The whole alter ego stuff was chaotic. The girls didn't talk much about it, especially when it exposed some stuff they were embarrassed about. So… they talked about the boys' alter egos instead.

Lu stared at the box in her hands; the hair pin box from Chung. It had colorful hair pins, but it didn't have magenta hair pins she usually wore. It had bright pink hair pins that almost looked the same as her hair color. Maybe she should try it for once. "Ciel's clone is just a useless being. Not even interesting," she said with a disappointed look and closed the box. She was hoping for an interesting reveal of Ciel's hidden side.

"Elsword's clone was on the verge of losing it. Ain's clone killed him, though," Eve reported with a sigh, but then she started smiling. "Ain's clone was a happy-go-lucky angel with a photographic memory. I tried to gather all the relevant information."

Seeing that the girls got interested in it, she searched for useful information to share. She wouldn't share the gossip, though. "Noah is Ebalon's little brother. He was stuck in repeated timelines, so his age was still 16 while he should be over 300 years already. His weapon had a soul named Clamor, but for a reason he never told us, Clamor died."

The girls turned to silence. Aside from Noah eating all the time, they didn't know much about him. Maybe they should start hanging out with him. Eve smiled at them, bringing a new topic. "This town might be affected by demons, but he didn't feel a strong demonic energy. The demons aren't here either, so we have time to chill until they start attacking."

"You should ask Noah to cosplay with you guys. Maybe he would help," Rose grinned at Rena and Elesis. She would hang out with Noah, but Add was currently busy with his project. She couldn't even help her boyfriend, but she didn't want to leave him alone.

Rena held her red cheeks and tried to not smile widely. "But but but! Chung is adorable, though. He got flustered when I patted his head."

"He loves headpats. He's trying so hard to not show it, though," Lu giggled, remembering her night at the hotel in the indoor garden where she got to pat Chung. She didn't remember boys loving headpats, so it was memorable to her.

Ara couldn't help but laugh at this. She faced Rena, who was still fantasizing about something. "So did you talk a lot with him? Did you find him cool now?"

"He's nowhere near cool, to be honest. He's cute though," Rena answered with a smile, closing her eyes and imagining herself putting a dress on Chung. Her imaginations went wrong at some point and it made her happier.

Elesis sighed and picked up a bright yellow potion. "Rena needs to stop somehow. Let me open this."

Have you ever wondered what would happen if the boys started discussing too? The boys gathered in one bedroom after the movie to talk about the clones.

"What clones?" As always, Ain was clueless with almost everything. They didn't even know what to do with him, but lately he managed to remember some stuff. It was a progress.

"I should've tore apart Eve's clone for her code. Or Raven's clone for the Nasod arm," Add said with a disappointed look. He was so distracted with his project, he forgot the important thing he should do.

Raven folded his arms and stared at Add. "What are you trying to find anyway?"

"Should've made them kill each other to death. We could bet!" Elsword laughed, imagining the clones actually trying to kill each other. It would be disturbing to see, but maybe it would be a good show too.

"I tried to eat Ciel's clone's finger. It didn't work," Noah said with a sad look. He opened another bag of chips and ate them slowly.

Ciel sighed and shook his head. "They're troublesome, that's for sure. Sometimes I wanted to drown them, but I didn't want to kill the real person by accident."

"I'll end you and make it look like an accident," Ain said with a disgusted look. It would be funny if it was a joke, but he seemed serious about it.

"Relax, Ain. You literally play with ghosts, but you hate Lu and Ciel so much!" Elsword laughed even more and slapped Ain's arm. He found Ain's real anger funny, simply because he couldn't actually kill Lu and Ciel.

Chung slowly opened his eyes, getting up from the bed looking at the group with one eye. He was half awake, but he felt like he should join the conversation. "Did we wake you?" Elsword asked, even though he was completely sure they woke him up unintentionally.

"Where did Aisha's clone go, though? I didn't see her anywhere," Ciel asked with a confused look. The boys started thinking about it too. They saw everyone except clones of Aisha and Noah, but they already knew Noah's clone was going away to reach the moon.

"Aisha probably killed her," Chung replied before he yawned and closed his eyes to go back to sleep, ignoring the questions about why Aisha would kill her own clone.

"Hey, I remember your clone asked for headpats. Here," Elsword smirked and patted Chung's head with his left hand. It felt weird to pat his own friend, but he would eventually get used to it. Too bad Chung slapped Elsword's hand instantly. "Don't be shy, Chung! Come on!" Elsword pouted.

"Pat the thighs then," Add said with curiosity and patted Chung's left thigh.

"Why are you guys like this…" Chung sighed and buried his face to the pillow, trying to ignore everything and just sleep.

Noah put her bag of chips away and jumped toward Chung. "Violence is an option!"

Thud!

Now Noah was lying down on top of Chung, facing the ceilings. He yawned, a bit of tears came out from his eyes as he closed his eyes. Then it was silent…

"They fell asleep," Add informed before he looked away from them. He got up and walked toward the door. "I'll sleep in my lab like usual."

"I'll scout the town," Ain said as he opened the window and just exited through it.

Alternate Timeline: We will visit the alternate timeline! So far they're still in the same town. What would change?

Add finally finished his project… that was actually getting a royal straight flush on a poker game. He got a lot of money from it, so this should be enough to stop his friends from working. He didn't really care what they're doing, though. They didn't bother him on a daily basis like Rose anyway.

He looked at the clock, showing 7 AM in the morning. Rose usually checked up on him before this hour, so where was she? What kind of potion did the girls use this time? He would sleep, but curiosity made him leave his lab.

"Good morning, my darling!" Aisha glomped at Add and hugged him tightly. Instead of reacting to it, he darted his eyes away to find Rose. Something was definitely different in the morning, like a couple that weren't supposed to be a couple. Near the door to the backyard, he found his girlfriend. Rose and Raven were flirting with each other.

His feelings worked faster than his brain. He felt so betrayed by this, but this wasn't the first time he saw this kind of betrayal. He felt annoyed that this was an alternate timeline. "I'm going to sleep," he said with an annoyed tone and went back to his lab.

"But we haven't spent time together in a long time!" Aisha pouted and pulled Add's body to her arms easily. She smiled and carried his body to the dining room. "We're going to have breakfast first! We have a lot to do!"

They found Noah already eating his snacks while waiting for breakfast. Add remembered Noah was stuck in repeated timelines before, so maybe he didn't get affected by the potion. What would be the correct way to find out if he got affected or not? Add faced Noah, staring right into his eyes. "Do you remember you drank too much alcohol in the hotel bar?"

Noah tilted his head a bit in confusion. "I do, but I don't remember what happened after that," he answered, still confused with something. He narrowed his eyes, looking at Aisha then looking back at Add. "Aren't you supposed to be with Rose?"

"Thank god I'm not insane for once," Add sighed and leaned his back to the chair. It was so relaxing to know there was someone else that didn't get affected by the potion.

Aisha pouted, hugging Add's left arm tightly. "We're always together! What does that even mean?!"

Noah was startled, looking apologetic all of a sudden. "I-I'm sorry. I… got confused with… my dream last night."

"Calm down, Aisha! Don't scare our new friend!"

Rena held Aisha's shoulders from the back before sitting on her left. Ain took the seat next to Rena and didn't say anything. Add will assume both of them were together for the day.

Elsword and Ara came to the room, taking the seat next to Noah. "What happened here? You guys okay?" Elsword asked with a smile, even though he was confused with the tense atmosphere.

Meanwhile in the kitchen, the breakfast was looking horrible. Nisha sighed, staring at what she made for the gang. "I tried, Ciel. Will they eat it?"

Ciel took a spoon to taste the breakfast, which was a simple pancake with chocolate. The pancake's shape was so bad, some of them weren't even in one circle piece. "It tastes fine. It just doesn't look good."

Nisha smiled, feeling relieved that she wouldn't accidentally poison the whole gang. She picked up the tray to serve the pancakes to them. Of course, she prepared one for Laby too.

Eve and Chung climbed down the stairs, seeing Nisha being excited with weirdly shaped pancakes on the tray. "I guess we're eating Nisha's cooking today," Chung commented with a worried look.

"Looks fine to me. Let's eat," Eve giggled and walked to the dining room.

"No! I only want Ciel's sweets!"

"Stop being picky, come on! It's just breakfast!"

Elesis carried Lu on her back with a tired look. She had been trying to convince Lu to eat breakfast, but knowing today's breakfast was made by Nisha, Lu refused to eat. Not because she didn't trust Nisha, but because she wanted a strawberry cake.

On Nisha's way back to the kitchen, she called Lu and Elesis. She heard them because they were so loud. "I'll try baking a strawberry cake for you. How's that sound?"

Lu's eyes sparkled, feeling excited. "Very nice. Don't disappoint me, my servant's girlfriend!"

Add looked at everyone on the dining table, gathering basic information on the current timeline. First of all, Noah and himself didn't get affected. It was possible that the alternate timeline only affected the group, so anything else would stay the same. Aisha was his girlfriend, it would be best to play along for now. Noah, Elesis, and Lu were single.

Rose and Raven were together. They seemed fond of battle and already informed the group that they were going to an empty field for today. Rena and Ain were together, but knowing Ain, they were probably not a normal couple. Elsword and Ara were a couple, probably a normal couple they could find anywhere. Ciel and Nisha were also a couple, although it looked just like Ciel's obsession towards cute things. Add even expected this to happen, but since it was an alternate timeline, this erased the possibility. Last was Eve and Chung, but they didn't seem to be close for some reason.

Add used one of his Dynamo to search yesterday's news. It was the same as what he read yesterday, so… only the group got affected by alternate timeline potion. Which means, some people were skipping work today.

He stayed silent during breakfast, listening to people's plans. Ciel and Nisha were going to an orchestra. Lu and Elesis were also going, but they would have their own seats. Rena and Ain didn't have any ideas on where to go, but they would go out anyway. Elsword and Ara were going to watch a movie. Eve and Chung would try the escape room in the middle of the town.

After they ate their breakfast, everyone went out for a date. It left Add, Aisha, and Noah in the house. It was dead silence until Aisha put her palms together. "Sorry, Noah! I didn't mean to yell at you."

"I-It's fine, I'm okay. Don't mind me," Noah said with a confused look. He opened a bag of chips, eating it while looking away from her.

Aisha sighed and leaned her back on the chair. "What a disgusting potion. If everything else is affected, that would be better."

Add darted his eyes at Aisha. "Huh, I thought your time and space power was just for show."

"It's not! This morning, Rose asked me why I wasn't in your lab yet and I knew something was wrong," Aisha pouted and folded her arms. "What should we do? I doubt they would cause any problems, but… what are we supposed to do to kill time?"

"I don't know. Aren't you trying to go back with Chung? Just try to steal him from Eve for something," Add said bluntly, not knowing that they won't be a thing anymore.

Aisha forced herself to laugh and shook her head. "That's not happening, not even in the real timeline, Add! Do I actually look like a playgirl?" she asked with curiosity. She wanted to know how the boys see her. All this time, the playgirl was the girls' perspective.

"You do, but honestly we thought you're just meme-ing with all these potions for fun. It just happened that Chung actually fell in love with you," Add said as he raised his one eyebrow. Unlike the girls' discussion, the boys actually liked Aisha for playing around with the potions. He would even say the single boys were actually trying to get her, but he didn't have any proof.

Aisha blinked her eyes several times. Why did everything sound different than what Chung said to her? Wait, maybe this was what Chung meant when he said the guys didn't take her seriously anymore? "That's a bit… I don't know. I fell in love with him too," Aisha sighed and frowned. She was still hurt with Chung's rejection every time she remembered it, but she couldn't do anything about it.

Add looked at confused Noah, then looked back at Aisha. "Then what are you gonna do? You want us to hook you guys up back?"

Aisha flinched and shook her head. "No, no! Chung doesn't love me anymore! Thank you, though."

"The f-ck did that boy want then?" Add massaged his forehead in confusion. He sighed heavily, thinking about sharing some personal stuff between boys and girls. "When will you guys stop using potions? Until all of you get a couple?"

"Probably… Is it that obvious?" Aisha asked with a forced smile.

"You guys were getting close to Ain, then after you and Chung broke up, you guys are finally trying to get him. Rena might have intentionally tried to put a girl with him at the hotel. Now you guys are talking with him every midnight. It's pretty obvious to me," Add answered with a straight face. He didn't know what to express to them and their potions anymore. He pointed at Noah with his thumb. "Are you guys getting him too?"

"Personally, no. You can relax and eat," Aisha smiled at Noah, confusing the boy even more. She faced Add and tilted her head. "Last question about this thing. So you boys see me in a bad way or not?"

"Not really. We teased Chung instead for getting broken-hearted," Add answered with a smirk and got up from his chair.

"Some friends you guys are! Why so mean?" Aisha asked in disbelief and stood up, almost making the chair fall over.

"We felt bad, but what can we do about it?" Add shrugged and gestured to Noah to get up as well. He went to his lab to get something first. Then he walked toward the front door to get out and locked the door before leaving. He had to go out or the conversation would turn into random gossip and keep going.

"Who does Chung like now?" Aisha asked with a smile. She actually wanted to know whether Chung already has someone else in his heart or not.

"Nobody? He read too many books," Add shrugged. He wouldn't be the type to know someone else's feelings that weren't obvious anyway.

Bang! Bang! Slash!

The empty field was the abandoned Temple of the Wind. The remains of the broken building were everywhere, surrounded by the sands. Rose and Raven were very careful to not destroy anything, but they might accidentally did. In exchange, the sands were covering their eyes.

"Why are we here again?" Aisha asked with a confused look. She simply followed Add to wherever he was going. Noah did the same, except he bought snacks and drinks along the way.

Add stayed silent and watched the couple from a distance. He was too used to being with Rose every day. His instinct just made him visit any empty field that comes to his mind just to see her. He wasn't sure what to do when he actually did.

Rose noticed their presence because she was in the air, waving her free hand at them. The couple approached them while they're trying to get the sands out of their eyes. "Here," Add handed out two goggles for them.

"Oh, nice! Thank you very much!" Rose smiled and wore the goggles. Now the two of them could destroy everything freely… or maybe they would hold themselves.

"Jerky," Noah said and gave a pack of Sander Jerky to Raven. He remembered the time when he had to eat jerkys all day because of Raven's obsession.

"If we can fight in the air, I think it'll be more efficient. Raven can slash while in the air, you guys should try too!" Rose smiled, patting Add and Aisha's shoulders.

Aisha laughed and shook her head. "No, no! I know I'm a magician, but not like this!"

"Maybe you should convince Ain about that," Add suggested and tilted his head a bit. Surely an angel could do that easily, right? Even though he never saw any wings on Ain's back.

After a while, the three of them walked away from the empty field. "What should we do? Should we go to Cobo Cafe and explain something? I don't want them to get fired."

"You mean 'him'? You still care for Chung," Add sighed and opened the town's map as they walked to the cafe.

"I-I do! What's wrong with that?!" Aisha pouted, her face flushed red and she could feel her ears getting hot too.

Horror escape room was the favorite room because players can experience many feelings in one go. Too bad Eve and Chung couldn't feel the thrills. "I thought humans are scared of this," Eve said as she looked at a shirt on a corpse's body to search for a clue. Obviously not a real corpse. "I was hoping you would get scared and hug me."

"It's just a room with creepy stuff. I would be scared if I never faced demons," Chung responded. He took a skull and opened its mouth. "Ah, a key!"

"We should bring friends next time. Aisha and Add are scared of this thing," Eve chuckled as she approached Chung to look at the key. It was a golden key with red paint at the end of it, which was supposed to be blood.

Chung unlocked the door behind them, the door leading to the exit, marked as the end of the escape room. The staff clapped their hands and asked if they enjoyed the experience. Aside from the horror that they didn't find fun, it was an enjoyable experience.

They walked out of the place, blinded by the sunlight outside. For Eve, she could easily adjust her vision's brightness to the environment. But they kept walking to find something new. "Chung, should we go home—"

Chung pulled Eve's hand to drag her body closer to him. A bike with two men just passed by, trying to steal whatever was in Eve's possession. But because Chung pulled her away from their reach, they kept going and let it go. "Should we? It's too bright, I don't know where I'm going."

"I see it! I'm sorry, I need that!"

Eve turned around when she heard the familiar voices. It was Noah, walking to the smoothie shop behind them. Add and Aisha were following him from the back. "Eve! Chung!" Aisha waved her hands when she noticed them.

Add chuckled and hit Aisha's arm with his elbow. "Do you want to try? I'll distract Eve."

Aisha jumped a bit by his question while watching the couple walk toward them. Even though it might affect nothing, it felt so wrong. Especially when it was about stealing someone else's boyfriend. "Uhm… no—"

"Eve, I need to discuss something with you. Are you busy?" Add asked, making his Dynamo float around Eve. Each one of them was showing different pages of the same feature. Eve was nodding her head while she was reading the codes. "I tried to tighten the security of my program, but there might be flaws. Can you try hacking it so I can update the security?"

Eve looked at Chung, making sure it was okay for her to help Add. Chung gave a nod, which made her feel relieved. She smiled at Add and nodded her head. "Sure, I'll help you. Should we head back?"

Add and Eve waved their hands before leaving. Noah, who finally got his smoothie, gave a smile at Aisha. "I kinda understand what's happening. Good luck!" Noah waved his hand as he left Aisha and Chung.

"W-Wait! 'Good luck'?!" Aisha shouted in surprise as she watched Noah run away from them. Literally running away as fast as he could. She sighed, finally facing Chung. "Well, um… wanna go to the bookstore?"

"Sure. I haven't read books lately," Chung nodded and looked away from her. Fortunately, like their current timeline, he hadn't read books for the last few days. He was thinking about what to finish and what new books to find.

Aisha smiled and grabbed Chung's hand, walking to the bookstore she and Nisha found yesterday. It was a bit far from their place, so… she wanted to use the opportunity to hold hands with her ex.

"A-Aisha! Do we have to—"

"It's crowded here! It's fine," Aisha giggled, holding Chung's hand tighter. Her face felt hot, probably bright red now. She didn't want to face him, but she really missed him. Her mind was filled with excitement, she couldn't think properly on what to do.

Another bike was coming through, stealing people's possessions. Chung pulled Aisha's hand to drag her away from the robber's reach. But Aisha lost her balance, falling right into Chung's arms as the bike passed by. "I'm sorry," he apologized and helped her to stand up.

Aisha laughed and finally got her balance back. There were a bit of tears coming out of her eyes. She really loved this moment, but knowing it won't happen again made her sad. She was still regretting herself for cheating for fun. Chung was worried about it, but she shook her head with a smile and continued leading the way to the bookstore. "It's the sands from that bike, don't worry," she lied as she wiped her tears.

Special thanks to Nicole Tamashii for the idea!

Any romance expert? Have you ever gone back with your ex? :')

Thanks for reading!