-

The wide, rectangular space is completely white on all sides. Kai's eyes sting in the harsh brilliance of color, but he blinks it away.

His arms are stiff and incapable of moving. All he can do is crane his head down. He meets Krystal's sharp, dark eyes. They're so close, they can feel each other's breaths.

The tear marks Kai noticed in 1983 are gone, and there are different, faint lines around Krystal's eyes that weren't there before. Her usual, completely pale complexion is a little rosier, and it's the first time Kai admits it to himself outright. Krystal is beautiful. She doesn't really look any different from the first time he saw her, but she's older. She’s a much more mature Krystal, with the beauty and elegance of a woman who has gone through too much. The thought slowly wraps itself around Kai's mind, when Krystal opens tentatively. "You look... Different," she mutters.

Kai can't feel any difference. He's sure Krystal can't either, not about herself. He wonders how much he's actually aged. He was never as handsome as Taemin; Taemin was always the one to retain his good looks as he grew. Kai was mostly just the handsome kid’s dark-skinned friend. But he doesn’t want to think about it anymore, and just nods at Krystal’s remark absently.

They go on staring at each other for what seems like hours, before a mechanical click comes from Kai's left. They turn their heads, and the pure white wall glides open. A tall, pretty woman walks in, and smiles at Kai and Krystal, who are still clinging to each other.

"Welcome to 2030," the woman says.

-

"Tell me your full name, full birth date, and the district you lived in in your year," directs Victoria, the pretty woman who guided Kai and Krystal out of the white time travel room to their current location. They’re in a dark room with light green walls, void of furniture except for the large holographic computer in the center.  

Kai is still staring at the headshot photograph of himself, taken just moments ago on the holographic computer and now projected right in front of him.

"Kai Kim... January 14, 1996... District Delta..."

The math calculates itself in Kai's head as he speaks. He's no longer a 17 year old boy, and the photo in front of him proves it. The Kai in the holograph is a full grown man, a version of himself that has weathered years of being hunted down. Lines around his eyes, jawline set and angular, tanned skin more rugged and worn. He’s aware of Krystal’s eyes, shifting from the holographic image to the actual Kai, back and forth.

“Great, your records will be pulled up once we can get our technicians your information,” Victoria says, wiping her hand in the air and storing Kai’s information into an invisible, digital storage folder. “Next, your photograph, miss.” The woman pulls up the small, rectangular, holographic camera with a sweep of her forefinger while Krystal stands in front of it. Krystal’s dark eyes are shadowed and baffled, and she doesn’t smile, just like Kai. The womanly shape of her face is captured and projected above her.

Krystal finally gets to see her older self, and she raises a hand to at the photo in front of her. Kai watches her in understanding. “The same information, miss. Your name, birth date, district,” Victoria continues.

“Krystal Jung. September 24, 1996. District Nu,” Krystal replies.

Kai doesn’t know how to describe the feeling he gets, when he finds out he and Krystal were the same age in 2013. She’s from District Nu. In normal circumstances, getting from his district to Nu would have been a simple bus ride and day trip for Kai and Taemin. He just watches her as his thoughts take over. If the League hadn’t launched their mass time traveler hunt, would Kai and Krystal have met in 2013? They would have been simple teenagers. He might have met her and hit on her, only to be laughed at by her mockingly sharp eyes and maybe even her older sister. But then they might have had a chance. He might have been able to get to know a happier Krystal.

“We’ll try to set up your records as soon as possible. In the meantime, you two will have to stay here, and become acquainted with some of the changes that obviously took place since your time. For now, I’ll lead you to some rooms so both of you can get some well-needed rest,” Victoria smiles at them again and leads them out of the green computer room. The corridors they weave through are sleek and gray. Doors spontaneously slide open with strange, mechanical clicks when Kai doesn’t expect them to, and they make him jump involuntarily. Strangers with apologetic faces sweep past them.

“Here we are,” says Victoria, and taps her hands on both sides of the gray walls. Two doors click and slide open. “Your rooms are just right across from each other. If you need anything, both rooms are equipped with holograph computers. You can contact me from there any time. Also, you should be able to find others who have recently arrived from the past, if you want to.” The woman smiles one last time, and turns to leave.

“Wait,” Kai blurts. Victoria turns back to him with expectant eyes. Kai lets out a deep breath.

“So what happens now… now that we’ve made it to 2030?” He asks. Because he truly doesn’t understand. Nothing about the place he’s in is really clear to him.  

The woman’s eyes soften, but for once, she doesn’t give that polite smile. “Life,” she says, with a small but serious tone. “Life, from where you were before all of this started. Life from where you can pick up the broken pieces.” She eyes them both with a look that Kai thinks is either sorrow or pity, then walks away.

-

The room oddly enough reminds Kai of something like a sleekly furnished hotel room from 2013. Kai stands there, eyeing the bed with the thick, warm brown comforter, the cream colored sofa, the asymmetrically shaped wooden desk and dresser. He doesn’t really feel like he belongs in any place near those pieces of furniture. After some fumbling with his feet, Kai just takes the semi-automatic pistol still tucked in his belt, the only weapon he still has left with him, and places it on the wooden desk. Staring at the black pistol for a bit, Kai decides to leave the room and trudge across the corridor.

He stands in front of the gray wall and doesn’t really understand where the sliding door starts. After a pause, he just taps a random place in front of him, just like Victoria did. Instead of the door sliding open, a miniature holographic screen appears in front of his face.

There’s a picture of Kai on the screen, and next to it, letters that read, “Entry request processing.”

Kai his lips in slight confusion. The letters in front of him quickly change. “Entry request approved.”

Just like that, the door slides open, and Kai finds himself looking into a room identical to his own. He steps in and the door closes behind him.

Krystal looks up at him with her hair falling over her. She’s sitting on the very edge of the bed, hands sort of uncomfortably placed on the brown comforter, as if trying not to dirty the surface. Kai walks over slowly.

There’s one thing about Krystal that makes her even more out of place in the nice room than Kai. It makes Kai grimace inwardly. Because she’s still wearing the loose jacket from 2003. The jacket with Jessica’s blood stain, now thickly matted in a dark brown color.

“I don’t…” Krystal starts, but is interrupted when Kai steps over and puts his hands on her shoulders. She gives him a questioning look.

He grips the collars of her jacket gently but firmly. He begins pulling on both sides, and Krystal follows his movement, raising her arms up and out of the sleeves, although her expression is troubled. When the jacket comes off of her completely, Kai grabs it and turns to a square bin next to the desk.

Without a word, Kai drops the jacket in the gray bin, and a loud whipping sound accompanies a tiny beam of light that appears inside. Kai blinks as the jacket disappears before his eyes. The trash can quickly finishes its job and quiets down, leaving the room silent. Kai turns back to Krystal, who’s putting all her efforts into withholding the glittering moisture from escaping her eyes.

Kai feels the grip at his heart and breathes out heavily. Krystal avoids looking up at him. He goes forward and takes her hands, pulling and gesturing for her to stand.

She complies and stands up in front of Kai. Her hands are dry and cold. But they’re the only things that feel familiar to him in this year, 17 years from his home time. She finally looks at him and even if she is the older version of Krystal, her dark eyes give him the most reassurance than any single thing or thought. Kai hopes he can be at least partially as reliable to her as she is to him.

He leans in and kisses her with waves of apology and uncertainty sweeping at his brain. He feels the single, hot tear trickle down her cheek, and Kai wonders if he’s making a mistake. But then she draws her hands away from his grip and places them on his shoulders, kissing him back, no more tears against their close faces.

Kai folds his hands on her back and tenses his whole body, aware of Krystal letting out everything she’s withheld inside her into their kiss. He hopes he’s being there for her. She is the only thing he has left, and that one thought keeps drumming in his head. They pull apart when they run out of air. They look into each other’s eyes and they are older and different, and it’s just another symbol of what little they have.

Krystal catches her breath and brings a hand up to his cheek. “Thank you for being left for me,” she says to him, and Kai finally has the assurance that he’s the same kind of familiar presence that she is to him. Neither of them wants to admit what that means, but it’s too overwhelming to ignore.

Everything is lost in this foreign future.

-

Hope things are making sense. The next part, I believe, is the end, and will be up tomorrow or Monday.

Thank you as always for reading. Please leave me your thoughts~