with both of them. “Well done making it here to the future,” the man says, taking a seat. “My name is Baekhyun. I’m the chairman of the Time Travelers’ Diplomatic Organization.”

Kai raises his eyebrows at the man before him. “Your name is… Baekhyun?” He utters. The man’s features are strangely familiar, from the large, wide eyes to the attractive focus of the nose and chin line. But this man looks nothing like the Baekhyun that Kai and Krystal met in 1998. The memory of Baekhyun’s death flashes in Kai’s mind, and he grimaces, his eyes still trained on this other Baekhyun. 

“My parents named me after a close friend of theirs, who died before I was born,” Baekhyun responds with a piercing look that Kai definitely recognizes from somewhere.

“Your parents are Kyungsoo and Chorong,” Krystal remarks. Baekhyun turns to her in surprise. “You two knew my parents?” he says.

Krystal gives a nod. The resemblances in the faces, now that Kai realizes, are a little too detailed. The man named Baekhyun is the spitting image of a combination of the Kyungsoo and Chorong they met in 1998. Kai feels his jaw tighten and sits silently while Krystal explains.

“Your parents led a resistance force against the hunters in 1998. They picked us up when we time jumped back to then, and sent us off again. We stayed at their camp for a night and met all of them, your parents, Baekhyun, Xiumin, Chen… They were such strong-willed people. They’re the reason any time traveler has… I mean had, a chance of getting to safety in the future, I presume.”

Baekhyun nods gravely, looking back and forth from Krystal to Kai. “They dedicated their lives to fighting the extinction of backward time travelers. They both played big roles in tearing down the extremist League’s power hold in 2013, and were setting up this organization with the others… when they were killed by loose hunters,” the man replies.

Kai looks up and meets eyes with Krystal. They read the mourning reflected against each other. “I’m sorry to hear that,” Krystal mutters.

Baekhyun lets out a sigh, filling the conference room with silence. But he straightens up in his chair quickly after. “Yes, thank you. I know I have a lot of explaining to do so I’d like to go on. We were able to pull up your records and adjust them in the database, so as of now, you two are officially citizens of 2030.”

He slides his hand over the table, and the table lights up, a computer tablet coming alive on the surface. With a few commands, a holographic screen of information appears in in front of both Kai and Krystal. The screen contains their photographs, their information, and more things Kai doesn’t know what to make of.

“We were able to pull up established bank accounts and finances for the both of you, set up by your parents back in your time. Now that your records are updated in the database, you will be able to acquire jobs, and begin life here in 2030,” Baekhyun goes on, highlighting several parts of both Kai and Krystal’s holographic information here and there with his sliding finger.

Kai’s eyes focus on the highlighted section on his tablet about his parents. “Deceased in 2013. Killed by hunters,” it reads. There’s a harsh pulling in Kai’s chest, and he shifts his gaze over to Krystal. He’s not sure, but he has a feeling she’s looking at something dangerously similar to the information on his own holograph.

“Starting today, Victoria will help you to find homes to live in… as well as jobs that suit you. You may definitely choose whichever district you want to live in. The districts and the normal people have opened up to backward time travelers. With the League no longer active, people have really begun to appreciate the skills that backward time travelers have,” Baekhyun declares with a hint of pride in his voice.

Krystal blinks and purses her lips. “Could you tell us exactly what happened? How the League came down in 2013? How the situation is changed now?” she asks. She’s always the one with the questions, Kai thinks.

Baekhyun nods, concentrating his brows the exact same way Kai remembers Chorong doing. “The League acquired so much power over the government bodies in the districts in 2013. The resistance force worked on an offensive tactic to launch an assault on the front lines of the League, as well as overtake their governmental control from the insides. The League outnumbered the time traveler resistance, but the time travelers had learned to fight better. In the end, the League was overthrown in late 2013, and forced to stop official activities,” he explains.

“But you said your parents were killed by hunters after the overthrow,” Krystal mutters quietly.

“Yes. The League and its organizational operation were shut down, but there are still many people out there, who resent time travelers. That kind of hate, I’m afraid, won’t cease to exist. What we were able to accomplish in 2013 essentially was to stop the League of Hunters from driving time travelers to extinction,” Baekhyun replies.

Kai poses the next question. “Then how are things any different from before? Time travelers have always been hunted down, and by the sounds of it, still are.”

Baekhyun nods repeatedly in agreement. “The only thing that can really help us, as my parents discovered after the events in 2013, is… Diplomacy. To work with all other bodies of the districts. Time travelers, hunters, normal people.”

The rest of Baekhyun’s explanation becomes fuzzy in Kai’s head, as the word rings in his ears. Diplomacy. The storm rising in Kai’s chest makes him struggle for breath. Taemin, Jessica, Kai’s and Krystal’s parents, so many others, have died for the word diplomacy. It’s all Kai can do not to storm out of the conference room and break out into a rage. His and Krystal’s lives. The 17 years of life that he and Krystal skipped, because they were running from death. So much lost, for the cause of diplomacy. For the cause of sending hunters to some government prison if they feel like killing time travelers.

When they finish, Baekhyun leaves them in the conference room to attend to other business. Kai feels stuck to his chair, the cursed word blaring in his brain. He’s only vaguely aware of Krystal walking over, pulling him into her arms, and his hair. Kai ends up crying into her embrace.

-

Starting life all over again with nothing but computer records floating on holograms, is a tiring process that gives Kai headaches.

Krystal decides to work under Baekhyun in the Time Travelers Diplomatic Organization. But Kai decides, he can’t bring himself to.

With a great deal of fuss from Victoria, Kai finally settles on taking a job as an animal caretaker. By 2030, most natural habitats of animals have been rendered uninhabitable from human interference. Kai thinks the animals he’ll work with will understand how he feels better than any human. They’ve lost everything from their previous lives and are being forced to live in a strange place, just like Kai and Krystal.

After Kai’s decision, Victoria lets them go for the day, telling them she’ll work with their living arrangements in 2030 the next day. Kai and Krystal return to Krystal’s room, and Kai feels a little bad for Victoria, who has to put up with Kai’s mental instabilities with this future.

They sit on the brown comforter in silence. Kai digs his fingers into the soft material, because for some reason, he can’t stop being angry.

He’s angry at Taemin for not being there. He thinks about how they had always planned to get the exact same jobs and live next door to each other. He thinks about how Taemin always joked that they should find some pretty twins to date and marry, so they’ll have wives that are sisters.

Kai is afraid to start the life they have to live in 2030, without Taemin. His records tell him that he’s a 34 year old man, a damn animal caretaker. He’d never even had a chance to think seriously about what he’d wanted to do with his life. He’s even starting to forget what he looked like when he was 17. It’s a huge relief that he still remembers Krystal’s 17 year old face.

He’s not angry at Krystal. She is his mechanism for sanity. His cheeks flush because he remembers earlier that day, when he broke down after their meeting with Kyungsoo and Chorong’s son, and Krystal had to comfort him. Because she’s not drowning in her anger and bitterness toward everything like he is. He has no idea what she’s thinking.

“Kai,” Krystal’s voice breaks Kai’s mess of thoughts.

He looks at her, sitting across from him on the large bed. She let her hair down so she looks more like her 17 year old self. “Can I ask you something about tomorrow?” she asks.

Kai tries to remember what there is to ask about tomorrow. “Sure,” he says.

“Victoria said she’s going to prepare a list of single homes we can look at tomorrow… but I was wondering maybe if I could ask her for bigger places, you know, for two people,” Krystal remarks, eyes trained on the furry comforter.

Kai blinks. He sits there while Krystal stops staring at the comforter and looks up to meet his gaze. “Because I’ve thought about it, and if I had to live alone and pretend like everything about my life here in 2030 is okay all by myself, I might go insane,” she tells him without breaking their eye contact.

She’s right, and Kai knows he has to at least try, like Krystal, to make up for some of the lost things, the lost years. He gives her a slow nod and something nibbles at his brain.

“I’m sure we can ask Victoria for a place in the district that’s near both of our jobs,” Krystal mutters. “And I’m sure plenty of time travelers before us have asked for similar things… right? They all probably wanted to stay within one another’s ranges, at least…”

Kai gets off from his spot on the bed and goes to sit next to her. She’s in the middle of speaking and is startled. She doesn’t finish because it’s Kai’s turn to talk, and he inches his hand near hers and locks their fingers together. “I don’t know how to do this because, I was too young a few days ago to think about this kind of stuff,” Kai says, moving his thumb back and forth over Krystal’s forefinger. “And I’m sorry, because I can’t give you any other options. We’ve lost too much for that, I think.”

They look at each other, their faces closer, and Kai silently reaches out for the memories of Taemin and Jessica and everyone else that’s not alive right in front of him, before he continues. “We should get married.”

Krystal’s shocked expression makes Kai blurt out another thing. “We should make Victoria’s job just a little bit more difficult,” he says, and Krystal’s lips curve into the smallest of a smile.

The last thing to try to make up for whatever it is that Kai and Krystal skipped in their 17 year leap is an apology. Kai slowly closes his eyes and gently presses his lips on Krystal’s, his free hand tenderly winding up to her neck right below her ear. It’s not enough to try to make up years of kisses and feelings in one.

The unending, unfulfilling cavern of loss is dark and agonizing. The first kiss Kai and Krystal might have shared as teenagers when they met, kisses they might have shared as Jessica gave her approval for their relationship while Taemin refused, and their parents eventually found out, kisses for each year older, kisses for building their futures, a kiss for a hand in marriage that doesn’t result from a forced need for the two of them to have each other to retain their sanities. They are all just intangible possibilities that have no matter whatsoever, because the time frame for their chance of occurrence is wholly lost.

So the kiss they share now where Kai wishes he was more used to Krystal’s beautiful scent and more used to expressing himself with the movement of his lips, is their last thing, before they truly begin their new lives in the year 2030.

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