Epilogue 1

Ren sipped a cup of overpriced coffee, his shades keeping out the sun’s glaring reflection from the skyscraper on the other side of the park in which the boy waited. Why did they build such high buildings in New York? Oh well, he could use the time to clear his mind. Although he didn't know what to ponder first.

It had been subtle in the beginning but the changes kept piling up so drastically, it became impossible to ignore. Violence decreased worldwide, draughts ended despite all weather predictions, animals thought to be extinct showed up in forests around the globe, humanitarian projects succeeded beyond the most optimistic projections.

Something had happened that could end a war overnight, with everybody waking up convinced further fighting was pointless.

It was Minhyun’s doing but it would take a while before the United Nations had convinced everybody of this fact.

Junior had told them everything.

They had made him the General Secretary’s closest advisor. Everything ran past him and he gave the odds. Ren assumed Junior had known exactly what to say to get into his new position, using the rest of his fading overcharge to manipulate his way to where he could do the most good. These days he stayed out of the stock market.

The public didn’t know the exact extent of his powers. To them he must have seemed nearly omniscient.

It was the most impressive thing – or would have been, if Aron hadn’t kept turning dirt into gold and other such little tricks on the other side of the world.

For a while Ren had been worried the American was trying to carve out a kingdom for himself. But no, he only mixed up the game. Aron traveled the globe, leaving wealth and joy in his wake – the ultimate anti-catastrophe. Last Ren had heard, the boy had started taking flight lessons.

“Hello, Ren,” somebody said.

Ren turned to see against the sunlight. “Jason, hey. Good to see you.”

“Junior’s stuck in a meeting,” the assistant said. Yes, he was still Junior’s assistant. “He’s giving probabilities on where the last rebel troops are hiding so the army can move in without bloodshed.”

“What rebellion?”

“Something in the middle east. I dunno. It’s probably the last rebellion there is.”

“What army?”

“Didn’t you hear? Everything but the UN blue helmets has been disbanded.”

Ren huffed. “Weird how we’re getting it together as a planet.”

Jason avoided eye contact. “Have you thought about…you know?”

Of course Ren knew. The question was if he wanted to unveil himself and join the tiny elite of superheroes. He wouldn’t hide forever, not if it made it so difficult to be with Junior, but his ability felt scary, even to himself.

“Last I asked,” he said, “Junior predicted twenty percent likelihood that I’d be received well by the public. That’s massively greater than just a few month ago. I’ll give it some time.”

Jason only nodded. Then he helped Ren up and they wandered off towards the skyscraper Junior was stuck in.

***

Epilogue 2

Aron groaned under the flickering streetlights.

The hoard of children hadn’t stopped following him for three villages now. If anything, the kid-pile-up had grown in size. Wasn't is past their bed time? Where were their parents? Maybe he shouldn’t have turned that tree into lollipops. But he had really wanted one for himself. This region of Africa cooked way too spicy for his taste.

Over the weeks he had figured out escape techniques that hadn't failed him yet.

Aron turned dramatically towards the dozens of kids, waited until their anticipation shut them up and then raised his arms. There wasn’t much around so he had to tear out some of the dusty ground next to the dirt road. The chunk of earth hovered above the children, exploded and felt down on them as sliced fruit.

Once everybody was occupied catching as many vitamin rich edibles as their tiny hands could hold, Aron ran away. No lollipops this time. Never let it be said he didn’t care for their dental health.

The helicopter – his helicopter – was right past the hill. He had a few more things scheduled for the next day and needed some sleep. Indeed, his schedule was packed. Meeting some king, visiting some school, opening some library, visiting some hospital, attending some banquet. The usual, really.

He should probably start remembering the names of people and places. And when was that upcoming Nuest reunion scheduled again? Maybe he just needed a permanent assistant. Would Junior share Jason?

The boy hopped into his aircraft and went through the checklist. This really was the easiest way to get around in this region where roads were rarely equipped to handle anything driving at more than walking pace.

As he rose higher and left the lights of the little villages behind, he saw the stars ahead. Not too well, because his head lights were on, but he knew they were there. Was Minhyun watching him? Well, yes, Minhyun was probably watching everyone and everything. But was he watching him in particular?

If what Lady Luck had said was true Minhyun had replaced her and was much more qualified to use the abilities luck gave him. That was really it – luck. The entity who had once been Aron’s boyfriend worked miracles at minute intervals, gently pushing humanity into the right one of all possible timelines.

It was amazing work and dwarfed Aron’s own efforts.

Still, he missed him.

***

Epilogue 3

Baekho ended the call. It had almost gone past a full hour. Now he was as up-to-date about things at home as he could possibly be. Well, the other home. The one just a few towns over.

His mother had insisted on the call, even though it wasn’t necessary anymore. She could visit whenever.

He was back in Korea and this time he had the job his mother thought he had. He wasn’t just anywhere in Korea, no, he was in his old city – in the very district he had been so eager to leave.

How odd it felt to him, remembering how much he had cared about only a handful of people. Now he had a whole neighborhood to supervise. If there were any problems, any arguments, any trouble makers, if somebody stole someone else’s Wi-Fi, Baekho was the mediator. Anyone in the district having reliable connections to begin with was also his doing. Since he had been elected the district's spokeperson in the city councel there was no neglect of basic infrastructure anymore.

Not an easy job but everybody loved him and that was all he needed. Well some people hated him but only temporarily – until they found another unprotected Wi-Fi to leach off.

Oh right, he had promised to feed Mrs. Choi’s cat for the duration of her cruise trip. Which was a small miracle all on its own. The old lady had spent fifty years mistrusting everyone around her never leaving the house.

Baekho put it on his list and continued with the more urgent task of carrying the buckets full of paint which would end up on the newly opened kindergarten. The kids were waiting.

Plus he had promised to call Junior. There was a superhero reunion coming up. Or maybe more of a we-killed-the-Shadow-and-survived-the-attack-by-the-Void anniversary. What time was it right now where Junior was? Where was Junior right now?

Whatever, he’d just write a text message. There were kids and a cat waiting.

***

Epilogue 4

“Nasa’s satellite launch tomorrow will be pushed back by a day due to weather – ninety-five percent. Don’t bother setting it up. I know, we all want to take a closer look at the stuff on the moon but they’d just be wasting their money.”

Junior wrapped up the day’s predictions. Which countries would sign the treaty? How much was the gold price about to change? Who was threatened by assassins? When was that overdue earthquake going to strike? Was the chocolate bar going to get stuck in the vending machine again?

Maybe the last one was of a more personal concern.

In any case, he was finally free to leave his obligations behind for the day, having covered the United Nations folks with probabilities that would leave their heads spinning for the rest of the day. Honestly, it had surprised even him to find out the Deep Sea Protection Act had a seventy-five percent chance of passing. He was still surprised by politicians being so…reasonable.

The boy – no, the young man – excused himself and made his way down into the lobby.

Junior raised the phone to his ear the moment Ren’s call arrived with absolute certainty, letting him pick up even before the first ringing. His other hand inserted a coin into the vending machine’s slot.

“Hello, Ren.”

“Ah! Don’t do that. For the millionth time: Let it ring at least once. This is too weird.”

“Are you waiting outside?” Junior asked, ignoring the criticism.

“Yes. There’s this new café right around the corner. We should try it. It just opened today I think.”

“It’s New York. People here are opening and closing new businesses like it’s a bad habit. I’ll grab an energy bar before I leave. Wish me luck. Ten percent chance it’ll get stuck again… aaaand it’s stuck. Great. Just great.”

Ren chuckled. “Minhyun can’t be everywhere at once, it seems.”

“Guess so. Hey, I thought about moving back to Korea. There’s nothing here I can’t do from afar, really. We’ll talk about it on the date.”

Ren was quiet for a moment. “Does Jason really need to be there?”

“Would you rather I take a bodyguard everywhere like they want me to?”

“Fine, just come outside.”

Junior stepped into the sunlight. Ren was waiting by the fountain in front of the entrance and smiled upon seeing his boyfriend.

There was a one hundred percent chance it would be a wonderful day.

THE END

First of all, my endless gratitude to you for sticking around. I began writing this as soon as their comeback was announced and thought I’d be done in time. Well, that didn’t happen – not even close. And the perfectionist I am never uploads until the story is fully written. Still, I’m happy you found your way here and enjoyed my writing. It was harder than I thought it would be but totally worth it.

My gratitude also goes to Nu’est of course. If they hadn’t kept coming out with new content after their initial comeback I’d have lost motivation halfway through. Unfortunatelly we Nu'est fans are a tiny, exclusive club. If only they had the fanbase they deserve.

This is the longest thing I’ve ever written. A little bit higher word count than ‘Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets’. About twice as long as my previous magnum opus, ‘Adore Me’ plus its four sequels. What a ride.

***

Here’s a quick Q&A if you wanna know how this all came about and other things.

Bias? JR, who I now habitually call Junior in my mind. Oh well. I’m sorry I killed him like five times in this fic. I wasn’t even planning that. OTL. If I explained why he’s my bias I’d add another 10k words to this fic so let’s move on.

Bias wrecker? Aron. I never really understood the concept of a bias wrecker before he showed up. I was happily staying in my lane, giving a little appreciation to the other boys equally when JR wasn’t in the picture and then this er had to be fatally adorable (and speak English). I love him in a completely different way than JR. Weird how that works.

Why is JR called 'Junior'? I kept missspelling his name as RJ and to be honest I don't think a name made up of two consonants rolls off the tongue too smoothly. But I wanted to stick to their stage names in some way.

Favorite Nu’est song? . I even like the super cheesy choreography. Don’t judge me. I also really like ‘Don’t wear revealing clothes’ or what the translated title is. Not even sorry.

Favorite MV? What made me fall in love with them as a group was the ‘Not over you’ MV. Of course a lot of the feel of this fic was obviously inspired by ‘Sleep talking’. And I’m not sure the ‘Storybook’ video counts as an MV but I’ve watched it too often to leave it unmentioned. (Do I need to mention I like 'Overcome' or can that be assumed as default?)

How did you think of this story? I got into Nu’est basically the moment they announced their comeback. Late to the party, I know, but it’s never too late. Back then we didn’t know what their concept was going to be or else I’d have thought of something more fairy tale style. Anyway, I thought about which superpower would fit each boy and it all emerged naturally from there.

What’s the writing process? I had about two or three sentences down for each arc and the rest I made up as I went along. To be honest, and this is a bit weird, I had all the arc titles generated by a random title generator. Then I kept the one’s I liked and made up plot around them.

Inspirations for this fic? I’ve borrowed liberally from everywhere I found some idea I liked. Some concepts I’ve lifted wholesale. If you can guess one of my influences I’ll happily confirm, but I’m not going to state here what exactly they are so you don’t get spoiled if you intend to consume that particular piece of media in the future. There isn’t one particular book/cartoon/anime/fic etc. serving as main inspiration but I suppose genre conventions were my guideline.

What are your plans now? Heck, if I knew. You’ll see me around, I guess. Though, if I'm honest my next fic likely won't be Nu'est related.

Can I do anything for you? Yes. Comment. Leave me feedback. There’s nothing better you can give me.

Good luck, and remember to question your stars ;)