After we have parked the car outside the café, Chen took out the keys to open the door but it suddenly swung open, revealing Kai, a little bit enthusiastic as he greeted us.

“How was it?” Kai asked.

Everyone was in the café, sat on chairs or leant against the counter. All their eyes were on us as we took our seats at a table close by.

 “It’s all sorted!” Chen exclaimed happily, “I saw him and I told him to move on with his life.”

“That’s great!” D.O said and then turned his head towards me, “Are you hungry, Raine?”

Instead of answering him, I looked at Lay, he was really tired, as he slipped down on the chair and propped his head up with his hand.

“Lay?” I asked, “Are you okay?”

He simply nodded, and I replied to D.O’s question, “Thanks for asking, but I’m not that hungry, just really tired.”

“Okay,” D.O said, “Why don’t you go upstairs and get some rest.”

I nodded in reply and then took the book out of the bag. Half an hour left. Should I tell them? Having doubts as to what will happen after the time is up, sent shivers down my back.

“Excuse me, guys,” I interrupted their conversations and they all looked at me, even Lay lifted his head up from his arm, “The timer is counting down and there’s not much time left, but I’m not sure what will happen after that.”

“Let me see,” Kris said and walked over towards me from behind the counter.

His large built shadowed over me as he took the book from my hand and looked closer at the timer, “There’s only twenty-five minutes left.”

Kris handed the book back to me but then it started shaking, Lay saw it and came over. The book opened up and words started to form again. It should tell us what we should do next, I hoped.

A friend is a gift, but every meeting always comes to an end. Farewell a dear soul, for your wish has completed.

I read the sentence out loud so everyone heard.

“I guess I must move onto my after life,” Chen said, “Being here in limbo has been great, meeting all of you guys and running this café.”

He looked around and his voice trembled as he spoke, “I died at a young age but being able to live here has been amazing,” then he looked at each and every one of us, “I’m going to miss you guys so much!”

“Chen!” Baekhyun cried and ran over to give him a hug, “Don’t worry, we won’t forget you and meeting you has been amazing for us as well.”

Suho was speechless but he just kept nodding, agreeing with what Baekhyun was saying, his hand covered his mouth as he tried to hold back his tears. Xiumin went behind the counter to get something and appeared next to me, holding out a tissue. I looked at him to realise that I was crying too.

“Thanks!” I said and wiped my runny nose.

“We don’t have long, but why don’t we have a farewell party for Chen?” Chanyeol suggest.

“Yeah!” Sehun and Tao both said whilst wiping away their tears, “We’ll get some food from the kitchen.

Then they wandered through the white swinging doors.

“Let’s have a nice cup of coffee too,” Xiumin said and turned the coffee maker on.

Before long, everyone was busy and Chen just sat there and watched his friends. I scooted my seat closer to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Do you want to stay, Chen?” I asked.

“Even if I don’t want to leave, I still need to move on,” Chen replied back with a smile, “I told my friend to move on and I think I should do the same, lingering behind would just break the flow and make you and Lay’s mission harder.”

I was really thankful of what Chen thought, he always thought about other people before himself.

“I found balloons!” Luhan shouted from the stairs, he ran down and passed me some so we could blow them up.

Soon, there were loads of balloons on the floor and my jaws ached from blowing them up. Though everything in here was still dusty and dirty, the balloons and banners really made a difference. Along the wall, behind the counter was a long banner saying “we love you Chen”, it was taped together with balloons on either side, on the opposite side of the café, an exact banner said “we will miss you Chen” instead. After a few minutes, everyone sat back down and gathered around the table Chen and I was sitting on.

“Wow!” Chen said in awe, “That was quick!”

“Teamwork!” Kris said and hi-fived Tao and Lay who were sitting on either side of him.

“Try the cake!” Sehun said and scooped a mouthful into Chen’s mouth, “Do you like it?”

“Mmm…your baking skills are really good now!” Chen praised whilst chewing.

“I found a cookbook under your bed and this was one of the recipes,” Sehun confessed.

“What?” Chen gasped, pretending to be angry but just patted Sehun on the shoulder, “You can have that cookbook, Sehun, and make sure to make lots of lovely cakes for the customers.”

“I will and I won’t let you down either,” Sehun replied, his voice a little wobbly, he turned his head back, probably to wipe a tear away which slipped from his eye.

“Chen,” Baekhyun said, “Can I have your bed please?”

Everyone laughed but Baekhyun looked pretty serious, “Can I?”

“Of course you can!” Chen replied back, “I know you sleep in my bed when I’m working downstairs.”

“Oh!” Baekhyun choked out, “Who told you?”

“No one, I found out myself.”

“But you didn’t mind?” Baekhyun asked.

“Of course not, you seemed really tired and I knew your bed wasn’t very comfortable, so I let you sleep, luckily, you don’t drool if not, I would have kicked you out already!”

I didn’t want to ruin anything, but the book was lying on my lap. Five minutes. Lay caught my eyes as I looked up from the book. His stare was kind of asking me to not tell them anything, just wait and see what will happen when the time is up. For the next few minutes, I listened to them talk about the happy times they have had together and what things they can take when Chen is gone. Time really wasn’t being nice to us.

Ten…nine…eight…seven…six…five…

Chen’s hand was holding a cup of coffee but he suddenly dropped it onto his lap. His arm has faded and so was the bottom half of his body, that’s why he couldn’t feel the heat or the ceramic as it smashed onto the tiles. A light green mist formed around him, it rose upwards towards his head, taking away his legs and then his torso and then his neck.

“Bye Chen!” everyone chorused, we all waved.

Tears were falling down so fast that everything was a blur. I rubbed them away.

Three…two…

“Farewell,” Chen said with a smile before he disappeared and the mist faded as well, as if it was never there.

There was nothing left where he was a few seconds ago. Just an empty space, it felt odd, every space was occupied apart from his. We continued to stare at his seat. Then finally, Suho stood up, “We had our chance to say goodbye and I’m sure Chen was happy now that his wish is fulfilled.”

I nodded and looked at the book again, I feel like burning it but realised the timer was gone.

“The timer has disappeared!” I said, placing the book on the table so everyone could see.

Then the book flipped open. Tao moved a plate of cake out of the way before the book cover touched it.

One wish is completed, another has yet to be achieved. Prepare yourselves, for another will be next.

Everyone looked around as they stare at each other, nervous.