Chapter Text
It was raining lightly when Seokjin woke up from his little nap. He set his alarm an hour before his night shift would begin. He loved the sound of rain, something he caught after he began dating his current boyfriend. So woken up by the sound of it always made his day a tad bit better. He took his time in the shower, the CS where he worked the night shift at was just fifteen minutes walk from his small apartment. It was a one room apartment with living room, bathroom and kitchen, but the building was new, and cost the same as other apartment with the same spaces in older building, so he considered himself lucky to be able to find this apartment after he graduated and had to leave the campus' dorm.
Getting out of his room he found his boyfriend hunched in front of his coffee table, typing furiously on his laptop.
"Joon-ah, kiss!" Seokjin demanded, stopping by his side on his way to his kitchen.
Namjoon looked up from his task, smiling brightly before tugging his work clothes' collar to grant his wish.
Namjoon's lip were a little chapped, but his mouth was warm as he kissed him softly, taking his time, knowing exactly how Seokjin like to be kissed. Seokjin hummed happily.
He parted the kiss first after a few minutes when he felt how uncomfortable his position was, hunched over Namjoon.
"How's the thesis going?" Seokjin nodded his head toward Namjoon's laptop.
"I'm working on the revisions for the last chapter, if this gets approved, I'll be able to graduate early next year"
"No need to rush, there's nothing exciting awaits you once you're a young adult except bills and student's loan to pay, there's one living and breathing example right here in front of you" Seokjin quipped.
"Jeez..., thanks for the support hyung" Namjoon sarcastically retorted.
Seokjin laughed lightly, ruffled his boyfriend's overgrown hair as he offered to refill his empty cup of coffee. He made three portions of coffee and poured the other two into his thermos. His bag was always filled with four essential things whenever he went for work. His thermos filled coffee, a small bag of gummy worms, his phone and charger, and his wallet.
"Hey, you have a day off tomorrow right Joon?" Seokjin put the refilled cup of coffee in front of Namjoon.
"Yeah, why?" Namjoon looked at him curiously.
"Do you think you can finish your revisions tonight so we can have a lazy day tomorrow, just the two of us?"
Namjoon's lips quirked upward, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"I think you can absolutely read my mind" Seokjin smirked.
Namjoon laughed wholeheartedly and hearing it was already a delight for Seokjin.
"I'll try my best hyung, but no promises" Namjoon finally answered.
"Okay, just text me whether you'll stay the night or not, so I can make some preparation before getting home" Seokjin winked but didn't give Namjoon a chance to reply as he got up, gave one peck on the mouth to say his goodbye and went to work.
He got there on time, spent his shift rather boringly like most of his night shifts were. Seokjin worked at two places, in the morning he was an intern at this new -but had promising growth- publishing company. He didn't get paid like most of the interns, but he was only need to work three hours a day. He enjoyed his time there too, he assisted this one editor that he actually idolized, and he learned a lot from her. But he still need a paying job to pay his bills so he worked full time on the CS near his apartment.
His shift ended at 1 AM, but the street was still quiet lively this time of night in this part of the city, so Seokjin always opted to just walk home.
Tonight was like any other nights, nothing was out of ordinary. On his way back, Seokjin checked his text and found a message from his boyfriend that said he couldn't finished his revisions yet followed with selca of a pouty Namjoon. Seokjin giggled, sending a reply that said it was alright, at least he had set his priorities right then he stop to take a selca of him smiling with a V sign placed on his cheek and sent them to Namjoon.
He was about to pocketed his phone back when he saw a bright flying blue dot captured in his selca he just sent. It was just behind his back, he turned around and realized he was standing in front of the alley behind his favorite noodle shop. There along the dark alley the bright blue dot was floating freely and curiosity got the best of him as Seokjin step closer to it. It was the size of a tennis ball and it flew right in front of his eyesight. When he was near it was clear that the blue ball of light was floating, with no string or cable or whatsoever attached to it.
Seokjin unconsciously raised his hand to touch it, as if he was hypnotized by the blue light. Seokjin had a feeling that this thing wasn't an ordinary thing, and weirdly enough he sensed that the blue light was alive, that it was a 'being'.
When his raised hand finally touched the blue light, Seokjin blacked out.
Five minutes away from that place, his boyfriend smiled fondly at the selca that he just received. He rested his head on the coffee table in front of him, exhausted from the day, thinking that he would meet his beloved boyfriend soon then proceed to fell asleep, unknowingly that he would freaked out when he woke up the next morning and Seokjin never went home.
- •
When Seokjin opened his eyes, he had to blink rapidly to adjust to the harsh fluorescent white light. He looked at his surroundings and concluded that he was in a hospital. He didn't know how he got there, the last thing he remembered was the floating ball of bright blue light. He sat up on his bed then feeling himself, he seem uninjured, he felt fine. He still wore the same outfit as last night. His bed was surrounded by closed grey curtains so he couldn't see anything beyond the curtains, but there were voices and sounds of beeping machines that confirmed his suspicion that he was indeed in a hospital.
He was about to get up when a male nurse open the curtain of his makeshift room, "Oh, Kim Seokjin-ssi, you're awake"
"Yeah, just about a few minutes ago"
The nurse approached him while checking the clipboard that previously hang on his bed, “How do you feel right now Kim Seokjin-ssi, anything is hurting?"
"I'm feeling just fine, what happened though? Why am I here?"
The nurse took his wrist then started to count his pulse so Seokjin knew he won't answer right away, he took a look around, after the nurse got inside his room, he left the curtains open so now he can see outside. The clock on the wall indicated it’s a quarter past 10, but there was no way to know whether it's AM or PM.
"You were found fainted in an alleyway and no matter what we did we couldn't wake you up" the nurse finally answered his question while writing on the clipboard, "I'm going to call the doctor to explain your situation, please wait here for a while" the nurse said then proceed to leave again.
Seokjin sat back in bed, when he spotted his bag laying on the small table beside the bed he took it.
"Ah...Joonie must've been worried" he said to no one in particular as he searched for his phone inside his bag.
His phone was dead. Tsk-ing he reached inside his bag again to find his charger. He found a power outlet under the table so he plugged it there. When it finally turned on, he opened his last chat with Namjoon, he found it a little bit weird that there were no miss calls or any messages at all asking his whereabouts. That's when he realized his phone got no signals at all.
Must be because of the hospital's equipments interfere the signal's waves. Seokjin pondered, then proceed to turned on his wifi receiver to connect it with the hospital's network. At the same time, the previous nurse came back with a female doctor in tow, Seokjin put his phone back on the table, screen facing down but he heard the incessant sounds of notifications coming in. He ignored it in favor of facing the doctor.
"Kim Seokjin-ssi, my name is Go Minah, I'm the doctor who's in charge when the police brought you here"
"The police?"
The doctor nodded, "According to them, they received a call from a shop owner who found you fainted behind their shop this morning around 5 AM, we checked your vitals and didn't find anything out of ordinary, but no matter what we do we can't wake you up. Do you remember why you were fainted in the first place?"
Seokjin remembered the bright blue ball clearly but he didn't know how to explained that to the doctor without sounding weird, so he shook his head slowly, "I don't really remember anything"
"I see" the doctor then took a notebook from inside her doctor's coat, "Can you please answer a few questions from me?"
Seokjin nodded again.
"Do you know your name?"
"Yes, I'm Kim Seokjin"
"Do you remember how old you are?"
"I'm 23 years old"
The doctor paused mid way from her writing, look at him for a minute, but then she resumed her questioning unperturbed, "Do you remember where you live?"
"Yes, I rented an apartment in Dongdaemun"
"Do you know what day it is today?"
"Ehm...Friday?" Seokjin said it like a question since he was not so sure himself, assuming he was only fainted for a night.
"What was the last thing you remember before fainted?"
"Ehm...I was just walking home from work, while exchanging texts with my boyfriend"
"Do you know what date it is today?"
"If today is indeed Friday than...October 30th 2015"
The way she looked at him after he answered the question made him thought as if he's doing something terribly wrong, she slipped back her notebook inside her coat, took a deep breath and said, "Kim Seokjin-ssi, we already conducted few tests while you were unconscious and we didn't find any abnormalities, but I don't think I can send you home with this condition"
"Huh? What do you mean? What condition?" Seokjin asked, thoroughly confused.
"Kim Seokjin-ssi, today's date is not October 30th, today's date is December 1st..."
"What?! You mean I fainted for a whole month?"
The doctor shook her head, "Kim Seokjin-ssi, today's date is December 1st 2020"
Seokjin caught off guard for a moment but then he cackled, "Is this a prank? Waaa, what kind of show is this, I give you two thumbs ups, the set feels so real"
The female doctor sighed, Seokjin had to admit her acting is almost get him, but the prank was just so absurd, nobody would fall into it.
"Kim Seokjin-ssi, the police have warn us about the possibilities of you being kidnap, although your body seems perfectly fine, it's clear that mentally you've shaken"
"Kidnap? Kidnap by who? Alien?..." Seokjin giggled at himself for that.
There was a commotion somewhere near, Seokjin thoughts they probably decided to wrap the prank up, he heard someone mentioned his name, so he poked his head outside the curtains.
There was a guy outside talking animatedly with a nurse, this guy looked familiar somehow but he was sure he never seen him before. He suddenly looked pass behind the nurse's body and their eyes met. His eyes widen, he ran to Seokjin and before he knew it, he was tackled in hug.
"Whoaa, whoaa...who the fuck are you?" Seokjin said as he shoved the weird guy, backing away until his back hit the table beside his bed.
The guy stumbled with the force of Seokjin's push, his eyes looked a bit wild, "Hyung, it's me....Joonie"
"The fuck you are, my Joonie doesn't look like you, you have his face, your body though..." Seokjin shook his head as he checked the guy upside down.
"Kim Namjoon-ssi..." the Doctor cuts in, the weird guy turn to look at her, seemingly just aware of her presence next to them, "I'm the doctor in charge, the police have inform me that you're going to come, maybe we should discuss this in my room"
Seokjin scoffed, this prank was getting out of hand, he clearly didn't buy it, why were they still adamant to continue it, "If you're going to involve Namjoon, you should at least invite the real Namjoon, not this...this gym-hitter-freak"
The fake Namjoon looked back at him, "You really don't recognize me hyung?" his despair act was pretty convincing.
"Stop the act okay, I feel like I'm cheating on my boyfriend if I believe you" Seokjin crossed his arms and straightened his back like a challenging posture.
"Kim Namjoon-ssi, lets discuss this in my room " the doctor said again more urgently.
The fake Namjoon finally followed the doctor out of Seokjin's room, or whatever you called the bed on the ER room was. Seokjin scoffed once again, louder than before in hope that they heard him and finally realized how ridiculous this prank was.
Seokjin searched around the bed, tried to find the cameras, planning to show them his middle finger, but he couldn't find any.
Weird
Seokjin contemplating to turn the bed upside down before his phone rang, he took it and saw it was his Mom before he answered.
"Hi Mom"
There's a loud gasp from the other line and it turned into sobs, "M-my baby, you're really come back to us?, this is not a dream right?"
"Mom? What's wrong?"
The sobs had turn to crying now and Seokjin heart ached hearing his Mom cried like this, the last time he saw his Mom crying was on his grandmother's funeral when he was 10.
"I'm just so happy, my Seokjinnie has return" she managed to say with a cracked voice.
"Mom, I was just fainted for one night, did Namjoonie called you incessantly? You know he's a worrier, I'm fine now" Seokjin said hoping it would calm his Mom down.
"You've been gone for years Seokjin-ah, what happened? Where have you been all these years?"
Seokjin was a prankster, but he knew that he didn't get that from his mother, she was too honest and even a small child could tell if she wasn't telling the truth, Seokjin took a minute to tried to absorb the information that he just got, he did fainted, that he knew, but he really couldn't tell for how long was he? But still fainting for five years was impossible to comprehend.
"Mom, wait a minute, don't tell me they've roped you into this too, smart move though, they know I'll believe anything you say."
"Honey, what are you talking about?"
"I think they tried to prank me to believe I've been fainted for five years, huh! It sound even more ridiculous saying it out loud."
"Honey, we don't know what you've been through all these years, but you've been missing for five years Seokjin-ah. Everyone has trying to convince me to give up on you, that you'll never come back. But you're here now, you've come back to us now. Oh God I really miss you, I wish I could be there right now and see you with my own eyes." She's crying again now and Seokjin was very, very confused.
He was sitting on the bed, thankfully, because if not he'll probably dropped on the floor with the way his knees weakened, he still heard his Mom crying over the phone. He thought again about everything that he just saw, the doctor, the guy that had Namjoon's face but a buffer body, there's no way that he can look like that over a night, unless he inject himself with Captain America's serum. But Seokjin still wore the same clothes as last night, well, he thought it was last night. He rummaged his bag and found his gummy candies, he looked at it carefully, it still looked exactly as the last time he saw it, wasn't it supposed to be expired by now if what they said was true? He then took out his thermos, opened the lid and smell the inside of it. It smells like yesterday's coffee, not a five years old coffee.
But his Mom.
She would never lie to him, and it's not even April fool's day, there was just no reason for her to do this.
"Mom?" he called her slowly.
"Yes honey?"
"I need to check on something first, I'll get back to you as soon as I can okay Mom?"
"Alright, don't be too long, or I'll end up worried again"
"I won't, I'll call you later okay, I love you"
"I love you too honey"
Seokjin hung up and looking at his phone screen he now saw hundreds of missed calls and also hundreds of unread messages on all of his social media platforms, and when he looked at the date on the screen, it reads December 1st 2020.
Seokjin dropped his phone.
It's Impossible
This kind of things only happen in the movies. What the fuck is happening?
Seokjin's mind swirled, he felt like someone just pulled the rug under his feet. The doctor's words, the fake Namjoon and his Mom's voice all looping nonstop inside his head and it feels like someone had turned the volume to the highest level. His ears started buzzing.
Then his brain supplied him one important information.
The blue ball of light.
With a shaking hand he reached for his phone on the floor, ignoring all the unread messages, he searched his gallery for his latest selca. It's the exact same thing as he took it last night, that night, whenever that was, the blue ball was there too. So he was not crazy, this is really happening. His live really had been fast forwarded five years ahead.
Seokjin's head throbbed, his world was spinning even if he was sitting down, he felt like fainting again. If he fainted again, will he be back to that night? No, the thing that making him faint the first time was the blue light, and now it was not around. Should he looked for that ball of light again?
Seokjin didn't know what to think, after all the commotion inside his head, seemed like his brain was trying to give him a break, his mind suddenly just blanked, he just sat there and looking at his phone screen without actually seeing it.
He didn't how much time had passed until someone opened the curtains once again and woke him up from his stupor.
It was the fake Namjoon and the doctor.
"Kim Seokjin-ssi" the doctor called.
"Yes?"
"Mr. Kim Namjoon here was listed as your guardian, he was approved and appointed by your Mother to represent her if she was unavailable. We discussed what's best to do with your situation, and since there's nothing wrong with your body, we will send you home with him. But if you refuse, or would like to call someone else, we will give you time to reach them."
Seokjin shook his head, "No, it's okay, I'll go home with him."
"Really?" fake Namjoon looked so surprise, Seokjin didn't blame him, with the way he acted before it was only natural for him to be that way.
Seokjin just nodded weakly, he still didn't want to talk about it, he needed more time.
The doctor seemed relieved though as she continued, "then Kim Namjoon- ssi, you can go take care of the administrations while I explain to Kim Seokjin-ssi about the procedures after he get discharged."
"Alright, I'll take care of it, but can I speak to him for a moment first?" fake Namjoon asked the doctor.
"I understand, I'll give you some time alone" she said before she left and closing the curtains again to give them privacy.
"Hyung.."
Fake Namjoon wanted to say something but Seokjin cut him off, "Give me your phone!" he demanded while stretching his hand towards him. Even if he look confused, he still did what Seokjin asked, always so obedient. Wait, no, his Namjoon was obedient, this one is still fake Namjoon until his brain says otherwise.
Fake Namjoon handed him a folded phone, it's too sophisticated for a broke college guy in his latest semester to have.
Seokjin inspected the phone before carefully opened the fold. The first thing he noticed was the big number that tell today's date, it's the same as his, December 1st 2020 and the second thing was the screen lock. It was a picture of them both at a picnic they had with their friends, Hyejin candidly stole it, in the picture he was sitting on a blanket with Namjoon's head on his lap, he was fixing Seokjin's hair with one hand while the other one was holding a book. Hyejin said it look like a scene from a drama and then bragged her ability to see 'the moment' before anyone else did. It all still so clear in his mind, it was just a month ago for all Seokjin knew, and he had the exact same photo in his phone-gallery, it's just way clearer seeing it through fake Namjoon's phone screen.
"What's the password?" he asked without looking up.
"Still the same"
Seokjin typed in his birthday with trembling fingers and his heart lurched when the phone's unlocked, looks like he can't deny that this was really his reality now. They used to have the same type of phone, so in a rare occasion where he need to borrowed Namjoon's phone, he can always navigate through it easily, but now he was fumbling, not to mention his fingers that kept shaking and became an uncooperative piece of limbs.
He took a deep breath, looked up to Namjoon and decided to just asked what he initially wanted to find out on his own, "Can you show me the last selca that I sent you?"
"Of course hyung" fake Namjoon took his phone back and after tapping it a few times he gave it back to Seokjin, "here..." he said easily.
And there it was, his latest selca that he sent, with a clearer view once again because the damn phone that fake Namjoon had was obviously equipped with the newest smartphone technology.
Seokjin sagged on the bed, "You really are my Namjoonie are you?" he said that more to himself but Namjoon (real Namjoon not fake Namjoon, his brain finally accepted) heard him nevertheless.
"Of course I am hyung, I'm not that different from the last time you saw me, granted it's been 5 years, I'm bound to look a little bit different, you though...what happened to you hyung? You look exactly the same as the last time I saw you that night, even your clothes and your hair? I can't believe my eyes when I first saw you, it's like you don't aged...like at all."
Seokjin covered his face with both of his hands, he can feel the corner of his eyes a little wet, "I don't know Joon, I don't know what happened to me" his voice started to crack, and it looked like Namjoon also heard it because the next thing he knew, he was engulfed in an embrace.
"Hey, hey, it's okay, what matters is that you're here now, you're with me, you're gonna be okay, you don't have to tell me anything right now, just take your time"
Namjoon still smell the same, ever since Seokjin said he liked his pine scented perfume, he never experimented with other perfume again, it's familiar, and the way he hugged was also the same, Namjoon was always bigger than him, taller too, even if he was way leaner the last time they hugged each other, right now he was even bigger, buffer and he enveloped him completely that made Seokjin felt save.
"I wanna go home Joon" Seokjin mumbled against his chest, he still sounded somewhat watery.
"Alright, let's go home...let's go home together hyung." Namjoon answered him, his voice was soft and calming as he kissed the top of Seokjin's hair, a gesture that Seokjin found always comforting.
...