Present Day

“So packing, huh?” Fei asks while looking at Yue who is busily pulling clothes out of her closet and thowing them into her suitcase.

“Yup! This is so exciting! I can’t believe it! What are the odds that I would’ve gotten chosen?” Yue exclaims excitedly.

“1 in 2.5 million” Fei replies casually. “Have you decided which city you want to go with them to?”

“I was thinking of some big famous city like Shanghai, but then I thought it would be fun to go to a slightly smaller city like Hangzhou.” Yue says. “I heard it is completely gorgeous! Especially West Lake…it’s supposedly the incarnation of one of the most beautiful woman in Chinese history.”

“Oh, yeah! I’ve been to Hangzhou.” Fei says, finally expressing some emotion. “It is beautiful. You have to go West Lake and check out the ancient temples, three moonlight pond, and flower gardens.”

“Well, it’s settled then!” Yue says happily.

“When do you leave?” Fei asks.

“They didn’t give me much time. They gave me until tomorrow to get to Beijing.” Yue answers. “They must be busy, so I have to go along with their schedule. At least it only takes 5 hours by high speed rail.”

“Yeah, only 5 hours.” Fei grins. “You’ll be too excited to even feel bored anyways.”

The Next Morning

“Well, I’ll see you in a week!” Yue shouts as she waves goodbye to Fei.

“Have fun!” Fei shouts back.

After taking the taxi down to the train station, Yue prepares to board the train. As she looks around the station she sees a lot of girls watching EXO music videos on their phones and ipads. She also hears girls squealing and talking about how cute TFboys is. Wow, EXO and TFboys are sure popular in China.

When her train finally arrives, she excitedly drags her suitcase and boards the train. When she gets to her seat, she sees that the girl sitting next to her is watching a TFboys interview.

“Hi, you’re a fan of TFboys?” Yue asks hoping to strike a conversation and potentially make a new friend.

The girl looks up and smiles. “Yeah, I’ve been a fan of them ever since they debuted.”

“Wow, I just found out about them and I’m really liking them so far.” Yue says.

“Really! That’s great!” The girl smiles again. “I’m just disappointed that there isn’t much information about those boys.” She adds.

“What do you mean?” Yue asks curiously.

“Well, usually fans can uncover information about idols before they debuted. Like stuff about where they went to school or find people who used to know them before they were famous. But there’s nothing about TFboys. It’s like they appeared out of nowhere and just shot to fame.” She explains. “That’s why I’m watching all of their interviews and variety shows and seeing if there are any clues.” The girl goes back to watching her video.

That is strange. Yue thinks to herself.

The train starts to move, at first slowly, but then faster and faster. The buildings of the city and the trees start flying by, and the train finally reaches full speed at 250 mph.

Yue puts in her earbuds and starts listening to music. At one point, the train is traveling across a really beautiful region of China where the landscape changes from flat grasslands to a mountainous region with lakes and waterfalls. During that transition, the song that plays on Yue’s ipod is SNSD’s “All My Love is For You”, and it was the perfect song for the entire train riding experience.

“My reflection was in the window of the train I boarded in the new town.

My eyes seemed uneasy.

You taught me not to forget my true self

I wonder if it’s shining now

The flowing scenery made me take a deep breath.

Looking up at the sky’s horizon

I hear your voice

Even if you leave me far away, if I close my eyes, your heart will be near

All my love is for you”

…

What felt like just a few hours later, a woman’s voice announces on the intercom that they were arriving in Beijing. Yue starts to get ready to get off the train. When she finally walks to the Beijing station waiting area, she sees a lot of people holding up signs of the names of the people they were picking up.

She looks around and finally sees a man in a suit holding a sign with her name written on it. The man confirms that she is the person he was picking up and leads her over to a brand new black car. This is just like those rich people cars I see in the Korean dramas. Yue thinks to herself with a giggle.

Driving through downtown Beijing was not very pleasant. The traffic was horrible, but Yue was relieved when the diver told her they had reached EXO’s dorm.

EXO’s apartment building was very beautiful and tall compared to the other buildings in Beijing that looked a bit on the shabby side. All the rooms had balconies with clean and shiny glass windows, and EXO’s room was on the 12^th floor.

When Yue finally reached the door, she nervously rings the doorbell.

“Welcome” Lay says with a smile.

“Finally!” Tao says letting out a sigh. “Do you know how hard it was for us to get you here?”

“What do you mean?” Yue asks, not knowing the real reason why the 3 EXO members needed her.

“Don’t listen to him,” Luhan says, shoving Tao aside. “We’re very happy to see you” He smiles.

“Well, I’m flattered.” Yue laughs. “I swear you guys don’t treat me like a fan at all. You do realize that I’m secretly a crazy fangirl right?”

“You contain your fangirling feelings quite well” Lay compliments.

“Haha, thanks” Yue replies. “So I’ve already thought of the city I would like to go to!” Yue says excitedly.

“So about that…” Luhan starts. “We kind of need your help, and the explanation will take a while, so you might want to sit down.”

Tao pats the seat next to him signaling for Yue to sit next to him. When Yue is seated, Luhan begins the long story of TFboys coming from a future timeline…

When Luhan finishes, Yue is silent for a good 20 minutes. The 3 EXO members are intently waiting for her response.

“So…” Luhan finally begins to say. “There should be a way to get them back right?”

Yue looks at Luhan blankly. “And you guys know how….?” Yue trails off.

“Actually, we were hoping you would know” Lay says with a nervous laugh.

Yue nods her head. “Ok, so you guys thought I could just suddenly build a time machine. Ha!” She laughs it off. “Yeah….nope. I’ve got nothing. We’re not even close to even be able to manipulate time for a few seconds, let alone build a freaking TIME MACHINE!”

“So, if there’s no way to get them back, they’re just stuck here, right?” Tao asks.

“Yeah, but they’ll probably miss their parents…” Lay trails off.

“We are their parents, Lay. You haven’t forgotten already have you?” Luhan replies.

“I’m meant their REAL parents” Lay responds. “The version of me in the other timeline isn’t the real me in this timeline…is it?”

“That can be debatable. It depends on what you consider the “real” you to be.” Yue replies. “If you consider the “real” you to be the combination of all the versions of yourself in all of the timelines, then yes, Qian Xi’s father is you. But if you see the versions of you in the different timelines as separate entities, then, no, he’s not the real you.”

“Ok, whatever. I’m sure it’s the same either way.” Tao butts in. “The problem here is that all three of us can’t marry you…I mean, we can but….uuuuugh, I can’t even work this out.”

“As crazy as this sounds, I don’t think that’s the biggest issue here.” Yue starts to explain as the 3 EXO members all turn to look at her. “Those 3 kids can’t exist indefinitely in this timeline. If they don’t go back….I don’t know…they’ll probably disappear and never have existed at all.”

“WHAT!?!?” Luhan, Lay, and Tao all shout together.

“So how long do they have before that happens?” Luhan asks urgently.

“I don’t know for sure, but if I had to guess, it would be until the date they were born in the other timeline” Yue replies in deep thought.

“Oh yeah, that would make sense because of the paradox…” Lay trails off.

“So, jumping ahead here, we can only save one of them..?” Luhan starts to ask.

“That’s IF I marry one of you guys…” Yue’s cheeks turn slightly pink. “But, I should first try my hardest to see if I can build a time machine within the next 5 years or so.” She quickly adds. “Hold on, I’m going to make a call to the lab and see how the experiments are coming along.” Yue steps out to the balcony overlooking the city of Beijing.

 When she’s out of the room…

“Well then, looks like there’s only hope for Xiao Kai” Tao says confidently.

“How are you so sure she’ll choose you?” Luhan challenges.

“Yeah, it could be any one of us” Lay adds.

“If you guys want to make this a challenge, then you’re on” Tao replies.