"So what are you waiting for? We've been waiting for this! I've been waiting for this! Tao and the others have been waiting for this!"  Patting Kris's crossed arms on both sides, she grinned up at him, but found that he didn't share her enthusiasm. "You've also been waiting for this... right?"

"I suppose."

"What do you mean you 'suppose'?" 

Sighing, a frown momentarily formed on Kris's face. "I don't think I want them back."

Dropping her hands to her side, Mina stuttered at the unexpected revelation. "Wha- Why? Why wouldn't you want them?"  

"I don't think the costs outweigh the benefits," Kris replied.

"What 'costs' are there?"

"...Luhan said I'll most likely forget everything that has happened since I hid away my memories."

"And?" Mina egged on, wanting to understand.

Looking back down at the girl in front of him, Kris sighed heavily again and placed his hands on her shoulders. "And that means, I'll forget you. I'll forget how I feel about you, I'll forget... I'll forget ever loving you."  

- - -

Loving... Lov-ing, Love. Love? L o v e...

The word perpetually repeating in her head, Mina couldn't sleep. It was not that she didn't want to, it was that every time she would close her eyes, she'd be taken back to the moment when Kris confessed to her.  It was the first time anyone had done so and she couldn't stop the overwhelming feelings of anxiety, guilt, and joy. 

To be loved was something amazing in itself, but to be loved by Kris?  A man who came from another world, who was part of a greater universe and lead a more dynamic life than her own, sincerely loved her. It made her anxious. Never having to deal with interacting and being around someone that liked, let alone loved her so openly, Mina was anxious. In all honesty, she was not sure how to be loved the way in which Kris loved her, but that didn't stop the irrepressible smile from covering her face.

Placing her hands over her smiling cheeks in the darkness with Lyn sleeping soundly beside her, Mina saw a light appear outside her tent. It was the campfire. Apparently she wasn't the only one not able to sleep. Seeing the glowing light fade and grow, she dropped her hands from her face. Awake outside, heating up the night was Chanyeol. One of the reasons Mina felt guilt. 

Not only had she been fickle with her feelings for Kris, but also Chanyeol. And they deserved better than her indecision and she knew she couldn't continue to just ignore the growing issue. Small as it was in the grand scheme of things, it was still very important on a personal level and was something she’d have to deal with sooner than she’d like. And with Kris's feelings and her own becoming more serious, it would have to be very soon. 

But that wasn’t all she felt guilty about… on top of that was a major issue at hand, Kris's memories. Though he stated he didn't want to take the risk of forgetting her in exchange for remembering his brothers, Mina knew it wasn't right. But just having been confessed to and feeling the way she was feeling, the selfishness within her wanted to keep things as they were. She wanted to stay in Kris's memory, she didn't want him to forget... She wanted him to keep loving her.

However, she knew she couldn’t do that to the others. They were brothers with a long history, she was just a random girl who had hardly spent only a month or so with them but, it wasn’t her place to make that decision anyway; it was Kris's. Amazingly and stubbornly loyal to his own feelings, Kris had convinced himself that he didn’t need his memories, making things difficult for Mina. Knowing she was the reason he refused his memories, Mina felt it was her responsibility to convince him otherwise.

Feeling trapped in her mind, and wanting to escape the enclosed proximity of her tent and get fresh air, Mina waited for the campfire to disappear before wandering outside alone. Walking into the darkness, her mind was in turmoil trying to find the right answer or any answer at all to her problems. Slowly making sense of her feelings and understanding the core of her issues, Mina finally allowed herself to breakdown as a horrible solution came to her.

It was not a solution that felt right, but it was the quickest solution in sight and with time being such an essential and precious thing, Mina knew what she had to do. It was for the best despite the fact that just thinking about it ate away at her. Wiping her tears away as they fell, she tried to suppress the sounds of her pitiful lamentation. However, her efforts were in vain as she heard the sound of the grass shift from behind her. Feeling a large pair of hands turn her around and pull her into an embrace, Mina stopped suppressing her tears and let them fall onto Kris's shirt.

Not knowing why she was crying and initially feeling distressed hearing her from a distance, the Legend now fully realized just how much he did indeed feel for the girl. Shutting his eyes and gently holding her close to himself, he began to repeat a small phrase in the hopes it would stop her tears.

“It’s okay. Everything is okay.”

Shaking her head, Mina replied, “I’m sorry.”

Pulling away slightly, the girl looked up at the Legend, who loosened his hold and smiled at her. Wiping her face clean of fallen tears, the dragon shook his head and held her face in between his hands.

“What's wrong?”

Placing her hands over Kris’s, Mina looked at the Legend earnestly. “You can hate me but then you’ll forgive me right?”

Confused by the girl’s words, Kris dropped his hands. “Just what are you talking about?”

"I… I...” Stopping and turning around so that her back was to the Legend, Mina softened her voice to that of an almost silent whisper and continued.  

Trying to hear her words, Kris moved closer only to catch the end of what she said, but he didn't mind. He believed he finally heard the words he had been waiting for and that was more than enough for him. Forgetting everything else, he grabbed Mina and hugged her.

"Say it again. The last part. I only care about the last part. Say it again." Smiling and making it so that they were face to face, Kris couldn't conceal his emotions. "You love me. I heard it. I want to hear you say it again." 

Seeing a rare glimmer of eagerness and optimism behind Kris's dark eyes, Mina felt her heart drop even more than it had earlier. Knowing she couldn't say it again, she looked down. "You misheard me."

"Misheard?"

"It's not your fault. I was whispering it after all." 

"I did not mishear." 

"Yes, you did." Moving away from Kris, Mina clutched her hands together tightly and took a breath. "I'll repeat it now so listen, I said... I said I'm sorry. I don't lo-."

"No," Kris interrupted. "That is not what you said at all. I heard you." Reaching for the girl's shoulders and holding onto her, the Legend's gaze was fixated on her.

Now struggling to keep a tight lid on her emotions, she continued on. "I should have been more direct with you earlier. I'm sorry."

Hearing no instant reply, the girl finally allowed her eyes to find those that belonged to the Legend. Seeing that the glimmer in his eyes was gone, Mina nodded to herself and looked away. Feeling the tears building up in her eyes once again, she quickly swiped at them, "It's best like this. Now you can get your memories back and not worry, right? You can go to Luhan and it will be okay to forget me now... It's for the best." 

Appearing to awaken at her last sentence, Kris finally broke his unintentional silence with a small laugh. "So that's it."

Wiping her face clean of tears, Mina's head turned naturally towards the sound of laughter. As she did this, she saw Kris walk towards her with a relieved look on his face. Dropping her hands to her side, she was soon pulled into a hug.

"So, you want me to forget you, since you do not feel the same..." Hearing him slightly chuckle again in an amused tone, Mina was caught in a state of confusion. Moving to look her in the eyes, Kris lightly rested his forehead against hers. "You don't need to say needless things. I'll do it. I'm confident now." Seeing that Mina was not following, the Legend, took a breath and explained. "I'll have Luhan unlock my memories, I'm not worried about forgetting you now. I'm confident I won't forget. So you don't have to lie to me, you don't have to cry, and you don't need to apologize."  

Blinking as Kris explained, Mina shook her head. "But... How did you-?" 

"You're not good at lying." Lightly touching her cheek, Kris smiled softly.

"I'm... I just, I thought there was no other way, and I-"

"No, I should have had more confidence earlier so that you wouldn't worry. But I'm glad you did." Grabbing her hand and interlocking their fingers, Kris lead Mina a few steps forward. "Because now I know that you love me."

Eyes flashing upwards at the Legend, the girl was at a loss for words.

- - -

"You all can tell by now can't you?" 

"Yes."

"He's getting weaker and weaker, we need to hurry our search and find Sehun, Baekhyun and Kai and leave before it gets worse. Plus, the longer we stay the more adaptable the Red Force becomes. It could easily destroy this weak planet. We need to end it all."

"What happens if Kai finds us first without Baekhyun?" 

"Then we're looking at a fight. We'll have to knock him out and keep him down until we find Baek." 

"We are also going to have to leave them aren't we?" 

"Yes."

"Mina too?"  

"Eventually."

"We can't leave her until much later though. We still need her." 

"Of course."

"In the meantime, Luhan, you said that there was an issue with Kris?"

"Yes, it's about his-"

"Where's Luhan?" Boisterously stepping inside the tent, Kris abruptly halted the midnight meeting that was taking place and looked around for the telepath.  

"What are you doing?" Mina questioned, being pulled inside the tent along with him.   

"I'm getting my memories back right now," the dragon replied. 

"You are?" Luhan questioned, his head titled curiously to the side at the dragon's sudden change of heart.  

Nodding in affirmation, the eyes of all the Legends fell onto Kris. 

"You can get your memories back?" D.O. questioned.

"Yes he can," Luhan answered. "He didn't want to earlier though."

A look of confusion spreading throughout​ the room, Tao was the first to ask the obvious question. "Why not?"

"Because there is the risk that he might forget everything that has happened since he locked them away," Luhan explained.

"When did he lock them away?" Suho asked.

"As soon as he landed," Tao answered. "When I met up with him, he had already forgotten everything." 

"So what's the big deal? You can just fill him in if he forgets that stuff," Xiumin said, crossing his arms. 

Looking at the interlocked hands of Mina and Yi Fan, Lay looked over at Xiumin. "It's not that simple for him."   

"Why not?" Chen chimed in quizzically.  

Figuring out the reasoning on his own, Chanyeol bit his lip and sighed, "It's because of Mina. He'd forget her."

"And that's the last thing he'd want," Tao finished up, understanding how the dragon had felt towards the girl for a long while. 

"Oh..."

"Yes, but I'm not worried about that anymore," Kris announced, happily and childishly swinging his and Mina's hand back and forth.   

"This is good then..." Suho hesitantly shared, feeling the strange atmosphere within the tent. "So, Luhan?"

"Right."

Her hand let go by Kris, Mina felt the gaze of a few Legends on her. But at that moment the only set that mattered was Chanyeol's. Looking at him, she could see hurt in his eyes, it was as though he knew what had transpired between her and Kris. If only she could explain everything to him at that moment... If only time would stop just for a few fleeting minutes for her to talk to him. Breathing out, Mina closed her eyes briefly and reopened them to an unchanging scene. 

Realizing first that everything had stopped around them, Chanyeol looked around and then turned to Mina. "Did- Did you just stop time?" 

Astonished at what was happening, Mina was in disbelief. "No way... Tao too? But when? I don't remember... I can't believe this."

"You really did... Wow."

"But when did Tao even?" Sighing and scratching her head, Mina was now preoccupied with how she had absorbed Tao's power when she never recalled ever kissing him. Was it possible that Tao had done it whilst she had not been aware? That mischievous Legend...

"Mina?"

"Uh?" Looking over at the phoenix and snapping back into her previous mentality, Mina moved towards Chanyeol and hung her head low. "I... Wait, let's talk outside." Impulsively grabbing Chanyeol's hand, the girl led him outside the tent. 

Slightly startled but suddenly optimistic once again, Chanyeol's eyes followed the girl as she began to fiddle around in her stance. "Mina?"

Feeling her lips part at the sound of her name being said again, Mina knew she wouldn't be able to properly explain anything but allowed herself to make an attempt at it; the result was nothing more than word vomit and manic rambling. "I don't know what to do, I thought I had figured it all out and that I had to give up my feelings for Yi Fan but it hurt so much and then he caught on to me while I was lying and he said he loves me and I think I might, but I like you and I am so confused, but Yi Fan won't hear it and doesn't care that I really like you so long as I like him, but it's horrible and I'm horrible and I'm sorry I don't know what to do." 

"Stop, stop, stop. Breathe." Seeing Mina get so worked up and flustered over the whole situation, Chanyeol smiled and sweetly patted her on the head. "It's okay. I'm okay. This is okay. Did you stop time just to say all this to me?"

"Yeah, I think I did... I mean, I needed to talk to you and so I visualized it and- Chanyeol, I'm sorry and it is not okay. This is not okay. I can't keep doing this to you and you can't keep saying it’s okay because it's not." Feeling relieved that she was finally being honest and declaring her uneasy feelings, a part of Mina's guilt began to melt away. 

"What makes it not okay?" Chanyeol asked, his hand still resting on the girl's head. 

"Everything. You looked so upset seeing us and it's not fair and just horrible."  

Sighing, Chanyeol met the girl's apologetic eyes. "Mina. Having love for a lot of people isn't a horrible thing. Being dishonest about those feelings is horrible. Kris doesn't care that you like me right? Well, I don't care that you like him either. Let us both just like you okay?  It might hurt us at times but let us have our feelings. When the time comes and you make a decision, we'll both just have to accept it." Moving his hand from the top of her head to the side of her face, Chanyeol pinched her cheek lightly. "Of course, I'll want you to choose me... but if not, I'm glad I get to feel this way about you right now."     

"Now that's unfair of you..." Mina sighed. 

"Why? Does it make you like me more?"

Face flushing a light red color, Mina didn't reply, but the message still got through. 

Smirking at her reaction, Chanyeol nodded, "Good." Boldly grabbing the girl and lacing his fingers with hers, Chanyeol led her back into the tent. "You know, I'm kind of jealous of Kris."

"Why?" 

"He's so confident in his feelings for you and he gets the chance to prove that the heart never forgets what the mind does. He's lucky." 

Stopping in her place inside the tent as Chanyeol continued to move, Mina's hand was released. "What if he forgets?"

"He won't."

"But what if he does?" 

"Then... I'll make you mine." 

Having direct eye contact with Chanyeol as he smiled speaking those words, Mina could hear her heartbeat loudly in her ears. Not expecting such a forward statement from him, it took Mina a while to realize that time had finally resumed normally.  

"How long will it take?" D.O. asked Luhan moving closer to Kris.

"Only a moment." Placing his hands on the sides of Kris's head, Luhan closed his eyes and asked for Kris to do the same. 

"Are you ready?" 

"Wait." Turning around to Mina, Kris smiled and rolled back one of his sleeves to reveal his silver bracelet with his signature. Carefully taking it off and placing it on Mina's wrist, he didn't allow for any form of objection, though Mina was adamant about not taking it.    

"You said you won't forget. There's no reason for you to give me this."

"I won't forget. I just want you to hold onto it for me." 

Looking down at the bracelet, Mina stopped fighting and accepted it. It would be okay, things would be okay. Everyone had said it would be okay and she wanted to believe them. She had to believe them. 

Turning back to Luhan, Kris confirmed that he was ready. 

Closing his eyes, Kris prepared himself for the incoming flood of memories while trying to latch onto the image of the young woman he had fallen for. Repeating her name in his head till the last second, there was a moment of nothingness within him and then, chaos.  

His head falling into his hands, Kris stumbled around and soon collapsed but was caught by Lay and Suho. 

"What happened?" Mina urgently asked.

"We have a lot of history together... I may have overloaded him too quickly."

"Will he be okay?" Tao asked, looking at his immobile body.  

"He'll be fine," Lay answered unhesitating. 

Agreeing, Luhan also replied, "Yes, he'll be fine. Some rest will do him some good in the meantime."

"Great. Then we'll see if it worked in the morning," Suho said in a definitive voice. "Let's all get some rest now... it's late."

Feeling nervous, Mina nodded in response to the guardian. "Yeah... morning." 

- - - 

Hardly getting any sleep, Mina continued to hope for the best as she walked over to the Legend's tent. Initially hearing a bunch of chatter and some laughter, she smiled knowing that it had worked. Kris had remembered them, she could hear his voice and the voice of Tao conversing excitedly. Now knowing that Tao had his leader and close friend back, Mina couldn't wait to greet them. But moving to walk inside the tent, the girl fell backwards having her arm suddenly tugged on.

"What the heck?" 

Falling into the arms of a familiar face, Mina was greeted by brown almond shaped eyes and a toothy grin. "Morning."  

"Chanyeol! What are you doing?"

His soft lips gently kissing her forehead, the look in his eyes changed and his tone of voice became serious. "I'm making you mine."

- - -

A/N: My Oh My! This update is way overdue and I'm super sorry it took me this long to put it up. I was having writers block hard core but the encouraging and kind words of you my readers helped me push through it! I find I am never super satisfied with my chapters these days so please let me know what you think. It really helps me to get feedback both critical and constructive. Also let me know if anything was confusing. I felt I explained everything but a second/third/fourth opinion is always welcomed. 

As always thank you for the continued support and I hope to be back with another chapter much sooner than last time! Until next time~<3

(BTW, Korea has been amazing and I will be staying for another year, I love it so much!)