Jongin was exhausted, both physically and mentally. Physically, he had just returned from the other dimension and teleportation drained his energy. You might think that teleporting was easy—yes, it seemed so—but actually, it was ten times more tiring than running, jumping, swimming, biking, and any other sport, you name it, all at once. Well, it shouldn't have been that bad, but Jongin hadn't been really used to it.

Teleporting to other dimensions was different. Jongin could easily teleport from his room to his kitchen to his office, but passing through the portal between dimensions was a whole another story.

Mentally, he was tired of thinking. First, he was thinking about Kris. How was he supposed to tell Kris about what happened today? He was supposed to— no. He had to come back with good news. He couldn't fail this mission, yet he couldn't do it either. Well, not when the most important part a.k.a. the main actor of the mission itself refused to do so. Talking about it, this person we're talking about was the second problem Jongin was thinking of.

Jongin felt really bad. He left someone with heartache, and to make it worse, the person was living in a whole different dimension. Wonderful, wasn't it? To be honest, Jongin didn't really have many choices back then. Sooner or later, he needed to tell Chanyeol the truth; the wicked things happening in the Republic of Elyxion, the reason why Jongin needed him. But of course, firstly, he had to explain about the parallel concept.

Everything started off well. They talked almost casually even though Jongin was nervous as hell. Chanyeol seemed to be really shy, too. The coffee was great and the cake tasted terrific. Jongin even made a promise to himself to visit that place again the next time he went to Seoul. Probably, he would ask Chanyeol to come along and spend more time for the chitchat.

But one wrong step ruined everything.

Jongin expected the 'what the are you talking about' face Chanyeol gave him earlier. Imagine someone you just met talking about parallel dimension and teleportation ; you must be freaking out. What he didn't expect was Chanyeol's sudden outburst.

Chanyeol literally threw the cup of coffee he was holding. It flew somewhere, Jongin didn't know, and a shattering sound was heard right after. Chanyeol's eyes were burning with anger, and it even scared Jongin to the bone; fear running through every part of him.

"Are you making fun of me, Jongin-ssi?" Chanyeol stood up. His eyes were still locked to the one and only boy named Jongin sitting in front of him.

"No, Chanyeol. I mean, I'm serious about the teleport—"

"I'm not that stupid, Jongin-ssi! Do you think I'll believe that all?"

Jongin was left speechless. Everything turned out so wrong, and it was all beyond his control.

"But Chanyeol, I'm not kidding! I wasn't making fun of you either!"

"Oh, really? You would just try to humiliate me in the end! You know that I'm not normal, don't you? You think that I'm an idiot, don't you?"

"Listen. Yes, I know that you're different. But it's okay, you don't have to be—"

"Shut up!" By the time Chanyeol slammed the table, the manager of the coffee shop had stepped out to stop their argument and asked them to leave, plus charging Chanyeol for the broken cup but Jongin paid for him nonetheless.

Chanyeol ran his way out of that place. If it wasn't a serious situation, Jongin would've been laughing because Chanyeol looked like a high school girl after breaking up with his cheating boyfriend. Instead, Jongin felt really devastated. He wanted to call the boy and run after him, but the words were stuck in his throat and his feet felt like jelly. He was shocked and sad, not to mention that Jongin caught a glimpse of tears on Chanyeol's face.

Jongin thought he just broke Chanyeol, and he didn't know how to fix it.

***

Kris couldn't take his eyes off the sleeping figure. Chanyeol had always been beautiful when he slept. Usually, Kris got up first and he spent some good minutes before Chanyeol squirmed and opened his eyes and realized that Kris had been staring at him for God knew how long. Chanyeol would pull his ear playfully along with a 'good morning, creep' in his raspy voice which Kris loved the most.

But for the past weeks, Kris woke up alone, without a certain person leaning his head on his shoulder, hand on his chest. Kris woke up, but Chanyeol kept sleeping. Chanyeol was sleeping in Jongdae's laboratory-turned-ICU or whatever the heck you called their basement, Kris didn't care.

Gently, Kris his head. "You need a haircut, Chan-chan."

Kris smiled bitterly. Chanyeol started to lose weight and he was already skinny, to begin with. "You need to eat as well, baby."

Kris took Chanyeol's hand. He wrapped his fingers on that bony hand and kissed it. "I'm sorry, baby. This is all my fault."

Kris leaned his head on the edge of the bed, his fingers entwined with Chanyeol's unmoving one. He let out the tears he'd been holding all this time.

Chanyeol didn't deserve this.

Kris was supposed to protect him. Chanyeol wasn't just a nobody. He was a presidential candidate, for God's sake. He was a revolutionist. He was an important person in this country. But being a stubborn person he was, Chanyeol refused bodyguards and any other kind of what he called 'excessive protection'.

Kris should've known that someone might do such a horrible thing to his lover. He should've realized that politics were dirty and he was supposed to anticipate it.  Now that this incident had happened, Kris felt really, really stupid.

Kris knew that this wasn't a common shooting or what, not a robbery as well (because nothing else was missing except Chanyeol's consciousness). He thought of every single possibility that might have caused this all, and every brainstorming always led him to a certain end: it must've something to do with the Huangs. But he had no proof, and the investigation process hadn't come up with any promising clue.

Perhaps, Kris shouldn't let Chanyeol do this in the first place. They actually had a choice.

Chanyeol could've just been a normal university student; studying, partying, doing whatever the hell he might've been doing right now. They could've stayed out from the fire, but their thoughts and ambitions led them all the way to where they were now. Kris shouldn't have encouraged Chanyeol; he shouldn't have taught Chanyeol all those ideals, even agreed with Chanyeol's decision to fight for the country and joined him on his actions.

If only Kris stayed as a young assistant professor and Chanyeol stayed as a student of Politics major. If only they didn't come up with this stupid revolution plan. They might've been living normally now. Kris might have even proposed to him.

Kris couldn't help but blame himself because no, he honestly didn't want this.

Kris thought he just broke Chanyeol, and he didn't know how to fix it.

Author's note:

Hello again! I was supposed to be in class but screw classes, screw college, I need to post this right here right now lol

Anyway, as I promised, we have both Kaiyeol and Krisyeol in this chapter, yeeeah! I think I haven't revealed much about Krisyeol's background, so here you go :)

I'm going to work on the next chapter asap because there are lots of things waiting to be disclosed :D

Thanks for all your support!

Until then...