Chapter 9 - Back to Reality

2014

Luhan

After half an hour of waiting, one of our managers, EXO – K’s manager, finally arrived to fetch us. I’m seating at the backseat while Baekhyun is sitting at the passenger seat beside our manager who’s driving the van.

“Where have you been for the past three days?” Our manager asked.

“U-uh, we’ve been to..” Think Luhan, think! “We’ve been to Bucheon, right Baek?” Bucheon is Baekhyun’s hometown.

“Y-yeah.” Baekhyun stuttered. “W-we visited my Grandma and stayed there for three days.”

“Oh, you did? I should have called your Grandma. It didn’t cross my mind that you went back to your hometown.” Hyung stated in which Baekhyun responded with a nervous chuckle.

And I’ve never been this relieved in my life. Thank goodness Hyung didn’t call Baekhyun’s Grandma or else we’ll be caught lying.

“But I tried calling you a lot of times and it seems I can’t always reach your phones.” Of course, Hyung was not able to reach us since there’s no signal in the past. There are even no phones in the past.

“We turned off our phones because we want a peaceful and relaxing vacation at Bucheon.” I lied. “We’re sorry if we didn’t tell you about our plans of going to Bucheon, Hyung.”

“It’s okay, but next time you have to tell me first before you run off somewhere. Oh, I also want to ask, why were you at the Kyungbok Palace?” Again, I need to think of another alibi.

“Well, history is interesting.” I answered. “That’s why we decided to go to the Kyungbok Palace before returning to the dorms.” I laughed inside my mind. I’m becoming good at lying.

“But why are you there early in the morning? As far as I remember, you love sleeping.” Hyung chuckled.

I chuckled also. I do love sleeping.

“There are only few people visiting the Kyungbok Palace in the morning.” Baekhyun said before I could answer Hyung’s question.

Hyung nodded, “You’re right. It’s good that you were not seen by your fans, especially the crazy ones.”

After what Hyung said, it became silent. It’s a comfortable silence though. A few minutes passed and I noticed Baekhyun is fast asleep.

And before I could say anything else about Baekhyun sleeping, my thoughts suddenly busied me. I thought about the past three days. Going back to the past and returning to the present all feels so surreal.

Then I remembered Soonkyu. Her name may not be that feminine unlike the Korean names nowadays, but I find her name really cute. Not only cute, but her name also shows how intelligent and wise she is.

I fished my phone out of my pocket and turned it on. Since my phone has been turned off, I have to update the date and time settings.

“Hyung, what date is today?” I asked.

“January 6, 2014.”

“Oh, thanks.” So, it really had been three days.

After changing the setting of my phone, the van is surrounded with silence again. Baekhyun is sleeping, Hyung is focused on driving, and I am drowned in my thoughts again.

I remembered what Minjun told us back in the Kyungbok Palace when he returned with clothes in his hands.

Minjun said he’s not going to ask anything about our journey in the past while he handed us the clothes. He also said we should keep our mouths shut about this and better to keep it a secret.

Then Baekhyun asked him since we, from the present, were able to go back to the past.. Was it possible for people from the past to come here in the present?

Minjun's face turned very serious and he warned us.

“I know you met people from the past and maybe became friends with them. But you must not defy nature. If you disrupt the things from the past, I really think it’s a bad idea. So, you better forget those people and things that you encountered in the past. Be glad that you’re back to your own time and just continue with your life here.”

Forget? Easy to say but hard to do.

My train of thoughts was broken when Hyung spoke. “By the way, you should pack your things tonight because tomorrow you’re going to have the vacation that Mr. Kim Young Min promised.”

“Where are we headed for vacation? Europe?” I asked and Hyung nodded.

“For how many days?” I asked again.

“One week.”

“One week? Isn’t that too long? What about practices?” After SM Town Week, we started practicing for our comeback taht will happen in probably late April or early