Junho opened his eyes, and jumped immediately up. Everyone else were either awake or waking up someone. Brothers held their heads.

“What the actual Hell was that?!” Taecyeon asked.

“I-I don’t know about you guys, but I saw things about my past with my father”, Chansung said trembling.

“I saw that too. And how I met Dong-il. You remember him, right?” Wooyoung said.

“Yeah, and I saw the thing I’d rather forget”, Taecyeon said.

“Assault controversy?” Junho guessed. Taecyeon nodded.

“It seems like we all saw the same things” Khun said, “Because I saw all those things you did, and bit more.”

“Why we saw those things? What was that gas? What is...” Minjun asked questions one after another.

“Wait - guys, what’s that red light?” Khun interrupted.

Brothers looked at the window. Now it wasn’t green anymore. It was all red.

“Is it safe to go out?” Junho asked with small voice.

“I don’t care anymore. Safe or not, we have to go out”, Taecyeon said.

Brothers went out.

There was all red outside. There wasn’t sea anymore. Just sand, red Sun and their house.

“How are we suppose to live here anymore?” Wooyoung exclaimed. He was thankful that he still had ability to talk. Junho and Chansung were so confused that they just stood quiet.

“We can’t”, Minjun said.

“Hey, I think I realized som -“ Nichkhun started, but his brother interrupted him.

“Guys, come here, quick!”Taecyeon exclaimed.

When rest of brothers saw what Taecyeon had found, they lost their ability to talk. They fell into shock.

There were their bodies collapsed to the ground. Nobody had their eyes open.

“D-d -“ Minjun tried to talk after horrified silence, “Do-does this me-mean that we have be-been only souls h-here?”

“It can’t be” Taecyeon gasped, “Last thing we saw before this was how we all sat inside. Then we collapsed. You were the first one. It just can’t be.”

“So does that mean - that we died then? Because of the gas?” Khun asked.

“T-t...that’s - the m-most - lo-lo-gical -“ Wooyoung replied.

“But why we saw those things?” Minjun asked.

“I realized something moment ago” Khun said, ““Do you remember the night after Chan and Taec had returned from the forest? I actually said the reason all out loud, but none of us realized it.”

“What did you say?” Chansung asked, “I was so shocked.”

“When life gives you lemons, you just have to collect them and eat it all.” Khun said. He sighed deeply to the sad silence. All his brothers seemed to got pulled themselves together. He saw it from their eyes.

“And now we figured it out together in a haunting way” Junho said somber, “All what we experienced here was because of destiny. Paying our mistakes back for it.”

Silence. A long one.

“But how is that...I mean, who paid who then?” Taecyeon then started to wonder, “With my assault sentence, it would make sense if Minjun paid me. But then again, there’s Junho who suffered from neuropsychiatric symptoms - you remember that the reporter...”

“But that boy, Dong-il, got also severly -“ Wooyoung started and swallowed. He didn’t continue anymore.

“I can’t think who paid me. It just doesn’t -“ Khun said.

“I don’t think it matters anymore” Minjun interrupted his brothers, “It’s clear now that we all have paid”. Minjun inhaled. Others saw how tears burned his eyes.

“That means we are ready to go now.”

They all realized it now. Everyone were in tears.

“Let’s meet at the other side, right?” Taecyeon said, “We are family. Forever.”

“We are”, others replied.

“We’ll meet then. Next to beautiful tree. If you don’t see one, then ask.”

After that nobody talked anymore.

Brothers stood together in world all red around them. The Sun at the sky was the reddest of all, fire ring around it flaming. Brothers were holding tightly on each other’s hands.

And suddenly, it was pitch black. Forever.

--------------------------

What do you guys think? Who, if somebody, paid who? I kinda have “right answer”, but actually there isn’t such. If you want to share it, comment as list below (without word “paid” for avoiding spoilers). I’m interested to hear how did you thought it went.

Thank you guys for being with me trough this fic. This has been a big adventure for me, and hopefully for you as well. This is my first fanfic, and somehow it feels sad when we are now at the end because I write this with my heart. To be honest, this was very hard to write and publish. I was in tears. But we still have our bros irl! I’ll definitely write more fics, and there’s one going currently, so check it out.

Thank you once more,

TaecandNan