Chapter 4
The weight of a decisionHooray, another chapter!
Thanks to Michelle for putting up with me asking her opinion on things too much ;)
Seungri bolted upright in his bed. Just as he thought, Jiyong hyung was standing in the doorway, looking bemusedly at him. Looking around his room, it seemed that it was just as he'd left it – slightly messy, and definitely not a dorm room. Jiyong hyung chuckled at the confusion that was clearly written on Seungri's face. Generally Seungri was fairly sleepy and confused in the mornings, but today he had a real excuse, and his first reaction was to try to defend himself. "But hyung, Taemin is - I've been..." his voice trailed off as he realised something.
There was no way he could tell anyone about this. No-one would believe that he'd been to another universe - and even he wasn't completely sure what had happened, there was no way he could try to explain it to someone else. Jiyong noticed his hesitation and smirked. "It's ok Seungri-ah, you don't have to explain yourself to me," he said. "Hyung, no, I didn't..." but he had left before Seungri could say anything more. Sighing, Seungri flopped back to lying down. Hopefully Jiyong hyung was only playing with him - although he had a reputation for being a party boy, it wasn't that often that he brought a girl back to his own house with him, and Jiyong hyung and the others liked to about it when he did.
Besides, this time he really hadn't, but what explanation could he give for having expected someone else being in his room? Sighing again, Seungri decided he may as well get up. If Jiyong hyung was in his house, then that meant that he wanted to do something with him, and perhaps one or two others - he did this often enough that Seungri sometimes regretted relenting and allowing Jiyong hyung to have a spare key.
Automatically, he reached for his phone to check the time. After taking a second to appreciate having his iPhone back, he registered that it was 11.09 - he'd slept in quite a bit compared to being woken up early the past few days - but what really caught his attention was the date. According to his phone, it was the day that it should have been when he woke up in the other world. No time had passed while he was away then? Well at least that meant that he wouldn't have to explain him being absent then, that was one less worry for him.
As he slowly got out of bed, he could hear Jiyong rattling about in his kitchen. Hoping that he wasn't about to waste ingredients by trying to cook, Seungri took a chance on having a shower and leaving Jiyong to it. While he was in there, he reflected on the past few days. Should he risk telling someone about it? It had been a weird experience, and his natural reaction was to try to get someone else's opinion on it. If time hadn't passed though, was there a chance that it hadn't happened?
Running through the memories of his time with SHINee, he tried to think how real it had been. It had seemed very real at the time, but then didn't dreams? Or was this a dream? Ouch! Okay, that pinch he gave to his arm had been painful, this definitely wasn't a dream. Shaking his head, he quickly got out of the shower and got dressed. Having Jiyong hyung in the kitchen was never a good idea in any situation, and allowing him to be in there by himself was an accident waiting to happen.
Peeking his head round the door, Seungri saw a plethora of dirty pots and pans around and in his sink, but no big messes - and more importantly, no Jiyong. Walking through the kitchen to the living area, Seungri found Jiyong sat on the sofa talking on his phone. Knowing that Jiyong was likely to bite his head off if he was interrupted, he opted to not die and sit on the sofa and wait. "...yeah...yeah, yesterday was pretty good....I'll definitely do it, don't worry.....no, I'm at Seungri's..."
As soon as Jiyong was finished talking, Seungri found himself talking without really thinking about it. "Hyung... do you..." he began. Jiyong was only half paying attention, typing on his phone, although he vaguely hummed in response to Seungri talking to him. Feeling faintly annoyed, Seungri continued talking. "Have you ever considered the possibility of parallel universes?" He blurted out. That caused Jiyong to look up at him, and he laughed a little. "This isn't one of your weird obsessions, is it?" He asked. Granted, he did sometimes get very into certain topics, but this wasn't one of the times. Jiyong continued without waiting for an answer to his question, "they're interesting, but they couldn't possibly exist."
Seungri's faint hope faded away. If Jiyong hyung thought that it was ridiculous, then there was no way he could say anything more on the subject without making Jiyong annoyed or making him think that he needed help. Fortunately he was saved from embarrassing himself any more by Jiyong hyung announcing that he was leaving, and doing just that. Seungri remained sat on the sofa, he was used enough to this that he didn't feel the urge to see Jiyong out the door.
That was definitely something that he had enjoyed about being in the other world - he had been the leader there, not the oldest, but being the leader got him some respect that he didn't get in being the maknae in this world. He hadn't missed being the one that jokes were made about constantly, and he hadn't missed being the of physical comedy. Despite this, he had missed his hyungs... he felt very conflicted about his entire situation.
Deciding that the internet was his second best bet for information, he searched for parallel universes. After sifting through conspiracy sites, he came across one that looked like it hadn't been created by people with tin foil hats. Reading through it, it seemed to mainly have testimonies from various people who claimed to either be from parallel universes, or to have visited them. The most plausible ones seemed to involve people who didn't already believe in aliens, or other supernatural things, and didn't sound too out of this world. This resonated with Seungri, as although the place he had been had his situation being very different to what he was used to, the world itself did not seem to be drastically different.
Looking through the comments on the site though, there were plenty of disbelievers as well. These people seemed to have not read much of what the people with the stories had said, and chose to simply believe that they were simply making up stories.
Seungri didn't know what to believe. It was an unbelievable concept, to go to another world, and he could hardly blame these people for not believing those who claimed to have been to other worlds. Perhaps some of these people were making it up. Perhaps the disbelievers were right, and there were no other worlds.
But then how had he spent three very real days that didn't seem to have taken place in a world where things were different?
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