"What–"

"Jongin."

"Why are you–"

"We have a situation here. A pretty bad one."

"What situation?"

"Chanyeol, he... he's in a coma."

Minutes after Kris hung up the phone, Jongin was still standing there in his kitchen, dumbfounded. Suddenly, the banana milk he was craving for didn't seem appealing at all. Hell, he wasn't even hungry anymore. For a moment, Jongin felt that the world around him slowed down in sympathy, knowing that it was hard for his brain to process such a piece of hard, shocking information.

Gripping his phone tightly, Jongin tried to move his body to the nearest couch or stool or whatever the thing he could sit on. No, he was not ready; neither his mind nor his body was. Imagine waking up in the morning, getting an unexpected phone call when you were about to have your freaking breakfast and it wasn't good news you received. That was literally what happened to Jongin and he wondered if his day could be any worse.

Jongin took a deep, deep breath and closed his eyes. He needed himself to be as composed as possible (even though deep inside his mind and soul were suffering) when he met Kris and Jongdae later... and probably him. How Jongin wished it was April 1st and Kris was just pulling a prank on him under Jongdae's supervision or something. Sadly, it wasn't.

But then he realized that sitting there staring blankly ahead would not turn things any better. He needed to act. And whatever plan Kris said he had got to be a good one.

And so, Jongin quickly dashed into his bedroom. His mind was mocking him because 'why on earth did you have to run when you could just teleport here' but he didn't have time to argue back (if it's even possible) and took whatever suit his hand grabbed first.

In a split of a second, Jongin was no longer standing in his walk-in closet. The light grey wall turned beige. The room became much wider while the piles of shirts and such were gone, replaced by the sight of a brown sofa and a certain man leaning his back on it, legs supported by a matching recliner, arm covering both his eyes because of exhaustion.

As depressing as it was for Jongin, he knew that the situation must've taken a worse toll on Kris. Judging from his unusually vulnerable voice earlier during the phone call, Jongin knew that he was badly shaken --and looking at him on his current state only proved his assumption. Of course; Chanyeol was (sadly, for Jongin) his and thus, Kris had all the right to be that distressed. Slowly, he approached the said man who seemed to be unaware of his presence.

Jongin hesitated, not knowing what to say because 'Hey, Kris. How you doin'?' would be a little bit inappropriate in this situation and honestly, Jongin couldn't think of anything better. He was about to take a seat beside Kris when a (visually) wild Jongdae appeared.

It was not something uncommon to see Jongdae in a state of mess, literally. Locking himself for days in his lab was a casual thing (and that means no showering, no changing, sometimes no eating) but Jongin met him yesterday. Thus, Jongdae must have only spent one night in his safe haven but somehow, he looked way messier than usual.

"Oh, hi there, portal boy." Jongdae waved and made his way to the living room.

Kris slowly rose from his slumber hearing the noise produced by the young professor. He looked a little bit surprised to see Jongin but felt relieved at his presence at the same time.

"Oh, you're here already." Kris kicked the recliner away and sat in a better position. Jongin took a seat beside him while Jongdae ran to the kitchen to grab something for them to consume because 'hell, this is going to take long'.

"Please. I could even be in Alaska if I wanted." Jongin chuckled. Well, he tried to lighten up the atmosphere because whatever Kris was going to say after this would not make it brighter. This place had never felt so doomed before and Jongin knew that he wasn't the only one feeling that way. It was like there were these invisible dumbbells on everyone's back because you could even feel the heaviness of the situation in the air.

Jongdae came back with three plates of toast and some coffee and Jongin's stomach thanked him even though Jongin's mind wasn't really in the mood to eat.

"So, what happened, hyung?" Jongin knew that once the conversation started, there's no way he could enjoy the food; but he didn't want to waste any more time. He knew they got to be quick.

"Chan-chan... I mean, Chanyeol went to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs last night." Jongdae cringed as he heard Kris' pet name for Chanyeol, while Jongin just nodded and sipped his coffee (and tried not to be so obvious when, truthfully, he felt a pang in the heart because of 'Chan-chan'). "He was driving his way home and he was... he was..."

"He was shot." Jongdae finished the sentence for Kris. Jongin could not unsee the watery eyes of his old friend and he automatically patted Kris' shoulder. Seeing that Kris would not be able to say anything more, Jongdae voluntarily took over.

"He was found in his car—it wasn't too far from the ministry. Hell, Jongin, I used that car to buy new wires in the morning before! We've requested for secret investigation and Kris has made sure that this incident would not reach the media, thanks to Sunghwan-hyung."

"I'm sorry," Jongin muttered. It must be hard for Kris—no, it must be hard for anyone when their beloved one had to face such an incident. But, in this case, everything was ten times more complicated.

The election was only a month away. Park Chanyeol was one of the only two candidates for president—and if he didn't recover fast, he might be withdrawn from the competition. Everybody in this country knew that once the Huang got the power back, all the people's efforts during the revolution, all their movements for a better country; everything would be useless.

When the late Huang president passed away, the people were left with new hope: Park Chanyeol had entered the scene. People demanded radical change. Protests and demonstrations happened everywhere. They wanted a fair government and, of course, a democratic election. Huang Zitao, the young man who was supposed to take over his father's throne, failed to gain the position because of people's raging power; and it sparked the wrath of the elites.

"So, where is he now? Where is Chanyeol hyung?" That was honestly the question Jongin had been wanting to ask the most. If Chanyeol wasn't dead, at least Jongin had to know his whereabouts... for his own sake.

"He's downstairs." Kris tilted his head to the lab's direction. "We had Victoria take care of him because it'd be too risky for him to be in the hospital now."

"I set up the place the whole night," Jongdae added.

"Well, that explains a lot," Jongin said as he was eyeing Jongdae from head to toe. Jongdae sent him an annoyed 'what' glare and Jongin only shook his head.

"Can I see him now?"

"Wait," Jongin was about to stand up when Jongdae interrupted and slapped Kris on the arm. "Hey, big boy, you haven't told Jongin the plan."

Hearing the word 'plan', Jongin remembered the actual reason why he came to this place a.k.a. his office a.k.a. Kris and Chanyeol's house (aside from his love worry for his hyung). "So, what did you guys come up with?"

Jongdae eyed Kris who seemed to be a little distracted and sighed deeply before he spilled the plan. "You know I've been researching parallel dimension, right?"

Jongin only nodded. Of course, he knew it. He was the subject of the research, for God's sake!

Jongdae, who saw the so-called potential in Jongin, made him his rat lab... and to put it simply... that's the beginning of Jongin's 'How I ended up having the ability to teleport' tale.

"Remember what I told you about the parallel theory?"

"That is the parallel world, things would be similar or even paralleled as well?"

"Good boy. Now, what if I tell you that apparently, we have another Chanyeol in another dimension?"

Jongdae better not be kidding.

Author's note:

Okay, first of all... long time no see! Sorry for not updating for months but from now on, I'll try to update regularly.

Thank you for all of you who stay with this story. Kudos for you guys!

Second... this chapter focused on Jongin a lot because 'Growl' gave me so much Jongin feels, idek. I've been sooo Jongin-ified lately hahaha.

Anyway, about this chapter... I wanted to explain the situation which remained a mystery in the first chapter. Now that it's clear about what happened to Chanyeol the president-to-be, the next chapter will focus on the student Chanyeol!

Lastly, I re-read all the previous chapters and realized that there are sooo many typos (I am a little bit perfectionist and these typos make me upset but then I am waaay too lazy to fix them lol). Sorry for the inconvenience :/

Thank you for reading and subscribing and commenting!