November 22, 2025; Beijing, China

Tuning the device on for the nth time that day, Luhan prayed in his mind that it would work. It has been a year since he started working on his by far, the most impossible invention.

Impossible. Really impossible as he knew some humans like him have tried creating something like it but utterly failed.

Impossible as he felt that it was indeed that way when he started his research more than a year ago and made several prototypes—but failed too.

But it could be a way for me to go back, with that thought; he motivated himself that it would somehow work. He trusted his skills and his research, as he really wanted to go back at the time.

A small smile formed his lips as the device started ticking. The circular blades that he had installed earlier almost broke down so he replaced it with another. Can I finally see you, Rei?

He closed his eyes as he felt everything around him moving, as if there is an earthquake.

Rei… Rei…

Ri Seu lazily sat down at her chair and closed her eyes. She wanted to have a real rest from school work and go somewhere.

It’s her third year in teaching grade school kids and it has began to feel tiring as she was not allowed to take a longer time off aside from her rest days (Saturday and Sundays). She loved teaching kids, but it has started to burn her out.

“Teacher Park, you may take your lunch now.” She almost rolled her eyes when she heard their head teacher said that. It was almost two in the afternoon and she’s been speaking and walking since seven.

“Thanks,” she replied. She has no appetite at all—not when it was already past lunch. She’d prefer to go to her dorm room and rest for a while.

She’s fortunate to be given the privilege to avail dorm room at their school. It’s one of the best boarding schools in Seoul, where students and teachers living far from the city are given the choice to stay at the dorms and they can go home during weekends.

 She checked out the time on her phone and lazily pulled out her dorm key from her uniform pocket. She still has fifty minutes left for her lunch break, plus the one hour vacant before her homeroom class. Not bad, she thought. I would sleep for an hour then eat early dinner; she planned on her mind as she took off her shoes and stockings.

Shock flooded her as she found something on her bed—a man clad in dirty white robe, sleeping; though she’s not sure if it was really a man.

She tip-toed beside her bed and examined the stranger. Her eyes widened as she confirmed that it was a man—a very beautiful man. Where did he come from?

The man slowly opened his eyes; Ri Seu on the other hand pulled a baseball bat at the hidden side of her refrigerator and prepared herself in case the man assaults her.

He sat on the side of the bed, holding onto the broken clock in his right hand and his forehead on his left. It sure felt awful as he felt the world around him spinning—the aftershock of the ‘time travel’ isn’t something to be taken lightly.

He looked around him and snorted as he saw the appliances around him. Old, he thought. He then noticed that he was not alone in that room—a woman looking at him with a bat on her hands standing at the far side of the room, as if waiting for him to come move.

“I’m not a bad person—you see I traveled in time,” you can’t go on telling everyone you traveled back in time, Luhan. He knew that it was the stupidest thing he could tell a stranger that he just met but that is the truth, especially if she’s prepared to assault him. She just looked at him and it seemed like she did not understand him.

“You don’t even speak my language!” She screamed, ready to launch her attack. There is in no way that she will let a burglar mess up with her ‘home’ and buy the excuse of traveling in time.

“I’m from year 2025,” he said with the same language as hers, though he had no intention of telling what year he came from, if only he landed on a much safer and genera