“Please just let me go. Put me out of my misery.”

“No. I’m not leaving you behind.”

Kyungsoo grabbed Lana by the wrists, lugging the ragdoll-like girl across the apartment lawn against her will. Her limp body tore dirt patches in the grass as it dragged along. After all she had seen today, she barely had the will to live, let alone trail Kris and Marina to the bar. But Kyungsoo insisted.

“You said your parents only got married because of you!” he clucked. “Well, look: here’s proof your dad actually likes your mom! Don’t you wanna find out more?”

“You don’t understand,” Lana whined. “Honestly, if you were in my shoes, how would you feel after all we’ve seen today? Thanks to you, not only did I get stuck in a cramped closet covered in pics of my own father, not only did I have to overhear my mom watching adult videos my dad just so happens to star in, but I also had to find out he only became a teacher because he has a thing for schoolgirls. Seriously, after all that, you really think I want to follow them?”

“But we don’t have anything better to do,” Kyungsoo persisted, ignoring his friend’s obvious state of distress. He hoisted her onto the bus and left her lying motionless in the middle of the aisle.

“Can’t we just go back to Pompeii?” Lana bargained, not budging an inch from the floor. “Back to the zombie apocalypse? Back to MegaMadrid so I can jump from that skybridge?”

“Hey, I won’t be having any of that kind of talk,” he clucked, crossing his arms huffily. Before waiting for a reply, he turned to the front of the bus, took his seat behind the wheel, and cranked the ignition. The bus roared to life with a guttural grunt, and Lana responded with a groan of her own.

Kris and Marina were halfway down the block by the time Kyungsoo steered the bus out of the parking lot. The two had set off on foot and were traveling slow enough that the teen driver had to keep his foot glued to the brake just so that the bus wouldn’t pass them. Every now and then, he would slam on the pedal, sending Lana flying down the aisle an inch or two. Neither of the adults even seemed to notice the noisy, suspicious bus as it crept along behind them.

The vehicle soon pulled into a parking lot outside a shady, shack-like bar. As soon as it rolled to a stop, Kyungsoo yanked the key out of the ignition and hopped out of the driver seat. Lana reluctantly pried herself from the bus floor and halfheartedly dusted her clothes off as her partner skipped off the bus whistling, “This is so fun!”

“My world is shattered,” Lana grumbled to the boy who couldn’t hear her. “How is this fun?”

The bar interior was scarcely lit and filled with smoke, exactly the kind of bar one would expect to see in a grungy Hollywood movie. Lana waved a hand in front of her face, coughing and choking on the cancerous fumes as Kyungsoo led her toward the far end of the bar. She hung her head, hiding her face behind her long hair as the two passed Kris and Marina. The young adults had already taken seats in the middle, and Marina was midway through striking up a cigarette of her own. She offered the box to Kris, but he waved his hand dismissively.

“I’m not even old enough to be in a bar,” Lana hissed under her breath. She kept her eyes glued to the floor so as not to be spotted by Kris.

“Relaaax,” Kyungsoo droned. “Neither am I. That’s why I brought my fake ID! I have one for every year.”

She gawked at the boy as he whipped out of his jeans pocket a wallet chock full of cards. He quickly sifted through them, sooner or later pulling out the card corresponding to 2012. Lana could hardly believe her eyes—not because he had so many false licenses, but because he was actually planning on drinking at a time like this. The last thing she needed was another drunken-owl incident, especially not right in front of her own father.

Kyungsoo ordered a glass of Pinot Grigio as soon as the other pair had been served. Kris was fitted with a light beer, while Marina opted for scotch. Lana, on the other hand, chose to swallow air and gape at her partner incredulously.

“What?” he buzzed, catching onto her disbelieving stare.

“Wine in a bar? Please try not to draw any more attention to us. This is already bad enough as is.”

Lana peeked up as Marina chugged the entire contents of her glass in one swift gulp. She slammed the glass on the counter, waved the bartender down for a second serving, and turned to Kris. “So, I need to hear more about this little Lolita obsession of yours.”

In return, Kris fidgeted with his beer glass, idly spinning it around on the countertop. He rested an elbow on the table and propped his head up in his hand, staring at his friend thoughtfully as if wondering where to even begin. Finally, he replied, “She transferred into my class about a week ago.”

“Uh huh,” Marina crooned. The bartender scurried by, dropping off a fresh glass of liquor. She grabbed it from the countertop, pressing it to her lips to take a smaller sip. “Tell me everything.”

“Well,” he sighed, “at first I didn’t think much of her. She just seemed empty-headed and kept staring at me like I was God or something. Well, as it turns out, she recognized me. After homeroom, she approached me and asked for my autograph.”

Marina suddenly spewed scotch everywhere, hissing, “She did what?!”

“She knew my name and everything,” Kris mumbled. “But I decided not to worry about it. I mean, it was weird being stared down like a piece of meat, but she’s not the first student who thought I was hot... obviously.”

Lana fought back the urge to scoff at her young father’s cockiness.

“I didn’t think she would tell anyone,” he continued. “At least, she seemed more interested in getting alone time with me than outing my secret to other students. And honestly, the more I looked at her, the more I realized she was exactly my type. Actually, she has this really nice—”

Kyungsoo coughed suddenly, inadvertently drowning out whatever it was Kris was complimenting.

“So, I decided to sleep with her. I brought her home with me after school the next day. I even got her out of her and into my clothes.” He smirked sardonically. “I was so going to pound her right there, but I chickened out at the last minute. I don’t know why. I guess I just decided to wait it out, so I offered her remedial lessons instead.”

At this point, he paused to run a hand through his hair in what looked almost like shame. His eyes swept across the bar, momentarily landing on his future daughter’s. Once she caught his gaze, he did a double take, quickly glancing back and forth between her and the boy seated next to her with his eyebrows furrowed.

Lana’s heart rate quickened impossibly. Panic-stricken, she jabbed Kyungsoo in the side with her elbow, tearing her gaze away faster than lightning. “He recognizes me,” she hissed. “Kyungsoo, we should go—”

“You haven’t even been born yet,” he retorted with a sigh. “Chill, he doesn’t know you.”

“But he could remember this in twenty years!”

Not a moment later, Kris averted his gaze, crossed his arms, and slinked back in his seat as if to make his giant body more discreet. His voice lowered to a near whisper, but Lana could still hear just well enough as he pressed on.

“Anyway, during the lesson, the topic of my films came up again, and she told me she respected me as an actor. That’s when I really started to feel something different for her, I guess. She’s not like other girls.”

“So, what you’re really saying is you’re hot for a child because she’s dumb enough to think you can act?”

“She’s not a child,” he grumbled quietly. “She’s almost eighteen. Besides, no one has ever complimented my acting before. Even you think I’m terrible.”

“Well, honey, I’m not going to sugarcoat it just because I’m your best friend.”

The two continued to down drinks as Kris rambled on and on about what he liked about Yunee, how he somehow managed to see the fact that she was probably legally insane as a plus, and his belief that she only wanted him for his body—which Lana had to agree was probably true. All the while, he continued to steal confused glances at the girl and boy seated on the far side of the bar. Lana tried to keep her head down, hoping he wouldn’t magically recognize her as his daughter-from-twenty-years-in-the-future if he looked too closely.

A long hour had passed before the best friends finally asked for the check. Marina picked up the tab; meanwhile, Kris rose from his seat and threw one last hesitant glance in Lana’s direction.

The next thing she knew, he was heading straight for them.

Heart suddenly pounding faster than the speed of light, Lana shrunk down as best she could in an effort to minimize her stature. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Kyungsoo still blissfully unaware and unsuspecting that Kris was walking toward them. He held his wine glass like a gentleman and idly kicked his legs that were too short to reach the ground from his tall barstool.

Every nerve in Lana’s body filled with dread. She didn’t dare look up as Kris bypassed her in favor of the teen boy seated beside her. He placed a hand on Kyungsoo’s shoulder and leaned in, greeting, “Good to see you. How’s the cinnamon roll business going?”

Kyungsoo stared back at him with a look of pure stupor spread across his face. “It’s... fine?” he garbled, clearly lost for any idea as to what was going on. He glanced to Lana for help, but the girl couldn’t do anything but gape back at him horror.

Kris chuckled. “I’ll see you at school tomorrow.” He patted Kyungsoo on the shoulder before disappearing from the bar behind Marina. The two watched in silent shock as he made his exit. No sooner had he vanished through the door than Kyungsoo and Lana turned to face each other with equally shocked expressions.

“What’s a cinnamon roll?” the boy mumbled, eyebrows pulled together in confusion.

Lana opened , almost answered even, before she suddenly realized exactly what he had just asked. “What?” she hissed incredulously. “My dad from the past recognizes you, and you want to know what a cinnamon roll is? Aside from him recognizing me, this is like the very worst thing that could possibly happen to us!”

“Nah, this is nothing,” Kyungsoo asserted with a comfortable smile, waving his hand dismissively. “I do drive a time machine, you know. All it really means is that I’ll get to know him someday. I wonder how I’ll meet him in my future...” He trailed off pensively for a moment before suddenly reverting subjects. “But really, what’s a cinnamon roll?”

Lana continued to glower at him. She mentally weighed her options, debating on telling him but still held back by half a mind to knock the crazy kid out, steal his bus keys, and find her own way back to 2033.

She knew she couldn’t do that, nor did she really want to. But it did give her an idea.

Before Kyungsoo could blink an eye, she grabbed him and yanked him out of the chair. “Let’s find a grocery store!” she exclaimed, hauling him out of the bar as he frantically dove into his wallet to throw some cash down on the counter.

After all, Lana realized, if she engaged Kyungsoo in her own activities, he wouldn’t be able to suggest following Kris any further.

Author's Note
This chapter is twice as long as usual, so I expect comments that are four times longer and sixteen times more plentiful! Now we know Kris’s original intentions with Yunee, omggggg! ON ANOTHER NOTE: Vina, did you notice that I changed some things a bit?

Anyway, thank you guys for continuously commenting. ❤ I have to admit I need to do a lot of writing soon, because with this chapter, I have officially run out of the chapters I had stocked up. lmao

(Oh, and I was kidding about expecting long comments. Don’t kill me. /hides)