The next morning is Tao’s first day working on the Generator. Kris awakens at dawn and jumps right into his routine. There are no sounds coming from the room beside him and he gives the wall separating them a few concerned glances. If Tao isn’t awake, he’ll be off schedule.

The words do not mess with the routine flash through Kris’s mind in bold, red letters.

He finds himself outside of Tao’s room before he can even contemplate his actions, knocking hesitantly on the sturdy wooden door. He calls his name repeatedly only to have no answer. When he finally knocks the door for the fifteenth time, the door swings open to reveal a very angry and very disheveled Tao.

“What the hell do you want?” His voice comes out in a furious hiss and Kris holds up his hands in defense.

“You’re late, we have to go! It’s your first day on Level Three.” Tao mutters a stream of swear words under his breath as he disappears back into his room and Kris glances over his shoulder at the workers already leaving the dorm. “Hurry up!” He’s pretty sure Tao yells something back that sounds a little bit like a not so nice word but Kris is too busy panicking because he’s off schedule and the routine is messed up and Suho is going to have his head.

Tao stumbles out of the room in an outfit similar to the one he wore the day before. Kris opens his mouth to protest but Tao glares so harshly that he shuts it again immediately. “I’m not wearing the uniform,” Tao snarls, and Kris leaves it at that.

Kris learns that Tao can be vey stubborn. Painfully stubborn.

He insists on doing his work entirely by himself, refusing Kris’s help no matter how many electric shocks and burns he receives on his nimble hands. Kris can’t help but watch him from his spot a few feet away with concern, wincing every time Tao hisses in discomfort. It’s almost physically paining him as well to watch the scene unfold before him.

Suho even stops to question Kris and give Tao’s lack of uniform a cursory glance but Tao shoos him away as well when he offers help. He doesn’t want assistance from anyone, not Suho and especially not Kris. Kris tries to deny that it doesn’t offend him but secretly he feels hurt.

But what can he do? Tao is a puzzle he simply can’t solve.

After more frustrated hissing and harsh curses, he places a hesitant hand on Tao’s shoulder and tries to help one last time. The younger boy just shrugs him off, not even looking up from his work to give Kris one of his famous glares. Kris can only helplessly make his way back to his spot and try to focus on the wires in front of him rather than the sharp arch of Tao’s spine when he bends over a compressor.

It’s exhausting, to say the least.

It starts to get better over time, though. Tao is beginning to learn more about how the Generator and the Town work despite his apparent disinterest. Kris, in turn, learns a bit about how Tao works.

He tries his hardest to coax Tao out of the shell he’s constructed so perfectly. He talks to him, laughs with him (though, Kris does the laughing, Tao does the disgruntled glaring), even introduces him to the other boys working in Level Three. But Tao refuses to crack. He won’t wear the uniform, won’t eat in the cafeteria, shows up late to work, and mixes up his shifts. He gets into fights with other workers, usually almost resulting in fist fights until Kris and Chanyeol can manage to pull him and the poor kid he’s been screaming at apart. He ignores every word that Suho says and the pointed glances that some of the other workers tend to give him with fiery eyes and a sharp tongue. Kris can’t help but feel a bit jealous of the aura surrounding Tao; it screams try and break me, I’m free and can’t be held back.

Kris wants that more than anything.

But instead he sticks to admiring Tao from the confines of Level Three and stays holed up in his room with the books that he shouldn’t be reading. It’s a sad life, but hey.

It’s the only one he has.

Tao bursts into his room one day without warning and spots Kris with a book in his hands.

“Hypocrite,” he cries, pointing at Kris with an accusing finger and a steely glare. But there’s a smirk on his face, and it’s the closest thing to a smile that Kris has ever seen him make.

After the incident of the book, Tao begins to open up to Kris. It’s a slow process but it happens, to say the least.

They take walks on the shore of the River and Kris shows Tao his collection of smuggled books kept in the crate under his bed. Tao, in return, shows him the thing he says is an MP3 player that he claims are quite popular in the City. Kris listens to the music Tao plays for him and it fills an ache in his heart that he didn’t even know he had.

When Tao accidentally touches him or nudges him playfully, Kris swears that his skin is on fire, every nerve burning and feeling absolutely alive. It unsettles something deep inside of him, filling him with aching want and making his hands itch to reach out and touch Tao some more, coax him to life under curious fingertips.

Kris notes that it’s an incredible feeling to watch Tao change right before his eyes. He especially likes to count the cracks forming in Tao’s careful shell, admire the way he shatters into something that Kris can call his; even if it’s only to himself. He likes to tell himself that pretty often.

“You and Tao are getting close,” Sehun says one morning through a mouthful of overdone eggs. Kris shrugs and smiles.

“Yeah, you could say that.”

“We should run away,” Tao proposes one day. His back is pressed against Kris’s bed as the two of them sit on the floor. Kris’s stomach is pressed to the floor as he shimmies under the bed and searches for his copy of Great Expectations.

“I mean, I don’t even understand why you all work here. You could easily immigrate to the City and get real jobs that mean something. You could have all of the books you want. Hell, you could even start a library!” He throws his hands up in exasperation and Kris chuckles, making his way out from under the bed with the dusty book clutched in his hands.

“It’s not that easy,” he says. He smiles tiredly at Tao, tracing the pout of the younger’s lips with searching eyes. “If we don’t work here, Tao, who will? Someone has to light up that City.” Tao is silent. He watches his hands in defeat and Kris ruffles his hair gently, knowing that it’s a rare moment when Tao has run out of things to say.

Suho finds Tao at work a few weeks later and whispers something in his ear over the buzzes and clangs of Generator work noise. He makes animated hand gestures and Tao watches him in awe, nodding every once in a while and clasping his hands as if he had just won the lottery. Kris inconspicuously monitors (not spies, definitely not spies) on the two of them in dazed confusion and longs to listen with an eager ear. He’s never hated the noise of the Level Three more than he does right then.

His curiosity grows even more when Tao’s eyes light up like they never have before. He exclaims something and Suho nods, shaking his hand and giving him a brilliant smile. Tao, for once, looks genuinely happy, and Kris is a little upset that he isn’t the cause.

He does, however, find out the real cause later that night when Tao drags him into his room.

“They’re sending me home, Kris! My parents are letting me come back! I get to go back to the City! I get to go back to my family!” Kris’s heart drops through the floor as he sits on Tao’s bed, hands knotted together. Tao is nearly jumping around the room, packing things in haphazard piles. “Isn’t that exciting? Why aren’t you happy?” Kris shakes his stupor away and gives Tao a weak smile.

“No, no, it’s amazing Tao! I am happy.” He tries to actually look happy, he really does, but there’s an uncomfortable sting at the back of his eyes and all he wants is to curl up in a ball with his dog eared copy of Treasure Island. “When…when do you leave?”

“There’s a ship coming in two days! I get to leave in two days, Kris! I’ll finally be back where I’m free to do whatever I want.” Kris nods slowly, the gears of his brain whirring in panic. Two days. Two days is a speck on a calendar, a mere second. Two days is nothing.

“I’m happy for you Tao,” he says, giving the younger boy a small smile. For the first time, Tao returns it, his entire face lighting up. It’s the most beautiful thing Kris has even seen.

Tao tosses his arms around Kris and squeezes him in a breathing hug. His lips brush gently against the skin of Kris’s neck and he can feel Tao’s breath steaming against the flesh. Kris makes a note to treat himself to a new book for not breaking down into tears and bawling like a baby. “I wish you could come with me,” Tao murmurs against the shell of his ear. His voice vibrates along Kris’s spine. Kris nods numbly into the curve of Tao’s neck.

“Me too,” he mumbles thickly. It’s a lie. The only thing he’s wishing for is for Tao to stay.

Kris hates ships, hates suitcases, hates the River, hates the City. He hates sunny days for mocking him, hates Tao for leaving him. He hates that he’s stuck in the Town and hates that he’ll always be stuck in the Town running a Generator that powers the place where he should be but can’t.

“I’ll write you,” Tao says. He shields his eyes from the sun and crinkles his nose as he squints. “Or…something. Do they even have mail here?” Kris shrugs. If they do, he’s never gotten any.

“I can’t promise that I’ll visit,” Tao says quietly. “I don’t think they’ll let me. But I’ll try. I really will.” Kris rolls his eyes playfully but inside there’s a hammer smashing his heart into little bits of dust.

“I know,” he says. “Don’t worry about me. You just go live the way you want to in your fancy City.” His tone is teasing but Tao’s gaze dims just a bit either way.

“I’ll miss you,” Tao says. Kris almost shatters; almost.

“No you won’t,” he says jokingly. He nudges Tao’s shoulder playfully before dragging him into a suffocating hug. He doesn’t want to let go, can’t let go. Letting go means saying goodbye forever. Tao’s fingers curl around his shoulders and he buries his face into Kris’s neck.

“Tao, we have to go,” Chanyeol says. Kris fights the urge to punch him in that stupid smiling face for taking Tao away on that stupid ship. His Tao.

“Goodbye Tao,” Kris mumbles into Tao’s dark hair. He gives the younger boy a weak smile and receives one in return.

“Goodbye Kris.” They part, fingertips trailing after each others in desperate want.

Kris watches until the ship is a speck on the horizon, even if it makes his heart ache.

He returns to the dorm and lies in bed for countless hours, struggling to fall asleep. He needs to stop thinking about Tao, needs to put his mind to rest. He has work the next day and a routine to follow.

And the routine is not to be messed with.

Several months pass and Kris begins to notice a lot of things that he’s never quite seen before.

It all stands out to him; the bland meals, the bland dorm, the bland people. Even talking to Lay and Sehun and Luhan isn’t the same; all they talk about is work and the Generator and to be honest Kris could care less. Why couldn’t they see that there was a whole world all around them, just waiting for them to reach out and grab it? In the Town, there’s a lack of light and happiness and songs and words and Kris notices it all. He’s living his life in an endless rut and the walls are too high to climb out of.

But most of all, he notices the empty spot on Level Three and how it makes that ache in his heart pang uncomfortably with every glance.

He makes up his mind to escape.

It’s simple, really. A plan Tao would be proud of.

Kris knows that he could be killed for something this drastic. Tossed into the River without a care in the world or maybe even sentenced to a lifetime of listening to Luhan talk. Either sounds particularly painful. But he has to do it.

He’s the best worker when it comes to what he does; Suho knows that, the Town knows that. It’s going to be both the life and death of him. It’s his ticket out of the Town and his downfall when they realize that he’s far too smart to make the mistakes that he’s about to.

He follows the routine for one last time, makes his way to Level Three, and purposely crosses the wrong wires. The Generator goes black and across the rivers, million of tiny lights are extinguished immediately.

He smiles to himself in the darkness as the panic around him erupts. Perfect.

Suho makes up his mind to send him across the River. Find out the problem, he tells him, and report back to us in two days. You’re my best Level Three worker, Kris. I’m putting my faith in you.

With that comes a wave of guilt that Kris forces himself to choke down. He has to go along with this. It’s the only way he can reach Tao.

He says goodbye to his friends, but they don’t notice that it may be there last. He takes a last look at the Town from the bow of the ship and realizes that he may never see it again. The place where he was born, the place he grew up in, his home.

Somehow, the idea of seeing Tao again makes it hurts so much less.

The City is beautiful. Not beautiful in the way that someone might say about a rose or a painting or a meadow peppered with wildflowers, but beautiful in that busy, intricate, breathtaking way that one can only dream about. Kris spends nearly an hour just watching it all, the tall towers of the skyscrapers, the busy streets packed with some sort of vehicle that he learns is called a car, the smell of real food and the lilt of so many voices wrapping around his brain and whispering things that welcome him immediately. He falls in love with it.

It’s not hard to find Tao once he starts looking. The first place he tries is a surefire win.

I mean, who else would be the owner of the K Books?

He pushes through a glass door and a small bell twinkles over head. “We’re closing,” calls a firm voice from the back of the store. There’s a bitter hint in it that Kris can almost taste on his tongue. He grins.

“Didn’t you hear me, I said-oh my god.” Tao stares at him, a stack of books in his hands. Kris tucks his hands in his pockets and smiles. Tao drops the books and they clatter to the floor in a mess of spines and pages.

“Hey,” Kris says. “I don’t think that’s the right way to treat those.”

Tao nearly jumps on him, looping his arms around his neck as Kris catches him swiftly with firm arms around his waist. “Shut the hell up and hug me,” Tao whispers against his ear. Kris simply shuts his eyes tightly and savors the sweetness of the moment, thinking this is what I’ve been waiting for and god it was worth it.

“That was quite a show you put on,” Tao mumbles. “You had the entire City thinking that the world was going to end when all of their power went out.” Kris chuckles.

“You have to admit, it was pretty awesome.” Tao rolls his eyes and pulls back a bit, meeting Kris’s gaze. His eyes aren’t steely and cold anymore, just dark, melting pools that Kris in head over heels. Before he can stop himself, Kris leans in slowly, breath coming fast and hands trembling against the fabric of Tao’s shirt.

He presses their lips together, soft and slow. Tao tastes so real and so fresh and so full of possibilities that he can hardly pull himself away.

“I’m sorry,” he says, voice faltering. “I’ve wanted to do that for a long time.” Tao smiles and the corners of his eyes crinkle. Kris thinks it’s painfully adorable.

“Please do it again,” Tao breathes, and so he does.

Kris thinks that maybe his routine isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Instead, he creates a new one that consists of mapping out Tao’s skin with his fingertips and memorizing the sound and taste of his laugh.

He follows this with utmost diligence, because the routine is all he’s ever known.

And the routine is not to be messed with.