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Seungri stared at his phone. It had been a few days since he'd given his phone number to Taemin, yet he hadn't heard anything from him so far, and he was beginning to wonder whether he would ever hear anything.

He didn't want to make it seem like he was desperate to befriend him... of course he wasn't. But it seemed as though if he didn't do something about it himself, he wouldn't get to talk to Taemin. Fingers hovering nervously over his keyboard, Seungri sent the simplest text he could have done. 'Hey'.

For a minute straight, in a sort of stupor, Seungri stayed sat staring at the screen. Shaking his head to snap himself out of it, he purposefully put his phone down on the coffee table in front of him, and went to the kitchen to get food. He wasn't desperate enough to wait for a reply like that. Of course he wasn't.

Seungri spent the next half an hour ignoring his phone and pretending like he didn't feel the urge to check his messages. He pointedly watched TV, but found that it was difficult to concentrate on - not that it was particularly easy to find daytime TV interesting. He fidgeted with whatever was in his hands - food, the TV remote, the rings on his fingers, anything to try to keep his mind occupied.

Seungri gave in as his phone buzzed for the third time. To his disappointment, two of the messages were from Jiyong, which he ignored, but the third was from Taemin. Hi Seungri-ssi. Do you want to meet up? I'm free tomorrow. Something felt off, different about the message, but Seungri had got what he wanted, he wasn't about to complain.

Yes! Do you want to come to mine?! Seungri found himself reply as he would do to the Taemin that he knew, with lots of enthusiasm. If he was being honest with himself, he was about as excited to see this Taemin as he would be to see the one that he already knew.

I won't have time to come to yours, Seungri-ssi, but you could come to mine? I'm afraid it will just be the dorm, I hope that's alright? Seungri felt slightly disappointed at Taemin's reply. He wanted to at least have the experience of showing his friend around his real home, but it was better than nothing. That sounds great! I'll be there at 1 tomorrow! Taemin's reply was the address of the dorm, and that was the end of the conversation.

Seungri spent the rest of the day in a state of low key excitement. Although he'd already spent some time with the members of SHINee here, it hadn't exactly been very long, not long enough to truly see any differences between the people that he knew and the ones here.

**

As Seungri followed the directions of his GPS to the address that Taemin had given him, he realised how familiar this part of Seoul was beginning to look. He got out of his car in front of a building that he'd come to know very well in the last month.

Thoughtfully, he examined the keypad which would unlock the front door. He could try to unlock the door himself, and see if the number was the same one that he knew. Or, he could just call Taemin to let him know that he had arrived. While he was curious about whether it was the same number, it wouldn't look very good for him if it went badly. The company would have to work to cover up what might look like breaking and entering.

Still eyeing up the keypad, Seungri regretfully got out his phone and rang Taemin. "Hello?" Taemin sounded genuinely confused as to why he was being called. "Hey! I'm at your dorm building. We're meeting up, remember?" Taemin out a sigh on the other end. "Oh... yeah. Give me a minute, I'll come let you up." Taemin hung up straight away, and Seungri was left to just wait to be collected. He shifted from foot to foot as he waited, not really having anything to occupy his time with.

After a few minutes, Taemin finally appeared at the door. As he opened it, he smiled wanly. "Hey Seungri-ssi... come in." Seungri stepped in, and automatically headed for the staircase that would take him to the dorm that he was used to going to. Seungri noticed Taemin giving him an odd look, then nodding. Of course - he shouldn't know his way around this building at all.

Seungri then began to use his ultimate acting powers to pretend that he didn't know where he was going. He stopped in the middle of the stairs, making Taemin walk into him. At the top of the stairs, he started purposefully walking down the wrong corridor, until Taemin grabbed him by the arm and turned him to face the right way. All this was accompanied by a lot of huffing from Taemin, and 'sorry not sorry' smiles from Seungri.

Walking into the dorm, Seungri saw instantly how similar it was to the one that he was used to. Some of the personal items, such as pictures, were in different places, but so much of it was exactly the same. The sofas and the positioning of them were the same, and the kitchen was the same too, although looking more closely, the plates and cutlery were all clearly of a different make.

Taemin had gone ahead of him and sat down on one of the sofas - in the place which was usually Seungri's spot in the other world, in fact. After thoroughly inspecting a plate for it's different pattern, Seungri sat down next to Taemin. Perhaps it was a bit too near, as Taemin shuffled away a little as Seungri sat down. It felt odd, since in the other world Taemin wasn't bothered by closeness at all.

They sat in silence for a few moments before Seungri realised that he was going to have to start the conversation himself. "Hey... thanks for not freaking out on me the other day, I really... I don't know how I managed to go into your dressing room instead of mine." This wasn't quite true, of course, but that didn't really matter right now. Taemin smiled. "That's okay, Seungri-ssi. I don't mind."

Seungri chuckled. "You don't have to call me Seungri-ssi, Taemin - you can just call me hyung." Seungri thought that maybe introducing an element of closeness into the conversation would make Taemin a little less awkward. He really didn't seem all that comfortable. Taemin's eyes had widened a little at Seungri's request. "Are you absolutely sure... hyung? I wouldn't want to..." Seungri waved a dismissive hand. "Of course it's fine! We're friends, right?"

Perhaps they weren't as close in Taemin's mind as they were in Seungri's, but they were still friends. Surely it wasn't that weird to have asked Taemin to call him hyung. Taemin nodded slowly. "So... your comeback must have made you pretty tired, huh?" Seungri laughed loudly. "If only you knew the half of it! I think I've worked so hard that I must have lost a ton of weight! Hardly any free time for me any more. Not that I had much to begin with, but still." Of course, Seungri couldn't tell anyone the real reason for his extreme exhaustion, but having even one comeback was enough to make anyone tired.

Taemin nodded again - of course, he was an idol too, he would know how difficult it could be. "I totally know what you mean," he said, "when I first debuted, doing all the promotions really wore me out. There were some times where I had to practically be carried home. But my members were really supportive of me, that part was pretty great." For the first time, he looked really engaged in the conversation. "You had a similar experience, didn't you hyung?"

Seungri nodded enthusiastically. "I did! I was really young too when I debuted, and sometimes it was so difficult. But sometimes I'm not sure whether it's harder now, as I get older - sometimes I think I don't remember it being this difficult." Taemin laughed a little. "Well I am older than you... ahjussi." This was accompanied with a soft, tentative poke to his side. Seungri laughed loudly at this - it seemed as though Taemin was becoming comfortable enough around him to make jokes. Taemin grinned back. "Oi, I'm not quite an ahjussi just yet!"

This was exactly the result that Seungri had been hoping for. It made him feel a little bit more like they were actually friends here too. They sat in silence again for a few minutes, but this time it didn't feel strained, and Seungri didn't feel so much of a need to try to fill the silence with jokes. Instead, they sat and laughed at the show on the TV together.

When Jonghyun walked into the room, Seungri realised that other people could probably hear them too. Taemin immediately smiled, and got up to hug him. "Hyung, you're up! How do you feel?" Jonghyun smiled back wanly, and nodded slowly. "I'm fine, don't worry about me."

It was Taemin's obvious concern that made Seungri notice how pale Jonghyun was, and how skinny he was too. Seungri was used to seeing idols be skinny - after all, it was usually a requirement of entertainment companies that the idols be as skinny as possible - but this time it seemed almost unhealthy. Seungri hoped that he wouldn't have to see the Jonghyun he knew look like that. Seungri watched as Taemin guided Jonghyun, who seemed to be leaning on him heavily, over to the sofa to sit down.

Jonghyun seemed to be better once he sat down. "Are... are you alright?" Seungri asked tentatively. Jonghyun didn't look at him, but he did nod. "Are you sure? You really don't look good. Can I get you anything?" Jonghyun finally looked at him, but only to give him a weird look. "Why do you care so much?" He asked. This was another one of those situations, the sort where the real answer would get him locked up in an insane asylum.

"I just really like helping people?" Was his answer. Even in another universe Jonghyun didn't seem to believe his stories, but provided he didn't question it, everything would be fine. Taemin took over fussing over Jonghyun, bringing him water and a snack. His colour gradually improved, until he barely looked unwell at all.

Seungri finally realised what was so weird about Taemin here. Taemin treated him like he did all the others. It felt odd, compared to his hyperness that he usually exuded when around Seungri in the other world, but it did make sense. After all, in that world Seungri had been Taemin's friend for many years, whereas here they had barely known each other a few days. Seungri could hardly expect to be treated like a best friend here.

"So, Jonghyun... how are you finding your comeback?" Seungri asked. He may as well start a conversation with him, after all. "I'm enjoying it so far... although it's begun to wear me out, as you can probably see," Jonghyun said ruefully. Seungri nodded understandingly.

"Hey hyung, I just need to go out for a bit. I'll be back soon, you can stay here meanwhile if you want." Seungri nodded, he definitely wasn't going to be leaving this soon. Taemin left quickly, and Jonghyun turned to Seungri with raised eyebrows.

"He agreed to call you hyung?" Jonghyun asks. Seungri nodded, confused. "You're lucky then, he doesn't usually agree to do that so quickly. He must like you." Seungri felt pride well up in him. Jonghyun must be right, Taemin must actually like him if he was willing to do something that he wouldn't normally.

Seungri mentally searched for something to talk about. The first thing that came out of his mouth was: "Do you believe in parallel universes?" Immediately, Seungri wanted to take it back. Every other time he'd tried to bring something of the topic up, the other person had just been weirded out. Chances were, this time wouldn't be any different.

Seungri was certain that the sharp intake of breath he heard from Jonghyun were only confirming his suspicions. "Yes! I definitely believe in them! Do you?" Jonghyun said enthusiastically. Seungri's heart began to race. Here was someone who might actually believe him. He might be able to tell... no. Not yet. Believing in parallel universes was one thing, but believing that someone had been to one was something else entirely. Instead, Seungri tried to stay calm. "Yeah, I do. I... find them interesting. What about you?"

Jonghyun grinned, much more animated than he had been earlier. "I love the idea that things could be different somewhere else. It's just so fascinating. I could spend hours researching it. You know?"

Seungri nodded. "Yeah... It's kinda a scary concept though, don't you think? I mean, I'd hate... I'd hate to wake up in one, wouldn't you?" Before he had done, that would have been an honest answer from Seungri. Aside from the other world, which he had grown fond of, he would still hate to wake up in another one and have to learn everything about it and be confused again.

Jonghyun shook his head. "No, I think it would be really fun. I mean, what if you woke up and were in a different group?" He laughed. "Or even if you woke up and weren't in a group at all? I just think it would be so amazing to experience something like that." Seungri raised his eyebrows. He had such a strong urge to tell him just how scary and confusing it could be, to prove him wrong, but he couldn't. Instead he just nodded. Maybe Jonghyun would like it, who knows.

"Look, here's my favourite website for parallel universes." Jonghyun got out his phone and began to pull up a web page. Seungri settled in to read. Maybe there were other people who had been to parallel universes too.