Suddenly the ripples of time approached me.

It never happened before. 

It brought with it the brightness of sun's light and I just knew this was it.

We'll be together once more.

- Sehun

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     Lost in between the vortex of space and time, there stood a boy who for a hundred years or so, although he will never know, have perused every last moment of his life and made it his only recreation. Unconsciously, he stands there as if he just entered just mere minutes ago. The only thing that assured him of his being is those last memories. As he re-lived every one of the beautiful past he had with his friends, with Lu Han and Kai, he could only be saddened at his current situation. However just as it had replayed in his mind, it was all put to a stop when he finally reached the lingering emptiness of the end of the memories.  With nothing to see, to look at or mesmerize on, he merely just stood staring into the nothingness before him. Until all the moments started slipping away, and the memories started to dissipate from his consciousness. No thoughts, no memories, no anything, time had clearly stood still just as he did.

     It was the worst hell he could ever be in. He was slowly losing touch with his being that he broke down on the spot. For a person who had never appreciated life and finally had a taste of it after meeting his beloved right before the end of the world, he pitied himself. The worst feeling for him is that forever, is not even measurable anymore because there is no time and no space to even begin any calculating measurement. Hence there is no hope.

     He thought of his friends, the only family he knew. D.O., he had never been able to tell the other how grateful he was for his cooking. How the other would go out of his way to cook something just for him. Apparently the group didn’t mind lima beans at all yet every time a dish that required it was in the table, his plate had not one lima bean in it. He later found out from Lu Han that D.O. would personally pick it out before serving it to him. 

     Tao and Lay, the warriors of the group, they too had always been there for Sehun yet he has never said ‘thank you’ to the two for practicing with him and teaching Lu Han to fight.  And in the night of the accident, he had never been able to go up to Lay and say thank you for saving not only him but Kai as well.  It was just another night raid for the two when their car skidded off the railing on the edge of the mountain, the car flipped over and tumbled on the side of the road. He and Kai were fighting in the car and Kai pulled the wheel to scare Sehun but the other didn’t react fast enough that they almost met their end right there and then. Sehun doesn’t even remember anymore what they fought about but it could only be just about one person, Lu Han.

 “Lu Han!” He said to himself. He lowered his head in sadness as he will never see his beloved again. 

There is no way Lu Han will break his promise. Plus, I wouldn’t want him to anyway. It’s just... He thought to himself. He wanted to hope. He wanted to wait but it was more painful than leaving Lu Han in the first place.

“He promised! He promised!” He chanted to himself as he straightened up and tried to shake the nasty rut that was starting to eat him up.  And just like that, the mere four words were like electricity that energized the boy once again.  

“I have to stay strong if I were to see him again.”

     He stopped and scoffed at himself. I wonder how long I have to wait when there isn’t even any space and time to begin with.

“Ahhh!” He realized right away. Although there is no way to tell time, he realized the mere passing of the moment as he thought of his friends. It was proof enough that time is still passing for him. It only reaffirmed that he is still alive and there is still hope somehow.

“O-H-S-E-H-U-N” He thought of his name and smiled when he realized that at least 5 seconds have passed as he spelled it.

“H-U-A-N-G-Z-I-T-A-O” 

“K-I-M-M-I-N-S-E-O-K”

“P-A-R-K-C-H-A-N-Y-E-O-L, Ooh that was a good one. At least 7 seconds on that one.” he tried to spell the longest names thereafter.

“K-I-M-J-U-N-M-Y-E-O-N” 

“B-Y-U-N-B-A-E-K-H-Y-U-N”

“K-I-M-J-O-N-G-I-N” He exclaimed as he realized he couldn’t forget about his best friend. 

“Wait a minute, if I am able to prove the ‘passing of time” through merely spelling my friends’ names, it must mean that time does somewhat exist in this vortex. If time is the human representation that everything, matter that is, is in motion and the vortex is an area within a fluid where the flow is mostly spinning about an imaginary axis, straight or curved, it must mean that there is a sense of time passing as we speak. Hmm...I wonder how long has it been seen I left earth relatively speaking of course. Oh man. Wow! Lu Han’s gonna be thrilled to hear this.”

“Lu Han.” An empty feeling enveloped him once more and he found himself spelling one last time. 

“L-U-----H-A-N” And as Sehun said the last letter, tears started rolling down his cheeks and he began sobbing again. The boy’s face shocked-stricken as he tried to fight off Kai who was holding him back is all Sehun can remember now. In the last moment, Sehun snatched the compass from Lu Han and pushed the boy towards Kai. Kai took hold of him and never let him go. 

     Of all the people he had to leave behind, leaving Lu Han was the hardest thing to do. He seemed to complete everything that is not Sehun and he believed that he was only meant for the other. All the 19 years of his life, he was merely breathing, being, walking, working, living, only to train and fight. But never had he felt more alive than the one year he had spent with Lu Han.  And now everything is long gone and he now finds himself at a lost with a broken heart stuck in a vortex. 

     Until he started to feel something approach him. Ripples much like a water in motion. Ripples were approaching his feet. The motions became more apparent and the ripples became larger and larger until it came one after the after and a blinding light emerged from the center of the ripples that made him turn his head away. It was strange and he could only hope and pray that it’s what he think it was, the doorway to what he really needed and what he had longed for all this time, Home.

     It wasn’t a blinding light although even if it was, the group probably would have never flinched and squinted in fear that they’d miss the chance to see it. There was a hand that stretched out of the light and they all wanted to pull it in excitement. They all knew it was Sehun, their one and only Sehun.

“Only one code works on the platform.” Lu Han remembers. He steps back and looks at the back of Kai and he smiles. 

Finally the man will get to tell the other how he really felt for him after all these years. They can start anew and all will be well. He thought to himself.

     As he stepped back, he felt the others lean in more in anticipation and he was glad to have helped in every way possible.  It’s the least he can do and he hoped that his great-great-grandfather in heaven would be proud of his good job fulfilling his only promise to Sehun, his last dying wish.

“I will get you back home, one day. I Promise.” 

     He’s read this in the journal. One of the last entries he had written before he met his end. The words were more of desperation and there were countless smudges on the page that he could only assume were tears that fell from his great-great-grandfather’s eyes as he tried to write it. Lu Han had died a depress and lonely man who only yearned for his beloved. But he was torn between duty and sacrifice. Something he couldn’t live with until the day he died. It seemed he had lost all will and power when Sehun had left him taking his heart with him.

     Now that his duty to his family had been fulfilled, he turned around to walk away on the verge of rest looking for his next feat, may it be fighting beside EXO for the upcoming war or maybe finding his own life. He’s thought about what he would do the day all this was done and he could only hope for one thing. It is to find what is worth living for; something that Lu Han and Sehun had. Something that Chanyeol and Baekhyun realized and everyone else who have found the love of their life. He too wanted to feel it at least once. He too wanted to love and be loved. So he walked away with his future unknown but more ready than he can ever be.

     It’s been a hundred years and EXO have anticipated this moment, not as a comrade in arms but as a friend, a brother. They have grown up together all twelve of them and losing Sehun was the hardest thing they all had to face.  Not only did they lose their power right after Sehun left, but EXO was just never complete without him. Chen discussed this one time with the group, how through observation, he felt as if, time had stopped for them as well. Each and everyone of them are a piece to a puzzle, and when Sehun left, the picture couldn’t be made out anymore and nothing else seemed right after. First off, they never aged. They do live longer than an average human, a couple of decades more. Yet Chen observed nothing changing in him and the group at all. He can only theorize that this may have something to do with Sehun being stuck in a vortex between time and space. He perused the idea that the need for the complete twelve was more necessary than anything. This is when he had started the research for getting the boy back. It just happened that Jongun struck again and the matter became more pressing.

     Lay caught sight of the younger one, Lu Han, walking away from the scene and he extended his hand to the other to stop him, but Lu Han could only smile at the other and slowly shook the elder’s arm away. There was a understanding between them in that moment and Lay was more relieved that Lu Han was able to pick up the idea right away.

     Lu Han didn’t feel right being there at that moment and he felt like he was out of place since he didn’t know the other. He also thought of the consequences if Sehun sees his face. He’s been thinking about this since the plan have been proposed to him. There is no wonder he is called Lu Han, he looked exactly like his great-great-grandfather and he figured that the other might confuse him right away. So he decided this a long time ago that he would leave, the day Sehun came back. 

     His pace picked up and he was nearing the exit when he heard his name called.

“Lu Han!” The anticipation in the voice that longed for his beloved for a hundred of years echoed in the room and everyone gasped. It made Lu Han freeze in his spot right away. This was not something he had expected. A lot of things happened tonight and because of excitement he had no chance to plan this part one bit. 

     He took one more step to continue. Lu Han thought maybe, he can pretend not to hear it or maybe he can just dart out of the room without notice. But his name was called once again and the next thing he knew, there were a pair of hands grabbing his side. The hands gripped him tight and spun him around turning him quick that he wasn’t able to see or even say anything. Instantaneously, the arms slid to pull him closer with the body pressed too close to his and lips planted onto his.

     His eyes widened and his body froze even more if that was even possible. Nobody had ever dared touch him, ever. Nobody had ever hugged let along kissed him. And as he slowly tried to take notice of the assailant, he finally realized that the nobody was none other than Sehun grabbing onto his hair now carding his fingers through it. He was lost in a passionate kiss and Lu Han could only stare in shock.

    Lu Han finally lost his cool for once and for the first time didn’t have any idea how to approach the situation. So he only reacted the same way as anybody would’ve acted in his position.  He pushed the man in front of him and punched him on the face.  The regret came soon after his fist left the other’s jaw.  He saw the face of the now shocked Sehun on the verge of tears feeling more broken because his long awaited beloved had pushed him away. 

     Sehun held his face taut and glared at the other with tears welling on his lower lids shocked that something like this would come from his Lu Han. Sehun couldn’t believe it at all. The newness of everything, the stuffiness of the room, the new fresh air he is now able to breathe, and everything else that is now over stimulating his senses had started to fill his head of daze and he be came light-headed and dizzy.

     Maybe he was tired from all the years of waiting or maybe he’s now suffering from the prior heartbreak in combination with the current shock he just been dealt with, but in that instant, everything seemed to blur and jumble in his head he finally shut down and fell to the ground fainting on the spot. Fortunately for Sehun, Kai was there to catch him. And as his senses left him one by one, Sehun heard the last bit from a voice he will never forget yet felt different to him.

“I’m sor-- I- I didn’t know what to do!”

a/n Hello lovely readers, so we saw a bit of Sehun in the vortex and my own theory of time lol sorry for that. This is the most of my knowledge in the matter flawed as it may be.  Hope you all enjoyed the chapter. This in reality would be my reaction if I was in that situation. I'd be looking only for my beloved first thing and I'd be pissed if someone stole my first kiss!!.. Ooops spoiler! lol see you guys in the next chapter. Thanks for reading.