Alex was in denial.

When the words left Eunri's lips, he had completely frozen up, not knowing how to react to what she had just said.

"Alex is dead..."

"Alex is dead... ..."

"Alex is dead... ... ..."

Those words kept ringing in his mind over and over again, like a horrendous nightmare that he couldn't get out of. His immediate reaction was to insist that there was some misunderstanding somewhere. He couldn't possibly be dead, not when he was still completely conscious, albeit in someone else's body. This was even more unbelievable than finding out that he was stuck in Daehyun's mind.

"Alex, you alright?" Daehyun asked hesitantly.

Alex hadn't even allowed him to listen to Eunri's explanation. Instead, he began singing really loudly in Daehyun's head so that he couldn't hear what Eunri was saying properly. He only stopped singing when Daehyun promised he wouldn't ask Eunri for more details on what exactly had happened.

"I'm fine! Why would I not be fine?" Alex replied with false cheeriness. If he kept pretending that he was alright, then maybe he would truly be alright.

"I really think we should ask Eunri what on earth is going on. You can't keep denying it. We both heard what she said."

"What's there to ask? There's nothing to ask. It's probably a misunderstanding. Someone must have tricked Eunri into thinking that I'm dead. I can't be dead. If I'm dead, how is it that I'm able to talk to you right now?"

Daehyun sighed.

It had been three days since the shocking revelation. Since then, they had been feigning illness to avoid Eunri just so that Alex wouldn't have to face reality, but both of them knew that this wasn't a long-term plan.

"Well you can't keep being like this. Maybe it is a misunderstanding, but we need to get it straightened out. You can't keep having Eunri think that you're dead if you aren't really dead, right?" Daehyun insisted.

"No! Don't ask her anything!"

"No, I'm going to ask. You need to know the truth. I need to know the truth."

Alex flew into a panic. He continued protesting as loudly as he could, his entire being racked with fear and uncertainty, but Daehyun wasn't having any of it. The only thing he could do was watch helplessly as Daehyun stormed out of the hotel room.

#

"Are you feeling better?" Eunri asked as they strolled across Times Square. It was a weekday, but the streets of New York were still bustling with human traffic nonetheless.

"I'm fine now. Sorry for making you worry," Daehyun replied. He was busy thinking of a way to broach the topic without sounding awkward, but there seemed to be no way of doing that. Alex had gone into a sulky silence ever since they met up with Eunri, but Daehyun couldn't be bothered to appease him now. He had already spent the past three days listening to Alex's desperate denials and protests. "Shall we stop by a café and grab a cup of coffee?"

Eunri smiled and nodded, so off they went.

When their coffee had arrived, Daehyun pursed his lips together for a second as he thought of what he wanted to say. He must have looked awfully pensive with his brows furrowed tightly together because Eunri asked, "Are you alright? What are you thinking about?"

"Huh?" Daehyun snapped out of his thought process and looked up. "Oh. Nothing much, it's just that... I was wondering..."

"Have you got something to ask me?"

He nodded. "Don't take this the wrong way, I don't mean to dredge through your sad memories but I'm just curious. What exactly happened to your ex-boyfriend?"

Something punched him in the gut, and he knew it was just Alex reacting to his question.

The smile suddenly vanished from Eunri's face, replaced with a solemn expression edged with a tinge of sadness. Just from that alone, Daehyun knew that there was no misunderstanding. She sat there silently for a long while, staring blankly at her cup of coffee. Finally, she took a deep breath and began the story.

Alex had been in a car accident the day after she packed her bags and left for Shanghai. He had been drinking a little too much, and had stumbled in the way of a speeding youngster in a Ferrari. The driver was lightly injured in the crash, but Alex had suffered several fractures to his ribs and skull. He never even made it to the hospital because he had been caught in the explosive aftermath of the car going up in flames. Eunri had only learnt about the news a week after when her sister finally managed to get through to her, but by then it was already way too late. She had cried several nights over it, and regretted ever leaving him like that. It was all her fault, because if she hadn't left, then he wouldn't have gone drinking, and he wouldn't have died.

Even till today, the burden of losing the one she loved most weighed heavily on her heart.

"It's all my fault. I should never have disappeared like that... I was just angry at that point of time, I never thought that things would have turned out this way," Eunri said, her words coming out as a garbled mess.

"The bright lights that I saw after coming out from the bar. Those were from the oncoming car..."

Daehyun didn't know who he felt worse for, Eunri or Alex. He felt sorry for Eunri because she was living with the blame of causing Alex's death, and she couldn't walk out from that shadow. He felt sorry for Alex because he was so close to Eunri, yet they were already two worlds apart.

He closed his eyes and sighed.

"I'm so sorry, Alex," he whispered under his breath.

Alex didn't reply, and Daehyun could understand.

Everything that the former had been hoping for was now gone forever. He had been so hopeful about winning Eunri back, and everything had been going so well, but now it was never going to happen. Alex couldn't ever return to his body, because the dead couldn't come back to life. Right now—their ridiculously inconceivable situation—this was all borrowed time, and neither of them knew when Alex would need to leave this place for good. It was like a ticking time bomb with an unknown detonation time.

"I'm fine," Alex said after a long pause, "Eunri, she's crying. Please tell her not to cry. It's not her fault."

Daehyun turned his attention back to Eunri. His heart ached at the sight of how forlorn she looked. This was the side of Eunri he had caught a brief glimpse of back on the banks of Shanghai, standing alone in the wind, and now he knew the reason why she looked so lonely back then.

He reached over and gently wiped the tears from her cheeks. "Don't cry. It's not your fault. I'm sure Alex wouldn't have blamed you for any of this, and he wouldn't want to see you like this either," he said.

"It is my fault. How is it not my fault? Alex had his whole life ahead of him, but I ruined everything because I was too selfish," she replied. "I'm sorry, Daehyun. I don't meant to be acting like this, I just—"

"I understand. It's alright, you can just tell me anything. You'll feel better if you let it all out."

"It's over. It's all over."

Daehyun didn't know what he could say to console either of them, because he knew that what Alex said was nothing but the truth.

It was over. Almost.

#

Back in their hotel room, the mood was sombre with dark clouds looming overhead.

Daehyun had curbed his usual caustic attitude because he knew that it wouldn't be appropriate to throw sarcastic comments at Alex at a time like this. Instead, he simply remained quiet and let Alex have time to think things through. After he had finished sending his emails, he tried to talk to the latter again, just to check on him and find out how he was coping.

"Hey Alex?"

"Hmm?"

"Are you alright? Do you need anything?"

"A new body maybe?"

Daehyun laughed. "Well if you still can joke it means you're feeling better. Sorry unfortunately I don't own a mortuary so I can't pluck a new body out of thin air for you."

Silence.

Daehyun tapped his foot impatiently, waiting for Alex to say something, but there was nothing but silence for a long while.

"Alex?"

"Hello?"

"Alex are you there?"

"Did you not hear what I just said?" Alex's voice suddenly appeared again out of nowhere, but it sounded slightly fainter than it usually did.

"No, you went quiet for a long while. What were you thinking about?" Daehyun replied.

"I said you should consider really opening a mortuary because at least dead people can't run away from you and your annoying way of talking. Didn't you hear me the first time around? Sheesh. And you always nag at me for not paying attention."

"No... you didn't say anything of that sort," Daehyun retorted. Just then, a sudden thought struck him. For as long as he had shared a body with Alex, there had never come a time when they couldn't hear one another's thoughts. They had always been completely in sync. Today was the first time that Alex had said something and Daehyun hadn't heard him.

It was as though for those few moments, Alex wasn't there.

"Daehyun? What's wrong?"

He had tensed up, and Alex could sense it.

"Alex, you know how I didn't hear what you said earlier? I'm worried that... There might be a possibility that... I'm not sure..." Daehyun was continuously tripping over his own words as he tried to phrase his thoughts in the most tactful way possible.

"I know what you're trying to say. You're trying to say that there's a possibility my time might be running out, right? I get it. I feel it too. The connection between us... It's getting weaker."

Daehyun bit down on his lower lip, letting the thought slowly sink into his mind. A couple of weeks back he might have been overjoyed at this, because it could mean that he was finally getting his own body back. Now, it also meant that he was counting down towards Alex's demise. There was no body for Alex to return to, and he didn't know what would happen to Alex's consciousness after he left. It was most likely that he would simply disappear into thin air and vanish from the face of this earth altogether, as though he had never existed in the first place.

It meant the end of Alex Yang.

"Hey Daehyun?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you do me a favour?"

"What favour?" Daehyun was never a very charitable person, but right now, he would do practically anything to help his newfound friend fulfil any last wish he might have.

"Can you help me book tickets to Santorini in Greece?"

"Greece? Why do you want to go there?"

"I promised Eunri that I would take her to Santorini one day, because she was always going on about how beautiful it looked on TV. Since I probably won't have another chance to do so, do you think you could help me this time round? It'll probably be the last place I'll be dragging you along to... Sorry..."

Daehyun felt a sudden pang of sadness grip hold of him. He wasn't one to show his emotions readily, but now he could feel the tears stinging his eyes. He didn't know if it was because he was experiencing Alex's emotions or if it was because he was feeling sad at the inevitability of Alex's situation. Either way, it made him feel utterly depressed.

"I'll book you the tickets right now. I'll get you there."

Money wasn't a problem. Lee Daehyun had plenty of money.

They just didn't have any more time.

#