“And it happened just like that?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

 

After crying, Tao fainted, and so he was brought to the infirmary. When he woke up, all the other members were surrounding him, and they told everyone what happened.

 

 

“Kris hyung has been good to us, yet…”

 

 

All of them went silent. Losing someone important is not easy. They comforted each other. Saying sorry isn’t the thing that helps you when you’re feeling down. The only thing that helps is moving on, moving forward.

 

 

And they did just that.

 

 

“Come on, guys, Yifan doesn’t want us to be sad because he left. If there’s anything he wants to happen, I’m pretty sure he wants us to be happy like always, right?” Tao said with a weak smile on his face.

 

“He sure does,” Suho said. Among all the members, Suho is the one who easily coped up with this, because he experienced it once with Lay. Nothing good will come if we’ll just sulk over what happened. We’re supposed to have the strength to move on and continue to fight for what we believe. We should fight for Kris, because he didn’t disappear for nothing.

 

“Should we shout our slogan for a little motivation?” Chanyeol asked with a smile.

 

“Come on!” Baekhyun shouted excitedly and counted, “1, 2, and 3!”

 

“EXO SARANGHAJA!”

 

 

**

 

 

Luhan still felt sad about another member leaving. Of course, as usual, he went to his comfort place: the rooftop. When he held the doorknob, he remembered what he witnessed the last time: D.O punching Kai to death.

 

 

He held the doorknob still, feeling if there is someone behind the door who’s in pain. But no, he heard something other than grunts, he heard music.

 

 

He opened the door and saw Kai dancing to the beat. He was so focused he didn’t notice his hyung’s presence. What a good dancer, Luhan thought.

 

 

Kai finished the song and breathed heavily, one after another. Luhan took this as an opportunity to approach him.

 

 

“Someone’s good in dancing,” Luhan complemented. Kai’s eyes became wide after realizing what he meant.

 

“Y-You saw?” He asked the obvious.

 

“I wouldn’t know if I didn’t, right?” Kai rolled his eyes at his hyung’s lame joke, but Luhan laughed nonetheless.

 

 

Luhan handed Kai a bottle of water to drink, and the younger one accepted gratefully. He wanted to talk to Kai about what happened, but he controlled himself and chose other topics first.

 

 

“Kai, what’s your story?” Somehow Luhan had been used to talking about someone’s life...and someone’s death.

 

“Well...you saw me dancing right? I was a dancer when I was alive. Many people liked my performances back then. But I have this friend, Lee Taemin.”

 

“You were really close with him?” Luhan asked.

 

“Well...you could say that. We were really close back then. We’re like brothers. He’s also a dancer, so that bonded us together. I don’t have a brother in real life, you see. I was the only child, so I treasured him the most, hyung. But then one night...”

 

 

“Kai-ya, let me just get my car and let’s go to the club.”

 

“Okay, Taemin-ah. I’ll wait here.”

 

 

As I was waiting, I saw his car rushing towards me. He went too fast.

 

 

“Hey, slow down!”

 

 

But even if I tried to get out of the way, it’s no use. I saw him as he steered his car towards me.

 

 

He killed me.

 

 

“Serves you right, Kai. I should be the only one that people praise. Now you’re gone.”

 

 

“He killed me, hyung. He really killed me.” Kai let out a bitter laugh. “I thought...I really treated him as a brother, now this happened. I died.” And suddenly Kai’s tears were out. Luhan suddenly felt guilty. Why do I always make people cry?

 

 Luhan immediately thought of another topic. Since Luhan had been meaning to ask about what he saw the other day, he asked Kai about it.

 

“Kai, are you close with D.O?” He asked, not directly because he knows that the younger one will get uncomfortable and just lie to him. Good thing that got Kai’s attention and he stopped crying.

 

“You can say that,” Kai replied casually.

 

“How often are you together?” Luhan asked, still pushing aside his urge to ask Kai directly.

 

“Not too always, but not that seldom either. Why are you asking?” Kai felt something wrong with Luhan. He suddenly felt nervous about it.

 

“Does he hurt you?” And that’s the question that snapped Kai and his thoughts.

 

 

Kai looked at Luhan with his eyes looking lost. He didn’t know how to answer that question. Should I tell him our secret or not?

 

 

And he chose the former.

 

 

“He hurts me, hyung. He hurts me a lot,” Kai almost whispered. He bowed his head and stayed silent for a while. Luhan patted his back to give some comfort, just like how a good hyung should do.

 

“He always tortures me, despite of me doing nothing. I’m his target every time he wants to hurt someone. I don’t even know why, because everyone knows he is the role model of a good student, and he is always quiet and innocent. But I do know one thing: he hypnotizes me for me to agree to him. And it’s too late when I realize that I’ve been used again…” Kai tried not to cry, but his tear ducts did otherwise. He immediately wiped his tears off, and flashed a bright smile.

 

“Promise me, hyung, to not tell this to anyone, even Minseok hyung, your best friend.”

 

“I promise…” Luhan just agreed.

 

So that’s what happened. Why is D.O hurting him, then?

 

 

“I think we should head back to the secret room, they might be looking for us.” They both stood up and when they turned to the door, they saw someone else instead.

 

“D.O hyung…”

 

 

D.O looked so mad. Without any hesitations, he walked closer to the two. Kai stepped back, but Luhan held his wrist. No, we must fight against this monster.

 

 

D.O stood in front of them, and flashed an evil smile and looked at them straight into the eyes.

 

 

“Sleep, little ones. Sleep and rest in my arms.” D.O’s smile got wider, and then he snapped his fingers. Luhan and Kai fell to the ground and fell asleep. Success, he thought.

 

 

D.O succeeded in hypnotizing both of them. All this time, he had built a secret room somewhere in school for him to capture, hide, and hurt people. He brought the two inside that room and locked them up.

 

 

I told you not to tell anyone, now look what you’ve gotten yourself into.

 

 

**

 

 

Luhan woke up as he felt the cold floor beneath him. He looked at his side and saw Kai. Thankfully, he was not alone.

 

 

“Kai! Kai! Wake up!” He nudged the younger one, and Kai woke up with groggy eyes.

 

“Hyung, we were hypnotized. I felt it coming, but I can’t fight against it. I’m sorry.”

 

“It’s okay. We can’t do anything about that now.” Luhan looked around and looked for a way to get out. He saw a small window, and he immediately knew that they could fit just right. But there’s a problem: the window’s too high to reach.

 

“Hyung, there are tree branches here under the table, I think we can use them to make an improvised ladder,” Kai suggested.

 

 

In no time, a ladder was made up of the thick branches that were left. How did they even get there? Both of them thought.

 

 

As soon as they got out of the room they’ve been jailed for a while, they noticed something about the surroundings.

 

 

“Why is it so quiet?” Luhan asked to no one in particular. He took a glance at Kai and saw that Kai was looking somewhere else with his pupils shaking in fear. His eyes flew to the direction that Kai was looking at, and he was so shocked by what he saw.

 

 

They saw all of the students lying on the ground, and blood splattered all around.

 

 

And D.O was the only one standing alive.

 

 

“He’s holding a knife…” Kai whispered.

 

“Let’s go,” Luhan said with determination.

 

“Are you kidding? We could die there!”

 

“Shut it, Kai. We’re dead anyway. Don’t you want D.O to stop this madness as well?”

 

 

Kai thought about all the things that happened: the times D.O was hurting him, the times him waking up and not knowing what happened, and the times his innocence was all over taken by D.O.

 

 

“Come on,” Kai declared.

 

 

Both of them ran towards the battlefield, and when they approached D.O, they immediately noticed some of the people that were lying on the ground: the other members. They were all injured, and almost all of them are unconscious.

 

 

Almost, because Suho had his eyes open, but D.O didn’t notice that.

 

 

“Oh, you two made it out safely? Good for you, then.”

 

 

Luhan approached D.O to hurt him because of his anger, but he stopped when D.O grabbed someone among all the people: Sehun.

 

 

“I’ll hurt him if you come near!” D.O warned. Kai and Luhan stood still, not knowing what to do.

 

“D.O, why are you doing this? Stop this madness of yours! You’re better than this!” Luhan tried to persuade with a desperate look on his eyes. His eyes went from D.O’s to Sehun’s, and his mind went blank.

 

“You’re not the D.O hyung I knew now.” Kai’s words made D.O stop. He dropped Sehun to the ground and smirked.

 

“I’m not? I’m not the D.O you knew? Hah! All my life I’ve been made to pretend to be someone, getting nothing in return. And even in this afterlife, this is what I get?” Luhan’s and Kai’s eyebrows creased. What is he talking about?

 

“You know what? When I was alive, I had a twin brother. In both of us, he is the better one. We do the same things, wear the same clothes, sleep in the same room, but my parents liked him better. I can do things as much as him, but my parents would scold me for being a copycat of my brother. He had many achievements, but when he became sick, things turned upside down.”

 

“That’s when I had the spotlight to myself. They made me to pretend to be him, and continue with life as him. I was a kid; I didn’t know that they were using me. I achieved better, but when I was about to die, I realized something. The one dying isn’t me. It was my brother.”

 

“It was him. It was him, because I haven’t had a chance to be myself. For them, it was him…”

 

 

D.O stopped when he felt someone’ arms wrapping around him.

 

 

“No! It was you! It was you who died. It was you whom I met in this world. It was you who became a member of EXO. It was you who confessed your false feelings to Sehun for the plan against him. It was you who made your parents proud. It was you. It was you, D.O hyung…” Kai cried in D.O’s shoulders.

 

“You know what, hyung? When I was alive, I was the only child. But I had this friend that I treated like a brother, but he killed me in return. You...you have a real brother. Don’t be like that. Even though things happened, I know...” Kai sniffed while crying. “I know he loved you very much. Don’t blame anyone, even yourself. Now that you can be who you really are. Don’t do this...”

 

 

D.O came to a complete stop. He felt himself calming, and realizing his own worth. He realized that everything he did was useless. He shouldn’t have done this. His eyes wandered to the students. His eyes widened.

 

 

He looked at Kai again.

 

 

“It was me?” He asked Kai.

 

“It was you. It was you who I am hugging right now, not your brother. It has always been you.”

 

 

Just then the rainclouds went away and the sun shined. D.O smiled at the weather’s sudden change. He looked at the sun, and looked at the face in front of him. Kai immediately smiled with the relieving look on D.O’s face.

 

 

“You’re right. It was me.”