To say that Tao was shocked would be an understatement.

Tao was jaw-dropping, gobsmacked when he saw the world he had tried so hard to enter.

It was bright. Everything was bright, everyone was dressed in bright colours (think the Capital from The Hunger Games). There were two moons shining brightly in the sky, obviously implying that it was in fact, night time but everyone was up still. The colours were fascinating. No one was dressed in a colour that could be found in nature. It was all neon colours, bright pinks and oranges, turquoises, limes all those bright colours. Girls and boys alike all seemed to have these golden jewels stuck around their eyes. Most people sported crazy hairstyles and everyone was wearing contact lenses. Not the normal, change your eye colour contact lenses. Some contacts were blue and pink swirled, others a green pond with actual fish there. Some went crazier, opting for bright flames, or snowflakes.

Tao did attract quite a bit of attention. He was firstly, simply wearing normal blue skinny jeans with a black leather jacket. The most normal one could be. And colours that no one ever wore. The stares he was getting did irk Tao a bit, and he quickened up his pace, wanting to get away.

He succeeded in that. But not before realising that he was indeed lost on a strange world that he had never set foot on before. As he looked around, all that he was in another forest, surrounded by tall, incredibly tall flowers and short trees. What kind of world was he in?

“That’s unusual...” a voice said, a smile could be detected in his voice.

Tao whipped around, staring at the emptiness around him.

“Who what where?” Tao blurted out, panicked.

A chuckle was heard. “You’re still as cute as before Tao...” the voice laughed.

“How do you know my name?” Tao looked even more freaked out then before.

“Don’t worry so much Tao... I’m not a bad guy,” the voice laughed.

There was a swirl of a dark grey, almost black in the air in front of Tao. Tao jumped back in shock, looking confused, where had the swirl come from?

To add to that, a person materialised out of the black swirl, wearing a suit in shades of purple. The man smiled, bowing his head for a moment before beginning to take a step forward.

But his foot never really touched the ground. At least not the ground he was supposed to. As soon as he started lifting his foot, he disappeared in another swirl of black, reappearing less than a second later directly in front of Tao, finished his step with a mischievous grin.

Tao opened and shut his mouth like a fish, reeling in shock from this guy’s teleportation.

“It’s nice to see you again Tao.” The man held out his hand for Tao to shake.

“What do you mean again? This is the first time I’ve met you...” Tao trailed off, hesitantly accepting the handshake.

The man tilted his head to the side, looking directly at Tao’s eyes. He sighed heavily.

“Such a shame... what wasted memories. No matter. Kai is the name. Pleasure.” The man said, giving small bow. Tao instantly copied, bowing a 90 degree bow as a greeting before mentally slapping himself for bowing to some guy who was obviously a stalker. Why had he been raised to be so polite?

Kai raised his eyebrows in amusement at Tao’s response, murmuring something under his breath.

“So, how do you know my name?” Tao asked again. His logic was telling him to run away from the creepy man but for some reason, he just knew that he wasn’t going to harm him.

“That’s for me to know and you... to find out. You know, memories aren’t forgotten, it’s just that only some are chosen to be remembered.” Kai smiled again.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Tao was seriously starting to get creeped out by Kai’s constant happy face.

“So rushed... that’s not nice.” Kai laughed. He disappeared in a swirl of black.

Tao sat there for a while, befuddled. That was the weirdest person he had come across. And he though the funny dressed people were weird enough. He shrugged.

Then realised that he was still lost.

He sighed to himself, and started walking again. Hopefully it would lead him to somewhere.

***

In a while, once he got past the forest of giant flowers and short trees, he came to a clearing. It was the most unusual clearing he had seen yet. One would expect it to be filled with normal height flowers, or some grass.

No it was a tea party.

There was a round table, ladden with desserts and other high tea goodies. There were a couple of teapots here and there, and 5 chairs surrounded the table, 3 of which were occupied.

At the chair furthest away from where Tao was standing, there was a man. The man had crimped brown-orange hair, and he wore a orange top hat. He was laughing crazily, his eyes wide, his mouth stretched to unusual proportions.

Seated to that man’s right was another man, scratching his head and looking confused, a blank look on his face. One hand was playing with his hair while the other was tugging at the yellow clothes he wore.

Lastly, the one seated on the left’s right was smiling, but his eyes were closed as he repeatedly seemed to bash his head onto the table, looking like he hadn’t slept in years. His brown fringe fell over his eyes, his blue attire standing out like a beacon.

Tao had really walked into a mad tea party.

Abruptly, the laughter from the orange guy stopped as he turned to face Tao, who was standing on the edge of the clearing, unsure of whether to approach the men he barely found sane. The orange guy stared at Tao, a creepy smile on his face, while his eyes looked like they were going to murder someone. Tao felt quite uneasy under his gaze, shifting uncomfortable from foot to foot.

The orange guy’s eyes fixed on Tao, the other two staring as well. There was a clatter, sounds of plates being kicked aside as the orange guy took the quickest shortcut towards the standing Tao; across the table.

“Tao, you’ve come back...” the orange guy breathed, grabbing Tao into a bone-crushing hug.

Tao gasped for air. This guy was surprisingly strong.

“Chanyeol, I think you’re suffocating him.” The yellow guy said, a inclining tilt towards the end of his sentence, almost making it sound like a question.

“You’re right. I’m sorry Tao, I didn’t mean to do that. How have you been?” the orange guy named Chanyeol beamed.

His smile was still creepy.

And how was it that everyone knew who he was.

“I’m sorry, Chanyeol-sshi, but I don’t know what you’re talking about. This is my first time meeting you.” Tao politely responded, seeing the light in Chanyeol’s eyes go out. Chanyeol abruptly let go of Tao, his hands now hovering near his shoulders as he stared at him.

“He doesn’t remember. You forgot as well, didn’t you Chanyeol?” the sleepy guy raised his head off the table, flashing a small robotic smile at Tao before reconnecting with his headrest.

“Of course, that’s right! Well Tao, I must have scared you! I’m Chanyeol, and this guy here is Lay, this lazy one is Suho. Well you must be very confused aren’t you Tao? Of course you are, what a silly question! Come, take a seat.” Chanyeol answered his own questions throughout the entire passage, his expression constantly changing. He led Tao to a seat opposite him, next to Suho. The sleepy one pushed the desserts that had fallen off the table during Chanyeol’s journey off the chair, on which Tao gingerly sat down.

“So Tao, is there anything you want to know? You must have a lot of questions correct? Oh what a silly question of course you do, how stupid of me!” Chanyeol rapidly show statements at Tao.

True, Tao did have a lot of questions. But he stuck with the one he was most confused about.

“Where am I?”

The 3 others exchanged glances.

“Of course...” Chanyeol whispered.

“He doesn’t remember this place...” Lay blankly said.

“HE won’t be happy...” Suho sleepily told Chanyeol.

Tao sat there, even more muddled about the not so quiet whisper conversation the three had. Chanyeol suddenly clapped his hands, pasting another wide, creepy smile on his face.

“Well Tao, to put it simply. This is not Earth. You should have realised that by now, you’re a smart boy. You’re on EXO Planet. EXO Planet, is another universe, a different universe from the one that... Earth was it? Exists in. As you saw, we have two moons. We have no sun, the moons never leave the sky, EXO Planet doesn’t orbit or anything like that. We stay still. The moons stay still. Everything in this universe is completely still, almost frozen in time. This city, is the Capital of EXO Planet, where the royal family stays. EXO Planet is governed by the royal family, the Red King, specifically. The Red King is not someone to play around with. Few people have seen him, only special people have met him---”

“Have you met him?” Tao interrupted Chanyeol.

“...Yes. Indeed, myself, Suho and Lay have met him.” Chanyeol hesitated. “I presume that you have met Kai already?”

Tao nodded.

“Kai...that cat...” Suho shook his head. Lay looked bemused at the blue one’s statement, Chanyeol laughing, clapping his hands and returning to his previous demeanour.

“Well then, that was quite serious enough indeed! Shall you want some cake?” Chanyeol grinned crazily, his eyes widening yet again.

Lay jumped onto his chair, fumbling around for a some cake, which he tossed at Tao. Suho tipped over a teacup using his head which had met with its beloved table again.

The atmosphere was weird again. But it was quickly broken by the sound of horse hooves.

Chanyeol’s bright smile dropped from his face, to be replaced with a rather rueful one. Lay looked focused rather than hazy like he always did. Suho’s expression became alert.

“It was nice catching up with you Tao! I do hope we can meet again!” Chanyeol lifted his top hat from his head before jumping over the table and swiftly disappearing, flanked with his sidekicks, as Tao liked to call them.

This world was officially weirding Tao out.

The sound of horse hooves grew louder and louder before coming to an abrupt stop. Tao turned to see two guys that looked almost the same, both quite childish and young looking standing beside an entourage of armoured men on horses. Tao freaked out internally, what was going to happen now?

Unusually, it seemed that everyone seemed to know his name. The taller of the two walked over to Tao, staring at him.

“Tao?” he softly asked.

“Tao? Is it really him?” the shorter one, who had been standing by the horses now joined what Tao assumed was his brother.

Tao sighed, no longer surprised that everyone knew much more then he clearly did.

“Yes Tao is my name. And I see no reason as to how you would know of me beforehand. You have the same reactions as Kai-sshi, Chanyeol-sshi, Lay-sshi and Suho-sshi.” Tao ruffled his hair in slight annoyance.

And as he expected the two boys exchanged glances.

“Unfortunate. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Tao.” Both boys said this in synchronisation, dropping into 90 degree bows immediately after, to which Tao responded accordingly.

“My name is Luhan,” The taller boy spoke with a cute smile. “This guy here is my twin, Xiumin.”

Xiumin smiled at Tao at the mention of his name from his twin. Twin.

“But, aren’t twins supposed to be identical? You guys aren’t the same...” Tao trailed off, not finishing his sentence as he found it rude.

Xiumin and Luhan laughed at this statement.

“That’s true. We are identical twins but before our birth, Luhan received more nutrients then I did, the reason why he is taller. That’s the only difference between us. I’m the older twin, I was born 10 minutes before Luhan was.” Xiumin replied, clearly not finding the question offensive at all.

“Well Tao, meeting you was unexpected. Please come with us, your presence will be required.” Luhan’s tone became business-like, Xiumin moving already to aid his twin.

Options ran themselves through Tao’s head. He shouldn’t trust the two men, he hardly knew them after all. But he was convinced that this was a dream. A realistic one at that. If he was dreaming, no one could hurt him right?

And so, with that decision, Tao followed Luhan and Xiumin into the waiting carriage.

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

A/N: I know, their personalities aren't quite their real personalities. Too bad, I mould their personalities to fit the character. And exaggerate some. I'm sorry Chanyeol! Making you crazy was simply too easy...

So anyone smart picked up on any...hints dropped in this chapter? Oh boy, there were so many hints in this chapter that you could practically guess the ending just from this chapter alone. Oh yes, how did everyone know Tao? Boy, that question is easily answered, too easy don't you think?

Comments and subbies = happy me *o*