A/N: Here's a song to accompany you reading the chapter :)

“You didn’t tell me you have a twin.”

Sehun’s voice diffused slowly between the chilly wind.  The night was peaceful.  A big cluster of stars glimmering in a soothing stillness up there, adorning the vast drape of pitch black sky.  The air whirled in smooth zephyrs, leaving a feathery calming touch of cold on his skin.  It was all so quiet and tranquil—such a contrast ending for his dramatic day. 

When the party ended, he had had to face many people looking for him for a talk, and it wasn’t of a casual and cordial one.  Baekhyun was the first to haunt him down, for no other than scolding him about how he messed up the kingdom march.  Baekhyun wasn’t so scary when he was angry, he looked cute like an irritated little puppy instead, but Sehun could never stand his long ramble of high pitched rants.  If it wasn’t for Chanyeol who suddenly appeared and pulled Baekhyun to God knows where—and Baekhyun deliberately followed him—he probably had spent the rest of the evening listening to the musician’s lecture. 

The next was his parents, who had almost chastised him for being discourteous to the one who most probably would be their new regular guest at every party, the Prince of Cactus—Arctus, pardon.  But Sehun weaved his way out of the scolding by telling them that he managed to bid a proper farewell at the end.  Suho came running to him asking about almost the same thing, the only difference was his brother asked if he finally had someone he liked, worried if Sehun wanted to marry the man and was going to leave him soon.  Sehun once again swerved himself out of the overprotective brother by saying he was still the one he loved the most.  Tao wasn’t someone he could easily escape from, but upon seeing how tired—and somehow sad—Sehun was, Tao let him go to his room to have some rest without demanding any explanation.

On his way to the tallest tower where his room located, Sehun heard buzzing whispers of the obstreperous maids gossiping about a new name; Kim Jongin.  Apparently his first and sole appearance was enough to make the maids worship him as a new idol, they even started to compare Jongin and the Thief, debating noisily about which one was more charming—like they really had any idea of how the Thief looked like. 

Sehun sighed heavily, trying to ignore it as he squeezed his way past the maids to reach his room.  He locked his room in a loud clank, falling on the floor with his back leaned to the door, all drained and confused.  He put aside the tray full of food Yixing had saved for him, suddenly lost his appetite as the scene replayed behind his closed eyes.   

Everything was still too overwhelming for him to take in.  Jongin left as a massive enigma Sehun had never encountered before.  Just when he thought he got to know better about the man who made him willingly being taken away, he was given a new puzzle to dechiper.  One that had him dazed for the rest of the day, unable to think about anything else, other than the words that enounced in such cold and riddled way.

“It wasn’t me.”

He said it wasn’t him.  It wasn’t him whom Sehun yearn for another chance to be with, it wasn’t him whom Sehun wished to stay with.  It wasn’t him.  Sehun would simply think Jongin played a prank on him, if not for the way Jongin said it with such dark eyes and sharp tone. 

Then if it wasn’t a lie, if it was really someone else, how could they look so alike?  Their face, their voice, and above it all, the way they made his heart thumping erratically at every touch and stare? 

Sehun huffed in frustration, ruffling his hair.  He took a few long and quick steps towards his bed, burying his face into his fluffy pillows.  He gave up.  He couldn’t think more about it while his body all exhausted and his mind stumped.  When he was just a blink away from sleeping, the familiar figure came popping out of thin air, landing on his window frame. 

The Thief.

Even before he uttered a single word of greeting, Sehun already jumped at him, hugging him without even thinking twice.  As he encircled his arms around the firm neck and buried his face in his shoulder, Sehun said in a voice only a little louder than a whisper, entreating,

“Take me away.”

The man silently secured him in his embrace, before dispersing their existence into the twirl of smoke, compliant to the plea.  Not like how Sehun expected, they didn’t go to the big tall tree.  They reappeared in a forest, the one Sehun had never visited before.  The man led him to a wide opening beyond the tight pillars of towering trees—where Sehun met another wonder he had never imagined to be exist.  Just like how he dazzled by the sight of the Lights, Sehun immensely fascinated by the newfound marvel.    

But apparently, his anxiety hadn’t left the certain part of his mind, distracting him.

A smooth chuckle in the honeyed voice was the first reaction he got over his question.

“You’re twins.  Right?”

Sehun repeated, a bit irritated of the response—yet he still adored the ocean-like voice.

“Jongin told you that?”

Sehun nodded.

“He told me it wasn’t him I met last night.”  His lips pursed slightly into a pout.  “You should’ve told me that you have a twin brother who look exactly like you, so I wouldn’t mortify myself asking him if he would take me again tonight.”

Another laughter emitted by the velvety voice, floating and disappeared between the stars.  He leaned forward to look at Sehun’s face closer, lips curved into a smug smile. 

“You want to be with me that much, hm, princess?”

Sehun could feel his cheeks suddenly burnt with blush, he tried to avert his gaze away but the face in front of him tilted to follow his move, not easily letting go.  The husky voice brushed against his heated cheek, all conceited and proud.

“I didn’t know you were longing for me so eagerly like that, I’m flattered.”  

Sehun landed a punch on his shoulder, pushing him away.  His cheeks completely colored in beet red, but he raised his voice a few pitches to cover his embarrassment, eyes looking at anywhere but the face that still stubbornly stayed so dangerously close to his.

“I don’t!”  He retorted, voice a bit tottering, “I just like the big tree!”

“Only the tree?”

“Yes!”

“Well then,” He straightened his back, pulling away casually, “I can show you the way to get there, you can stay there as long as you want.”

Sehun’s eyes went downward in disappointment, agitated.

“You—you’re not coming with me?”

“Didn’t you say you only like the tree?”

“Y-yes, but...”

Sehun looked down, feeling troubled by the question.  Of course he liked the tree, but more because he knew he could see him there.  His hands began to fidget, fumbling with the hem of his shirt nervously, he couldn’t just say the reason out loud.  It’s too embarrassing.  The man snorted, and burst into laughter.

“Got you.”

Realized that he was just being teased, Sehun launched another punch—twice.  His cheeks puffed into a big pout, his lips puckered in an utter sulk, his eyebrows interlaced together in total annoyance.    He was too pissed off—and embarrassed—that he couldn’t say anything other than giving another couples of punch and smack.

Still in a half-suppressed laughter, the Thief  caught Sehun’s hands, stopping him from attacking his shoulder and chest any longer.

“Hush, you wouldn’t want the Lake to remember you like this, would you?”

Sehun immediately halted his assault, looking down at the unruffled surface of the water under his dangling feet.  The Thief had taken him to the Lake of Witness.  The wide lake was nothing like the others.  It was as if having its own trail of time, separated from what the rest of the universe owned.  At one time of the day, its time would stop ticking, catching the scenery that reflected on its surface at that exact moment, and delineate it for the rest of the day, no matter how the vista changed along the constant stream of time. 

Just like now, the Lake portrayed a broad azure sky of the afternoon, wads of cotton-like cloud scattered graciously over it; the precise scenery above the Lake as it stopped winding its reel of time.  The bright color it reflected on its quiet surface was such a polarity to the dark sky above his head.  It was almost as if the Lake was of a distant different dimension.

Sehun sank his hand through the still sheet of the Lake, taking a hold of its pearly water, letting it soak his palm as it slipped away between his fingers and fell back to the Lake in soundless drops.  Sehun smiled, wondering if this was how it feels to touch the sky. 

Sehun didn’t realize the man who sat right next to him on the big boulder at the side of the Lake was staring at him in fascination, a smile painted on his face.  Sehun only turned his eyes at him as he heard the rustling voice—he was taking off his clothes.  He discarded every layer of fabric from his body, leaving only a tight black cloth cladding the lower part of his body, wrapping nicely along the length of his legs.  Barechested, he dove into the water, swimming across the Lake. 

Sehun’s eyes followed the figure cutting through the bright reflection of the sky; so freely, like there was nothing weighted his shoulders.  Unintended, the sight reminded him of Jongin, of his darkened eyes as he talked about his kingdom, of his staggering hold as he told about what he had lost, of his broken voice as he divulged what haunted him, and the remaining of his people he held dear.  The contrast of what he saw in front of his eyes and what was being displayed in his mind distressed him.

“Care to join me, princess?” The Thief called out with a smile from where he stood not so far from him, half floating.  “You might want to know how it feels like to dive into the sky.”

Sehun didn’t budge. 

“Does Jongin smile the way you do every night?”

The man furrowed his eyebrows, didn’t seem to understand what Sehun was trying to say.

“Does he have his own tall tree, too?”  Sehun asked in a serious tone, “Does he see the same bright lights too, the stars from up there like you do?  Does he find the brighter place too, where none of you wouldn’t have to drown yourself in guilt and grief, in the darkness?”

Sehun’s voice cracked as he spoke again.

“Does he?”

“I don’t know.”

The Thief answered almost without a pause, without showing any concern—and the smile already disappeared from his face, along with his usual unperturbed tone.

“You don’t know?”

“We’re not that close.”

Sehun couldn’t take such answer.

“Why? ” Sehun demanded, “You’re brothers!”

“Because we’re too similar.”

Sehun shook his head weakly.  He didn’t understand.

“Shouldn’t you be really close if you’re so similar to each other? ”

“No.  Because too much similarity would slowly make us lose ourselves, disappeared into the thin border of what distinguishes us.”

Sehun couldn’t really perceive what the man implied.  He cared too much about both of them that it saddened him to hear how they weren’t that close, if not drifting away from each other.  As brothers, moreover twins, shouldn’t they face the loss together?  Giving strength to each other?  Then why did the man in front of him seem to be so careless about the other?  Like it was really none of his concern whether the other was safe and sound?  Why it didn’t seem like he felt the same devastation of losing his entire kingdom, his whole family?

As much as Sehun relieved at how the man in front of him being all fine despite the tragedy, it bothered him to see how different he was from Jongin—despite all similarities he found in them, one thing that he said had broken them apart instead.

“So you don’t even know where he is right now?”  Sehun asked again, couldn’t stand the idea of Jongin being trapped in the infinite dark, alone.

“He’s safe in his own place.”

The Thief replied indifferently, making his way back to where Sehun was.  Sehun wasn’t convinced.

“Where is the place?  Does he really fine there?  Can he see the same Lights from there?  Does he know about this Lake, too?  Does he also know another brighter place that—“

A finger placed firmly on his lips, cutting his words.  The coal-like orbs darken, staring sharply at him like a shard of glass.

“Don’t talk about anyone else when you’re with me.”

He already reached the boulder where Sehun was sitting, hovering over him with half of his body still in the water.  The colorless drops of the Lake drip over his shoulder, his chest, gleaming the bronze skin.  His wet hand trailed down to cup a side of Sehun’s jaw line, just right where it’s adjacent to the length of his neck.  The touch left a cold prick on Sehun’s skin, a contrast to the hot breath his face, so close to his suddenly dry lips.

“I’m the one taking you away.  I own you.”

Sehun felt his heart plummet.  The words had him suffocated, the stare disarming him, putting him in a state of paralysis.  He couldn’t see anything but the ensnaring pair of eyes locked to his.  He couldn’t hear anything but the voice of searing breaths caressing his skin.  He couldn’t sense anything—but the presence of the one holding him, in which he felt himself engulfed into, with no way back.

Again, Sehun couldn’t understand. 

Why?  How?

With voice came out as a low addled sigh, he asked,

“Who are you?”

And what have you done to me?

The lips that was held only a breath away from his hoisted into a thin line of a smile, with so many hidden meanings underlying it.  The fingers on his jaw trailed down slowly to grab his chin, tilting it up.  The deep dark eyes were so close Sehun could see his own reflection swimming in its depth.

“I’m Kai,” he said in a low whisper, melting his ear with his rough beguiling voice , “And I’d tell you a new wonder.”

Sehun blinked, bemused.

“Isn’t it the Lake?”

The chuckle Sehun came acquainted to floated again between them.

“It’s just the overture.”

And in one swift move, he enclosed the distance between them. 

The eager lips pressed to his in a smooth delicate touch, disabling all of his sensory the second he got the taste of it.  The way it moved in such slow tempo had Sehun’s senses shattered into pieces, lost to each sting of immobilizing sensation.  The lips that glided keenly yet carefully along the line of his were wet and cold, but it carved burnt tingles on every bit of his quivering lips.  The biting feeling of burnt spreading relentlessly under his skin like a poison, streaming into his vein, sending it into every crook and joints of his body, veiling him with an ineffable warmth—he felt loved.  Belonged.

Sehun had never felt something like this before, he didn’t know how to respond, as his mind already frozen, limbs paralyzed as their mouths collided.  But the fleeting lips gently guide him to move, leading their lips to embrace each other. 

And Sehun gave in.

Sehun kissed him back, tilting his head to reciprocate the touch just as intently.  His wavering hands slowly faltering up to rest on the firm sheening chest, clutching tightly as the damp fingers sneaked in feathery motion towards his nape, pulling him closer.   The move left him breathless, voice grazing a teetering sigh against the earnest lips,

“Kai...”

The said man emitting a low rumble of grunt as he heard his name being called in such sugary voice, and he gave an unpredictable bite on Sehun’s lower lip, eliciting a gasp from him.  The voice encouraged him to deepen the kiss, he gently slid his tongue into Sehun’s mouth, interlacing their lips in a tight lock.  Kai explored Sehun’s warm cavern with indulgent trail, claiming each corner of it.  As their tongues mingled together, Sehun let out a muffled hum, whispering a sound of acceptance and contentment right into Kai’s mouth.  Kai savored it willingly, softly pecked the lower pair of the silky peach lips, before detaching himself from it. 

Without sparing a chance for Sehun to catch his breath, Kai’s lips descended fluidly down the lane of Sehun’s neck, leaving a glisten wet trail along the way.  He stopped on the ridge of Sehun’s collarbone.  Right below the beating pulse, slightly above the deepest nook of the collarbone, Kai sank his teeth—slowly, tenderly, not wanting to hurt Sehun even a bit.  After a range of moment that had Sehun held his breath, Kai pulled away, swiping his thumb on a mark he just engraved.

He smiled with blatant pride. 

Still gasping for air to fill his deprived lungs, Sehun breathed out an inquiring question.

“What was that?”

As his mind came back into his head and his senses  started to regain its consciousness, Sehun began to feel everything again.  His cheeks immensely heated, his hands visibly trembled.

What was that?

What was the paralyzing feeling  that sent shivers down his spine, as the burnt red mark was being drawn?

What were all those feelings that encased him, that numb both his ability to think and move?

“That, princess,” Kai whispered huskily right in front of his face, “is a wonder you can only have with me.”

Sehun didn’t really remember the rest of the night.  It was a blur of him stuttering his attempt to get some explanation, of Kai’s laughter and soothing caresses on his head, and of his seemingly untamed thumping heartbeats.  After a hazy sight of Kai hauled him up from the boulder where he fell asleep and the vague feeling of Kai’s strong arms tucking him in carefully, Sehun made his way to the dreamscape—at the same time chiseling the night onto the wall of his memory.

* * *

“Sehun-ah, watch ou—OUCH.”

Sehun blinked repeatedly.  He had just plunged himself into the bushes—for the third time.  That morning, Baekhyun asked for his help to collect some berries in the garden behind the backyard, where Kyungsoo diligently planted various kinds of fruits.  Sehun, just like always, happily accepted the request to accompany his favorite musician, holding the basket for Baekhyun as the latter picked the fruit.  But apparently, he hadn’t entirely conscious from the daze caused by certain event—and name—last night.  He kept being distracted and as the result, he had run into trees twice, tripped over a pebble or jutting roots at least four times, and launched himself into the bushes, thrice. 

Baekhyun shook his head, sighing.  He stretched out his arms to pull Sehun back on his feet again, dusting off his clothes from dirt, while Sehun just laughed his usual playful ‘kehehehe’ sheepishly. 

“Okay, let’s just take some rest.”

The small figured musician led Sehun to sit under a tree with a wide canopy.  He brought his hand to Sehun’s head, wiping off the leaves that entangled between the younger’s golden strings of hair.  He did it silently, without attacking Sehun with rifling questions.  Baekhyun knew Sehun would spill everything that bothered him eventually.  And after a couple minutes of silence—and a dozen pieces of grass he picked out due to his restlessness—Sehun finally spoke.

“Hyung.”

“Hmm?”

“Do you know the Arctus Kingdom?”

Calmly took out another leaf from Sehun’s hair, Baekhyun answered, “Yes, of course.”

Sehun spontaneously turned his body to face Baekhyun, eyes widened, “You do???”

“Yes.”

“Why do you never told me about it before?”

“I did, Sehun-ah, long time ago,” Baekhyun said sagely, tidying Sehun’s hair, “in Kingdom History.  You were just too immersed in making paper planes in the class that time.”

Laughing apologetically, he asked again, “So do you also know that the prince is...”

Sehun paused, hesitating.  He was unsure of the word he could use to describe the person—Kai.  He couldn’t find anything that could condense all of the things about Kai that made him drawn to him, so he let his question hanging midway.

“Charming?”  Baekhyun chimed in.

Without him planning it, a blush crept on his cheeks.  A sole word of ‘charming’ would never enough to depict how Kai really was.  But maybe, Kai’s existence didn’t one to describe or pronounce, but one to be felt.

“Finally, someone charmed you enough to make you lost of words!”  Baekhyun concluded, smiling widely, squishing Sehun’s cheeks until his lips pursed like a fish, “Oooh, look at you, my little baby is all grown up and find love...”

“Hyung...!” Sehun denied in a whiny voice, pulling Baekhyun’s hands away from his face, “It’s not like that!  I just... I just...”

“Oh come on, I saw you dancing with him much longer than everyone else.” Baekhyun teased, cupping his face again, “So tell me, how do you feel about—what was his name again?—oh, yes, Kim Jongin!”

Sehun froze.  Kim Jongin.  It wasn’t the name he was thinking when he asked Baekhyun.  It wasn’t him.  It wasn’t him he met last night.  It wasn’t him who take him away.  It wasn’t him who give the touch that lingered on his lips, even after the night was over.

But a tiny voice in his heart reenacting what he felt when Jongin was around.  The feeling of security, the feeling of a spark blooming in his chest, the feeling of wanting to do anything to have his smile back—the feeling that made him hope for him to stay.

The light in his eyes dimmed, faded by the doubt he suddenly had in mind; the complication emerged in his heart. 

“Sehun-ah?  Are you ok—“

“Prince Oh Sehun.”

The familiar velvety voice conjured out of nowhere.  Both of them turned their heads towards the voice, and Sehun widened his eyes.

It was Kai—no.

It was Jongin.

He wore a suit entirely in white color, without the cape or shining plate with the kingdom’s emblem etched on it.  Contrary of it, his eyes were even darker than how it was the moment he left Sehun. 

“Pardon my interruption,” Jongin slightly bowed to Baekhyun, his smile of courtesy didn’t reach his eyes, “I’d like to borrow the prince, if it’s not of any inconvenience.”

Unaware of Jongin’s cold eyes, Baekhyun happily let go of Sehun, smiling widely.

“Oh, yes, sure!”

Without saying any more word, Jongin pulled Sehun by his arm, dragging him away from Baekhyun, to another corner of the garden that was hidden from anyone’s view.  Sehun winced as Jongin pushed him to the gravelly surface of a tree.

“What are you—“

“What do you think you had done?”

Sehun was taken aback by the sharpness of Jongin’s words.  The grip didn’t even loosened one bit, it got tighter around his arm instead, making him hissed in pain. 

“Jongin, I don’t understand what you—“

“You don’t understand?”

Jongin grasped Sehun’s collar, pulling it harshly to reveal the skin beneath it—and the bright red mark on his collarbone.  Sehun startled as Jongin’s eyes found what Kai had left on him.  When he looked up at Jongin’s face, he was glaring at him with a piercing stare filled with anger, hand clutching tightly on Sehun’s collar, gritting his teeth in fury.

“Don’t give in to him so easily.”

“How—how do you know—“

“I saw it.”

Sehun gasped.  He saw it?  He saw them? 

“But—how?” Sehun asked in disbelief, shock and fear of Jongin’s ire forming a crowding lump in his chest, “ I didn’t see you there last night!  I was only with Kai at the Lake—“

“I was there,” Jongin cut harshly, eyes all dark with anger, “right in front of you.”

Sehun was stunned.  He didn’t understand.  He was there?  Right in front of him?  Was he trying to say that he was the one kissing him?  Because if he was, it wouldn’t make any sense—

“I was there, in Kai’s head.”

He let go of Sehun, who was too confused to even mind his bruised arm.

“You what?”

“I was there.” Jongin said coldly—in a tone Sehun couldn’t decode, “I could see my hand touching you, holding you, pulling you closer...but I couldn’t feel any of it.  I couldn’t feel you.”

Sehun shut his eyes, trying to take in what Jongin said.  But the more he tried to understand it, the less it made sense.

“Are you saying that you...you and Kai are...the same person?” Sehun stammered, anxiety echoed loudly in his words, “Are you saying that you share consciousness in one body—?”

“No.” Jongin cut him, “We’re not simply two different personalities sharing consciousness.  We’re two different persons, trapped in a sole body.” 

Jongin heaved a breathy sigh, seemed to try controlling his anger, calming himself down.  He raised his hand slowly to touch Sehun’s cheek.

“He’s the one you’ll meet when the sun goes down, but when the sun rises, it’s me.”

Sehun’s mouth went dry, his throat strangled.  He didn’t know what to believe, which one he should take as the truth.  To convince himself that it was real, if Jongin was real, he moved his hand and land it on Jongin’s. 

He was real.  As real as the touch that he melted under, the gentle and the rough one.  As real as the voice that he immersed into, the soft and the hoarse one.

It was all of Jongin’s—and Kai’s.

“You were really there...”

Jongin entangled his fingers to Sehun’s, saying in abated tone.

“I’ve been closing my eyes for a long time, every time Kai appeared at night.  We agreed not to interfere each other, because we—I, don’t like seeing my hands, my body, being controlled out of my will.” Jongin lowered his head to adjust his line of sight with Sehun’s, his voice softened, yet staggered, “But last night was...different.  I wanted to see you—”

Words were already out of Sehun’s reach.  He just stared at Jongin, unable to utter anything, unable to do anything—everything was too obscure for him to fathom. 

Jongin leaned closer, his hand encircled around Sehun’s wrist, pinning it at the side of his face against the tree.  His voice turned into a raspy whisper, all low and dark.

“—but you didn’t see me.”

Jongin crashed his lips to Sehun’s, trapping him into a harsh, rough kiss.  Jongin moved impatiently, as if he was in a rush, with a surge to seize the taste he’d been aching for so long—to claim it to be only his.  The way Jongin skimmed his lips appetently, the way it graved against the seam of his mouth in brusque moves; was nothing like what he had last night. 

But it left impacts on him just as deep.

Although the grip was harsh, although the touch was rough, it managed to take his breath away, just like last night.  It ignited an enormous spark in his chest, flaring into a burst of an inexplicable twirl of emotion filling the gap of his ribs, smothering him—at the same time captivating him in an enticing way.

Jongin pulled away just as abruptly as he initiated the kiss, saying between his heavy breath—fiercely.

“Only look at me, Sehun.”

That moment, Sehun knew.

He could never run away.

A/N: Double update~ ^ ^)/  And, uhh...there you go, my very first attempt to write a kissing scene, which I usually skip in every story because I never thought I can write it .__. Again, please forgive me for any grammatical mistake.  Big thanks to Nida-senpai who proofread the kissing scene chapter XD

I need to rest for another 2 weeks before I can start writing again.  So, see you in a couple of weeks ^ ^

I hope you enjoy reading the chapter as much as I enjoy writing it :)  Comments are much appreciated~ 

Saranghamnida *hugs all of you* ♥