FIREFALL, OR IN EXO WONDERLAND ▷ COMPLETE

Aristotle's Experiment With Connection Failure

CHAPTER 33: ARISTOTLE'S EXPERIMENT WITH CONNECTION FAILURE

During the time of ancient Greece, the famous philosopher Aristotle hypothesised that if a heavy iron ball and a light iron ball are dropped from the same height, the heavier one will reach the ground first. That wasn't a very good assumption.

Nevertheless, the scientific world swallowed this hypothesis whole for two thousand excruciating years until Italian scientist Galileo Galilei disproved it by performing the said experiment from the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The two iron balls reached the ground at the same time. Gravity gave both of them the same acceleration.

As for Baekhyun, he was the one leaning towards the tower to see the highest room. How long will it take to fall from up there? After forever, maybe? That wasn't a very good assumption, too.

And the question shouldn't be about falling down—it's all about rising up.

Suddenly, a ring of fire blazed around Baekhyun. He was encircled, trapped;  caged by rising flames. "Wha? What is that?" he shrieked.

"Sehun!" Chanyeol barked. "Let out the platform!"

From his hands, a shaky, innocent Sehun let out a small cyclone under Baekhyun's feet. Baekhyun was levitating on the small-cyclone beneath his leather shoes. His arms flapped around to maintain his balance. As Sehun was doing so, the little boy cried and cried—there was nothing else he could do.

The cyclone extinguished the ring of fire so that Chanyeol could get one step closer to Baekhyun.

"Why did you do this to me? King or not, we can still be brothers, right?" Baekhyun pleaded, his voice almost masked by the strong wind.

Chanyeol leapt from the ground and with his long legs, he managed to stand atop the cyclone platform beside his pleading twin. He trained his irate eyes on the frightened Baekhyun. "I might be the second, but I'm not a failure. Sehun!" He barked again. "Levitate!"

"Yes, Chan hyung!" Sehun replied between sniffs. His sharp little chin trembled. He stared down at his hands. His dirty hands. Aha, Sehun! Got you now! Hands dirty as mud! his mind taunted.

Dirty as mud!

Hands dirty as mud!

"What are you waiting, Sehunnie? Levitate!" Chanyeol's repeated order stopped the internal taunting.

Sehun winced. With these dirty hands, he lifted the cyclone higher, ascending against the pull of gravity, up, up passing one level after another.

The platform stopped by the room they had wondered about before. The highest level of the tower. Inches away from Baekhyun was a window. Below him was the vast, colourful landscape of Wonderland. There was no way back.

Baekhyun made a last-ditch effort to change his twin's mind. Black tears carved rivers from Hell on his face. For the second time, he pleaded: "Calm down, calm down. Channie, think about what father will say if he saw us fighting—"

It didn't work out.

"Father loves you, he hates me!" Along with those screams, Chanyeol forced the windows open, pushed Baekhyun in and sealed the shutters shut from outside.

"Channie!" Baekhyun was heard to bang on the locked windows. "Open, Channie. Just give me one last chance, please!"

Chanyeol pulled his hands from the windows.

"Channie, please—"

Chanyeol looked away. Somehow, he still felt as if he had lost a best friend, but he could only point his index finger downwards.