The Invasion (Part 2 of the KaiSoo Fanfic Series)

Chapter 19

"Suddenly, he was aware with certainty and joy that below, ahead, they were waiting for him; and that they were waiting, too, for the baby. For the first time, he heard something that he knew to be music. He heard people singing. Behind him, across vast distances of space and time, from the place he had left, he thought he heard music too. But perhaps it was only an echo."

Yoochun closed the book but left his hand rest on top of the faintly colored cover for a moment afterward. "That's the end?" Jongin asked him, his eyebrows raised partially in surprise and disappointment. 

"That's the end." Yoochun nodded at him. 

"We should read it again," the trainee said, removing his back from the chair and picking up the book. "Maybe there's a secret ending we missed."

Yoochun laughed at this reaction even though it was really nothing new for him to see. "I'm afraid there is no secret ending," he said, allowing Jongin to look through the last pages anyway. "The author wanted that to be the end and so that's what it is. The end."

"But why would she want the end to be like that?" questioned Jongin, almost in criticism. "I mean, they just escaped and she doesn't even bother to tell us what happened after they escaped? Just something about hearing music that might have been an echo? No story deserves to end so...so...openly like that."

"Well, some do, Jongin, some do," Yoochun said in opposition, his words once again confusing the young trainee. "Remember when we talked about how authors don't just write about any old idea that pops into their heads? How they write about things that matter?"

"Yeah." Jongin shifted in the chair a little as he listened to Yoochun intently. 

"Well, the same can be said for the way in which they write about those things," he went on, taking the book from Jongin's hands. "They don't sit down with a pencil and paper write whatever words come into their heads or whatever makes sense, no. They write about what matters in a way that will make people see why it matters. And sometimes that means ending a story openly and leaving the reader to figure out what happened. Not all stories have to come to an official end, Jongin. Some just simply end in the middle of a sentence."

He found it rather insightful, but he still huffed out some air and said, "I think that's stupid. If there should be any stupid laws in the world, there should be one about ending books like that."

Yoochun laughed and patted Jongin's back as he stood up. "One day, kid," he said with a little grunt, "one day you'll learn that some stories are better off without endings." 

When Yoochun told him that two years ago, Jongin would have never been able to guess that he was talking about himself. 

Even if time was something he had, he still wouldn't be able to understand how one place can disappear so quickly. He could understand maybe if ten years had passed, but it's barely been one. Even as he tries to think of how anyone, even Them, could destroy the most honest place here, Jongin can't understand it. Was the library really part of a story that was better off without an ending? Moreover, is Yoochun a man better off without an ending? He just doesn't know.

"This can't be right," Xiumin says as Jongin continues to gaze at the empty lot. "If the library was here before, it should be here now. Where could it possibly have gone?"

"I don't know," Jongin begins to reply as he finally turns around, "but I get the feeling They had something to do with this. There's no way an entire building would vanish without some sort of ulterior motive on Their part."

Xiumin scoffs and shifts some of his weight onto his other foot. "It seems like every 'unfortunate event' leads back to Them," he says, stepping closer to Jongin as the younger sighs.