It hadn’t been long since Zi Tao had arrived by plane at the International airport in Korea, a sudden call right before he had gotten on the plane made him feel stressed. He intended to rush towards the university where he and one of his best friends are enrolled at, as soon as he had arrived in Korea. The call had been short and messy; the guy on the other side of the line had been freaked out about something that seemed really important. But when Tao was about to go through security, something unexpected happened. A flash of light surrounded him and he felt like the ground disappeared, his whole body felt lighter than usual too. Panic rose inside him when the light became even stronger, making it impossible for him to keep his eyes open. 
 

It soon felt like everything started to spin around him and the sensation made him feel dizzy and slightly nauseous, well more than just slightly. It had felt like his stomach turned inside out and when it suddenly started ringing in his ears too, which became louder and louder every second, it became extremely painful for him to stay somewhat sane. The excruciating pain and the repulsive feeling in his stomach soon resulted in him passing out. 

Tao woke up with a horrible headache and a sore body. He rubbed the back of his head, noticing how ruffled his black hair had become. Tao scanned the environment with a tired gaze; the brightness didn't make it any easier. He narrowed his dark colored eyes, squinting at something glinting nearby. When he finally could take in his surroundings, he realized he was in the middle of a vast plain with all kinds of different colored flowers decorating the otherwise green land. It was some kind of monument with crystals that had caught his attention while the sun shone on it. The cool breeze made him shudder as he mustered up enough strength to stand up, making him immediately rub his arms with his hands.
 

"Where am I? And how the heck did I get here?" Tao's voice came out barely as a whisper, he was too shocked to control his voice properly. 
 

"Ren!" A girly voice called out in the distance, making Tao turn around surprised. 
 

He just managed to turn around when a body was thrown at him, arms encircling his waist in just nanoseconds, shocking Tao completely. His mind was as good as blown away when the embrace got tighter around him, making it harder for him to breathe.
 

"You've finally returned! I've missed you so much!" The girl let out hysterically, squeezing the body in her arms even tighter. "Ren..."
 

"Ren?" Tao managed to get out with the lack of oxygen and in absolute confusion. "I'm not Ren!" He wheezed and coughed while trying to get some air in his soon empty lungs, something that seemed completely unattainable at the moment.
 

"Of course you're Ren! I know that you don't like it when I'm clingy, but you shouldn't joke about that. I'm still mad at you for leaving without telling me, but I'll forgive you since you're here now." She said with a somewhat whiny voice, totally not intending to let go of her victim anytime soon.
 

Tao forcefully broke out of the girl’s embrace, feeling like his life depended on it. As soon as he was free, he gasped for air, filling his almost drained lungs with as much oxygen he could possibly get. Tao fell to the ground when his senses finally came back, his brain suddenly reminding him about how hurt his body was. The pain seemed like it had increased ten times, making him feel at the brink of how much he could take.

The girl squealed when she saw the black haired guy collapse in front of her and it only took her a few seconds to get down next to him.
 

“Are you okay? I didn’t mean to use so much of my strength… I’m so sorry, Ren…” She worriedly said while patting Tao’s back in a soothing way. Or what should have been a soothing way if it hadn’t been for the power she had.
 

“Ouch! Stop that! It hurts!” Tao cried out when the girl hit a sore spot on his back. “And I already told you, I’m not Ren! I’m Tao, Huang Zi Tao!” He continued as soon as she stopped patting his back.
 

“What? But you look exactly like him!” She defended as she narrowed her eyes at him, observing the look of Tao’s face. “Well… I mean…” She mumbled as she set her eyes on the ruffled black hair. “He doesn’t have black hair though… and not black clothes either…” She finally concluded after a while.
 

Tao rolled his eyes at the obviously strange and confused girl in front of him. How can someone be so utterly whimsy? But her strength though! Tao thought to himself as he rubbed his now sore stomach. He quickly looked up at the girl and noticed that she had a somewhat embarrassed smile on her face. Her long sand-brown hair slightly moved when a sudden breeze came in their direction, slowly dancing around her shoulders in a way that looked rather magical. She looked quite young, and the fact that she wasn’t that tall made her look even younger. Tao was surprised when he realized that she wasn’t Asian, she looked European actually, but her Korean was even better than his even if she had a slight accent when she spoke. He also noticed her different colored eyes behind the glasses she wore; her right eye was blue while her left eye was green. Something he hadn’t seen before, not on people anyway.
 

“I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to mistake you for Ren, but you two look so alike it’s almost scary. It’s just your hair color that’s different, well, kind of...” She trailed off and her cheeks turned a pale pink out of embarrassment. “Maybe your style of clothes too…” She finished while furrowing her eyebrows.
 

When the girl had mentioned about clothes, Tao finally caught his sight on the remarkable clothes she was wearing. It was nothing like the garments he had seen before; they looked like something they would wear in a kind of action movie. She wore a white multilayered dress in a soft-looking fabric and a black leather corset with lots of blue lacing, snuggly keeping her torso in shape.
 

“Why are you wearing that?” Tao soon let out without thinking, gasping when he realized he had said his thoughts out loud. “Sorry! I didn’t mean to say that-”
 

“What?” She only said, cutting his sentence short. “This is the newest fashion around here, you know. You should look at yours though; you look like you’re some kind of assassin or something.” She announced with a shrug, completely unmoved by Tao's insensitive question.
 

"What about my clothes? They're just simply-" Tao started to say and looked down on his clothes, trailing off as he laid his eyes on what should've been his favorite white shirt and dark blue denims. His expression changed on his face to a mix of confusion and shock. "Black... all... black?" He mumbled when he had seen the black garments on his body, slightly ripped parts at the hem and tassels hanging from the front of the sleeved shirt. His pants were most certainly made in all black leather and some tassels hanging from the pockets, they were slightly ripped at the thighs too.
 

"See? You look like an assassin!" The girl told him in an arrogant tone as she flipped her long sand-brown hair with her right hand. A victorious grin plastered on her face.
 

"But... how?" Tao let out in disbelief, suddenly feeling like he was dreaming, which he wasn't.
 

"Well, you must've put them on by yourself. Or maybe you got help from someone?" She said as she shrugged her shoulders, sticking out her tongue in a teasing way afterwards.
 

Tao raised an eyebrow, eyeing the girl in front of him weirdly. Then a deep sigh left him, he was definitely not in the mood to argue or even care about her sarcasm. His eyes went down to his clothes again, examining the odd garments he was wearing. When did I ever put on these clothes? He thought to himself, his memory was obviously failing him, making him forget about something like this.

"Anyway, while you're pondering about how much you're memory is deteriorating; I'm going to search for my love." The girl spoke and swiftly stood up, brushing off dust from her dress before slowly walking away.
 

"What?" Tao let out in disbelief, how could she just leave him there in the middle of nowhere and with nothing? "You can't just go away! What about me? I-I don't even know where I am!" He called out after her, carefully standing up so he could follow the girl.
 

She just ignored him, thinking that she had more important things to do than helping a complete stranger. But when she didn't answer him, he stared with wide eyes at her back, not knowing what to do now.
 

"Wait! What's your name?! You haven't told me yet!" He yelled at the top of his lungs, hoping it would somehow catch her attention. Finally she stopped in her track and turned around with a smile.
 

"I'm Jenn!" She yelled equally loud as Tao, and then pushed some of her long hair behind her ear. "Don't forget about me too!" She finished with a chuckle, amused by how forgetful the guy must be to forget about getting dressed, and then she turned around to continue on her way.
 

"But I-" Tao started all flustered. "I'm not forgetful!" He finished as loud as he could, scaring some crows that were near-by, making them lift from the ground in a hurry.
 

The commotion had most definitely started some kind of chain reaction as other animals suddenly left the plain in a hurry too; making Tao surprised that he hadn't seen them earlier.

But a peculiar sound caught his attention and he slowly turned around towards its source. Tao’s eyes widened as an object flew towards him, making him quickly crouch down to evade getting hurt even more. Tao’s instincts made him scan the area, trying to figure out: what, who and why it happened to him. Isn’t it enough that I have gotten to an unfamiliar place?
 

A blonde head was seen far away, crouching down in the grass to hide. But Tao knew that it must’ve been that person who just had thrown something at him. He looked behind himself and noticed the object just a few meters away, he became speechless when he noticed that it had been a sword that had been thrown towards his head. My precious head…
 

But just as he was about to go and take care of the guy, to scold him about nearly killing him, he could hear something running in his direction from behind.

“Ren!” Tao heard Jenn’s voice once again and a second later she flashed by him, obviously in a hurry.
 

Tao only stared as the girl ran fast as lightning towards a silhouette in the distance, widening his eyes in shock as he saw her attack the person. He saw the person fall down on the ground, hearing a groan of pain as he or she made impact with the hard surface. Tao grimaced in empathy, knowing how much that must’ve hurt since Jenn had roughly done the same to him just minutes ago.
 

“Ren! You’re finally here!” That familiar sentence made Tao roll his eyes and sigh deeply, thinking if she always did that to people. “It’s really you! Where have you been?!”
 

“Why?!” The one who she called Ren shouted out, most definitely regretting his decision to come back. “Let go of me!” The guy said, or more like yelled at her while flailing his arms and legs, furiously trying to get out of the iron grip Jenn had around his waist.
 

“No! I’m never letting you go again!” Jenn answered back heatedly, crushing the guy even more, showing that she really meant what she said.
 

“Ah! You’re killing me!” Ren yelled out again, only receiving more pain from the girl. “I’m trying to get rid of someone here!” He finally let out and Tao could only feel how his irritation grew more and more, he could understand that the person Ren was talking about was himself. But why?
 

“Don’t you dare kill your twin!” Jenn announced with a pout, using almost all her strength to keep the guy down.
 

“W-what?!” Ren yelled in disbelief. “What twin?! I don’t have a twin! And you know that!” He heatedly continued, trying to roll over to his side instead, but couldn’t get anywhere with Jenn on top of him.
 

“Doesn’t matter right now, I’m keeping you here with me anyway. So you won’t be able to run away from me again.” Jenn said firmly, ignoring Ren’s continual complains and whimpers of pain. 

“Stop that.” Tao suddenly said from behind of Jenn, his irritation slowly disappearing at the sight of the bluish face of the blonde haired guy underneath her. “You’re killing him if you do that, don’t you want him alive? If you want to be able to marry him, that is. But it’s your choice really, but you better hurry make a decision before his lungs are all empty and his organs crushed…” He continued in a matter of fact tone, hoping that his small speech would somehow save the guy from dying a painfully slow death.
 

Tao wasn’t sure of why he even helped the guy; Ren had in fact tried to murder him with a flying sword. Not just one of those plastic or gummy ones, it was a real one out of steel. A deathly weapon made for killing.
 

Jenn hesitated a bit before slowly releasing her victim, her face turned into a discontented expression while she finally got off of him. She sulked even though the poor guy coughed like crazy and gasped for air, she didn’t spend much time thinking about his near-death experience.
 

Tao reached out his hand towards the guy he was supposed to look alike, and waited for him to accept it. Ren stared at him for quite a while before he hesitantly accepted Tao’s help.
 

“Thanks… I guess…” Ren mumbled, looking away from the guy that had just saved him.
 

Tao rolled his eyes in annoyance but let it go, he didn’t want to fight even though Ren had tried to kill him just a moment ago. But hopefully he wouldn’t have to worry about that now.

"But who are you? You're not the one I'm after!" Ren suddenly questioned, observing Tao closely.
 

"And you came to realize that now?" Tao tiredly let out; somewhat relieved that the guy had come to understand that finally, but at the same time he was worried. What if he tries to murder me anyway? Or what if he had actually succeeded?
 

"This is your twin! Tao, something…" Jenn introduced happily, somehow she had gotten over the fact that she couldn't cling unto her love so tightly.
 

"Twin? In what way?" Ren irritatedly asked, not finding any similarities between them.
 

"Your face!" Jenn answered back, not believing how blind Ren must be for not seeing what she was seeing. "You have exactly the same face!" Her voice became high-pitched as she pointed at both of their faces, trying to emphasize her observations by using words and by showing him at the same time what she was talking about.

Ren and Tao stood silently and observed each other; there weren’t really any striking similarities as they could see. But the more they stared at one another, the more irritated they became. Tao ended up glaring at the blonde haired guy intensely, feeling how it started boiling with annoyance and anger inside him, once again thinking about the fact that he could have been dead right now. Ren on the other hand, felt like there was some kind of connection between the two, an annoying feeling that almost made him crazy. He didn't want to be saved by some random guy, especially since the said guy looked like an assassin. What if that Tao guy actually is from the clan I'm after? What if he's paid to fool me so I would get my guard down? Ren pondered quietly, furrowing his eyebrows the more he thought about it.
 

Jenn sighed after a while, feeling exhausted for some reason while watching the inner battle of the two guys.
 

"Are you going to-" Jenn's voice faded as Tao felt dizzy again, a bright light surrounded him once more and he had to squeeze his eyes shut.
 

It didn't take long before the familiar nauseous feeling and the deafening noise struck him, making him faint again.

Moments later, he slowly opened his eyes, just to shut them close because of the bright lamps in the ceiling.
 

"-be okay?" He heard a female voice, sounding like Jenn, worriedly ask.
 

He hadn't caught the first words though, but he opened his eyes once more, only that this time he held them open. He glanced around him, noticing that all of a sudden he was in a big and light room, much like the airport... The airport?
 

Was it all just a dream?

"Hey! You're finally awake!" The girl burst out in relief, shaking Tao slightly by his shoulders.
 

Tao's eyes widened as he saw the girl in front of him. The girl looked exactly like Jenn, but without those weird clothes though. She didn't seem to know who he was though, since she was just staring at him confusedly. He felt strangely observed and took another look around himself, and this time he noticed that he was surrounded by a lot of curious people. He blushed out of embarrassment for lying on the cold floor, cursing in his head for not getting up quicker. It didn't take long before he got up on his feet, acting like nothing had happened before quickly running away from there.
 

Tao ended up running all the way towards one of the parks around the corner of the airport, his heart pounded hard against his ribs. He didn't get to ponder about what had happened as his phone rang. He picked it out of his jeans pocket and checked the caller ID, noticing that it was his friend Jongin.
 

"Hello-"
 

"Where the heck are you?! I've been waiting a good twenty minutes already! Get your lazy over here, NOW!" His friend furiously let out, making Tao keep the phone away from his ear, to keep it from bursting.
 

Then the line broke and Tao stood there silently, staring at his phone like it was from outer space. Some seconds later he remembered. He was supposed to help Jongin with something at the school and had, after all, been in a hurry before passing out.
 

Maybe that's the reason why I passed out in the first place? He thought before realizing that he was in an even more hurry now. Tao sprinted towards the place he was supposed to meet his friend, trying to get there as fast as he could. 

Once he had arrived, it didn't take much time before he actually found his dear friend in the middle of a crowd.
 

"What happened?" Tao asked as soon as he reached the crowd, pushing through the mob effortlessly.
 

"Oh! There you are! We've missed you, Huang Zi Tao..." A male voice mocked, pushing Tao's shoulder harshly into the direction of a tree.
 

Another guy kicked his left leg, making Tao to fall down on his knees without a chance to react.
 

"How dare you defeat my minions?" The first guy questioned in a low harsh voice, spitting on the ground right next to Tao. "Did you really think you could get away with that?"
 

The guy was quite big and looked like a mobster with his scarred face. He was wearing a black sleeveless shirt and ripped jeans, his arms were full of tattoos symbolizing skulls and all kinds of death related things. The guy was famous by his nickname Z-all and was generally recognized as the most dangerous guy at school, he was someone that was ready to kill if anyone went against his orders.

 

Z-all walked over to Tao with big steps, grabbing a hold of his chin while glaring straight into his dark eyes. A disgusted expression took over Z-all's face and he was just about to hit Tao right in the face with one of his large, metal clad hands when an object came flying against them. Z-all immediately let go of his grip on Tao's chin and furiously turned around, searching feverishly for the person that had just interrupted him.
 

"Aw, please!" A very familiar voice called out, turning everyone’s attention to someone standing a couple of meters away. "You can't be serious. You will never be able to defeat Tao, no matter how much you try. He is, after all, number one in martial arts in this school..." The guy continued with a smirk.
 

Tao could recognize the blonde haired guy as Ren, the same guy he had met in that strange dream; and it felt a bit like déjà vu. But with the presence of Ren, Tao felt a bit relieved.
 

"What?!" Z-all shouted angrily, fuming because of Ren's words. "I'll deal with you first, and then we'll see if you'll change your mind..."
 

"Not you again!" The head teacher let out from behind, his arms across his chest as he stared at the gang leader menacingly.
 

A shade of red spread on Z-all's face, his eyes huge as he stared back at the teacher. It didn't take long until the guy was on the run, sprinting through the school yard for his life, followed by the head teacher and some other teacher that had seen the commotion.

As everything had calmed down and the onlookers had gone, Tao and his friend were standing next to Ren in silence.
 

"Thanks, I guess." Jongin said as he reached out his hand towards Ren to thank him thoroughly.
 

Ren stared at the hand, just like he had done earlier towards Tao, before hesitantly taking it in his.
 

"I didn't really do anything though." Ren defended weakly as he scratched his neck, embarrassed since he didn't think he deserved a thank you.
 

"Well, you did enough. But as you just said, Tao could have taken him out right on the spot if it hadn't been for the teachers..." Jongin bragged proudly, putting one of his arms around Tao's neck to rub his fist into the already messy hair on top of Tao's head.
 

"Stop that!" Tao let out while trying to pry is friend's hands off of him. "If you don't, I'll use my wushu on you!" He continued in a serious tone.
 

A chuckle left Ren's mouth as he watched the two with amusement. His usually expressionless face plastered with a huge smile for once. Jongin laughed too and finally let go of Tao, linking his arms with both Tao and Ren instead.
 

"So, how about we get some food? I'm totally hungry now, what about you guys?" Jongin asked while tilting his head at the two surprised guys.
 

"I'm actually starving too..." Tao realized as his stomach suddenly growled loudly.
 

"Is it really okay if I follow? I mean, we don't know each other that well..." Ren shyly questioned after a while, feeling a bit out of place because of not knowing them.
 

Jongin and Tao exchanged a long glance before they both turned to Ren.
 

"Of course it's okay! How else will we get to know more about one another?" Jongin explained and shrugged. "The more the merrier!"
 

Ren nodded slowly and accepted the offer. Tao on the other hand, felt a bit confused as they walked towards Jongin's favorite restaurant. He decided to ease his curiosity a bit.

"Ehm... Ren?" Tao begun and Ren faced him with raised eyebrows, waiting for the guy to go on. "Why did you help us?" Tao questioned carefully, observing the blonde haired guy in anticipation.
 

"Oh, that... I don't know really. It felt like I owed you something, I guess..." Ren simply answered with a slight frown. "It's like you would have done the same if I would be in danger. Maybe we've met in another life and you've already saved me..." He shrugged.
 

The explanation from Ren made Tao's brain work in high-speed, millions of thoughts circled around his mind, making him feel somewhat dizzy. What if everything actually happened? Or what if... this dream was about this moment? But in another form? Maybe, there's a connection?
 

Tao didn’t get any answers for his questions but at least he had earned a new friend. But his curiosity never ended.
 

Maybe there was a really good reason of why it had happened? A reason I will never know…