Maybe In The Next Universe (1/2) ; for xiyings
Title: Maybe In The Next Universe
Rating: PG-13
Side pairing/s: None
Length: 10,141 words
Summary: Baekhyun expected a lot of things when he was dead-set on building a machine to traverse multiple universes. What he never anticipated was Kim Jongin, his harshest critic, to be there with him every step of the way.
Warning/s: Momentary genderswitch! (Like, really minor trust me.)
Notes: Y has always been my saviour. Thank you for taking time out of your summer break to listen to me whining! And thank you to xiyings for the wonderful prompts! I hope I did them at least a little bit of justice~
It’s been the longest three weeks of Baekhyun’s life - but it’s all worth it, he thinks as he steps back to marvel at his own work.
Towering over him stands his most prized possession and revolutionary invention - a machine to parallel universes. Its frame is just wide enough for two people side-by side to pass through the empty space. The power supply is switched off, so all Baekhyun can see past the circular frame is the other side of his room. It looks pretty simple for a machine that would probably be the next best thing after the Internet, but it has taken years of research and planning and painful hours of non-stop work to bring it to life. The science behind it is so complex that Baekhyun is quite surprised he’s not sporting a balding scalp yet at the rate of how often he’s been pulling at his hair.
Just then, his eyes flicker over to the abandoned issue of Seoul Scientific Monthly that his best friend Kyungsoo had dropped off. Kyungsoo also warned him not to shut himself off in his basement for too long lest he dies of asphyxiation. Baekhyun had tried to tell him that his hideout is perfectly ventilated - but alas he was too focused on his most important project to remember.
“I should give myself some time to relax,” Baekhyun reasons as he walks over to his coffee table. Propping his feet up and reaching over for his mug of (now cold) tea, he lets himself pretend that his basement is a posh coffee shop in Paris, instead of a subterranean square box in the middle of Seoul.
“Maybe it’s a reality in some other universe,” Baekhyun muses out loud. He’s only paying half his attention on the pages of the magazine until an article makes him stop in his tracks.
Byun Baekhyun falls short of Critic’s Expectations Again.
When his eyes meet the name printed on the glossy page, Baekhyun curses. “This wretched fucker.”
The name Kim Jongin has grown so familiar to him over the past year - and definitely not in a positive light. Despite his reputation probably being worth more than Baekhyun’s whole career, Baekhyun wouldn’t think twice before landing a slap on his pretty chiseled face if he ever meets him in real life.
“World’s renowned Science critic Kim Jongin has spoken up about Dr. Byun Baekhyun’s latest discovery, which was exhibited at the Geneva Annual Physics Convention. Despite other critics commending Dr Byun’s elaborate theory, Seoul’s acclaimed critic has said about his exhibition at the conference:
‘The idea of parallel universes have existed in literature, art and sci-fi movies that date back to hundreds of years. It has become history - a concept already covered in a sheet of dust that will be forgotten in a few years’ time. I see no difference in Dr Byun’s presentation, other than elevated imagination and an alternative physical experimentation, which I could see ultimately failing, just like many other theories before his. I see nothing note-worthy in his exhibition but embarrassment to our country, for he flaunted the mediocre theory with such unparalleled confidence.’
What blasphemy!”
Baekhyun screeches and leaps out of his seat before striding over to his machine. He wrenches the fuse box open, all the while muttering under his breath, “So he thinks it’s old fashioned, huh? Well, I’ll show him.”
Once he’s got all the cables properly connected to their terminals, he reaches over for his phone and sends a quick text to Kyungsoo:
abt to go on a trip not gnna be back for a while
The reply comes before Baekhyun even has time to pocket his phone.
Ok. Make sure you don’t die.
At Kyungsoo’s blunt response, Baekhyun can’t help but roll his eyes. He’s about to turn his phone off before he decides to send one last text.
oh and if u see kim jongin somewher somehow tell him he’s a dick n i hope he never appears in any of my universes
K
Baekhyun coos at his phone, thankful for having such an understanding friend. He stares at his beat-up iPhone 4S for a few seconds before flinging it into the dustbin. He figures that by the time he’s done with the test run, he’ll make enough money to buy the latest iPhone after that, anyway. And maybe the next 3 concept models, too.
Eyes riveted on the machine, Baekhyun tries in vain to stop his hand from shaking as he flips the switch on. His contraption hums to life, a deep rumbling that shakes Baekhyun from his very bones to the tips of his hair. He has to stop himself from squealing as he watches the first strands of green emitting from the sides of the metallic circular walls, almost reaching the other side.
“Come on, you can do it.” He grits his teeth as another wave of green dissipates into the air.
Then Baekhyun hears a sharp pop that pierces his ears painfully, and the sudden burst of colour has him shrieking as he lifts a hand up to cover his eyes. The light isn’t meant to be dangerous, but he still has to blink away the black spots in his eyes after deeming it safe enough to peek out from the crook of his arm.
“Oh my god.”
It feels wonderful to see his invention coming to life. Sure, Baekhyun had seen it working before - after all, he had to do a test run to make sure the pressure of the portal wouldn’t crush him to a pulp. But this time it’s different. This time, it’s different because Baekhyun will be the one stepping through; and this will be the greatest feat of space exploration mankind has ever seen since Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon.
Baekhyun reaches out, mouth still hanging open in wonder as his fingers trace the beginning of green, and suddenly he feels himself being pulled forward.
Baekhyun hopes he won’t get whiplash.
-
The first thing Baekhyun registers after landing painfully hard on his face is that it’s humid. Very, very humid. And the sky looks suspiciously holographic. When he looks down, the small particles of what should be soil is horribly pixelated.
“What,” he asks no one in particular.
Before he can further question his surroundings, however, a small man comes scurrying out of a pair of automatic door. At the sight of Baekhyun sprawled on the ground, his already wide eyes widen even more and he almost drops the clipboard in his arms as he stumbles over to Baekhyun.
“Lieutenant Byun, what are you doing taking a nap at this hour of the day?”
Baekhyun looks up only to be greeted by a very familiar face staring down concernedly at him. “Hey! It’s you, Kyungsoo.”
Kyungsoo seems to be taken aback at Baekhyun’s casual tone. “Uh, yes, Lieutenant, my name is Do Kyungsoo indeed.”
“You’re my…” Baekhyun frowns, reading the nametag on Kyungsoo’s pristine white lab coat. “Assistant? In what?”
Kyungsoo looks about ready to jump off a cliff with the look he sends Baekhyun. “I’m sure I told you not to drink too much at the Cabin’s party last night. I’m afraid you’re going to have to sober yourself up immediately because you have a class to teach.”
“A class to… what?” Baekhyun finally attempts to stand up, feeling a little wobbly as he tries to balance on the pixelated floor. The graphics make him dizzy, and he stares in awe at Kyungsoo who seems to stand on his feet effortlessly. “What do I teach?”
“The enemy will reach our 13th cylinder colony - in other words, this one - in less than 72 hours.” Kyungsoo starts to walk in the direction of the automatic doors, his posture indicating that Baekhyun is expected to follow him. “The President expects Unit 5 to be fully trained and prepared for the invasion. We need not a repeat of last year’s defeat.”
Kyungsoo punches a code in, and a window momentarily opens up above Baekhyun’s head, filtering light akin to the glow of a moon through. When Baekhyun looks out of it, he almost gasps in bewilderment. He sees countless of stars - so many that wherever he looks, they dapple his eyesight. What looks like a wing seems to extend from where Baekhyun is standing to the black void of space, whizzing by at a speed that would make physicist green with envy (and others green with travel sickness) and Baekhyun tries not to gape as planets flick past the window like a very sophisticated slideshow.
All too soon, the outside view is gone and Kyungsoo is walking down a narrow corridor. “Your last training with them went flawlessly, and we expect nothing less than that this time.”
“Just as a reminder, of sorts,” Baekhyun manages to catch up to him, “Can you tell me what I’m supposed to teach Unit 5?”
“No problem. Last time they were taught how to combat when handicapped in a zero-gravity situation, which is the last thing on the syllabus. All you need to do today is review everything they’ve learnt over the past four months in preparation for the battle.”
“Everything…?” Baekhyun gulps.
“Unit 5 is an incredibly intelligent unit, I’m sure they won’t have a problem with a cram session.” Kyungsoo says calmly.
“That’s not what I’m worried about…” Baekhyun mutters, but then Kyungsoo is already unlocking another set of doors to a separate room.
The doors swing open to reveal two neat rows of bunk beds on either side of a very long room. At different places in the room, about ten teenagers not much younger than Baekhyun are sprawled around - but they immediately scramble back to the foot of their respective beds and stand up straight, palms straight on their foreheads in a gesture of salute.
“Lieutenant Byun, Sir, good night Sir!”
“It’s fine, Chanyeol, he’s not here to check on anything.” Kyungsoo rolls his eyes, and the boy - Chanyeol - visibly sags in relief. “Tonight is your last night of official training before the battle tomorrow, and it is essential for you to use this time as wisely as possible. You’ll be on your own after tonight as Lieutenant Byun can’t accompany you all the time. Do not disappoint the colony.” He turns to a blank-looking Baekhyun. “Unit 5 is all yours. Good luck, Lieutenant.”
“Uh, thanks,” Baekhyun manages to stutter out before the door clicks to a close behind him. He rakes his eyes over the rows of boys, trying hard to ignore the expectant gazes and slightly awkward silence before his eyes land on one more familiar person. Baekhyun almost chokes.
Three beds away from Baekhyun’s left stands Kim Jongin, and he is still poised in a salute.
-
“Um,” Baekhyun says for what seems to be the fiftieth time in two minutes. “I can’t really remember what we did last time.”
“That’s okay, Jongin slept for half of it anyway,” a boy whose nametag reads ‘Sehun’ pipes up, earning an elbow nudge from the man in question.
This has Baekhyun perking up. Truth be told, Baekhyun had been more interested in studying Jongin’s face than actually teaching the class. Up close, Baekhyun realises just how handsome the man actually is (which, Baekhyun has to admit, hindered his initial plan of slapping him at once). No camera or magazine page has ever done his face justice - pretty eyes, sharp cheekbones, windswept hair and full lips that stretch into a beautiful grin when one of his friends cracks a lame joke.
Not that Baekhyun has been eavesdropping, of course.
“You can’t even remember what you taught us for the handicap lesson?” Chanyeol looks the most worried out of all them. “You know, whenever one of our limbs get frozen by the rays. What we should do during that kind of situation. Can you go over that?”
“Are you stupid, Yeol?” Someone else called Lu Han pushes through the crowd forward. “That part is really easy.”
“In that case, how about I leave you to it?” Baekhyun clasps his hands, faking a confident smile. “I’ll set this session for a free training period. You’re free to practice whichever part of the… syllabus you feel least confident in and help out others in difficulty.”
A loud cheer erupts from the enthusiastic group of students, and almost immediately they launch into the zero-gravity arena to split into small groups. Baekhyun lets out a relieved sigh at having dodged a bullet. He turns around, meaning to sneak out and take a private tour of the cylinder colony alone when he feels a soft tap on his shoulder.
“Lieutenant Byun?” The nonchalant face of Kim Jongin pops up into his peripheral vision, almost sending him tumbling backwards in surprise. Collecting himself, he scrunches up his nose.
“Just call me Baekhyun.” Jongin seems surprised at the proposition, and Baekhyun thinks he must have been a strict trainer once upon a time. “Is there a problem?”
“Well, everyone’s already partnered up. I don’t have anyone to practice with.” Jongin scuffs his foot on the pixelated flooring. “Would you mind… being my partner?”
The logical thing for Baekhyun to do would be to refuse, make some kind of excuse and hightail out of the training room. But for some reason the Kim Jongin that stands in front of him piques his interest - not because of his toned body or his face that belongs in a high-end fashion magazine - but because this is the first time Baekhyun has come face to face with the man he had wanted to strangle to death on so many occasions.
He figures that parallel universes are about taking chances, so he smiles and replies, “Sure, Jongin. I’d love to.”
The grin that Jongin has on sends all Baekhyun’s doubts flying out of the spacecraft.
-
Fast forward two days later and Baekhyun wakes up with a sore back and aching wrists. He had spent almost every waking hour seeking out empty training rooms to help Jongin practice, much to the amusement of his other students. Some accused him of favouritism, but then Sehun had helpfully pointed out that Jongin must be the shittiest soldier of them all if Baekhyun had to go out of his way to train him personally. That shut the whole unit up, and Baekhyun for once was grateful for Sehun’s lack of brain-to-mouth filter.
During that period of time, however, Baekhyun had learnt that Jongin is very skilled - his movements are calculated, with flawless coordination and his aim is almost always accurate. Baekhyun had suffered multiple freezing in different parts of his body that he’d rather not discuss, but it had all been worth it whenever Jongin lets out a carefree laugh, when he floats over to untangle Baekhyun’s limbs and throw random facts about himself in the process.
“I was really obsessed with how the cylinder colony worked,” Jongin had told Baekhyun as he attempted to disengage his right arm from his left leg. “That’s why I signed up for the military sector. It was a fast track out of Earth here.”
“Glad to see your interest in Science hasn’t changed.” Baekhyun laughs, before realising what he had said. Either Jongin brushed it off or he legitimately did not hear him, because he only cheers a little to himself when he had successfully separated Baekhyun’s limbs.
Now, Baekhyun is standing in the command room. He looks around and sees two other Lieutenants among a few researchers named Junmyeon and Jongdae, with Kyungsoo flitting between the three of them, clipboard in hand. A digital screen stretches in front of them, like a screen in a cinema, with a small map on its bottom left corner.
“The battlefield is ready,” Junmyeon speaks through the microphone, and the students from Units 1 to 5 fiddle with their earpiece onscreen. “You will be deployed in one minute. Arms at the ready -“
“Lieutenant! Something’s coming right at -“
The warning comes much too late as a tremor followed by a loud crash fills Baekhyun’s ears, sending him tumbling to the ground. The screen blacks out, the static noises no match for another crash and loud screech of metal scraping against metal, painful to the ears. Incoherent shouts are thrown across the room with people fleeing under tables or attempting to unlock the entrance.
“Evacuate! Run! We’ve been ambushed!”
“Wait - wait, what about the soldiers?” Baekhyun shouts over his shoulder when Kyungsoo drags him by the arm towards the exit. “They’re on the Launchpad!”
“It’s the first place the enemy would’ve hit,” Kyungsoo shouts back, already pulling Baekhyun down the set of holographic stairs. “I’m sorry, Lieutenant, but there’s only one in a million chance that they’ve survived.”
“You’re just going to leave them like this?” Baekhyun shouts, prying his arm away from Kyungsoo’s grip. “They might still be alive! They’re just teenagers!”
“What else can we do except save ourselves?”
Baekhyun stares at him, shocked by the careless manner in which the soldiers who have trained so hard are discarded. He backs up the stairs, hands shaking. “No I - I cant. I have to - I’m just going to…”
And then Baekhyun runs, ignoring the shouts sent his way as he sprints back the way he came from - the command room, down the narrow hallways and through an access door until he comes to his own door. Another crash throws him off his feet, but he scrambles to swipe his identification card until the doors hiss open. A deafening explosion can be heard and suddenly he watches as half of the spacecraft is flung across the black void of space. He screams, but immediately stops because he needs to save his oxygen.
With much difficulty, he crawls to the edge of his room where his machine is miraculously still standing. His bottom lip is probably a little bloody now from how much he’s biting on them, but he flips the switch on just as he sees the command room burst into flames.
“Come on!”
A blinding flash of green responds to his plea and Baekhyun eagerly crawls through, not caring about the possibility of whiplash. He needs to escape this universe that has turned into a living nightmare in a matter of minutes.
The last thought on his mind is whether Kim Jongin survived or not.
-
“Does everyone have their microphones set up? Can you check they’re working?”
“Ah, ah, one two three, yo, Monggu Monggu.”
Baekhyun’s eyes shoot open. He knows this voice. It’s the voice he had last thought of as he crawled his way out of an apocalypse.
“Yehet, one two three.”
His face scrunches up in disgust. He recognises that voice too, although the familiarity isn’t as welcomed. He whips his head around to confirm his suspicions; in front of brightly-lit dressing tables is Sehun, who has his feet propped up on the make-up table; and to his left sits none other than Kim Jongin.
Baekhyun spends a few minutes appreciating Jongin’s blemish-free face and his sharp eyes lined with black eyeliner - an obvious contrast to the rough beauty he saw back in the space colony. He looks more groomed (despite the maniacal-looking Einstein hair he’s sporting) and pin-perfect in a handsome black suit that is bedazzled by diamond-like sequins. When Baekhyun looks down he sees that he’s clad in the exact same outfit, although it’s apparent that it’s a significantly less impressive fit on him.
There’s no time to lament over his lack of ideal body, however, because suddenly someone is standing at the door with a sheet of paper and he’s shouting at everyone in the dressing room. “Get ready in three minutes! Encore stages - right now! Kai, get your microphone fixed here.”
“Hold on,” Baekhyun shakily stands on his feet as everyone else rushes out of the room, still queasy from his travel. He’s starting to realise that 10 out of 10 times he’s going to be thrown into a situation he’s not prepared for in these universes, so instead of asking questions he attempts to find the answers himself.
“Kai?” whispers Baekhyun after tailing Jongin to a coordi noona. His face is striking even under the unforgiving fluorescent lighting. “You’re Jongin.”
Jongin - Kai - replies with an amused chuckle. “Glad you remember my name, hyung,” he jokes. He cocks his head in the direction of the door. “But don’t forget you’ll have to call me Kai up there.”
Baekhyun hums in realisation, suddenly understanding his situation - the people who had gone before them, he figures, are most likely his fellow group members. A multitude of hysteric screams coming in from the exit, along with the dressing room and coordinated outfits and microphones tell Baekhyun that he’s about to step out onto the stage of a concert - and he panics for a moment, because he has no idea what he’s supposed to be performing.
And then he remembers that idols lip-sync half of the time anyway. He cackles in satisfaction at the thought. This universe will definitely be a breeze.
Jongin starts to walk in the direction of the exit with Baekhyun close at his heels. When Baekhyun chances a glance at a passing mirror, he nearly screams because he’s got coloured lenses on and copious amounts of eyeliner accentuating his waterlines.
“What is up with my face,” he murmurs a little too loud, making Jongin laugh loudly beside.
“Tonight’s one of your best looks, hyung. You’re going to kill them all onstage.”
Baekhyun blushes at the compliment and he hopes the makeup he’s wearing is heavy enough to hide his reddening cheeks. He watches as Jongin adjusts his shirt and accidentally pulls it upwards, exposing a small sliver of skin and ultimately making Baekhyun choke on his saliva.
“Hyung, are you okay?” Jongin’s face is one of mild worry. “You promised you wouldn’t practice too much last night.”
“I didn’t,” Baekhyun assures, even though he really has no idea.
“Good, because we’re singing Wolf live tonight and you need to remember the modified choreography.”
“Ah shit.” Baekhyun wants to slap a palm to his face. Of course his luck would fail him at times like this. “Live? Why today? Why?”
“Be careful, your mic is on.” Jongin drags him by the arm, leaving Baekhyun with no room to protest. “Come on. We need to get into position.”
The stage lights are switched off and everything is dark except for the glow of thousands of silver lightsticks waving frantically from the seats. From where he’s standing, the sight is so breathtakingly beautiful that Baekhyun has to stop and stare at the seemingly endless expanse of luminescent light. Despite this life and this career having nothing to do with him, and him taking virtually no part in it, he feels his heart swell with pride and tears building up at the back of his eyes. He can’t imagine what a touching moment this must be for his group members, who have experienced the hardships climbing up the ladder of success first-hand.
Jongin quickly arranges both of them in place - somewhere in the middle of a line of people with their hands in the air. At first, Baekhyun thought they were praying to the heavens or something, but one look at the screen tells him the formation is supposed to be some kind of tree. What a cheesy concept, he thinks. Jongin turns to face him and Baekhyun squeaks at the close proximity although Jongin doesn’t notice his little fluster.
Albeit trying to replicate the stance to the best of his ability, Baekhyun must still be a little off because then Jongin’s got his hands on Baekhyun’s wrists, lifting his right arm higher up in the air and bringing his left arm closer to his ear. His lips follow his hand, and Jongin whispers in his ear,
“No need to thank me.”
Before Baekhyun could reply, the boom of the music fills his earpiece and the screams intensify. Everyone’s hands start moving in one direction and Baekhyun has no choice but to follow, his moves evidently a little sluggish compared to the rest.
“Wait Jongin,” he hisses, getting Jongin to look up. “I don’t know the modified choreography - I don’t know the choreography at all!”
“We practiced this for four months, it’s impossible to forget.”
Baekhyun’s panic causes his brain to malfunction as he blurts out, “You might not believe this, but I’m from a parallel universe and I have no idea what I’m doing right now. This universe looks cool, don’t get me wrong, but I just -“
“It’s not the time to play pranks now hyung,” Jongin whispers through his teeth and he nudges at Baekhyun’s shoulder with his free hand. “Quick, it’s your turn soon.”
“What?”
The formation breaks and everyone is suddenly leaping all over the place - like the wolves they’re supposed to be - leaving Baekhyun completely disoriented in the middle of it all, getting shoved one way by his group members and the other way the next moment. The messy nature of the song does nothing to help him adjust his stance - rather, it’s starting to give him a headache. Baekhyun spins around, realising he’s still facing away from the crowd and that’s when the spotlight shines on him.
He stares at the crowd with panicked eyes as the MR plays in the background with absolutely no one singing along to it. From the corner of his eye, he can see his teammates slowing down their movements, shooting him with expectant looks - and from some like Sehun, murderous glares - as the silence starts to sound more out of place with each passing second.
The MR might as well have been giant crickets echoing the sound of his failure, and Baekhyun wants nothing more than to be pulled out of that universe right then and there.
-
It hits him then that things are starting to go wrong when he ends up in a completely different universe without crawling through the portal at all.
Well, that and the fact that he’s decked in a velvety skirt seemingly fit for royalty.
“Your Highness!”
“Are you serious?” Baekhyun screeches because now this is just getting ridiculous - is every fiction written in his head about to come true now? But he stops short when he hears his own voice. It’s uncharacteristically high, soprano even, with a certain soft timbre to it that he usually only hears in his favourite girl group CDs.
Before he can find the nearest mirror, a butler rushes in with a wet napkin in his hand, face flushed and eyes delirious. Baekhyun almost breaks down in tears because he keeps seeing the same face in every universe.
“Chanyeol!” He remembers the captain of the Unit in the first universe, as well as the group member with the worst dancing skills in the second. “I sound weird!”
“Your Highness, you must refrain from speaking so informally - the Duke is due to arrive any second, and you still have yet to get changed! Not to mention the make-up and hair! Oh no, no, no,” Chanyeol rattles off as he flits around the room, opening the wardrobe and taking out an even more lavish-looking dress and pulling cases upon cases of make-up out of their storage closets.
“But that’s for girls!” Baekhyun complains.
He is met with a disconcerted look on Chanyeol’s face. “Your Highness, surely you do not see yourself as anything but a female?”
That’s when Baekhyun rushes over to the vanity table to see himself in the mirror and realises that he’s no longer himself - she’s herself now.
-
“So - so, tell me,” Baekhyun hiccups through her tears, having finally wiped off most of it away (along with her mascara, but that’s not her problem). “Who’s this Duke - Duke I’m supposed to meet?”
“A meeting has been arranged for you and the Duke following the King’s approval of the Duke courting you.”
Her hair is being tugged backwards into a braid, but that’s not the reason why she has a grimace on. “So you mean this is, like, an arranged marriage?”
“Your Highness, please. Remember your etiquette lessons,” Chanyeol sighs in exasperation. “But yes. A marriage is anticipated, although the outcome is always unexpected.”
“So all I have to do is be the worst version of myself and get him to leave, right?”
Chanyeol scrunches up his nose. “I think it would be in your best interest to comply to the King’s wishes. Unless you’d like to him to…”
With his pointer, Chanyeol motions a knife to the throat complete with exaggerated dying noises. Baekhyun slumps in her seat, realising she’s got no choice now. After all, she needs her head if she wants to escape this reality as soon as possible.
-
She can’t say she’s surprised when she sees that the ‘Duke’ is in fact, Kim Jongin. Rather, she burst out into a laugh so ungraceful the King had almost literally kicked them out of the palace to start their day immediately.
Unfortunately, this little flaw has not deterred Kim Jongin because his grin is still intact. In fact, it probably has gotten wider when Baekhyun pouts and kicks her heeled shoe on the pavement of their private garden.
“This is so weird. I can’t walk properly in these.” Baekhyun clears his throat, still not used to his high-pitched voice. “And why are we just circling the garden? If you’re trying to court me, you’re not doing a very good job.”
Jongin has been silent aside from introducing himself until now. “I’m waiting until they’ve stopped following us.”
“Who?”
“The palace guards.” Jongin shrugs like it’s an everyday occurrence. Which it probably is to him, Baekhyun figures. “I was going to take you to someplace cool anyway.”
“Is it close by?”
“It’s a five-minute walk,” is Jongin’s quick reply. He grabs Baekhyun’s hand in his, and there’s an unmistakable moment where Baekhyun’s heart nearly leaps out of her chest. She frowns, because this is definitely not what’s supposed to happen. Maybe it’s got something to do with her being a girl now, or maybe it’s the way she feels special when Jongin looks at her the way he does. “Let’s go.”
The ‘cool place’ turns out to be a small clearing in the middle of the forest that lets the late afternoon sun reflect off of a small pond, home to only a few insects and small fish judging from the ripples emanating from random spots on the surface. Surprisingly, the weather isn’t as stifling as Baekhyun thought - especially in her dress. She kicks off her heels and sits by the edge of the pond, not caring about the dirt that’s probably sticking to the back of her skirt. Dipping her toes in the cool water, she sighs in contentment. Her last travels have been pretty hectic, so she appreciates this small break.
“Enjoying the water?” Jongin asks, languid smile infectious that Baekhyun feels herself smiling along, her heartbeat quickening. He sits by her, starting to pull off his own boots.
“It’s relaxing,” Baekhyun admits. “I needed a time-out from everything after all.”
“Tell me about it.”
The silence that follows is, in its own way, as loud as it can be as thoughts pass each of their heads. Stealing a glance at Jongin, Baekhyun can see that his smile has dimmed, giving way to a rather somber face.
“So we’re supposed to get married, huh.”
Jongin kicks a little at the water, momentarily reminding Baekhyun of a petulant child. “I guess so.”
“You look unhappy.” Baekhyun asks, curious. “Why so?”
“Why would I be unhappy?” Jongin tilts his head at her, but his smile isn’t the genuine one Baekhyun saw when he walked through the palace doors.
“I don’t know. Because it’s arranged?”
Jongin seems to be deep in thought as he selects a pebble to skip across the pond’s surface. He emerges out of it after a while saying, “Well, we have to do what’s best for our families, right?”
It hits her, then, that Jongin is in love with someone else. The way he seems to be looking past the trees, imagining another girl’s face between the woods, maybe walking out into the clearing to greet him with open arms instead of Baekhyun plainly sitting beside him, probably being the most boring company ever.
Baekhyun feels her heart sink but she masks it with a small laugh. “Right,” she says, because that’s all she can muster up right now. The ache in her heart is so heavy that she’s unable to move an inch, rooted to the spot while she feels the deadweight of a rejection piling up on her shoulders, her back, her chest, everywhere. And it’s ridiculous, because Baekhyun most certainly is not supposed to give a damn about who Jongin fancies or not - she doesn’t belong here, after all. Yet she can’t help but care anyway.
Baekhyun finds her machine in her closet that night, behind nightgowns too ornate for sleep. She turns it on in silence, not feeling the initial thrill before her very first expedition. It seems now that she only uses her invention whenever she needs an escape.
She steps through without another thought.
this story is continued.
part ii
Rating: PG-13
Side pairing/s: None
Length: 10,141 words
Summary: Baekhyun expected a lot of things when he was dead-set on building a machine to traverse multiple universes. What he never anticipated was Kim Jongin, his harshest critic, to be there with him every step of the way.
Warning/s: Momentary genderswitch! (Like, really minor trust me.)
Notes: Y has always been my saviour. Thank you for taking time out of your summer break to listen to me whining! And thank you to xiyings for the wonderful prompts! I hope I did them at least a little bit of justice~
It’s been the longest three weeks of Baekhyun’s life - but it’s all worth it, he thinks as he steps back to marvel at his own work.
Towering over him stands his most prized possession and revolutionary invention - a machine to parallel universes. Its frame is just wide enough for two people side-by side to pass through the empty space. The power supply is switched off, so all Baekhyun can see past the circular frame is the other side of his room. It looks pretty simple for a machine that would probably be the next best thing after the Internet, but it has taken years of research and planning and painful hours of non-stop work to bring it to life. The science behind it is so complex that Baekhyun is quite surprised he’s not sporting a balding scalp yet at the rate of how often he’s been pulling at his hair.
Just then, his eyes flicker over to the abandoned issue of Seoul Scientific Monthly that his best friend Kyungsoo had dropped off. Kyungsoo also warned him not to shut himself off in his basement for too long lest he dies of asphyxiation. Baekhyun had tried to tell him that his hideout is perfectly ventilated - but alas he was too focused on his most important project to remember.
“I should give myself some time to relax,” Baekhyun reasons as he walks over to his coffee table. Propping his feet up and reaching over for his mug of (now cold) tea, he lets himself pretend that his basement is a posh coffee shop in Paris, instead of a subterranean square box in the middle of Seoul.
“Maybe it’s a reality in some other universe,” Baekhyun muses out loud. He’s only paying half his attention on the pages of the magazine until an article makes him stop in his tracks.
Byun Baekhyun falls short of Critic’s Expectations Again.
When his eyes meet the name printed on the glossy page, Baekhyun curses. “This wretched fucker.”
The name Kim Jongin has grown so familiar to him over the past year - and definitely not in a positive light. Despite his reputation probably being worth more than Baekhyun’s whole career, Baekhyun wouldn’t think twice before landing a slap on his pretty chiseled face if he ever meets him in real life.
“World’s renowned Science critic Kim Jongin has spoken up about Dr. Byun Baekhyun’s latest discovery, which was exhibited at the Geneva Annual Physics Convention. Despite other critics commending Dr Byun’s elaborate theory, Seoul’s acclaimed critic has said about his exhibition at the conference:
‘The idea of parallel universes have existed in literature, art and sci-fi movies that date back to hundreds of years. It has become history - a concept already covered in a sheet of dust that will be forgotten in a few years’ time. I see no difference in Dr Byun’s presentation, other than elevated imagination and an alternative physical experimentation, which I could see ultimately failing, just like many other theories before his. I see nothing note-worthy in his exhibition but embarrassment to our country, for he flaunted the mediocre theory with such unparalleled confidence.’
What blasphemy!”
Baekhyun screeches and leaps out of his seat before striding over to his machine. He wrenches the fuse box open, all the while muttering under his breath, “So he thinks it’s old fashioned, huh? Well, I’ll show him.”
Once he’s got all the cables properly connected to their terminals, he reaches over for his phone and sends a quick text to Kyungsoo:
abt to go on a trip not gnna be back for a while
The reply comes before Baekhyun even has time to pocket his phone.
Ok. Make sure you don’t die.
At Kyungsoo’s blunt response, Baekhyun can’t help but roll his eyes. He’s about to turn his phone off before he decides to send one last text.
oh and if u see kim jongin somewher somehow tell him he’s a dick n i hope he never appears in any of my universes
K
Baekhyun coos at his phone, thankful for having such an understanding friend. He stares at his beat-up iPhone 4S for a few seconds before flinging it into the dustbin. He figures that by the time he’s done with the test run, he’ll make enough money to buy the latest iPhone after that, anyway. And maybe the next 3 concept models, too.
Eyes riveted on the machine, Baekhyun tries in vain to stop his hand from shaking as he flips the switch on. His contraption hums to life, a deep rumbling that shakes Baekhyun from his very bones to the tips of his hair. He has to stop himself from squealing as he watches the first strands of green emitting from the sides of the metallic circular walls, almost reaching the other side.
“Come on, you can do it.” He grits his teeth as another wave of green dissipates into the air.
Then Baekhyun hears a sharp pop that pierces his ears painfully, and the sudden burst of colour has him shrieking as he lifts a hand up to cover his eyes. The light isn’t meant to be dangerous, but he still has to blink away the black spots in his eyes after deeming it safe enough to peek out from the crook of his arm.
“Oh my god.”
It feels wonderful to see his invention coming to life. Sure, Baekhyun had seen it working before - after all, he had to do a test run to make sure the pressure of the portal wouldn’t crush him to a pulp. But this time it’s different. This time, it’s different because Baekhyun will be the one stepping through; and this will be the greatest feat of space exploration mankind has ever seen since Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon.
Baekhyun reaches out, mouth still hanging open in wonder as his fingers trace the beginning of green, and suddenly he feels himself being pulled forward.
Baekhyun hopes he won’t get whiplash.
-
The first thing Baekhyun registers after landing painfully hard on his face is that it’s humid. Very, very humid. And the sky looks suspiciously holographic. When he looks down, the small particles of what should be soil is horribly pixelated.
“What,” he asks no one in particular.
Before he can further question his surroundings, however, a small man comes scurrying out of a pair of automatic door. At the sight of Baekhyun sprawled on the ground, his already wide eyes widen even more and he almost drops the clipboard in his arms as he stumbles over to Baekhyun.
“Lieutenant Byun, what are you doing taking a nap at this hour of the day?”
Baekhyun looks up only to be greeted by a very familiar face staring down concernedly at him. “Hey! It’s you, Kyungsoo.”
Kyungsoo seems to be taken aback at Baekhyun’s casual tone. “Uh, yes, Lieutenant, my name is Do Kyungsoo indeed.”
“You’re my…” Baekhyun frowns, reading the nametag on Kyungsoo’s pristine white lab coat. “Assistant? In what?”
Kyungsoo looks about ready to jump off a cliff with the look he sends Baekhyun. “I’m sure I told you not to drink too much at the Cabin’s party last night. I’m afraid you’re going to have to sober yourself up immediately because you have a class to teach.”
“A class to… what?” Baekhyun finally attempts to stand up, feeling a little wobbly as he tries to balance on the pixelated floor. The graphics make him dizzy, and he stares in awe at Kyungsoo who seems to stand on his feet effortlessly. “What do I teach?”
“The enemy will reach our 13th cylinder colony - in other words, this one - in less than 72 hours.” Kyungsoo starts to walk in the direction of the automatic doors, his posture indicating that Baekhyun is expected to follow him. “The President expects Unit 5 to be fully trained and prepared for the invasion. We need not a repeat of last year’s defeat.”
Kyungsoo punches a code in, and a window momentarily opens up above Baekhyun’s head, filtering light akin to the glow of a moon through. When Baekhyun looks out of it, he almost gasps in bewilderment. He sees countless of stars - so many that wherever he looks, they dapple his eyesight. What looks like a wing seems to extend from where Baekhyun is standing to the black void of space, whizzing by at a speed that would make physicist green with envy (and others green with travel sickness) and Baekhyun tries not to gape as planets flick past the window like a very sophisticated slideshow.
All too soon, the outside view is gone and Kyungsoo is walking down a narrow corridor. “Your last training with them went flawlessly, and we expect nothing less than that this time.”
“Just as a reminder, of sorts,” Baekhyun manages to catch up to him, “Can you tell me what I’m supposed to teach Unit 5?”
“No problem. Last time they were taught how to combat when handicapped in a zero-gravity situation, which is the last thing on the syllabus. All you need to do today is review everything they’ve learnt over the past four months in preparation for the battle.”
“Everything…?” Baekhyun gulps.
“Unit 5 is an incredibly intelligent unit, I’m sure they won’t have a problem with a cram session.” Kyungsoo says calmly.
“That’s not what I’m worried about…” Baekhyun mutters, but then Kyungsoo is already unlocking another set of doors to a separate room.
The doors swing open to reveal two neat rows of bunk beds on either side of a very long room. At different places in the room, about ten teenagers not much younger than Baekhyun are sprawled around - but they immediately scramble back to the foot of their respective beds and stand up straight, palms straight on their foreheads in a gesture of salute.
“Lieutenant Byun, Sir, good night Sir!”
“It’s fine, Chanyeol, he’s not here to check on anything.” Kyungsoo rolls his eyes, and the boy - Chanyeol - visibly sags in relief. “Tonight is your last night of official training before the battle tomorrow, and it is essential for you to use this time as wisely as possible. You’ll be on your own after tonight as Lieutenant Byun can’t accompany you all the time. Do not disappoint the colony.” He turns to a blank-looking Baekhyun. “Unit 5 is all yours. Good luck, Lieutenant.”
“Uh, thanks,” Baekhyun manages to stutter out before the door clicks to a close behind him. He rakes his eyes over the rows of boys, trying hard to ignore the expectant gazes and slightly awkward silence before his eyes land on one more familiar person. Baekhyun almost chokes.
Three beds away from Baekhyun’s left stands Kim Jongin, and he is still poised in a salute.
-
“Um,” Baekhyun says for what seems to be the fiftieth time in two minutes. “I can’t really remember what we did last time.”
“That’s okay, Jongin slept for half of it anyway,” a boy whose nametag reads ‘Sehun’ pipes up, earning an elbow nudge from the man in question.
This has Baekhyun perking up. Truth be told, Baekhyun had been more interested in studying Jongin’s face than actually teaching the class. Up close, Baekhyun realises just how handsome the man actually is (which, Baekhyun has to admit, hindered his initial plan of slapping him at once). No camera or magazine page has ever done his face justice - pretty eyes, sharp cheekbones, windswept hair and full lips that stretch into a beautiful grin when one of his friends cracks a lame joke.
Not that Baekhyun has been eavesdropping, of course.
“You can’t even remember what you taught us for the handicap lesson?” Chanyeol looks the most worried out of all them. “You know, whenever one of our limbs get frozen by the rays. What we should do during that kind of situation. Can you go over that?”
“Are you stupid, Yeol?” Someone else called Lu Han pushes through the crowd forward. “That part is really easy.”
“In that case, how about I leave you to it?” Baekhyun clasps his hands, faking a confident smile. “I’ll set this session for a free training period. You’re free to practice whichever part of the… syllabus you feel least confident in and help out others in difficulty.”
A loud cheer erupts from the enthusiastic group of students, and almost immediately they launch into the zero-gravity arena to split into small groups. Baekhyun lets out a relieved sigh at having dodged a bullet. He turns around, meaning to sneak out and take a private tour of the cylinder colony alone when he feels a soft tap on his shoulder.
“Lieutenant Byun?” The nonchalant face of Kim Jongin pops up into his peripheral vision, almost sending him tumbling backwards in surprise. Collecting himself, he scrunches up his nose.
“Just call me Baekhyun.” Jongin seems surprised at the proposition, and Baekhyun thinks he must have been a strict trainer once upon a time. “Is there a problem?”
“Well, everyone’s already partnered up. I don’t have anyone to practice with.” Jongin scuffs his foot on the pixelated flooring. “Would you mind… being my partner?”
The logical thing for Baekhyun to do would be to refuse, make some kind of excuse and hightail out of the training room. But for some reason the Kim Jongin that stands in front of him piques his interest - not because of his toned body or his face that belongs in a high-end fashion magazine - but because this is the first time Baekhyun has come face to face with the man he had wanted to strangle to death on so many occasions.
He figures that parallel universes are about taking chances, so he smiles and replies, “Sure, Jongin. I’d love to.”
The grin that Jongin has on sends all Baekhyun’s doubts flying out of the spacecraft.
-
Fast forward two days later and Baekhyun wakes up with a sore back and aching wrists. He had spent almost every waking hour seeking out empty training rooms to help Jongin practice, much to the amusement of his other students. Some accused him of favouritism, but then Sehun had helpfully pointed out that Jongin must be the shittiest soldier of them all if Baekhyun had to go out of his way to train him personally. That shut the whole unit up, and Baekhyun for once was grateful for Sehun’s lack of brain-to-mouth filter.
During that period of time, however, Baekhyun had learnt that Jongin is very skilled - his movements are calculated, with flawless coordination and his aim is almost always accurate. Baekhyun had suffered multiple freezing in different parts of his body that he’d rather not discuss, but it had all been worth it whenever Jongin lets out a carefree laugh, when he floats over to untangle Baekhyun’s limbs and throw random facts about himself in the process.
“I was really obsessed with how the cylinder colony worked,” Jongin had told Baekhyun as he attempted to disengage his right arm from his left leg. “That’s why I signed up for the military sector. It was a fast track out of Earth here.”
“Glad to see your interest in Science hasn’t changed.” Baekhyun laughs, before realising what he had said. Either Jongin brushed it off or he legitimately did not hear him, because he only cheers a little to himself when he had successfully separated Baekhyun’s limbs.
Now, Baekhyun is standing in the command room. He looks around and sees two other Lieutenants among a few researchers named Junmyeon and Jongdae, with Kyungsoo flitting between the three of them, clipboard in hand. A digital screen stretches in front of them, like a screen in a cinema, with a small map on its bottom left corner.
“The battlefield is ready,” Junmyeon speaks through the microphone, and the students from Units 1 to 5 fiddle with their earpiece onscreen. “You will be deployed in one minute. Arms at the ready -“
“Lieutenant! Something’s coming right at -“
The warning comes much too late as a tremor followed by a loud crash fills Baekhyun’s ears, sending him tumbling to the ground. The screen blacks out, the static noises no match for another crash and loud screech of metal scraping against metal, painful to the ears. Incoherent shouts are thrown across the room with people fleeing under tables or attempting to unlock the entrance.
“Evacuate! Run! We’ve been ambushed!”
“Wait - wait, what about the soldiers?” Baekhyun shouts over his shoulder when Kyungsoo drags him by the arm towards the exit. “They’re on the Launchpad!”
“It’s the first place the enemy would’ve hit,” Kyungsoo shouts back, already pulling Baekhyun down the set of holographic stairs. “I’m sorry, Lieutenant, but there’s only one in a million chance that they’ve survived.”
“You’re just going to leave them like this?” Baekhyun shouts, prying his arm away from Kyungsoo’s grip. “They might still be alive! They’re just teenagers!”
“What else can we do except save ourselves?”
Baekhyun stares at him, shocked by the careless manner in which the soldiers who have trained so hard are discarded. He backs up the stairs, hands shaking. “No I - I cant. I have to - I’m just going to…”
And then Baekhyun runs, ignoring the shouts sent his way as he sprints back the way he came from - the command room, down the narrow hallways and through an access door until he comes to his own door. Another crash throws him off his feet, but he scrambles to swipe his identification card until the doors hiss open. A deafening explosion can be heard and suddenly he watches as half of the spacecraft is flung across the black void of space. He screams, but immediately stops because he needs to save his oxygen.
With much difficulty, he crawls to the edge of his room where his machine is miraculously still standing. His bottom lip is probably a little bloody now from how much he’s biting on them, but he flips the switch on just as he sees the command room burst into flames.
“Come on!”
A blinding flash of green responds to his plea and Baekhyun eagerly crawls through, not caring about the possibility of whiplash. He needs to escape this universe that has turned into a living nightmare in a matter of minutes.
The last thought on his mind is whether Kim Jongin survived or not.
-
“Does everyone have their microphones set up? Can you check they’re working?”
“Ah, ah, one two three, yo, Monggu Monggu.”
Baekhyun’s eyes shoot open. He knows this voice. It’s the voice he had last thought of as he crawled his way out of an apocalypse.
“Yehet, one two three.”
His face scrunches up in disgust. He recognises that voice too, although the familiarity isn’t as welcomed. He whips his head around to confirm his suspicions; in front of brightly-lit dressing tables is Sehun, who has his feet propped up on the make-up table; and to his left sits none other than Kim Jongin.
Baekhyun spends a few minutes appreciating Jongin’s blemish-free face and his sharp eyes lined with black eyeliner - an obvious contrast to the rough beauty he saw back in the space colony. He looks more groomed (despite the maniacal-looking Einstein hair he’s sporting) and pin-perfect in a handsome black suit that is bedazzled by diamond-like sequins. When Baekhyun looks down he sees that he’s clad in the exact same outfit, although it’s apparent that it’s a significantly less impressive fit on him.
There’s no time to lament over his lack of ideal body, however, because suddenly someone is standing at the door with a sheet of paper and he’s shouting at everyone in the dressing room. “Get ready in three minutes! Encore stages - right now! Kai, get your microphone fixed here.”
“Hold on,” Baekhyun shakily stands on his feet as everyone else rushes out of the room, still queasy from his travel. He’s starting to realise that 10 out of 10 times he’s going to be thrown into a situation he’s not prepared for in these universes, so instead of asking questions he attempts to find the answers himself.
“Kai?” whispers Baekhyun after tailing Jongin to a coordi noona. His face is striking even under the unforgiving fluorescent lighting. “You’re Jongin.”
Jongin - Kai - replies with an amused chuckle. “Glad you remember my name, hyung,” he jokes. He cocks his head in the direction of the door. “But don’t forget you’ll have to call me Kai up there.”
Baekhyun hums in realisation, suddenly understanding his situation - the people who had gone before them, he figures, are most likely his fellow group members. A multitude of hysteric screams coming in from the exit, along with the dressing room and coordinated outfits and microphones tell Baekhyun that he’s about to step out onto the stage of a concert - and he panics for a moment, because he has no idea what he’s supposed to be performing.
And then he remembers that idols lip-sync half of the time anyway. He cackles in satisfaction at the thought. This universe will definitely be a breeze.
Jongin starts to walk in the direction of the exit with Baekhyun close at his heels. When Baekhyun chances a glance at a passing mirror, he nearly screams because he’s got coloured lenses on and copious amounts of eyeliner accentuating his waterlines.
“What is up with my face,” he murmurs a little too loud, making Jongin laugh loudly beside.
“Tonight’s one of your best looks, hyung. You’re going to kill them all onstage.”
Baekhyun blushes at the compliment and he hopes the makeup he’s wearing is heavy enough to hide his reddening cheeks. He watches as Jongin adjusts his shirt and accidentally pulls it upwards, exposing a small sliver of skin and ultimately making Baekhyun choke on his saliva.
“Hyung, are you okay?” Jongin’s face is one of mild worry. “You promised you wouldn’t practice too much last night.”
“I didn’t,” Baekhyun assures, even though he really has no idea.
“Good, because we’re singing Wolf live tonight and you need to remember the modified choreography.”
“Ah shit.” Baekhyun wants to slap a palm to his face. Of course his luck would fail him at times like this. “Live? Why today? Why?”
“Be careful, your mic is on.” Jongin drags him by the arm, leaving Baekhyun with no room to protest. “Come on. We need to get into position.”
The stage lights are switched off and everything is dark except for the glow of thousands of silver lightsticks waving frantically from the seats. From where he’s standing, the sight is so breathtakingly beautiful that Baekhyun has to stop and stare at the seemingly endless expanse of luminescent light. Despite this life and this career having nothing to do with him, and him taking virtually no part in it, he feels his heart swell with pride and tears building up at the back of his eyes. He can’t imagine what a touching moment this must be for his group members, who have experienced the hardships climbing up the ladder of success first-hand.
Jongin quickly arranges both of them in place - somewhere in the middle of a line of people with their hands in the air. At first, Baekhyun thought they were praying to the heavens or something, but one look at the screen tells him the formation is supposed to be some kind of tree. What a cheesy concept, he thinks. Jongin turns to face him and Baekhyun squeaks at the close proximity although Jongin doesn’t notice his little fluster.
Albeit trying to replicate the stance to the best of his ability, Baekhyun must still be a little off because then Jongin’s got his hands on Baekhyun’s wrists, lifting his right arm higher up in the air and bringing his left arm closer to his ear. His lips follow his hand, and Jongin whispers in his ear,
“No need to thank me.”
Before Baekhyun could reply, the boom of the music fills his earpiece and the screams intensify. Everyone’s hands start moving in one direction and Baekhyun has no choice but to follow, his moves evidently a little sluggish compared to the rest.
“Wait Jongin,” he hisses, getting Jongin to look up. “I don’t know the modified choreography - I don’t know the choreography at all!”
“We practiced this for four months, it’s impossible to forget.”
Baekhyun’s panic causes his brain to malfunction as he blurts out, “You might not believe this, but I’m from a parallel universe and I have no idea what I’m doing right now. This universe looks cool, don’t get me wrong, but I just -“
“It’s not the time to play pranks now hyung,” Jongin whispers through his teeth and he nudges at Baekhyun’s shoulder with his free hand. “Quick, it’s your turn soon.”
“What?”
The formation breaks and everyone is suddenly leaping all over the place - like the wolves they’re supposed to be - leaving Baekhyun completely disoriented in the middle of it all, getting shoved one way by his group members and the other way the next moment. The messy nature of the song does nothing to help him adjust his stance - rather, it’s starting to give him a headache. Baekhyun spins around, realising he’s still facing away from the crowd and that’s when the spotlight shines on him.
He stares at the crowd with panicked eyes as the MR plays in the background with absolutely no one singing along to it. From the corner of his eye, he can see his teammates slowing down their movements, shooting him with expectant looks - and from some like Sehun, murderous glares - as the silence starts to sound more out of place with each passing second.
The MR might as well have been giant crickets echoing the sound of his failure, and Baekhyun wants nothing more than to be pulled out of that universe right then and there.
-
It hits him then that things are starting to go wrong when he ends up in a completely different universe without crawling through the portal at all.
Well, that and the fact that he’s decked in a velvety skirt seemingly fit for royalty.
“Your Highness!”
“Are you serious?” Baekhyun screeches because now this is just getting ridiculous - is every fiction written in his head about to come true now? But he stops short when he hears his own voice. It’s uncharacteristically high, soprano even, with a certain soft timbre to it that he usually only hears in his favourite girl group CDs.
Before he can find the nearest mirror, a butler rushes in with a wet napkin in his hand, face flushed and eyes delirious. Baekhyun almost breaks down in tears because he keeps seeing the same face in every universe.
“Chanyeol!” He remembers the captain of the Unit in the first universe, as well as the group member with the worst dancing skills in the second. “I sound weird!”
“Your Highness, you must refrain from speaking so informally - the Duke is due to arrive any second, and you still have yet to get changed! Not to mention the make-up and hair! Oh no, no, no,” Chanyeol rattles off as he flits around the room, opening the wardrobe and taking out an even more lavish-looking dress and pulling cases upon cases of make-up out of their storage closets.
“But that’s for girls!” Baekhyun complains.
He is met with a disconcerted look on Chanyeol’s face. “Your Highness, surely you do not see yourself as anything but a female?”
That’s when Baekhyun rushes over to the vanity table to see himself in the mirror and realises that he’s no longer himself - she’s herself now.
-
“So - so, tell me,” Baekhyun hiccups through her tears, having finally wiped off most of it away (along with her mascara, but that’s not her problem). “Who’s this Duke - Duke I’m supposed to meet?”
“A meeting has been arranged for you and the Duke following the King’s approval of the Duke courting you.”
Her hair is being tugged backwards into a braid, but that’s not the reason why she has a grimace on. “So you mean this is, like, an arranged marriage?”
“Your Highness, please. Remember your etiquette lessons,” Chanyeol sighs in exasperation. “But yes. A marriage is anticipated, although the outcome is always unexpected.”
“So all I have to do is be the worst version of myself and get him to leave, right?”
Chanyeol scrunches up his nose. “I think it would be in your best interest to comply to the King’s wishes. Unless you’d like to him to…”
With his pointer, Chanyeol motions a knife to the throat complete with exaggerated dying noises. Baekhyun slumps in her seat, realising she’s got no choice now. After all, she needs her head if she wants to escape this reality as soon as possible.
-
She can’t say she’s surprised when she sees that the ‘Duke’ is in fact, Kim Jongin. Rather, she burst out into a laugh so ungraceful the King had almost literally kicked them out of the palace to start their day immediately.
Unfortunately, this little flaw has not deterred Kim Jongin because his grin is still intact. In fact, it probably has gotten wider when Baekhyun pouts and kicks her heeled shoe on the pavement of their private garden.
“This is so weird. I can’t walk properly in these.” Baekhyun clears his throat, still not used to his high-pitched voice. “And why are we just circling the garden? If you’re trying to court me, you’re not doing a very good job.”
Jongin has been silent aside from introducing himself until now. “I’m waiting until they’ve stopped following us.”
“Who?”
“The palace guards.” Jongin shrugs like it’s an everyday occurrence. Which it probably is to him, Baekhyun figures. “I was going to take you to someplace cool anyway.”
“Is it close by?”
“It’s a five-minute walk,” is Jongin’s quick reply. He grabs Baekhyun’s hand in his, and there’s an unmistakable moment where Baekhyun’s heart nearly leaps out of her chest. She frowns, because this is definitely not what’s supposed to happen. Maybe it’s got something to do with her being a girl now, or maybe it’s the way she feels special when Jongin looks at her the way he does. “Let’s go.”
The ‘cool place’ turns out to be a small clearing in the middle of the forest that lets the late afternoon sun reflect off of a small pond, home to only a few insects and small fish judging from the ripples emanating from random spots on the surface. Surprisingly, the weather isn’t as stifling as Baekhyun thought - especially in her dress. She kicks off her heels and sits by the edge of the pond, not caring about the dirt that’s probably sticking to the back of her skirt. Dipping her toes in the cool water, she sighs in contentment. Her last travels have been pretty hectic, so she appreciates this small break.
“Enjoying the water?” Jongin asks, languid smile infectious that Baekhyun feels herself smiling along, her heartbeat quickening. He sits by her, starting to pull off his own boots.
“It’s relaxing,” Baekhyun admits. “I needed a time-out from everything after all.”
“Tell me about it.”
The silence that follows is, in its own way, as loud as it can be as thoughts pass each of their heads. Stealing a glance at Jongin, Baekhyun can see that his smile has dimmed, giving way to a rather somber face.
“So we’re supposed to get married, huh.”
Jongin kicks a little at the water, momentarily reminding Baekhyun of a petulant child. “I guess so.”
“You look unhappy.” Baekhyun asks, curious. “Why so?”
“Why would I be unhappy?” Jongin tilts his head at her, but his smile isn’t the genuine one Baekhyun saw when he walked through the palace doors.
“I don’t know. Because it’s arranged?”
Jongin seems to be deep in thought as he selects a pebble to skip across the pond’s surface. He emerges out of it after a while saying, “Well, we have to do what’s best for our families, right?”
It hits her, then, that Jongin is in love with someone else. The way he seems to be looking past the trees, imagining another girl’s face between the woods, maybe walking out into the clearing to greet him with open arms instead of Baekhyun plainly sitting beside him, probably being the most boring company ever.
Baekhyun feels her heart sink but she masks it with a small laugh. “Right,” she says, because that’s all she can muster up right now. The ache in her heart is so heavy that she’s unable to move an inch, rooted to the spot while she feels the deadweight of a rejection piling up on her shoulders, her back, her chest, everywhere. And it’s ridiculous, because Baekhyun most certainly is not supposed to give a damn about who Jongin fancies or not - she doesn’t belong here, after all. Yet she can’t help but care anyway.
Baekhyun finds her machine in her closet that night, behind nightgowns too ornate for sleep. She turns it on in silence, not feeling the initial thrill before her very first expedition. It seems now that she only uses her invention whenever she needs an escape.
She steps through without another thought.
this story is continued.
part ii