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sorryimananti-romantic · 18 hours ago

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Paradigm

hero!yunho x villain!reader (ft. woosan as sidekicks)

not exactly hero and villain in the strict sense but archnemesis stuff going on def

for the action figures collab by @sungbeam <3

word count: 24.5k (oops i did it again)

genres and warnings: bit of fluff, lots of crack, lots of angst, yunho is weird in this one folks like borderline ✨obsessive✨ but not in a bad way, best friends turned enemies turned lovers. dimensions, time travel and all that jazz, blood and violence, mentions of smoking, lmk if i missed sth.

synopsis: when mrs. jung goes missing, presumably inside the paradigm, you devote your life to trying to find a way to access the paradigm with wooyoung. yunho sides with the opposition and you become sworn enemies until circumstances- and his twisted affection for you- forces you both to join hands as you learn the truth about the paradigm key.

a/n: thank you to @eightmakesonebraincell for always supporting me and my crack hehe and thank you beam for sharing my misery and making this happen!

The world moves in quiet rhythms, hidden patterns that are etched deep into the bones of existence itself. The tide that sways to the pull of the moonlight, the rotation of earth to bring about day and night, the shifting of seasons– for the leaves must fall before the flowers can bloom. Every movement creates a pattern– the track of an ant’s feet, the web of a spider, the gait of a human, the flutter of wings. We walk and grow, create and destroy, live and die, all by the unseen hand of The Paradigm that guides us.

The Paradigm is a silent law. Perhaps, it is a pattern. Some think of it as a lens, a mere perspective to life. People give it names like chaos and order. Those who dare to defy it become a whisper of glitch in this infinite universe, lost to the judgement of The Paradigm.

The Paradigm is a cruel being that does not spare the curious. It punishes relentlessly, endlessly. It holds the seekers and the travellers accountable but does not deliver justice. The Paradigm is not just.

Which is why you have beef with The Paradigm.

“I’m just saying,” Wooyoung taps anxiously on the surface of the table where you are currently bunched up into a cocoon, studying the pattern of seashells and waiting to make a breakthrough. “Maybe you should stop fighting what’s meant to be.”

“What’s meant to be is absolute silence from you, my subordinate. The law and order of this world demands it.”

“As if,” Wooyoung says with a rather loud snort, twirling his chair twice and producing a faint whistle for the dramatics. You hate that it cannot be just one twirl like his previous two occurrences. “My mother told me to always speak my mind. You don’t get another chance if you keep silent.”

“She didn’t give birth to a yapper. She gave birth to a traveller, and you do anything but,” you tsk in disappointment, a dull ache in your heart at the memory of your teacher. Without her, you feel lost. Absolutely lost, as if you have sailed into the sea without a compass and a destination.

“You should be finding the key to The Paradigm. Instead, you choose to babysit me,” you continue, signing the last notes and checking the time. Dawn will be cracking in a few which is your sign to leave the base and go home.

Wooyoung proceeds to twirl in his chair thrice. Is it a force of habit, you wonder, or is it ingrained in the child of The Paradigm to give in to the divine orders of this universe?

“If your next twirling pattern is five times, you will be strapped to the stretcher as my next test subject, Wooyoung. I’m not joking.”

“What– did I do it again?” Wooyoung groans dramatically and gets out of his chair before he can risk his life. Surprisingly, subconsciously being so orderly irked him just about as much as it irked you. “You know I don’t do it on purpose.”

He follows you to the lift and you wait for him to get inside before pressing for the 13th level of your apartment complex. You send a glare through the reflective door of the lift and he runs his hands through his hair. Once.

“Except that one or two times I did it on purpose to get your attention,” he admits with a grin and you raise your brows in challenge. He runs his hands through his hair again, once. “But that was because you were holed up in your base for a solid 3 days and I was so bored.”

“I’m not your only friend in this world,” you remind him.

“But I am your only friend in this world, sweet cheeks,” he says and fluffs his hair thrice.

“Attention!” You call and he straightens, confused. When he realises that he followed the Fibonacci again, he begrudgingly tucks his hands in the pockets of his denims.

The Fibonacci sequence is a series of numbers where each number is the sum of the previous two numbers, starting from 0 and 1. For as long as you can remember, Wooyoung always gives in to this sequence in his daily habits.

“Any news of our dear friend?” You ask when you step out of the lift into the comfort of your home. The smell of food fills your nostrils. Even though the food must have gone cold by now, it still smells good enough for you both to steer towards the kitchen and take a few bites before going to sleep.

“My dear handsome friend Yunho was spotted visiting all the lakes in the district. Now I don’t believe he did it just because he can, but because he, too, is looking for the key for some reason.”

The spoonful of soup pauses abruptly before it reaches your mouth and you meet eyes with your partner-in-crime. Not because he called your worst enemy his dear handsome friend in the most natural, unsarcastic manner but because you might finally have a lead.

“Now, tell me, why would the Keeper of The Paradigm need the key? All he needs to do is make sure the door to the nth dimension remains closed so no one can get to the core and try to access The Paradigm.”

“Maybe he lost something in there,” Wooyoung shrugs mischievously. “Or maybe he wants to go look for someone too, like you. Or…”

“The possibilities are endless,” you stare at the soup, hands on your hips as you hum. “Maybe someone else like me has finally entered the nth dimension without a permit. Wouldn’t be the first time, but the Keeper does not need to take care of it when they’ve got a whole police force to take care of illegal entries. Which makes me think…”

“That whatever is happening is taking place now?” Wooyoung concludes, taking eight consecutive spoons in his mouth. You nod.

“Get your next thirteen spoons in. It’s going to be a long night, Wooyoung. We’re raiding the Keeper’s base.”

It is usually the villains who live underground, drawn towards darkness and cold– anything remotely similar to the way they feel inside their bodies. They learn the tricks and tells of the shadows and become one with them, forcing everyone and everything else out. They step out in the light only when the need arises and sometimes, they bend the light to their will.

However, Wonderland has always been a strange town. Here, the heroes dwell in tunnels and caves, hardly ever seen in broad daylight, rarely ever spotted by the common man. Here, the heroes are called The Keepers. They are a group of people who guard the doors to the nth dimension and its core, The Paradigm, with their life. They maintain the law and order in this world along with The Forces, thus they are the heroes.

Anyone who dares to challenge them becomes a villain. Like you.

You, who lives in the poshest part of the town in a tall apartment complex. The common man looks up to you, and you wish that they looked up to you in a positive sense too, not just because you are literally situated higher than them on a physical scale. You walk around in public with your friend by your side and everyone recognises you.

You aren’t affected by the fact that you are recognisable. You have made the face of the news and papers a few too many times. People give you names– outcast, pariah, pandora. The Seeker remains your favourite not because it reeks of accuracy but because those who call you by the name mean it.

You are a seeker in every sense. Ever since you cut ties with The Forces, you have been seeking not for the truth, but one lie. One mistake.

One slip from the law and order of this world itself. Just one glitch in the matrix that you can seize in your own two human hands and prove that the law is bendable. That the nth dimension and its core, The Paradigm, are not rigid but allow for anomalies to exist.

You know that anomalies exist. One walks right beside you, child of The Paradigm. His mother is called The Traveller because she explored The Paradigm endlessly. She studied it just to satiate her thirst for knowledge. During her journey in the endless folds of time and space itself, but not alone, this child was conceived. She gave birth to a child who was very much human…

Except that he is driven by everything that reminds him of The Paradigm. As if he is meant to live, or even rule the endless dimension itself. He is not god, no. However, he understands The Paradigm better than you or any other traveller by instinct alone. It is as if he is a part of that endless, supposedly infinite being itself.

Yet all that instinct and sight never helps when he tries to look for his lost mother.

The key, you shake your head at the thought. You needed to find the key to The Paradigm.

The Keeper would be the only person who would know where the key is. The existence of the key is usually a top secret known only to a select few in The Forces.

The Keeper is your worst enemy because your existence itself is what forces him out of the shadows to do his job endlessly, never slacking in case you sneak past him and find your way into the nth dimension and eventually, The Paradigm. That would disrupt the law and order of this world.

The Travellers are legal explorers. The Seeker– you– are not.

“Do we have to do this in the middle of the night?” Wooyoung asks as he waits for you to pick your choice of vehicle for the night. You pick the flashiest car in your garage because the occasion demands it.

If you are going to raid The Keeper’s base, you are not going to do it like a burglar.

“This is exactly the time. Catch him by surprise,” you smile devilishly at the thought of a half-asleep Jeong Yunho scrambling to collect himself. Or maybe he’s up, panicking because of some unforeseen happening inside the nth dimension, or worse, The Paradigm. Something that made him visit all the water bodies in the area where the door to the nth dimension circulates, changing locations endlessly.

“I’ll distract him. You follow your instincts and find the key.”

“As if he would keep it in his lair,” Wooyoung mutters, driving speedily towards the bridge that leads you away from the heart of the town and towards the more natural part of the city. This city is surrounded by lakes and rivers, a perfect spot for the door to materialise.

The door is very much alive and for a few years now, it has chosen Wonderland as its base. The door switches locations, moving from one water body to another but remaining within Wonderland’s radius as if bound by something. Probably the key, you wonder.

“I think if the key is a physical thing,” Wooyoung continues to say, “San would be sent to hide it while Yunho takes care of whatever problem has arisen.”

“You think he can trust San with the key?” You ask and Wooyoung looks at you with curiosity.

“You would trust me with the key. I’m supposing Yunho does the same.”

“Since you and San have always been so chummy, maybe you can go find him then while I distract Yunho,” you say, thinking about how this night could go from here. “Maybe you can send him a cute text, see if he responds.”

“You’re still bitter about the time I went out to play with them?” Wooyoung laughs rather loudly, annoying you to no end. “Look. Everyone loves me. I’m not the villain here. I’m just the villain’s sidekick, and that’s not a bad thing. It just gives me more perks and more character.”

“Shut up and look at that. Their base is fully active in the middle of the night. Something is up.”

You use a couple of scanners and detectors to find out the number of people inside The Keeper’s home which primarily serves as a base in case of emergencies. Situated right outside the heart of Wonderland and quite close to the largest water body in this town, this place is an ideal spot in more ways than you can think of. You detect about seven people and the two of you get out, exchanging instructions and separating to get tonight’s work done.

You pause before one of the mirrored walls in the corridor that lead deeper into the lair to check if everything is in place– your hair, perfectly styled and sitting on your shoulders, clothes smooth and neatly tucked in the right places, black heels spotless, your signature ruby lipstick–

“People usually check if their weapons are in place before they arrive at their enemy’s base, don’t they?” An awfully familiar voice rings in the corridor and you pause in the middle of fixing your lip liner. “Why would you get all dolled up to come here?”

“Don’t let it get to your head,” you meet Yunho’s eyes in the mirror and he allows you to put your lip liner back in your bag. You produce a weapon before you close your bag– a gun meant to freeze the person’s limbs momentarily. “I have to make sure that I’m in top condition when I make you kneel in front of the people of Wonderland.”

Yunho looks sleep-deprived, if the bags under his eyes are any indication of the recent unusual activity regarding the doors to the nth dimension. Perhaps, you can use that to your advantage, but you’re quick to make note of how he shifts his weight to his dominant leg and how his hand begins to snake behind his back, under his black jacket.

“Why are you here now?”

“I thought you would know?” You tuck your hair back before pointing the gun at his hand that surely must hold some sort of a weapon now. “You’ve been frequenting all the water bodies in Wonderland. Tell me why.”

“No sign of Mrs. Jung, if that’s what you’re wondering,” he says softly and you almost fall for it. “There’s just been something I’ve been wanting to check. Drop your weapon, Seeker.”

“Not a chance,” you mutter and fire.

It happens in a span of seconds. He dodges and throws a dagger in your direction, which you expected. You shift your weight towards the left but the next dagger comes out of nowhere and you barely have time to duck. The impact of the dagger ends up shattering the mirror behind you and you look at the Keeper in horror.

“I’m thoroughly offended,” you admit, taking out your real gun this time. “I was only going to hold you for questioning, not kill you, you fucker.”

“And I’m only getting rid of the bane of my existence once and for all so I can focus on my work without distractions. Though… getting rid means I immobilize you and maybe hand you over to The Forces. Prison time ought to fix that pretty head of yours.”

“You think I’m pretty?” You grin before aiming at his head and firing.

You catch Yunho’s smile before he ducks behind a wall and disappears. You go after him but you are welcomed by an onslaught of his minions. You can handle them– you’ve trained for this, but it’s hard to keep one eye fixed on Yunho to see where he is disappearing off to and simultaneously shoot his minions such that no one gets fatally injured.

Because that is not how Mrs. Jung trained you. The cost of a life is too big a price to pay, she said.

You really wish she had never said that, because it is becoming increasingly difficult to not kill someone here. You curse loudly and kick the man who clings to your legs before dashing off to the room where Yunho must be–

Except that he is not there. Where did he go–

You feel the hair on the back of your neck rise before you feel the warmth of his body behind you. He whispers a ‘got you’ and grabs you by your waist, lifting you up as he walks to the nearest chair. You can not let him tie you so you scream and flail in an attempt to distract him. Just as he is about to set you down, you use the shift of his body’s weight to effectively flip him. He grunts in surprise but the flip isn’t successful and you both end up grappling for the gun in your hand.

You bite his wrist and keep at it. He yelps and struggles to free his hand but you are on top of him and there isn’t much he can do.

“What are you, a cat? Let go.”

You meet his eyes and let go and he rubs at the bloody dent on his wrist, shaking his head. You point the gun at his head and he gives you a deadpan stare, as if daring you to shoot him.

“I think we can talk like two civilised human beings now,” you say and he gives up, resting his head on the floor with his arms on his side. He raises his bleeding wrist.

“There was nothing civilised about this, but okay. We can make a fresh start.”

“Perfect,” you grin. “Now talk.”

“What would the Seeker like to know?”

“Why have you been frequenting water bodies so much these days?” you ask. “I just need an answer. Is the door changing its pattern of shifting locations, or is there unexpected activity going on in the nth dimension or The Paradigm?”

“Since your only concern is finding Mrs. Jung, which I can assure you that the other travellers and the soldiers from The Forces are still investigating, what’s happening now is none of your business.”

“Oh, but it is, you see?” You cock your head and match the smug grin on his face. “Finding Mrs. Jung is not the only reason I’m obsessed with studying the nth dimension. Now…” you open the cylinder of your revolver with deliberate intention and show him the two bullets. Then you spin the cylinder and it shuts with a metallic whir.

“We can do this the easy way, but you don’t like that, huh?”

Yunho keeps his eyes locked with yours. Slowly, he raises his hands and rests them on your bare knees. You try not to shift at his unwarranted touch but he must notice the tic in your jaw.

“I know you have studied The Paradigm all your life, but it is a dangerous territory that you explore, sweetheart. I have offered you to work with me time and time again– legally. We want to find Mrs. Jung as much as you do. We don’t like lost travellers. So, tell me, why are you so obsessed with risking your life and entering The Paradigm?”

“That’s not something you should worry about,” you tell him in an almost chastising manner. A signal on your watch catches your eye and you contain a sigh. “Perhaps… I should shift my focus on why you go above and beyond to safeguard the door.”

His gaze darkens and you smile in victory. You press the gun against his shoulder and pull the trigger.

Empty.

“The odds might not be in your favour the next time I shoot, so tell me. Where is the key?”

Yunho chuckles lightly at first and then it turns into a deep laughter. You don’t like how he clutches on to your knees as he catches his breath.

“You don’t know where the key is?”

Your eyebrows scrunch in a frown and Yunho makes the most of your moment of confusion. Gripping your knees, he props himself up and headbutts you. Hard.

You cry out in pain and soon, he has your gun in his hand and you’re flat on the floor with him on top of you.

Oh, how the tables turn.

A dangerous cock of his head as he contemplates shooting you, the cold press of the gun against your forehead almost haunting. You have no doubt that he will not shoot you, yet the dark, empty look in his gaze makes your heart beat with dread.

He has you pinned under him, helpless.

“Go ahead,” you say softly. “If you’re going to shoot and kill me, just tell me where the key is first. I don’t want to die confused.”

“What makes you think I’d grant you that gift, sweetheart?” Yunho asks, his eyes taking note of every inch of your face as if memorising it before he mars it.

“Because you’re the good guy,” you laugh sarcastically as you remind him. “And no matter how much you want to kill me, you never will. Not because you cannot, but because your conscience doesn’t allow you to.”

“I should kill my conscience then, huh?” Yunho says and pulls the gun away, only to aim it at his own temple. Your smile falls and when you realise that he is actually going to pull the trigger, your eyes widen and you instinctively push his hand away.

The trigger gets pulled and the bullet makes a loud impact with the roof. You gasp and snatch the gun away from The Keeper.

“Are you insane?” You ask. “Why would you do that?”

“You don’t believe I was actually going to shoot myself, huh?” Yunho asks, unfazed. He snatches the gun and throws it away and then picks you up by the collar of your jacket. You grunt in discomfort but soon, he is fixing your hair and straightening your clothes.

“It’s just nice to learn that you don’t actually want to kill me,” he says with the most innocent smile plastered on his face. You are still in disbelief and you shake your head.

“The Forces are due for a meeting in about… 10 minutes from now,” he says after checking his wristwatch. “Go home, Seeker. It’s not the time to be fighting. If they spot you here, they’ll cuff you for eternity.”

“Isn’t that what you want?” You ask, hating how weak you sound.

“Not really,” he shrugs. “There won’t be anything fun about my job if there’s no rogue soul trying to sneak past me.”

You make an impressed face. “Don’t tell me you’re going soft on me.”

“Never,” he dismisses you with a wave. “I just have a bad headache and I’m functioning on no sleep, thanks to a certain someone,” he looks at you pointedly and you tuck your hands in the pockets of your jacket. “There is strange happenings taking place in the nth dimension and we do not think it is related to Mrs. Jung. Your system should be able to pick it up soon. I’m only doing my job and making sure you do not make a stupid mistake and get lost like Mrs. Jung, so go home. Keep doing what you have to– just stay away from the door.”

“That’s… new. You were never the type to spill. Are you sick or something?” You narrow your eyes and he returns your suspicious gaze with an eye roll. “Am I finally getting rid of The Keeper without doing anything?”

“We’re not enemies, y/n. Even if our roles demand conflict, we’re looking for the same thing,” he admits in a low voice, almost a whisper, as if he is afraid that the walls will hear him. “Let’s not become allies. However… if we ever do find ourselves on the same path, I wouldn’t mind sharing it with you.”

You pretend to throw up at the sudden display of camaraderie, even though something warm fills your stomach. He laughs and pats your back twice before harshly pushing you towards the door. You flip your finger at him but before you can leave, Wooyoung enters looking rather smug.

“Hey, y/n. I didn’t find the key but I did knock San out and retrieved what looks like their latest findings–”

As soon as he spots a furious Yunho, he grabs your hand and you both make a run for it, The Keeper hot on your heels. Wooyoung’s laugh echoes in the corridors and he takes out a smoke bomb, unlocking it with his teeth and throwing it behind you without a care.

You turn your neck to see the look on Yunho’s face before leaving. He must be so angry, mad for giving you a chance–

But you see him shaking his head in amusement instead. It utterly confuses you and you remain thinking about why The Keeper has a sudden change of heart now.

True, you never had the typical hero and villain dynamics. That is just how the public likes to refer to you both. You both are pupils of Mr. Jung, childhood friends who studied and trained together. Your rivalry began when Mrs. Jung went missing and Yunho became The Keeper of the door to the nth dimension, siding with The Forces. It felt like a betrayal because Mrs. Jung used to warn you about The Forces and their morals.

You went rogue. You explored uncharted, illegal territories on your own. You barely escaped prison but you made it your life’s mission to find Mrs. Jung and to find the truth about what she went to explore the last time that she entered the nth dimension and never came back.

Void points that allowed time travelling into the future inside The Paradigm.

Yunho always asked you what was keeping you back from becoming an official traveller. You told him that the people in The Forces were all liars. They claimed that no void point couldn’t transport you to the future and that they were ‘working’ on means to time travel into the future.

Surely, you weren’t the only person Mrs. Jung told about the future void points inside The Paradigm, right? Yunho must know as well.

Did Yunho finally figure out your reason for being so insistent on studying the void points inside The Paradigm and exposing the truth? What reasons did he have for staying silent about it then?

The door is the portal to the nth dimension, which is the point in space where multiple dimensions of different times and locations in the present and the past exist. It looks like an empty white maze but there are two types of folds in the nth dimension– the common points and the void points.

The void points are raw gaps in the dimension that must be calibrated and configured through certain chemical elements until they stop changing forms and become a fixed point in its location and time. That is when it qualifies to be called a common point. Through a common point, you can access its configured location and time to travel to other common points and explore the dimension and its anomalies. They are kind of like portals in that sense.

Since common points are all void points originally, these voids are let out from the core of the nth dimension which is The Paradigm. The Paradigm is a living entity, some argue. You like to think that ‘living’ does not encompass the entirety of The Paradigm’s nature. It is a place where millions of thousands of dimensions of different times move without a beginning and an end. The Paradigm is called a living identity because it decides its key itself. It can be anything from a stone to a shell and it changes its key every few years.

The Forces call The Paradigm a void point in itself since it contains such raw energy and only a selected few qualify to explore that dimension. However… Mrs. Jung thought differently. She believed The Paradigm was much more than just a void point. She believed it could serve a greater purpose like foreseeing the future. You agreed with her.

And only one other person ever agreed with the two of you. The Keeper.

Mrs. Jung became qualified enough to be able to access The Paradigm but because of her radical views, she was never given a permit. As she started studying the core by herself through old research and occasionally sneaking in the nth dimension, she realised that she was not the first person to think about this phenomenon.

That meant that the Forces and the higher ups were deliberately hiding the existence of the future time travel possibility from the travellers. If the void points outside The Paradigm but inside the nth dimension could be configured to a future time and location and the higher-ups had deemed that ‘dangerous’, that meant they had something to hide.

It was bad for many reasons– travellers sometimes got lost in the commons. Almost all the common points were determined and stored in the databases so it was easy enough to extract a traveller from any of those common points. Sure, new common points were created every day and there were some territories in the nth dimension that remained unexplored, but to intentionally conceal the whole nature of the void points?

It reeks of something amiss. It is dangerous in too many ways.

When Mrs. Jung got lost, you and Yunho had just graduated. Since you were the bestest of friends, Mrs. Jung had hoped that you would one day become partners. That you would both become travellers and explore the truth about the void points one day.

Except you cut off all ties from The Forces when they refused to look for Mrs. Jung.

And Yunho kept all his ties to become the Keeper. The guardian to the door to the nth dimension and The Paradigm.

Your first obstacle.

However, he isn’t your only obstacle. You aren’t sure if Yunho is the one who reported you to The Forces, but someone has been on your ass since the morning and you are tired of chasing them.

“Can’t even let a girl take her damned toilet break,” you mutter as you speed past a group of soldiers from The Forces, narrowly avoiding their taser guns, tranquiliser guns and whatnot. Do they wish to kill you? You are on a motorbike and tranquilising you would only ensure a painful death.

“Turn right– the closed intersection is wide enough for a bike to pass,” Wooyoung’s instructions ring in your earpiece. “200 metres now.”

You have to make the turn sooner than you can respond and tell him that the officers just so happen to be on bikes this time too. The cars are probably stationed ahead, ready to block your path. Wooyoung must know, though. He barely escaped from this endless chase and made his way straight to the base to guide you back home.

The Forces aren’t allowed to arrest you since you haven’t violated one of their laws yet, but they do not miss any opportunity to make your life miserable whenever they catch you outside. It is as if they want you to break the law and give them a reason to come barging into your house without the threats that you have made against them–

That if they ever step unwarranted within a 5 mile radius, you will expose the existence of the nature of the void points to the public. Specifically, their future time properties.

At first, it was a bluff you made when attempting to escape from one of your similar chases, but their surrender made the matter more serious. They did not wish for the public to learn that the void points could be configured to access the future. Why? You were still searching for that answer.

The tunnel ahead is dark but Wooyoung instructs you to keep your headlights off and follow his instructions. He guides you into one of the openings of the tunnels that is unlit, courtesy of Wooyoung’s hacking skills. You silently zoom inside that opening and after a few beats, you turn on the lights and head towards the exit.

“Anyone on my tail?”

“None of the official vehicles on the radar,” Wooyoung confirms. “Can’t speak for any unofficial ones.”

“I got my eyes for that… we are near the Aurora Lake, right?”

Wooyoung hums. “The door was last spotted here. Might still be here.”

“Hmm… I should head away then. The Forces might think I’m going towards the nth dimension if I head any further–”

A sharp sound of something zooming past you makes the grip on your bike shaky and you almost lose control. However, the next sound confirms that the target has hit home.

Your bike swerves dangerously, courtesy of a burst tyre. You curse loudly and Wooyoung’s panicked voice instructs you to head towards the forest opening that leads towards the lake– chances are that you could run and lose your tail. But this one…

It’s unofficial. Someone is deliberately out for you– someone who might not actually be a part of The Forces. You dare a glance behind and find a helmeted man, hot on your heels.

You have exactly 2 seconds to make a decision, and you decide to trust Wooyoung on this one just so you don’t have to hear his nagging when you get back home. If you make it back home.

Crashing your bike into the thick of the forest and jumping away from it before you lose a limb, you start to run on the rocky path. There is no clear trail and that means that this area is unmonitored. You’re not sure if Wooyoung made a wise decision, but you can’t place the blame on him since you have no other options.

You hear the bike stop and you speed up, already out of breath and tripping on every other rock. You were not dressed for this occasion. You were simply out to meet an old friend. You were in heeled boots, for fuck’s sake. You were wishing you had worn the trainers instead.

“But they don’t go as well with my skirt as the boots do,” you addressed Wooyoung while checking your outfit– one foot in the said boot and one in a trainer.

“The trainers make a nice contrast is what I’m saying,” Wooyoung spared you a glance while in the middle of fixing a meal for his friend who was coming over. Usually, he was the one going out but the roles were reversed today. “But you do you, boo. The all-black isn’t bad.”

“Hmm… It’s just because I’m in the mood for heels today. How cool will I look when I get off my bike in these heels?” You grinned, already picturing the stares you would get. Bikers really weren’t very common in this area, much less biker girls.

“Are you trying to impress Hongjoong?” Wooyoung raised a brow. You rolled your eyes.

“I just want to feel good, that’s all. If he gets impressed, that’s not on me,” you raised your hands and Wooyoung laughed. Familiar footsteps sounded and San greeted the two of you.

“Trainers or boots?” You asked.

“Boots.”

“I’m replacing you with Wooyoung. Yunho can have him,” you told him and ditched the trainers.

You wish San had said trainers. You could place the blame on him, you supposed. The meeting with Hongjoong had gone fine but you had eyes on you since you left your apartment complex. They finally got a reason to chase you when you flipped a finger at them to tell them that you knew.

Guess the blame was on you too, then.

You take out your revolver, cursing when you realise that you forgot to reload it since your last interaction with Yunho. You were not going to play russian roulette with this stranger. You dare a glance behind you, yelping as you realise that he is closer than you thought.

“Drop your weapons,” the man’s gravelly voice booms as he proceeds to load his own revolver. “I only mean to talk.”

I– singular. He is not with The Forces.

“What do you want!” It comes out more as a statement than a question and you pick a rock as you climb a rather large step, throwing it at the man with full force, which frankly isn’t much considering your awkward position. “I have nothing to offer you!”

“Fuck– You don’t know that!”

“Great. He’s angry now,” Wooyoung calls. “You’re near the lake. Do you want to keep going in this direction?”

“She could jump in the lake. I hope she knows how to swim,” you hear San’s faint voice in your earpiece and something clicks.

“Does Yunho know? If he doesn’t, tell him.”

“He–”

You don’t hear the rest of what Wooyoung is about to say because you get pulled by your leg and your face meets the sharp rock that you were just about to step on. You whimper in pain and kick violently. When the man clutches his eye, you’re glad that you wore the heels after all.

The trainer wouldn’t have hurt him like this.

You click your gun, aiming at the man’s leg but it is an empty shot. Before you can click again, the gun gets punched out of your hand and the man aims his gun at your head.

You freeze. You observe.

The man is not a familiar face. He has a rather deformed face as if he was tortured or had a dangerous injury that did not heal properly. His eyes are empty and dark which just make your heart beat right in your throat. His left eye is bleeding thanks to your kick.

The man wipes the blood off his eye and winces, smacking the butt of his gun harshly against your ankle and you clutch your leg in pain. He yells at you to not move but you can hardly focus– Wooyoung and San are sprouting instructions and inquiring about your situation, the pain in your ankle and on your face is making you dizzy, and then the man is muttering something about the void points and how he simply wants to talk.

“I’m going to bind your limbs so you don’t try something stupid again. I am not going to shoot you. Is that clear? Now stop struggling."

You want to cry. He takes out a gun that carries the emblem of The Forces– a triquetra knot with looped ends. You frown in confusion– is he… a deserter?

He attempts to grip your ankles with one hand so he can shoot the web out of his other gun and bind you when the sound of an actual gunshot makes you tremble with fear. For a few seconds, you think it is your ankle that he has mistakenly shot and the pain hasn’t registered yet, but then you hear a familiar voice.

“Y/n, run!”

The Keeper.

You kick one last time for good measure, smacking the man’s jaw in the process before you all but crawl up towards the top of the hill where Yunho is waiting, his gun aimed at the path behind you and shooting anywhere the man dares to step–

Until he, too, is out of bullets. Then he grabs you by the arm and you both run for your life.

“Are you stupid?” You ask while running. “You wasted your bullets!”

“At least I brought you time,” he mutters, sparing a glance and clicking his tongue in disappointment. You are not sure if the heat in your cheeks is from running or his displeasure triggered by whatever reason (the sight of you, it seems like.)

You both duck when you hear a gunshot and you speed up, ditching the clear path for a shortcut that surely leads towards the lake. You ask him if he’s gonna push you in the lake or something but he tells you to save your breath.

You realise why.

The door to the nth dimension stands at the edge of the Aurora Lake in all its mystical glory– carved out of ice in an intricate pattern that seems to resemble endless looping patterns and knots.

“Don’t tell me that we’re headed for the door,” you pull Yunho’s hand as he leads you into the thick of the forest– a path that will surely open right in front of the door. You spotted this path while running just a few seconds earlier.

“There is no other way… unless you want to risk drowning. He is a rogue, dangerous man. He will kill without hesitation.”

You harshly pull him as you pause in the middle of running, so close to the door that you can feel its pull. “Are you insane? If I step inside the nth dimension, I’ll have a target on my head.”

“You already do,” Yunho warns you with wide eyes, lips parted as he sucks in hungry breaths. “Come. There is no other way. There is no time.”

“The Forces will come for you–”

“They’re already coming for me. I left my post,” he informs you right as you spot the uniformed men.

You want to tell Yunho that he should at least let your hand go. It is not a good sight for the Forces to see– the Keeper with the Seeker, hand in hand. It wouldn’t matter to them if you both are risking your life to avoid being taken hostage by a deserter. They will simply fuck your lives up. You feel dread looming in the air–

And then you are out in the open, a short path to the door. You can make it past the uniformed men in time, but will the door open for you? It opens only to the keepers and the licensed travellers who possess the key to the nth dimension.

You are a couple of steps away from the door when all hell breaks loose.

The guards from the Forces realise that the Keeper is going to open the door. Though the Keeper has authority to open the door, there is still a certain procedure you must follow before opening the door to the nth dimension. You simply cannot walk inside.

The deserter realises the same thing and shoots his real gun in warning. Yunho instinctively ducks and grabs both of your hands. You lock eyes and share a silent nod, making a unanimous decision to risk getting lost in the nth dimension to save your lives.

Except some genius shoots at your joined hands. With a web gun.

Instead of your feet. Maybe they thought that the free would drag the tied if they shoot one of you. But what was shooting the hands meant to do except make sure you both enter the nth dimension–

Or did they think the Keeper would not take you inside? Or push you inside while staying back?

Yunho curses and brings your joined hands to the door.

He does not have to pull out the physical key because the door unlocks itself. Without him pushing the key in the lock.

You don’t have time to process anything before he jumps inside, dragging you along and you are welcomed with endless darkness as the door shuts behind you.

You both clutch on to each other and soon, you softly land on a flat surface, all tangled limbs. It takes you a few moments to gather yourself before you push yourself off Yunho, but your conjoined hands do not allow you much range of movement.

“Uh, can you sit? I’m going to get a shoulder cramp–”

“Wait, uh…” Yunho awkwardly fumbles his limbs and you both spend a few moments pushing and pulling until you realise that the only option is for you to sit between his legs so your upper limbs don’t hurt with the strain. Your ankle is already in so much pain so you give in and keep a respectable distance as you sit in front of each other with you crouched between his legs.

You look at him, all messy hair that falls on his forehead and flushed cheeks.

And then you both are laughing, looking away in disbelief.

“This was very stupid of you. You had no plan,” you say between laughs. “I’ve never seen you act so irrationally. You always plan and win.”

“I still won,” he shrugs half-heartedly. “I saved you. We’re safe here. No one else can find us here.”

“And we have no means to get out,” you sigh, looking at your conjoined hands. They feel numb. “Do you know where we are?”

Yunho looks around again. The surroundings are dimly lit without a source of light. The surface and the walls that seem to surround you are but an illusion, as everything else is in the nth dimension. Unless you both are at one of the common points, there is no way for anyone else to know your location.

Well. There is one. The Paradigm Key. But Yunho is not sure if San will ever reveal it to Wooyoung. They are your only hope.

“Not at a common point,” Yunho sighs. “We could try getting there, but if we alert the Forces, we both get arrested.”

“So we die here,” you conclude.

“You know we can’t die here,” Yunho smiles faintly. “We might get mad, yes, but never hungry, never thirsty. No sleep and no humane needs.”

“I wish they also factored in no pain,” you mutter.

Yunho dips his chin as he looks at your face intently, his eyes slowly scanning your face.

At first, you try to avoid his gaze but then you notice his frown getting deeper. You raise a brow.

“What happened, y/n? What went wrong this time?”

You don’t appreciate the sudden onset of questions.

“What’s it to you?”

Yunho looks down at the space between you both and notices the big, dark bruise on your ankle. “Does that hurt?”

“A bit, yes,” you admit. In this cramped space thanks to your webbed hands, you can’t stretch your legs and your ankle is feeling the strain but you are not going to mention it.

“Did you fall from your bike?” He asked in a low voice, scanning your body for more injuries.

“...No.”

Then his eyes fix on yours.

“He did this to you? That man from earlier?”

“He pulled me while I was climbing and I smacked my face on a rock, and then he hit my ankle with his gun,” you tell him just so he can shut up. “No biggie. You can laugh if you want–”

Yunho pulls you towards him with a sharp tug and your legs bunch between your bodies. You are grateful for the barrier but he is not having it.

“Straighten your legs.”

“What is wrong with you–”

“I know it hurts. You’re in pain, I can see it,” he taps your knees with your joined hands. “Come on. Straighten your legs and rest them over my thighs.”

“No,” you sigh, remembering how you were in similar positions not too long ago. “It’s okay, I can manage.”

“Y/n. You don’t want me to make you do it. Come on.”

His voice contains heavy warning. With a sigh, you obey and awkwardly rest your hurt leg on top of his. You use your webbed hands as an anchor and lift to tuck your other leg under you, allowing you both a more comfortable position.

“See?” Yunho hums in appreciation. “That wasn’t so hard. Now…”

He tugs you closer and you suck your breath in surprise. He locks his eyes with you.

“How could you let him do this to you?”

“As if I had a choice!” You say in a hushed voice. “I had my gun, I was about to shoot him. He overpowered me.”

“Never caught up to self defence, did you?”

“Not after you– The Academy,” you say, recalling your student life. You used to spar with Yunho for practice. You never practised after you left The Academy.

Sparring meant that you were physical with each other. Such a position as yours now wasn’t new, but the circumstances now…

“Look at you. Not a hair out of place even when we sparred, and now?” He sounds as disappointed as he looks and your cheeks flame with something resembling shame.

“You’re all hurt and bloody now. I don’t like seeing you like this.”

“You don’t like that someone else did it,” you correct. “Never got why you’re so obsessed with me. Always choosing me to spar back in school. Did the size difference make it fun for you? Or do you just hate me so much that you will take every chance to hurt me?”

“I chose you so you could get stronger and learn what it’s like to fight against someone with a similar stature as me,” he explains while his eyes glaze with something unrecognisable, gaze fixed on the skin near your lips. “I don’t hate you, y/n. You know that. But…”

He seems at a loss for words, his gaze still on the same spot. You lightly shuffle under his gaze, conscious. You try to flip your hair back, away from your face but your styled curls remain matted to your cheeks.

“Am I very badly hurt?” You ask him and you hate how small you sound. “I mean… what are you looking at?”

“It’s just that… you’re always so put together, and you’re such a mess now. Everything… is out of place.”

“Yeah, well…” you look away. “Happens to the best of us. Now can you stop staring at me and think of a way out?”

“Not like this,” he says, bringing your conjoined hands to nudge you and make you look at him. “Only I am allowed to see you in this state, you understand? You’re not going out like this, looking so…”

He bites his words back and his gaze falls near your lips again.

“Don’t move.”

You don’t have time to react before he presses his lips to the corner of your lips.

You instinctively draw away and pull back but he seems to be in a daze. “I’m only fixing your smudged lipstick. Do not move.”

He pulls you closer and you contain a yelp, attempting to push him back but he presses his lips against your skin again and you pause. You let him rub his lips against your skin, caress the edge of your lips until you’re out of breath and he is satisfied.

“There,” he draws back, inspecting the spot that he claimed had smudged lipstick. “All good now–”

He meets your eyes and finds your pupils wide. All of a sudden, it feels like the first time that you are looking at each other. This time, your eyes fall on his lips that are slightly flushed from the transferred colour of the lipstick and you can’t help but imagine–

This is how his lips would look if he kissed you.

He can’t take the look in your eyes when your gaze travels up. He draws closer, nudging your nose with his lightly before trailing the tip of his nose to your cheek where your hair is sticking to a bruise. He gently pushes until your hair is out of your face and then he blows on the open wound on your cheekbone, kissing the spot right next to it as if attempting to tell you that it is okay.

He proceeds to trail the tip of his nose to the other side of your face, pushing your hair out of your face and then he dips down and nudges your chin up with your hands so he can take care of all the bruises, blowing and kissing around them. You become putty in his hold and you’re glad that your joined hands below your chin remain acting as an anchor–

But then he pulls your hands down and starts to trail his lips down the side of your neck.

“Yunho.”

You warn him. You are glad your voice comes out steady and not shaky like your current internal state. He brings your hands to push your hair away from your front and then he kisses near the wound on your collarbone, burying his face in the crook of your neck and inhaling sharply. Your breath hitches and you make the mistake of looking down at him when he draws away.

He must be under some influence. There is no way he is drunk on this moment alone.

He finds the spot near your lips again. Perhaps, your lipstick is still smudged or perhaps, he is kissing that spot just because he can. He draws back to look at you and when he finds your eyes filled with something right, he goes ahead and rubs his lips against yours.

At first, he pulls away and inspects your eyes again, looking for any sign of discomfort or displeasure. But he swears that all he sees is his own mirrored expressions of something unfamiliar, something almost dangerous yet exciting. Or maybe, he tells himself, he is only doing this because he’s so, so mad that you are hurt like this.

He has never felt like this when he sparred with you at the Academy or actually fought against you like recently. With guns and legitimate threats. Yes, he has a soft spot for you but was that spot occupying the entirety of his being?

He had no idea.

He pecks your lips this time, lightly, softly, marvelling at the feeling blooming in his chest. Do you feel the same? Are you confused right now? Do you like this? If not, why are you not threatening to kill him in the most painful way possible like you usually do?

“Say something,” he all but begs. The only sound you are capable of producing resembles a needy whimper so he pecks your parted lips again, and again. Softly. Lightly. A kiss.

You make the mistake of kissing his lips back.

Then he bites your lower lip lightly and pulls back, leaving you stranded and expecting more. He looks at you with glazed eyes and proceeds to rest his head against your shoulder.

“Don’t you ever appear in front of me like this again, all bloody and bruised,” he warns in a low guttural tone and you wonder if he’s shivering. “Only I am allowed to hurt you. Only I am allowed to take care of you if you get hurt. No one else. Got it?”

You have to physically keep yourself from shaking under his hold. It’s too much– you are confused. You are not hurting anymore. Instead, something unfamiliar and warm courses through your entire being.

You don’t know how long you remain in this position. It must have been a good few minutes, but he doesn’t meet your eyes again. He simply rests his forehead against your shoulder, occasionally shifting to brush his lips against your exposed skin, never kissing. You start to wonder if you hallucinated the whole thing.

“What did you do, Yunho?” You ask softly, only after you are sure that you have regained a semblance of your control.

“I don’t know,” he responds. “All I know is that I don’t like what happened. It shouldn’t have happened. Why was that bastard chasing you?”

“I didn’t do anything,” you say and he finally pulls away. He looks back to normal now. “I was out meeting a friend but the guards from The Forces were trailing me ever since I left the house. Wooyoung was on call with me and he was instructing me so I could lose them but when I did, this man appeared out of nowhere and tried shooting my bike. I ditched it before I could get in an accident, and then this… happened.��

“It could have been so dangerous,” he scolds as if it is your fault and you pout angrily. “What if I was not there to save your ass, Seeker?”

“But you were.”

Wrong thing to say.

Something dark flashes in his eyes again and you look away.

“Can you stop looking at me like I’m a snack?”

That finally got the Keeper to break out from his trance and he starts to laugh. You shake your head in disappointment.

“What is your deal? Stop pretending that you care about me.”

“But I do,” he says in a firm voice. “Wouldn’t have gone through all this trouble if I didn’t.”

“Well, then stop pretending you’re not enjoying the fact that I’m hurt,” you attempt. “You don’t have to fix me. I’m not broken.”

“But you look so beautiful,” he says, his brows furrowing and you can tell that it is genuine. Your heart absolutely breaks as memories of your past with him threaten to surface. “Even like this. I… couldn’t let anyone else see you like this.”

“Do you have a crush on me or something?”

“Crush? No,” He looks offended. “I’m just… I– I don’t know, I–”

Before he can form a coherent response, you hear overlapping chatter and you look up.

It has to be Wooyoung and San.

“You hear this?”

“Yeah,” he doesn’t sound pleased and you wonder why. “Can you get up?”

“I can try,” you tell him and you both shuffle, supporting each other as you stand up.

“They will find their way here, just wait,” he tells you and you nod. He seems out of breath and looks as if he is trying to say something.

“Whatever happened here… let’s forget about it, okay? We have more pressing matters to attend to.”

“Funny coming from you, but sure,” you mutter. “Don’t ever try this stupid shit again.”

“Whatever.”

“Hey, guys!” Wooyoung waves as he appears into your area and then bursts into laughter at the sight of your webbed hands, clutching on to San for dear life who seems thoroughly amused too. “That’s one way to make sure they don’t kill each other!”

You and Yunho meet eyes and look away just as quickly. San shakes his head and fishes out a dagger to expertly cut the web without hurting any of you and when he frees you, he passes you both weird looks.

“How did this even happen?”

“We were running away,” you say and fix your hair properly this time, still feeling the ghost of Yunho’s lips and nose on your face.

“Running away?” San raises an eyebrow and looks at Yunho. “Never mind. I had to tell Wooyoung about The Paradigm Key.”

“Where is it?” You ask and when none of the three respond, you look at Wooyoung, thoroughly offended.

“Wooyoung, if you don’t tell me, god help me, I will–”

“Okay, stop. You need to calm down first,” Wooyoung motions with his hands, rubbing your wrists to soothe the redness from the webs. “And we need to get the hell out of here. The Forces do not need to find all of us here. Yunho, you’re coming with us. You’re only going to get arrested if you go back.”

“I’m not taking him back with us. He can… find refuge elsewhere,” you mutter. San looks torn, observing the way you and Yunho are shooting daggers at each other.

“Did something happen, or am I reading too much into things?” San wonders out loud.

“Nothing happened,” you mutter. “Let’s go. Keeper, do your actual job for once and find a way to get us out of here.”

“Right,” Yunho almost scowls. “Follow me.”

It was surprisingly easy to shift the door to your desired waterbody location once you were inside the nth dimension.

Or at least, that’s what you thought until you got back home and you all settled down at your workplace– the base– after a hearty dinner.

“Wait, so am I understanding this right?” you are out of retorts, for once. You simply stare dumbly at Yunho. “The reason we opened the door to my pool here, which I thought was odd enough– because doesn’t the door need the energy of a lake or something?– is because of Wooyoung?”

“Precisely,” Yunho shrugs. “The reason the door has been circling around this town is because Wooyoung lives here. He is a part of The Paradigm. Haven’t you noticed something odd about him?”

“Apart from the fact that he doesn’t possess the ability to ever shut up?” You glance at your friend who is currently explaining something to San very animatedly. San, ever the kind soul, simply watches in awe. You are sure that San isn’t even processing anything. He is probably amazed by Wooyoung’s energy.

Yunho chuckles lightly. “Come on. Spill.”

“He does have this obsessive desire to maintain order,” you admit. No harm in discussing that since Yunho was wise enough to deduce that if he hadn’t already. “He loves the Fibonacci. Watch the pattern of his leg taps.”

Sure enough, Yunho sees the pattern. Wooyoung taps his legs rhythmically in a fixed Fibonacci pattern but it is purely subconscious. Each leg tap is the sum of the two preceding leg taps. He goes from 2 to 3, to 5, 8, 13 and he manages to reach a solid 21 when he realises that you both have fallen silent and are fixated on how his hands tap his thigh. He raises his hands in surrender and the two of you go back to your discussion.

“Strange, isn’t it? I thought it is the aftereffect of being conceived in The Paradigm, but apparently it is deeper than that?”

Yunho nods. “He is the key to the core of the nth dimension– The Paradigm. I have been studying the meaning of how this works all along– Wooyoung was only born a few years ago. Who or what was the key before that? Are there more keys?”

“That is not what’s important right now,” you hold your hand in the air to stop him. “You are telling me that Wooyoung can summon the door, access the nth dimension and The Paradigm as he pleases and pass undetected through all the common points?”

“The last part is a theory, but yes. I don’t think he will show up on the radar as we do. If his energy is more similar to the energy in the dimensions, then yes. He will not be detected.”

“So how could you conceal this information from me?” You ask through gritted teeth as you lean in. “We could have been finding Mrs. Jung all along.”

“See, that’s the thing,” Yunho mirrors your furious expressions. “I don’t think Mrs. Jung is lost.”

You glance at Wooyoung to make sure he isn’t listening. “The fuck you mean?”

Yunho frowns as if offended by your dirty tongue. “I think there are two possibilities. That Mrs. Jung left of her own free will or initially got lost and is now refusing to come back of her own free will, or she is under some sort of an arrest for knowing too much and we have been lied to.”

“That is two and a half possibilities,” you fold your arms and slump back. “I don’t like this.”

“Can’t do anything about that,” Yunho mutters.

“Not to mention that there are other unfactored possibilities,” you say. “Who else knows about Wooyoung being The Paradigm Key?”

“No one but us,” Yunho confirms.

“We shall keep it that way,” you stand up and look at him. You do not like the way he looks up at you with all his attention devoted to your face. “I think we need to access the Paradigm.”

“That’s… madness,” Yunho shakes his head.

“That’s reasonable,” you counter. “Not only for Mrs. Jung, but to confirm the extent of Wooyoung’s relationship with The Paradigm. If we’re lucky, we can explore the void points inside as well. It would be good to gather some dirt on The Forces so they do not immediately arrest us when we come back.”

“Very illegal,” Yunho scratches his chin as he looks at his friends. You notice the way his hair curls at the nape of his neck. You would recommend a haircut, but you kind of like the length–

“They are eventually going to arrest us anyway, whether we have dirt on them or not,” Yunho looks at you again and you pretend that you had not been staring. “Why do you think Mrs. Jung is not back? I believe she fears arrest too. You know how bad the prisons here are– they torture the truth out of you but still don’t get satisfied.”

“Well, I believe that Mrs. Jung is lost inside The Paradigm,” you tell him. “If Wooyoung is the key and she is his mother, she might have accessed The Paradigm somehow. And I intend to explore that possibility whether you like it or not. Are you going to join me or are you going to sit back and watch? A house arrest here cannot be more fun.”

“Either we all go or we don’t,” Wooyoung suddenly announces as he joins the two of you. You are surprised by his sudden declaration of loyalty. He winks at you and says, “If something happens, I would like it to happen to all of us.”

San shakes his head in disappointment. “And who is going to save our asses if something happens to us?”

“That is the thing!” Wooyoung defends his point. “At least I know I won’t be betrayed by my friends if we all go.”

“I can betray you even if I go with you,” Yunho comments.

“Likewise,” you shoot daggers at him. He returns the sentiment.

“We’re doing this together, in any case,” San ruffles his short hair. “I just have one request. Can we get some sleep before we go? I want to be in the best spirits when I leave.”

“Uh… I guess so?” You didn’t expect San to be so relaxed about this. You were ready to pack your bags and leave immediately. “This base is secure. If anything happens, you’ll know, so you can sleep peacefully.”

“Perfect,” San smiles. “See you all in the morning. Come on Wooyoung, show me to my room.”

“My room–”

“I am going to get some sleep. This is not a sleepover–”

Their arguing fades as they head towards the lift. That leaves you and Yunho, alone.

When he bites his lips out of habit, you almost lose your mind.

“Get out of my sight,” you say and go towards the computers to take one final look at the security before heading towards your room.

Yunho doesn’t obey. He loiters. He follows you and hovers around you as you make quick work of the security alarms. Then he gets into the lift with you, all silent and calm but present. Then he follows you all the way to your room until you stand outside the door and turn around.

“Do you have something to say to me?”

“Nothing,” he smiles and there is something mischievous about it. This little shit. “Just wondering what your room looks like now.”

Your brows scrunch in surprise and mild annoyance. “Why would you care about that?”

“Because I still remember how particular you were about how your room looked back at The Academy. Remember when we were roomies on a trip and you brought an entire suitcase of things you couldn’t live without?”

“I still cannot live without my fur eye mask, yes. And my silk pillows. And my soft blanket, if that’s what you are worried about.”

“I remember a bear plushie too,” Yunho comments.

“Your room,” you ignore that and point at the door in front of yours. “Let me know if you need anything.”

You enter your room, not caring if he catches a glimpse inside. He’s seen it all anyway. However, you pause when you are about to shut the door. He is still watching you with a cryptic face.

“Is something wrong?” You ask, genuinely worried. “You’ve been strange all day.”

“Are you… okay?” He asks. “We can delay the trip to the nth dimension until you heal.”

“We cannot delay it,” you say. “The Forces will make up an excuse to come barging in here. We need to disappear before that happens. Besides, it’s just a swollen ankle and a few bruises. Nothing a good night’s sleep can’t cure.”

“Sleep well, then,” he says softly.

You stand staring at each other for a few moments, none of you moving or even speaking. Just the unspoken question–

What the hell happened today in the nth dimension between you two?

If you were worried about Yunho acting strange, he sure sobers up when he witnesses The Paradigm Key actually work.

Wooyoung has no idea how to summon the door, but he sits by the same pool the door opened to yesterday. Yunho does the rest of the work by giving some vague instructions to Wooyoung– something about connecting with the water on a deeper level and looking for the orderly energy of The Paradigm in his core. Wooyoung has no idea what Yunho is on about but he shuts his eyes and you see when it happens.

When he lets go of his surroundings and starts to tap with both his fingers incessantly in rhythmic patterns. Almost like a code. San points at the edges of the pool and you see how the water droplets start to arise and remain static in the air, a stillness washing over the surroundings.

“So much energy,” San comments. “If anyone is nearby, they can definitely feel it too.”

“Let’s hope not,” you say and San agrees, looking sombre. It is nothing short of supernatural to watch Wooyoung nod ominously and see the door materialise in front of you from thin air, the door opening on its own without a key and inviting you to its unwelcoming white void.

Yunho nods. He has hidden the physical key to the nth dimension in the apartment. He doesn’t need it since Wooyoung is with you all. Besides, using the physical key would document your entry. It works like a marker.

Wooyoung opens his eyes and gasps lightly. He expected this but he is still a little surprised. When he turns to look at you with a feline expression of curiosity, you smile.

A thought passes in your mind and your smile falls.

Would Mrs. Jung approve of what you are about to do?

Yunho seems to read your mind, or perhaps, he shares the same thoughts as you. He nudges your hand with his and when you mirror the doubt that he holds in his eyes, he relaxes.

“One last time. Are you sure about this?” He asks.

“Not sure, but we have no other choice,” you say the obvious and he nods in agreement this time.

Checking if you have all your belongings, you give the signal. Yunho is the first to step inside, so very familiar with the nth dimension. He waits until all of you are inside before he shuts the door.

And then you are surrounded by nothing but white walls all around you, over you and under you.

You curse loudly and ask Yunho to lead the way, sharing a look. He turns to Wooyoung.

“You are our compass now. We will go wherever your instincts take you.”

“You sure?” He asks, looking conflicted.

“100 percent,” Yunho assures. “You can tell where the core is, right? The Paradigm?”

Wooyoung points in a direction towards his east. Yunho nods.

“We’re accessing The Paradigm and avoiding all common and void points before that unless something catches your attention. We’ll follow your lead.”

“It’s what’s after accessing The Paradigm that changes everything,” San reminds Wooyoung. “Just help us avoid all these points and any travellers until then.”

“Sure,” Wooyoung claps his hands and inhales, cheering up. “Let’s move.”

You don’t follow immediately. It isn’t until Yunho finds you standing hesitant that you finally move. He asks you if something is wrong.

“I wish I could tell him to keep his expectations low. There is a chance we might not find his mother,” you say and Yunho agrees. “I can’t do that, though. That sounds like a cruel thing to say.”

“You care a lot about him,” Yunho notes. There is no apprehension in his voice.

“He’s my family,” you say the obvious.

“I think San may have already talked about this to Wooyoung last night. I asked him to,” Yunho says. “If not, he will soon. Wooyoung listens to him, and San knows how to deliver such a message kindly.”

“I appreciate that,” you mean it. A faint smile crawls on Yunho’s lips and you ignore it. You have to stay vigilant right now– anyone from The Forces could be paroling in here. You could accidentally come across a traveller and they could report you to the headquarters. You have to look for the common points and avoid them, and keep an eye out for the void points. The nth dimension is changing infinitely and you don’t want to accidentally take a wrong step–

Yunho’s hand brushes against yours as you step into a narrow path. The space is too narrow for him to step away and the action seems to be unintentional but when you exit the narrow path and come across a wide expanse, he still remains just as close.

You can’t tell if you like it or not. He has been crowding your mind ever since you infiltrated his base. Even before that, if you are honest. He is always somewhere in your headspace, but now…

Another brush of his hand and you look at him. He remains oblivious or maybe, he is good at acting.

"Let's not get distracted in here,” you comment as you create a few inches of gap between the two of you. “It could cost us.”

“I’m not distracted. I know what I want,” Yunho says in a sure voice and you are unsure if he knows what he is talking about. “Do you?”

You make a face and he snickers, intentionally stepping closer this time. “You’re being a menace, Yunho.”

“You love that,” he has the audacity to lean down and whisper in your ear and you squeal, swatting at him and smacking his arm. He laughs loudly and you flip your hair back in annoyance before brisk-walking to where San and Wooyoung have paused their trek and stand watching you in surprise.

“When did you two get so chummy?” Wooyoung wiggles his brows. “I thought you were sworn enemies.”

“Remind him,” you point and fix your black jacket before linking your arms with Wooyoung and San.

“Don’t leave me behind!”

“Guard us!” You yell at Yunho in response and the duo on either side snickers.

Since there is no concept of time in the nth dimension, especially when you start to move deeper, you start to feel tense. If Yunho had the physical key, it would give a hint of the time difference with the world you just left, but now, it could very well be a year passed in the real world when it felt like only a few hours had passed in the nth dimension.

That is why entering the common points is so important. Not only do they track your location but you can adjust the time difference with the devices set up there so when you go back to the real world, just about the same time you actually spent here has passed in the real world.

The door to The Paradigm stands loud and proud in the middle of the white spherical base you have been navigating all this time. The knots on the door move endlessly, creating different patterns but most commonly, the triquetra knot to indicate the past, the present and the future.

You observe Wooyoung. Since you entered the nth dimension, he hasn’t once had the desire to use the Fibonacci sequence anywhere. He is acting normal for once.

“Should we actually enter The Paradigm?” San asks, unsure. “I think that is less risky than entering one of the void points here and trying to navigate from there.”

The Paradigm is all unexplored territory for a good while now. The Paradigm hasn’t had a solid key in years since the last one evaporated into thin air. That was definitely around Wooyoung’s birth, and you are not surprised that no one made the connection. No one knows the truth about Wooyoung’s birth.

Wooyoung stands with his gaze stuck to the door. Does he feel the urge to step closer? It sure looks like it– he seems to be physically holding himself back.

“Mum might not be there,” Wooyoung talks about this matter for the first time. “She might have never told us because she did not want us to be here.”

“Or she could be stuck,” you counter gently. “We don’t know anything until we find out for ourselves.”

Wooyoung extends his hands and you take it. San takes his other hand. You look back at Yunho and extend your hand.

“Let’s step in together. Do not let go of each other no matter what, okay?” You remind them for the umpteenth time.

You follow Wooyoung’s steps. He rests his forehead on the centre of the trinity knot, driven by instinct alone. The knot starts to unravel and disappear, a pathway materialising in the middle. All you need to do is step inside.

“It will be okay,” Yunho comforts. “Let’s do this.”

Wooyoung steps inside first and you all follow.

As soon as the door closes, you are all hit by a burst of energy so harsh that it almost makes your grips on each other loose. You clutch at each other and miraculously manage to hold on until you slam against a hard surface with considerable force.

You groan and your eyes take a moment to adjust, but you can smell it before you see it.

Rain.

“Ain’t no fucking way,” Wooyoung gets up and brushes his clothes, looking around. You contain a gasp as you look around what appears to be an old city, all ruins and dust. The sun is nowhere in sight since the clouds cover the expanse and you don’t hear a human soul in this area.

“Mrs. Jung was right,” you look at Yunho. “Alternate dimension. I know this place.”

“Sector 1,” Yunho confirms. “Except… not the Sector 1 that we know.”

San finds a newspaper stashed in the trashcan. “2004. That’s before the Sector 1 Development Project, right?”

You nod. “The question is, why are we here? The Paradigm wouldn’t bring us here just for sightseeing or a look back in time. There must be something here we have to find– if not Mrs. Jung, then a clue.”

“Let’s search then. Divide and conquer?” Yunho asks.

“Pairs,” Wooyoung agrees and pairs with San as if it is the most natural thing.

“I thought we are a team,” you pout.

“I don’t trust them,” Wooyoung jokes. “Let’s keep one of them with us at all times.”

“True,” you can’t fight that argument. You don’t want to admit that you trust Yunho enough to let him search on his own, so you have no choice but to follow him in the opposite direction from the duo.

“Does The Paradigm know why we entered it?”

“Maybe,” you wonder. “It is a living entity. It knows our desires. It transported us to Sector 1 for a reason, after all.”

“And what reason is that?” Yunho asks.

“Wooyoung,” you admit with a smile. “He once got lost here as a kid, so I think he knows exactly where to go. Another reason, though… Mrs. Jung’s favourite hangout spot is somewhere around that river,” you point at the distance. You have to cross a bridge to get there.

“Do you think Mrs. Jung is just sitting here and waiting for us?” Yunho ponders.

“Can’t be that simple,” you think. “If we’re lucky, we might find clues. You know how she loves being cryptic, right?”

“Where do you think I learned that skill?” He scoffs. He helps you jump over a big gap between the bridge and the road. If this is Sector 1 from 2004, the bridge was being torn apart before a new one was built in its place.

When you grip his hand and jump towards him, he steadies you with a hand on your waist. Before you can shrug it off, he lets go and straightens your clothes and hair for you.

“Why do you keep fixing my hair? I can do that myself.” You ask as he continues to firmly grip your wrist to keep you close while he tucks the strands behind your ears.

“Your hair is blocking my vision.”

“My hair is blocking my vision and I am perfectly fine because I get to see less of you that way,” you mutter and push his hand away, fluffing your hair so he cannot see your flaming cheeks. He chuckles to himself.

You start to move towards your left. It is not there yet, but at the corner of an alley not far from the bridge is a small coffee shop that was Mrs. Jung’s getaway. You are not sure what you will find there now.

“I don’t get why you are so obsessed with me,” you sigh.

“Because you are still my best friend even though it’s been years since we acted like friends.”

You look at him. “I thought I was your archnemesis.”

“Can’t we be both?” He grins. You hate the way his eyes curve downwards. You hate how fluffy and soft his hair looks. You hate how cozy he looks in his casual flannels.

You hate how he feels so familiar.

“You can’t say things like that after you left me alone, by the way,” you tell him casually, afraid your voice would betray you. “You lost the right to call yourself my friend the day you chose to side with The Forces.”

If hearing that hurts Yunho, he doesn’t show it. Or maybe, he has heard or thought about this too many times himself.

“You never thought about why I joined The Forces, did you?”

You step into the alley. The location of the cafe should be at the other end. “What does it matter? You betrayed me. You betrayed Mrs. Jung. You sided with the enemy.”

“They say keep your enemies closer,” he challenges and you spare him a glance, speeding towards the end. He jogs lightly to keep up with you. “Think about it when you get a moment to spare.”

“I would rather use my free time thinking of ways I could kill you. The current count is 121.”

“Ah,” Yunho sounds awfully pleased. “So you think about me that much?”

Well. Fuck.

“Oh, look,” you have reached the corner of the alley. “Absolutely nothing but ruins. What do we make of this?”

Yunho kicks the rubble and rubbish with his sneakers. He crouches in between to inspect anything that catches his attention. You copy him. For once, you are wearing trainers. They are not so bad after all. They come in handy at times like these–

“Now what is that?”

Yunho walks towards you and does the honour of kneeling in front of you to pick up a shimmering little stone. It isn’t until he digs it up from between other stones that you both gasp lightly, meeting eyes.

“Is that what I think it is?”

“The dichroic cube?” Yunho says, inspecting the translucent thing. “I don’t think this is a coincidence. Could The Forces have planted it here?”

The dichroic cube is the chemical element used to calibrate void points. It is a registered derivative of uranium to use specifically inside the nth dimension and by extension, The Paradigm. When uranium is subjected to a certain cooling and compression sequence aligned with the Fibonacci sequence, it abandons its chaotic lattice to crystallise into spirals that echo the existence of phi– the golden ratio. Thus, a stone that dichroics not only light but time itself is formed.

The dichroic cube is used as a grounding device for the common points. It is what forces the void points to transform into a common point so that the Travellers can use it as location markers and adjust the time settings. For the dichroic cube to be lying in here…

“This must be an unregistered dichroic cube, but how did it make it out of the headquarters of The Forces?” Yunho asks. You take the cube and inspect it. It’s been a while since you have seen the cube up this close.

“Maybe someone stole it,” you look at him. “Mrs. Jung.”

“Why?” Yunho asks. You are not sure. “The dichroic cube by itself… isn’t it useless? Unless it is attached to the time device that is used in the common points.”

“It is useless,” you agree. “I think we should find Wooyoung. If the dichroic cube is here, there must be something else where Wooyoung has gone, or there must be more of these cubes. I… I don’t have a good feeling about this.”

Yunho shifts uncomfortably. “Do you think it’s a trap?”

“It’s not that,” you say as you start to walk back towards the meeting point– where you all landed. “It’s the implication of finding the cube here. Is this… a common point that Mrs. Jung has created for herself?”

Yunho stops in his tracks and you pause. You can practically see the cogs in his brain turning. “I… have a theory but I’m going to hold on to it until I’m sure.”

“It better be good,” you warn.

You reach the meeting point shortly and sit cross-legged in front of each other with the cube in between, glaring at it incessantly as if your watchful eyes would make the cube change forms or make it float. It isn’t until you hear familiar chatter that you both look up towards the duo who arrive, looking rather pleased.

“Did you guys find anything?” You ask.

“Yeah– hold up,” Wooyoung moves towards the dichroic cube but you hold a hand up to make him pause.

“Tell me what you found first.”

“A message,” Wooyoung reveals after narrowing his eyes. “Coordinates and a date.”

As soon as you and Yunho meet eyes, it clicks. You begrudgingly hand the cube to San and forbid him from letting Wooyoung touch it.

“He’s the key. He might transport us somewhere wrong if he touches the cube,” you explain.

“Why would someone leave this here?” Wooyoung asks, looking carefully at the cube where it rests in San’s hands.

“It has to be your mum, Wooyoung. She chose the two locations that only you would know,” you tell Wooyoung. “The place where she found you when you got lost as a child, and her favourite hangout spot. She wants you to take the cube and go to the prescribed time and location.”

“But this is just the cube,” Wooyoung argues. “It’s not with its mechanism. How are we going to travel both in place and time if it’s just the core element?”

“The core element in the core dimension with the key,” San reminds, failing to keep the thrill from his voice. “It sounds significant.”

“I don’t know how to navigate this, though,” Wooyoung says, hands in the pockets of his denims. He seems to be buzzing with anxious energy now. “I don’t know what those coordinates mean.”

“Lucky for you, I’ve got a map,” Yunho smiles. San looks proud. You inspect Yunho and you just know that he does not have a physical map.

“So you’re just insane,” you conclude. “You’ve got the map and coordinates memorised?”

“No, silly. Those coordinates are familiar. Remember that I used to travel with Mrs. Jung. She made me memorise a few coordinates. At that time, I thought that it was in case I ever got lost, even though those coordinates are not of any registered common points or locations in the real world significant to us.”

You have to bring a fisted hand to your mouth. You are in awe.

“I checked the locations when she went missing. I don’t think those locations have anything in common. This one… it’s the restaurant she took me to when she congratulated me on getting promoted to a Traveller.”

“Did she foresee this?” Wooyoung frowns. “We couldn’t have cracked this code if the three of us didn’t come together.”

“I feel left out,” San pouts and folds his arms. You pat his back. He met and became friends with Yunho and then Wooyoung after Mrs. Jung went missing.

“You have the most important role here, though,” you tell San.

“What’s that?”

“Keeping Wooyoung under control,” you say casually. Yunho struggles to contain a laugh and Wooyoung just glares, biting back retorts since he is so busy chewing the skin around his thumbnail. San can’t help but smile.

“Let’s hand the cube to The Key then,” Yunho takes Wooyoung’s hands and you all shuffle to hold on to each other. He tells Wooyoung the location and asks him to keep the date in his mind before touching the cube.

That is how you all are transported to the month of August in 2019, around the time when Yunho graduated and became a Traveller. It happens in seconds– as soon as Wooyoung’s hands make contact with the cube, it emanates light and comes to life. You all shut your eyes instinctively when it bursts with energy and the feeling of getting sucked into the folds of time almost makes you nauseous.

You can never get used to it– the feelings of whiplash where a hollowness passes through your insides before you are brought back to life. It feels like falling into a pit of void and then reemerging through sheer will.

The four of you manifest dangerously close to the riverside in the heart of Wonderland. You are glad that you do not emerge inside the water body, but you still go to the edge of the river and run your hands through the water to make sure it still feels the same.

It does, so you wash your hands and then flick the water droplets on the person closest to you, which just so happens to be Yunho. He gives you a warning look and you bow your head in apology. You know that he would have no trouble dunking you in the water just because he can.

“I guess you can lead the way this time?” Wooyoung says to Yunho as he looks around. It is rather sunny here this time. “Is the weather the same as that day?”

“Everything is,” Yunho replies, feeling nostalgic. “We sat here by the river to discuss our future plans and then we went there to eat hotpot and sushi.”

You follow his pointed finger to a restaurant that opens to the river. “That’s a pretty spot. Why have I never found it before?”

“It was our spot,” Yunho teases. “I suppose you have something like that too.”

You nod. You can’t be jealous.

The three of you follow Yunho inside the restaurant and search incessantly but find nothing of significance. You ask Yunho if he is sure that this is the right place and he insists that it is. San believes Yunho because he has seen him memorise the coordinates time and time again. Wooyoung doesn’t say anything. He quietly looks around.

You tap Wooyoung’s shoulder and ask him to follow you outside and he does.

“Are you alright?”

“I am,” he insists, taken aback by your question.

“You’re quiet,” you explain. “You know that you can talk to me, right?”

“I know,” Wooyoung takes your hand and squeezes it. “I’m just… wondering why mum would do all of this– scatter clues in different locations or whatever. I’m trying to think like her, but I cannot.”

“You cannot– not alone. You have me and Yunho,” you remind him. “Together, we can find these clues and find out what they mean. I personally think this whole thing is organised such that only we could discover it and eventually find her. Maybe The Forces were after her. Maybe they had a good reason to be after her,” you say, thinking about the cube you found in the previous location.

“Right? Why would she steal a dichroic cube? She didn’t have any means to have them produced herself, and The Forces keep all the scientists and chemists to themselves.”

“Did she ever travel outside of Wonderland?”

“Not that I know of,” Wooyoung rubs his face. “It’s just confusing, that’s all. And if this really is the location, why can’t Yunho find the clue?”

“Maybe the clue is not meant for Yunho,” you wonder. “Have you ever visited here?”

“Never,” Wooyoung confirms. Yunho finally emerges along with San and he shakes his head.

“Did you and Mrs. Jung do anything else that day?” You inquire. “Think about your full meeting with her that day. We can trace the paths.”

“Yeah, that might be a good idea. I think finding the cube or whatever clue here would be too obvious,” Yunho says. He recounts that day– how Mrs. Jung picked him up from The Academy, came here to sit by the riverside and wait for the confirmation of his passing. After they got a call that he had passed, they had dinner at the restaurant and then they went to visit Yunho’s parents who live just outside the town. Then she dropped him back to The Academy.

“So we should split again,” San suggests. “Vehicles won’t work here so try finding a bicycle if you can. Me and Wooyoung will have a look around here again and then follow the path back to The Academy and take a look there. You can visit your parents’ house and come back here. Whoever comes back first waits for the others.”

You all agree and part ways. Yunho recalls a bike stand near this spot so you go there first–

To find one bike.

“This is worse than the one-bed trope,” you mutter to yourself. “I’m driving.”

“Oh, come on. You can’t drive the both of us,” Yunho scoffs. “Just accept your fate and be the passenger princess.”

“Ain’t no fucking way,” you curse and get on the bike. He sits behind you happily and you start to pedal.

“See?” You grin. “I am strong. I can drive us both–”

“Honey, I’m the one driving us,” he says. Begrudgingly, you turn to find that you have another pair of pedals which are Yunho's feet.

That is how you get humbled and switch places with Yunho, resorting to your passenger princess status. You scold him for being too tall and he just asks you to hold tight as he starts to speed up.

He rides in silence for the most part. The scenery of the river that you are crossing, paired with the low sun and lack of people engages his attention but not anymore than the fact that you have wrapped your arms around his waist as if it is the most natural thing to do.

It is not the first time that you are riding a bike together– back when you were students at The Academy, Yunho and you used to sneak out and take a bike and go wherever the road took you for a breather. It has been about 4 years since Mrs. Jung went missing and you both took different paths.

Does distance make the hearts grow fonder? You don’t know, but you miss the feeling of resting your face against his back and hearing his heartbeat. You don’t dare to do it right now but you can just tell that Yunho is holding back his words.

It takes a while but eventually, you reach the town where Yunho’s parents live. He finally starts to talk and asks you if you remember the ice-cream place at the corner of the street, the playground where you both used to go as kids at nighttime to watch the stars and the broken streetlamp that they never fixed.

Of course you do.

How could you ever forget the countless times he found you at the end of a tough day at The Academy and snuck out with you so he could treat you to some ice-cream? How could you ever forget the late night conversations at the playground, talking about anything and everything while you looked at the stars? How could you ever forget the broken streetlamp where he would step closer to you in a protective manner?

“I know we kind of hate each other,” you tell him as you grow closer to the location of his house. “But I do think about the good times.”

“So you do think about me,” Yunho says with a stupid grin and you smack his back, asking him to focus on the road.

You don’t tell him that you remember the way he watched you when you ate ice-cream. He would habitually wipe your lips with the pad of his thumb and you would scold him for acting like that when tissues existed, but he was always silly and caring like that. One time, he wiped the ice-cream off your lips and then sucked his thumb clean, which earned him a smacking and silent treatment for the rest of the week.

Not because you hated it, but because you were so, so scared of falling in love.

You still are, but you sometimes wonder if it is too late for that.

You don’t tell him that you remember how he rarely ever watched the stars during those late night conversations. He would be sitting or half-lying next to you on a slide and doing anything but looking at the sky, which included playing with your fingers or your clothes, or simply watching you. Whenever you glared at him in return, he would pretend that there was a bug on your face.

You never believed him, but he didn’t need to know that. Maybe he should have.

You also don’t tell him that you remember exactly how he would casually fall back one step when you went through the broken streetlight area. His hand would hover at the small of your back protectively. As soon as you crossed the dark patch, he would match your steps again and you would smile to yourself because he was always so protective of you.

He still is. He stops in front of his parents’ house, his hand naturally coming to hold yours so you know when to let go of him and get off the bike. So you don’t accidentally get off while he parks the bike. So you don’t fall. Then he proceeds to fix your hair like he always does, brushing the strands away from your face.

“It’s not like your parents are waiting inside,” you remind him with a pout. “You don’t need to do that.”

His fingers brush the fading bruise on your cheeks and then his fingertips trail down on your neck. “Does it still hurt?”

“Are you gonna kiss it and make it better if I say it does?”

Wrong move. Yunho looks at you with surprise, eyes expectant as if that was actually a question. You scoff to cover up the heat blooming in your cheeks and brush his hands away as you take the lead, entering his house with your usual greetings.

Yunho is quiet now. He takes the lead, going towards the backyard where he must have had tea with his family and Mrs. Jung. Sure enough, under the lawn chair lies another dichroic cube, this one more red in its tinge.

“Now why would we have another one of these?” You ask, inspecting the cube. It seems to be exactly the same as the one you found earlier.

“I can’t tell if these mean something else or these are just our own little checkpoints,” Yunho says and your interest piques.

“If these dichroic cubes can act as a location marker,” you begin and immediately, Yunho picks on and starts to shake his head. “We could use these to navigate the void points if we come across any. Do you have any idea how big of an opportunity this is? Maybe this is why Mrs. Jung left all these cubes.”

“I can’t let that happen,” Yunho insists. “Exploring the void points is dangerous as it is, and we have little to no idea of what they actually are. We could end up travelling somewhere without a chance of returning. Also, we don’t know if entering a void point would alert The Forces.”

“They’re looking for us anyway,” you argue. “Look– Mrs. Jung believed that the void points inside The Paradigm had different properties than the void points outside The Paradigm in the nth dimension. I bet that at some point, The Forces have investigated The Paradigm’s void points– they’ve existed since forever. Why would they hide the properties of these void points from the travellers?”

“So we don’t stupidly go exploring them?” Yunho looks at you pointedly, hands in his pockets. “Look– I’m a Keeper. Even I am not informed about the properties of these unregistered void points. There must be a reason for that.”

“They keep you in the dark for a reason,” you conclude with an exasperated sigh. “Maybe think about that.”

Yunho doesn’t respond. He takes one of the cubes from your hand and looks at it closely.

“Do you think she is somewhere watching us collect these little easter eggs?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if she is. I bet she is at least alerted about our presence now. Question is… just how many more do we have to collect to get somewhere?”

The question gets echoed when you go back and find that Wooyoung and San have returned with not one but two dichroic cubes on top of another set of coordinates.

“If the next location gives us three, I’m officially going to lose it,” you mutter and Wooyoung cracks up.

“Your hatred for the Fibonacci sequence should be studied,” San comments, shaking his head. “I think it’s beautiful and very meaningful.”

“It is meaningful,” you agree. “Beautiful? Debatable.”

The next location which San found at The Academy leads to the main headquarters of The Forces a few years back from the current date. This time, you do find three dichroic cubes sitting prettily in one of the drawers in Mrs. Jung’s old office with a new location.

The new location transports you a few years into the future to your parents’ house in Sector 1 where Mrs. Jung last met you before disappearing for good. She came over to deliver the news of your passing out to your parents herself and they took you to a barbeque restaurant.

At the back of the restaurant is a narrow alley where you went to take a breather and ended up crying because you finally did it. Graduating from The Academy had been your biggest dream but your parents had you stressed because they were going to be relocated to another district and they wanted to see you graduate personally. For that, you needed to pass out on time. Mrs. Jung found you crying and offered you a smoke.

You took it and failed her personal test, getting an earful about how smoking is so bad for health. That made your mood better.

“That is so like mum,” Wooyoung smiles and you can tell that hearing all these stories about his mother that he was not a part of is making him miss her very much. “She would be so disappointed to learn that smoking is the first habit you picked when she went missing.”

“Had to piss her off somehow,” you mutter and look around the trash can where she would have thrown the cigarette.

Sure enough, you find 5 dichroic cubes sitting prettily in a corner with coordinates etched on the wall.

“Good thing I brought a bag along, right?” San offers when you make a face at the cubes.

“We should all have at least one cube on us, in case we get separated,” Yunho says and you narrow your eyes.

“Are you planning to get separated?”

Yunho shakes his head. “I am not, but I know that you are going to be using this opportunity to explore the void points if we come across any.”

“Because I believe that it is necessary to explore those points. Right Wooyoung?”

Wooyoung agrees enthusiastically, but you can see the conflict in his eyes. It wasn’t there ever before, but since his mother seems to be so close now, he can’t help it.

The others don’t comment on it if they see it. You turn to Yunho. “I know that you are bound by the law and whatnot, but if I come across a void point, I will be stepping inside and exploring it. The dichroic cube will help with the time configuration– you know that. If I have to do it alone, I will.”

“Y/n–”

“If Mrs. Jung is inside The Paradigm, she wouldn’t be walking around and about,” you interrupt Yunho and look at Wooyoung when you say, “She would be exploring the void points. Perhaps, she has made these locations in different points from the void points. Perhaps these locations now classify as common points inside The Paradigm. Isn’t that right, San?”

“That is a possibility, yes,” San nods. “Since we have no idea how The Paradigm is actually supposed to be like, it is possible that we have been exploring common points created by Mrs. Jung all this time. If that is the case and the cubes are what created them, that would mean that taking the cubes with us would make the common point become a void point again.”

“Hold up,” Wooyoung says. “So if we leave from here with all of the cubes, this location in this time will cease to exist because there is no more cube holding this dimension pocket intact as a common point?”

“Yes,” San shifts uncomfortably. “Maybe… we shouldn’t have taken the cubes with us. That way, we would have had more common points to transport to in case… you know. In case The Forces find us.”

A grim air of realisation settles at his statement.

“I think taking the cubes with us makes it so that we leave no trace of our travelling behind,” Yunho suggests. “This way, The Forces can’t track us. If they’re here right now at this current point, if we leave right now with all the cubes, they could end up getting lost.”

“Perfect,” you clap your hands. “Let’s go to the next location before someone finds us.”

“The next location… is The Academy,” Yunho says and looks towards you. “Did you notice the date?”

17th of August, 2021. That is two days after Mrs. Jung went missing. Wooyoung says that for you, but there is something off about the date.

“All these dates so far are related to Mrs. Jung directly, but she was not at The Academy on this day,” you recall, looking at Yunho who confirms with a sombre look in his eyes. “Something about this point seems different.”

“Only one way to find out,” Yunho says. You agree and hand Wooyoung the new five cubes. You all huddle together and get transported to that fateful day at The Academy.

Fateful for you and Yunho, since that is the day he decided to become a Keeper and you went rogue. The day you put an end to whatever friendship and love there was between the two of you as childhood friends and classmates.

When you all recover from the effects of travelling, you hand all the cubes over to San for safekeeping. You decide to split again– you and Yunho know exactly where to look if the location you are thinking of is relevant to the reason you are transported to this day. Wooyoung has other ideas– on this day, he went to the headquarters of The Forces despite his mother’s constant warning to never step foot inside.

“Let’s meet back here,” you say and squeeze Wooyoung’s hand. “Try to look for something else other than the cubes. Anything that pulls your attention or catches your eye.”

“Got it,” he says. He knows what this day means to you so he sends a glare in Yunho’s direction and he shifts uncomfortably, muttering something to San. “Don’t kill him. Go easy on him, eh?”

“I think this is your mum’s twisted idea to have us make up, so let’s see if that goes well,” you mutter. He smiles and kisses your cheek before telling San that he is ready.

“You know where to go,” you say, urging him to lead the way. You don’t match his steps this time.

In fact, this is the first time you feel tired ever since you entered the nth dimension and The Paradigm. It is as if you can actually feel the weight of that fateful night again. It also seems as if you are not the only one who feels that way– Yunho’s steps are slow and heavy, as if it physically pains him to walk down this memory lane that leads to the backyard of The Academy where you broke things off with him.

You both remain silent even when you reach the backyard. This was the last night you spent at The Academy so you wonder if the backyard still has the apple trees and half-dead rose bushes bordering the yard. He remains shut as he starts to look around aimlessly, picking a stick in the middle of searching and poking at everything with it.

“I’m going to check our dorm,” you say and before he can respond, you leave.

The dorm is situated at the west of the yard. The dorm arrangements were made according to the level or grade. You shared a dorm with Yunho and some other students since getting accepted to The Academy when you were about 10 and living together for so long felt like you were housemates. You had the same living space, shared a kitchen and whatnot. You and Yunho were the most constant residents of that dorm along with Hongjoong who joined much later but remained until the end.

You go to your room and smile to yourself when you look around. You were very particular about your room even back then– you had a photo wall in front of your desk with pictures of everyone who meant something to you. Most of these photos were of you and Yunho. Some included Hongjoong and the other students and friends you made along the way. A lot of them had Wooyoung and Mrs. Jung, and some of them included your parents.

You recall never being able to focus on studies because of this distraction right in front of your eyes whenever you sat down to study. It was a welcomed distraction though and more times than not, it motivated you to do better.

It is a struggle to peel your eyes away from the wall and search for anything out of place. After rummaging through some drawers, you finally find something that did not belong to you, something you have no memory of owning.

A radio device.

You try to tune it but it gives no signal. You suppose it might come to life if you power it with dichroic cubes so you decide to keep it.

“Found something?” Yunho steps inside the room and you show him the radio. He checks it thoroughly and finds that it has no batteries.

“I might have batteries in my room,” he thinks. “Should we check?”

“No harm in checking, yeah,” you agree. “I don’t think batteries will work here, though.”

“You never know,” he half-smiles.

When you enter his room, your heart twists with ache. You did not realise how much you missed him and the comfort of his room until you moved to your current lavish apartment and found that no amount of decoration or objects would match the feeling of being with the one who feels like home.

You look around and memorise every little detail and feeling of this room– from the crooked planks on the floor that creak exactly like you remember, from the neat organisation of the room to the absolute chaos of little toys and figurines in one corner. You struggle to keep the sting away from your eyes and watch Yunho rummage through his drawers to look for batteries.

He opens a drawer and shuts it immediately, rather uncharacteristically, before moving to the cupboards. He attempts to act normal but you catch the hesitation in his movements. Before he can stop you, you open the drawer, expecting to find something that should not be for your eyes, but–

“Yunho.”

It is his photo diary. The one he hid from everyone because he said that it was something very personal to him.

You used to tease him about it and went so far as to beg because you wanted to see it so bad. Were you a part of it? How many photos did he have of you? He had a film camera phase, he said, and the photos were of the places he loved. Nothing significant, he would try to cover up, but he still didn’t allow you to see it.

“Go ahead,” Yunho almost whispers. “Take a look, y/n.”

“Are you sure?” You pick the diary anyway. “Wouldn’t want to invade your privacy or whatever.”

“It doesn’t matter anymore,” he smiles almost sadly.

You give him a look before you open it. The first photo is of his parents and you smile at how he has captured them at their raw moments– his father pretending to read the newspaper but watching his wife peel potatoes with fondness dripping from his eyes.

“That’s cute,” you comment and turn the page. Next is a class photo, a copy that you also own. Mrs. Jung, a few other teachers and students. Wooyoung, the odd one out, who joined the photo that day.

You turn the page, and turn, and turn. Yes, there is a photo of a beach, of random streets, of food and of the night sky, of the sunset and sunrise, of the mountains and the sea, but there is something that makes you stop and look at him.

All these photos include you. A glimpse of you– either your shadow, your hand, or your back. Your face, your shoes, your hair.

It’s all you.

“Why would you do this?” You scoff, failing to hide the wetness from your voice as you toss the diary on the table. “Whyever would you do this, Yunho?”

“Because you are my muse,” he says. “I only ever enjoy life when I am with you. You know what you mean to me, y/n.”

“Then how could you fuck this up?” You ask, a tear trickling down your cheek. Yunho’s jaw clenches as he holds himself back, opting to hear you out. “How could you do this to me?”

“You don’t get it– you still don’t get why I became a Keeper,” he says, cursing under his breath as he runs his hands through his hair, exhaling. “I know what Mrs. Jung means to you– she is just as important of a person for me. You thought that you could find her on your own and for that, you had to cut ties with The Academy. Did you ever consider why I stayed back?”

You watch him with your mouth sealed shut, lest you say something bitter that breaks his heart again.

He decides to answer for you. “I stayed with the Academy and became a Keeper because it was the only way that I could protect you and prevent you from recklessly going inside the nth dimension. I became the guard to the door so you would have to cross me if you ever decided to risk it all, so that I could push you away from destroying yourself. I stayed–”

He paused, feeling out of breath not because of his confession but because all this time and he still couldn’t bear to see tears in your eyes. You hardly ever cry so watching your shoulders curve inwards was breaking him.

“I stayed, my dear,” he whispered, “so I could put myself in danger, learn more about the common points and the void points, learn more about The Paradigm. From the first day, my intentions were never pure. Once I learned about The Paradigm Key, I started planning to stab The Forces in the back, learn everything about Mrs. Jung and why she would go missing, and then find my way back home. To you.”

You take a few deep breaths and wipe your eyes. “Why did you never tell me?”

“You wouldn’t have let me do this on my own,” he shrugs. “I would rather have you ignorant and safe.”

“If me with an arrest warrant on my head is your definition of safe, then you need to do something about it.”

“Why do you think they never issued a legal warrant?” Yunho smirks. “I kept creating distractions so they would forget about you. But you… you have always been such an attention seeker. Always had to do something and remind The Forces of your rogue existence, didn’t you? Had me cleaning up your mess as usual. Some things never change, I suppose.”

“Careful, Yunho,” you warn. “It sounds like you care. Didn’t you want my doom or something?”

“I do care,” his gaze grew soft. “I thought that much was clear. I never wanted your doom, I just…”

“Go ahead,” you challenge, stepping closer. “Say it. Tell me how much you want to get rid of me. Tell me that you want me out of your life. Tell me that you hate me for leaving you like that.”

“I do hate you. I hate you so, so much,” Yunho says with a grimace as if the words hurt his soul. He steps closer and tosses the radio on his bed carelessly. “If I could go back in time, I think I would have it so I never met you. So I never fell into this tortuous, vicious cycle where I can’t decide whether I want to kill you because you broke my heart or hate you because that is the only way I can forget about you.”

“Did you ever decide then?” You ask, taking a step back when he draws uncomfortably close.

“I made the decision the day you left. I made the decision to keep loving you. My heart knew it, all this time,” he says and crowds your space, making you step back until your back touches his desk and you are trapped. “I guess I just had to keep myself occupied because otherwise, I would have gone mad.”

He brings his hands up to tuck your styled curls away from your face and you fail to suppress a shiver as the ghost of his fingertip caresses your cheek. You can hear his breath quickening and you clutch the edges of the desk, debating if you should push him back.

But his eyes are molten honey. They drip with longing like you have never seen before, and it takes your breath away. You fear that he can see the same in your eyes so you look away but he turns your chin with the pad of his thumb.

“Look at me.”

You do. You lock eyes with him.

You wait.

“Let me make it up to you,” he pleads. “Let me show you what you mean to me.”

“Yunho,” you whisper. “I… I’m scared.”

“Of what?” His brows furrow as he cradles your face and scans your eyes. “Tell me, love. What scares you?”

“You,” you admit, vulnerable for once. “I’m scared that your love will break all the walls I have spent years building in a second. I… I missed you so much, it broke me to leave you. I couldn’t sleep properly all this time because every night, I missed hearing the sound of your shuffling in the next room. I… I realised how much I loved you after I left you because it consumed me and swallowed me whole. It was so dark. I’m afraid of going back.”

Yunho presses his lips on your forehead and you let out a shaky breath. “You never have to be scared again. I will never, ever leave your side again. I never left you, you know that. I was always there, always waiting. Please, let me–”

You don’t let him finish his sentence. You push yourself up to meet his lips and he groans deeply before kissing you. He moves his lips unrushed as if he intends to make up for all the time you spent apart, unhurried for he does not have to worry about something as insignificant here as time.

He could kiss you forever, he realises as he lets his hands trace down your arms to hold you by your waist and bring you flush to him. The feeling of your arms wrapping around his neck makes him kiss you deeper and he gently picks you up to set you on the table, allowing you a moment to catch your breath.

You do. He doesn’t care about that. He attaches his lips to your skin– anywhere he can kiss, he does. He pecks and kisses along your neck and jaw, his trembling hands and shaky breath mingling with your little sighs. He carefully kisses the bruises if that is what will make them better. He kisses the tip of your nose before meeting your lips again and you deepen the kiss, loving the way his hand cups your neck.

You kiss for a long, long time. You both have it calculated in your own heads– it should take Wooyoung and San a while to return from the headquarters since it is located at a distance. You basically have all the time in the world to make up. You kiss, exchange smiles and confessions, kiss again and share fond looks. You tell him that you still despise his existence and he tells you that he thinks you are a headache.

Still, he can’t keep his lips off of you. His tongue explores your mouth lazily and his hands travel with lazy intention all over your body, but he doesn’t cross any boundaries. This is enough– he could never get tired of kissing you, he thinks. He bites and sucks at your lips until they are swollen and until his lips almost turn the same shade of red as your lipstick. He couldn’t care less. He holds you as if you are made of glass and then he holds you as if you would crumble if he let go.

You wrap your legs around his waist and tug him closer. He passes you a lazy smirk and you tangle your fingers in his hair, loving the softness of it. You kiss the freckles on his neck and litter kisses all over his face, making his ears turn red as he laughs. You peck his lips teasingly, again and again, testing his limit.

When he breaks and captures your lips in a kiss, it is as if you are kissing for the first time again. The desperation in his movements alter your brain chemistry forever and you know that there is absolutely no going away from this moment. You engage in a battle of lips and tongue, losing yourself in the moment–

Until the radio sparks to life and static fills the room. You lightly jump and he wraps his arm around you in a protective embrace as he looks towards his bed where the radio has turned on.

“I didn’t do anything,” he says.

“Wooyoung must be close,” you say, chuckling. “Let’s go.”

“Already?” Yunho asks, his gaze stuck on your lips.

“Yunho, it’s been more than half an hour since your assault on my lips began,” you tell him, pushing him away lightly. “I am tired.”

“Liar. You can’t feel tired in The Paradigm,” he matches your eye level to call you out.

You fold your arms. “Fine. I am not tired. If we weren’t on a mission, I would break you, Yunho,” you say and he smirks dangerously. “But we got more important things to do. Wipe that stupid grin off your face.”

“Break me, huh?” He asks as he follows you out of the room, the radio still ringing in your hands. “Would like to see you try, Seeker.”

You gulp. He doesn’t miss it. He simply seals the promise with a kiss on top of your head before letting you be.

When Wooyoung and San find you, they immediately know something is up.

“Don’t tell me you both had a quickie in there,” Wooyoung looks appalled.

“Shut the fuck up,” you warn while San and Yunho lose it, clutching on to each other as they laugh, exchanging smacks. “Eight cubes?”

“True to the Fibonacci,” he says. “What’s this radio?”

“I don’t know,” you admit. “It’s been screaming like this ever since you came in radar, I suppose.”

“Is it the cubes or me?” Wooyoung wonders.

“Probably both,” you muse. “Now… what do we make of this? We don’t have a location this time, do we?”

Everyone shakes their heads no. You ask Wooyoung to take the radio and circle the area to see if the radio responds to Wooyoung himself or if it is pointing to a new location.

Sure enough, the radio dies when Wooyoung faces the direction of the headquarters and grows the loudest a little to the west of the headquarters. Taking that as a sign, you start to follow Wooyoung with immense curiosity, all of you rather quiet as you exit The Academy.

You are not moving in a familiar direction. San has a map on hand and he sometimes mentions the names of streets or famous spots– anything that might ring a bell, but nothing does. You are just going towards the river–

A scream gets stuck in your throat when Yunho pulls you to himself. The sound of a bang and a shatter follows and your ears start to ring, your eyes widening with fear as you cling on to him. You meet eyes for one second and you immediately know what’s wrong.

The Forces.

The three of you immediately provide cover to Wooyoung as you narrowly dodge bullets to take cover behind a building, and then you all are pulling out weapons.

“Not you,” you tell Wooyoung who is ready to put the radio back. “We’re speeding towards where the radio leads us. You instruct us and we provide you with cover. Got it?”

“It’s too dangerous,” Wooyoung shakes his head.

“There’s no knowing how many of them are here,” San agrees with you. “We need to get to the new location asap.”

Wooyoung is conflicted but he gives in. You and Yunho naturally take the same offensive-defensive position from your training and San guards your blind spots with a shield gun while ensuring Wooyoung remains safe.

Thus, you leave your cover and engage in your deadliest fight to date. You spot three men wearing the uniform of The Forces and you grit your teeth, firing bullets at them with precision. Yunho uses the paralysing gun and he manages to get one soldier before you do. As they fumble, you manage to shoot another soldier on his thigh.

And then you all are running as if the very ground is crumbling under your feet. It is too dangerous, too risky, but you can make it–

A bullet manages to penetrate through San’s shield and though it doesn’t hit with as much speed as before, it still wedges into Yunho’s arm and he lets out a guttural groan but hardly stops running. You feel the pain as if the bullet has hit you.

You don’t stop. With the radio growing louder and Yunho’s firm voice commanding you to keep going, you do exactly that until you reach the shore and then…

“Ain’t no way,” Wooyoung mutters.

You all stop abruptly when you almost accidentally step into the shimmery fold in the air, indication of a void point. Yunho steps back and makes sure you all do so with him but Wooyoung goes ahead to stand with him and make sure if the static grows loudest when the radio is pointed towards the void point.

It does.

“I’m not going in there,” Yunho mutters. “We have no idea what will happen if we step inside a void point here.”

“We have the cubes, we have Wooyoung,” you insist while you inspect his arm. The bullet is half-lodged inside his flesh. You look towards San for supplies and he has already taken out his first-aid kit. He mutters something about how it is better the gun stays inside for now to avoid blood loss and Yunho agrees. San has no other option but to secure it in place with a bandage.

“The Forces will be on us at any minute now,” Wooyoung says. “I would rather risk entering a void point than have them hurt us again.”

“We could get hurt if we go inside,” Yunho insists and dismisses the way you glare at him. “It is too risky– we could get separated or something worse could happen.”

“We each take a few dichroic cubes,” San says, looking back to make sure the soldiers haven’t arrived yet. He starts to dig in his bag and puts 4 cubes in everyone’s pockets. Yunho looks betrayed but after San is done, he takes Yunho’s hands.

“We either get killed or worse, arrested,” San says and they share a knowing look. “You know why getting arrested is worse than anything that could happen here.”

You and Wooyoung share a look. It seems like they have seen the prisons of The Forces. You have heard rumours, but you didn’t think it was this bad.

“We could outrun them. We could come up with another plan, we just need to lose them–”

“Stop right there!”

You all collectively mutter curses as the soldiers half-run towards you. You huff. “Yunho. Make. A. Decision. Whatever you decide, we stick together.”

“I don’t know,” he finally starts to feel the weight of it. San activates the shield again to buy time and Wooyoung moves closer to the void entrance in case you all have to make a run for it.

“Guys, do you hear that?” He almost whispers. “It’s like someone is calling my name from the other side–”

“You’re hallucinating,” Yunho tells him but his eyes widen when he sees a pair of arms appear from inside the void and take Wooyoung by surprise, grabbing him from the back by the waist and pulling him inside.

It happens in a split second. Your jaw falls open. Wooyoung gets pulled into the void by someone and out of sheer instinct, Yunho jumps towards Wooyoung. He manages to grab his wrist but starts to get pulled inside and then you grab San and leap after them, entering the void without a second thought.

This time, the feeling of being transported in space and time is entirely different. It shakes and rattles you and you feel as if your bones have turned into jelly. Your brain turns mush and when you finally land, you can’t breathe. You clutch at your chest and heave, thoroughly parched and see the rest writhing in pain as well.

Someone hands you a glass of water and you gulp it. They might as well have fed you poison but you don’t care– you just need to feel human again–

“Mom?”

Wooyoung has never sounded so small. You feel your heart sink and it takes every bit of effort to look up at the person who gave you the glass of water.

Mrs. Jung.

She looks exactly the same as the person who left you about four years ago, since a person doesn’t age in The Paradigm. However, she looks weary. Her eyes shine brightly at the sight of you all but her movements are slow and tired.

“I knew you would find me one day,” she finally says and laughs, tears welling in her eyes. “I’m so sorry for leaving like that. I… I didn’t know I would get trapped inside here.”

Wooyoung doesn’t care. He gets up and rushes to hold his mother in his arms and you feel tears trickle down your cheeks at the way she relaxes and lets her son hold him. The son she left behind– Wooyoung has changed so much since she last saw him.

Mrs. Jung draws away to hold her son’s face in her hands and memorise his features. She says something about how he has grown so much, how he looks as if he spent all this time in The Paradigm– has he not been eating well?

“I made sure that he ate well,” you get up and Mrs. Jung nods.

“No doubt about that,” she corrects herself. “It’s just…”

“I’m not a kid anymore. I’ve matured. Look,” Wooyoung straightens, flexing his body and all of you share a laugh. “I’ve been working out! I just missed you and your food, that’s why I look like this.”

“I’m sorry, my child. I didn’t know I wouldn’t be able to return if I stepped inside The Paradigm again.”

“What do you mean again?” Yunho asks. “Wooyoung is The Paradigm Key. How did you enter without the key? How are The Forces here without using the key?”

“Let’s discuss it over some tea. And let me fix up that wound of yours,” Mrs. Jung clicks her tongue at Yunho’s interrogation and turns to San. San gets up and bows properly.

“I remember you from the headquarters,” Mrs. Jung says. “Did you know that it is your father who helped me become a traveller?”

“...I was not aware,” San admits, looking at Yunho and you. “He doesn’t share his personal business with me.”

“But he has raised you into a good man,” Mrs. Jung says and goes ahead to hold his hands. “Thank you for taking care of my son all this time.”

Mrs. Jung seems to have made home in this dimension– in this void point. She explains that this is the year 2045 which is why everything looks different around here. She also explains that just because the year 2045 looks like this in this void point– bleak, gloomy and lifeless– does not mean that the year 2045 in the real world will look the same.

“Void points follow just one possible path out of many. If a certain few decisions about our world are made, the year 2045 will look exactly like this,” she says, pouring tea in porcelain crockery.

“Void points are very different from the rest of The Paradigm,” she continues. “They all have their own rules. Here, I can ingest as much liquid as I want and it doesn’t affect me in the slightest! I would have gone mad if I couldn’t do something as human as drink water here.”

“I don’t feel pain here,” Yunho says and your eyebrows perk up. “Is that also a property of this void point?”

Mrs. Jung nods. “Whenever a void point is calibrated to become a common point, we factor in pain so that travellers do not forget their purpose and get lost. Since this void point isn’t calibrated, you do not feel pain here. You could cut off your limb and still be functioning normally.”

You swirl the chamomile tea and inhale deeply. The scent calms you down a little but you have so many questions. You know that Mrs. Jung can tell that you are brimming with questions but she takes her time in breaking the truth to you all.

“Is this your residence here?” Wooyoung looks around the dining area. It seems to be the only space that she uses with the kitchen that is attached to it. The couch seems to be where she rests though she never sleeps here. The walls are full of scribbles and formulas. There are a few objects that seem to be tokens that she has collected over her stay here– a compass, a plushie, a toolbox and some other items.

“I call it my base,” Mrs. Jung says. “Having a home here would mess up my mind.”

“Did you ever make something out of those formulas?” San asks. “You seem to have been working out a way to travel in time. What are those equations?”

“I wrote everything I remembered as soon as I realised that I was stuck here,” she explains. “I needed to do that in case I forgot my purpose here and forgot that I have to go back. Those equations… that is what I remembered from the time I assisted in making dichroic cubes.”

“Did you… make these dichroic cubes then?” You finally ask. “Alone?”

“It was risky business, but the technology here is very advanced. I had little to no trouble creating 20 of these cubes before I ran out of the elements in store. I couldn’t risk travelling anywhere in case you all tried to find me here, so I stayed and decided to wait.”

“It could’ve taken us so much longer,” Yunho says in a sombre tone. “Would you have waited without knowing how long it would take for us to find you? What if someone else found you first? What if I didn’t make the connection and realised that Wooyoung is the key?”

“I made preparations for that reason,” Mrs. Jung doesn’t mind Yunho’s scolding tone one bit. She understands his frustrations. “I had you memorise the coordinates. I left clues for you both, knowing one of you would be able to make the connection about Wooyoung first, but I also had arrangements made so that you two would come here together, all of you.”

Mrs. Jung shares a knowing look with San and you can tell that he has made some connections. Was San unknowingly working for Mrs. Jung all this time, or was his friendship with Yunho and Wooyoung intentional?

When he passes you a genuine smile, you scowl at him. You can’t tell if you are being tricked right now, so you decide to change the topic. “Why did you enter The Paradigm in the first place if there was a chance that you would be trapped here? What if something happened to one of us and you were stuck here forever? And… what purpose do these dichroic cubes serve?”

Mrs. Jung takes a seat with her cup of tea and gives you a pointed look. Too many questions.

“Wooyoung is The Paradigm Key,” she confirms for the first time. “He was conceived inside The Paradigm. My husband, may his soul rest in peace, realised almost too late in my pregnancy that Wooyoung’s birth would be changing a lot of things. He was one of the main scientists who created the dichroic cubes.

“One night during the eighth month of my pregnancy, I went to the office with him. The dichroic cubes started reacting to my presence. It was a miracle that only the two of us were present at the time. That is when he started to study the implications of a child conceived inside The Paradigm. He tried his best to provide justifications to why the door to the nth dimension started circling Wonderland. He did his best to mislead The Forces– absolutely no one knew about the nature of my pregnancy so no one made the connection.”

“And then he passed away,” Wooyoung sighs. “And you took it upon yourself to protect me.”

“I had to,” Mrs. Jung smiles. “I had to keep my child safe. What we discovered was that since you were once a part of me, I had whatever energy or element necessary to act as the substitute key. Therefore, we made arrangements so that I could travel inside this dimension undetected. The only way I could protect you was if I held something over The Forces, so I made it my life’s mission to study why they kept the existence of the void points inside The Paradigm a big secret.”

“Because they show you one of the possibilities of the future,” you conclude, “when no void point outside The Paradigm but in the nth dimension ever takes you to the future.”

“Exactly,” Mrs. Jung claps her hands. “Even the void points that are let out of The Paradigm are calibrated enough so they never take a traveller to the future. They keep misleading everyone and forcing them to study the void points extensively when we already know everything that we need to know about them. They are the window to the future, and if you manage to trace your path back in time from a void point, you will be able to learn what decisions you need to make or what factors you need to control to ensure this exact future.”

“That’s… insane,” Yunho rubs his face. “The only reason they would do that is because they have seen a future that is exactly like they want our world to be.”

“That is my life’s mission. To find out what future they envision for our world and prevent it from becoming real because I know it is not a good one.”

San sucks in a breath. “If you are a substitute key, you got stuck here because?”

“Because I simply ran out whatever energy I had in me to pretend to be the real key,” Mrs. Jung shrugs. “That is the only reason that makes sense. His father suggested that it would happen one day and warned me to be careful. I should have listened to him. During some of my visits here, a few soldiers started to trail me. They remain lost like me with no means to get out.

“As for the dichroic cubes,” she looks at you. “I scattered them in a certain sequence so only you would be able to understand what they mean– that they were from me. Now that you have brought them back, I can use them to calibrate this dimension so we can transport ourselves out of this void point into The Paradigm and eventually out of The Paradigm and back home.”

“So now what?” Wooyoung asks. “Are we going back now? Also… I think we have arrest warrants issued out– at least these two.”

Yunho and you share guilty looks. Mrs. Jung chuckles lightly.

“Well… we have all the time in the world now. Are you up for an adventure?”

“An adventure?” San echoes.

Mrs. Jung folds her arms. Even though she seems tired, her energy seems to have replenished in just a few minutes of being with you all.

“I have had a lot of time to reflect here. I think that we should never have hidden from The Forces. Now that I have all the answers that I need, I think it is time that we expose The Forces and their secrets, tell the world about their lies and create a new team of travellers that study The Paradigm properly.”

“You would need The Paradigm Key for that,” Yunho cautiously reminds her. “Will you let the world know about who Wooyoung is?”

“Absolutely not,” she almost smirks. “I have everything in place to create another key– an object. I think that in this dimension, the year 2045 here… with the technology and everything that I saw at the headquarters here, there are ample studies here on how to create multiple keys. I believe that this future is a bleak one where I am not alive and The Forces capture Wooyoung and use him to make more keys from him.”

“Damn,” Wooyoung shivers. “That’s… fucked up.”

“Language,” Mrs. Jung says in her typical motherly tone and the rest of you snicker while Wooyoung pouts and asks if language is so important right now. “Once we make a few substitute keys, we can go back and threaten to expose The Forces. If they do not comply with our conditions, they will get exposed even if they arrest us.”

“Sounds difficult,” Yunho comments. “The Forces aren’t that easy to bend. Can we really accomplish this?”

“We are not the villains in this story, Yunho,” Mrs. Jung says and Yunho looks at you. “None of us is a villain for trying to learn the truth about the nth dimension and its core. The real villains are those in power who prevent us from educating ourselves, threaten our lives and mistreat us just so they can find a way to bend the future to their will.

“I came here to protect my son,” Mrs. Jung says as she looks at Wooyoung. He smiles warmly. “And I will continue to do so until I can sleep knowing that he is safe. If that makes me a villain to The Forces, then I will gladly be one.”

“You are not a villain, though,” San says. “You are the most heroic person I have met.”

Mrs. Jung smiles. “We are all heroes. Let’s never forget that. Now…” Mrs. Jung claps and stands up. “No time to waste. Shall we begin this battle? Remember, it only ends the day we are able to walk in the streets without shame, without anyone looking at us with scrutiny. Until justice prevails.”

“I don’t know,” you fold your arms. “I’m more used to being the villain. This hero thing doesn’t suit me very much. Yunho, though...”

“Oh, come on now!” Wooyoung says. “Stop being so melodramatic! Come on, mum, show us your lab. I’m curious to see what it looks like and I must tell you about all the pain these fuckers gave me–”

“Jung Wooyoung, language! I am your mother!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Wooyoung grabs San by the wrist and gets him to tag along. San joins the mother-son duo with a laugh and motions for you two to follow.

Yunho gets up and extends his hand. You take it with a shy pout.

“You may be everyone’s villain,” Yunho starts. “But to me, you have always been my hero–”

“Shut your trap before I show you why no one ever called me a hero, Jeong Yunho.”

Yunho snickers. He teases you by singing verses about heroes and doesn’t let you get away despite your struggles. Once you break free, you clutch on to Mrs. Jung who kisses the top of your head, laughing when Yunho huddles between the four of you.

Your bickering and laughter echoes in this bleak future. Led by the true hero of your lives, you walk, you work and you cry now to make sure that the future you make for the people back home is a beautiful one.

taglist pt 1:

@lorensonebraincell @waywardstaytiny @lluvia1415 @woohwababes @fruithoughts @fancypeacepersona @propinquitypsithurism @kyomiingi @ateezswonderland @janetsarttrove @thenopekid @justconniez @daniela-f-uwu @hwasbestlover @missbangtangirl @beabatiny @slowitdownmakeitb0uncy @alliethequeen @lavishloving @haowonbins @franbowesax @klllerwaifu @selfishw4ltz @paramedicnerd004 @atzlordz @meowmeeps @intowxnderland @faeriehwa @staytiny-yaps @ishz @dumplingsyum @bunnychui @kandy108 @softsanglix @yongility @sweetinsaniiity @bihwabi @pshwifey @emotionallyanaemic @affy1106 @parkthothwa8 @my-loves-my-life @sunnysidesins @jyoon-ahgatiny @lover-ofallthingspretty @dea-nimus @cksanpurpleluv @atzloverr @bamdoe

#yunho x reader #yunho fluff #yunho angst #ateez x reader #ateez fic #ateez fanfic #ateez angst #ateez fluff #ateez scenarios #ateez imagines #yunho fanfic #yunho scenarios #action figures collab #ateez au #ateez

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