As it turned out, the place they were brought to was not only close to the company, the city also consisted mostly of their employees. Yoon Donghyun assured them several times that they would be safe here with everyone knowing who they were and to just ask if they needed something.

The accommodations they were brought to were clean and spacious, equipped with TVs and air conditioning and in general nothing like Luhan’s home that had been far too small for all of them. Everyone had his own room, most of them were not even in the same building, and everything they needed was close to them: countless shops, the doctor, parks, fitness rooms, Chronos had even organized therapists for all of them to deal with their past.

Junmyeon hated it. Everything of it. The city was loud, he heard the noises until deep into the night and they kept him from getting any sleep. At least he told himself that they were the reason. He didn’t know what to do with his big apartment, he had brought nothing with him to fill it with. He had visited the park right outside his building. No matter where he looked, the grey buildings were still towering over the treetops, constantly reminding him of where he was. Not even in the middle of the park did the noise die down. He hadn’t visited the fitness rooms even once. Why would he need to? Then there were people everywhere, and it seemed like everyone knew exactly who he was. They kept asking how he was feeling. As if he would respond with anything other than “I’m fine, thank you.” He had already had a few appointments with his therapist but couldn’t shake off the feeling that she was not actually trying to help him. The sight of a person with a clipboard taking note of his condition and thoughts alone kept him teetering on the brink of a panic attack every single time. He knew he needed to talk to somebody, it wasn’t like he didn’t feel the need to talk about his feelings, but if it happened it wouldn’t be with this woman. He didn’t like her. He didn’t trust her, either.

The worst aspect of his new life wasn’t the new environment. It wasn’t the lack of nature and it wasn’t the amount of people he had to deal with either. It was the type of people.

They hadn’t all gotten apartments in the same buildings, and Junmyeon understood that. It wasn’t like they could make other people leave their homes just because he wanted to be closer to his friends. Sehun, Chanyeol, Yixing and Minseok were the only other ones in his building. But he didn’t even see them regularly. They all had numerous therapist appointments per week, doctor’s appointments he didn’t want to think about and they had also agreed on starting to tell Chronos everything that had happened. Every few days someone visited him along with a doctor to tell them what happened while taking care that he didn’t force himself to talk about especially hurtful memories. They also kept him up to date with Chronos’ progress in the test area. They had arrested the people who had pulled the strings in this deception. Everyone collaborating with the Red Force in the City and the villages was being questioned while special teams in the City were further investigating the case. They sent people to the villages, telling them about what happened and offering them to leave the area. Most of them were eager to leave, others hesitated.

He was also told whenever the families of his friends were brought out. Chanyeol had been reunited with his parents who were unscathed and over the moon to have their son back. He was spending a lot of time with them and Junmyeon saw him even less often than the others. He didn’t hold it against him. He too would want to spend time with his family if they were anything like Chanyeol’s parents.

Jongin’s father had been arrested, just as the parents of Baekhyun and Taehyung. The three of them didn’t seem to mind. Yixing was reunited with his father and they moved into one apartment together. Kyungsoo had made sure that his parents were arrested as well.

Since the families of Junmyeon and Sehun had done nothing criminal the two could prove, Chronos was unable to arrest them. But after a few weeks had passed, Junmyeon was told that both of their families wanted to talk to them. Ms Han, the woman who took note of his experiences and gave him updates added: “On a completely unrelated note: everyone in the villages was told about what you guys did. You are their heroes now; everyone knows your names and rumours spread like wildfires. Your family would also like me to tell you that they wouldn’t have sold you to the Red Force, they just wanted to deceive the other villagers. They of course wanted to hide and protect you.”

The woman tried to conceal the sarcasm in her voice, probably knowing it was not very professional, but Junmyeon was beyond happy to see that not every new person around him was pretentious and uncaring.

“Please tell them I am not interested in seeing them ever again.” The woman nodded and Junmyeon added more urgently: “Please don’t tell Sehun. I will talk to him myself. And unless he wants to see them, please make sure his family can’t get close to him.”

Not too long after that, he was back in his lonely apartment. He had to think of a way to break the news to Sehun. He would never keep something from his best friend, but he had to think about the best way to tell him first. He would tell him tomorrow at the latest. No matter how much Sehun had to do, Junmyeon would just wait for him in front of his apartment.

He was sick of never seeing his friends. At this rate, he got most of his updates about them from Ms Han. And while he was informed about his older friends, there was nearly no news about Namjoon and the others, aside from Taehyung. He wasn’t even sure where they lived. The people he had asked hadn’t been sure about it.

Yixing was the only one he saw nearly every day, he visited Junmyeon regardless of his other appointments. He kept checking up on his health, physical as well as mental. He tried to get him to talk, and Junmyeon did, but Yixing never seemed to be happy with him. Instead, he appeared more and more worried with every visit.

Junmyeon was aware of that. He was sorry for making his friend worry. But he wasn’t ready to talk about what had happened on their last day in the test area. He not only changed the topic every time Yixing or his therapist brought it up, he didn’t even allow himself to think about it when he was alone.

Junmyeon dragged himself to his bed and let himself fall. His next doctor’s appointment was a week away. They wouldn’t notice it if he skipped dinner today. He always had to be careful with this, they would force him to eat or give him pills or something if they noticed that he was skipping meals.

His mind effortlessly wandered away from reality. What he was seeing now was no longer the big window that gave way to restricting grey walls and the loud street and the grey night sky that never showed one single star. He was back in the forest, the clearing that was Luhan’s home. He was observing his friends practicing with their powers. Or at least that was what they had wanted to do. Yifan had caught a pigeon and was running after a shouting and begging Yixing. Tao was teaching Kyungsoo how to put a choke hold on somebody and poor Chanyeol had naively offered himself as his victim.

Someone sat down next to him and a hand intertwined with his. “You’re not joining them?” asked Luhan.

Junmyeon smiled, but his heart jumped at their touching hands. “Someone needs to make sure they don’t create trouble.”

Luhan snorted. “They always do. Let them sort it out by themselves to remember the lesson. Let’s talk about something else.” The tone of his voice changed. “We didn’t finish our conversation last time, remember?”

Conversation? Junmyeon frowned. What had they talked about?

“Let me remind you,” said Luhan with a little smile. Before Junmyeon could answer, the sight before him changed again. They were in a place full of people this time. He could hear shouting in the background, there were other people around him who were completely silent. He was still holding Luhan’s hand, but something was weird about it.

When he looked down, he saw why. Luhan was lying on the ground, his breath shallow and his grip so weak his hand nearly slipped out of Junmyeon’s. Junmyeon was kneeling next to him. Not again.

I love you.

Then Luhan stopped breathing. 

“Luhan!” Junmyeon jerked awake from his nightmare, covered in sweat and with his entire body shivering.

“Hyung!” A loud voice startled him and he covered his face with his arms in reflex. He curled up and tried not to move.

“Hyung, it’s me, Sehun!”

Sehun? Junmyeon looked up. His best friend was standing next to his bed, face clouded with worry.

“You keep telling Yixing that you’re fine but you still have nightmares. How often do you get them?” He sat down on the bed and wrapped the blanket around him.

“Every time,” Junmyeon admitted.

“What do you mean every time? Every time what?” He just didn’t give up.

“Every time I fall asleep.”

Sehun’s jaw clenched. “I’ll go get Yixing right now.”

Junmyeon grabbed his wrist before he could leave. “Wait!” His best friend turned around.

He felt small, so incredibly small. And scared and lonely. He was always lonely.

“Don’t leave,” he whispered, partly hoping Sehun didn’t hear him.

But his best friend didn’t hesitate to push him over and lie down with him.

“Do you want to talk about it? Or do you want to try and sleep? We can also talk about something else if you want to.”

It was disturbing how much Sehun had changed during these past months. Everyone had, of course, but Sehun was the youngest and Junmyeon had known him for all of his life. They were basically brothers. The only family each of them had left.

He suddenly remembered his conversation with the woman earlier today.

“Sehun…” How was he supposed to start? “What would you do if your family asked to meet you?”

His best friends’ eyes narrowed. “Did they?”

He hesitated, but nodded finally. Sehun stayed silent for a long time. When Junmyeon started suspecting that he had somehow fallen asleep with open eyes, he answered: “I would tell them to stay far away from me. Why did they suddenly change their mind?”

Junmyeon relayed Ms Han’s words and Sehun snorted. “Can we somehow make it official that you’re the only family I have? It’s not like they would have had anything against it until a few weeks ago.”

Junmyeon tried to smile and ruffled through his hair. “They won’t be able to bother you. Don’t think about it anymore.”

But Sehun was already thinking about something different. “They have contacted all of our families now. With… I mean, since… since they searched all the labs and prisons, shouldn’t they have found…”

He didn’t continue, but Junmyeon knew what he wanted to say. He had been thinking the same. He had even specifically requested for them to search for Luhan’s father, but they hadn’t found him yet.

“I know,” he said quietly. “They don’t know what happened to him.” They kept telling him that the files about the twelve of them and the Tree had somehow disappeared. They were probably hoping to restore some of the knowledge by questioning them about their past, but the nine of them didn’t know much about the Tree.

 The only ones who did…

“Junmyeon Hyung.” Sehun’s trembling voice brought him back. He looked at his best friend and was startled to see that there were tears in his eyes.

Junmyeon was alarmed and touched his shoulder. “What’s wrong?”

Sehun inhaled shakily. “Do you know that it’s really obvious when you’re thinking of him?”

He froze.

“You’re trying to avoid the topic, and I know that you don’t want to think about it, either.” A tear flowed down and landed on the pillow. “But I can see whenever you do, and-” He wiped his tears away but they were unstoppable now, “and every time that happens, I feel like you will do something stupid and I won’t see you again.”

It seemed like he had been less careful than he thought. Junmyeon closed the distance between them and hugged him tightly, not quite knowing what to say. Reassuring him and saying he hadn’t thought about it would be a lie.

“I…” Trying to say it out loud was even harder than he had thought. “I just…” Sehun’s hand grabbed his and squeezed lightly. Junmyeon breathed in carefully. “I should have made him tell me what was worrying him. He must have known what would happen ever since that night he slept under the Tree… We could have found another way.”

Sehun’s eyes widened. “That’s why he was so angry all the time?” He thought about it and his breath hitched. “And that’s why he didn’t say anything when we decided we would go back to the City? He knew what would happen and didn’t want to influence our decision!”

“And it’s why…” In that last village, Junmyeon had been so sure that Luhan was angry at him and he had felt so guilty for his feelings once he had discovered them… While Luhan actually had felt the same but had known that they could never be together anyways. He had avoided using his powers for so long, making sure he would be strong enough to save all of them…

Junmyeon had not cried once since Luhan had died, too empty to accept the sadness and despair, but something inside of him finally seemed to break free. He felt the tears on his cheeks and hugged Sehun tighter. “He was so scared sometimes. I thought it was because of the Red Force, because he didn’t know what to do. But he knew exactly what would happen all this time, he… he was so afraid of dying. He must have been so lonely and scared…”

“It’s not your fault,” Sehun said quietly. “He tried so hard to keep you from blaming yourself… You couldn’t have stopped him. Luhan knew that we would never win if he didn’t do it.” He smiled a little. “He would do terrible things to me if he knew how you’re feeling.”

Junmyeon disagreed, some of the stubbornness from all of their arguments resurfacing suddenly. “He can’t use his last words to confess to me and then expect me to just go on with my life without him.”

Sehun choked and coughed several times. “He did what?”

Junmyeon couldn’t have answered even if he had wanted to.

“You really loved him, didn’t you?”

“Yes.” It wasn’t like Sehun didn’t know the answer already. But Junmyeon was grateful to him for making him speak about his feelings. It really felt better, even though it wasn’t like Sehun could help him. “I just… I didn’t have the chance to tell him.”

Sehun snorted. “He must have already known about it. He was in your mind so often I was scared he wanted to just live there with you.”

This finally made him laugh. But then he recalled their last few days together and swallowed. “I don’t think he knew. He would have said something earlier. He probably wanted to leave it to me to tell him how I felt.”

Sehun buried his face in his hands. “You’re both complete idiots.”