As the sky started to welcome the night, Seungchol moved closer to Jihoon, and took a look at the urn, “Who’s Seungkwan?” and broke the silence.

“A friend,” It took about five minutes for the question to be answered, “A very good friend of mine”.

Soonyoung came and sit next to the mourning guy. “No— no— JIhoon, I saw him breathing! I could also feel his heart-beat!” No! What do you mean?! Seungkwan is alive!. “He just passed out! like chan! come on, lets go home and meet them—“

“Shut up!!!” Jihoon got rid of the hand that wanted to take him out, “You— You! you have no idea—“ Woozi hyung! look up!. And suddenly, His rage was cut off by his own mind, I’m up here!. The voice that he heard, it wasn't him, “Se— seugkwan?”. 

“Woozi hyung! come here!” and when he looked up to the blooming rose tree, he found the right owner of the voice, nicely sat on one of the big branches, “Can you climb?”

“what are you doing?“

“Jihoon?” Soonyoung stopped his friend from crawling the tree, “Who are you talking to?”.

Jihoon froze and looked at his friends who oddly having their eyes on him. “Seungkwan, of course—“

“No! hyung, they cant see me!” from the above, Seungkwan waved his hand, “I’m dead, remember?”

“You should not drink when you’re underage,” through the front mirror, The driver eyed at the three school boys on the passenger seat. “I bet your parents never intended to raise a drunker by the age 15”

I’m ing 18. Wonwoo rolled his eyes, and nodded. A little “Thank you” was said before he got out of the taxi, and helped the unconscious Seokmin to step outside the car.

While carrying the weight of seokmin on his shoulder, who indeed looked like a drunk guy, he waited for the taxi behind him to stop. “What took you so long??”.

A guy made his way out of the car with two bodies hung around each of his shoulders. “They’re ing heavy!” And that guy was of course Mingyu, who had Junhui and Minghao strapped around him. “How are we going to carry them up to the second floor?” He looked to the side, to their unit that was built on the second floor of the rusty building. “Can we just leave them here and wait for a random guy to pick them up?”

“We can actually,” Wonwoo released his arm, and let Seokmin casually fell to the ground. “See, he can't even complain,”

Seokmin just laid on the ground, with his eyes closed and his lung breathing. Again, Wonwoo crouched down to check on him, “How can he not punch me in the face?”

For the two bodies that started to made his shoulder ‘cracked’, Mingyu gently sat on the ground and bring along the two classmates with him. “They don't even complain when I farted in front of their face” He nodded, and come up with a conclusion; “I like them!”

It was night already, and the day couldn't get any longer. After they made their effort of carrying the three bodies up to their house, and ended up walking up and down the stairs for more than three times, Both Wonwoo and Mingyu relaxed on the couch, placing their feet on the table and the tv.

“Wonwoo,” Mingyu who held the remote stole a glance at Minghao, Junhui and Seokmin who were stranded near their toilet, due to the small space they have. “Are you sure that they’re not dead?”

“I hope they're not,” Wonwoo sighed and kept his eyes on the tv, “Cause I don't know how to explain three dead bodies on our house to the police. I don't want to deal with the Chinese embassy nor the most expensive lawyer a person could pay either”.

Mingyu nodded, and moved closer to his friend, “But wonwoo,” feeling tired, he rested his head on the shoulder of his friend. “Dont you think that everything is just… weird?”

Wonwoo just sighed and shook his head “And you’re one of those things”.

“You too, but that's not what I meant,”. Suddenly, Mingyu jerked out and backed away, “Wait! I think— I think there's something that we forgot…”

The two of them exchanged some weird gazes, when they ended up opening their mouth together, “,” and cursed at the same time.

“Hansol!!"

“Hansol, I heard that you came from the states too,” Jeonghan sat next to him on the floor, “My friend jisoo also came from there, eh, wait, from what states, jisoo?” 

“LA, I’m from downtown LA” Jisoo nodded, “Where do you come from?”

Hansol who sat in-between them just stoop and ignored his two seniors. He didn't get it, how could they be so calm despite everything that just happened. 

Realising the tension and awkwardness between them, Jeonghan chose to be more active in term of talking.“You and that guy from before, you both seems close—”

“seungchol hyung is my brother” Hansol nodded.

Aah, I see.

“so these are real blood?” Jeonghan still couldn't believe it, as he took a closer look onto the red puddle, 

For once, Hansol managed to look up and pay more attention towards the people around him. “I— I saw it coming out of Hyung’s back,”

Jisoo narrowed his eyes in disbelievement. “Eh? Your brother was bleeding??” 

Jeonghan shook his head, “But— but how could he still get to walk and run if he loses this amount of blood?” as he touched the liquid. “Not to mention the pain…”

How am I supposed to know?! He was crazy! he talked to himself and— and that blood just came out of his back as if he got shot by an arrow— he— he moved places in amount of second as if he got to teleport himself and—

“Hansol, are you okay?” Jeonghan place his hand on the boy’s shoulder, and calmed him down from shaking too much, “Is there anything that bothers you?”

bothers me? Mentally, he chuckled. Seungchol hyung came to this place as if he was chased by some bad guys. I bet he didn't even think of me when he ran. I dont even know where to start  but to see those kind of things with my own eyes… Hansol scoffed and shook his head, “No, I’m fine”

“You’re lying,” A warm smile was drawn from Jeonghan’s face, “It was stupid too for me to ask that, sorry. Its just that..”

“No I get it,” Hansol closed his eyes, and heaved. “You’re probably confused too"

Jihoon closed his eyes and rest his back on the tree, “Can I have some moment alone?”.

“Su— sure…” Soonyoung got up and left the place, followed by Seungchol who didn't say a word and walked behind soonyoung.

“Seungkwan this is not funny”

“Do I look like I’m joking?” He squeaked, “Hyung, to be honest I was kinda disappointed”

Eh?

“Personally, i think jeonghan hyung would make a better assist”. seungkwan crossed his arm, and sighed. “He’s more worthy of you”

“Stop calling me woozi, I’m Jihoon!” He knocked the trunk, “Lee Jihoon. And you better come down, now”

Seungkwan jumped and stood straight in front of Jihoon, “but to call you by your birth name is forbidden,” He bowed, “And for doing that for the past four months, I would like to ask your forgiveness”

Jihoon took a step back, “Seung— Seungkwan are you okay?” As it was the first time for him to see Seungkwan like that. “Hey—“

“Oh, right, I haven't introduced myself properly!” an exclamation he made “I’m Seungkwan, recently activated as the assist of Woozi, with the reliability of 50%, and my current state is 4/7” for introducing himself. “Your words are my command, hyung” He kneeled, and looked up with a smile, “I’ll do my best!”

“You’re supposed to be at home— at my home… un— unconscious and—“

“Yes, physically, I’m unconscious and is indeed lying on your basement with Dino but—“

“Who’s Dino?” Jihoon raised his hand.

Seungkwan got up “Huh? Oh, right, Woozi hyung still don't know a thing, but that's why I’m here” and gave him his two thumbs as a guarantee. “As an Assist, I am bonded to you, everything that I know, my knowledges my thoughts and even my emotions are now given to you, since I'm dead already--”

“Stop saying the word dead!!” Once again, he placed his hands on the shoulder, then shook him up, “I beg you! please stop this joke—“

“No Hyung, I beg you, please accept the reality” He flicked his hand, and in a second, they went back to the completely dark room where they met before. “For four months, I’ve been living as your friend, kinda, but from now on I can’t, I’m your assist!”

“Four months?”. What are you talking about?.

In the darkness, they hold onto each other, there were no light or anything but somehow, somehow jihoon managed to see every piece of his friend. 

The younger boy heaved, “Hyung seriously, why are you so oblivious?” and flicked his hand again, causing a huge screen emerged behind his back. “Where do I live?”.

The screen went vivid and cuts of pictures, graphics, and clips of random things were played. 

Where— where do you live?

“That screen shows how your brain works, Hyung,”. Slowly, Jihoon released his arms, “I bet you can't even remember who your parents are, and how on earth you got to live in a mansion and everything is just there without you earning or work for a single Won”.

Jihoon fell on the floor, and the floor turned into another endless screen that showed another clip of tissues, veins, and muscles. “What— what is—“.

“Hyung, you only remember who you are as a person, the nature of yourself, but everything else, it's all just a scenario” Seungkwan touched the ground and zoomed the clip, “no matter how hard you try to remember the past, it won't work cause you've been living in ‘the present’ for every piece of memory you have rght now”. And from the screen, The blood could be seen roaming down the vein. “I hope that will make you believe the reality”

The fact that Seungkwan was completely right made him want to throw himself from the bridge. “But that doesn't make sense cause if you’re dead, then why are you here?!” 

“Well of course I’m here,” He clapped his hands, and the whole room turned into a one cube of screen with clips of; “Minds, I’m here, inside your minds”.

He looked around the room, the screen, the imagery of everything that surreal to him. The clash of colors and cuts of lines, words, sounds, shapes, it were all serves right in front of his eyes. “My— my minds?”

“Yes, Hyung, starting now I’ll be living inside your minds—”

“Jihoon!!!!!”. He turned around, and was instantly welcomed by the bullet that heading his way.

He was ready to have it in his eyes, to be killed by the tin ball. But then, “Get down!!” the presence of Seungchol prevented it to happen. 

Jihoon just realized that he was no longer standing in a room, he was already standing under the big rose tree and back to the greenary. “Eh?”

“A guy is coming after us!” Seungchol grabbed jihoon by the wrist, and made him, followed his run, “Let's go!”. With his other hand, he also grabbed the shirt of Soonyoung and drag them all out of the place.

“What guy?” Jihoon couldn't see anything weird since everything just flashes around as he kept on running with his friends.

Blocking their way out, a guy stood in position to knock them out, with a gun on each of his hands. “This guy,”.

"So are we going to wait for your brother?" Jeonghan got up and fixed his hair tie, "Or do you have anything else in mind?".

Hansol looked up to him, and Jisoo who also standing next to him. "What do you mean?"

"Well, he told you to stay here with us, but somehow I feel like we shouldn't," Jisoo clucked and thinking out loud "I feel like we have to follow him--"

"Then let's go!" The youngest took no time to get up and gave all of his attention, "I-- I mean-- eh, you know,"

Jeonghan cupped the edgy face of Hansol and pinched his cheek, "Ya Jisoo, don't you want to have a kid as cute as this guy?" He beamed. It was one of his ways to calm the boy down. "Let's go and find your brother!"

"Jack pot!" The guy played with his guns as he juggled it in the air, “I came here for the beast, but apparently Mr. Brainy also here” He smirked, marking that he was serious with his words.

“a minus point…”

“What a cocky you have,” He glared at Jihoon and his mutter, “I have a name too, you know” He aimed his gun at the head of Woozi, “Call me Aron, I want you to remember it before you die”. There was no hesitation from his hand to pull the trigger. 

1, 2 , 3, 4, 5 NOW!

CLING

Jihoon raised his hand and use his nail to stop the bullet and it dropped to the ground. Huh?. 

Seungchol widened his eyes, as he clearly remembered that he used his body to stop the bullet and let it pierced his skin. But then jihoon, He just had to move his finger and no harm was caused. 

“Huh?” Soonyoung blinked his eyes, and stared at Jihoon who also shared the same face of surprised with him.

“Good, now you start to remember who you are!” Jihoon looked to the back, and found seungkwan leaning on the tree next to his urn, “Woozi hyung fighting!”.

“Just when I thought that it's going to be easy,” Aron rolled his eyes, and started to wildly fire his gun, “Die you Snobby points!”

The more he fired, the more sound of metal clicking could be heard. Jihoon stepped forward and start to calmly move his hand. one, two, three, four— “Watchout!” He warned the people behind him, as he missed a bullet from his touch and let it passed him. Seven, eight, nine— after the ninth bullet, he could finally take a deep breath.

Just like his enemy, Aron also sighed heavily and relax his arm. “I’ll be rational, I don't think I would win today” He chuckled and throw his gun away, “Not with this stolen cops trash pistol. I’ll face you later with the real thing, see you” Before he turned around, and disappeared in a blink of an eye.

“Sunbae are you okay—“

“I said I’m not your sunbae,” Seungchol told Jihoon to put down the honorific, “And yes. Actually, I cant feel anything” and slowly walked away from him. While still holding onto his bloody chest, he sat on one of the stones near them.

“How do you do that?” Soonyoung nodded and stuck his eyes with Jihoon, “How do you stop the bullets without hurting yourself??”

How?. In truth, he didn't have a clue either.

“It's all about physics and not being human,” From afar, Seungkwan answered the question. “You touched it at the right time with the right force using the right hand”.

Of course, only Jihoon could hear the voice “Physics, I guess?” and it gave him the need to pass the answer. “Can I— can I go back to the tree?”. After he saved their lives, Both Soonyoung and seungchol could only nod at whatever he said.

Jihoon walked back to the rose tree, and confront the boy who never left its side. “What did I just do?”

A bright smile emerged from the face of Seungkwan as he started to nod happily, “I’m glad that I could help!”

Not intended to be rude; but what did you do to help me? . 

“Well, actually,” It was like Seungkwan could hear his mind, “I help you to remember, helping you, isn't that the use of an assist?”.

“Remember? so— so I’ve done that before?” 

“Of course!” He chuckled, “You’ve done that a year ago, when you managed to kill me!”

note: I'll be away for a week or so.., just hope that you guys will still be there whn i'm back (?) hehe