[GBtR] Chapter 23 - THE END~!
Title: Getting Back to Real
Chapter: (23/23) Loose Ends
Pairings: YooMin, HoSuJae
Rating: PG-13
Genre: AU, sci-fi, drama
Summary: After the events in Dreaming Back to This, the five have fled Korea and started to rebuild a new life for themselves far away. The past still haunts them, however, perhaps even more than they first realized.
Notes: Wow, so... yeah. Last chapter. I know I originally said it'd go to 25 or whatever, but it seemed better to compress the last few into one rather than drag each scene out to its own part. So, this is finally the official ending of Dreaming Back to This/Getting Back to Real, five years in the making. It's been a long, crazy roller coaster ride to get here, and I hope you all enjoyed it. Thank you so much for coming on this journey with me!! Many, many big hearts to all of you who stuck with me this long, those of you who left awesome comments and gave me new angles to think about and those of you who read silently but thought (hopefully) good thoughts at me. ♥♥♥ ^_^
Previous: Dreaming Back to This, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Interlude, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Chapter 17, Chapter 18, Chapter 19, Chapter 20, Chapter 21, Chapter 22
Chapter 23: Loose Ends
As soon as they get inside the main office a few hallways over, the boys all converge on Changmin again. Yunho has Min's face between his hands as he carefully studies the boy for any signs of injury or pain. Junsu and Jaejoong have their arms wrapped around Changmin's waist from opposite sides while Yoochun hovers just behind him, still holding onto his hand. Changmin, for his part, simply smiles at their ministrations and reassures them every few moments that yes, he really is fine.
Yunho, Junsu, and Jaejoong - finally content that Changmin's okay and not going anywhere any time soon - let him go and take a step back though they stay within arm's reach. Yoochun steps into the space they'd left, stroking a gentle hand over Changmin's cheek and pressing a lingering kiss to the younger man's lips. "Missed you," he whispers, mouth-to-mouth.
"Missed you, too," Chagmin replies with a small but genuine smile. "I mean, I know I've kind of been with you, mentally at least, but I didn't know who you were then, so... I don't know. It just feels like it's been a lot longer than just a few days."
Yoochun pulls away just enough to study Changmin's whole face. "You remember all that? Being fourteen again and everything?"
Changmin nods. "Yeah, everything. It's strange, though. Really distant, like it actually did happen four years ago rather than just yesterday or whatever. Wonders of the human brain and all that, I guess."
"Alright, guys," Hyunae calls back to them from her seat in front of a massive control panel and video screen, "we should be expecting a call from headquarters any second now, so, you know, maybe save the mushy stuff until after that." She smiles and winks as she says it, tone contrasting the harsher words.
The call comes in, just as Hyunae predicted, mere moments later. Centre headquarters, somewhere in Europe, has obviously heard about their little revolt. Changmin stays in the back of the room with the others, leaning against Yoochun's side with Chun's arm wrapped tightly around his waist, as the video screen lights up with the incoming call.
"Ms. Seo," the man on the screen greets in carefully unaccented English, his words slow and deliberate, "we were expecting... someone else."
"Yeah, sorry," Hyunae replies, not sounding any kind of sorry at all. "Phillips is out, and I don't just mean of the office. There's been a bit of a... mishap... not that anyone here is complaining. We're looking for a change in leadership now."
The man huffs, straightening his shoulders and raising his eyebrows in indignation. "Now wait a minute. You can't just decide-"
"We can," Hyunae interrupts, "and we have. And trust me, we have enough firepower on our side that there's not much you guys in HQ can do about it. The Centre is ours now. We're going to run it from here on out the way we think is best."
"That Changmin kid..."
"Firmly on our side," Hyunae replies. "Considering the way Phillips treated him, I'm not sure what else you expected."
The man on the screen visibly slumps at the news, his expression collapsing in defeat as he sighs. "Right then. What do you want?"
Hyunae just shakes her head. "Nothing. You guys stay away, stay out of what we do. Leave us alone completely, and we won't have any problems. We just want this place to become what it was originally meant to be: a school and safe haven for children who have gifts they can't explain."
"That's it?" the man asks. "We leave you alone, and you'll do the same?" Hyunae gives a quick, sharp nod. "Alright. I suppose we can all live with that. Good luck, Ms. Seo." And with those final words, the screen goes black as the call cuts off.
Hyunae spins in her chair to face them, a wide grin on her lips. "Well, looks like this place is ours now." All five boys and Tessa reply with bright smiles of their own. Hyunae focuses on Changmin, though, and her celebratory grin softens into a gentle smile. "Now why don't you guys get out of here. Head back to your hotel and get some rest. Min looks like he's about to fall asleep on his feet."
They all turn their attention to the boy in question, and Changmin only offers a tiny half-shrug and leans a bit more of his weight against Yoochun. "What do you say, Minnie?" Yoochun asks the boy at his side. "You ready to get out of here?"
"More than ready. In fact, sorry Hyunae, but I sincerely hope I never have to see the inside of this building ever again," Changmin replies.
Hyunae simply shakes her head, brushing off the apology. "Can't say I blame you one bit, Min. I wouldn't want to look at this place either if I were you. You guys go ahead and get out of here. You better keep in touch, though," she says sternly with a pointed look at each of the guys.
"I think we can manage that," Yunho replies for all of them. "And thank you, Hyunae. For everything. Without you..." He trails off, not really daring to think of where they'd be without Hyunae's intervention.
She waves the thanks away as easily as Changmin's apology. "I only did what had to be done. There's no reason to thank me for that. Tessa?" she questions, turning to the other girl. "Are you heading out with the boys?"
Tessa studies them for a long moment, head cocked to the side in thought, before finally shaking her head. "Nah. You're gonna need some backup and help here, right? And the boys will be just fine without me."
"You sure, Tess?" Yoochun asks her. "You know you're more than welcome."
Tessa grins back at home but shakes her head again. "I am absolutely positive. I can do a lot of good here, and, like I said, you guys are gonna be just fine. It'll work out for the best this way, I promise."
With that said and a final round of goodbyes, the boys walk out of the office then out of the Centre for the final time. Changmin doesn't even bother looking back at the building that had dominated so much of life as they walk down the street. He can only look forward, and for the first time that he can remember, the Centre isn't a threat hanging over his head. He feels... weightless. Free. Hopeful.
~*~~*~
5 years later
~*~~*~
"Mr. Min, Mr. Min!" Changmin hears from down the hall just before a tiny body launches itself at his legs.
Always surprised by the amount of force little bodies can exert, Changmin stumbles slightly at the impact. He bends to scoop the boy up in his arms, tossing him lightly in the air before perching the energetic child on his hip. "Colin! Were you running in the halls again?"
Colin widens his green eyes to almost comic proportions before drawing out a long "nooooo" and almost managing to sound completely innocent. The tiny boy - so much smaller than the other kids in his class - breaks down in peals of laughter when Changmin simply quirks an eyebrow at him and launches a tickle attack. "Yes! Yes, I did!" he manages to cry out between laughs.
Finally having mercy on the boy, Changmin sets the boy back on the floor, making sure Colin has his feet under his before letting go, and ushers him back to his classroom. Classes finished for the day, all the day-school students are packing up to head home, and Changmin's sure Colin's teacher will be missing him.
He has to make several more stops to talk to students, some with homework questions and other simply wishing him a good weekend, before finally making it back to the teachers' room. Hyunae had first proposed opening a Centre school in the US not even a year after the boys had left Korea and settled back in their American home. It had opened barely six months after that, and Changmin had joined the staff a year and a half ago after finishing his education degree at a nearby university. The school's enrollment had multiplied every year with families moving from all over the country just to be near the only school that could both train and educate their special children.
The dorms had opened shortly after the school itself, for students whose parents couldn't quite handle the stresses of raising a gifted child. Some of those kids had had a rough time adjusting, and Changmin had seen it as one of his duties to help counsel the toughest cases. After all, who else could better understand what these kids had been through? And, luckily, he's still young enough that most of them relate to him more as a friend than an authority figure.
Settling into his office chair, Changmin scans over his lesson plans for the next week and double-checks that he has all his materials ready. Content that everything's ready and organized, he settles in with some busy work to pass the time until he can clock out, though that's interrupted just a few minutes later when Tessa pops her head around the corner. "Minnie-pie!" she yells, waving a handful of files around. "New student applications. They all look pretty good to me, but I just wanted you to glance through them really quick. Maybe jot some notes of your impressions down for me."
Changmin rolls his eyes at the ever-present nickname as he takes the files from her. He'd tried talking to her a few times about maybe using his proper name, and while she usually managed it in front of the students at least, she hasn't been able to cut it out completely. He supposed, if he's completely honest with himself, it really doesn't bother him as much as he pretends. "Sounds good," he replies, giving the files a cursory flip through. "How soon do you need them?"
"Eh, take your time," she tells him with a careless wave of her hand. "They're for the new school year, so it's not urgent. As long as they're done by the end of this school year, it's fine."
They go back and forth for a few more minutes, mostly comparing progress notes for some of their more stand-out (whether for good or bad reasons) students, before Tessa excuses herself to scurry back to the main office. Changmin sets the files to the side once she's gone; he'll get them done sooner rather than later, but Friday afternoons just don't lend themselves to that kind of motivation.
45 minutes later, he's drawing his jacket closer around himself against the chill breeze of early spring on the short walk to the aparment. "Yoochun," he calls as soon as he steps into their front door, "I'm home!"
By the time Changmin has his shoes off, Yoochun has walked around the corner from the kitchen while drying his hands on a small dish towel. He's obviously been working on the small mountain of dishes they've let pile up over the last few days. "Hey, Min," he greets with a smile, pressing a quick kiss to Changmin's lips before turning back towards the kitchen. Changmin catches up quickly, wrapping his arms around Yoochun's waist from behind and snuggling his cold nose into the warmth of Yoochun's neck.
Letting out a sharp bark of laughter, Yoochun attempts to wriggle away but eventually settles into the embrace. He rests his hands over Changmin's as he shuffles them over to the sink to finish up the last few odds and ends. "Jae's making jjigae tonight, invited us over if we're interested."
Despite having moved out of their little shared apartment into two separate (closer to the school, in the same building but different floors) places about a year ago, they still get together to have dinner more often than not. Changmin scoffs. "'If we're interested.' His words or yours?"
"Mine," Yoochun admits with a little chuckle. "Guess I should have known better. You're nothing if not a sucker for Jae's cooking."
Knowing he can't really say anything in his defense that wouldn't be a blatant lie, Changmin bites down on the shoulder under his mouth in retaliation. "Yah!" Yoochun yells, slapping at the arms still wrapped around him. "If you're that hungry, get off me and help finish these dishes so we can head over, you little cannibal."
Changmin finally releases the flesh and presses a soft kiss to the area to soothe the hurt before untangling himself from Yoochun. Snatching the towel from where it'd been tossed over Yoochun's unabused shoulder, he steps to the side and starts drying the dishes currently in the drip rack. "Get a move on, Chun. Think I can hear that jjigae calling my name already."
~*~~*~
If anyone had asked me when I was a kid what my life would be like at 23 years old, I'm not sure I would have been able to answer. By 14, I was pretty sure I wouldn't even live to see 23. When I was 17 and being held by the Centre along with Jae, that certainty in my death had returned with a vengeance. Without Jae and my dream connection to Yoochun, I'm not sure that wouldn't have been true. Even in the years since killing Phillips, I'm not sure I ever really dared to dream so high.
But now here I am. I have a career I love helping kids just like me. I have a family that loves and protects me and lets me do the same for them. I have a lover who is so perfect for me in every way that I'm not entirely sure what I did in my past life to deserve him. It's kind of scary how truly good my life is. It's a long battle, every day a small fight to remind myself that it's okay. That, yes, it really is safe to let myself have all of this.
And maybe someday, with the constant help and reassurance of Yoochun and Yunho and Junsu and Jaejoong which they never begrudge me, I'll be able to let go of the last of that fear. Maybe someday I won't have to say my life is so good it's scary and will instead say my life is just that. So good.
Chapter: (23/23) Loose Ends
Pairings: YooMin, HoSuJae
Rating: PG-13
Genre: AU, sci-fi, drama
Summary: After the events in Dreaming Back to This, the five have fled Korea and started to rebuild a new life for themselves far away. The past still haunts them, however, perhaps even more than they first realized.
Notes: Wow, so... yeah. Last chapter. I know I originally said it'd go to 25 or whatever, but it seemed better to compress the last few into one rather than drag each scene out to its own part. So, this is finally the official ending of Dreaming Back to This/Getting Back to Real, five years in the making. It's been a long, crazy roller coaster ride to get here, and I hope you all enjoyed it. Thank you so much for coming on this journey with me!! Many, many big hearts to all of you who stuck with me this long, those of you who left awesome comments and gave me new angles to think about and those of you who read silently but thought (hopefully) good thoughts at me. ♥♥♥ ^_^
Previous: Dreaming Back to This, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Interlude, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Chapter 17, Chapter 18, Chapter 19, Chapter 20, Chapter 21, Chapter 22
Chapter 23: Loose Ends
As soon as they get inside the main office a few hallways over, the boys all converge on Changmin again. Yunho has Min's face between his hands as he carefully studies the boy for any signs of injury or pain. Junsu and Jaejoong have their arms wrapped around Changmin's waist from opposite sides while Yoochun hovers just behind him, still holding onto his hand. Changmin, for his part, simply smiles at their ministrations and reassures them every few moments that yes, he really is fine.
Yunho, Junsu, and Jaejoong - finally content that Changmin's okay and not going anywhere any time soon - let him go and take a step back though they stay within arm's reach. Yoochun steps into the space they'd left, stroking a gentle hand over Changmin's cheek and pressing a lingering kiss to the younger man's lips. "Missed you," he whispers, mouth-to-mouth.
"Missed you, too," Chagmin replies with a small but genuine smile. "I mean, I know I've kind of been with you, mentally at least, but I didn't know who you were then, so... I don't know. It just feels like it's been a lot longer than just a few days."
Yoochun pulls away just enough to study Changmin's whole face. "You remember all that? Being fourteen again and everything?"
Changmin nods. "Yeah, everything. It's strange, though. Really distant, like it actually did happen four years ago rather than just yesterday or whatever. Wonders of the human brain and all that, I guess."
"Alright, guys," Hyunae calls back to them from her seat in front of a massive control panel and video screen, "we should be expecting a call from headquarters any second now, so, you know, maybe save the mushy stuff until after that." She smiles and winks as she says it, tone contrasting the harsher words.
The call comes in, just as Hyunae predicted, mere moments later. Centre headquarters, somewhere in Europe, has obviously heard about their little revolt. Changmin stays in the back of the room with the others, leaning against Yoochun's side with Chun's arm wrapped tightly around his waist, as the video screen lights up with the incoming call.
"Ms. Seo," the man on the screen greets in carefully unaccented English, his words slow and deliberate, "we were expecting... someone else."
"Yeah, sorry," Hyunae replies, not sounding any kind of sorry at all. "Phillips is out, and I don't just mean of the office. There's been a bit of a... mishap... not that anyone here is complaining. We're looking for a change in leadership now."
The man huffs, straightening his shoulders and raising his eyebrows in indignation. "Now wait a minute. You can't just decide-"
"We can," Hyunae interrupts, "and we have. And trust me, we have enough firepower on our side that there's not much you guys in HQ can do about it. The Centre is ours now. We're going to run it from here on out the way we think is best."
"That Changmin kid..."
"Firmly on our side," Hyunae replies. "Considering the way Phillips treated him, I'm not sure what else you expected."
The man on the screen visibly slumps at the news, his expression collapsing in defeat as he sighs. "Right then. What do you want?"
Hyunae just shakes her head. "Nothing. You guys stay away, stay out of what we do. Leave us alone completely, and we won't have any problems. We just want this place to become what it was originally meant to be: a school and safe haven for children who have gifts they can't explain."
"That's it?" the man asks. "We leave you alone, and you'll do the same?" Hyunae gives a quick, sharp nod. "Alright. I suppose we can all live with that. Good luck, Ms. Seo." And with those final words, the screen goes black as the call cuts off.
Hyunae spins in her chair to face them, a wide grin on her lips. "Well, looks like this place is ours now." All five boys and Tessa reply with bright smiles of their own. Hyunae focuses on Changmin, though, and her celebratory grin softens into a gentle smile. "Now why don't you guys get out of here. Head back to your hotel and get some rest. Min looks like he's about to fall asleep on his feet."
They all turn their attention to the boy in question, and Changmin only offers a tiny half-shrug and leans a bit more of his weight against Yoochun. "What do you say, Minnie?" Yoochun asks the boy at his side. "You ready to get out of here?"
"More than ready. In fact, sorry Hyunae, but I sincerely hope I never have to see the inside of this building ever again," Changmin replies.
Hyunae simply shakes her head, brushing off the apology. "Can't say I blame you one bit, Min. I wouldn't want to look at this place either if I were you. You guys go ahead and get out of here. You better keep in touch, though," she says sternly with a pointed look at each of the guys.
"I think we can manage that," Yunho replies for all of them. "And thank you, Hyunae. For everything. Without you..." He trails off, not really daring to think of where they'd be without Hyunae's intervention.
She waves the thanks away as easily as Changmin's apology. "I only did what had to be done. There's no reason to thank me for that. Tessa?" she questions, turning to the other girl. "Are you heading out with the boys?"
Tessa studies them for a long moment, head cocked to the side in thought, before finally shaking her head. "Nah. You're gonna need some backup and help here, right? And the boys will be just fine without me."
"You sure, Tess?" Yoochun asks her. "You know you're more than welcome."
Tessa grins back at home but shakes her head again. "I am absolutely positive. I can do a lot of good here, and, like I said, you guys are gonna be just fine. It'll work out for the best this way, I promise."
With that said and a final round of goodbyes, the boys walk out of the office then out of the Centre for the final time. Changmin doesn't even bother looking back at the building that had dominated so much of life as they walk down the street. He can only look forward, and for the first time that he can remember, the Centre isn't a threat hanging over his head. He feels... weightless. Free. Hopeful.
~*~~*~
5 years later
~*~~*~
"Mr. Min, Mr. Min!" Changmin hears from down the hall just before a tiny body launches itself at his legs.
Always surprised by the amount of force little bodies can exert, Changmin stumbles slightly at the impact. He bends to scoop the boy up in his arms, tossing him lightly in the air before perching the energetic child on his hip. "Colin! Were you running in the halls again?"
Colin widens his green eyes to almost comic proportions before drawing out a long "nooooo" and almost managing to sound completely innocent. The tiny boy - so much smaller than the other kids in his class - breaks down in peals of laughter when Changmin simply quirks an eyebrow at him and launches a tickle attack. "Yes! Yes, I did!" he manages to cry out between laughs.
Finally having mercy on the boy, Changmin sets the boy back on the floor, making sure Colin has his feet under his before letting go, and ushers him back to his classroom. Classes finished for the day, all the day-school students are packing up to head home, and Changmin's sure Colin's teacher will be missing him.
He has to make several more stops to talk to students, some with homework questions and other simply wishing him a good weekend, before finally making it back to the teachers' room. Hyunae had first proposed opening a Centre school in the US not even a year after the boys had left Korea and settled back in their American home. It had opened barely six months after that, and Changmin had joined the staff a year and a half ago after finishing his education degree at a nearby university. The school's enrollment had multiplied every year with families moving from all over the country just to be near the only school that could both train and educate their special children.
The dorms had opened shortly after the school itself, for students whose parents couldn't quite handle the stresses of raising a gifted child. Some of those kids had had a rough time adjusting, and Changmin had seen it as one of his duties to help counsel the toughest cases. After all, who else could better understand what these kids had been through? And, luckily, he's still young enough that most of them relate to him more as a friend than an authority figure.
Settling into his office chair, Changmin scans over his lesson plans for the next week and double-checks that he has all his materials ready. Content that everything's ready and organized, he settles in with some busy work to pass the time until he can clock out, though that's interrupted just a few minutes later when Tessa pops her head around the corner. "Minnie-pie!" she yells, waving a handful of files around. "New student applications. They all look pretty good to me, but I just wanted you to glance through them really quick. Maybe jot some notes of your impressions down for me."
Changmin rolls his eyes at the ever-present nickname as he takes the files from her. He'd tried talking to her a few times about maybe using his proper name, and while she usually managed it in front of the students at least, she hasn't been able to cut it out completely. He supposed, if he's completely honest with himself, it really doesn't bother him as much as he pretends. "Sounds good," he replies, giving the files a cursory flip through. "How soon do you need them?"
"Eh, take your time," she tells him with a careless wave of her hand. "They're for the new school year, so it's not urgent. As long as they're done by the end of this school year, it's fine."
They go back and forth for a few more minutes, mostly comparing progress notes for some of their more stand-out (whether for good or bad reasons) students, before Tessa excuses herself to scurry back to the main office. Changmin sets the files to the side once she's gone; he'll get them done sooner rather than later, but Friday afternoons just don't lend themselves to that kind of motivation.
45 minutes later, he's drawing his jacket closer around himself against the chill breeze of early spring on the short walk to the aparment. "Yoochun," he calls as soon as he steps into their front door, "I'm home!"
By the time Changmin has his shoes off, Yoochun has walked around the corner from the kitchen while drying his hands on a small dish towel. He's obviously been working on the small mountain of dishes they've let pile up over the last few days. "Hey, Min," he greets with a smile, pressing a quick kiss to Changmin's lips before turning back towards the kitchen. Changmin catches up quickly, wrapping his arms around Yoochun's waist from behind and snuggling his cold nose into the warmth of Yoochun's neck.
Letting out a sharp bark of laughter, Yoochun attempts to wriggle away but eventually settles into the embrace. He rests his hands over Changmin's as he shuffles them over to the sink to finish up the last few odds and ends. "Jae's making jjigae tonight, invited us over if we're interested."
Despite having moved out of their little shared apartment into two separate (closer to the school, in the same building but different floors) places about a year ago, they still get together to have dinner more often than not. Changmin scoffs. "'If we're interested.' His words or yours?"
"Mine," Yoochun admits with a little chuckle. "Guess I should have known better. You're nothing if not a sucker for Jae's cooking."
Knowing he can't really say anything in his defense that wouldn't be a blatant lie, Changmin bites down on the shoulder under his mouth in retaliation. "Yah!" Yoochun yells, slapping at the arms still wrapped around him. "If you're that hungry, get off me and help finish these dishes so we can head over, you little cannibal."
Changmin finally releases the flesh and presses a soft kiss to the area to soothe the hurt before untangling himself from Yoochun. Snatching the towel from where it'd been tossed over Yoochun's unabused shoulder, he steps to the side and starts drying the dishes currently in the drip rack. "Get a move on, Chun. Think I can hear that jjigae calling my name already."
~*~~*~
If anyone had asked me when I was a kid what my life would be like at 23 years old, I'm not sure I would have been able to answer. By 14, I was pretty sure I wouldn't even live to see 23. When I was 17 and being held by the Centre along with Jae, that certainty in my death had returned with a vengeance. Without Jae and my dream connection to Yoochun, I'm not sure that wouldn't have been true. Even in the years since killing Phillips, I'm not sure I ever really dared to dream so high.
But now here I am. I have a career I love helping kids just like me. I have a family that loves and protects me and lets me do the same for them. I have a lover who is so perfect for me in every way that I'm not entirely sure what I did in my past life to deserve him. It's kind of scary how truly good my life is. It's a long battle, every day a small fight to remind myself that it's okay. That, yes, it really is safe to let myself have all of this.
And maybe someday, with the constant help and reassurance of Yoochun and Yunho and Junsu and Jaejoong which they never begrudge me, I'll be able to let go of the last of that fear. Maybe someday I won't have to say my life is so good it's scary and will instead say my life is just that. So good.