Prompt #381

“You don’t even know her.”

“I know she’ll break your heart or you’ll die trying to save hers.”

 

A/N: I’m sorry this ended up being so short, kind of ooc, and maybe a little bit confusing, but I wanted to write something related to Infinite’s MVs and Woohyun’s undying love for love itself.

 

Reality

Sunggyu had a fishbowl.

It’s a rather peculiar one: Small, full of things his sister loved, and with a goldfish that never dies living inside it. Ever since his sister left it at his care, Sunggyu mostly took advantage of its powers for transportation purposes. Usually holding it with both hands, closing his eyes and wishing to be somewhere else is enough, but there were times when the thing refuses to cooperate, so Sunggyu had to place the delicate glass in the floor and step inside it.

He shouldn’t be able to fit, that much he knew, but when you have a multidimensional portal that’s hardly an issue.

Sunggyu’s sister told him that before handing the bowl over, as did the person who handed it in to her and the one before and so on.

A curse, she called it sometimes. Sunggyu used to think she was joking, but now things have changed.

--

When Sunggyu first stepped into the odd building that appeared in the street one day, he knew something had broken inside him. He wasn’t human; maybe he used to be, or maybe he could be, but those were thoughts better left for another occasion.

A girl who was decorating the patio with instant photographs came to his arms as soon as she saw him enter and called herself his older sister. Sunggyu had run along with that. She explained it was normal. At some point, Sunggyu would be someone’s older brother, if the ripples of such a thing as the future ever existed.

--

Sunggyu had a job.

It was a very important one. He was a watcher. Someone who, as described by the name, dedicated their existence (for it could not be called a life) to observe the certain occurrences of a particular reality he was transported to and fix whatever was wrong with it.

It wasn’t like he needed to save people’s lives or anything, although he liked to do that from time to time. In a way, it was like smoothing the wrinkles out of a blanket. In this case, the piece of fabric could be space, or it could be time. Inhabitants of that reality could sense something was wrong, but they could never notice who fixed it and how.

Sunggyu wasn’t too sure of the process, either. Besides the fish bowl, he always carried an instant camera that never ran out of film. All he had to do was point the camera towards the abnormality and shoot, then dip the polaroid in the fishbowl.

(Before leaving, his sister told him to preserve the pictures as if he were a tourist on a vacation, that’s why she stuck all of her pictures to the wall, hanging loosely from a piece of thread.

Sunggyu had wanted to ask what a tourist was, but he figured out it wasn’t of importance.)

--

One day, Sunggyu found himself fixing an abnormality in a certain location.

The place was a crime scene. The time was supposed to be the present, but that’s where the problem lied. Everything seemed to be frozen in time: The people, the police sirens, the shattered glass floating in the air. It looked like a bullet was shot seconds before time stopped. Sunggyu gasped when he saw the body.

And then, he met his destiny.

The boy looked not much older than him, but then again Sunggyu wasn’t sure if he even had an age. He was sitting on a couple of steps, hunched over and sobbing into his hands. “I’m sorry” seemed to be his mantra.

“Hey, are you okay?” Sunggyu asked, approaching him. “Do you, perhaps, know what happened here?”

“I only wanted to try the limits,” is what the boy said. “I never meant for things to come to this.”

“What did you do?” the man with the fishbowl asked.

“I thought that I could control time, that it was a concept I could grasp with both hands and I don’t know, forward and rewind like an old tape, I guess.” He shrugged after his own explanation, maroon eyes still downcast. “I went too far with the forward option until something irreversible happened.”

Sunggyu whistled. Turning back time doesn’t work when someone has died in this reality, it seems. Too bad for the man.

“Well,” he said, “I’m sorry that this has happened to you, but I need you to unfreeze time.” The man shook his head in response, and Sunggyu looked down at his bowl. “If not for you, then for the rest of the people in this universe.”

The last words seemed to make him reconsider. “And then what happens?”

“I take away your powers; this reality is broken enough as it is,” Sunggyu replied, pointing at his camera. “And then you live on.”

“That doesn’t seem like fun,” the man said, rubbing his tears away. “What do I get in return?”

Even though the only people he ever talked to were his sister and other Watchers, Sunggyu considered himself a pretty blunt person. It should be kept that way, for lying would only complicate matters in his field of work.

“Nothing,” he said, knowing that his answer didn’t matter much. The crying man looked wise enough for his age.

The grimace on the man’s face had said enough.

“What’s your name?” Sunggyu asked while leaving the fishbowl in the floor and getting the camera ready.

“Woohyun,” was the man’s response. He pressed his wrists together in front of his chest. “Take me away, officer.”

Sunggyu shot.

 

(Later, when back at the odd building, Sunggyu added the picture to his collection and scribbled Woohyun’s name under it. But he had the feeling it wouldn’t be necessary, for he would encounter the crying man again.)

 

--

 

The next time he saw Woohyun, it was in an abandoned mansion.

A girl was packing her things, tidying up her room, while Woohyun stood on the stairs, observing.

“She’s beautiful,” was the first thing he told Sunggyu as soon as the man with the fishbowl appeared in the living room.

Sunggyu lifted his eyebrows. “Do you recognize me?”

Woohyun nodded. “You’re the grim reaper, aren’t you? I know my time is up.” The smile on his face after his words was a familiar one.

Sunggyu wasn’t sure why it hurt to see the man suffer.

“I’m not,” he ended up saying, as lying didn’t come easy for him. He looked at the bowl in his hands. The goldfish stared back. “I’m here to fix something.”

Woohyun sprung from his place. “Me?” he asked, eyes wide. Sunggyu’s headshake deflated the expression immediately. “Oh.”

He went back to his previous position, staring as the girl moved around the house to collect her belongings.

Sunggyu tried not to pay too much attention. She couldn’t see him, so no issue there, but Woohyun… It worried Sunggyu that even in their second encounter Woohyun was able to see both him and his fishbowl, so he tried to leave the sad man alone.

At least he wasn’t crying this time.

Sunggyu looked for the anomaly in silence, but it wasn’t a very successful search. After exploring the entire mansion a couple of times without luck, he decided to go back to Woohyun.

The girl still wasn’t leaving.

“Why is she not gone yet?” he asked Woohyun. “I swear I saw her grab that suitcase before.”

Woohyun shrugs. “I guess she can’t.”

Sunggyu hummed. “But why?” he wondered aloud, mind going over the possibilities. Then, it clicked. “You’re not letting her.”

Woohyun lifted his eyebrows. “I don’t think you understand,” he said with the hint of a smile adorning his lips. “I’m dead.”

There was a moment of silence, with the steps of the girl going from point A to B as the only sound echoing in the empty house. Sunggyu didn’t know what to reply. In some realities, like the one where he met Woohyun for the first time, being dead mattered, for it tended to be a pretty final event, but it didn’t seem to be the case on this one.

“And yet you’re still here.”

Woohyun shrugged. “Maybe I’m just an illusion.”

Sunggyu shook his head, sitting on one of the steps. He waited for Woohyun to do the same before placing the bowl next to them. “I would know it if you were.” He paused for a bit, and then pointed at the girl. “You need to let her go.”

Woohyun gulped. “How does one let go of the only person tying them to this world? How do I let her forget me, for if she does I will be forever lost.”

“You won’t,” Sunggyu replied, thinking of the previous Woohyun, the one that lived on.

“Still,” Woohyun said. “I love her.”

Sunggyu knew convincing him wouldn’t give nice results, but he also knew the easy way out. Stripping Woohyun from his powers again would have to do the trick. After all, Woohyun would suffer less that way. His spirit could even rest, maybe.

“Can I take a picture of you?” he asked without revealing the outcome. Hiding the truth wasn’t the same as outright lying, he reasoned.

“What for?” Woohyun narrowed his eyes.

“I collect them,” Sunggyu replied without missing a beat. He could see Woohyun’s doubts disappear little by little, and his heart shook.

“Okay,” Woohyun said, naively. Sunggyu had never felt so sorry for a disturber of realities.

--

That was only the beginning.

The next few realities Sunggyu visited involved anomalies caused by a Woohyun in each one of them. They also involved, in a way or another, someone leaving Woohyun’s side.

Their gender didn’t matter. In fact, although a bunch of them had been girls, the most heartbreaking thing Sunggyu ever saw was Woohyun withstanding the blows of his lover before they tried to escape, only that when they reached what seemed to be the end of their nightmare, time looped back to the beginning and they were forced to repeat everything from the start.

The only way to fix it was make Woohyun never meet that boy in his life.

Heartbreaking.

Sunggyu thought of that word to describe Woohyun’s situation more than once. It was always someone leaving in a way or another, and the only thing Woohyun did was suffer.

Sunggyu had wondered more than once, as he stared at the stack of photos of Woohyun he had collected over time, if certain humans existed to suffer, or if there was a little bit of everything—every emotion, every true sensation—in everyone’s lives. Because everything Sunggyu had seen so far about Woohyun had been only sob stories, but he wanted to know if the crying man had felt happiness at some point in his life, in any of the realities he visited.

Given that Woohyun treasured people so much, Sunggyu had the feeling he did love to his fullest. Never had he felt more alone than after that realization.

 

--

The last time Sunggyu saw Woohyun, he tried to prevent the anomaly. He knew the fishbowl was going to take him to where Woohyun was, but he had a small request before stepping into the bowl.

“This time,” he said, “take me to where he is before meeting his downfall.”

So when he opened his eyes again, Sunggyu was in the middle of a huge library.

Sunggyu had a vague knowledge of libraries, so he knew he shouldn’t yell out Woohyun’s name, but since no one but the crying man could hear him (or so he hoped) he did anyway.

“Woohyun! Where are you?!” He said as loud as he could, feeling the strain on his vocal chords. After receiving no response, he stepped in the maze of bookshelves around him while hoping to not get lost.

It took him more than a couple of hours to find Woohyun, but at the end, Sunggyu thought it was worth it. Woohyun was sitting in the corner between two bookshelves while reading a science fiction novel when Sunggyu encountered. The strangest part wasn’t even that Woohyun hadn’t heard the screams in a place where everything seemed to echo, but that when he looked up to Sunggyu, he had the type of smile that Sunggyu had never seen him make.

“Hey,” was all Sunggyu could come up with.

“Hi,” Woohyun replied, “sorry I didn’t hear you coming. Where you looking for something in specific?”

Sunggyu bit his lip, wondering how much time he had left.

“You,” he replied. “I’m here to warn you about something.”

A confused expression adorned Woohyun’s face briefly before he stood up, dusting off his pants. “What is it?”

Sunggyu tried to look as serious as he could, looking at Woohyun straight in the eye when he said, “Don’t fall in love.”

Woohyun laughed.

“What?” he asked among giggles. “Are you okay? And what’s up with the bowl and… Is that a goldfish? We don’t allow pets here, I’m sorry.”

Sunggyu glanced at the fishbowl, then back at Woohyun. “No, you don’t understand, I’m tying—”

“I don’t care, please take your pet away. You can’t be here while holding that.”

The smile disappeared from Woohyun’s face, replaced with a frown. He grabbed Sunggyu by the elbow and started to drag him away, but Sunggyu resisted.

“Woohyun, I swear—If you don’t listen to me this place will collapse,” he explained desperately. “And then I’ll have to fix it and go to another reality where the same thing happens again.”

“Sure, dude,” Woohyun said, pulling him through the corridors formed by the bookshelves. He scoffed. “How can you tell someone not to fall in love? That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. Why would you deny someone the opportunity to experience one of the purest things that exist?”

“To stop them from getting hurt,” Sunggyu mumbled in response, careful not to drop the water from the bowl.

“So? Hurting is part of the experience; it means you cared, and that itself is a beautiful thing. To realize you’re able to hold these wonderful emotions for someone else—”

“Someone who doesn’t appreciate them?” Sunggyu challenged as they reached the open space where Sunggyu appeared at first. “Who doesn’t feel the same, who doesn’t understand?”

Woohyun narrowed his eyes. “How would you know that?”

“Because I’ve seen it.”

“You’re lying,” Woohyun said. Around them, a couple of pieces of paper started flying around as if carried by the wind.

“I’m not.” Sunggyu pressed the bowl tightly against his chest. “You’ll never find someone who cares for you as much as you care for them.”

“That’s not true!” Woohyun raised his voice. The papers moved faster.

“You’ll find a boy or a girl and you’ll give everything to them,” Sunggyu gritted through his teeth, offended at being called a liar, “and you know what happens next? I have to carry this burden for you. For all of you!”

For every single you I’ve met.

“You don’t even know her,” Woohyun replied like his words were going to make a difference.

“Oh, but I know enough.” Sunggyu narrowed his eyes, avoiding the whirlwind of papers flying around them. “I know she’ll break your heart or you’ll die trying to save hers. And you know what you’ll get in return? Pure bitter regret.”

Woohyun punched him.

Sunggyu stumbled, but he didn’t lose his footing. “Is that all you’ve got?” he asked, but by the time he looked back to the place Woohyun was, the only thing in his vision were pieces of paper flying in all directions. One of them gave him a papercut on the cheek, but the only thing in Sunggyu’s mind was to find Woohyun.

He was the center of the storm’s eye.

“I just want someone to do for you everything you do for them!” Sunggyu yelled, hoping even the slightest hint of his voice could reach Woohyun.

To his surprise, it did.

“Then where are they?!” Woohyun yelled back. “Where is the person destined to love me as much as I do?!”

“I don’t know but—” Sunggyu stopped trying to go against the storm for a second, looking down at his bowl. The goldfish stared back. Maybe it was time Sunggyu stopped lying to himself. “M-maybe I do know.”

The papers dropped to the floor. “I’m tired of waiting,” came Woohyun’s small voice.

Sunggyu nodded, dropping the fishbowl in the floor before throwing himself at Woohyun.

 

--

 

Sunggyu and Woohyun had a fishbowl.

It was a pretty interesting thing. When they held it together, it transported them to a different reality.

Sometimes Sunggyu thought back to what the girl who claimed to be his sister told him he would be someone’s brother and wondered if all the love she had found had been only filial, platonic; if that was the only type she wanted.

He wondered too, how many types of love they were, and how many of those were fulfilling enough for the people who felt them. But sometimes it was enough to know that he and Woohyun had found the same as they spent their time exploring realities together. 

 

// another beautiful piece written for this event! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did and leave the author great feedback, too :)