“Seriously, nice place you have here.” Chanyeol was ogling the wide staircase that dominated the entryway of the Huang mansion.

“Yeah, I guess so.” Tao wasn’t focused so much on his guest’s reactions as he was at waiting for Kris to come storming down the stairs, rage towards their visitors fueling his actions.

“So, do your parents have a legitimate business or are they drug dealers or something?” Baekhyun asked, approaching one of the large paintings that hung in a gilded frame.

“They are not drug dealers.” Sehun still didn’t like Baekhyun.

“Sure about that?” Baekhyun , purposely trying to get a rise out of Sehun.

“Shut up Baekhyun.” Sehun strode over to Tao, “Looks like Luhan and Minseok are here.”

It was a minute later when there was a loud knock on the door. Tao opened it, shoeing the maid away as she scurried to answer it.

“Hi Luhan, Minseok.” Tao motioned for the newest arrivals to enter, as he stepped back he noticed that Luhan was sweating and his face was beet red. “Are you okay?”

“He doesn’t usually drive.” Minseok smiled “He was nervous.”

Luhan let his friend answer for him. He wasn’t as awed at Tao’s house as Chanyeol or Baekhyun, largely because he lived in a place that was very similar in terms of grandeur, but he was still recovering from his state of panic over the drive.

“Let’s go to my room.” Tao led the way, two very visible guests and two very invisible guests following behind him.

***

“Rebel wants to meet them.” Suho looked at the dog, who was standing in front of the closed door, his tail wagging back and forth in a blur. Rebel was a Rottweiler, an intimidating and burly brown and black dog. Despite his rough appearance, he was a sweet dog that would never hurt a fly.

“No he doesn’t. He just wants to bark at them.” Kris was still painting, still scowling. He had only gotten up a few minutes before to usher Rebel back into his room, now he was determined not to move until those psychopaths had left his house.

“You know…”Suho wanted to say ‘You know they have friends like me. You know they can see each other, you can see them. I heard Tao talking about it. You know that doesn’t mean you are all crazy. You know I can see Sehun…’. He choked his words back. Kris didn’t say anything, he didn’t want to.

Suho thought back. It had always been this way.

Eighteen Years Ago

“Big boys don’t have imaginary friends.” Kris stared at Suho, “So that means you aren’t my friend anymore.”

Suho stared up at his friend. Kris was already a full head taller than Suho, his height clearly above average when compared to other children his age. Suho on the other hand didn’t seem to grow that quickly.

“Then you are not my friend any more either.” Suho crossed his arms “I will be Tao’s friend.”

“Go ahead, do it. My Mom said I shouldn’t have friends like you anymore.” Kris watched Suho run towards where his little brother was playing alongside Sehun, Tao digging up the sand on the beach as Sehun watched and laughed at his antics. Suho rushed up to them, practically skipping as he crossed the sandy surface.

Kris was okay with this, because big boys didn’t need imaginary friends. That is what his Mom said, and Kris knew he was a big boy. He was big enough to not need Suho and his stupid friendship and funny words and-

Suho was laughing, giggling, as Tao threw sand at Sehun and Suho, tossing it up in the air like it was raining sand. Kris turned away. He didn’t need to play with them. They were babies after all.

“Kris, this is fun!” Suho called out, still laughing his head off.

Kris didn’t need to have fun. He was growing up. He was too old for-

A handful of sand hit Kris on the back. He whirled around and instantly forgot how he wasn’t supposed to be playing. He picked up some sand and threw it back at his little brother. They played like this for the rest of the afternoon, Kris ignoring the fact that he was supposed to be too old to think this was fun.

-----

It was like that on and off for the next several weeks. Kris would tell Suho he was too old to be his friend and then subsequently be into playing with Tao, Sehun, and Suho after he found the three of them having too much fun for his liking. The issue came to head one evening, when Kris had been particularly blunt with Suho, telling him he wished he would never see him again. A scolding from his parents, about maturing – not playing games with an imaginary person – had been the catalyst for his particularly harsh words.

“What if I was really gone forever?” Suho had asked. Kris told him it didn’t matter, it would be better that way.

And then Suho disappeared. Kris didn’t see him for weeks. He would look in on Tao and Sehun, secretly hoping to see Suho with them, but Suho was nowhere to be found.

Kris started school up in the fall and unlike previous years Suho wasn’t there to go with him. Kris sat by himself at lunch, he sat by himself on the playground. He didn’t make any friends at school, in fact he was even teased for his solitary ways. At night he would choke back tears and try to tell his Mom and Dad that everything was fine…even if it was apparent that things were less than fine.

And then it happened. One evening Suho came back. Kris was having a horrible nightmare, he was the laughing stock of the school. As he walked the halls, clutching his fire engine red backpack, the other kids pointed and laughed at him. Because he was alone, because no one would ever like him, because he was so stupid that he made his one friend go away.

Kris woke up crying. He woke up crying for Suho. And Suho was there.

“Where – wh-“ Kris sniffled, clutching his blankets around him “Did you go?”

“You said you didn’t want me anymore, that it was okay if I disappeared forever.” Suho was sniffling too. “So I hid. I- am-” Suho sniffled “sorry”

Kris realized then and there being a big boy was no fun if his friend was gone. “Can’t you stay? Just…it will be our secret?”

Suho looked at his friend, he nodded. Suho agreed, because he wanted his best friend back too. So began eighteen years of Suho hiding from everyone else other than Kris – because if he didn’t…he was afraid. Afraid that one day Kris would tell him to leave forever. And he feared that reality more than anything.

***

What began as a children’s fear of abandonment grew into a twisted view of what it meant to be friends – that Suho was somehow a blight on Kris’s sanity. Kris walked a foggy and twisted road, of believing Suho was a hallucination to believing that Suho was real, that he was real and everything was normal. But he internalized that fear- that his self-diagnosis of insanity was true, that if he was insane Tao was insane too. So he tried to ignore everything that did not fit into his self-diagnosis or his protest thereof (depending on his mood), he ignored and ignored and ignored and grew more conflicted as the years passed. And Suho stood with him, never going against their promise made so long ago.

Until now.

***

Tao’s room was spacious, which was not surprising given the dimensions of the other rooms of the house. The room was decorated in bold colors, red and purple and yellow decorative pieces clashing with the geometric patterns of the furniture. A large, four poster bed dominated one side of the long room, red hued leopard print bedding adding further to the loud décor of the bedroom.

“Which decade threw up in here?” Baekhyun mocked as he took in the room’s interior design “Because it looks like all of them.”

“I picked it out.” Sehun shot Baekhyun another eye roll “And it is obviously so far above your understanding of fashion and design it confuses your little brain.”

“Yah! You don’t get to mock him, that is my job!” Chanyeol pumped his fist on his chest “My job!”

“Hey, Minseok, look at this.” Luhan walked up to the soccer balls sitting on one of the triangular glass shelves “It is signed.”

“Of course it is signed. “ Tao walked up behind Luhan, admiring his own possession “Cool, huh?”

“Your older brother’s is rarer if we are talking in terms of value, but I guess that one will do.”

“Hah! Kris’s ball is nowhere-“Tao had started to respond before he listened. Really listened. He spun around suddenly, the blood draining from his face. Looking to his left he saw Sehun was standing with his mouth wide open in shock, staring at the newcomer.

“Who is the new guy?” Chanyeol asked, eyeing up the man. He was dressed well, a button down shirt and khakis giving him a neat if not somewhat uptight appearance.

“Are you..?” Tao wasn’t sure what to call him. He never thought he would ever have the chance to even ask him, to be honest.

“Suho. Your brother’s friend. Nice to meet you.”

“I WON!” Tao started jumping up and down like an over eager school girl “Sehun, I won!”

“Yah! How was I supposed to remember?!” Sehun was not happy, but he was surprised.

Tao would hug Suho, if he could any way.

“What is going on?” Minseok and Luhan watched as Tao continued rambling on excitedly about a bet and his older brother and something they couldn’t quite make out.

“Guys! Guys! This is my older brother’s FRIEND. As in FRIEND THAT NO ONE ELSE CAN SEE!” Tao’s voice had shifted into a high pitched squeal “Ha!”

“He is like us?” Baekhyun was suddenly interested, tearing his eyes away from inspecting the garish décor of Tao’s room.

Tao nodded, his head bobbing up and down furiously “Yep, and Sehun said he wasn’t real but I knew it I remembered him I totally remember Suho from when we were kids and then he disappeared and-”

“Breathe.” Luhan was afraid Tao would pass out “So you mean, you haven’t seen him in years?”

Sehun answered “Not since we were children, at least according to Tao. I don’t remember, clearly.”

“So where were you all this time?” Minseok asked. He was curious. Ever since he could remember he was with Luhan, he was never apart from his friend. But then again he wasn’t living with someone else like Tao, someone who could see him.

“I was with Kris.” Suho wasn’t going to hold back, not now. Now that he had made the choice, something so far against what Kris wanted, he was in too deep to be choosy in his revelations “We decided when we were young that I would remain hidden.”

“Does he know you are here?” Tao was suddenly a bit afraid. So the entire time Kris was so obsessive about Tao’s “problem” he had the same issue? What would happen now that Suho made himself known?

“I do now.”

All eyes turned towards the doorway, where Kris stood, his hands clenched at his sides.

***

Jongdae eyed the man suspiciously. The collar of the man’s long black trench coat was pulled up to hide his face, a hat pulled low to further disguise his features. He walked fast, like he knew exactly where he was going and needed to get there quickly. It was just like him to do that.

“Doctor Park!” Jongdae called out, smiling as he watched the man hurry up the village roads – which could be likened more to dirt paths than functional places to drive.

The man didn’t respond, he hurried his pace, clearly out of breath when he reached Jongdae “Yo- what kind of weird place are you kids holing up in?”

“What do you mean?” Jongdae looked around at the dingy streets and small rundown houses that surrounded them. “Smell the fresh air” He breathed in heavily.

“Funny kid, like you can smell.” Joon Hyung looked to his left, then his right, before turning around to survey what was behind him. “Where is Yixing?”

“Sleeping.” Jongdae pointed towards the house they were standing in front of “Like usual he worked himself to the bone today.”

“Poor sap.” Doctor Park shook his head at the door, as if conveying a measure of sympathy for the sleeping man “Yo- Is he going to the hearing?”

“Of course, do you even have to ask?” Jongdae was surprised to even hear the question, Yixing had never missed a court date yet.

“Look- they are after me now.” Doctor Park raised the brim on his hat so his eyes were fully visible. Jongdae saw seriousness, maybe even fear, in the older man’s gaze “ is about to go down. I need you to make sure he is ready.”

“What do I have to do?”  Jongdae would help Doctor Park any way he could. It was always difficult doing so, of course, because he couldn’t tell Yixing about it. But still, he knew it was the right thing to do.

“Make sure he goes through the portal.”

“The..p..or..tal?” Jongdae said it slowly, like he wasn’t quite sure he had heard the Doctor correctly.

***

Kris ate another of the tiny sandwiches. His parents were insistent on snacks for guests, no matter if the guests were important business partners or their son’s school friends. The maid had brought in a tray of tiny sandwiches, which were currently being devoured by Kris, Chanyeol, Luhan, and Tao.

“So now you are cool with this?” Chanyheol asked, his mouth full.

“I don’t have a choice, do I?” Kris took another sandwich off of the platter, raising his eyebrows at Suho.

“But you aren’t mad…”Tao was still shocked that Kris had so willingly accepted Suho’s (he was also ecstatic he remembered Suho’s name, it was part of his bet with Sehun) revelation.

Kris stared at the floor for a moment. No, he was mad. He was pissed. He had been mad since he let Rebel outside for a bathroom break, Suho at his side, and walked back into the house with Rebel and without Suho. He knew then what had happened. He had guessed it was a long time coming.

Suho had never left Kris’s room, hid himself well when over the years Tao entered the room (as rare as that was). Suho had remained Kris’s secret friend for years. He had always been there, only for Kris. And he never complained, loyal, faithful- that was Suho. Kris had taunted him, accused him of being a dream he had conjured up – Kris had ridiculed him, but he was always there. Suho was a gft…that Kris had never appreciated as much as he should have.

Kris was pissed… but he was also happy. Because it suddenly felt like Suho had done something Kris should have done long ago. Pushed the idea that insanity was Suho’s origin out of Kris’s mind, pushed the idea that everything was a hazy mess of mental confusion and imagination. Suho, had, in effect set them both free.

“I am starting to….Suho is real.” Kris couldn’t verbalize what he was thinking in any other way. While Tao had always believed in Sehun, Kris had scoffed at Suho. He owed Suho an apology – a huge one.

“It’s okay.” Suho smiled, “I’m over it. You already made it up to me, by coming in here and eating these adorable tiny sandwiches.”

“Aren’t they cute?” Luhan said under his breath, more to let Minseok know his opinion than to agree with Suho.

“Now that we have that super awkward introduction out of the way, I think it is time we get down to business.” Chanyeol clasped his hands, staring at the empty plate of sandwiches. He had just grabbed the last one, swallowing it in one bite “Doctor Park, that hippy -”

“Skater punk.” Sehun corrected Chanyeol.

“Burnout, whatever “Chanyeol continued rambling on “is missing. Which wouldn’t bother me except for the fact he is the only one other than us” Chanyeol waved his arms around the room, as if to gather all of them into a whirlwind “that can see EVERYONE here. So I think that must have some kind of meaning. And he mentioned red shifts.”

Luhan and Minseok nodded in tandem, Luhan asking “So is that a thing? I mean, a thing that would have anything to do with us? Doctor Park didn’t really make any sense.”

“Never fear! Chanyeol has done some research!” Chanyeol pulled a pack of papers from the front pocket of his dark blue hoodie. He removed the paper clip and began handing them out to everyone gathered.

“Is this some kind of Kpop group name or…”Tao stared at the paper in his hand, trying to make sense of the symbols at the top of the page. They were some kind of mathamatical formula.

“No, this is the formula for a redshift.” Chanyeol looked a bit smug as he continued “So what is a redshift folks? Well, it refers to what happens when an object moves further away from us.” Chanyeol paused, making sure everyone was still listening “When an object moves away from a source the light from that object increases in wavelength- shifting towards the red end of the light spectrum.”

“I…”Kris looked a bit confused.

“Think about a police car-“Chanyeol paused as Baekhyun made a siren noise “As the siren approaches the sound gets louder, as it moves away the sound fades. That is because the wavelength lengthens. It redshifts.”

“So we are talking about sound?” Sehun cocked his head, trying to take in what Chanyeol was explaining.

“It can be sound or light. Or distance- because Red shifting happens in the universe. Like that is how they figured out the universe is expanding. Because the wavelengths get longer – they shift into the red end of the spectrum.”

“How did they figure that out?” Minseok was curious.

“Well...I don’t know exactly but they did.” Chanyeol smiled “See, I did my homework.”

“But how does that explain Minseok?” Luhan was completely and totally lost.

“I didn’t say I understood that part! I just googled Red Shift, okay.” Chanyeol frowned “Hey, it is better than what you guys did!”

“I guess I will give you that.” Luhan looked around the room, “Maybe it would help if we see if we have anything in common. I mean, other than the fact we can see each other.”

“Good idea!” Tao was just happy that the science talk was over. He hated science. “Sehun doesn’t sleep.”

“Okay, that’s a good one. Do you guys sleep?” Kris looked around the room, seeing four heads shaking.

“I know! When do you guys remember meeting each other? Minseok has been with me since..” Luhan looked up, thinking.

“Hey! You don’t remember...” Minseok , like they were a married couple and Luhan had forgotten their anniversary or something “We have been together twenty two years.”

Suho thought back, that timeframe made sense “Us too.”

“He was pretty much always with me…whether I liked it or not.” Tao and Sehun stuck their tongues out at each other, before grinning. It was clear that these two had essentially never been apart.

“I would say twenty two years for us too. Weird.” Chanyeol was amazed. At least this was something, even if it wasn’t as cool as his science facts.

A knock interrupted the group’s comparative discussion.

“Come in.” Tao guessed it had to be one of the servants, his parents were gone for a few days and they were not expecting any other visitors.

Sure enough a maid brought in a package “A man dropped this off here for you.”

Tao took the package, shaking it. “Do you guys mind if I open it?”

“Go ahead, I am intrigued. We can’t rule anything out any more.” Chanyeol motioned for Tao to proceed.

A few rips of the brown paper and a small metal box was revealed. It had rust on the sides and it had clearly been painted with cheap gray paint. Tao tried to open the metal box, before he noticed the lock. Trying to tug the lid off seemed impossible. He handed the box to Kris, who also met with zero success at opening the container.

“Who would send me a locked box?” Tao grabbed the box back from Kris and held the thing up, looking at it from all sides to see if there was a way to open it.

“Wait, there is a note.” Suho pointed towards the slip of paper that was sticking out of the brown wrapping paper, since discarded on the coffee table.

Luhan picked it up, reading slowly-

Seoul Southern District Courthouse. 10:00 AM February 13^th, 2015. Courtroom 2. Be there brothers- PJH

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a/n- Thank you for everyone who is reading, subbing, and commenting. Extra special thank you to those you have already upvoted! I truly appreciate it. Starting this fic out I wasn’t sure what the reception would be, I truly appreciate your support!

Random- Doctor Park Joon Hyung is hella fun to write! And yes, I am referring to Park Joon Hyung from G.O.D. J

So…theories? This is a sci fi/fantasy story at heart – and is also a super powers au! (if you can imagine that after the first four chapters)! Obviously there is a whole lot of plot left to go (I wasn’t lying when I said this is shaping up to be a loooong fic). Let me know what you like, hate, love. I appreciate the feedback! Cheers!