“Huh,” Chanyeol remarked as he followed Tao to—where exactly? They were in the middle of what, a forest? Chanyeol wasn’t sure, but since he could see trees everywhere and since he could hear birds singing, he just assumed that they were indeed in a forest. Or something like that.  “Where are we going?”

Tao shrugged. “I don’t know, I was only following you and Jongin.”

“Jongin and I?” Chanyeol asked. He tilted his head and saw himself and Jongin, running around.

“Yah! Stop teleporting, you’re so unfair!” Chanyeol shouted.

Jongin teleported infront of Chanyeol. “MEHRONG~” He stuck out his tongue and teleported behind Chanyeol before the older boy was able to grab him.

“You’re lucky I can’t hurt you—“ Chanyeol stopped on his tracks and smirked. “But we have Yixing hyung..”

Jongin’s eyes widened. “H-hyung, you’re not thinking of—right?”

Chanyeol grinned evilly and stared at Jongin. “H-hyung?” Jongin slightly backs off, looking left and right—panicking.

And that was when Chanyeol burst into laughter. Jongin’s jaw dropped open as he stared at his hyung literally rolling on the ground. “THAT WAS NOT FUNNY!” Jongin shouted as he glared at Chanyeol.

It took Chanyeol a few minutes to stand up. “Sorry I—I couldn’t help it,” He says as he wipes a tear off his eye. “You should’ve seen the look on you face it was—“ Chanyeol lets out a sigh, “—priceless.”

Jongin pouts. “I am going to tell Xiumin hyung what you did.”

“Yeah, go ahead,” Chanyeol waves his hand dismissively as he walks ahead, still laughing quietly as Jongin trailed behind him.

“Hyung,” Jongin pants after a few minutes of walking and running around the forest. “Can’t we just—I’ll teleport with you to the village. My legs,”

Chanyeol rolls his eyes. “This is what you get for teleporting almost all the time.”

“But it’s my power; I can use it, can’t I?”

“Sure you can,” Chanyeol answers. “But five feet? You still need to teleport when you’re only five feet away from where you need to go? That’s being lazy. Exercise. Use your legs. That’s what they’re there for.”

“Wow,” Jongin says. “You sound like Kris hyung now.” He then holds Chanyeol’s shoulder and teleports them to the village.

...

“Do you think the legend about the twelve brothers is true?” One boy asks as Chanyeol and Jongin were walking around.

Chanyeol and Jongin stop and wait for the other children’s answers.

“It is a legend, isn’t it? Legends aren’t true most of the time,” One girl shrugs as she reads her book. Judging by the way she looks—and the way she talks—she’s probably the oldest kid among the group.

Another boy rolls his eyes and leans towards his playmates. “Say, if they were actually true, who do you think is the strongest?”

Chanyeol and Jongin look at each other. They never really talked about it—for them, they were equal. Each of them was unique, no one was stronger than the other.

“The one who can heal, of course!” One boy chirps in. “I mean, he can restore life. Even if you’re dead, he can save you. How cool is that?”

One boy shakes his head. “I think it’s the one who’s in charge of lighting and thunder,” He says as he fiddles with his toy robot. “I don’t know why, but I just think he’s the strongest.”

“Nah,” One boy joins in too. “It’s the one who can teleport.”

Jongin grins. He stares at Chanyeol and raises an eyebrow. Chanyeol just rolls his eyes and listens to the children.

“Are you all stupid?” The girl cuts in. She closes her book and rests it on her lap and the boys roll their eyes, as if thinking ‘here she goes again’. “Of course it’s the one with fire powers!”

The boys look at each other. “But aren’t there two brothers with fire powers?” The boy with the toy robot looks up and puts his toy robot down, anticipating the girl’s answer.

“Hmm..” She pouts as she thinks. “Then the dragon,” She answers. “Whoever the dragon is. The older one? I forgot what mom told me. But whoever the dragon is, he’s definitely the stronger one. The dragon represents power,” She explains matter-of-factly, “The phoenix should just come in next to the dragon.”

Jongin shoots a sidelong glance towards Chanyeol’s direction and tenses up when he sees his hyung’s jaw and fist clenching. He touches Chanyeol’s shoulder and teleports them back home.

Like Jongin, Tao shoots Chanyeol a sidelong glance and sees that Chanyeol is indeed tensing up. Tao has no time left, he has to do this fast.

Chanyeol walked around the city alone, his hands inside his pockets. He kicks the ground and walks toward a bench hidden far in a corner near a park.

Chanyeol (who was with Tao) stared at himself. A sudden flood of emotions rushed inside him. He furrowed his eyebrows. Anger—he felt angry. He felt angry about how weak he is infront of the others. He wanted to do something—anything, to prove his strength.

“Tao,” Chanyeol growled.

Tao gulped. He took a steady step away from Chanyeol.

“Tao stop,” He says through gritted teeth. “Bring us back home now.”

“Hey,” Tao looks up and sees someone approach Chanyeol. He couldn’t recognize the face though. He furrows his eyebrows. Who is he? Who is he to make Chanyeol stand up uncomfortably and stagger backwards, unable to speak.

“TAO,” Chanyeol calls out again.

Tao immediately moves to another timezone.

“I know—we know how you feel,” One guy says. “We understand the feeling.”

“No you don’t,” Chanyeol answers them. “Now get out of my way before I burn all of you into ashes.”

They cornered Chanyeol into an alley—a dark alley where almost no one would pass by. A tall guy laughs and Tao feels goosebumps crawling on his neck.

“If you burn us into ashes, your hyung will not be very proud of you, wouldn’t he?”

“I don’t care,” Chanyeol snaps. “I can do whatever I like.”

“But what about Kris-hyung?” A guy with a slight accent says—teasing him. He probably isn’t Korean, Tao thinks.

Chanyeol stays quiet.

“Kris-hyung who’s stronger than poor Chanyeollie who always and just comes in second,” One guy adds.

“ZITAO,” Chanyeol growls again.

“Fine, I’ll come with you.” Chanyeol mutters.

The boys chuckle and turn around to leave with Chanyeol. Tao's eyes widened as soon as he had seen their faces—that was when Chanyeol had tackled Tao into the ground. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING,” Chanyeol growls. “HOW DARE YOU MEDDLE WITH MY PAST.”

Tao is unable to speak. His eyes are wide with shock—and with fear.

“H-hyung let me go, please.” He stares into Chanyeol’s eyes and he slightly shivers with fear as he sees it—the darkness. It’s eating Chanyeol up. Chanyeol wrapped his fingers around Tao’s neck, cutting his air supply. “I don’t like. People. Who. Stick. Their. Noses. Into. Other people’s. Business.” He growls through gritted teeth.

“Tao!” Luhan shouts as they burst in the room. Tao’s vision was blacking out—he can’t stop time, not like this. He would only die faster. Tao lets out an ear-deafening scream when he feels his neck burning—Chanyeol was burning him.

Pairs of arms yank Chanyeol away from Tao. “Let me go!” He shouts and kicks.

Tao inhales weakly, bringing up his hand to touch his neck and hissing after he does so—he feels a sharp pain. His vision continues to blur and he weakly drops his hand on the ground.

“Tao,” Luhan sits beside him. “Tao listen to hyung. Don’t close your eyes. Don’t. Stay with me. Stay with us, please.”

Tao can hear a faint sound of Chen crying “YIXING-HYUNG!!” and Chanyeol’s continuous screaming growling. “O-Ok T-Taecyeon,” He whispers.

“Huh?” Luhan asks as tears begin to come out of his eyes.

“T-Taecyeon.” He says louder.

Luhan’s eyes widen and Tao’s vision completely blacks out.