It hadn’t occurred to Lay that returning to a different timeline might’ve meant him living in the heart of South Korean even though he didn’t speak any Korean. But here he was, lost in Seoul with no way of communicating with anyone, not even his friends since his phone was in Korean and he had no idea how to change the language setting. Leaving a cozy apartment that was supposedly his, he aimlessly traveled around, looking for a clue of some-sort to tell him where he was and where he should go. He passes countless ‘Chinese’ restaurants but all of them were just mixed Korean-Chinese, speaking a language he didn’t know. Deciding all his efforts were futile, Lay flung himself onto his stomach on a park bench.

“Excuse me, are you lost?” A voice asked behind him.

“Yeah, I somehow got stuck in the city where no one speaks my language… except you,” He turned around to see a tall Chinese man in a dark grey suit. “Wait, I recognize you, you’re one of the Ancestor Titans, aren’t you.”

“My name is Zhou Mi, come with me to get some coffee. I have some stuff I need to explain to you.”

***

“So let me get this straight, this is the life I would’ve been living if I’d never been born a Titan and if I don’t meet up with the rest of my friends by the time the tattoo on the back of my hand fades, I’ll never remember them again?’

“Exactly. That is you ‘Titan symbol’ and since you were the Titan of Healing, it’s a unicorn, just like Donghae used to have.”

“Donghae?”

“He was the Titan of Healing before you,” Zhou Mi smiled, “he was always really nice and like to goof off with Eunhyuk. I bet they’re still together to this day.”

“So, now that you guys aren’t Titans anymore, what do you do with yourselves?” Lay asked.

Zhou Mi furrowed his brow, “That’s a good question,” he smirked, “I guess we’ve all learned to just be normal again.”

“Wait, how did you guys lose your powers? And how are you still alive? I don’t get it…” he slummed back in his chair, running his hand through his neatly trimmed bangs.

Rushing through the coffee shop door, a familiar face grabbed the seat next to Zhou Mi, almost falling over in the process. “I’ve got good news and bad news. The kids are all in Korea, Kangin just confirmed it.”

“The kids?” Lay blinked, still trying to figure out who this person was.

“Oh, hi there. I almost didn’t recognize you, it’s good to see you again,” he held out his hand. “Sungmin: Ancestor Titan of Telekinesis.”

“So what’s the bad news?”

“Uh, some of us didn’t get the memo and are leading them astray…”

“What?” Zhou Mi and and Lay asked simultaneously, the prior asking with more intensity. “I don’t understand, what’s going on?” Lay looked at both of them.

“Okay, uh, so Mimi already told you about how you have to gather at one place if you ever want to remember your friends again, right? Well, we, the Ancestor Titans, agreed that’d we help you guys out and lead you all to one place because we wanted you to remember who you were. Some people obviously didn’t agree and are, uh, keeping some of your friends captive or telling them false information. Oh and by the way, Siwon was the one responsible for holding on to the stones, who the hell put him in charge of that?! God, this all is giving me such a headache,” Shungmin rubbed his temples and let out a long exhale.

“Calm down, it’ll be okay. We’ll get the stones back and convince the others to let them go. Relax, we still have like,” Zhou Mi glanced at the back out Lay’s hand, “maybe eight or nine days left.”

“NINE DAYS ISN’T AS MUCH TIME AS YOU THINK IT IS!” Sungmin dropped his head to the table.

“What stones are you guys talking about?”

“Oh, we should probably explain that too. The best way to put it is, those are the stones that are holding most of your powers right now and you’ll notice that your memory will probably start to become foggy. If you don’t all come together and place your Titan Crest Stones next to each other, the stones will permanently harden, sealing away your powers AND your memories forever,” Zhou Mi calmly explained while the other elder looked like he was about to have a panic attack.

“Oh geez. This is so much more complex than I thought… how do you guys know all of this stuff?”

“Remember when you asked how we lost our powers? Well, I bet you can guess how.”

Lay stood up, “You’ve been through this before! That makes sense why you’d want to help us, you want to make sure we remember each other like you guys do.” The pieces were finally clicking together.

“Bingo. Well, some of us want to help you. There are a few select people who are opposed to it because they think that us remembering was a mistake, so they don’t want you to. Obviously Siwon was against it, Hangkyung defiantly, Ryeowook, Yesung-because Wookie is against it, and Kyu, even though I tried so hard to convince him otherwise,” Sungmin frowned.

“That’d be six and six, wouldn’t it? So how did you ultimately decide what to do?” Lay looked to Sungmin.

“The same we always solve really difficult questions that determine the fate of the world and countless lives,” he grinned, “rock, paper, scissors~”

“The six against you guys getting your memories back are just -hurt they lost,” Zhou Mi laughed.

              Another face entered the store, the Ancestor Titans welcoming him over to their table. They eagerly looked at him then at Lay. “Well?”

“He doesn’t remember me, you can tell by his expression.”

“Lay, or Yixing in this timeline, this is Donghae, the Titan of Healing prior to your existence,” Sungmin introduced them.

“Oh yeah, now I remember, we had a long talk on the beach while everyone else was fighting because we knew we couldn’t hurt each other, since we’d just heal ourselves,” Lay greeted the older, slightly hesitant because, like Zhou Mi said, the memory wasn’t clear. Usually Lay had no problem remembering people but what they were saying must be the truth, he was losing his memories. He defiantly didn’t want to forget his friends, and he defiantly didn’t want to forget Suho.

              The group instructed Lay that, since he was already in Seoul, he was to wait for the others to arrive. They were supposed to meet up at Namsan Tower, the location of Coliseum 2 in their previous timeline, when everyone arrived, hoping everyone would be able to.

Lay became absorbed in his own thoughts while the three Ancestor Titans were discussing minor things. He thought about how different his life would’ve turned out had he’d never been born cursed. He suffered over eight years being locked in an apartment crammed with way too many people, only being let outside every other weekend. He was even allowed to finish his schooling because people thought he was a monster, when he wasn’t. He knew he could’ve saved so many lives and help people, but due to the reputation of being a Titan, he never lived his dream. He never experienced high school and it was way too late in the game to even consider collage.

Sure, Lay got to meet Suho, the man that made him happiest, but had he never been a Titan, he wouldn’t ever worry about losing him because he would have never met him. He wouldn’t have had to pretend to die in front of his lover, never had to deal with the tension and depression of living cooped up, never feel such a deep hatred even though he didn’t do anything wrong, and, most of all, never had to miss Suho like he did now. Is it better to fall in love and feel pain seemingly unbearable or never experience love and avoid the suffering and longing that always seems to come with it.

“Maybe we should just let our memories fade away…”