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Kai’s brain feels like it’s being squeezed and battered like bread dough. The heat of time traveling is close unbearable in his limbs. He feels like he’s being spun through air, and he dizzily senses his body crash landing on solid ground.

He has to shake himself to clear his vision. He drags himself up from the dirt road with a groan, and the headache still taunts him when he’s standing up.

The first thing he notices is that he’s looking up at the roof of the extravagant palace. But it’s very far away from him. Several buildings away. Kai frowns, because they were definitely standing right next to it when they time jumped.

And the thought makes Kai whirl his head around. But there’s no one in sight. He’s alone, and Taemin and Krystal are nowhere to be seen.

Kai sighs in frustration. Time travel just doesn’t work the way they need it to. He notices the smoky gray shape his breath takes in front of his eyes. The air is drastically chilly.

He starts walking, not exactly knowing where to go. He wonders momentarily if he should try looking for the others around the district, but the tall palace looming in his eyesight tells him otherwise. In the end, Kai decides it’s best to head to the palace.

He doesn’t run into anyone. It’s just him and his foggy breath, until he turns a corner. A bright yellow light blinds him, and he just barely makes out the outline of an all too familiar car. He doesn’t need to tell his body twice to run. He takes off back the way he came.

The shooter in the passenger seat only has time to fire one bullet before the car streaks past Kai’s street. It misses, and Kai runs for another corner, expecting the car to come back in reverse.

The screeching of oxygen pumps changing directions stops Kai in his tracks. A bullet noise whips through the air, a few blocks away from where Kai is. And Kai turns and runs back toward the car, because he’s sure it’s one or both of his friends.

He gets to the street where the car’s back is facing him. In the distance, he can make out long, flying black hair.

He drops to his knees, grabs his backpack, and takes out his submachine gun. He jumps back up, and rains fire on the back of the vehicle. The back window smashes, and bullet holes bury themselves in the shiny paint. Kai is sure at least one figure in the backseat slumps down from a hit.

The gunman in the passenger seat attempts to shoot back, but his aim is nowhere near Kai. The driver pumps the pedal, and the car floats away. Kai doesn’t know why, but he starts chasing it, not releasing his finger from the trigger.

The car halts abruptly at an intersection. The driver jumps out to the left, while the shooter in the passenger seat dives to the right. Kai goes in pursuit of the right man. The other bodies in the car don’t move.

The man is fast on his feet. Kai streams several bullets right into solid brick buildings as he turns the corner to catch up to the man. Just when his gunpoint is about to align with the black uniform, the gun clicks and stops firing. His finger tugs at the trigger several times, but the gun is out of rounds.

The man realizes it too and flings his arm back, rifle in hand. Kai dives and the bullet just misses the top of his head. He’s sure he won’t be fast enough to aim his semi-automatic before the man fires his next shot, but by an impulse, he grabs the pistol and pitches his arm up.

Kai watches the hunter’s gunpoint land right on him. His own arm is a fraction of a second late.

The man in the black uniform flies back with a bullet in his head, but it’s not Kai’s shot.

Lying on his stomach on the cold street, Kai doesn’t understand why he’s not dead. He eyes the crumpled man ahead of him, and then, hears darting footsteps. Krystal runs into Kai’s view from the intersecting street. She glances at the dead hunter near her, then looks down the road to Kai’s rigid form on the ground. She comes and offers him a hand.

As he gets up, he acknowledges the pistol in her other hand. “Good shot,” he says.

They take off toward the palace again. It gets taller and nearer, and to Kai’s relief, the familiar palace wall comes into view. Taemin is already there with a hand up on the surface.

Taemin spots Kai and Krystal running toward him and gestures with his other arm frantically. “We went over this time! It’s 1987! Four more years!” Kai’s friend shouts with enthusiasm.

Kai’s eyes widen. He raises his arm with the pistol in his hand. “Taemin, move!!” he yells back.

A black-clad hunter Kai recognizes as the driver from the hunters’ car takes aim and fires a double-action revolver in his hand. Almost simultaneously, Kai roughly pulls at the trigger of his semi-automatic. Even though he’s running, Kai’s aim hits the hunter dead-on in the chest. Maybe it’s his desperation, Kai thinks, as his face contorts.

The hunter falls over the same time Taemin does. Panting, Kai skids and drops to the ground next to his friend. Taemin’s body faces up toward Kai, arms carelessly thrown with elbows folded inward and palms lying on top of the boy’s chest. Kai focuses his eyes on the spot below Taemin’s neckline, searching for movement.

“Don’t do this to me Taemin,” Kai hears himself uttering through clenched teeth. “What you ss…s-said last nn-night, doesn’t have t-to… come… true-e.” His jaw stiffens and locks between his words, because Taemin’s chest isn’t moving.

Krystal gets down on Kai’s opposite side and puts a shaking hand on Taemin’s head. She brushes a few hairs away from his lightly closed eyes.

“F-four more-e ye-years, Taemin-n…” Kai grasps Taemin’s shoulders in anger. “FOUR MORE YEARS!!” When Kai shakes his friend, he’s appalled by how easily Taemin’s body rattles and how easily his hair bounces.

“Four more years…” Kai finds himself mouthing over and over.

“Kai…” A hand takes his chin and turns his face. Kai is staring into Krystal’s dark, glistening eyes.

He remembers how he forcefully lifted Krystal up and carried her away from her sister’s dead body. But Krystal can’t do that, Kai ruggedly thinks. Instead, she’s looking at him with a face full of anguish and understanding.

“I’m so sorry…” Krystal whispers. “But you’re right, we have four more years… left.”

Kai draws his quivering hands away from Taemin’s motionless body. Krystal takes them. Her fingers are cold but her flesh is alive and breathing.

She slowly rises, pulling his hands with her. Kai’s knees pop when he gets up next to her.

“We won’t forget,” Krystal says, startling Kai. “We won’t forget you Taemin. Neither of us will forget you… or my sister.” She looks at Kai searchingly. Kai gives a slight, frazzled nod.

Krystal leads him to the side wall of the palace. She tightens her grip on his one hand, and they both put their palms up against the cold stone surface.

“Four years, but we haven’t been able to get the right amount of time with bigger leaps… I think we should try for two, since there’s two of us. It’s safer that way,” Krystal softly suggests.

Kai again nods and turns to look down at Taemin one last time. His friend’s handsome features look calm and picturesque. “One, two…” Krystal counts. Kai feels his eyes stinging, so that Taemin’s body is just a blur in his vision. “Three,” Krystal says, and Taemin is gone.

Intangible forces pull at Kai’s limbs from all sides. There’s a whirring noise in his head, and he knows he’s going to end up on the ground with his muscles aching.

When he appears, the stuff on the ground he feels with his hands it soft and moist. Kai props himself up and opens his eyes, only to find stinging tears in them. He groans, hoists himself up to a standing position, and wipes his eyes with the back of his hand. His head spins briefly, before he focuses his vision.

He’s standing in a dirt field with tiny, green plants sticking up in rows around him. To his left and right, the fields stretch endlessly. Ahead of him, there’s a two story house made of thick wood. And beyond the house, are urban, cement buildings. Buildings that reach about halfway up to the height of the district Qoppa palace, the single piece of architecture that stands with a clear, blue sky background.

The palace is so much further away than the last time jump. Kai tries for a ragged sigh, but his breath catches in his throat. He feels his pulse thrashing against his head. His feet start pounding forward in the dirt.

“KRYSTAL!” He cries into the air. There’s nothing but fear in his voice.

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There is no way this story could have come to existence if you had not been born, Kim Jongin. Happy Birthday, and we (and Krystal) love you ♥