Luhan stood by the door, his hand gripping the handle so tightly that it might have ripped off if he applied a fraction more pressure as his body slackened.

He wished.

He wished with every bone in his body that he wasn't the one that opened the door.

"Alice." He blurted out when he saw the girl he knew all too well standing before him. She smiled brightly and attacked Luhan with a hug.

"I've missed you!"

Luhan's body immediately stiffened as he lifted his gaze off her and moved it to his leader who was standing behind her, staring at her with hearts in his eyes. He didn't even care that she was hugging the life out of her ex. 

"What is happening?" He breathed out.

Kris just smiled, an action so foreign, that Luhan looked stricken. When he noticed that Alice was still wrapped around him, his eye twitched and he pulled her off of him.

Ever since she got with Kris, they never interacted, much less touched each other like that.

He didn't care if she rose from the ashes, he'd never be comfortable touching her again. 

He pushed her away and stumbled back when the face he so vividly remembered stared  back at him, "I don't understand. W-wh-who are you?"

The other members crowded down the stairs and gasped at their familiar guest. She placed her hands on his shoulders and smiled.

"It's me, silly. I'm back!"

Luhan's breathing started to get heavy, "You're supposed to be dead."

When she smiled, Luhan felt his throat close up and his head start to spin. This couldn't be happening. He tried, so hard to forget her, to move the on but now this?

She was alive.

He didn't care how or why because neither would change the fact that the girl who left him for his best friend was alive and back.

"I escaped, barely alive, and finally I could come back to you guys."

"Your funeral." He challenged, remembering sitting the room with her coffin emotionlessly as everyone cried around him.

She looked away, sad, "They had to fake my death for me to go into Witness protection.I'm sorry you guys had to go through that. I'm sorry that we had to lie."

That wasn't why Luhan brought it up. 

He said it because he hoped that her funeral was enough of an explanation to how her being in front of him was just a trick on his eyes. 

Kris cleared his throat at the tension in the room and slipped his arm around her, feeling light in his heart, before addressing everyone in the room.

"She'll be staying with us from now on." Kris said with a grin as Alice and him shared a soft  look that made Luhan was a laugh. This was exactly what he expecting from Kris. No one else's comfort ever mattered to him. 

Kris wasn't the type of person to say that he loved everyone equally. He loved some people more than others and he didn't comprehend the logic behind making the person he cared about less feel more comfortable than the one he cared about more. 

"Just like old times?" She whispered to him.

Kris leaned down and bumped their heads together, "Just like old times."

Luhan felt his fist curling. Old times. It would never be like old times for him. He hated her. He hated her for being able to smile, for making him love her, for making him feel betrayed by the people he cared about most, for never letting move on and forget about her.

He hated her for being alive.

"J-Jie Jie?" Tao whispered, moving towards Alice with the same gait that someone would use to approach a mirage.

"It's me Taozi."

Tao let out an amazed breath as the other members surrounded her with mixed emotions. They were happy but confused and every two seconds, one of them woould glance at Luhan for a reaction, but the boy just stood immobile, watching the scene in front of him as if he was having an out of body experience.  

Kris finally tore his gaze off his girlfriend as the others bombarded her with questions and locked eyes with Luhan.  He saw the confusion and the childlike vulnerability that would rarely pass the older male's face and felt a flash of guilt prick his heart.

He knew that this was a questionable idea, to bring her back here with Luhan around, but he wasn't about to leave her on the street after his wildest dreams were answered.  He never thought he'd get a second chance like this and now he was going to make sure no to make the same mistake twice.

She was back and he wasn't going to let her go no matter what.

He knew that if the roles were reversed, Luhan would've have done the same thing.

Alice must've noticed how detached Luhan was, because she walked past the group and walked up to him as the others watched in trepidation.

When she stood in front of him, he tilted his head down and stared at her with empty, void eyes. The mere sight of her brought back discomfort in his stomach, all these years later.

"Aren’t you glad I'm back?" She said with an airy smile and tears welled up in her eyes. Instead of softening, Luhan just hardened and felt fury fill his core.

She was back and just like that she was acting like nothing happened between them. That there was no rift separating them, because right at the moment the most important thing in the room was the fact that she was back.

But not to Luhan.

He leaned his head down, but kept his voice steady so that even s, Kris included, could hear his words and the venom and hatred laced over every syllable.  

"You. You should've stayed dead."

-----

"That was an thing to say." Kris scolded, his eyes burning in anger. "She almost died and had to go into hiding for 10 years before feeling safe enough to come back to Seoul. She wanted to be welcomed by us."

"What were you thinking, bringing her here?" Luhan snapped in his soft tone, when him and Kris excused themselves from the others.

The other boys were getting Alice to re-explain everything for the 10th time, unable to believe that after 10 years that she was back.

But Luhan felt like suffocating in that room and he just left and Kris followed him up the stairs soon after. They entered Kris's bedroom when they knew that words needed to be exchanged.

"I was not about to leave her out in the streets. I'm not going to abandon her." Kris hissed back, his eyes narrowing.

"After everything, she's still the most important thing in your life." Luhan stated.

Kris frowned, "Of course she is. What is wrong with you? Why would you think I'd brush her off."

Luhan locked eyes with Kris, his eyes conveying emotion that his words otherwise couldn't, "10 years is a long time to be away from a person."

"So?" Kris asked with a raised brow.

"People change."

"She's still the same Alice."

Luhan looked away, "How do you know? She just appears after almost dying because of you. How do you not feel uncomfortable or burdened? Isn't she mad?"

Kris gulped and stared at Luhan's face, "I-I don't think she knows."

Luhan snapped his head back at Kris and watched him with widened eyes, "And you haven't told her?"

Kris scowled and stepped closer to him. "Why on earth would I? She doesn't need to know. She's been through enough. I'm not about to bring the past up."

Luhan smirked, "Yeah, why bring up the past when it'll get you in trouble? You should just bury the truth because that way you won't have to pay for your mistakes. "

"I've paid for my mistakes for 10 years." Kris growled.

"You're lying to her."

Kris scoffed, "I'm protecting her."

Luhan started laughing to the point that tears collecting in his eyes, but Kris couldn't tell if they came from laughing or something else.

"Protecting her. You're really good at that. But you're better at forgetting about one person in the presence of another."

Kris looked at him, utterly confused. "What are you talking about? Why are you so worked up?

"Yongguk's alive," Luhan spat out, furiously

Kris's eyes widened a fraction, "W-what?"

"He's alive, he always was, he's been trying to take out Ryu while trying to get his foot out of our world at the same time. He wanted out but he h