That feeling of déjà vu when Baekhyun steps off the plane. It washes over him like a giant wave, slightly suffocating. It had been a domestic flight, not more than 2 hours.

 

EXO has arrived in a little Japanese town not too far off the coast, just a short distance away from Tokyo. They were set to have a mini-scale performance, and the members were pretty much exhausted after their concert tour.

 

They went about the routine, climbing onto the van to be transported to the rehearsal venue, preparing for a gruelling 6-hour practice. After it's done, Kyungsoo has lost his voice and Chanyeol has twisted his leg.

 

Baekhyun's always had this special connection with Chanyeol, a bond that ties them as best friends. Or perhaps something more, as Baekhyun would like them to be. Once he saw Chanyeol's agonized wince offstage, an unknown feeling he couldn't put his finger on filled his heart. It wasn't sympathy, it wasn't care. It was pain, like he was feeling for Chanyeol. This hadn't been the first time. He knows, he had slowly started falling for the overly tall boy with long lanky limbs and the wide grin. Those brown eyes that seemed to look into his soul. He's always had that feeling of having known Chanyeol from a long, long time ago, but it's again something he can't decipher. He can't remember, and it keeps him awake at odd hours of the night, thinking about Chanyeol. How his eyes flutter seven to eight times in a second when he's sleepy. How he smiles at nothing in particular sometimes. Baekhyun knew, once Park Chanyeol stepped into SM Entertainment, that their fates were intertwined.

 

Courage is a stupid thing, reckless and brainless, Baekhyun thinks, but it isn't so bad after all. It's courage that egged him on to press his lips on Chanyeol's in a moment of foolishness. They had been in their shared hotel room and Baekhyun had been carefully placing ice on Chanyeol's bruised, thin ankle, trying to ease the soreness. He had shifted----- no, both of them had, and Chanyeol's face had been so near to his. He felt Chanyeol's breath ghost across his face, minty like frost, and felt the younger's apprehensive eyes shift across his profile. And then Baek had leaned down.

 

He remembers drowning as a little kid. Three? Four? He had fallen into the river while playing. Miraculously, he had been brought back to the bank. A blessing by the river spirit, his mother had said, a true blessing. As his mouth tentatively moves against Chanyeol's, he gets that feeling of déjà vu again. He remembers Chanyeol, from somewhere.

 

Chanyeol tastes like the clear water of a stream, slightly sweet.

 

Baekhyun had expected to wake up to Chanyeol's body heat right next to him, basking in the warm glow of the morning sun, just as they had fallen asleep the night before, but Chanyeol is gone. Everyone assumes that he has gone off for a little walk or a break, but when he doesn't return by noon, the managers and the members start to worry. "We have a show by 2:30, how are we going to do it without Yeol?" EXO is a bunch of frazzled nerves, without the usual loud talking and guffaws of Chanyeol. Baekhyun is panicking, desperate. He's just found his light in life, his one and only, as cliche as it sounds, and it's a raw experience to have it ripped from his hands. But there's a strange calmness deep in his heart, rippling silently, because he trusts in Chanyeol. He trusts that Park Chanyeol will take good care of Byun Baekhyun's property. He believes.

 

The show is cancelled. Later in the evening, as the members frantically try to dial Chanyeol's phone number to no avail, Baekhyun slips out. It must have been the breeze leading him, he thinks, the soft autumn breeze that smelled faintly like Chanyeol. It was the breeze that propelled him to drive the company van out into the sunset, through the forested road, a small path that he seemed to faintly remember. He tilts his head and sees the grinning stone statue, round as ever, that he has memorized from the time he was a tiny boy. What had he been doing here? He smiled back at the moss-covered granite as the van whizzed past.

 

His van skidded to a stop in front of the large gateway. A tunnel, in fact. He had no time to reminisce, a nagging feeling to hurry in his bones. He parked the vehicle, ran a hand across the pinkish peeling paint on the wall and watched a dry leaf fall from the old Japanese roof, the dust floating around a sign that he could not read, before he sprinted. He sprinted through the tunnel, the dark tunnel of memories.

 

Once you've met someone, you never really forget them.

 

He doesn't know if tears are streaming down his face, but he thinks the moisture might not be from the humid environment. He remembers being 10.

 

My name is Haku. Be calm. I just want to help you.

 

He remembers his parents being turned into pigs. He remembers the mysterious boy with the green shoulder-length hair and those piercing emerald eyes. The dragon boy.

 

He runs.

 

I've no home, I've forgotten my name. Somehow I remember yours.

 

The wide grin, Park Chanyeol. The slight smile, Haku.

 

We'll meet someday, somehow. I promise.

 

He bursts out into the green meadow, the wind howling now, the jagged edges of rocks clear against the orange-purplish sky. He needs to get across the strip of land before the sun goes down and the ground turns to water.

 

The spirit gate is a funny thing, it opens when it feels like. It won't open for anyone at anytime.

 

He doesn't stop. His lungs are burning but he runs, and runs, and runs. He needs to get across. He's an ugly sobbing mess from everything whirling in his head, but he doesn't stop. He's almost at the other side, feeling the soft grass under his feet, but the time switches fast. Water is pouring out of the stone frog rapidly, he can see. It's beginning to reach to his ankles. His knees. His chest. Baekhyun starts swimming, and he feels something brushing against his thigh but he's gone too far to stop now. He can't give up right now, he's been longing for this.

 

He reaches the shore with a grunt, shivering from the fright he has received from the unknown slithering in the depths of the dark waters. He's soaked, lying on the ground, tears running down his cheeks, but he's smiling. He's here. The boat with kamisama, brightly lit against the dark night, slowly starts to dock and its unearthly passengers alight, shuffling in slow lines, chattering.

 

It's so familiar.

 

Baekhyun sits up. Looks up into familiar eyes, a familiar face. A boy. His dragon boy. Chanyeol's hand is outstretched, and he's holding a berry. Baekhyun remembers his vanishing translucent fingers and he grins back at Chanyeol, who is smiling just as widely. He takes the berry.

 

"I kept my promise." That deep voice.

 

In the background, the lights of the bathhouse twinkle.

 

Baekhyun's home.