Chapter Two

    Afternoon turns into evening. The sun sinks deeper and deeper into the horizon and the pile of ancient-looking books beside Chanyeol gets smaller and smaller until all the books are messily discarded on the short-legged table in front of him. His research has been fruitful and he is now a hundred percent certain that what happened to Baekhyun is an effect of a Syzygy. But the questions in his mind increases a little and he wonders why he did not sense that something as big as that was about to happen. For 300 years, he has been waiting for something like that to happen so he could find a way back to Juno, his home planet. For 300 years, he relied on his guts to feel something like this and his guts never failed him--until now. But he shrugs this thought off since what happened is only a Syzygy concerning parallel universes and not planets. His train of thoughts is interrupted, however, when he realizes how dark it is outside. His stomach gives an upset rumble of protest and he realizes that he must have skipped dinner time while he was immersed in reading. Chanyeol looks over to his right where Baekhyun is sitting and finds that the smaller is curled up in a ball, his head cradled on the couch’s armrest and his feet softly touching Chanyeol’s thighs.

“Baekhyun?”

Chanyeol tries to call out his name but the said boy’s eyes refuse to flutter open. Instead, Chanyeol gets a sleepy whine in response. He tries once again and Baekhyun does the same. This causes a small smile to spread on Chanyeol’s face because he has always found it adorable whenever Baekhyun whines like a puppy while he is asleep. He remembers him doing this after they drank beer (well, Baekhyun drank) and ate fried chicken. Baekhyun fell asleep on his shoulder and instead of snoring like a normal adult, he whimpered and moaned like a puppy.

‘At least this thing about Baekhyun is still the same,’ Chanyeol thinks.

Checking the time, Chanyeol decides that he should just let Baekhyun sleep since it is way past dinner time anyway and if he gets hungry in the middle of the night, he could take care of himself. He stands up and momentarily debates with himself whether he would carry the petite guy up to the living room or to just let him be in the library. He chooses the latter option and begins to walk back up the living room only to look back when he hears a particularly loud whine from the sleeping male. Baekhyun shivers a little and pulls his legs closer to his chest in an attempt to keep himself warm in his sleep causing Chanyeol to sigh and trudge over to his room. Less than a minute later, he lays a colorful quilt on Baekhyun’s lean form. He immediately relaxes and his delicate-looking fingers tightly grasp the edge of the quilt before letting out a content sigh. Chanyeol chuckles to himself, finding it extremely adorable how the huge couch and thick blanket seem to swallow and make Baekhyun look extremely tiny.

“You sure sleep more now…” Chanyeol muses.

The Baekhyun that he knows does not sleep that much and spends the whole day badgering Chanyeol to order food and pay attention only to him. The Baekhyun he knows is an entitled stubborn little and does not know how to respect his personal space. However, the Baekhyun he spent this day with is quite respectful. While eager and a little demanding, he still listened to Chanyeol and obeys when told to shut up. Chanyeol shrugs his thoughts off and makes his way out of the library once again.

Tomorrow is a new day. He has to find a way to take Baekhyun home.

-----

“So...you still have no idea who caused the Sizzling?” Baekhyun asks and takes the last bite of his breakfast (courtesy of the handsome Park Chanyeol).

Chanyeol places a glass of cucumber lemonade next to Baekhyun’s now empty plate before situating himself on the chair across him to sip his cup of coffee.

“It’s not ‘Sizzling’, Baekhyun,” Chanyeol says.

Baekhyun blushes and sputters for a while.

“Well...I’m forgetful. What was it again?” Baekhyun timidly asks.

“It’s ‘Sy-zy-gy’,” Chanyeol corrects as he puts their empty plates in the sink.

“Okay, okay. The Syzygy. There, is that correct now?” Baekhyun says.

Chanyeol wordlessly nods at him before returning to his seat across Baekhyun.

“Do you know who caused it and if they could help me return to my universe?”

Baekhyun’s attention is divided between his conversation with Chanyeol and the breakfast he just ate. For an alien, Chanyeol sure does make delicious meals. His breakfast was not just composed of hastily fried eggs, bacons and sausages. There were carefully made side dishes laid out on the table along with some steamed fish and green onion pancakes as the main dish. After months of living off on instant noodles and fast food in the dorm, eating the warm breakfast sure tasted like coming home to his parents’ house. Baekhyun takes a sip of the lemonade and finds that he could no longer stop because of how refreshing it tastes.

“Wow, this lemonade tastes so good, Chanyeol-shi! Can you teach me how to make it?!” Baekhyun exclaims, interrupting what Chanyeol has been saying.

Chanyeol blinks for a while before replying, “Sure…?”

“Great! I bet it’s just a piece of cake! I can make this in the dorm!” Baekhyun says.

“As I was saying, I don’t think finding the person who caused it is going to be easy, Baekhyun. That person could have--”

“What is this made of again?” Baekhyun cuts in once again.

Chanyeol lets out a resigned sigh. He should have known that Baekhyun is not listening to him.

“Uh, it’s just cucumber and lemon.”

Upon hearing the word cucumber, Baekhyun spits the lemonade in his mouth back in the glass and gags a little.

“There’s cucumber in that?” Baekhyun slowly says, still feeling disgusted that he just let some vile cucumber essence slide down his throat and into his digestive system.

Chanyeol nods, eyeing Baekhyun’s weird behavior warily.

“That’s disgusting, Byun Baekhyun,” Chanyeol finally comments after getting over his mini shock.

“Sorry...it’s just...I hate cucumbers…they smell so revolting…” Baekhyun explains, still trying to stop himself from vomiting.

“Okay,” Chanyeol awkwardly replies.

Baekhyun pushes away the taste of cucumbers by stuffing his mouth with leftover pancakes.

“Oh, right! Chanyeol-shi, what were you saying about the Syzygy?” Baekhyun says, suddenly remembering the main subject of their conversation.

Chanyeol wants to facepalm and hit his forehead on the table because he really resents having to repeat himself. He is about to reprimand Baekhyun for having a short attention span but he holds his tongue and decides to extend his patience just a little more.

“I said that it’s not going to be that easy to find the person who connected the two universes.”

“But you would help me, right? I mean, it’s easier when I have someone like you,” Baekhyun says.

“Someone like me?” Chanyeol asks, thinking that Baekhyun would say something about him being intelligent or something like that.

“Someone like you. You know, an alien with superpowers,” Baekhyun shrugs and Chanyeol tosses a soaked rag at his face.

Baekhyun yelps in surprise and throws it back at Chanyeol but even before the rag hits the taller’s face, he disappears. In a split second, he re-appears in front of Baekhyun with a frown on his face.

“Stop saying that. You are putting the secrecy of my identity on the line!” Chanyeol hisses.

This causes Baekhyun to stammer, attempting to put a distance between his and Chanyeol’s face but finds it impossible with the backrest of his chair on the way. Chanyeol is so close that Baekhyun cannot even admire his perfect face without becoming cross-eyed, so he puts a shaking hand on the taller’s shoulder and gives him a slight push.

“A-Alright, I’m s-sorry…” Baekhyun breathes out.

Chanyeol glares at him for a few moments more before finally disappearing. He does not re-appear again but the sound of his voice from the second floor tells Baekhyun that he teleported to his room.

“Get out of my house!”

Baekhyun does not do as told because there is just no way that he is going to Jin Yeseul’s apartment. Kim Jonghyun could have planted thousands of y traps there last night. Chanyeol yells again but Baekhyun just makes a face and proceeds to wash the dishes.

-----

Despite Baekhyun’s defiance over Chanyeol’s command for him to go back to his apartment next door, the small brunette is now standing in the lavish bathroom of the said apartment. No matter how hard he begged and whined at Chanyeol to let him stay by his side, he was still unceremoniously dragged outside like a fat sack of potato. He stayed at Chanyeol’s doorstep for a few minutes, banged his fists against the wooden front door and threatened the giant alien through the intercom but obviously, none of that worked. A guy wearing the uniform of the security guys in the apartment building appeared and asked Baekhyun if there was a problem. He was going to say that Chanyeol was bullying him. However, with the memory of seeing Jin Yeseul being kidnapped after getting drugged by one of Kim Jonghyun’s minions who was dressed as a doctor, Baekhyun panicked and entered his supposed apartment without uttering another word.

Upon entering the comforts of his new apartment, Baekhyun was yet again awed by how everything that belonged to Jin Yeseul was completely altered to become his. Everything in the flat screamed of Byun Baekhyun from his gorgeous portraits (which he did not remember posing for) hanging on the walls to the furniture that perfectly suits his style down to the little meaningful trinkets littering the surfaces of any table or shelf. When he went to open the cupboards in the pantry and the refrigerator in the kitchen, he was pleased to see them filled with his favorite snacks and drinks.

A few minutes after exploring his new nest, Baekhyun is now standing in the lavish bathroom, a fluffy white towel draped around his wide and pale hips while he checks himself out on the full length mirror. He narrows his eyes at his skin and squints while he leans in to get a closer look at the reflection of his face.

“Wow, my face sure looks so much more flawless in this universe,” Baekhyun says to himself.

He nods in appreciation and moves away. Of course, he is the top actor in this universe and his pretty face is his biggest asset. It is just right that his management is taking good care of him to keep his ethereal appearance from becoming dull.

Baekhyun saunters towards what he supposes is the walk-in closet door. Without hesitation, he flings the door open and the sight makes his heart drop. This time, it is not caused by his awe of the luxurious things under his name. Fear creeps into his bloodstream as he looks at the disheveled state of the spacious closet. Pieces of clothings are everywhere, shoes are thrown all over the floor some drawers were ripped out of their respective places.

The walk-in closet is a huge mess and there is only one person responsible for this. Baekhyun is sure that Kim Jonghyun had been inside this place, desperately looking for the flash drive containing the secret meeting between Shin Sekyung and his wife who is supposed to be dead already. Kim Jonghyun trashed the closet completely. As Baekhyun looks around, he notices how the wallpaper had been furiously ripped off some parts of the wall. Whoever did this did not only intend to simply search for the flash drive but he also aimed to frighten Baekhyun. The thought that someone, probably Kim Jonghyun, had been inside the apartment and did this makes Baekhyun’s blood run cold. With a frantic gasp escaping his lips, Baekhyun whips around while his eyes wander in a paranoid manner.

-----

Chanyeol’s first attempt to get Baekhyun out of his apartment proved to be fruitless. That has been predictable since the smaller male is a stubborn little prick but Chanyeol really needs to attend to something confidential that day. With Baekhyun inside the house, it would be difficult for Chanyeol to escape without getting caught under the radar of the brunette. Sure he could always teleport but his abilities are gradually dwindling and he does not want to exhaust them over petty things. With Baekhyun finally out of his hair at the moment, Chanyeol moves about in his room, laying out his outfit for the day. The banging of Baekhyun’s fist against his front door halted a few moments ago and if he strains his ears just a little, he could make out Baekhyun’s raspy voice obnoxiously belting out tunes at the top of his lungs. Chanyeol could hear the faint sound of running water so he could just guess that the other is taking a shower.

He lets a small smile grace his lips as he starts pulling his shirt over his head to change. However, after he finishes buttoning up his new shirt, a sudden flash of bright green light dazzles him. He blinks his eyes and once they could see again, Chanyeol takes several steps backwards in utter confusion and surprise. Situated a few feet away from him is a hologram image of a man that he knows very well. The man is in his early 60s and his eyes still perfectly mirror the kindness of the soul beneath it. It has been a long time and Chanyeol could see the manifestation of passing time through the more accentuated crows feet beneath the man’s eyes and the absence of color in the man’s hair.

“Aren’t you going to greet me properly?” the man asks with a voice that sounds distant and echoey.

As if the sentence uttered is a command, Chanyeol immediately bends to his waist and absent-mindedly mutters a greeting. He is still reeling from the sudden appearance of this hologram. This is the first time in 300 Earth years that he has been contacted by someone from Juno; never did he expect that it would be Emperor Lee himself who would reach out first.

“My mind was made up to initiate a small talk first by asking how you have been but I can tell that you have been doing just fine on your own. You look very strange in those garments but...you seem well enough,” Emperor Lee says, regarding Chanyeol with a small upturn of the corners of his lips.

But Chanyeol cannot bring himself to return the gesture and he finds himself simply staring back, still very much shocked at the sudden hologram image.

“You might be wondering why I am contacting you in the middle of your exile but it has come to our attention that someone from Juno took advantage of the recent Syzygy,” Emperor Lee says when he realizes that Chanyeol is not up for small talk.

“Sir?” Chanyeol utters, eyes wide.

The one responsible for Baekhyun being transported in this universe is from Chanyeol’s own planet and this means that it would be difficult to get in contact with them. Well, there goes the petite man’s hope for someone to help him return to his own universe.

“We caught most of the group of hooligans. They meddled with things that they should not have and caused the appearance of a black hole that swallowed the entire neighboring galaxy into oblivion. The result of their imprudent behavior cannot be easily overlooked. They are responsible for the extinction of several races and the inhabitants of nearby planets are condemning Juno.”

The smile on Emperor Lee’s face is replaced with a grave expression, making Chanyeol feel sorry that the kind man has to deal with something like this. He did not expect that with the appearance of Byun Baekhyun, millions and millions of life form from other planets have been wiped out. However, Chanyeol puts his racing thoughts away and pushes them at the back of his mind to look back at the Emperor once again.

“I understand the kind of predicament that our planet is in at the moment, Emperor Lee, and I’m not trying to sound disrespectful…” Chanyeol begins, testing the waters. When the face that is being portrayed by the hologram does not change, he continues speaking.

“What does this have to do with me?” Chanyeol inquires in a small voice but nonetheless, the older hears him perfectly.

Emperor Lee sighs and regards Chanyeol with pity.

“Those who meddled with the complex flow of space and time were your brothers Chanyeol.”

With that, Chanyeol’s breath catches in his throat and his chest suddenly feels heavy at the mention of his brothers; his brothers whom he missed so much after staying on another planet for a long time. He feels a sudden twinge of something akin to happiness and relief over hearing about them but it is quickly shot down by a surge of worry that they might no longer be alive once Juno’s government decides to execute them. What they did was unforgivable, after all.

“Five of them were caught but we have no idea what happened to the other two.”

“Are they alright? Who are the ones caught? Did you kill the other two? Where are they?” The string of questions leaves his mouth even before he could stop himself but he does not give a damn anymore. His brothers’ safety is more important than anything else.

The Emperor raises a hand to silence him, shaking his head to let Chanyeol know that he refuses to elaborate on this part of the issue.

“I will get to the point, Chanyeol. I contacted you because it seems like your brothers used the help of someone from the parallel universe and that someone has illegally infiltrated this universe.”

Chanyeol is certain that the someone that the he is talking about is none other than Byun Baekhyun.

“Even though we aren’t sure of the intentions of that unknown individual, Juno doesn’t wish to cause more damage so it is better if we...dispose this infiltrator right away,” Emperor Lee no longer has the spark of kindness in his eyes. In its place is the shadow of a leader who is desperate to bring the honor of his people back. This unsettles Chanyeol greatly because he has an inkling of what the Emperor wants from him and it is immediately confirmed when the old man uttered the next words.

“Chanyeol, that individual had been traced and it seems like you already encountered him.”

His mouth opens so that he could lie and cover for Baekhyun. He has a sudden urge to protect the petite man whom he knows would never even dream of doing something like this but his lie is squashed even before it could be spewed out.

    “When it comes to your involvement in the massive havoc that your brothers wreaked, Juno will give you the benefit of the doubt. But if you cover up for this infiltrator, we will assume that you are another accomplice. We shall not hesitate to behead your brothers who are in our custody once you make a wrong move,” Emperor Lee says in a tone that he has never used before when speaking to Chanyeol or to anyone.

    “No, please don’t kill my brothers…” Chanyeol begs, lanky legs giving out and forcing him into a kneeling position in front of the hologram.

At the sight of Chanyeol shedding tears, the gaze of the Emperor softens the slightest. Nonetheless, he seems to take pity on Chanyeol.

“Despite what you have done in the past, you will always hold a place in my heart,” Emperor Lee says, “and because of this, I will give you an ultimatum, Chanyeol.”

Hearing this, Chanyeol looks up with hopeful eyes.

“Your brothers who have escaped and the infiltrator could appear on your doorstep and ask for you to aid them. If you do not help them and if you bring them here, your punishment would be lifted and your crimes would cease to exist. The same will happen to your brothers,” Emperor Lee offers.

“E-Everything will be forgiven?” Chanyeol stammers, the offer sounding so inviting to him after being in exile for so long.

“Everything will be forgiven and forgotten,” the Emperor assures.

Chanyeol almost immediately accepts the ultimatum but then a flash of droopy eyes and endearing whines comes to him.

“What will happen to the infiltrator?” Chanyeol asks.

Emperor Lee looks surprised that Chanyeol is still asking so many questions even when everything he ever wanted is being handed to him on a silver platter but he regains his composure and shrugs the behavior off. Chanyeol has always been an inquisitive little trooper after all.

“The infiltrator is insignificant to you and to Juno. He shall be slaughtered for his crime.”

“NO, I WILL NOT ACCEPT IT!”

Chanyeol is shocked at the sound of his own voice bellowing at the Emperor but he does not regret it. Even though what he feels for Baekhyun at the moment might just be the measly fragments of what he felt for the Jin Yeseul woman that Baekhyun replaced, Chanyeol does not care. Baekhyun is not insignificant to him and he does not want to see him slaughtered. The word plants horrifying images on his mind and he decides that the innocent boy’s name and that word should never again be used in one sentence.

“Chanyeol,” the Emperor sighs and brings Chanyeol back to reality, “think about it. You and your brothers can start anew. If you agree to this, your family will be whole once again. Spilling a stranger’s blood in exchange of your brothers’ heads is such a cheap price to pay after everything you have done.”

Indeed, the deal is highly enticing. Why is he even thinking twice? His brothers are his everything and he would definitely choose their salvation over anything. But there is also Baekhyun. He thinks of Baekhyun whom he has a montage of good memories with even though he actually just met him yesterday, Baekhyun whom he is fond of; even though these feelings are most likely meant for a woman he no longer remembers, Chanyeol cannot bring himself to disregard the boy just like that.

“I do not understand why you’re even hesitating,” the Emperor says with a hint of dismay in his voice, “But I will give you time to think about it. You have until the day after tomorrow, Chanyeol.”

The parting words are short, straight to the point and the hologram image disappears as soon as it appeared, leaving Chanyeol alone with his chaotic thoughts. But even before he could sink deeper in revery, his ears pick up the sound of Baekhyun screaming his name next door.