“Where are we?” Wufan asks, looking all around him.

There is nothing but an endless meadow, the grasses so green whistling along with the gentle breeze about the land, and an infinite cloudless blue sky. No birds, no bugs, no flowers. No other sign of life aside from the greenery and the two of them and that huge dot from far away.

“That’s a tree you’re looking at,” Yixing tells Wufan, a smile creeping along his ghostly face. He holds Wufan’s hand, saying, “Wanna run?”

Wufan responds with a gentle smile. He gives Yixing’s hand a firm press, and together they run.

Ah, how more peaceful can they still get?

Here, time seems endless.

Wufan wants to stay like this forever.

To feel like this forever. So light, so free, so happy.

They run towards the tree, run in circles, laughing like they never did before. Wufan hooks his hands under Yixing’s arms, lifts him off the ground, and whirls themselves around, like father and son. Yixing’s dimples appear, his pearly white teeth exposed, and his brown eyes glinting in the sunlight even though there’s no sun at all.

Then, Wufan feels an electricity course through his entire right arm, making him drop Yixing abruptly on the ground. Fortunately, the latter manages to land smoothly and safely. Yixing frowns as he takes Wufan’s right arm into his and examines the affected extremity.

Yixing purses his lips. “Come on, we’ve got not much time to fool around I guess.”

He walks ahead of a bewildered Wufan. Right now, they are just a few meters away from the tree.

“You’ve been talking about time. I don’t really get it,” Wufan complains, catching up to Yixing’s pace and grabbing him by the arm.

Yixing halts, his head slightly turned away from Wufan. But Wufan does not miss it. The crease on his forehead, the sadness in his eyes. There’s something Yixing isn’t telling him. But what is it?

“Yixing?” Wufan tucks his finger beneath Yixing’s chin and tilts the younger’s head upward, so that they are facing each other.

“I’m just worried that your soul is vanishing quicker than I expected,” Yixing replies.

Wufan draws his bushy brows together. “What do you mean?”

Yixing his upper lip and cups Wufan’s face with his smaller hands.

It feels like a hundred years since I’ve done this.

“Can you kiss me?” Yixing asks.

Wufan smirks. “You’re really onto something. First, you tell me I’m vanishing, and then, the next you ask me to kiss you. Yixing, if this is—“

Before Wufan could finish his sentence, Yixing has crushed his lips onto his. It surprises him, nonetheless. That jolt of electricity, the tingling sensation, the euphoria skyrocketing in an instant. His hands find Yixing’s hair, neck, back, and waist. The feeling he used to have when they were in the heat of their passion is slowly returning to him.

Yixing is, as usual, expertly brushing his lips against Wufan’s. Yixing has begun with a gentle kiss, turning it deeper, fiercer, and hungrier, his hands wandering from Wufan’s golden hair to his face, neck, and chest until he finds them lingering on Wufan’s arms.

When Yixing opens his eyes to glimpse on Wufan’s romantic expression that should be plastered on his face all this while, Wufan suddenly breaks away, looking at Yixing with wide eyes.

“Whoa, I need to breathe, Xingxing,” Wufan confides.

Wufan comically takes in all the air he could and is about to resume their kissing when Yixing suddenly presses a finger on his lips, stopping Wufan. The taller male frowns and pouts.

“Now, what?”

“We’ve had enough. Nourishing you is much more important,” Yixing says.

“You could nourish me with your kiss," Wufan says playfully.

Yixing ignore him anyway. “No, what you need is…” Yixing points to the single fruit that the tree bears. “That.”

“A persimmon?” Wufan says, a quizzical look on his face.

“Yup, a persimmon.”

“Yixing,” Wufan says, running a hand through his hair, his other hand comfortably placed on his waist. Now, he looks like a boss, Yixing thinks. “That’s just a persimmon.”

Yixing smiles patiently, and walks away again. He only stops when he is completely standing underneath the tree, his hand placed tenderly on the old trunk. He mumbles something, but Wufan cannot comprehend his words. They sound foreign. Otherworldly.

Wufan raises his brows, his arms crossed in front of his chest. “So?”

Yixing turns to Wufan. “This is the persimmon tree.”

Wufan nods in agreement. “I see that.”

“But this is no ordinary persimmon tree because it is a blessed tree,” Yixing continues, which earns him an ‘Oh, really…’ from Wufan. “Fan, would you please stop being sarcastic and hear me explain first?”

Wufan simply shrugs. “Fine, go on.”

“Right now, we’re in Limbo.”

“Limbo? As in purgatory?”

Yixing nods. “But not just any limbo... This is your limbo. After someone dies, he goes immediately to his own limbo, to think and to reflect on things he has done in his lifetime. Until he has made some realizations, he can’t move on to the next world of the Netherworld. Even here, time is limited. If this tree withers and you’re still here, your soul would shatter and you’ll disappear forever. No more chance of returning to the cycle of life and the whatnots. But, that persimmon there gives you enough energy to outlast your supposed time in this place. Wufan, do you understand?”

“Hmm…” Wufan seems to be in deep thought. Yixing has said a lot, and everything’s a little bit difficult to digest. “So you mean to say, that I can’t stay here forever?”

“No,” Yixing says. “Get that persimmon now like I said. You’re starting to vanish.”

Wufan examines himself. “But I don’t look like a ghost.”

“The first symptom is the feeling of being jolted by electricity. You felt that, did you not?”

Not knowing how and not wanting to argue with Yixing, Wufan stands directly under the fruit hanging from a small branch. It seems twelve feet above the ground. Man, he so doesn’t want to climb a tree.

“I can’t get it with simply jumping, right? Even though I’d only have to think of it as a basketball ring…Or—“

“Actually, you can jump. There is not much gravity here, so you could practically fly when you get the hang of it.”

“What?” Wufan asks bewilderedly. “Seriously? You’re not kidding me?”

Yixing laughs. “Watch me.”

Yixing bends down his knees a little and jumps into the air. Wufan would’ve expected him to return to ground sooner, but Yixing stays in the air and starts to glide with it.

“See?” Yixing says confidently.

Wufan tries to do the same. He bends down his knees a little and—

“Hey! I’m so high!” Wufan screams, wildly flailing his limbs around like a drowning child.

Yixing laughs again. “Mind control, Wufan! And don’t do it like that. You’re like a frog!”

“But, I don’t know how—“

Well, always being the athletic boy he is, Wufan instantly finds out how to control his flight. He dives down and with a quick motion, his hand snatches the persimmon from the branch. He lands, albeit ungracefully, back onto the ground. Yixing lands like a swan beside him.

“Wow, I can’t believe being dead is this good. I’m like a superhero, gaining abilities like that,” Wufan beams at Yixing but Yixing’s expression has turned dark. “Yixing-ah, did I say something to upset you?”

“No! No, nothing at all. Quick, take a bite of the persimmon.”

Wufan takes a bite of the fruit. He has been half-expecting to feel weird to feel powerful like Son Goku or any anime character but what he feels is somewhere in between elation and wanting to just lie down on the grass and sleep.

Isn’t this supposed to make him feel high since it’s supposed to, let’s say, ‘upgrade’ his energy levels? But why does a sudden wave of senselessness wash over him?

He turns to Yixing anyway and realizes that the younger has walked ahead of him again. He trots towards him and stops only when he is walking beside the younger boy again. He grasps the younger’s hand and shoots him an angelic smile.

Yixing returns one, then, says, “Before I came to you, I also went to see the others in their dreams.”

“Really?” Wufan asks interestedly. “Can I do that too? I haven’t really left a suicide note.”

“Do you regret it? Dying for my sake?”

The question shocks Wufan. Yixing is feeling guilty now, and that’s the last thing Wufan wants to ever deal with his newfound life here.

“No! I made my choice, and I don’t regret anything. Just as I never regretted choosing you over my parents or my inheritance.”

“Wufan…” Yixing begins, tears beginning to well up in his eyes. “I feel like I have ruined you.”

“How could you have? You’re heaven sent! I wouldn’t have been this happy without you.”

“You would’ve found it with someone else either!”

“Yixing, why are we talking about this?” Wufan asks exasperatedly.

This isn't the conversation he has had in mind when he met Yixing. He only thought of all possible romantic moments with him. Is it that difficult to have? Can eternity still be in between them right now? Why is Yixing being like this anyway? It doesn't just make sense!

“Because!” Yixing sobs. “Because I…I-I-I never had the chance to really tell you how guilty I was over your family. I never really told you how sorry I was that you had to be with me, that you had to suffer from all kinds of insults for being with me, that somehow you lost yourself along the way and you only thought about me and your world revolved around only me, like I was your sun! You’d forgotten to be you! Wufan, you don’t know how much I’ve dreaded that in everything you did there was me. It’s not that I needed space. More like, you needed space. You lost your life, your dreams—“

“Yixing, you are my dream!”

“Yes, but then that dream took your life away. You don’t know how it broke my heart.”

“Yixing…”

“Wufan, do you even know why I’m here in your limbo right now?”

Wufan shakes his head gently.

“Look beneath your feet.”

Wufan gasps when he sees the view. Since when have they reached this place? Why hasn’t he noticed that they are now stepping at the end of a huge waterfall, the water rushing through their legs at thigh high? Something is wrong.

Everything suddenly feels wrong.

“Now, what is this, Yixing?”

“Wufan, I love you so much, and I’m so sorry. Just know that forever, I’ll be with you. If I were to be reborn and I find and fall in love with your soul again…Well, I hope I’ll be born a girl next time, so we won’t end up like this.”

“Yixing, stop talking like that!”

Wufan wants to hold Yixing in his arms now, to soothe his broken heart, but fear clutches at Wufan’s chest when his hands only go right through Yixing.

“You’re—What’s happening to you?” Wufan says incredulously, an edge of desperateness in his voice.

“Time’s up for me, Wufan. Thank you for this one last time,” Yixing says, a tear rolling down his cheek. Then, sobs, “I…I…really…am…grateful…and…l-l-lucky…t-to…have…met…you, W-Wu Yi F-Fan…As my last gift to…you…”

For whatever reason Wufan cannot comprehend, something pushes him hard, knocking him off balance and throwing him down into the abyss. He could hear the harsh waterfalls around him and the deafening sound of a fall, but they are soon replaced by Yixing’s melodic voice. Yixing’s spirit is falling together with him.

“You can’t fly back. That persimmon is supposed to return you to where you should really belong. And you belong to earth. When you wake up, you’d forget about me and someone else would replace me in your heart,” Yixing says, a break in his voice from time to time. But he has more to say. “If one day, you read my diary and you don’t remember anything, please do remember that I have loved you all the time we’ve been together. I could swear I’d love only you even after death. Forever and ever, your soul is where mine would belong to. Remember, Wufan. Remember my love for you.”

Wufan’s face grimace in despair, telling Yixing, “C-C-Can I-I n-not…really…h-hold you?”

Yixing shakes his head and mouths, “No.”

Then, Yixing’s face leans closer to Wufan’s. They kiss. But it isn’t really a kiss. Yixing is a vanishing ghost. There is nothing to feel at all. And that inevitable predicament is killing Wufan. Again.

When am I going to stop dying?

And, Wufan is just constantly falling deeper and deeper into the falls.

“My last entry…” Yixing continues, but his voice is softening into a whisper. “It’s all there.”

Yixing has completely vanished. Forever.

Wufan screams.

The next thing he knows, he is underwater and all he could see is a muffled light through the gentle waves of the water.

A dark feeling engulfs his being.

Why is he underwater?

What was he thinking about again?

Wufan closes his eyes.

Why does he feel a hole in his heart but can’t quite get a grip of it?

Why does he feel so empty, so incomplete?

Then, he hears a voice, a muffled voice, “Ge! Wufan-ge!”

Wufan slowly opens his eyes, bright light hurting them. He has to put his arm across his eyes to protect them from that brightness. Why, he feels so weak.

He hears a screaming voice again. “Luhan-ge! Everyone, Wufan-ge is finally awake!”

“Really? How is he? How is he?”

When Wufan’s eyes have finally adjusted to the light, he looks at the people crowding around him. Wait, where is he anyway? Why is there a tube connected to his hand? Why is everything in the room so white?

“Wufan! Are you all right? How do you feel now?”

Wufan squints and looks at them one by one.

Who are these people?

Wufan gently shakes his head.

“I-I-I don’t know you…” Wufan says weakly.

Wufan hears a chorus of gasps, followed by a series of sobs.

Why...? 

“And please stop…making noises, it hurts my head…” Wufan tells them.

He feels a hand firmly pressing his own, and he looks up to see a black-haired boy with a sly smile plastered on his face but completely ridden with concern. Then, he motions the other members of their circle to get out of the room.

“He’s still reeling, he’s still aching. So don’t disturb him people! Shoo, shoo, shoo!” Kai tells them.

Then, Kai shoots Tao, who has turned to sit down by the window sill on the other side of the room while the others fussed about Wufan, a knowing look. Tao nods in comprehension, and Kai and the gang are gone with just a click, leaving Tao and Wufan in the room.

Tao sits beside Wufan and takes the older’s hand in his. “I knew, Wufan-ge. Yixing-ge told me. And that’s why I’m here.”

Wufan gives him a blank look. “Who’s Wufan? And…” Wufan frowns, as he tries to remember the other name that Tao mentioned to him. “Who’s that other guy again?”

Tao smiles wanly. “You’re Wu Yifan, our friend. And Yixing-ge is…someone really close to you and to us. Now, you look like you need more sleep. When you’re feeling better I’ll tell you all that you should know.”

Know.

Tao inwardly cringes at the word.

Know, and not remember.

Wufan obediently closes his eyes, and in a few minutes he falls back into his deep slumber.

***To be continued***

[A/N]:

Hi, I'm back again! So, is this chapter angsty enough?

I'm sorry if I had to kill them both. At first. Kkk~

I can't let Wufan die now, can I?

I want him to move on.

I believe that all loves are perfect.

But even the perfect ones are the ones we have...

...at the wrong time and place...

Tragic, right?

But, we all have to learn about moving on.

However, Yixing's method is also somewhat overboard.

But, that's also proof that his love for our Wufan is true and undying.

Next chapter might be the last, so stay tuned!

Dear subscribers, readers, and upvoters,

Thank you so much for staying with me all this time!

Saranghae yo~