A gray haze was left over the wasteland. Not even seconds after their venture into the outside did they realize how wrong they had been. Jaejoong submitted to his coughs, but he pulled Yuri along. His eyes spotted the survival packs that had been thrown out and he grabbed those as well. Jaejoong’s mind was automatically into survival mode. Yuri’s breath was coming out haggard and she had difficulty seeing a foot in front of her.

The world was a haze. Black on black. It was all coming to an end.

They ran like their lives depended on it; because their lives really did depend on it. They both ignored the choking in their throats and the burning in their muscles and skin. A burning land was behind them. A destroyed unknown waited in front of them.

Yuri tripped on vegetation growing out of control. Her legs took a scrape that she didn’t need. Jaejoong tugged on her arm, urging her to continue. “Just let me die right here!” She has already started crying like all hope was lost. Jaejoong tightened his grip on her, leaving painful red marks on her roasted flesh. Their desperation matched with the wasteland they left. ‘Just move on.’ Their senses hadn’t registered the forest growing around them, but they knew something was different.

Jaejoong finally wrenched Yuri from the ground where she cradled her leg. The only thing set in their mind was to keep running. They didn’t care what they ran by, or if they ran into it. Their only desire was to escape the prison for good. All thoughts about the civilians that had died, if Junsu was following them, what had happened to Yunho, they were all pushed out of their mind. All emotions locked away in one rushing drill of adrenaline. How their fates were to go was a mystery. Until their legs collapsed and the tendons ripped, they would run until the end of their ability, until the end of their life.

A gasping gust of wind pushed them forward. Along the river they were trudging through, the air was extremely cold. “Jaejoongie, I can’t go on. I am too tired.” Her husband stopped on his trek and turned back to see his wife lying in the cool water. Her face was content and the warmth left her burns and the water refreshed her scorched throat. “I have never seen so much water in my life. Joongie, do you think we already died?” Her back floated in the raging aqua.

Deep breaths were taken in as Jaejoong collapsed on the side of the river. “Maybe we did die from radiation. I don’t know, but I feel like .” Yuri turned her head to stare at her strained husband—Jaejoong was on his hands and knees trying not puke from all their running. It didn’t help that he had been sick just the day before, nor was his abrupt surgery a plus. His migraine seemed to intensify by the second and he could barely breathe because there were still some remnants of the ghost chili in his eyes and throat.

Worry overwhelmed Yuri, and she tried to wade over to him. Her muscles were too sore to go anywhere, and she finally gave up with her struggle. She couldn’t think clearly enough to even use her medical skills on him. “Jaejoongie, I don’t know how I can help.”

He laughed while he tried not to vomit. “Yuri, we are going to die anyway, so why should we try and stall it?” He rolled over onto his back and stared at the sky. He wasn’t used to the sun beating on his shoulders and sweat rolling down his neck. He was uncomfortable. The intense heat was alien to him, something he was sure to never get used to. “Junsu you Pabo!” He yelled out his anger and hoped that somehow their governor would hear.

Yuri joined in with his yell, screaming to the acclaimed heavens of their weary cries. Lashing out for all their pain. Their leader did not save them. One last hope to be dead, finally at peace. Agony to leave them, recede and vanish. All they could do was scream out their misery, anticipating the new life that would come to them. When they opened their eyes would there be a perfect world to welcome them?

“Changmin ah, I found some survivors!” Rustling of the jungle around them revealed a troop of several different men. They emerged from the wild with accustom that made Jaejoong jealous. A man with high cheekbones crouched by Jaejoong and poked him.

“Ryeowook, that man is obviously alive! You and Henry carry the man back. Fishy, wade into the water with me and help me pull out this woman!” The scramble of the men over the area intensified and Jaejoong was scooped up as he broke into a flurry of coughs. Ryeowook cringed but continued with his demanding lug with Henry.

“Yesung hyung, their bags are really heavy!” Donghae had Yuri’s pack over his shoulders and he was laboring to hold onto Yuri’s legs.

“Aish, you weak kids.” He maneuvered Yuri’s legs away from Donghae and cradled her in his arms. He was probably the first person to hold her like a princess and still be able to walk. Jaejoong never had enough energy to go anywhere like a romantic husband. “Let’s go, the area around the domes are always heavily polluted.” Donghae swept his legs against the current to get Jaejoong’s bag while Yesung, with great effort, pushed through the water and reached the water dead beat.

“I can walk, just help my husband.” Yuri stared into Yesung’s eyes, a blush hiding under the soot covering her face. Yesung contemplated on carrying her versus letting her walk when his knees popped from the added weight on them. He set her down on the soft bank and let her limp to Jaejoong. Her bare feet left light imprints in the soil around the river. “Jaejoongie, an angel has sent for us.”

Donghae some up behind the two carrying Jaejoong, the carried, and his wife after passing Yuri’s heavy pack to Yesung. “You know Leeteuk?” Yuri’s face expressed her obvious confusion with slightly scared eyes and a small frown. “The best doctor in the unclaimed world. He is often called the special angel because of how well he saves people’s lives. If we can get your husband to Leeteuk he is sure to survive.” Her eyes brightened ever so slightly. “He is hard to find though, but we have a great medical team as a whole, so don’t worry.” The disappointment washed over her face, and she turned her attention back to her sickly husband.

“Yuri ah, if this is heaven, then how are the other’s suffering in hell?”

******************

The first thing he heard was the beeping of his heart monitor. ‘It’s beating for you, Yuri.’ A slow swirling filled his ears when the swish of pills entered the room. The creaks of a faulty and ancient sofa along with the shuffle of a blanket filled the dying silence. He remembered how he hears similar sounds not a day before, but these were more soothing and he knew he was alive. ‘Listen to my heartbeat.’ He wanted to laugh with the faint energy that had been stored inside him, but the tube down his throat prevented anything other than a choke to come out.

“Jaejoongie!” Yuri shrieked and leapt from the couch to Jaejoong’s side. “Don’t try and talk, you had a surgery to remove the infected tissue in your stomach. Years of medical knowledge and we still can’t cure these new waves of food poisoning. Pathogens, all of those bacteria. Clostridium perfringens, those nasty things. What else could you have had?” Jaejoong’s eyes pleaded for his wife to stop with her rant, something she was dying to do now that she wasn’t under watchful eyes. “Sorry, but you were deadly ill. Not to mention heavily drugged up from your mysterious surgery that I didn’t know about.” Jaejoong plead innocent and Yuri could only believe him.

“I don’t know much, Joongie. I did watch their surgery on you. That angel wasn’t found, but their team was magnificent! I have never seen such –well I have now.” She let out a small laugh like she was amazed. “I haven’t spoken to anyone else, not in these last few hours. It’s just been, ‘there was a bomb, of what? How long has he been sick?’ Other medical history asked, ‘I am so and so, we report to Changmin.’ Who the bloody hell is Changmin and why are we always close to these political leaders?” Yuri almost yelled, sending Jaejoong’s hand to hers, and he held her tightly, urging her to calm down. Yuri stared into his eyes again and felt it was a better sight than the wall she had momentarily focused on. Her empty hand swept to Jaejoong’s throat and removed the breathing tube she knew he didn’t really need. He was a tough man, he could handle it.

He made a slight gag before propping himself upright and curling over, his abdomen in a sharp pain. “First my head and now my stomach? Am I a doll people like to cut into?” He sighed and turned his attention back to his wife. A raspy question escaped him. “Nobody is here to question us? You don’t question them?” Jaejoong was in a wonder, why did he not feel crazy when all the teachings he had learned from birth were wrong? It was far better outside the dome than inside. There was a magnitude of colors. Not only did he feel blessed with more intelligence since his mandatory head surgery, he also felt more understanding, which he also blamed on his brain. So how was Yuri taking it all?

“Honestly, I don’t care. I always wished for this. I hope these people are stragglers that survived their exiles. Cancers cured, people finding real love, diseases being erased because people needed it. Maybe even some old folks thrown in for diversity. This is the world I imagined but never hoped enough to see for real. Truthfully, I think I am dreaming.” Her fantasy realm was practically real.

The door flew open and revealed Yesung. He kept the door ajar as he stood to the side facing the bed. Yuri kept her back to the man and only looked at Jaejoong. “Changmin will be arriving shortly.” Jaejoong stared at one of his saviors.

“Is this Changmin the leader of your people?” Yesung shook his head, almost losing face and uttering a chuckle. His work hours had technically ended after he brought Yuri and Jaejoong to their hospital camp, but work for the great was never rewarded with much rest time. He had to keep his stoic and serious self on while his superiors were around.

“Changmin is the leader of the scavenger group. We find stragglers from the domes. We know of the exiles that take place because the colony originates from the sheltered world. Our real leader is the famous Bling Bling.” Another man entered the room, someone much taller than Yesung. He didn’t look anywhere in particular and didn’t bother to look at someone his team had saved.

“Filling them in on the way things run here? Nice to meet you two, I am Changmin. As Yesung said, we all came from the domes at some time. Whether our parents were born there or we were kicked out ourselves, we have a history in your Utopia.” Jaejoong was transfixed by Changmin’s eyes. The gray pigments attracted Jaejoong and distracted him from the things he had already assumed.

“Are you blind?” Jaejoong tilted his head so he could get a better look at Changmin’s eyes, but he still saw the same eyes. Yuri shot her head around suddenly interested in Changmin. Her face confirmed it, he was blind.

“Yes, and that was why I was kicked out of the sector I was born in. Luckily I was found and nursed to health. I have made it my duty to save all those that suffer my fate, like you.” Yuri stood up and walked closer to Changmin. The blind man turned his head so his eyes stared blankly in her direction as if he could see. She touched his face and stared deeply into the ocean of light. The only blind she had ever seen were the few babies after they were born before they were sent out of the sector. The possibility that they had lived never occurred to her.

“Spend this time resting and learning about the world around you now. You will both be surprised about everything you thought you knew.” Changmin removed Yuri’s hand from his face and exited the room. “Yesung, let’s go.” The door closed and Yuri and Jaejoong were left to ponder the truth. Finally, Jaejoong spoke up, still hoarse in the throat.

“Isn’t it sad? This place is filled with so many wondrous things like colors I have never seen before, but he will never get the chance to see them. I think it is a little sad.” Yuri nodded and took a step towards the window. The purples and oranges of the flowers were blinding, and nothing smelled like trash. Everything was beautiful, especially the sky, drowning in sunshine. Ruffles of green mixed with plants and she loved to see the layers of buildings grow in the distance. Each shape was different and overwhelming, nothing was the same. Art filled her mind and clustered over her senses. It was like looking into a dream and she feared that someone was going to snap her out of her illusions.

“These are the things we missed out on, Jaejoong. We have been cheated.” Her hand smacked the glass wall and it rumbled. Stragglers from the outside looked up to see the furious woman. They had been deprived of the very thing that would have kept them going.

********************

The blind man visited them several more times. He had no trouble maneuvering through the hospital and around the room. Jaejoong wondered if there was something aiding him through his walks. He was no stranger to technology, even if he worked with dinosaur circuit boards. If there was something these people had developed to help even the blind see he wouldn’t have really been surprised. He was learning a magnitude of things from him. Changmin promised that they hadn’t even scratched the surface of the things he could learn.

A few weeks after their arrival, a place seemed to be shaping for them. Yuri wanted to relearn her medical knowledge so she could actually help people instead of pray their death be as painless as possible. Jaejoong on the other hand just wanted to be immersed in the novelties around him. Changmin had visited again and had decided to take a walk with Jaejoong, or rather, push Jaejoong around in a wheelchair while explaining the surrounding around him.

“That is one of the more famous areas for delicious meals. These people migrated from the 200-400 districts. That area is well known for their food, I guess because they lived closer to Key.” Jaejoong wanted to know more on how Changmin could tell what was what. Had he memorized the layout? Did he just know where things were by a gut feeling? Was it the smell of abundant rations, the food that could feed their entire district for weeks? All the spices used wafting around the sidewalk Changmin chose to travel on? Or was he just hungry?

“Key’s sector was filled with so many things I sometimes wonder if this is actually his. The leader here is Bling Bling? Who is that?” Jaejoong looked back at the tall figure behind him. Changmin rested a hand on Jaejoong’s shoulder and pointed up. Into the far distance where his finger directed was a tall building.

“You see that building?” Jaejoong answered yes and felt it was strange that a blind man was pointing things out. “That is where Jonghyun lives when he visits.” As if he predicted the puzzlement is Jaejoong’s body language he laughed. “There are several colonies here Jaejoong sshi. Our leader can’t stay in one all the time! Jonghyun is the name of the first person to be exiled and survive. He lived alone at first, but he gathered other exiles and built communities. We of course call him Bling Bling because when he was first seen he was held in the riches of this world like cloth from animals and food from edible plants. He was shining to them, guests to the sun.”

“How old is this man? He must be at least a million years!” Changmin laughed again.

“Yah, are you a fool? Of course he is dead!”

“But you said when he lives here –”

“Well, he visits all the colonies during the year. That building us where he stays when he is here. His spirit gets reincarnated and we find him and make him our leader. Sort of like…”

“Like the Dali Lama?” It was Changmin’s turn to be perplexed. Jaejoong didn’t even know how the history lesson had planted itself in his head. He was sure he hadn’t read anything like that in the Jung Library. Was this what Yunho was trying to do to him? Force information about history and science into him so he would know everything? The Library was surely gone, but all that knowledge was kept in Jaejoong. Was that what Yunho had wanted?

“I suppose.” Changmin turned his head again toward a large rushing amount of water. He wheeled Jaejoong closer and took out a metal circle from his pocket. “Here Jaejoong, throw it into the fountain.”

Jaejoong stared at the flow, mesmerized. The river before, the Han River as he was told, it had been a great surprise to him. Water was precious, scarce, something he rarely had. This fountain thing was pouring out fresh water. He was angered and bit his lip. These people had water to waste and the sectors were dying from dehydration. “How can this be?”

Changmin mumbled to himself. “Some are amazed, some are grateful. Others find it wasteful, they hate it. Many look down on us for being able to show off our amazing resources.” He sighed, there had been too many before Jaejoong who had been shocked by their water supply. “We have enough water to do this. This clear liquid isn’t hard to find, it is everywhere.”

“Then why don’t you give it to the domes? Why don’t you save those people?” Changmin tried to calm him, tried to talk sense into him. There was no way to please everyone. It was too much of a risk. They shouldn’t even be alive.

“That’s not how it goes Jaejoong. It’s like a one way road. Once you are out you can’t go back in. As far as I know, we can’t do anything to help those inside.” Jaejoong couldn’t hold back his thoughts of the burning bodies lying around. The children lost in the center of the dome. Mother and Fathers huddling together. The rich burned in their worst times. He was sure if they returned that their imprints would be photographed onto the wall from the sudden explosion of light. ‘It’s like Little Boy on Hiroshima all over again.’

Jaejoong scratched his head wondering how often this knowledge would burst out. “This money, I can just get rid of it? You don’t need it?” Changmin shook his head. ‘Their people have enough to spare.’ Jaejoong used all his strength and the coin into the fountain.

Instead of listening to the plop from the coin, Changmin turned his head, his left ear straining to pick up sounds. “Is that G-Dragon I hear?”

“G who?” Jaejoong had no clue what a g-dragon was. He tried to pick up the sound Changmin was hearing, but all he heard were crashes and pops coming from the air. At first he though it was another transmission from Junsu, but he realized it wasn’t in his head, it was surrounding him. “What is this noise?” Changmin smiled and pushed Jaejoong closer to the racket. Jaejoong grimaced as it grew louder.

“I am blind so they don’t let me into the jungle, Jaejoong. I spend my time here with the people that are found. My favorite thing to do is introduce them to music. I can’t believe that you have never heard this before. How can anyone live without music?” Changmin stopped at a corner and waited, letting the sound come to him. Jaejoong heard the clashing noise, the confusion mixing around and he didn’t know what he was hearing. He tried to find it, the steady heartbeat like tune. Something to draw him in.

Changmin started humming beside him and Jaejoong felt the need to do the same. The melody was finally found. A miraculous discovery was made. All the trills and beeps. The clamor of instrument and vocals made he notice something. The pattern of the notes made a unified song, and this G-Dragon was creating a sound Jaejoong wanted to listen to for the rest of his life. Albeit his love for the colors and world painted around him was strong and filled with fascination, this thing, this music won him over.

A man, short brown hair, a smiling eyes, and a large mouth, walked around the corner singing like no one had heard him before. His words were the cry Jaejoong could never express. The beats of the instruments he played was the tune of Jaejoong’s life that he could never find. “G-Dragon often goes around the area just filling us with his songs. The newest visitors love him the most. People love to praise our musicians the most.”

“You called this music did you? I need to find more of this.”

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Someone commented so I decided to write the chapter :) Let's see, who was added. Leetuek, Yesung, Donghae, Ryeowook, and Henry of Super Junior. Jonghyun of SHINee, G-Dragon of BIGBANG, he is also known as Jiyong. AND CHANGMIN! I write these chapters as if I am looking at a map. I am here and I need to get here, how will I get there? Here is at the river and there is Jaejoong listening to music for the first time. Think about it, wouldn't it just be the most beautiful sound for all that abstract noise to come together? I would go crazy!

comments are seriously beyond belief my motivation~♥