chapter two — THE TWINS OF JANUS

»  My eyes automatically closed by themselves as I tumbled into the portal. However, instead of falling down, I bumped into something... or someone. Warm hands grasped my own and my eyes fluttered open in surprise. I raised my head and stared at the teenage boy before me. Messy, brown locks graced his head and his eyes were a warm shade of brown, reminding me of chocolate. He wore a Russian like uniform with golden badges pinned to it.

"Are you alright, Celeste?" The boy asked me, his voice full of concern and I nodded my head slowly. Then, my eyes narrowed and I pushed his arms away from me. "How do you know my name?"

"I know everything about you, Celeste." Another male voice spoke up from behind me and I spun around, surprised. My jaw dropped and I pointed my finger at the lookalike, "Am... Am I seeing doubles?"

The second male chuckled merrily at my question before stepping towards the first male, taking his place beside him. He swung an arm over the first male and exclaimed proudly, "We're twins!"

I stared at them. They were complete copies of each other and if the second male hadn't told me the reason, I would seriously thought that I had gone crazy. Seriously, they looked exactly the same. "Can you tell me your names since you already known mine?" I meekly asked, crossing my fingers that they're not like Tao.

The first one beamed at me, "Of course! He's Kwangmin —"

"And he's Youngmin!" The other male declared in excitement.

I stared at them for a moment, taking in their words.

"Youngmin?" I asked, pointing at the first guy who nodded his head, before turning the other male and stating, "Kwangmin?"

"Correct! And together, we're Janus." Kwangmin informed me.

I frowned slightly, recalling what I know of Roman mythologic. "Isn't Janus the two-sided god?"

Youngmin nodded his head before elaborating further, "He's also the god of change and choices and Miss Celeste Li, you have a choice to make now."

"What choice, er... Youngmin?" I questioned, fighting the urge to scratch my head idiotically.

Kwangmin walked to my left and whispered into my ear, "To go or not go."

"Time travelling is dangerous stuff, Celeste. Even the grand Zitao does not dare to play with it so much." Youngmin murmured by my right. My eyes widen at Tao's birth name but before I could speak, Youngmin hurried on, "Your choice is to return back to your current time period aka the present —"

"— Or go forward or should I say, backwards, into your past and change people's fates." Kwangmin added, his breath hitting my cheek. "Oh Sehun would or would not suffer a more horrible fate than now."

"Sehun..." I breathed out as determination flushed through me again. Pushing the twins away, I declared confidently, "I want to go back to the past."

The twins sighed at the same time, probably thinking why am I such an idiot but if being an idiot could help Sehun, then I'm totally fine with it. "What do I do now?" I inquired, staring at the twins.

"Nothing." Youngmin replied and I swore I saw Kwangmin smirked before darkness overwhelmed my whole being.