More Short Stories!- Kai Ships Only

Tyunning- Mirror Mirror

The time was 3:14pm. Just sixty more seconds until Kai could run home to his little discovery.

His parents got divorced a month ago which meant he had to move cities his last year of high school. His dad got custody of him while his mom got custody of his sisters. Every weekend was when he got to see them. They took turns swapping houses during the weekends and on holidays too. Bahiyyih and Lea asked if it was okay to skip this weekend together. The older wanted to hang out with her boyfriend. The younger wanted to go to a birthday party. Kai was more than okay with that. It gave him more time with Taehyun.

On the first day that he moved into his dad's new house, he saw a large victorian mirror in his bedroom. His dad assumed it was left by the previous owner. Kai was fine with it. It was just a mirror.

That night, he found it difficult to go to sleep. It was odd not to hear Lea laughing in her room or Bahiyyih shouting on the phone. Instead, all he heard was silence. He decided to turn a light on and get a headstart on some assignments. When the light flicked on, he saw a boy in the mirror. "WHOA!" Kai fell backwards, knocking into his dresser.

His dad asked him if he was okay. Kai ran out of the room yelling "THERE'S SOMEONE IN MY MIRROR!"

Mr. Huening grumbled as he got out of bed. "Are you sure you weren't looking at your reflection kid?"

"No dad! He looks nothing like me!" Kai dragged them in front of the mirror. Now, only their reflections could be seen. He kept looking between his dad and the mirror. "What? Dad! I swear! I'm not crazy!"

"It was probably just a dream. Try to sleep again. I'll see you in the morning okay?"

"Um, alright." The door closed. Kai stared into the mirror and saw only his reflection this time. "Huh... maybe I hallucinated."

The next night he saw the boy again, halfway through changing into his pajamas. Kai was shirtless. He only noticed the boy was there when his reflection was fully clothed. "OH MY GOD! DAD!" Kai looked around then remembered his dad wasn't home.

The boy in the mirror laughed at him. "You're really funny!"

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!" The guy was too busy laughing on his carpet to answer. Kai didn't think it was that funny. He was certainly not looking at his own reflection. The boy he was watching had large eyes and a small face. It reminded him of an owl. Kai was also several inches taller. That's also not including the fact that their rooms were total opposites. The boy's room was pretty monochromatic whereas Kai's was full of color.

When the boy was done laughing to himself, he stood up then politely waved. "My name is Taehyun Kang. Did the Carter family move? Is that why you're here now?"

"Um... yeah? I'm Kai."

"Hello Kai! I live in South Korea! It's morning over here."

"Whoa..." Kai walked around the mirror to see if he could find any signs this was a prank. There had to be a chord or maybe a battery pack. He was convinced this was a recorded video. After failing to find some source of electricity, he began to tear his room apart. Clearly there was a projector around somewhere.

Taehyun stood with his arms crossed. He sang "I'm real Kai! Come back please!"

Kai muttered "where's that stupid projector? Think you can play a prank on me why don't you..." His dresser was moved to the middle of his room. His bedframe was pushed a foot off of the wall. He was sweaty and out of breath yet he still persisted.

This wasn't funny anymore. Taehyun looked at his watch. His Dallas mirror twin had been searching his room for five minutes now. He pinched the bridge of his nose then looked at his watch again. "Kai. I'm not an illusion. I have the same mirror as you do."

Kai started to tear his closet apart. "MAGIC ISN'T REAL AND EVEN IF IT WAS, NO SANE PERSON WOULD LEAVE A MAGIC MIRROR BEHIND!"

"An elderly couple used to live there. I don't think they wanted to talk to a teenager for the rest of their lives."

Clothes were tossed to the floor. Both of his guitars were laid out carefully on the carpet. Kai grabbed his drum set next. When he turned around, Taehyun was standing in front of him. "AH!" His set dropped onto his foot. It hurt like a bitch.

Taehyun started rearranging his drum set in hopes that would calm Kai down. He thought it would be easy. It was just a few puzzle pieces right? Based off of the look the American was giving him, he was doing it wrong. "I'm not sure how to put this together... sorry."

Kai began to instruct him while he rubbed his foot. There was a large bruise where the edge hit him. When the set was put together, he attempted to stand up. His foot hurt more than he previously thought. Kai almost fell over but Taehyun caught him in time. "You're actually real?"

"About as real as you are."

"And you can just visit me and watch me whenever you want..."

"Well, I mean, you don't need to put it like that."

"But you can."

"You have a mirror too you know."

Kai looked back at his mirror then looked at Taehyun again. He was more concerned about his privacy than anything else. "So strangers can just pop in and out of my room whenever they want?"

"No. I have no idea how it works. I just know when other people look into it, they only see their reflection."

That was the start of it all. Kai and Taehyun often took turns visiting each other each night. Both kept the other a secret because no one would believe them if they tried to explain. Today, their two worlds were going to collide.

Kai got home at exactly 3:30pm. It was 6:30am in Seoul. He ran up to his room then stripped to his boxers in two minutes flat.

Taehyun just finished changing into his school uniform. "Hey! You ready?!"

"Yeah! This is insane!"

"You're lucky your Korean is really good!"

"That's not the insane part!" Kai stepped through the mirror. He was handed a South Korean school uniform. The same one Taehyun was wearing. "I'm going back to school when I just got out of it!"

"I'm going to yours tomorrow! That's going to be so weird. Are Americans really that crazy?"

Kai giggled as Taehyun helped him change. "My high school has over 3,000 people in it. There's plenty of crazies."

"3,000?!"

"It's not even close to the biggest one too! Everything is bigger in Texas baby."

"Baby?" Taehyun blushed bright red. He knew Americans were more accepting of sexualities but experiencing it was something else entirely.

"Oh. Sorry. Does that make you uncomfortable?"

"No. I love it!" Taehyun looked out of his window. The bus would be arriving at the corner any moment now. "Ready to go?"

Kai straighted his tie. "This is still crazy!"

Taehyun took both of his hands then held them tightly. His smile shined like the rising sun. "Kai! Are you ready?!"

"Ready!"

What Kai didn't know was his mom stopped by to drop off a box of his childhood memories. Just as she was about to leave, she saw how smudgey her son's mirror looked. It bothered her to see that many fingerprints on it. She started to wipe it clean. Her ex coming home, startled her and caused her to accidentally bump into the mirror. It cracked when it hit the wall.

Kai was now stuck in Seoul and he no idea.