137 hours before the crash

Sitting at his desk, a man closed his binder before leaning on the back of his chair. Stretching out, he let out a grunt and a sigh. Another unsolved case. The man stared at his empty cup of coffee with a raised brow, the half-closed Venetian blinds playing light tricks on the smooth white ceramic surface. It was dark inside the room, but the man didn’t seem to mind at all.

“A difficult case?” questioned his partner, a short brunette.

“Unsolved murder.” the man muttered. “And I’m out of coffee.”

With a chuckle, she got up and took his cup, walking toward the small kitchen of the precinct.

“I needed a break too,” Min confessed while the brown liquid dropped into the mug.

The man just stared at her with a blank expression.

“Kris, you okay?” Min asked with a look of worry.

The man ran a hand through his black locks with another sigh. “I think I need a vacation,” he coldly stated.

“Once we’re done, feel free to go wherever you want to. I heard Korea is especially beautiful at this time of year.”

“Korea, huh...”

Silence filled the room as Wu Yifan, alias Kris, just went back to staring at his folder. Why were murders always this complicated? Why couldn’t culprits just walk inside the police station, admitting all their crimes? Surely that would make his job easier. Min set the mug down on his desk and he inhaled the odor of the freshly brewed beans. Something about it made him feel comfortable. Suddenly lifting his head, he glanced at his coworker with an inquisitive look. Min swallowed hard, knowing exactly what it meant...

“Did we check the landlord’s alibi?”

“It checked out. He was clearly seen on the surveillance camera’s footage.”

“What if it was staged?” Kris hypothesized. “He could have used a video from any other night...”

Suddenly, it was like all his confidence had came back. He looked around, surprised to see no one else. Was it that late already?

“Definitely check that out,” he ordered his partner. “And open the damn blinds. I can’t see a thing!”

125 hours before the crash

Standing over a bridge, Kai really thought he could fall. With the wind in his hair and nobody around, he could really feel the feeling of liberty. No, he had no suicidal thought, at least, not when he had finished school and finally graduated.

Tracing the outline of the box that was laying by his side, he took a glance at it’s content. Old notebooks he would never use, old books he never truly read, old pencil case that was approximately half as full as when he first started the semester. He had no idea where the pencil kept going, but for sure they were running away from him.

“Just like everybody else,” he commented aloud. Not that he minded. In fact, the more people stayed away from him, the better is was.

In one swift move, he emptied the content of his cardboard box into the river, no paying any attention to things like “pollution”. In fact, the idea sounded pretty romantic. A man on a bridge, throwing away his past and looking at the future, a man alone against the whole world. He smirked as the idea pleased him. Staring at his empty hands, he noticed the scars that created small irregularities on his skin. Scars he got from beating and being beaten. Scars he got from fighting against the world. They would become his trophy, the proof that he was really on a journey.

With one last look at the heaps of paper that were slowly sinking at the bottom of the river, Kai jumped down the bridge’s railing. Now what? Now, he had to go and make money to save lives, or rather one life in particular... Maybe then, he would be worth something...

What else did he have to do before? Well, there was this business trip his parents had to go to and he had to go too. Maybe he could stay longer, actually try to discover the center of finance. Surely if one was looking to make money, Wall Street was the place he should aim for.

118 hours before the crash

The sentence was only written for a second, the ink hadn’t completely dried on the ruled paper pad, before Hwang Soohyun crossed it out. How could she greet the members of the Scientific Academy like that. No, she needed something much classier, yet very straightforward, that politely explained the devotion she felt toward science. Twisting the pen’s cap absentmindedly, she decided she needed a break. Stretching her arms over her head, she yawned and took the time to rub the back of her neck. Agitating her feet slightly, so that the blood would keep circulating properly even though she had been sat for hours, she went back to work. She knew her research, she had taken a big part in it, after all, and she knew how to bring it to the Academy to make it seem interesting and important, she hadn’t been chosen for nothing, but introductions were not her forte. Soohyun had to acknowledged that maybe, despite her upbringing, she was not a people person? Something in that fact bothered her a lot. Maybe it was the admittance that she wasn’t able to do something?

You would have thought that a girl who grew up surrounded by eight siblings would know how to speak to others, but it was not quite the case. The house where she grew with a big family like hers was pure Darwinism: the fittest survived. Being the eldest, she had learnt how to take things fast before any other siblings took it. No ceremony, no politeness, just “take what you need before someone else try”. And then, she had to take care of the others, convince them to act like good little children, convince them to do things how she wanted things to be done. Basically, having a big family allowed her to develop her ability to synthesise, but also to sugarcoat, to some extent. However, she wasn’t quite sure how that would translate to fully grown intelligent adults. Scientists weren’t exactly like children who were hungry, didn’t want to take a bath or refused to do their homework...

With a sigh, she looked at her wristwatch to plan her revise her schedule. She had to write her speech, travel to New York, give her speech, then come back to Busan to complete her other projects. She was so busy, and yet it was the way she liked her life.

40 hours before the crash

Long strands of straight black hair fluttered under the moonlight as the girl it belonged too just kept running. With a smirk, she entered a dark alley. Flattening herself against the wall, she allowed herself few seconds to catch her breath. She could hear the sirens coming her way. Scowling at the loud noise, she disappeared into the shadows and began running again. New York’s streets were clearly working in her favor with all the one-ways, and soon, she was safe.

Who would have thought that cops would bust the warehouse at the exact moment she was doing her business, sharing her loot with her companions. It was the lights that had given them away. She had been able to clearly see them through the windows and had fled, leaving her partners behind. If they weren’t able to get out of this situation by themselves, they surely not deserved her help.

Entering the New-York-based head-quarters of her family, she addressed a recognition nod at the tall guy leaning against the wall, guarding their lair.

“Already back, Gayuri?” he laughed.

“I had some trouble on the way,” she asserted.

“Did trouble followed you here?” the guy inquired with a frown.

Gayuri huffed. “Do you think I’m a beginner?” she retorted looking dangerously offended.

The guy back backed away with a smile. Akimono Gayuri wasn’t someone he could just annoy. Despite their height difference, she still had a pretty mean kick and the ability to snap his neck in a matter of seconds.

Pushing her long hair back, she silently made her way inside the hideout, to her room. Somehow, she couldn’t wait to be done with this city and go back to Japan. As weird as it seemed, she kind of missed her boss. Surely he would be proud of her job.

Opening a drawer of her wooden desk, she took out her fake-passport and smiled. Her plane ticket was already booked. She was eager to go home.

91 hours before the crash

With an audible sigh she stared at her ring finger absentmindedly. How did things wind up like this? The question replayed in her mind a hundredth time like a broken record and she was getting tired of hearing the same song over and over again. She had forsaken everything to be with him and now that she finally was going to give her “I do”, she had just left. Like that, without even looking back.

Softly twirling her glass of martini in her hand,  she looked up at the time. Raimundo had surely noticed she was gone and had probably found her note by now. With a little shrug, she brought the glass to her lips sipping it’s content, emptying it. The barman gave her a questioning look when she asked for a fourth one. With an effortlessly flirty smirk, the woman flipped her hair back and pulled out her credit card, putting it on the bar for him to take. Her flight to New York wasn’t before an hour might as well do something in the meanwhile.

Her phone vibrated, a side-glance to it made her see the picture of the man she thought she loved. Did she really? Or had it all been a simple way to spite her father? With a push on the off button she ended her relationship and was ready to forget everything about this adventure that had brought her to the other side of the world. Needless to say, Song Kimi’s time in Brazil wasn’t a waste. She had everything she had dreamt of: fame, attention and recognition for her work. The only thing she missed was her father’s approval and encouragement. It was time to change that; it was time to make amends with her family. Her next step had been decided the moment she stepped out of her hotel room.

After gulping down the last bit of her martini she grabbed her bag and her phone to find herself a more quiet place to make the call. With trembling fingers she dialled her father's number, at least she hoped he had still the same one. Her thumb hovered on the call button for a few second before giving it a firm push, with a speeding heart she brought the phone at her ear. The ringing tone made her heart only beat faster, two years of silence was going to be broken in a few seconds.

"Song Jongwoo speaking," her father answered. His voice was still the same, cold a bit distant, a real businessman.  The always confident Kimi felt her knees slightly shake, but managed to answer in a faked confident voice. " Abba, it's Kimi," a short silence followed. Whether it had been only a few seconds or a few minutes was something she couldn't tell, for her it had seemed to last for an eternity before her father answered with a small sentence. "I knew it would never last, just come home," he hung up after that, maybe it was the emotions that had overwhelmed him or maybe he had nothing more to say. Kimi couldn't tell, she brought the back of her hand up wiping away a small escaped tear. After all it had ages since she had heard her father's voice.

20 hours before the crash

His gracious body moved with the rhythm of the loud music a smirk dancing on his lips as a young woman made her way to him. Of course, he thought, a guy like him could never be left alone especially not when he was going out.

"Are you on your own?" The blonde asked in English, for once he mentally thanked his father for making him get a private tutor. His English was almost as flawless as hers. If not for the accent, he could have passed for a native speaker. Joon leaned forwards whispering in her ear seductively, “not anymore,” while he grabbed her hand pulling her body even closer to his dancing on the music.

A few songs and drinks later he found himself into a hotel room trying to put his clothes back on, chuckling to himself. His dance partner looked up a sheet wrapped around her.

“Can I atleast have your number?”

He almost laughed hearing that question.

“Always the same thing,” he muttered in Korean before flashing his seductive smile again. “Sorry, I’m going back to my home country tomorrow, but I had a lot of fun.”

Joon pulled up his hoodie under the fresh morning breeze. Walking in the street, he lit up a cigarette and inhaled the needed nicotine as he texted his best friend with the details of his flight. Scrolling through his old messages he found a few missed one of his parents scolding him to come back and take care of business instead of fooling around.

“Still bossing me around,” he muttered underneath his breath, inhaling from his cigarette again while pushing his phone away in his back pocket. At least he had fun during his stay here, with a sigh he hailed a cab. All the fun was going to be over now that he was going to start working for his father.

36 hours before the crash

“Hyun Jae stop running around,” Yixing quickened his steps grabbing her hand. “Stay close to us, I don’t want to lose you again,” emphasizing on the again.

Juliet looked at the couple shaking her head softly a bit embarrassed seeing her friends acting like that again.

“Guys,” the couple turned around looking at their friend pointing at something. Yixing nodded while Jay furrowed her brows.

“What? Why are you nodding?”

He snickered as he pulled her to the direction Juliet had pointed, the latter leading the way until she reached a hotdog stand.

“Seriously Jay, we can’t stand at Time Square without tasting a fresh hotdog right?” Juliet nudged her friend softly, ordering three hotdogs with every topping they offered for them.

Jay tugged on Yixing’s sleeve. “A stand like that, is it clean?”

Juliet caught her question making her furrow her brows. “Stop fussing Hyun Jae and take a bite.” She handed her friend the hotdog with a paper napkin, urging her to try.

Yixing took his hotdog over, taking a bite nodding showing he liked it. Jay was still hesitating, looking at Juliet dipping with the napkin.

“A hotdog won’t kill me but if it does I will come back as a ghost haunting you two,” she said seriously before forcing herself to take a bite.

They didn’t even look up of her weird threat and just chuckled, Juliet threw a glance to Yixing. “How do you do it?”

He smiled looking at her finally munching on the hotdog. “When you love someone you take the flaws too. Imagine how she acts when she needs to use the public toilets at the movies.”

Juliet straightened her dress. “I already know how,” she replied putting a thumb up to Jay who nodded her head smiling.

“Better than I thought,” she linked her free arm with her boyfriend’s starting to walk around again enjoying New York’s scenery with their best friend before heading back to their hotel. Jay made sure both her boyfriend as her best friend would rest enough to be ready for the long flight back.

16 hours before the crash

A newlywed couple was sitting near the window of a cosy café enjoying a hot drink after a few hours of sightseeing. The young brunette was holding her husband’s hand tightly listening to him explaining what they were going to do next. Jonghyun squeezed her hand softly.

“What do you think about it? This restaurant looks good no?”

Sooyeon looked up nodding, “I think it looks cosy, if you want to go there I’m good with it.”

Like usual she had agreed with her husband’s suggestion without really thinking about it. Jonghyun kept going on and on over everything they had done, she listened and hummed a few times to what he said gazing at his face amorously. They stood up, he interlaced his fingers with Sooyeon's holding her close to him. Everyone needed to know that she was with him, he didn't mind showing affection to her to make that clear.

"Is there still anything that you want to see?" He turned his head to face her, smiling at her softly waiting for an answer.

"Do you want to see something?" Sooyeon said while shaking her head.

Jonghyun gazed around, "No let's just go have lunch before heading back to the hotel. We still need to pack all our stuff."

Sooyeon pouted softly thinking how the time flew since they arrived it was already the end of their honeymoon.

Jonghyun saw the disappointment and kissed her head softly, " I promise you we’ll come back here for a second honeymoon, sweetheart."

A smile curved on her lips, "That sounds great, but only if you want."

He chuckled.

"Of course or else I wouldn't have offered it... Sometimes I wonder if you like anything we do or are you just pleasing me?"

Sooyeon quickly shook her head and stopped walking looking at her husband worriedly.

" I'm happy when you are honey, I enjoy spending time with you no matter what we do."

"Okay then, I want you to be happy and I will try to make that happen for the rest of our lives," he turned back around swaying their hands softly while they walked to the Italian restaurant.

Jonghyun knew how to make Sooyeon happy; she loved the small gestures rather than the grand declarations. The way he held the door open for her as she walked inside the restaurant. The way he pulled out the chair for her, waiting for her to sit before taking place himself.

"Honey, it's really nice here."

The soft atmosphere inside the restaurant was perfect to end their honeymoon on a romantic note. Sooyeon seemed happy, making the young husband relax as he ordered for the both of them. She looked at her perfectly manicured nails, making sure none of them broke while Jonghyun spoke to the waiter.

The waiter came back with a bottle of red wine serving the both of them. He picked his glass up leaning it towards her, she followed his move.

"To us, to a new beginning," he toasted, clinking their glasses together.

15 hours before the crash

Lee Enrui jumped to catch the ball and instantly threw it back at one of her brothers. Jinki struggled to try to catch it but instead tripped over his own feet and fell down, face down on the grass. Jaehan, the second eldest, looked at his older brother with a raised brow and started laughing. Lifting his bangs out of his face, Jinki rested his elbows on the ground with a frown before rolling on his back, lazily. Both the younger Lee siblings watched him with a knowing smile. Sneakily walking up to him, Enrui launched herself on the Jinki’s stomach, making him breathless. Her fun was cut short when her other brother, Jaehan, decided to join. Soon, all three of the older Lee siblings were forming a happy piled up mess.

“Really, now?” commented Dongen, the youngest, who had only came back now from his little food gathering trip. “And you are supposed to be adults…”

Dongen sighed as the other siblings glared and their father, who had accompanied his last born, just laughed.

Pushing Jaehan and Enrui off him, Jinki stood up and patted away the grass that had stuck to his clothes. “Is it time to go?” he asked their father.

“No, you have a few more hours.”

Jinki gave an understanding nod before sitting back down. Lifting his eyes to watch the blue sky, he smiled thinking that was the way he wanted to spend his days. Well, there were buildings all around them, it was New York after all, but in Central Park, nature seemed to rule the world. Too bad he would have to go back home so soon…

“Why are you going?” Enrui asked. “You could stay with us for a few more days…”

“Sorry, chicken. I have a job to do,” he said looking at his only sister. “Beside, Jaehan an you should come with me. You’re starting your second semester of University soon. And you are working too!”

The rest of the affirmation wasn’t directed at her, so Enrui just stepped back, rolling her eyes. Jaehan watched the finger that was accusingly pointed at his chest and he snorted. “I took a vacation! You should do other things than your work, you know. Maybe it’s time you get a girlfriend or something…”

Jinki’s eyes widened and he caught his brother in an arm lock. However, Jaehan wasn’t willing to go down easy. Dongen watched his brothers with a sigh.

“You know chicken,” their father told Enrui, “Maybe you should go back with him… I think it could be great if you could have some time to prepare yourself for University before the vacations ended.”

“But I want to stay here,” Enrui protested loudly. However, seeing the look on her father’s face she gave up. “Fine!”

“Then we should go see if there is another place available on that plane…”

Picking up her ball, Enrui threw it a Jinki. “It’s all your fault,” she pouted.

12 hours before the crash

“Mia, come back here,” asked Cho Hyunmi with a smile. Her daughter, Cho-Gossilen Mia turned her head to look at her mother with teary eyes. With a cute pout, she pointed the pink stuffed toy that was hanging on a rack.

“Honey...” pleaded Hyunmi after feeling Mia’s expression tug at her maternal fiber. “I know it’s pink, but when we’ll get back home you’ll have all your pink stuff... I mean toys!”

With a stubborn stare, Mia looked back at the pink elephant, then at her Loopy doll, then at her mother who was anxiously waiting for an answer. Mia finally ran back to her mother with arms wide open and Hyunmi scooped her up to hold her and sit back down with a relieved sigh. It wasn’t that Mia was a difficult child - she wasn’t - or that she couldn’t say no - she could, sometimes - but whenever situations involved a shade between red and white, Mia tended to become headstrong. The calm and docile Hyunmi couldn’t help but wonder who had given her that trait. Her father probably... And speaking of the devil:

“Where is daddy?” Mia asked.

“I thought we talked about it, honey. He has to stay here and we have to go home.”

But Mia’s eyes reflected everything but understanding.

“Daddy has to stay here because he has to fight many monsters. Staying is dangerous, so we have to get back home! Mommy called a big bird that’s going to make us fly back home! You’ll have to say thank you to the bird, right Mia?”

“Why can’t we stay with daddy?”

“Because we are not strong enough. We have to go back home to get stronger, and then we can come back and fight monsters!”

“When will I be stronger?”

“When you will be able to eat all your vegetables without whining,” the mother closed the discussion. Somehow, that answer satisfied Mia who stayed silent.

Although Hyunmi loved her daughter more than anything, the questioning was starting to annoy her, especially because she didn’t have all the answers. Why did they have to go? Because she had a job, but what else... When would they be coming back? Hyunmi seriously didn’t know. If the only thing that mattered was her opinion, she would never come back. Or maybe she would have never left? Facing the reality was really hard. Hyunmi really wished from the bottom of her heart that she could really be a magician and live between worlds, with Mia by her side she had all she needed.

12 hours before the crash

Tapping his foot on the airport’s floor, Lee Taemin was getting impatient. He was about to finally get home, so there was nothing to really be excited about, but he couldn’t help the fuzzy feeling inside. He longed to see his family, yet he felt no particular attachment to the Korean soil. Truth be told, he wasn’t so keen on going home, but he had too. His service was finished and if he wanted to go back, he had to come home to take his next orders. He still had bittersweet feelings about his service and his country. While the first allowed him to escape, it was also because of it that he had to escape. And the second was his home, yet there were so many memories attached to it, good and bad.

With all his might, he hoped that he could be the kind of man, strong enough to go to his ex and say “hi” with a true smile. But it still hurt and he wished he wouldn’t have to face her or his bestfri...ex-bestfriend, again...

Reaching for something in his pocket, Taemin pulled out a worn out letter. How many time had he read it, hoping in vain that the content would be changed, that by some miracle, he hadn’t read correctly the first time and that the one girl he swore to love all his life wasn’t marrying his bestfri... ex-bestfriend. Each time he had opened it, the words still stung as much as the first time.

Above all, what he was the saddest about this whole story was the fact that he had lost a good friend. While Taemin could never forgive his ex-bestfriend, deep down inside, he wanted things to go back to the way they were. Maybe, he shouldn’t ask to leave soon and instead, just take a vacation to maybe, possibly have time to go to their wedding. Given that he was strong enough...

Getting tired of reminiscing sad memories in a corner, Taemin craved for divertissement as he walked to the soldiers of his unit, hoping they were talking about something interesting.

Authors' Note

Lydine says: I hope you'll notice how they all got some issues... XD Obviously, getting stranded will help them face their problems. Can't see that? I'll give you a clue: there are the ones who always want to control, you have the ones who live in the past, the one who are running away and you have the ones who need to grow up. 

For those who haven't been chosen, I am so sorry! Now, it was honestly difficult coming up with the characters we were going to use, and I made a diagram that allowed at least ten good possibilities. In the end, we chose one that allowed one character for each plotline. :)

Given the setting, a cameo is pretty much impossible and I cry thinking of this many good apps going to "waste". By all mean, recycle them into whatever you want ;) I don't mind if you want to spin-off your character... XD

I think you can see the difference in Angie and my writing, but hopefully it won't hinder your reading. XD

And I think we did pretty good on the characterization, but we'll let you be judge of that...