When it happened, Jungsoo could only gape. His mind was whirling, unable to process the sight before his eyes.

People were dissolving. It was chaos. He made eye contact with a little girl in the audience seat, her eyes wide and terrified, before she disappeared into thin air. Just like that.

Jungsoo didn't realise he was screaming until he had to stop to take a breath as more and more people disappeared. 

When it ended, Jungsoo was absolutely terrified. He looked around to see panic as children and adults alike cried for their lost ones.

He thought of helping others, of trying to bring some sense of orderly into the whole chaos but then, the thought of his mom and sister being gone made his stomach clenched in pure fear. He's human after all, he reasoned afterwards, but during that moment Jungsoo couldn't help but be so scared. 

And then he thought of Heechul. And the rest of his boys. 

The fear just tripled and he still couldn't make sense of what had just transpired. He thought back to that little girl and he started running for his dear life. Leaving the building, Jungsoo's breathing stuttered at the heaviness of the atmosphere. 

Cars on the road abandoned, people crying and wailing. There's a faint sound siren and of course, he instinctively headed towards the sound.

But only an empty police car waited for him and he felt hysteria creeping in at the edge of his vision. He fumbled for his phone, trying to call his mom but the line was busy before everything cuts off suddenly. He tried again and again to no avail and in the end he threw the phone away in frustration, before banging his fist against the hood of the police car. 

Through it all, the sun continued to shine brightly as if nothing was remotely wrong.

..........

Later on, as he huddled under the thick blanket given by the paramedics, still clad in his work attire, Jungsoo learnt that a war had happened. And the earth lost. He didn't understand the technicalities, his head spun too much for everything to make sense. But he understood that they lost. And they lost big time.

Half of the earth was wiped out within seconds and Jungsoo wasn't stupid. He knew the probability that all his close ones would survive would be slim. He didn't dare to hope as he wrote his details on the paper given by some sort of South Korea's emergency defence team, his shaking hands smudging the ink so much until he had to request a new form. 

All around him were anguished faces, filled with so much devastation and still, Jungsoo was glad that he doesn't have to return home, that he can just stay in this huge evacuation centre. Because these people are grieving like he is and just that was enough to make him feel less lonely. 

Halfway through the new form, a shriek interrupted his focus and a body slam into him. Jungsoo was about to push the other person away when he realized it was his sister, and he hugged back as tightly, clinging like his life depends on it.

She was sobbing incoherently but he got the gist that their mom survived too and Jungsoo almost collapsed to the floor in relief. He asked if she knew about anyone, about Heechul but she didn't know anything.

He quickly finished the form up, eagerly wanting to follow his sister like he used to do back in the eighties, obediently trotting behind her without any thoughts or troubles. 

Jungsoo didn't even want to think about other possibilities. So he handed his completed form before he was dragged to a small tent to see his mother waiting for them. And when she saw him, she burst into tears, hands grasping his face and touching him all over to make sure that he's real and that he exists.

He tried to calm her down, but he couldn't see properly through all his tears that in the end he gave up and let her hold him tight. He's her baby boy after all.

That night he saw more familiar faces in th