“I miss him…”

“Awww, you missed me already? I wasn't even gone for five minutes”, Minhyuk's voice cut through the air.

Hyungwon attributed it to his imagination until he felt the familiar pair of hands pull him away from Hyunwoo and he looked into Minhyuk's dark eyes.

“M… Minhyuk?”, he asked in a shaky voice, still questioning his sanity.

The older boy nodded. “Yes Hyungwon-ah, it's me.”

Hyungwon stared at him in disbelief. His eyes were telling him one thing while his brain was telling him another. He had seen him fall. But yet here he was unharmed, standing right in front of him, his blonde dyed hair a little bit messy and with his typical bright smile edged onto his lips. Hyungwon wanted to reach out and touch him to make sure that he was really there and not just a fragment of his own desperate imagination but his body refused to move. He just stared at Minhyuk, thirstily drinking in his appearance, afraid that he would disappear if he moved.

“I'm here, Hyungwon”, Minhyuk said and tried to hold Hyungwon's hand but the boy moved backwards to avoid the touch.

“Go away”, he said while every fibre of his body longed for the other boy, “You are not real.”

“I am real”, Minhyuk answered and pouted, pretending to be offended before his smile returned. Hyungwon still stared at him in disbelief and shook his head.

“No, you can't be.”

Minhyuk sighted. “Yes, I am”, he muttered and cupped Hyungwon's cheeks before the boy could move away again. He could feel the skin getting warmer as Hyungwon blushed under the touch of his fingertips and Minhyuk's gaze travelled down from Hyungwon's eyes to the boy's plump lips, while he bit his own.

“You know, the curse is broken. That means I can finally kiss you now, right?”, Minhyuk mumbled and looked back into Hyungwon's nervous eyes for a brief moment before closing the small distance between them. The kiss was soft and sweet at first. Minhyuk was just brushing his lips over Hyungwon's until the younger boy returned the kiss, moving his lips more eagerly against Minhyuk's. His hands s around Minhyuk's shoulders and found their way into the blonde hair, twisting it around his fingers. They were savouring the feeling and taste of each other's lips and even when Jooheon cleared his throat louder than he needed to, they were still reluctant to break the kiss. When they finally did Hyungwon's breath was uneven, his cheeks flushed and in his eyes burnt the desire for more. Minhyuk smirked.

“I think that was pretty real”, he said and kept caressing the younger boy's cheeks with his thumbs while staring at him lovingly.

Hyungwon stayed silent, furrowing his brows while he attempted to make sense of the situation. His hands were still entangled in Minhyuk's hair and he pulled on it slightly as if to make sure that the other boy was really there.

“Ouch.”

“Sorry”, Hyungwon apologized hastily and a tear of joy escaped from his eyes when he hugged Minhyuk tightly. “You are here. You are alive.”

The older boy chuckled and freed himself from Hyungwon's arms so that he could look at the boy again. “Yes, I am!”

Jooheon cleared his throat again. “I hate to be the guy that pulls you two out of your own little pocket universe but do you have an explanation for this? It's not that I wasn't happy to see you again. I am. I am really happy about it. But I saw you die, we all saw you die. So how are you still alive?”

Hyungwon shot him an angry glance, annoyed that the other had decided to interrupt the moment, but Minhyuk just pulled his boyfriend to his side and held him close while he tried his best to answer Jooheon's question.

“Well, I don't really know. But I have an idea. So, we had to go to the Magic World because the book was burnt and destroyed in this world but it wasn't rooted here. That's why we had to go there to destroy it again. But I am human and I'm definitely not rooted in the Magic World.”

There was a pause while the others thought about that.

“So basically, you are saying that it's like it was with the spell book, just the other way around?”, Jooheon asked.

Minhyuk nodded. “Yeah, I got killed in the Magic World but since I am rooted in this reality, I am still alive here. Also, when I came back here and you guys were still in the second reality I made an interesting observation.”

“What was it?”, Hyungwon asked curiously.

“I think that our physical bodies don't actually go to the Magic World. It's just our consciousness that passes through the portal and then occupies our counterpart there. Because when I died over there I followed the light...”

“You followed a light? Isn't that a little bit cliché?”, Changkyun snorted but Minhyuk cut him off.

“Maybe but that's what happened. I followed that light and it led me right back through this portal and into my own body. And when I got back here all of you were standing here too. At least your bodies were. And we were having some really weird conversation. Like each one of us was talking about something that had nothing to do with what the others were talking about. I guess, maybe our unconscious minds took over since our consciousness was in the second reality? I don't know.”

“That is an interesting thought”, Hyungwon admitted, “I didn't know that about travelling to the Magic World.”

Minhyuk shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe it's not like that. Maybe there is another reason for why I am not actually dead, but this is the theory that I could come up with. Oh and by the way, Jooheon, in this conversation you were talking about that girl. And I think from what you said she actually likes you. You should ask her out.”

“What?”, Jooheon exclaimed and blushed, “I don't like… no! Shut up!”

“Jooheon is in love”, Minhyuk teased.

Jooheon blushed even more and in his embarrassed nervousness resorted to the primary school response. “Shut up, you are in love.”

“True. I am”, Minhyuk giggled and slung his arms around Hyungwon's shoulders, planting a kiss on the boy's temple and then rested his forehead against the same spot. “I love you, Hyungwon. And I will stay with you forever.”

Hyungwon's heart skipped a beat and his lips were trembling when he spoke but a big grin covered his face. “I love you too, hyung.”

Now it was Hyunwoo who cleared his throat.

“I hate to interrupt your moment right now”, he said and a mixture of shy hope and overwhelming worry was flickering in his eyes, “I'm sorry. But if you are not dead, I mean, could Hoseok be alive too?”

Minhyuk looked slightly confused for a second but then