Sunlight burst through the bus windows. Lana’s eyes cracked open, and blinding, white light flooded her vision. “Sooo briiight,” she murmured groggily, shielding her face with her forearm. Someone had, for some unfathomable reason, pulled the window drapes back. The culprit was now hovering over Lana’s sleeping body, wearing the usual big-mouth grin on his face.

“Today’s the summer games!” Kyungsoo cheeped. He shook Lana’s shoulder, beckoning her to wake up faster. She groaned and swatted his hand away.

“Summer games?” she droned. “How do you even know something like that?”

“I did some exploring while you were sleeping, silly! Everyone in town is talking about it!”

Lana flew up in bed, gaping at the boy incredulously. She was suddenly wide awake. “You went out without me?” she hissed. “You left me here alone? What if someone had found the bus while I was sleeping? That could have gone so bad in so many ways, Kyungsoo.”

“Relax, Red,” he sighed. “You worry too much. Anyway, I’m back now, and you weren’t speared in your sleep or anything, so it’s all good, right?”

Lana’s eyes narrowed. She crossed her arms, glaring at him huffily. Only then did she notice the white streak painted onto his nose. “What’s that?” she asked, squinting at his face with utmost scrutiny.

“Huh?” Kyungsoo blinked his big owl eyes at her. He dabbed at his nose with one finger, smearing the white substance. “Oh, this stuff? It’s just sunscreen.”

He turned to the round table topped with random thises and thats and grabbed a plastic bottle perched at the tippity top of the pile. He tossed it to Lana, who caught and examined it. Coppertone sunblock, SPF 50. Lana shrugged. If she was going to be dragged back into the ancient summer sun, she might as well be protected.

As she set to work applying the cream to her skin, she noticed Kyungsoo cheerfully rubbing the rest of the lotion into his own. “Shouldn’t you be hung over or something?” she tutted, still feeling bitter about the Vesuvinum incident last night.

“Nope, I have some anti-hangover pills,” he chirped. “Do you need one?”

Lana scoffed. “Unlike you, I was responsible and kept my head out of the wine fountain. So, no, but thank you for the offer.”

Kyungsoo smiled innocently. He returned to the dashboard and fidgeted with the bus console, but his grin quickly vanished. With a forlorn sigh, he turned back to Lana. “Well, turns out there’s only about an hour left till we can leave,” he mumbled, disappointment evident in his voice. “I guess we won’t have time to see the summer games after all. Why don’t we grab some lunch instead?”

“Sure,” Lana agreed. At the sudden mention of food, her stomach immediately growled. For some reason, it suddenly felt like forever had passed since she last ate.

The sun was almost directly overhead when Lana trudged off the bus, following the ever-eager Kyungsoo toward the city. He skipped toward the open gates as well as he could manage while wrapped in a toga. The teens strolled into city limits, wandering into the first restaurant they passed. It appeared to be a sort of fast-food buffet. A bar had been set up in the center, and holes in its counter were filled with various foods. Lana and Kyungsoo grabbed bread and sausage before heading to a vacant table to feast.

As Lana nibbled on her loaf, she watched Kyungsoo gleefully devour the meat he had picked up. Between bites, he began droning on and on about the festival from the night before and all of the events the two would be missing out on at the summer games. Lana could hardly believe it, but his enthusiasm was almost endearing. And though she had only known the crazy, time-traveling madman for a day, he already sort of felt like a friend. She hated to admit it, but she might actually miss him when he was gone. Parting with him wouldn’t be like saying goodbye to a newfound tourist friend while vacationing in Hawaii. Once Kyungsoo was gone from 2033, he was gone forever. The two wouldn’t even be walking the same Earth in the same time period ever again.

“So, can we go?” Kyungsoo’s voice chirped, yanking Lana right out of her thoughts and back into the real world. He gazed at her expectantly, and she blinked back at him in puzzlement.

“Go where?”

“To the summer games,” he clarified. “I mean, when else are we gonna get the chance to see it? It’s not every day we get to visit Pompeii. And it’ll only take an hour or two—”

“It’s fine,” Lana quickly interrupted, surprising even herself. But she could sacrifice a little bit more time. After all, it wasn’t like she would see the drunken owl ever again.

Kyungsoo burst into his biggest grin yet. He opened his mouth to thank her, but before he could get a single word out, earsplitting thunder cracked the afternoon air. The entire Earth began to shake with monumental force, sending bodies and tables alike crashing to the floor. Lana toppled from the bench she sat on and swiftly climbed beneath the table for cover. Kyungsoo joined her, shielding his head with his hands.

When the Earth fell still again, the two climbed out from the beneath the table and rushed outside. Buildings had cracked in the quake, but the worst damage was yet to come, the two realized as soon as they set foot on the city streets. For in the distance, a massive column of smoke was spewing out of Mount Vesuvius, dying the blue sky grey.

Lana slowly turned to Kyungsoo, gaping at him in horror. In return, he stared at the erupting volcano with awe. “Wow,” he cooed, “looks like today was volcano day or something.”

“Or something?” Lana hissed in sheer disbelief. She felt torn between kicking him in the balls and clinging to him for dear life, but she chose to go with the latter. “How can you be so nonchalant?” she cried, wrapping both arms around his elbow in terror. “We’re doomed! We’re both going to die now!”

“Calm down,” he sighed, reluctantly peeling his eyes away from the mountain. “We have plenty of time to get out of the city before people start panicking and flooding the gates. Come on, I’ll take you back to the bus.”

He shook free from Lana’s grip, only to grab her by the hand and calmly lead her away from the crowd. As the two parted the Pompeians, the girl couldn’t help but feel her heart break for every one of them. The people were so unfortunately oblivious. Not a single one of them seemed to have the slightest idea what was going on or the awful doom that awaited. They all simply stared at the colossal smoke column with wonder, like turkeys drowning in the rain.

Lana seemed to hold her breath all the way back to the bus. Kyungsoo was right; few people were even trying to leave the city yet, so the road into the forest was all clear. When the two were back on the old vehicle, Lana fought to ease her dangerously rapid pulse, but she knew her heart wouldn’t rest until she was safely back in her own time period.

She wouldn’t have to wait long. Without bothering to give Lana an all-clear, Kyungsoo banged on the dashboard, and the bus took off. The ancient European scenery melted away, replaced first by the miraculous, colorful swirls of before. And finally, a new, metallic world shifted into place.

Lana could breathe again. A bittersweet smile showed on her face as she peered through the windshield. She recognized the tall, silver building that lay ahead in the distance: her hometown’s famous 63 Building.

“Thank goodness,” she sighed with relief. “It’s Seoul. Home sweet home at last!”

Author's Note
I knooow, it’s so terribly anticlimactic... I’m sorry...

Alas, they are finally out of Pompeii! @#$%, I only intended for Pompeii to last a chapter or so, but it somehow ended up getting stretched into four. I have this growing problem with writing this fic. I plan out what I want to happen in the chapter, I start writing it, and by the time I’m 600 words in, I realize I haven’t even finished setting up the very first point yet. :\ So, chapters end up getting split a lllooottt. (I know my chapters are on the short side already, but I don’t like making them much longer than this because I like to finish them in one sitting. And, yeah, my patience is definitely not unlimited, lmao. Like, I went so @#$%ing crazy writing Prologue 3 of TRHW because it took me a full eleven-hour sitting, and that chapter isn’t at all long or particularly great.)

Oh, woops, I’m rambling. ANYWAY...

I didn’t have much energy to reply to comments last chapter, but thanks for complimenting my history knowledge. Actually, history is my worst subject, lmao. I don’t know anything about history at all! I just did a little bit of research before writing these chapters up and threw in the facts I found most interesting. xD So, sorry if I got anything wrong!

If anyone’s interested, I recently made Dragnee Drabbles, a collection of MTIAPS-universe oneshots, because I miss writing from Yunee’s POV. Even though she’s still around in Rated X, it’s just not the same. :\

Please, comment and subscribe! Comments in particular are my sole purpose of existence, the meaning in my life, etc.