I won't deny that this moment isn't as vivid as it was in my dreams. When I sense Tao's absence and longing, when I sense Kairi saem's absence and fear, when I sense Woohyun's absence and anger.... Absence is not alone. Whenever we miss someone's presence, something else tags along. 

                                                                                                          NICOLE

“Are you sure that’s them?”

I removed the binoculars from my eyes and sighed in relief. The vast sparseness of the area reminded me of the time General Lee had taken over the nuke power of North Korea, automatically engulfing a military threat under his power and making him the next person America had to be wary of. Since the construction and administration of Paragon though, Pyongyang had become a body corrupt with dismembered identities and incomplete memories. Everything was half-and-half while Paragon filled itself to the brim. It was the typical side effect and Pyongyang was no exception.

My memory was still stinging at the sight of the little villages we had passed through on our way to their meeting point with the International Court. We were sure that we wouldn’t be ratted out. The underprivileged of a totalitarian regime were the trustworthiest ones. They were the ones still able to deduce what humanity looked like, what real human warmth smelt of, what the fear of loss did to someone’s eyes. As expected, the villagers said nothing and let our jeeps quietly pass through. No surveillance cameras, and those suspected shut down and diverted by Dongwoo, who had forged an image of a desert area into the screens of a control room distant from where they were.

“Can I borrow that?” Chunji asked. I nodded and handed him the binoculars. He shook his head and smirked.

“I meant the tabulet,” he snickered. Of course he could see. I gave an embarrassed grimace and handed it to him. He began typing something at the speed of light, his eyes set on the line of jeeps and tanks 500 metres away.

“Alright then,” he said. I glanced over his shoulder, finding familiar symbols scattered on the screen.

“Is that—”

Dongwoo answered my question.

“That’s Morse code bro!” he grinned. Chunji smiled and lifted it up to where their accomplices stood. I heard a familiar voice scoff in skepticism.

“I doubt they have a super-vision from that side,” Krystal muttered. Baekho narrowed his eyes towards the horizon and chuckled, sharing some secret with Chunji who chuckled back.

“I feel exposed.”

“Because we are.”

I twisted my lips and glared at Baekhyun, who simply shrugged. From my peripheral glance, I saw Woohyun across the street with Zelo and Jiyong. They were in one of the busiest blocks in Central Paragon and I had no idea why we weren’t just breaking through the General’s office building and taking him down.

“We need Avalon,” Woohyun’s voice echoed in my memory, just before we got off our vehicles and strode in through the streets like regular citizens. “Remember?”

“Patient Kairi,” Chanyeol muttered. “I’m almost done.”

Chanyeol was like the Dongwoo of EXO. For the past half an hour, our group had been split into random partners of twos and threes and from the corner of my eye, I would recognize a face and try to suppress any expression of excitement or shock. While Baekhyun and I pretended to be a boring college couple, Chanyeol was quietly inserting a cyber-social virus.

“Happy Virus?” I grinned at the username. “Really?”

“I love puns,” the hacker grinned back, his teeth shining through his hooded face.

“How long?” Baekhyun asked. He glanced at another group, this time of Hyoyeon and SungGyu. They were supposed to be buskers but Hyoyeon’s death-stare was making it difficult for passersby to be enamoured by the man’s melodic voice.

“That song will never be the same again,” I muttered, recognizing it as a classic rock ballad I used to listen to a lot. 

“Chanyeol?”

“Two minutes Bacon… ow!” Chanyeol rubbed his head with one hand while he used his ultra-long fingers to type something on the screen. Seconds later, his eyes became more focused and I tried ignoring that mini-spark in his eyes. That must have been a delusion, right? But they’re EXO, a voice in my head whispered. Chanyeol seemed to have heard my thoughts for he smirked and the fire was alight again.

“Focus Chanyeol,” Baekhyun whispered. The hooded head nodded like it was bobbing to music and suddenly, a smile broke through. He shifted the screen so my fake boyfriend and I could see it; I soon realized that wasn’t necessary. All I had to do was look around.

Chaos had erupted already. College students, part-time workers, salarymen, and lawyers out on lunch --- everyone had their phones beeping. The video from the orphanages that Paragon had tried shutting down had gone viral again and somehow, Chanyeol had connected it to the international web circuit as well. On Facebook, there was documented proof of cancer-stricken kids not being treated due to internal medical lobbying by the government. A picture of Jessica Jung Henney, a famous former Paragon agent turned feminist activist, was taken while she walked out of the International Court office in Paris. One of the most provoking images however was of Lee Joon hanging around with me just days before I ‘eloped’. The caption below the picture was ‘“We had broken up three months earlier”. Someone lost his sense of time. What’s the truth Paragon?’ Several people had already commented and the power behind the reaction was a special program that Dongwoo and Chanyeol had incorporated with help from international hackers group Anonymous --- no one would be able to trace the readers and commenters’ whereabouts.

“Isn’t this dangerous?” I heard a woman ask her friend. The friend in turn seemed to have typed down something and with a satisfactory smile replied, “Not anymore. I knew there was something funny about the whole Kairi issue, my friend studied with her and she was really nice and Joon was such an ---”

“Happy?” Baekhyun said, and I found out that I had a smile on my face. I sighed and shook my head, my eyes catching a glimpse of Woohyun. His taut jaw let go for a second and he gave me a smile.

“Not yet,” I murmured. I glanced at my watch and watched the clock strike three.

“It’s time,” I murmured to myself, but everyone was already on the move. Shots were heard and Chanyeol grinned.

“Looks like our friends reached the Bank,” he cackled.

                                                                                SUNGJONG

The thing with foster homes and orphanages is that they reek of conflict. There’s a conflict between a hope to belong and the familiarity of being abandoned. There’s a conflict between being loved among the broken and being broken by loved ones.

I could see the shock and confusion in the eyes of the kids who not too long ago had seen me as a fellow truant. They were probably wondering how I cleaned up so fast, a gun in my hand and my fringe tied back to keep my senses clear and alert. They were probably wondering if Luna was like me as well. They were probably wondering where Luna was.

I gulped down the little constriction in my throat and passed through a wall of young adolescents, only to have someone catch hold of me.

“You can trust me,” I sighed, turning to look at Sungjae. He blinked at me and shivered when I rested the gun on my belt.

“This is for your safety,” I reassured. He scoffed then cleared his throat. His eyes were still hostile.

There was only one way out now. “Seohyun!”

Luhan had initially opposed to this idea but I reminded him that in the worst of times, beauty was a thing to be worshipped and grateful for. The moment Seohyun walked in, concerned bemusement dancing in her eyes, I could feel Sungjae’s hold on me weaken.

“Your video has been sent to the International Court,” she said, her soft yet strong voice calming everyone in the room. “We can never thank you enough for your courage.”

Her words sprung from the bottom of her heart, an Eden so pure and sincere that it was a matter of seconds before Sungjae let me go and nodded towards the last room down the hallway.

“Get everyone out,” I said to Seohyun. She nodded and while I walked down the passage, I heard her instruct the older kids to go to the nearby neighbourhoods and have everyone evacuated.

“Is it war?” I heard a little girl chirp.

“No,” I heard Seohyun, her smile shadowing her voice. “It’s victory.”

The landlady’s room was the same as before, but there was a sense of dismemberment in the air. I noticed the thin film of dust on the vanity desk, the cupboard drawers open like bones disjointed from torture. The bathroom tap was leaking, but I knew she wasn’t there. My eyes had found shelves of journals and domestic archives thrown on the floor.

I rushed out to hurry towards the basement, only to find a masked man. He pointed his gun at me, his finger on the trigger. The rumble of a tank could be heard but another sound gave me strength. From my Bluetooth, I heard Seohyun leading the kids while calling out to Luhan to coordinate with Kyungsoo and Eunji, who were in the residential complex two hundred meters away. Eunji was doing a good job of mediating between the EXO member who might have seemed alien and distrustful and the various families who had been wronged by Paragon. I heard her sigh in relief and introduce Kyungsoo to her parents. The rush of footsteps and excited voices rang in the background.

                                                                                 LUHAN

“Where’s Sungjong?”

“He’s still at the foster home,” I replied. “Seohyun wanted me to coordinate with you---”

“We’re good!” Eunji exclaimed from behind me, while the vast military trucks were being occupied by the families. She raised a thumbs up and I gave a grim smile. Something was off. It was too silent.

“Where’s Sungjong?” I asked again. Kyungsoo looked at me, his eyebrows furrowed.

“I told you he was at the fos---”

Right then, we heard an explosion. I turned around, my eyes widened as the foster home that had once been Woohyun’s home, the foster home where Sungjong was supposed to be positioned at, now flew into the air in the form of sparks and soot.

The families began rushing towards the trucks, making the task easier but my heart was now pounding at a dangerous rate. “Get them out of here right now,” I said and sent a message to the INVICTUS members standing vigilant for us.

We’ve been attacked. Start moving the frontline ahead and clear way for evacuation.

I ran towards the explosion, hearing Kyungsoo take Eunji away while she called out for me. “He needs to get Seohyun, come on we need to keep you safe.”

Seohyun Seohyun Seohyun Seohyun….

Within minutes, the fog of the explosion crossed my vision and I felt a pang of pain ripple down my back.

“Never attack from the back,” I murmured and turned around, my eyes focused on the masked man. He crippled to the ground, his head in his hands. I moved forward and removed the mask. I saw a shadow pass his eyes.

“You were the one who captured L.Joe and Taeyeon,” I whispered, knowing he could hear me. Terror and respite flashed before his eyes. “Bang Minsoo.”

As I walked away from him and towards where Seohyun’s aura could be felt, I heard a shriek of pain and regret. If L.Joe could die knowing he was loved well, Minsoo would have to die knowing what he lost.

“Stop it!” I heard him shriek. “Stop showing me---”

“It’s your life flashing before your eyes Minsoo,” I calmly explained, my eyes flitting from one corner to another, looking for that familiar face. “Deal with it.”

The shriek ended and Seohyun was now close to me. I rushed towards a boring brick building, only to have a mini-army of kids bombard me from the entrance. I told them to line up and wait for a commando truck.

“The last batch of kids is here,” I called out to Taemin. I saw his head behind the steering wheel from the distance, nodding at me as he heard me.

“This still creeps me out. E.T.”

“As if you aren’t the manifestation of Beast.”

I grabbed hold of the most collected girl, her eyes giving off a dull glow when I stooped down to her line of sight.

“Where’s the lady who brought you out?”

“She rescued us,” she whimpered, pointing to the door. “She locked herself in a room with a bad man so we could get ou—”

Anger coursed through my veins and the girl let out a frightened yelp. I knew what she had seen, red eyes have never been attractive. I stormed inside the building and tried to detect the sound I didn’t want to hear.

Crack!

I ran up the staircase and broke open the door. Seohyun’s jacket was tied around her hands, her pants were thrown across the room and her left cheek was swollen red. A mask had been stuffed inside and its owner was standing over her legs, a belt on his hand. The little white line on her thigh started bleeding.

The man turned around, his smile vanishing at the sight of me.

“What are you,” he murmured.

“You don’t want to know,” I hissed. Seconds later, my arms shot out infront of me and twisted his neck. He still hadn’t died, he was still in pain and as he cried out in suffering, I ignored Seohyun’s cry for mercy.

Leave him; he’s not worth it.

Leave him.

Leave.

That’s when I noticed the river of blood running down Seohyun’s legs. The source wasn’t the whip she took. It was the knife wound blooming from her stomach.

A face flashed before my eyes.

“You’re one of them aren’t you?” the man whispered, his voice hoarse, the blood curdling in his mouth.

“I can save you,” I spoke in a hushed whisper. “I’m still not fully trained yet but---”

“Her name is Seohyun,” the man said, coughing out colours that were darker than red. “Seohyun. You have to—have to---protect her.”

“Sir, please let me---”

Seohyun’s eyes opened. A tear ran down her cheek.

“I’ll take you to Lay,” I murmured, removing the jacket from her wrists and placing it against her wound. “But please don’t give up. I promised him I would protect you.”

“Tell me.”

I tried not to compare the similarities between the man I had made my promise to and the woman infront of me, the one I had made a promise for.

“Tell me,” she whispered, smiling, gasping. “Did he—”

“Sir please let me---”

The man shocked me by taking my face in his hands. He looked into my eyes, drilling horror into my senses.

“Tell her,” he sputtered. “Tell her---”

“I have you.”

Seohyun stared at me for a while and when I refused to look away, began howling. As I carried her out of the room, the jacket blanketed on her body, she broke down and embraced me.

People always spoke about prices being paid for war. If only there weren’t any prices paid for love as well.