"Remember tomorrow a maid will leave your clothes here so you can change before breakfast," Mrs. Kim informed.

"Thank you very much," Suho said politely.  

"Sleep well," she said before leaving the guest building.

"What are we supposed to do?" Sehun asked Tao as he stifled a yawn.

"Go to bed?" Tao answered confused, as he rubbed his eye. His eye bags darker than usual.

"No, I mean about what the Colonel asked," he clarified.

"I don’t know. I haven't seen any of this in my dreams," Tao answered tiredly.

"Not even a glimpse?" Suho asked, tightening the knot of his green gown.

"No."

"What about what happens after?" Suho asked again.

Tao hesitated from immediately answering, as if he was trying to remember something specific. "No. Not really, no. I'm not sure," Tao groaned, rubbing his face frustrated.

"Or something way after that, like are we going to be okay?" Suho insisted.

"I don’t know!" he grabbed onto his hair, pulling the strands before letting his arms drop. "I don’t know when my visions are supposed to happen or even if they happen in the first place. Each decision we make can change the course of our future, not everything has happened the way it was intended. Some don't even happen at all!" he explained while wailing his arms, swooshing the air with the wide sleeves of the Hanbok.

"Wow, calm down," Sehun warned, causing a shift of wind through the room.

"Yeah," Jongdae piped, hiding behind Sehun.

"Look," Tao took a second to calm down. "I get only hints; I don't know what's truly meant to happen."

"Can't you manipulate time to find out?" Suho asked more gently this time.

"I can only change what has happened, I can’t manipulate what doesn't exist yet," Tao explained. "The future is just an idea. And the present is fractions of time passing by, quickly turning into past." He looked down, placing his hands on his hips and sighed. "I can manipulate time but I can’t change it. That's impossible."  

Suho bit on his lip before stepping closer to the taller boy and rubbing his arm in comfort. "Sorry for pressuring you," he apologized.

Tao just waved off and nodded, accepting the apology. He bent forward and let his head rest on Suho’s shoulder tiredly.

"Guys," Kai called out as he appeared at the entrance of the room. "We're meeting up in the recreational room," he informed jabbing his finger towards said direction.

"Okay, let's go," said Suho as he wrapped an arm around Tao’s waist to pull him towards the hall.

"What's up with them?" Kai asked hushed to Sehun, who just shrugged in response.

"They're just tired," Jongdae concluded as he made his way to the common area.

They huddled inside as best as they could, only the two guest rooms were set out for sleeping so the recreational room stayed the same. Jongdae made his way towards Xiumin who was standing with his back leaning against the desk. Jongdae liked standing close to Xiumin, the other boy was quiet and tranquil -it was easier to feel comfortable around him when the whole group was together.

He still felt like an outsider. The group had so much going on, that he often felt lost and had to piece everything together as quickly as possible to understand what the others were talking about.  

"Hey," Jongdae greeted as he leaned against the desk.

"Hey," Xiumin greeted back, tilting his head upwards.

And that's all he needed to feel accepted by the other boy.

"Okay, everyone quiet down," Suho ordered as he closed the door behind him. "I know we’re all tired and just want to sleep, but we've got a lot to discuss."

"Hey D.O," crossed arms Kris called out as he stood left from Suho, opposite to D.O. The smaller boy was sitting by the coffee table, perching his head onto his hand. He raised his brows at the mention of his name.

"You knew, didn't you?" Kris asked in form of a statement

"What?" D.O said confused.

"What was going on out here," Kris said standing straight to make his height seem more dominating, despite his clothes.

"No," he answered tiredly. "I didn't know."

"But you were hiding something," Kris accused.

D.O merely frowned at the other. Suho nudged Kris' side to shoo him off. He sat down in front of the coffee table and D.O.

"From everything Colonel Kim said, what do you remember?"  he asked patiently.

D.O straightened his back as he let his arm fall to his lap. "Almost nothing," he sighed. Suho gave him an inquisitive look, silently asking for him to continue. "I don’t remember there was a war. I don’t recall Mama ever mentioning something close to that either. Nor that there were boggers outside." He paused and took a deep breath, while playing with the zipper of the jacket, "I've only ever seen one in the underground facility."

Suho looked up at Kris. "See? If you ask nicely you'll get answers," he said. Kris grumbled in response. "Does this support your suspicion?"

"Yeah, kind of," Kris answered.

And now Jongdae felt confused again. D.O really looked like he was telling the truth. How does this support his suspicions if he's not contradicting himself? How does this relate to their previous talk? That freaky talk where Kris looked like he was close enough to kiss D.O. Did he want to kiss him? What? Chen focus, this is serious.

"What part do you remember?"  Suho inquired.

Uuh, good question.  

D.O smiled sadly, "I remember being that kid he mentioned." He took a moment and a frown started to form on his forehead -his hand falling from the zipper to his lap. "I can't remember meeting any military men; I just know I had to be brought to the underground with Mama. I had no idea it was for military purposes. I..." he paused as thinned his lips downwards, "I don't get how things ended up this way. I believed that by getting out here I would find my family. I truly believed that as if it was sworn to me," he said sadly -there was a strain in his voice that made it obvious he was keeping himself from crying.  

Suho looked up at Kris again, the latter nodded before letting his arms fall to his sides.

"All right, I believe you," Kris declared. "But I know you’re still secretive." D.O bit his lower lip.

"So, what Colonel Kim said?" Suho asked to Kris this time

"Not all of what he said was true. I got the impression he was lying most of the time."

"What?" many said surprised.

"Wait. What did he lie about?"  Luhan asked, standing by the discarded pieces of the broken art panel.

"I believe he lied about the reasons we are here for. Especially this town. Nothing about this place seems right," Kris opined.

"You don’t think boggers have attacked this place?" asked Chanyeol, speaking louder than needed. He was standing opposite to Kris, behind D.O and Baekhyun.

This place can't be fake, Jongdae thought. Right?

"Actually I do," Kris replied. "I saw the damage done to this town, it looks real." He paused and placed his hands on his hips, "It's just that everything he mentioned contradicts what Mama told Kai."

Said boy nodded, standing at the door. "She helped us out to avoid being used as 'super soldiers'. But now this guy says that our sole existence was to be evolved soldiers. It doesn’t make any ing sense," he explained feverishly.  

"Not at all, it's a complete contradiction," Tao commented, standing away from the piano.

"One of them must be lying then," Sehun said serious with a small frown as he sat at the piano.

"Or both," Xiumin commented, crossing his arms before his chest. "We can't really trust anyone anymore."  

"But what do we do?" Baekhyun asked, sitting at D.O’s right.

"It's not a matter of who we trust anymore. It's about what we decide to do," Lay opined, standing by Luhan.

"He's right," Suho said, covering his mouth as he yawned. "We have the choice to decide whether or not we help these people."

"But are they really in danger?"  Luhan questioned, rolling up the sleeve of his purple jacket.

"Of course they are," Chanyeol said grouchy, using an obvious tone. "You saw the wrecked streets. And the burnt building wasn’t fake, I could tell."

"With your expertise in arson?" Luhan snapped cocking a brow disdainfully.

"Yes," Chanyeol growled.

"Guys calm down," Xiumin reprimanded. Jongdae felt a cold aura emit from the boy by his side.

Scary.

"Look, it doesn't matter if the damage is real or not," Luhan waved off, ignoring Chanyeol’s glare. "This town is empty; deserted. There are no people to defend in the first place. Why stay if there's nothing? I do-"

"But you're not sure of that," D.O spoke out gruffly, cutting Luhan off. "You can't even read these people's mind. There might be people out there that you can't sense."

"Yeah, well," he hesitated. "You, you haven’t either," Luhan countered childishly.

"I could still try," D.O retorted. "It's easier if I walk around closer to the earth. Not in these stone based buildings."

"I could've checked earlier to see if there are people out there," Kris said begrudgingly, directing his accusing glare towards D.O.

"It doesn’t matter if there are people around or not," D.O stressed out while raising his voice. "They want us to fight against boggers. This is just like another trial, maybe even worse," he expressed his opinion. "We should just leave and escape this place."

"As if escaping the first time brought us any good," Luhan scoffed.

"Escape? We're not trapped, we could just walk out the door right away," Kris frowned again.

"It just feels like we're trapped in the same again," D.O mumbled.

"Okay, okay," Suho called out to stop their discussion. "Let's suppose there could still be a few people out there. It's a possibility. What really matters is the fact that there are boggers lurking around the area. And those monsters are a real threat. Just imagine if they keep appearing and disperse across the land. How many villages, towns and cities would end up attacked? How many people will get hurt or killed?"

Everyone was silently listening to Suho now, all immersed in figuring out what to think.

"As Lay said, it's a matter of choice. This is not about helping just a group of people, it's about doing what is right," Suho lectured. "If there are boggers out here, then we may be the only ones who can stop and eliminate them. Would you be able to live with your conscience knowing you had the chance to save someone's life and you didn't take it?" he questioned, eyeing each and every one of them. "Just think about that for a minute," he said completely serious.

They remained silent. Jongdae didn't know what to do or say. Honestly he didn't want to have anything to do with this war. He hadn’t even seen a bogger yet, so how was he supposed to understand the gravity of the situation.  

Shifting nervously from one foot to another, Jongdae fidgeted as he observed the others quietly thinking. They can’t possibly agree to risk their lives for strangers, right?  I mean, come on, if those boggers are really monsters then they can't be easy to fight off. You can't just sweetly twinkle your eyes and expect them to leave -gosh Chen, twinkle your eyes? Seriously?  

"Suho I, I can’t," Sehun’s voice cracked. "I can't go back to fighting b-bo-boggers. I can’t," his voice trembled as he began to cry. Tao was the first to try comforting him as he was the closest to Sehun. Kai appeared next to him and began rubbing his back as Sehun covered his face.  

"There's a lot to consider," Kris said gravely. "It's not just their lives at risk; it's our lives that will be at stake too."

"We've been through a lot to escape these monsters," Tao said biting back his tears. "How much more do we have to endure?"

"We've been lucky so far," Kai said softly. "But for how long can we keep this up? We might have grown stronger and learned to combine our abilities, but the boggers have changed too," he reasoned.

"What if they have our abilities?" Chanyeol said gravely.

"They can’t. We've been kept underground for a reason. They don't even know we exist," Xiumin debated

"Well maybe they have other abilities we don’t," Kai countered.

"It's a possibility, but still our fear shouldn't blind us," Suho opined.

"Guys we have what others can only dream of," Lay said passively. "We have some sort of responsibility to use the abilities we've got and help others. That's why we've been through all those trials. That's why I think it’s important for us to stay."

"That's easy for you to say, you're immortal," Tao said moody, wiping the tears that fell.

Lay’s eyes widened in shock and slowly his gaze began to fall to the floor as he stood immobile.

"Tao, that was uncalled for!" Chanyeol defended.

"But it's true!" he retorted, raising his voice as well.

"Take it back," Chanyeol sneered stepping up closer to the other in a challenging way.

"No," Tao copied the other’s movements. "He can be reckless with his own life, but I'm not risking mine," he pushed Chanyeol backwards.

"Guys stop," Kris warned, rubbing his tired eyes.

Kai appeared between them, placing a hand on each one to push them apart. "Don't fight," he said, but both Tao and Chanyeol pushed him away. Kai made himself intangible to avoid knocking against the wall, but ended up in the next room.

"I've had it," Suho said angered as he stood up and exited the room leaving the door open.

"Make them sto-stop," Sehun hiccupped, a draft of wind began to rise.

"You can be such a jerk," Chanyeol glared, he tried to take a step forward but he bumped into something invisible. He directed his glare towards Luhan. "Stay out of this," he ordered.

"Make me," Luhan challenged.

The room temperature drastically dropped. Jongdae felt frozen in place as he felt a terrible coldness irradiate from Xiumin. Nobody moved; nobody spoke. Everyone was wide awake and trying to keep warm -the argument completely forgotten.

"Holy , Xiumin!  Stop freezing our asses every time we fight," Tao exasperated as he rubbed his arms for warmth.

"Then stop being immature little twats," Xiumin replied nonchalantly.

Suho came back with Kai; their expressions clearly showed they felt the shock of cold. "Not again," he sighed. "Sehun make a soft wind current around the room. Chanyeol heat the wind to a decent temperature," he ordered.

They didn't need to be told twice. Immediately Sehun moved his arms in fluently, directing the breeze in a circular motion. Chanyeol stood beside him, hands in front as he heated the air around. In a couple of minutes the room was warm and cozy.

"The tears froze to your face," Chanyeol pointed out.

"I noticed," Sehun said dryly as the other used his thumbs to rub off the thin ice. "Ouch! Too hot," he winced.

"Sorry."

"Clearly we are all exhausted and have mixed feelings about what's going on," Suho said as they remained silent. "It's no use to vent out on others," he indirectly scolded, looking at Luhan, Tao and Chanyeol.  

The hot headed trio apologized sheepishly without even looking at each other. Suho shook his head disappointed.

"This is the worse time to be fighting among us," Xiumin commented coldly.

"Let's just agree to a decision," Kris hastened.

"Guys," Kai called out. "Whatever we decide we have to stick together," he stated. "We've been together since the beginning, and whatever we decide no one gets left behind."  

Unanimously they agreed.

"Look, I believe it's best for everyone to have their own say," Suho suggested. "Everyone gets to express their choice, but we have to all agree to one decision."

"Let's vote then," Chanyeol spoke out.

"Yes we stay, no we leave. Majority wins and the rest follows," Baekhyun instructed.

"Sounds good," Luhan commented.

"Yeah I like that," Tao agreed.

"Do we have to vote now?" asked Jongdae uncertain.

"Maybe we should give some time," Xiumin suggested. "It's a lot to consider."

"It's our lives to consider," Sehun mumbled.

"Look, let's go to sleep. Everyone gets to rest and have a clear state of mind before deciding," Lay opined.

"All right, then tomorrow morning we'll vote," Kris declared. "And whatever we decide, we stick to it and we all stay together."  

"Yes," agreed all.

 

Sleeping came easy. Quickly they fell into deep slumber despite the crowded futons, tousled blankets and occasional limb jabbing. Their worn out bodies and mental state caused them to drop down instantly, begging to restore their energy.  

Jongdae couldn’t quite remember what he dreamt about. He had the impression it was a serene dream, tranquil and relaxing as his sleep. But then he felt frightened as he was being chased by a disembodied threat. All he could remember was that he ran and ran as fast as he could, desperate to get away. He looked at his damp reflection in the mirror -an unwanted memory resurfaced as he related his dream to his trials.

He knew he was running away from a faceless monster, a bogger most likely, but he felt as if he was running in the wheel. Running as fast as he could, with complete control of the electromagnetic field in his torso and abdomen, Jongdae hoped to avoid his insides from crashing against his bones once he stopped and the inertia took over. From all the tests he was forced to do, that one was the only one he felt confident about.  

If we go to war what will I do? I can’t just run away and hope to stay alive… right?

Shaking off the memory, he finished changing into his clean clothes and pulled on his hybrid leather and rubber gloves, before going out to the veranda of the building. It was still early, everyone else seemed asleep. So he decided to breathe some fresh morning air. From the veranda he had a view to the back of the estate; there was a small garden with rock pine trees before the great and tall exterior wall. And further behind it was a vibrant green mountain claiming its presence amongst the steep land.

Brisk flapping wings caught his attention. Looking up, Jongdae saw a massive flock of birds flying past him, high in the sky towards the north. There were too many to be considered a normal flock. It looked like all of the birds of the city were flying together.

That can't be normal, right? All bird species emigrating at the same time? Why are they flying so low? He thought as he watched the birds turn smaller and smaller as they disappeared towards the horizon. This place just gets stranger by the minute.

But then he heard hustling around the bushes of the garden and some hushed words quickly being interchanged.

Is somebody already awake?  

"Jongin just go," he heard a voice speak with a different accent.

"Alright. How long?"

"A bit over ten minutes, hurry."

Jongin? Who's that? A house worker?

"Who's out there?" he called daringly as he walked off the veranda.

"!" he heard the guy whisper and try to hide.

But Jongdae was quickly near him before he could run off. Dressed in denim jeans with fancy leather shoes and  black long coat; the tall, strawberry-blond haired guy turned around.  

"Chen!" he said excited with a wide smile. "Oh, Chen Chen what a relief it's you," he said hugging the baffled boy. "This is just perfect. Right on time," he said as he let go.

"T-Tao?" Jongdae stammered in disbelief as he registered the familiar face. "You called me Chen? Chen?" he stressed out his name.

"Yeah, don't I call you that?" Tao said confused.

"No, just Jongdae."

"Oh, then I do later," he thought out.

"What? What happened to you? What happened to your hair? You have earrings? Where did you get those clothes? Are you taller? You look fitter and more mature. Wait, when did you wake up?  I'm confused," Jongdae spoke quickly. Every muscle of his face and larynx sparked into action.

"I haven’t, I'm still sleeping," he said, completely unaffected by the speed of Jongdae’s speech, as if he was used to it.

He's asleep? Buy he's here, he's talking to me. Maybe I am asleep and this is all a wacked up dream. I, I, I'm confused.

"What?" he said discombobulated after a second of rapid thinking.

"Wrong start, sorry," blond Tao said with an accent. "Look I don’t have much time, I need you to hear me out and do as I say. Okay?"

"Are you really Tao? Why do you speak like that?" he scratched his head. “You sound different.”

"Yes, I know. My Korean is kind of ty now," he replied quickly yet patiently. "Chen it really is me, only older and wiser."

"And blonder," he added.

"Yeah, that too," Tao waved off. "I need your help," he said severely.

Older, wiser, blonder. Right on time. Holy .

"I need to sit down," he stated as he felt his legs weaken.

"I'm serious," Tao complained

"Me too," he shot back as he sat on the grass. He looked up at Tao and rubbed his numbed legs as he pieced everything together.  

Tao crouched down to meet his eye level, while resting his elbows on his knees. "I forgot you still wore those," he commented with a small smile, as he pointed at the gloves.

"I won't need them anymore?" he asked hopeful.

"You'll learn in time," he smiled gently.

“You really do look older,” Jongdae noted as he stared back at Tao’s face. His handsome features now appeared more settled with expression lines -but still relatively young, just older than the current one. "You're from the future?" he dared to ask.

"Yes."

"Time travel?"

"Yes."

"But you said," he quickly shook his head. "Present not blond Tao said that the future doesn’t exist yet. And that you can -he can only change things that already have happened," he tried to explain.  

"Well present bratty me doesn't know it all and has much to learn," Tao clarified. "At some point in the future I will travel to this moment in time. I'm not changing time or reversing it, I'm just visiting without altering it. It's a unique loophole."  

"What?"

"Chen, I'm sorry but I don't have much time to explain further," Tao hurried. "I need you to do two things for me, okay?" Jongdae nodded in response. "Good," he reached into his pocket and took out a small but fairly thick book. "Read this. Learn it."

Jongdae accepted the book and noticed it was a manual. The cover was written in two languages. "A quick guide to driving your family RV. Best vacations ever, guaranteed," he read curiously.  "What is this?"

"It's a vehicle, you'll need to know the gist of driving it," Tao explained.

"What language is this?" he said pointing at the foreign characters.

"Chinese."

"I don’t know Chinese," he said eyeing the quirky signs.

"Just read the Korean part," Tao said slightly irked from having to point out the obvious. "Remember it's an automatic, so you just have to step on it."

"Step on what?"

"You'll figure it out," Tao waved off. "Also I need you to make sure that the group stays here in the town, okay?  This is very, very important. If they get impatient and decide to leave, you must stall them," he said dead serious. "For as long as you can just stall them, okay?"

"O-okay," he said uncertain. "I'll try."

"Thanks Chen-ge," he smiled as he spoke a different language.  

"What?"

"Thanks Chen hyung," he said in Korean this time.

"You're welcome," he said slightly confused. "Wait. The voting," he remembered. "We're not going to stay?"

"It doesn’t matter. It was never our decision in the end," he said as if it wasn’t a big deal, but his eyes seemed sorrowful. He stood and offered his hand, helping Jongdae to stand up. "I have to go know, but I'll still be around. Much to do," he said as he straightened his coat, but then suddenly stopped as he felt something with his hand. "Oh! I almost forgot," opening his coat he reached into a hidden sling bag. "Here, give these to Kyung- I mean D.O," Tao handed him a pair of black sneakers. "Bye Chen," he bid while giving the shorter boy a hug.

"B-bye," Jongdae lagged, but managed to hug Tao back.

"See ya," he said whilst walking towards a gate from the exterior stone wall.

"Wait!" he called out, waving the sneakers in the air. "Are you trying to change the past?"

"No, I'm ensuring it," he said confidently before disappearing through the inner gate.

Jongdae stood still staring at where Future Tao was just seconds ago, silently trying to believe that what had just happened was real and that he wasn't going crazy. Looking down at the manual and the sneakers he held, he confirmed that he wasn't delirious.

He waited in the recreational room, sitting at the desk and obediently reading the manual. Future Tao must have been aware of his ability to do and process everything at heightened speed. It was a side effect of having overly excitable atoms.

"Dude, answer me."

Jongdae felt a cold touch push him, breaking his concentration. Looking up from the book, he noticed Xiumin looking worried at him.

"Are you fine?" the boy in light blue asked.

"Yeah. Yeah, perfectly fine," he hurriedly reacted. "And you? Why are you always cold?"

"I'm made of ice," Xiumin nonchalantly shrugged, while pocketing his hands. "What are you reading?"

"Uh," Jongdae gapped at the book, trying to come up with a lie. Xiumin raised a brow as he waited. "Just, you know, some informative booklet about, um, vehicles." He wanted to slap himself for being so dumb. "Found it in the bookshelf, might come in handy," he waved off as he closed the manual, acting as if it wasn’t a big deal.

"Is it interesting?"  Xiumin asked curiously glancing at the book.

"Only if you own a vehicle," Jongdae said while putting the manual aside.

"Were you really reading or just skimming through pages?" he genuinely asked as he stood by him, leaning his against the desk. "You can't truly read that fast, can you?"

"Actually I can," he boasted with confidence. "I can do many, many things quickly."

"Not just running?"

"Yeah, not just running."

"Because you're lighting," Xiumin said with a slightly mocking tone.

"Hey! I am," Jongdae whined, crossing his arms.

"Alright, alright," he chuckled. "So it's an ability, right? Your speed?"

"Yeah, I'm like a constant bolt of energy with rapid muscle movement and fast thought processing."  

"And quick speech," Xiumin remarked.

"Yeah, that too," he said cheekily. "Hey, have the rest woken up?" he asked after a brief silence.

"Barely starting to," the other informed. "You've been up for a lot?"

"No," he lied. Xiumin nodded in a form of acceptance and then silence ensued.

"Hey Xiumin?"

"Yeah?”

"Do the guys not get along?  Do they always fight?" he asked recalling last night's events.

"We get along, but it's not usual for them to fight," he replied. "Sometimes it's just too many opinions bottled up it a room."

"Yeah," he agreed softly.

Xiumin looked at him for a moment, silently reading him. "Chanyeol's boisterous and hot tempered, but he never means harm. Tao is defensive and uses his bratty bravado as a shield. He's actually just a puff inside," he chuckled. "Luhan used to be shy and reclusive. He's always been pushing people away, so it took time for him to adapt and get along with us," he explained, giving Jongdae an insight of the members.

"So the shoving you through the air isn't new," he concluded somewhat bitter at the memory. "But being an is?"

Xiumin raised his brows surprised at his choice of words. "Yes, being an is quite recent." He sighed, "He's going through a rough moment and Luhan has never been good dealing with his emotions. So he's being quite difficult lately."  

"Huh," Jongdae jutted his chin out, "I see."

They heard footsteps closing in from the hall.

"Just avoid calling him a girl and you'll be fine," Xiumin recommend. "He's sensitive about his looks."

"Uh, okay," Jongdae complied rather uncertain.

Suho, D.O, Lay, Luhan, Chanyeol and Baekhyun made their entrance wearing their crisp and cleaned clothes. Well all but D.O, who's still in Lay’s pink pants and Kai’s jacket.

"Hey D.O," Jongdae called out standing up, "I've got something for you."

"Really?" said boy questioned as he curiously got closer.

Jongdae picked up the sneakers he had set aside. "Here, all yours."

"Wow, where did you get these?" D.O asked as he inspected the gift.

"I got lucky. I went walking outside and this random guy who works here gave them to me," he lied without skipping a beat.

"That's unbelievably lucky," D.O smiled widely. "And they're even my size," he said astounded.

"Maybe Mrs. Kim had them sent," Xiumin conjectured.

"Could be," D.O agreed. "Thanks Jongdae."

'Seriously?'

'Holy ! You scared me,' Jongdae focused his thoughts as he looked at Luhan.

'So some random guy just gave them to you?' he sounded suspicious.

'Yeah, blond T- What do you think of blond hair,' he changed course of thought. 'Do you think it would look like a nice hair color? Maybe it softens your facial features or enhances it. Would you change your hair color to blond? I think you would look could with blond hair. Or maybe not blond, but a clearer tone of brown. Though blond wouldn't be bad, maybe just a drastic change. Would I-'

'Shut up, shut up, please just shut up!' Luhan held his head with his hands.

'Then get out,' Jongdae sent away while smiling sweetly at the other. He felt Luhan’s presence leave his head. That was close, he sighed.

Now everyone was inside, gathered around the centered coffee table.

"So…" Kris started, standing by the door, leaning onto the wall. "Let's start."

"Alright," Chanyeol said, smoothing his hands against his red pants. "Is there an order?"  

"Let's just go towards the right of whoever starts," Baekhyun suggested.

"I'll start," Suho said sitting, as per usual, at the coffee table. Baekhyun's faced dropped anxiously as he was sitting to his right. Suho clasped his hands together on top the surface. "I vote yes to stay, because I believe it's the right thing to do. People depend on us, we can't just turn our backs because we're afraid," he expressed.

"Okay, that's one in favor," Luhan said.

They all looked at Suho's right hand. Baekhyun looked nervous under the staring. He fidgeted with his fingers. "I umm, I," he gulped and looked away. "I'm sorry, I can't. I vote no."

"It's okay," Lay said placing his hand on Baekhyun’s shoulder. "I vote yes," he declared.

"My vote is no," Kris spoke clearly.

"Two against, two in favor," informed Luhan. "I'm against staying too," he voted. "It's like they're imposing on us by telling us it’s our purpose. him, I get to decide what to do with my life," he expressed himself quite vivaciously.

"That's just being selfish," Chanyeol frowned.

"I have to be selfish," Luhan argued back. "It's my life," he stressed.

"Everyone gets to vote what they want," Kris reminded.

"Come on guys, don't start another fight," Suho said irked.

"Fine," Chanyeol said crossing his arms. "My vote is yes. Yes I'm willing to risk my life to help innocent people and possibly a whole country," he said proudly.  

"Good for you," Luhan rolled his eyes.

"Sehun?" Suho asked as it was his turn to vote.

Lips pressed into a thin line, he shook his head for no. Which was the answer expected by everyone.  

"D.O?"

D.O was staring at the floor while absentmindedly biting off the cuticle of his thumb. "Oh," he muttered when he noticed the attention was on him. "I um, I want to say no and just get the hell away from here. But," he sighed resignedly, "but maybe this is what's meant to happen. Maybe everything we went through in the underground sums up to this very moment and it's something we just have to live through." He bit his lip, as if he wanted to stop himself from speaking. "So my vote is a yes."

"Alright, we got a change of heart," Chanyeol cheered. "Anyone else want to change their vote?"  

"No," Luhan retorted.

Oh no it's my turn. Holy what do I do? How long was I supposed to stall them? Did he even say until when? No, no Chen he didn't. Oh no, they're staring at me.

"Jongdae? Your vote," Suho asked.

"Ehh," he gapped for moment, feeling completely stupefied and at a loss of words. "I, um, well."

"A simple yes or no will suffice," Suho said patiently.

"I'm not really that entirely sure yet," Jongdae stretched out each word, taking his sweet time to talk. "What's a bogger like?"

"You've never seen a bogger?" Chanyeol asked surprised. "Not even when we escaped?"

"Um…"

"No, he didn't," Tao confirmed.

"We had a clear path from his room to the rooftop," Suho explained.

"Well , that's some dumb luck," Baekhyun commented.

"I completely forgot you have no experience against one," Suho said apologetically. "You're probably scared of what they might be like."

"You should," Sehun coughed out, earning a smack on the shoulder by Chanyeol.

"Look, it's okay to vote against staying. You probably want to anyway, since it's terrifying to fight a bogger the first time," Xiumin said comprehensively.

"Not to forget it's probably an army of boggers out there," Tao added.

"I was, um, actually thinking that, uh, maybe we should stay and help," Jongdae improvised.

"So you vote yes?" Luhan asked to confirm.

"I, well yeah," he felt he was internally panicking. "It's just that, well, Mrs. Kim is, you know, kind and all. I would feel bad to not help her after all she's done."

Mrs. Kim? Seriously why is she the first thing to babble about? What more can I say about her other than her creepy metaphors? Oh Chen, that's it!

"It's okay, you don't have to explain yourself," Kris dismissed.

"It's just that, I kind of think we are supposed to help," he kept adding. "Like if we help them now, then in the future we will be rewarded for our good deeds. I felt like Mrs. Kim was giving us that hint when she used the myth metaphors."

"What metaphors?" Kai asked interested.

"Oh, um. When she said that the company kept us afloat from the monstrous flood, or something like that," he recalled. "I think it was a reference to the events of the myth."

"What myth?" D.O asked.

"The one that was illustrated on the art panel; before it was broken," he unnecessarily accused Luhan indirectly.

"The story painting was a myth?" Xiumin asked surprised.

"Yeah. We are the guy who survives the flood and helps them insects, that later help him in winning the challenge to marry the girl," he briefly explained.

"What?"

"There's this dude, who is son if a laurel tree and a fairy," he explained from the beginning.

"How can a tree and a fairy have a child?" Lay asked baffled.

"I don’t know, it's supposed to be like a tree spirit, so I guess by magic? It's a folk story, it doesn't matter how they do it," Jongdae waved off. "Anyway, there's this huge tempest that causes a flood that wipes out nearly everyone. The guy saves himself by floating on a laurel tree. Then he saves a colony of ants from drowning and lets them ride the tree log as well. Then a swarm of mosquitoes come by and he helps them too. And then he saves this other dude from the flood," he was poorly retelling the story. "They reach some land, which actually was the summit of Baekdu Mountain. There lived a woman with two girls, one was fostered though." He paused as he recollected his thoughts. "I didn't understand why, but the woman wanted the best one of the two dudes to marry her true daughter. So she sets them up in two challenges, and the son of the tree receives help from the insects he saved. He wins the challenges, marries the woman's daughter and they repopulate Korea. And," he paused taking in a deep breath, "that’s it."

The members were silent as they stared dumbfounded at him.

"What the ?" was all Tao managed to utter.

"What does that have to do with anything?"  Kris asked, rubbing his temples.

"She said the company kept us afloat, so we are the dude. The people are the insects and the boy and we're supposed to save them. Later it might benefit us in the future," he clarified.

"I think you're over thinking it way too much," Baekhyun commented.

"It's just that it fits," Jongdae shrugged.  "Besides, it’s the myth the town's named after."

"Doryeong?"  Xiumin asked.

"No, Namu Doryeong," he corrected. "As in tree."

Kai abruptly stood up, his skin shockingly pale and his eyes wide in horror.

"Kai, what's wrong?" Lay asked concerned.

Kai didn’t say anything as his gaze slowly went towards D.O. "How far?" he asked grimly.

"What?" the other said confused.

"How far!" he yelled startling the group.

D.O’s eyes widened impossibly large. "18k, East ," he strained out, barely having the strength to speak. "Kai don’t," he tried to stand but the other disappeared. D.O hid his face behind his hands. "," he cursed into his hands.

Kai reappeared inside the room, his face stricken with anger and sorrow. He looked for D.O, and pulled the other’s hand away to see his face.

"You knew," he accused, his voice unstable as he kept himself from crying out in anger. "All this time, you knew about it."

D.O clenched his fists and nodded slowly, as if it took all his strength to move.

Luhan stared at Kai inquisitively. His eyes widened as he held his head with his hands. He began shaking his head repeatedly. Lay quickly went to his side to calm him down and avoid a fit. Sehun ran to his side as well.

"How?" Kai asked covering his mouth, stopping a sob from being heard.

"I can feel it," D.O confessed, looking at the taller boy in the eyes. Kai broke into a fit of sobs. He held onto D.O for support, the smaller boy helped him sit on the ground.

“What’s going on? What’s out there?” Chanyeol asked desperate.

“That’s it. I’m going," Kris declared opening the door.

“Try flying up Kris,” D.O told him, “But I doubt you’ll get high."

Kris’ eyes widen in shock, quickly he ran down the hall, slamming the door as he exited the building.

"Kai come on," D.O said softly while rubbing Kai’s shoulders. "I know this is bad, but this is the worst moment to cry."  

Kai looked up at him angered; he wiped his face with the sleeves of the red jacket. "Why didn’t you tell me?" he seethed. "Why did you keep this from us!"

"Because I couldn’t," D.O raised his voice. "I couldn’t bear tell you, after all we’ve been through. After all we’ve done to get out." He bit his lip, "I couldn’t," he said brokenly.

"Couldn’t what damn it!" Chanyeol yelled.

"What the is going on?" Tao said loudly.

"Tell us already! I can’t stand it!" said Sehun, who had numbed out Luhan resting against his legs.

Kris appeared back at the door. His clothes were disheveled from the wind and his face was red in anger. “We’re still trapped," he said gravely. "We’re still under a ing dome.”

“What?” Xiumin muttered.

“No,” Lay said disheartened.

“It can't be true," Chanyeol shook his head.

"No, no!" cursed Tao.

“We’re still trapped in the company?” Sehun asked in disbelief.

“We’re still in Namu,” Kai said with more stability now.

“Namu?” Baekhyun frowned.

“It’s the company’s name,” Kai replied.

“Tree,” Suho suddenly said and everyone thought the same thing -the damn tree outline on the walls and nearly everything in the building.

"That's it. We're leaving," Kris ordered. "Now!"

Jongdae felt his heart sink to the pit of his stomach.

, what am I supposed to do?

 

 

---

 

A/N: Surprise again!  

I had the chance to post this, so I kept myself from sleeping to quickly finish this chapter. There might be more mistakes than usual, since I typed on a phone.

The myth is a real Korean creational myth you can find on the Internet.  But I'll leave this link if you want to check out a fun presentation about it.

https://prezi.com/xhimdo17hi0m/korean-flood-myth/

I forgot to mention last chapter that in Korea there is a tradition in how to serve tea, like a ritual. I depicted the steps with Mrs Kim's actions, so hopefully you guys could learn a bit of Korean culture with that. I find it interesting that they heat up the tea cups with hot water before serving the actual tea. That way it doesn't get cold quickly as both elements are at the same temperature.

On what LuhanM commented, it's okay guys. I'm not worried about upvotes at the moment. I value your comments way more than the chance of getting featured. So it's okay if you don't want to vote. Though I still appreciate her boldness in taking such initiative.  

Okay, I think that's all 'cause I've got to go. Thanks to everyone who have subscribed throughout the whole story!

Have a great week!  Annyeong!  

-Blackie.