"I'm so sorry."


Luhan had lost count of how many times Sehun had said that to everyone there. They were all still crying hysterically, especially Kyungsoo and Suho. Sehun was curling in form of a ball with swollen eyes, Luhan's arms wrapped around him protectively. Kyungsoo had unintentionally called the maknae "evil" for killing his boyfriend and it had crushed Sehun's heart, breaking his last hope for forgiveness into countless pieces. Luhan had snapped at Kyungsoo for that, telling him that Sehun was the one who should cry louder than him. Kyungsoo was Kai's boyfriend, but Sehun was his brother. Sehun had never meant to murder his own brother in the first place and he had been tricked by Kai himself.


Kyungsoo stood up shakily and walked away from the group. He crouched down and cupped his hands on the snow-covered ground, and when he opened them again, a small green plant had grown from the dry land. He opened his arms and slowly stood up along with the plant that was growing taller and bigger rapidly. In no time a massive tree with countless pretty pink flowers was standing in front of Kyungsoo, making him look even smaller than he already was. And then the wind came and blew the flower petals away, filling the air with the delicate smell that was familiar to Kyungsoo's nose. Some petals flew towards the deads and landed on their bodies, the sight making the males cry even louder. Kyungsoo looked up at the morning sky; it looked even prettier with the pink petals swirling around. He knew Sehun was trying to approach him again by controlling the wind and giving him such a beautiful and calming sight, but he couldn't turn around and see the maknae's face. Not yet.


"It's beautiful, isn't it?"


That soft voice. It hadn't even been a day yet and Kyungsoo was already imagining things. But he was already too hurt, so he let himself sinking deeper in his fantasy. He closed his eyes and dropped his head, letting out a long desperate sigh.


"Yes, it's beautiful."


"Then why are you looking down instead of looking up?"


Kyungsoo bit his trembling lip to hold back his fresh tears from coming out again.


"It's too beautiful that it hurts."


"But Soo, how can something beautiful hurt you? I don't get it. You're supposed to be happy."


"How can I be happy when you're not here anymore?"


Kyungsoo finally gave up and let his tears form rivers on his flushed cheeks again. He really wanted to smash his head on a wall when he felt a pair of familiar strong arms wrapped around his body. His fantasy had become too real for his liking.


"But I'm here?"


Kyungsoo didn't have the courage to open his eyes. He shook his head hard and tugged his own hair in frustration.


"No, you're already dead. Stop it."


"Kyungie, what- What are you saying...?"


The hurt tone in that soft voice was too clear for Kyungsoo to ignore. He felt the arms turning his body around and he wasn't sure if he had gotten a mental problem, because then he had lost his ability to differ what was real and what was not.


"Please tell me, Kyungsoo-yah. What do you mean? Look, at least open your eyes and look at me. I'm not a ghost, don't treat me like this."


Kyungsoo let out a small unintentional mewl at the touch of the gentle hands on his cheeks. Instead of opening his eyes, he shut them even tighter.


'I'm going mad. I need help. Someone call a doctor, I'm going mad.'


The petite boy felt his head being tilted slightly and his face became hot from the warm breath that was slowly getting closer. When he finally felt the soft lips pressed against his, he let himself break apart.


Kyungsoo opened his eyes slowly as he sobbed heavily, his fists grasping the oversized sweater that Kai was wearing. He could see Kai's worried face in his blurry vision; everything on him looked too real to be just a fantasy.


"Kyungie, why are you crying like this after I kissed you? Did I hurt you?" Kai lifted Kyungsoo's chin carefully and gently brushed his thumb against the plump bottom lip.


Kyungsoo let the other wipe his tears away and blinked several times to clear his vision.


He was real; it was really him. His Jongin was really standing in front of him, looking down at him with a concerned look on his face.


"Jongin-ah...? Is that really you?" Kyungsoo asked carefully.


Kai frowned and tilted his head, "Of course it's me. What happened to you, Kyungsoo-yah? Is there something wrong?"


Kyungsoo moved his gaze down and pressed his palm on Kai's chest. He turned the taller boy around to see his back; there was no blood stain, his sweater was only covered with dirt. He turned Kai around again and stared at his face in disbelief.


"...But you died. Sehun killed you."


"What..?" Kai muttered and started to freak out, "No! I didn't even meet him! I- Ugh, what? Sehun killed me? Why would he do that?? Does he have an unresolved problem with me?"


Kai proceeded to walk around and talk to himself while Kyungsoo watched him in great bewilderment. Kai stopped abruptly and set his eyes on Kyungsoo, making the shorter boy freeze and widen his eyes.


"You must have mistaken someone else as me. Now where's Sehun-ah?"


And so, the confused Kyungsoo led Kai to the still-mourning group. Kai could see three bodies lying idle in the middle; one of them was himself. But he couldn't focus on anything else; the only thing going on his mind was that he had something to solve with his brother.


"Yah, Sehun-ah!"


Sehun shot his head up immediately. When he saw who had just called him, he hid behind Luhan and shuddered in fear.


"L-Luhan hyung, please help me... Kai is going to take me away with him," Sehun squeaked, but Kai could hear it clearly.


"Yah what do you mean? Are you saying that I'm an angel of death now?" Kai crossed his arms and frowned. "Just because my skin is a little bit darker than yours and the sweater I'm wearing is black don't mean I'm here to take away your soul, Sehun-ah. You see I'm not carrying a sickle and I'm still a person like you. Look, do you have a problem with me? Let's solve it here, because killing is so not a good way to solve a problem."


Sehun scrambled to Kai and knelt on his feet right away.


"I'm so sorry, please forgive me! I didn't mean to kill you, I didn't know it was really you! Please have mercy on me! I have no problems with you, really! I love you and I really regret what I've done to you that I'm starting to hate myself. Please don't hate me too!"


Kai pulled Sehun up quickly and hugged him tight.


"Yah, yah, what are you saying? Why did you kneel like that? I'm sorry, did I talk too harshly? Don't cry, I'm sorry. I don't hate you."


Sehun broke into tears just by the touch of his brother, whom he still considered as a ghost. The rest of the group watched the scene with wide eyes.


"No, I'm sorry, I've killed you-"


"Sshhh," Kai put his index finger on Sehun's lips, "You didn't. You see I'm still alive, right?"


Sehun blinked confusedly, "Aren't you a ghost? Your body is still there."


Sehun pointed at the dead body innocently, his face was a mixture of sad, scared and confused. It somehow looked really funny to Kai and his laugh exploded as he hugged the younger's head and ruffled his hair.


"That's not the real me, you silly."


The rest of the males, who had been silent since Kai had come there, suddenly began to throw comments in unison that it became really noisy there.


"Are you sure he's not lying?" Chanyeol whispered to Chen.


Chen eyed Kai and rubbed his chin, "I'm not sure. But, judging from how he talks, it seems like he's the real Kai."


Tao interfered, "Then who are these dead people?"


"That's what we need to find out," Chen concluded with a firm nod.


The rest of the guardians ended up accepting Kai again and showered him with bone-crushing hugs and questions that Kai didn't answer at all because there were just too many of them. The tanned boy felt kind of touched because the others cried for him too, although he turned out to be perfectly fine.


The twelve gathered again around the dead bodies and eyed them closely.


"So we're sure that this Jun is real, but these other two... Maybe they're Lulu and Bomi's duplicates?" Lay suggested.


"Their duplicates don't die like this. They disappear like smoke," Baekhyun said, recalling his last training with Chanyeol and the two girls.


"Right," Chanyeol nodded, "they disappear easily. A single fireball was enough to make them vanish away."


"Wait, where are the real Lulu and Bomi?" Kai suddenly asked. Just after he had pointed that out, the group realized that those two girls had been missing since the sun had risen.


Chanyeol raised his hand and stood up, "I'll go look for them."


"I'll go with you then," Kai also got up, but Kyungsoo yanked him back down.


"No, you stay here," Kyungsoo hugged his boyfriend's arm and pouted. Kai chuckled and pinched the other's squishy cheek, but opted to fulfill his request anyways.


"We'll go then," Baekhyun shot up, dragging Chen along with him.


Chanyeol beamed and clapped his hands, "Awesome! Beagle line to the rescue!"


"What kind of rescue is that?" Kai chuckled and rolled his eyes.


"I love you too, Kai-yah. Let's go, guys!"


Kai was left dumbfounded as Chanyeol went away laughing loudly with the other two.


"You're really loved, you know that? Everyone was worried about you," Kyungsoo whispered and smiled softly at Kai, making the younger's heart flutter and his face turn a little bit red.


"Yeah. I'm really glad about that," Kai whispered back and embraced the smaller boy lovingly.


Soon after, Chanyeol, Chen, and Baekhyun returned with Lulu and Bomi following them behind.


"Oh, there you are!" The boys pointed at the two girls, who smiled and waved at them cheerfully.


"Hello everyone! We were watching the sunrise with Yunho oppa and Changmin oppa," Bomi said, "it was really beautiful."


"You already call them that?" Kris raised an eyebrow.


"Yeah! We already talked about that when we were in form of grown-ups," Lulu grinned. "So why did you guys look for us?"


"Are your copies still out there?" Suho asked straightforwardly.


"Umm, nope. Actually I thought I should make them get rid of the wolves' dead bodies, but then I thought again it would be really tiring and it would affect our energy too. So I thought we'd do it later," Lulu explained, "what about it?"


"We've got some dead bodies here that look like Jongin and Jaesun. We thought they were yours," Suho pointed at the bodies.


"Oh? Let us see them," Bomi approached the deads and sat down next to the one that looked like Kai. She put her hand on his chest and closed her eyes.


"Oh..." Bomi's face turned pale all of a sudden. Knowing that she was finding out something wrong, Lulu also sat down and did the same to the other unknown dead body.


Lulu let out a small gasp and gripped the man's shirt tightly, Her other hand moved towards Bomi and squeezed her hand.


Bomi opened her eyes and a teardrop fell onto the dead's face.


"Lulu-yah... It's them," Bomi squeaked.


"I know," Lulu covered her face and sniffed, "I know."


The two girls hugged each other and cried together, leaving all the males watching them in great curiosity.


"Lulu-yah, Bomi-yah. Who are they?" Lay asked softly and patted their backs.


Lulu and Bomi pulled away from each other and gave Lay sorrowful looks. They turned to the two bodies and placed their hands on their chests again.


Bright light appeared and surrounded them, and when it died down, they found different persons lying there.


They were Monggu and Jjanggu.


"NO!!"


Sehun and Kai scrambled to their former pet horses immediately and held them tight.


"Monggu-yah, I'm so sorry!" Sehun cried, "Why did you have to do this?"


While Sehun bawled all over again, Kai cried silently and kept staring at Jjanggu's face. He was not just a pet to him; Kai had considered him as his little brother too ever since he had become a human boy. The sadness he was feeling was not the same sadness that people felt when their pets died.


"You did something stupid to protect someone else again, didn't you?" Kai mumbled sadly as he ran his fingers through the wavy brunette hair. "All this time you haven't changed. Even as a horse you acted all protective. Now I'm not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing."


Soon Yunho and Changmin came to see what was going on with all the noises. They were surprised to see their little fellow spies dead; they hadn't expected those two to follow Sehun and go back to Jun's place. They had thought that Monggu and Jjanggu had been in EXO-K all the time.


The two secret agents bowed deeply and saluted the two brave boys who had sacrificed themselves to protect the princes. Seeing that, the rest of the group also stood up and did the same gesture towards the bodies in Sehun and Kai's arms.


The sky had turned bright, but it started to snow. The wind was still blowing Kyungsoo's flower petals around softly. One of the petals landed on Monggu's hair; the pink contrast to the silver. It fell onto the ground when Sehun pulled his look-alike's head to his chest and buried his face on his hair.


The dome that was covering the castle's area opened up slowly and went back down into the ground. Soon after, Jaesun, Nara, Taehyung, Professor Zhang and Yoonjae came out and joined the group. Lulu and Bomi ran to Nara and cried in her hug.


"We've failed to protect everyone, unnie. They really died!" Bomi cried.


"I'm really sorry to hear that. I couldn't do anything to stop it from happening," Nara said sadly and dabbed her own tears.


Suho ran to Jaesun and threw himself into the younger's arms. He didn't say anything; he only shut his eyes and cried again.


"What happened, Suho hyung?" Jaesun asked confusedly.


Suho looked up and Jaesun felt his heart being squeezed by the sight of his brother's glistening puppy eyes.


"I thought I had lost you," Suho shakily said, "but you're here now."


"Umm, yeah? I was inside the dome all the time," Jaesun scratched his nape, "Lynn was the one who got hurt, I was okay."


The advisor approached Sehun and Kai to see Monggu and Jjanggu. But before he could see them, Sehun had thrown himself into his arms.


"Mommy, I missed you."


Jaesun's eyes widened to their maximum size. "M-Mommy...?"


Sehun pulled away and smiled shyly. "Please let me call you that sometimes."


Sehun was starting to feel bad when he hadn't gotten any response in five seconds, but then Jaesun's happy laugh cracked and Sehun couldn't feel any more relieved and secure in his mommy-uncle's hug.


"I don't know what happened to you, but I guess I'd love to be called that again. It's been a really long time," Jaesun giggled, Sehun's hair and kissed his head. "Oh, I almost forgot something."


Jaesun walked away from his nephew and approached Taehyung instead. The tall boy was holding two sacks in his arms. Jaesun took them from him and brought them to