welcome to neo, a city without limits, forever expanding!
you are currently in city center.

a complete timeline of neocity

! SPOILER ALERT ! if you found this page by error and havent read the story yet, stay away !!

arrivals are in bold. timestamps are italicised, and are all in relation to after event 0.

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PRIOR EVENTS

(chenle and jisung briefly meet at a competition event for charity in china) (mentioned chapter 15)

event 0: taeil, followed minutes later by jisung. they fraternise in the cabin. (chapter 12)

six months: the locals (hansol, taeyong, doyoung, jaehyun, jungwoo, jeno, donghyuck, jaemin). separation of taeil and jisung. (chapter 12)

jaehyun discovers nothing in neo can be destroyed. (chapter 14)

taeyong and jeno pretend to be brothers. (chapter 9)

a year, six months: johnny. (chapter 3)

a year, nine months: mark. (chapter 7)

donghyuck learns about the not-neo. (chapter 7)

two years: kun.

chenle. jisung has a real memory. [the event triggers back his faith in people, lost with taeil] (chapter 15)

jisung goes to johnny to make an information deal; they agree to meet every end of rain week.

yuta.

renjun.

donghyuck and renjun become friends, and soon enough with jeno and jaemin they go on adventures together.

three years: renjun discovers and touches the exit, gaining back some memories. johnny and neo lose track of him. (chapter 18)

sicheng. yuta and sicheng meet. (chapter 10)

creation of the kunbelievers

yuta and sicheng go to the beach. (chapter 10)

hansol and taeil talk about the state of the city and its citizens. hansol suggests a disruption. (chapter 18)

hansol asks renjun for the exit. last known whereabouts.

four years: disappearance of hansol. weather disruption. jungwoo’s headaches start with taeyong’s pain. (chapter 8)
beginning of chenle’s nightmares. (chapter 12)

four years, one month: end of weather disruption.

creation of the city council. mark becomes handyman, yuta becomes official keeper of the night.

four years, two months: ten. (chapter 3)

jaehyun switches target, burns trees

yuta hands sicheng the sun. (chapter 10)

JAEMIN'S ILLNESS

four years, four months: jeno sees a butterfly. jaemin falls ill. mark gets appointed doctor. (chapter 9)jeno breaks down in doyoung's arms, they become friends. (chapter 5)chenle and jaemin talk about jeno. (chapter 15)jaemin asks jeno if he loves him. jeno has a talk with taeyong (chapter 9)jaemin and jeno reconciliate. (chapter 9)four years, seven months: d-day. jaehyun asks doyoung on a date. jaemin dies, mark has a panic attack, johnny hesitates, jisung brings jaemin back. (chapters 5 & 7)
(hansol meets the perfect disturbance.) [mentioned chapter 18]

five years: yukhei. jungwoo has a permanent headache (chapter 8)

three days later: yukhei walks through the gray area, but never sees the end of it and comes back. neo notices the rebel in yukhei, sneaks the idea into ten’s head through johnny to match jungwoo and him. (mentioned chapter 16)

five years, ten months: yukhei gets suspicious of jungwoo.

five years, eleven months: sicheng has a dream about yuta and a mysterious man he can’t recognize, later confirmed as taeil. (chapter 1 & 18)

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'THE WIND SINGS LULLABIES'

six years: sicheng helps yuta put up the moon. (chapter 1)

renjun almost gets burned. jaehyun saves renjun’s life. (chapter 2)
renjun gains some memories back.

johnny and jisung have their monthly meet-up. (chapter 3)

the kunbelievers go to the mall. kun sees taeyong & the last day in a vision prompted by yukhei. (chapter 4)

taeil holds taeyong back in city hall. kun meets taeyong. (chapter 6)

chenle gets an urge for the fast food joint, but buys a pizza instead. (mentioned chapter 12)
thinking he is needed over there, mark and donghyuck go to work. mark reveals jaemin’s unknown status. (chapter 7)

yukhei breaks up with jungwoo. ten and johnny take him to the cabin. (chapter 8)
renjun gains some more memories back.

jeno and jaemin’s friendship takes a turn. (chapter 9)

taeil pretends to hook up with yuta to help sicheng realize his feelings, in vain. (chapter 10)

kun, taeyong, doyoung and ten help donghyuck renovate mark’s house. (chapter 11)

kun asks taeyong about hansol. (chapter 11)

renjun goes help out donghyuck at mark’s and figures something is wrong with him. (mentioned chapter 14)

ONE DAY LEFT

jisung visits jungwoo. (chapter 12)mark confronts johnny, leaving his responsibilities. (chapter 13)ten overhears their conversation, bumps into donghyuck & jaehyun as he runs away. (chapter 14)jisung speaks with taeil. (chapter 12)renjun tries to tell mark about the exit. (chapter 13)jaehyun asks yukhei for help, tells him about jungwoo’s headaches. (chapter 14)donghyuck shows mark his house makeover. (chapter 13)
THE LAST DAY

early morning, ten discovers the computer room. (chapter 16)jaehyun notices the buildings don’t grow back anymore. him and doyoung see a butterfly. (chapter 14)sicheng and yuta go to yukhei’s to help him in his search of jungwoo.ten confronts johnny. (chapter 16)yuta faints. sicheng screams. (chapter 17)mark’s senses tell him he is needed at city center.jungwoo’s powers disintegrate; he leaves the cabin. (chapter 15)jeno and jaemin join the scene. (chapter 17)ten runs to the mall, where he finds a hatchet.mark reveals jaemin’s death. (chapter 17)jungwoo comes across jisung and chenle; they head out to city center. (chapter 15)the rest of the citizens join, the commotion making a lot of noise.jeno leaves to find jaemin and brings him back. (chapter 17)taeil arrives, instructs everyone to leave. (chapter 17 & 18)when the dots start huddling in the same spot, ten draws himself a map of neo to join them afterwards. then, he gets to work.the story unfolds. the city crumbles. everyone leaves. (chapter 18)
so, what was neo?
as mark said it best in nctmentary, we connect with each other through dreams.
there’s this movie on netflix, ive only read the description but i thought it fit my idea pretty well. it was about how in the future, they developed a technology where you could swallow a pill and live an entire life in the span of minutes, only to wake up in your real life and continue living again. thats how i imagine neo to work like, in a way. a dream state connecting all these individuals, a ripple in time untouched from the real world (‘my guess? we arent anywhere’, said taeil to jisung).
it also means all these 'years' time stamps is only taeil's perception of the time they spent inside (the number of days he's seen), and not the actual, real-world time stamps.

an epilogue of sorts

! SPOILER ALERT ! if you found this page by error and havent read the story yet, stay away !!

you don't have to read this. the complete story stands as its own on ao3. this is just a bonus for those who would like closure. then again, it might not go the way you expect; do not be mad at me if your characters dont end up where you wanted. you chose to read this part.

names are in bold (if you're only looking to know what happens to specific people).
timestamps are italicised, and all are in relation to after the last day (see timeline)

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one day: doyoung goes to the airport as soon as he gets back on land. jaehyun is waiting for him out front, having predicted he would try to flee, but doyoung too had thought of jaehyun’s next move and bought two planes tickets. jaehyun had also predicted this outcome and brought a travel bag in case. they decide to go on an engagement honeymoon before beginning their challenge. (they never start the challenge, and stay together instead.)

one week: renjun is good at school, but he is miserable there. after finding out his great love for nature in neo, he signs up in an environmental activism club, lead by a transfer student named yangyang. his art skills grant him the privilege of doing the banners, and slowly, he feels like he belongs. (one year: yangyang moves back to his own country, leaving renjun in charge of the club. nobody joins that year, and renjun is forced to close it down. it doesn’t feel as crushing as he thought it would, for what he cherishes will always live within him.)

one month: yukhei goes back to his hometown after running away for so long.

six months: kun and taeyong bump into each other at the airport, not recognizing the other at first. just before kun embarks on his flight, he remembers, ditching his flight and running around the airport in search of taeyong. they find each other; taeyong has been running around for him as well. time seems to slow down when they hug again. (eight months: taeyong moves in kun’s apartment in china. they get a succulent with a tiny blue flower in an orange pot. one year, two months: kun and taeyong bump into hansol. taeyong doesn’t let go of kun’s hand. kun kisses taeyong that night. taeyong kisses him back.)

one year: yukhei, reminded of why he had left in the first place, leaves again. his travels bring him to korea, where he stumbles upon jungwoo in a bar. they are happy to see each other, but something feels different. whereas in neo they were never left apart, the year without each other has cleared their minds. jungwoo thinks they were never meant to be. the exaggerated feelings he always felt with his abilities had tempered his emotions, and yukhei’s desire for evasion had always clashed with jungwoo’s nature. both projecting what they wanted onto the other. had they been more in synch, they would have found a way to handle yukhei’s doubts in a different way than the explosion, or perhaps it would have never happened in the first place. but they weren’t. jungwoo tells him he’s going away, a humanitarian trip. he has met a couple of the people on his trip already; there’s a guy named hyunmin who seems nice. yukhei is happy for him. he asks if he can get one last kiss. jungwoo obliges, and leaves.

one year, six months: jisung and his mom fly out to the city where he had his competition when he was young, after a lot of pleading from his behalf. they go revisit the theater, but jisung doesnt care; he wants to know where the other performers went. his mother tell him it was his dance school from korea partnering up with an orphanage for talented kids in the area. jisung and his mom go to said orphanage. from the window, he sees chenle surrounded by a bunch of younger kids, playing with them. chenle looks up. jisung waves at him. chenle breaks into the biggest grin jisung has ever seen.

two years: johnny and ten meet again. they don't remember each other, the things they did, or neo. one day, johnny does remember, and is eaten by guilt. at night he tells ten it was jisung who saved jaemin, and not him. ten tells him it was never really him in the first place, and that it’s a thing of the past now. ten loves johnny as he is now; the real johnny. they go forward.

three years: sicheng knocks on the door, fingers crossed. yuta opens; sicheng breathes in relief (he wouldn’t have supported to see another stranger at another wrong address). ‘can i help you?’ yuta demands, frowning. sicheng’s smile falters. ‘yuta, its me. sicheng’ he tries. ‘do i know you?’ yuta asks, gripping the door, ready to close it at any second. desperate, sicheng shows yuta his burnt palms, asking ‘do you know how many people can say they touched the sun?’. yuta closes the door on him. sicheng, defeated, waits under the porch for a minute, and when he turns around to finally leave, the door opens again. ‘you and me,’ yuta replies. there are tears in his eyes. sicheng smiles.

four years: jaemin is browsing his university’s annual art mag when a page catches his eye. it’s a poem he recognizes, but it’s modified from the original. he goes to the people responsible for the mag, demanding to meet the writer that got it wrong. the editors tell him it's the original, but jaemin has none of it and closes his eyes, reciting the right version by heart. he opens his eyes to see jeno, who had heard the commotion from afar and walked up to the front desk, crying at his words. jeno engulfs jaemin into a hug, whispering his name over and over again.

six years: taeil stands alone on a club rooftop in paris. he is smoking, looking out on the city the way he used to. a man asks him for a light. taeil recognizes the voice, but hands over the light without saying a word. the man jokingly tells taeil while he lights his own cigarette that ‘smoking kills, you know’. taeil replies, i missed you. hansol replies, i missed you too.

eight years: renjun runs into yukhei in a bar, in beijing. yukhei thinks its ironic. renjun doesn’t ask why. but somehow, it feels very comforting to be in each other’s presence. it almost feels like the home they never had.

twenty years: mark is thirty-eight. when he receives an invitation to his coworker yerim’s wedding, a pang of loneliness hits him. that night, he goes to a temple to pray, as he does when he feels down. he thought he was alone in the room, but then a man from his side tells him ‘when you said two days, two months or twenty years, i thought you were exaggerating’. mark turns. donghyuck’s grown up smile is even more beautiful than it used to be. a tear escapes mark’s eye, followed by a laugh. ‘i thought i was too’.