Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah how is this story nearly over it doesn't feel real

Seungri could admit it - he was wallowing. He'd been awake for several hours now, but he still didn't want to get out of bed. If he got up, it would make it real. He just didn't want to face the fact that he might never see his friends from the other world again. Sure, he might see their doppelgängers from this universe, but it wouldn't be the same - there was a certain solidarity which came with having lived with people which he simply didn't have, and would never have, with SHINee here. He'd become much closer to the versions from the other universe, and it was them that he wanted to see - he'd really come to see them as totally different people from their counterparts in this world.

His phone buzzed again, and he groaned. He was trying to have a pity party here, and the noise of his phone buzzing every few minutes all morning had really put a damper on his misery. He'd considered checking the messages on occasion - particularly the idea of turning notifications off appealed to him - but another part of him just didn't feel like it would be worth it. After all, why should he bother when it wouldn't be from the people that he wanted to talk to the most?

It took another half an hour and a rumbling stomach for him to get up, but he finally managed to motivate himself to do it. After making himself feel more human, and eating a little, he finally picked up his phone. It was the Bigbang group chat - naturally - that had been getting tons of notifications, and he groaned when he saw that he had 50+ unread messages from it. Why was he friends with these idiots again?

He figured he'd better scroll back through the messages and read them all - there had been too many times when he'd not bothered to read messages and missed out on key information that had resulted in him getting into trouble with Jiyong hyung later on.

Daesung
Hey guys

Jiyong
What's up?

Daesung
Nothing much

Daesung
Just wanted to talk

Jiyong
Well you got your wish

Daesung
Hyuuuuuuuuung, you know you love me really

Jiyong
I'm regretting that right now

Daesung
:(

Daesung
Hyuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuung

Seunghyun
What's up Daesung?

Daesung
Jiyong hyung's being mean to me

Daesung
Someone stop him

Jiyong
Lies, all lies

Jiyong
It's not mean if it's true

Seunghyun
He's got a point Daesung

Sighing, Seungri scrolled through a few more messages looking for anything interesting that his friends might have said.

Youngbae
Sorry guys, I was in the gym

Seunghyun
Wow, who would have guessed

Daesung
Honestly I'm just offended you didn't invite me

Jiyong
Can we even be sure he was really at the gym though? Not... doing something else? ;)

Youngbae
How dare you

Youngbae
Bro

Youngbae
I gotta keep these muscles

Seungri kept scrolling. None of this was new information, frankly it was a good job he'd just ignored them.

Finally he reached some messages that had been sent just half an hour before, which were worth replying to.

Jiyong
Guys we need to meet up at some point to talk about the next MADE singles

Daesung
Well

Daeung
I'm hungry

Daesung
Do you see where I'm going with this?

Youngbae
I'm up for going out to lunch

Seunghyun
Yeah, sounds like a good idea

Seungri
Guys

Seungri
Why would you do this to me

Seungri
So many messages

Seungri
I'm drowning in them

Seunghyun
I'm not throwing you a lifebelt

Jiyong
Me neither

Jiyong
But are you in?

Seungri
Sure

Seungri
But I'm not happy about it

Seungri sighed. Well, he didn't really have much choice about meeting up with the members. And maybe seeing people would take his mind off things? He watched as the members discussed meeting times and venues, but he didn't have the motivation to have any particular opinion on any of it; merely agreeing on what the other members thought best.

Either way, there was no going back, there was nothing he could do about it. He may as well just get on with the life that he'd always had here - after all, nothing had really changed here, aside from an extra friendship with the members of SHINee here.

He moped around the apartment for a while. What could he do? Even though he had come back here several times in between going to the other universe, he felt like he should still have been living in dorms. There was a feeling in the back of his mind that felt that he should be around people right now, which was amplified by his nature as a sociable person.

Even though the only person whom he knew would miss him from the other universe was Jonghyun - being the only person that knew that he wasn't Seunghyun from that world - Seungri couldn't help but wonder whether the others would miss him if they knew. What would they be doing right now? Would they be going about their ordinary lives, in ignorance of what Seungri had gone through in their world?

The fact that everything was going on in both of their worlds like nothing had happened, and in the other world without him, was beginning to make his head hurt. He decided it really would be best to try not to think about it too much, and to distract himself he decided to turn the tv on. There was nothing better for numbing the mind like some dumb reality tv.

Because the universe loves nothing more than irony, the first thing that his tv to was a SHINee interview. He fumbled with the remote quickly to change the channel. He liked SHINee in this universe, sure, but it wasn't helping with the whole 'forgetting about it' thing.

He watched tv until it came time to leave to, y'know, do things. It didn't take long to get ready and get to the restaurant - he couldn't be bothered to put a lot of effort into his outfit for today, not when he wouldn't even be around the people he wanted to see the most.

When he got to the restaurant, everyone else was already sat down, clearly waiting for him. This went some way to making him feel better, to let him know that these hyungs still cared about him. It was a good feeling.

He stayed lethargic all the way through the meal, barely contributing to the conversation and only really saying anything when he felt he had reason to. It wasn't that there was anything he had against his Bigbang members, he just didn't feel... quite there. His head was still stuck in another universe.

Most of the members left when they were done eating, leaving Seungri and Jiyong alone. Despite trying to distract himself with company, Seungri was sure that he had failed, since all he could think about was the friends he wouldn't see again. Perhaps they should leave the restaurant already - but he couldn't be bothered. He sighed, and slouched in his chair.

"What is it?" Seungri spun around to see Jiyong staring at him.

"What?"

Jiyong snorted. "You've been sighing non stop for the past five minutes. There's clearly something that's bothering you - what is it?"

"Well..." Would there be any point in telling people now that it was all over? There was still no way for him to prove himself here. "It's about what I told you before. About parallel universes."

"Please, Seungri, not this again - "

"No, Jiyong, please listen to me this time. I swear I'm not making this up - you and Youngbae were a duo, a hip hop one just like you wanted to be. And - and Daesung and Hyunseung were a duo as well, and I was the leader of a group because I got into SM instead." Seungri did his best to describe the other world.

Jiyong narrowed his eyes. "You? A leader?"

Seungri nodded. "It's true. But even if you don't believe that, don't you think that the rest of it sounds plausible?"

Jiyong sighed. "I don't know, I guess so. But it's the travelling to another universe part that I have trouble believing."

"I'm having trouble believing it too, and it happened to me!"

"I don't know Seungri... It just sounds too far fetched, you know? How would it even happen?"

Seungri shrugged. "I don't know, I was asleep every time I went from one universe to another. But don't you think it makes sense, with how unusually I've been acting recently?"

Jiyong raised his eyebrows. "Weirder than normal, you mean?"

Seungri rolled his eyes - normally he'd love this kind of teasing, but he was trying to be serious for once. "Hyuuuuuuung, I really mean it. Don't you think it makes sense, at least a little bit?"

"I really don't know... It does, but it could also be a massive practical joke that you're really committing to... I want to believe you, but it could also be a convincing lie." Jiyong looked so conflicted that Seungri was almost sorry he'd brought it up in the first place.

"Jiyong hyung," Seungri began, putting a hand on Jiyong's shoulder and looking him directly in the eye, "I wouldn't lie to you about this, not for such a long time. I'm telling you the truth. Surely you've known me long enough to tell when I really mean something?"

Jiyong nodded thoughtfully. "I suppose so... Although you still understand why I'm slightly cautious in believing you?"

"Of course hyung!" Was he finally going to get Jiyong to believe him, after weeks of persuading?

"Okay... Well I'm trusting you, Seungri. If this turns out to be a trick... well, let's just say you'd need to watch your back."

"It's not, I promise hyung." Seungri smiled - things were beginning to look up. Then he frowned again as he remembered something. "Not that it really matters much any more. I'm not going to get to go back there again."

"Huh? Why not?"

Seungri shrugged. "I don't know - I don't even know how I got there in the first place, never mind controlling the process. But I had a weird dream a few days ago, and it told me that I wouldn't be able to go back there again. So really it won't even be an issue any more, I'll probably just go back to being normal again." He sighed again.

Jiyong shuffled his chair closer to Seungri's, and put an arm around his shoulders. "Seungri, you'll never be normal." Seungri turned his head to glare at Jiyong. "But you can't have got that attached to this.... other world, can you?"

"It's not the world, hyung, that was almost the same, it was the people in it. It's my group members that I'm missing." He leaned into Jiyong a bit. "I know I'll never see them again, not the way they are in the other world... I just can't help but feel sad about it."

Jiyong squeezed his shoulder. He didn't say anything, but that was okay, Seungri knew that there wasn't much advice he could be given, it's not like anyone else he knew had experienced anything like this.

Maybe he'd get to tell the others at some point. Maybe in a few years all this would seem like a crazy dream, and he'd laugh at his weird behaviour but not feel the emotions that had run behind them. Maybe he would get to go back at some point, and his heartfelt goodbyes would have been for nothing. Maybe Jonghyun would tell the others in the other universe what had gone on, and they'd finally have an explanation for how strangely he'd acted at times.

Anything was possible.