Broken [YunhoxOC Oneshot]
Characters - Yunho and OCs, Jaejoong (minor)
Genre -Angst, Supernatural (minor)
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Broken
A broken pocket watch rests in Yunho's overcoat's pocket. How long has it been broken? He doesn't remember honestly. Time has lost all meaning.
People measure time using various references. These references have changed over the ages. Some used the length of shadows. For some it was the level of water in a bucket. Some used burning candles. Some used hourglasses. These gave way to grandfather clocks and finally digital and atomic clocks.
Yunho has no set reference. It's different every time he wakes up. One minute it's morning, the next it is night. The glaring overhead sun switches with an eclipsed moon. He has honestly lost track of all time. His last link, the pocket watch, has long stopped working. Exactly how long has it been broken?
Jaejoong calls it a gift. He is the only one who knows. But Yunho calls it a curse. It depends on how you look at it really. Jaejoong would give up anything to travel back in time and stop the accident. He keeps repeating it is his fault. But if the accident never happened, how would he get the power of time travel to travel back in the first place and intervene? It's paradoxical. Messing with the flow of time is dangerous. One must bear the consequences of one's actions.
Yunho's heart grows heavy on hearing that sentence. Yet he doesn't remember why he can relate to it. His past before the accident is all a blur.
The saying is easier said than done. Yunho's lost count of the number of times he has flouted the rules. He can however trace it back to the first time he met her. She had been reading a book at the bus stop. Her bus was scheduled to arrive ten minutes later. (The pocket watch still worked at that time) she looked up and their eyes met. She bowed her head slightly in acknowledgement and Yunho returned the gesture. Did he know back then that this act would lead to some of his most life changing mistakes? No. He can only travel through time. He can't see the future.
It leads to more glances. Yunho finds himself gravitating more towards her. Two out of the seven times he travels, he ends up in her vicinity. Sometimes it is by the library. sometimes by her workplace. Once it was a park she was strolling in. The number increases to four and curiosity takes over. Why? there has to be a reason.
On his fifty second visit, he learns that she is engaged. She confides in her friend. He doesn't mean to but he overhears them all the same. On the sixty first visit, she is already married. He doesn't know who the groom is. But he knows that he keeps her happy. And for now that is enough. On the eightieth she is with child. He sees her in her kitchen, cooking some healthy stew for herself and talking to the baby. Yunho listens too. He has witnessed the death of an old man in his previous visit. The baby talk calms his nerves.
On the eighty-seventh visit, he learns that the couple have died in an accident. For a while Yunho stays frozen. The accident comes as a shock. But more surprising is the extent of grief felt. Yunho feels lost. Something important has transpired. But he doesn't understand. He doesn't want to. And for the first time he notices that the pocket watch is broken. How long has it been broken? How come he never noticed it stop?
The next jump through time, he wakes up in an orphanage. It's night and the little children are sleeping. Soft sniffles come from the corner of a room. There is a little girl there. It looks like she had cried herself to sleep while hugging a picture. Yunho takes pity on her. He pries the picture away from her hold gently and covers her with a blanket from a nearby closet. He puts the picture on a table next to her and that's when he notices.
It's a picture of her. With a child in her arms. And also... with him in it.
That's when he remembers. That's when it all makes sense. The accident, him gravitating towards her, Jaejoong's profuse apologies of breaking up a family. It all makes sense.
It is also when everything stops making sense. Yunho doesn't want to remember. He can't handle the pain. But he can't run away from his memories. Where can he run to? He can only move through time. And even then they will follow him like his shadows. It's a cross he has to bear.
Time heals all wounds. As time moves by, people forget old scars. They create new memories and move on. Yunho does not have that luxury. Time offers no relief to those stuck within it's seamless bounds.
The broken pocket watch is a comfort now. It cuts him away from the relentless tides of time. Time can't heal his wounds. He has nowhere to escape to.
How long has the pocket watch been broken?
-x-x-x-
A/N - Based on the song Broken by Lifehouse and loosely on The Time Traveler's Wife. The thought of time travel is fascinating as it is. I've been watching a lot of Doctor Who too. kekekeke~
Genre -Angst, Supernatural (minor)
.
Broken
A broken pocket watch rests in Yunho's overcoat's pocket. How long has it been broken? He doesn't remember honestly. Time has lost all meaning.
People measure time using various references. These references have changed over the ages. Some used the length of shadows. For some it was the level of water in a bucket. Some used burning candles. Some used hourglasses. These gave way to grandfather clocks and finally digital and atomic clocks.
Yunho has no set reference. It's different every time he wakes up. One minute it's morning, the next it is night. The glaring overhead sun switches with an eclipsed moon. He has honestly lost track of all time. His last link, the pocket watch, has long stopped working. Exactly how long has it been broken?
Jaejoong calls it a gift. He is the only one who knows. But Yunho calls it a curse. It depends on how you look at it really. Jaejoong would give up anything to travel back in time and stop the accident. He keeps repeating it is his fault. But if the accident never happened, how would he get the power of time travel to travel back in the first place and intervene? It's paradoxical. Messing with the flow of time is dangerous. One must bear the consequences of one's actions.
Yunho's heart grows heavy on hearing that sentence. Yet he doesn't remember why he can relate to it. His past before the accident is all a blur.
The saying is easier said than done. Yunho's lost count of the number of times he has flouted the rules. He can however trace it back to the first time he met her. She had been reading a book at the bus stop. Her bus was scheduled to arrive ten minutes later. (The pocket watch still worked at that time) she looked up and their eyes met. She bowed her head slightly in acknowledgement and Yunho returned the gesture. Did he know back then that this act would lead to some of his most life changing mistakes? No. He can only travel through time. He can't see the future.
It leads to more glances. Yunho finds himself gravitating more towards her. Two out of the seven times he travels, he ends up in her vicinity. Sometimes it is by the library. sometimes by her workplace. Once it was a park she was strolling in. The number increases to four and curiosity takes over. Why? there has to be a reason.
On his fifty second visit, he learns that she is engaged. She confides in her friend. He doesn't mean to but he overhears them all the same. On the sixty first visit, she is already married. He doesn't know who the groom is. But he knows that he keeps her happy. And for now that is enough. On the eightieth she is with child. He sees her in her kitchen, cooking some healthy stew for herself and talking to the baby. Yunho listens too. He has witnessed the death of an old man in his previous visit. The baby talk calms his nerves.
On the eighty-seventh visit, he learns that the couple have died in an accident. For a while Yunho stays frozen. The accident comes as a shock. But more surprising is the extent of grief felt. Yunho feels lost. Something important has transpired. But he doesn't understand. He doesn't want to. And for the first time he notices that the pocket watch is broken. How long has it been broken? How come he never noticed it stop?
The next jump through time, he wakes up in an orphanage. It's night and the little children are sleeping. Soft sniffles come from the corner of a room. There is a little girl there. It looks like she had cried herself to sleep while hugging a picture. Yunho takes pity on her. He pries the picture away from her hold gently and covers her with a blanket from a nearby closet. He puts the picture on a table next to her and that's when he notices.
It's a picture of her. With a child in her arms. And also... with him in it.
That's when he remembers. That's when it all makes sense. The accident, him gravitating towards her, Jaejoong's profuse apologies of breaking up a family. It all makes sense.
It is also when everything stops making sense. Yunho doesn't want to remember. He can't handle the pain. But he can't run away from his memories. Where can he run to? He can only move through time. And even then they will follow him like his shadows. It's a cross he has to bear.
Time heals all wounds. As time moves by, people forget old scars. They create new memories and move on. Yunho does not have that luxury. Time offers no relief to those stuck within it's seamless bounds.
The broken pocket watch is a comfort now. It cuts him away from the relentless tides of time. Time can't heal his wounds. He has nowhere to escape to.
How long has the pocket watch been broken?
-x-x-x-
A/N - Based on the song Broken by Lifehouse and loosely on The Time Traveler's Wife. The thought of time travel is fascinating as it is. I've been watching a lot of Doctor Who too. kekekeke~