Lightbulbs went off in Lu Han's head, the longer he stood there in shock. Yixing... Yixing had been one of his original investors for Antarctica? There had been several, if Lu Han recalled correctly, and he'd never bothered learning who they were as long as the money came in. Also, how stupid could he have been to be treking across town from his home to Minseok's while ten years ago, which was technically now, Lu Han was making his way to the bottom of the planet. He cringed and turned around in the hall. Yixing, Yixing of course! This was probably how Yixing had known in his future how to get ahold of Lu Han for Minseok's "experiment". 

The problem now remained, Yixing right at this moment didn't have a clue about anything. Neither did Minseok. Neither did Baekhyun, probably. Only Lu Han understood, partially, and still his head was beginning to explode. Couldn't he just zap himself back to the future already? Damnit, he and Minseok hadn't even begun building the blasted machine. This might take months!

Meanwhile, Minseok stood there looking more and more amused. Yixing, more and more enraged. 

Steeling himself, Lu Han planted his arms on his hips and turned back around. "Okay, I can explain. Maybe!" he cautioned.

Yixing, now inside the townhome, was not appeased. "The only thing, sir, that you need to explain is why you aren't in Antarctica!"

Lu Han sighed. "But I am! I am there right now! Or, almost... Another week and I'll most likely be in sight of the Antarctic Peninsula, and... wow was it cold, I am so glad to be here right now, you have no idea."

He stopped, realizing he probably sounded like a lunatic. Minseok's eyebrows were raised.

"You're in... Antarctica right now? I thought you came from the future."

Lu Han huffed, now totally exasperated. "You know, it's you and your damned time machine that even made this possible, so yes, Minseok, I am currently in three locations RIGHT NOW that I can remember somewhere across time and space. Ten years ago today I was an adventurer. Ten years after that I met you in your future, and you plopped me into that stupid device and look where I am now. Number one, I am dead; number two, I am alive; number three... which maybe should have been number one... I am an adventurer. But most importantly, Minseok, I'm really really mad you've made my life (or death) this complicated, when all I wanted to do was meet a wealthy dude, get married, and have nice big parties in town where the flock of society gathered. Ugh!"

He turned and stormed down the hall. Nobody replied except Baekhyun, who mentioned something about liking parties, especially if he wasn't a rat. 

Minseok's workroom was still a work in progress. The notes he and Minseok had drawn over the past week sat scattered about the table. Lu Han glared at them. Minseok's were infinitely better than his, which were just crude drawing of what he remembered the machine looking like. Help Minseok build a time machine? What was Lu Han thinking? He was certainly a fool. He wondered, if he died right here, would that cause a time flux? Would his future selves disappear? Did he even trust his own future self who had promised him that everything somehow would happen the way it was meant to happen?

Lu Han groaned. Outside the room he heard Minseok beginning to argue with Yixing. That gentleman, who would later become Minseok's servant - imagine that! - was now asking pointed questions about this 'time machine' Lu Han had spoken of. Minseok vehemently denied it. Baekhyun contradicted him. Lu Han snorted, glad to have left when he did. 

He let them duke it out, and he tuned out the noise, dozing in his chair in a way Minseok avoided like the plague, Half an hour later, his eyes snapped open to the sound of the door. 

Minseok entered quietly. Lu Han could almost believe by his posture that he was apologetic. Until the man opened his mouth and said, "Well you just lit another fire, didn't you? Talking about a time machine I don't have in front of a man who turns greedy with just a hint of something newfangled."

Lu Han answered without pause. "You don't have a time machine yet, but you will have one soon, and I want the first ride out of here, thank you very much." He swallowed, not bothering to mention that apparently Minseok is going to like Yixing well enough in the future to make him his most trusted servant. Then again, Minseok doesn't remember Lu Han in the future. Maybe he won't remember Yixing either? Come to think of it, wasn't Yixing the one who brought the two of them together ten years from now, dropping Lu Han's name through a magazine periodical about... of all things, Lu Han's Antarctic excursion? 

He's probably a fake, Lu Han realizes. Yixing, what a damn fake, masquerading as a servant just to see Minseok build a time machine. Not his problem though. Lu Han just wants to go home. He can deal with Yixing then if he must. Probably he'll just turn tail and run. Screw his promise to Minseok to help him end this curse. Screw his dreams about getting to marry said man as a reward. Minseok had killed him, just like that, promises be damned. 

He forgot for a moment that the Minseok in front of him was ten years younger and not yet a murderer. 

"So, Lu Han?" 

He hummed, dragging himself back into the present. "What do you want?" 

Minseok pulled a chair over; he sat down in front of Lu Han. He looked awful, eyes his usual bloodshot color, skin sallow from unease, whole body dragging from lack of sleep. 

"When's the last time you slept?" Lu Han asked.

Minseok shrugged. "I napped yesterday. Woke up about a hundred years ago somewhere on the American continent. It was kind of nice there actually, very rustic, lots of trees around a gorgeous lake. Then I ran into..." he paused. "I'm sorry, ignore my words. This sounds so crazy to you, I know."

"You don't have to stop though," said Lu Han, sitting up a little and rubbing his head. "I'm... used to it, I guess. You told me lots of things already, the future you. And I've been places with you before."

Minseok crossed his ankle up above his knee and folded his arms across his chest. "Really? You mean, Joseon?"

Lu Han murmured. Minseok was frowning. When Lu Han had told that story a week ago Minseok had expressed some serious disbelief, not at the tale itself but at Lu Han's insistence that Jongdae had begged to come back, and that he hadn't, but Jummyeon had.

"The ancestors never come back. They can't, it's impossible."

"Yeah," Lu Han had replied. "You thought that, but then it happened."

He could tell Minseok still retained his doubts. Neither pressed the issue today though. Perhaps Minseok was too preoccupied with his problems. If he didn't mend the family curse, there was high probability he would turn into one of those ancestors, traveling every time he slept, drifting farther and farther from the tree, until all that remained in the here and now was a wisp.

Lu Han had a sudden question. "Your family, all your ancestors, everybody. Do they die here, like normal? I mean, where are they buried?" He had a hunch he already knew the answer.

Minseok scowled and didn't meet his eyes. "They die, I suppose. But they're not here. There are no bodies. They just disappear. Everyone's disappeared..."

He should be sadder about this, Lu Han observed with wonder. Minseok was the last of his family. He had probably seen the previous generation stretch and fade into all those worlds, until they were just gone. He had lived with this for years, alone. Perhaps the grief had already relieved itself with so many years past. 

"What about your mother?" Lu Han remembered she was only the spouse, not a member of the Kim family lineage who fell pray to the curse. 

At this, Minseok's eyes narrowed harder. There, was that the hint of grief Lu Han had been looking for? He waited. 

Finally Minseok spoke. "She's alive, you know."

"Really?" 

He nodded. "She's gone mad now. She lives in an asylum in the country. I visit a few times a year, when I can get there."

Lu Han didn't dare interrupt him now. He hadn't known... 

Minseok continued. "She never believed in the curse. My dad told her before they were married. Said it happened to all of them eventually. His grandfather, his uncles, his father and one of his sisters had already gone by the time my parents married. He was old by then. Almost forty, and he'd spent most of his life trying to find the cause. He didn't fear sleep because he thought he could find the answers there. She didn't believe him though. Perhaps she thought he was a little bit nutty, a little fanciful. They married and they had me. Twelve years later she watched him fade away one night in his sleep, and thought she was hallucinating. In the morning he was gone. Then she really started hallucinating."

Lu Han couldn't imagine it. But Minseok told the story as if it barely mattered. No wonder the man was so cold, so uninviting. At twelve years he'd become in effect, an orphan. And for decades after that he'd lived a cursed life.

Minseok suddenly looked at Lu Han. "This is why I've been ruminating on what you said in hall. You said you were going to get married in the future? Was it to me? Why would I agree to such a thing?" 

Lu Han choked on his own spit. He looked sheepishly away and contemplated lying. But then the other Lu Han had said 'honesty'. 

"Uhm, yeah, you did. But only if I solved your problem first." 

"Which required murdering someone, and I didn't say who."

"I don't think you knew, but yeah that's what you said."

"And instead I killed you."

Lu Han snorted. "Yeah, that's what happened... You'll forgive me if I don't ask you to marry me again. I'm a little warier this time around."

Minseok nodded like he agreed with this statement. "Sounds like you're learning."

They laughed, and Lu Han said, "You're damned right, I'm learning. Kim Minseok you're a suspicious, psychopathic bastard. Shame you're so good looking. I was actually looking forward to wooing you again."

He caught himself right as Minseok's eyes narrowed. The other man sat up and leaned forward. "What... was that? You came here to woo me?"

Lu Han cringed, panicking now in full because, wow he hadn't meant to say that. Then again, 'honesty'. 

"Yup... I kind of did." 

He waited, and his heart pounded in his chest. Was this where Minseok decided he'd had enough? Would he kill him again this time? Was honesty really not the way to go?

Except Minseok, in slow motion, peeled his cheeks back and the beginnings of a knowing smile appeared on his lips. "Well then, it's been a week and you've made no move. I'm still here, aren't I?"