*******************************************

5 MONTHS AGO

Hyukjae slowly opened his eyes, only to wince in pain when he felt the throbbing in his head, but before he could move, he felt a hand on his shoulder, preventing him from getting up. He looked to his side, and there was Leeteuk sitting on a chair beside the bed, smiling bitterly at him. Sungmin and Kangin were standing at the door, shooting him a worried look. What happened? Hyukjae thought in his mind, unable to let the words out.

“Sleep, Hyuk. You need to rest,” Leeteuk said softly.

Hyukjae gave the elder a questioning look, asking for an explanation but Leeteuk just kept quiet, staring at him with his gentle eyes.

Sungmin who noticed the blonde’s confusion came closer, sighing heavily as he said, “You fell from the stairs, Hyukkie.”

Fell? Eunhyuk frowned. But the frown then was replaced by a look of fear in his eyes as he started to remember what happened, how he tried to run away and got caught by the guards, and how he…fell. He failed. He failed to run away from Siwon, and that just made everything worse. “W-where’s Siwon?” He asked with a trembling voice.

“He’s in his office,” Sungmin answered. Anger was shown clearly on his face at the mention of Siwon’s name.

“H-he’ll kill me,” Hyukjae’s eyes went wide, hands trembling as he pulled the comforter up to his chest, “He’ll kill me!”

“Hyuk!” Leeteuk grabbed the blonde’s hand, shaking his head slightly, “We will protect you. Keep that in mind. We will help you, no matter what it takes.”

Hyukjae wanted to speak, but the pain in his head was getting stronger, and he was already losing strength. He tried hard to stay awake but his eyes were slowly closing, and he wasn’t sure if he was just imagining it, but after Leeteuk, Sungmin and Kangin left, he could see a familiar face walking into his room, holding a bouquet of flowers. The familiar guy walked closer and sat on the edge of the bed, placing the flowers beside Hyukjae. He was too familiar, Hyukjae felt like they had met before but he couldn’t recall anything about this man. The only thing he knew was this man was as dangerous as Siwon.

“It’s been a long time, brother in law,” the man said, smirking.

***********************************************

Donghae yawned as he walked lazily towards his car with his bag hanged on his left shoulder. His first class had ended, but to think that the next class was Economics – the boring subject and the extremely monotonous lecturer – he couldn’t help but to ‘carry out’ his plan: ditching class. Heechul and Minho had probably slunk away before he did – those two were experts in ditching classes after all.

Despite all those things they had done, they never fell behind in studies which made Donghae feel they were geniuses since birth, especially Minho. That guy was a real ‘Einstein’ when it came to his favorite Physics in spite of his look and his behavior. He was about to take out the car key from his pocket when out of the blue Kyuhyun and Sungmin appeared in front of him, with the same serious look on their faces.

“We need to talk,” Kyuhyun spoke first, not even waiting for his brother to open his mouth.

“It’s important,” Sungmin added.

Donghae frowned slightly as he eyed the two from head to toe, looking at the couple shirt and the bunny hairband they were wearing. “Are you…” Donghae began, still frowning, “Dating or something?”

“WHAT?!” Kyuhyun and Sungmin shouted in unison, eyes widening and jaws dropping at Donghae’s sudden and absurd question.

“Are you ing k-kidding me?” Kyuhyun asked, flustered.

Donghae smirked as he realized the slight blush appeared on their cheeks while they both looked away, avoiding each other’s eyes. Oh…this is interesting. “So what do you want to talk about, lovebirds?”

“We-“ Kyuhyun stopped, and then widened his eyes once again when he realized what Donghae had just called them. “Yah! You ing mobster, I said we’re not-“

“Then what’s with those shirts and hair bands you’re wearing?”

“T-this is…” Sungmin stuttered, “W-we were just having fun s-shopping so we bought these…”

They fell quiet for a second, and then Donghae cleared his throat, trying to save the sudden weird atmosphere.

“So, what is it? What’s so important?” Donghae leaned against his car, jingling the set of keys in his hand with his eyes fixed on the two.

“I prefer to talk about this somewhere else, bro.” Kyuhyun said.

Donghae shook his head. “No, just say it here. No one’s around. I can’t leave Eunhyuk for too long.”

“Alright,” Kyuhyun took a deep breath, gathering his courage to speak, “Don’t spaz out. Well, we were shocked too, but, relax, okay?”

Donghae felt uneasy with the sudden change of tone in Kyuhyun’s voice but he tried to keep his cool, waiting for the latter to continue.

“Kairos still exists. It has been restored.”

It was something that they all didn’t want to hear, but Donghae couldn’t find it impossible, seeing that they were only able to destroyed half of the organization, and their members couldn’t be taken lightly too.

“But the worst thing is…” Sungmin continued, “The one who restored it was Choi Siwon. He took Kairos under his wing, combining Chronos and Kairos together.”

Now, that was the thing he never expected to hear. Donghae stared at Kyuhyun and Sungmin, too astounded to speak. The thought of Choi Siwon coming back, taking Eunhyuk away from him was too painful for him to bear, he never wanted this to happen so soon, though he knew Eunhyuk might leave him when he’d remember everything.

Without even waiting for Kyuhyun to continue, he got into his car and drove off as soon as he the engine. Kyuhyun might be angry for leaving them just like that but he couldn’t care less right now. All he knew was he had to get back, to where Eunhyuk was waiting for him with his bright smile and comforting warmth, talking about this and that with his sparkling round eyes, he wanted to see him so badly. And he prayed silently for the time to stop, to give him a chance to enjoy this happiness before everything would fall apart.

Eunhyuk opened his eyes when he heard the doorbell, slightly frowning as he sat up. He knew it wasn’t Donghae, but who could it be? He slowly climbed off the bed and stepped out of the room, staggering towards the front door with his sleepy eyes, rubbing it a few times before turning the doorknob. There was a tall, bulky guy in front of him, wearing a light blue jumper with a serious expression on his face. Eunhyuk’s eyes widened seeing the man’s ‘overly-built’ muscles, looking scary and intimidating – not to mention the scorpion-shaped tattoo on his left hand that just made him creepier. The man stared at him up and down, making Eunhyuk gulped and stepped back a little, eyes fixed on the man’s tattoo.

“Are you living alone?” The bulky man asked with his unexpectedly soft voice.

Eunhyuk hesitantly shook his head, wondering why he was asking him when they had never met before.

“Who do you live with?” The man asked again as his eyes wandered around the apartment, like an eagle searching for its prey.

“W-why?” Eunhyuk couldn’t help but to feel uneasy, he was sure there was so