Genre: Comedy, Fluff, Sci-Fic 

Summary: Kim Minjoo is a part of a small group of scientists currently studying the concept of Time Traveling. On a quick trip to the past, she bumps into someone she shouldn't have.

Word Count: 10975

Hashtag: #JinjooFiestaS2_PleasantConsequneces

 

Pleasant Consequences

 

 She opened her eyes as she heard her alarm go off. The loud sound occupies her cozy, white-walled room. She immediately reaches for her phone on the nightstand, and dismisses the alarm. The time is 6:05 a.m.. The brunette's eyelids look a kilogram heavy, and a slight cramp visits her neck as her pillows were too high. It'll probably go away soon.

 

She sat on the end of her bed for a while, just staring blankly into the wall. The girl snapped out of her thoughts, and, ah, right, she has to go to work today.

 

The misty, early-morning sunlight seeps through the blinds as she opens them. She took a quick glance outside through the blinds, only to see her neighbors making out ON THEIR CAR, this early in the morning. The girl is now discouragingly wide-awake upon witnessing that. She's clearly not amused.

 

That same tall brunette lazily makes her way to the bathroom to wash herself up, and to cleanse her soul. Imagine seeing your neighbors making out first thing in the morning. No one would want that. Right?

 

She stares at her own reflection on the slightly dirty mirror. She meets her own reflection with a puffy face and disheveled hair. She then gathered a small pool of tap water on her palms, and splashed it right onto her face. Now PROPERLY wide-awake.

 

This girl is rather simple. She didn't even bother to take a full shower, it only took her a few sprays of dry shampoo and deodorant to be presentable to the public eye (and nose). She chose a warm yellow one-piece dress from her closet, and that's what she's gonna be wearing for the whole day.

 

As she puts her dress on, a loud beep coming from her phone startles her. She just ignores it. She studies herself in the mirror that's as tall as her, and tops her outfit off with white low-heeled sandals. Her mom definitely would not be happy if she found out her daughter is wearing sandals inside the house. But her house, her rules. She’s practically safe from the power of her mom’s whipping paraphernalia. 

 

Right before she reaches for her phone, she receives a call. Kim Chaewon. With two green hearts.

 

The brunette answers the phone, and puts it on speaker mode as she heads downstairs,to her kitchen.

 

“Ya, Kim Minjoo, are you ready yet? I’m here. In your terrace. Hmm, I must say.. This needs a makeover, like, seriously. Did you pee in here or what?-” Chaewon was cut off by the younger with a soft giggle.

 

“Calm your horses, miss. Okay, first of all, I AM ready. Second, how did you get in there? Are you a stalker or what? And lastly, how dare you think I peed in there! Maybe a stray dog did it or something.” Minju replies with an annoyed tone as she grabs two Banana Yogurt drinks from her two-door fridge.

 

“What? You literally gave me a duplicate of every key you own. Just because you’re THE Kim Minjoo. The incredibly clumsy one. I don’t even know how a scientist, specifically, a PHYSICIST can be this clumsy.” The older scoffed.

 

“Shut up.” Embarrassed, Minjoo ends the call as she grabs her white purse just laying on the couch and makes her way to the terrace where her colleague, also her driver, and her bestfriend, all at the same time, is waiting for her.

 

As Minjoo opens the front door-

 

Boo!

 

The younger didn’t flinch at all. Unusual.

 

“I.. what? How- Oh wait, our Minjoo hasn’t had her breakfast yet. Aww, poor baby.” Chaewon was definitely more surprised upon seeing the taller’s reaction. She cups the latter’s face and pinches her cheeks as if they were two little balls of mochi.

 

“Ya, stop.” Minjoo whines as she tries to remove the older’s hands from her cheeks. There was an attempt. One star for her.

 

“Yaaaa. I said stop!”

 

Silence. The shorter Kim slowly removes her delicate and now sweaty hands from the latter’s face.

 

“Sorry. Let’s go?” Chaewon felt guilty. She couldn’t face Minjoo. Weird. “Okay, after you.” Minjoo replies with a slightly mischievous chuckle. She tried to contain it, but failed, causing Chaewon to hear it.

 

“Pffft. I hate you.” The older one mutters under her breath as she makes her way to her car.

 

“Huh?”

 

Chaewon looks back, “Huh you like that?” and bursts out a loud laugh.

 

Minjoo is silent. She found that funny, but she knows she’s just gonna be teased again if she reacts. She tries to keep a straight face but who are we kidding? Not a lot is straight about her.

 

Chaewon opens the door for the younger, “Come in, m’lady” with closed eyes, her free hand on her abdomen, and her head slightly facing the ground. “Why thank you, my servant. I should be giving you a raise.” Minjoo decides to play along, and bows to her ‘servant’ before getting in the car.

 

“Well, it is my job to serve you.” The servant adds before closing the door for her boss and eventually making her way to the driver’s seat.

 

“Chaewon-ssi, what’s the work assigned for us today?” Minjoo asks her now colleague. Huh, that escalated quickly.

 

“Why so professional all of a sudden, Minjoo-ssi?” The older one was genuinely confused. Also a bit scared, she swears something in the air shifted when she decided to pull that harmless prank on Minjoo. Nonetheless, Chaewon starts the car, and slowly drifts off to their destination.

 

Minjoo laughs.

 

“Wait, are we still roleplaying or something? Or were you just serious all this time?” The long-haired girl’s laugh immediately dissipates because Chaewon isn’t responding.

 

“I was only roleplaying as your servant!” Chaewon retorts with a reassured laugh. That ‘oh thank God she’s just joking’ type of laugh, yeah. “But, just in case you were serious about your first question, we’re gonna be.. working on the time machine again.” she adds with caution, as if it was a sensitive topic between the two.

 

Minjoo scoffs.

 

“Hyewon never learns. It’s too early for this.” The brunette rolls her eyes, and grabs the banana yogurt drinks from the pocket of her dress. “Here.” She tosses one to Chaewon. Luckily, the latter was alert and so she managed to catch it.

 

“Can we stop by starbucks?” The younger requests as she grabs her phone from her purse, to check emails.

 

“Yeah, sure.” Chaewon responds. Now she feels guilty for bringing it up too soon. But they were gonna talk about it later anyways, so, what’s the point, really?

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

“Ya! Ahn Yujin! Wake up!” A blonde girl shouts in an attempt to wake her friend up who seemed to be deep in sleep, but to no avail. “You really won’t get up? It’s about time I use my secret weapon.” She continues to shake her sleeping friend, but still, no response.

 

That blonde girl grabs the glass of cold water from the floor, and splashes it onto Yujin’s face with no hesitation whatsoever.

 

“What the heck?!” Yujin was awakened almost instantly with the blonde girl’s secret weapon, and clearly, she was not amused. A loud husky laugh fills the ample, dark blue-walled room. “Choi Yena! You’re dead meat!”

 

The tall girl hurriedly jumps out of her bed to chase the running duck. Running isn’t really Yena’s strongest suit, and what more compared to Yujin? That girl has iron legs. Therefore, the duck on the loose was in the beagle’s captivity in no time.

 

“Let me go!” The duck cries for help as she’s being showered with kisses by the beagle. “What? More kisses? My pleasure!” The chaos goes on until a man intervenes.

 

“Y’all are so loud, keep it down or else the neighbors would report us again.” said the man behind them. He had blonde hair just like Yena, and he’s much taller than Yujin.

 

The duck finally breaks free from the beagle’s mighty arms after several unsuccessful attempts. It’s a historic moment.

 

“Sorry.” Embarrassed, Yujin scratches her nape while facing the ground. “I.. can NOT promise that we won’t do this ever again. It was Yena who started it, not me!” was her excuse.

 

The man only laughs at Yujin’s response.

 

“Aigoo, you’re so cute, Yujin-ah! I can’t resist you.” The tall slender man ruffles Yujin’s hair and she reacts exactly like how a puppy would.

 

“This is so unfair! I’m literally your child, Jae! How could you neglect me like this?” Yena cries like a child, as she wipes her non-existent tears. 

“Child my foot. ‘I’m literally your child, Jae! How could you neglect me like this’” Jae mocks his fellow blonde by repeating what she said. Yujin cackles at the antics of the blondes. This happens all the time but she swears it gets funnier every time.

 

The baby duck tries to come for the chicken and so, she goes ZOOOOOOOOM-

 

Silence.

 

Jae’s hand got a hold of Yena’s head way before she could lay a finger on him. She tries to charge forward but who the heck knew an arm this skinny could be this strong too? Right now she just looks like a game character walking against a wall. Looks like she’s gonna need more training.

 

Defeated, Yena plops herself onto the couch. “Since when did you get this strong, Jaehyung-ah? Have you been secretly going to the gym with Yujin these days?” Still puzzled, she lets out an exasperated sigh as she caresses both of her now wimpy arms with her cream bread hands.

 

“Well yeah, I’ve been working out these days.” Jae rolls his sleeves up to flex his stick-like arms with baby muscles that are barely even visible.

 

“Waaaah, I’m proud of you, Jae.” Yujin rests her hand on his shoulders. “It feels like.. As if it was just yesterday when Yena almost detached your whole arm from your body.” The entirety of the living room was filled with equally uncontrolled laughter.

 

“Ah, yes. Good times, good times, man.” Jae mutters in between his soft laughs.

 

Their short moment of pure laughter was disrupted when the doorbell rang. Still gasping for air, Yujin volunteers to get the door for them.

 

As the tall girl opens the door, a woman with a happy wide smile greets her. Her smile is very radiant, almost comparable to the sun.

 

“Oh, hello! Yujinnie!” The woman uses her free hand to ruffle Yujin’s hair as she’s holding a plastic bag in the other, with her toes tipped on the ground just so she could reach the giant baby’s head properly. Yujin seems to be very happy upon meeting the woman too. She’s ecstatic.

 

“Eunbi unnie!” Yujin shrieks in excitement. She then immediately pulls the petite woman in for a tight and heartfelt hug. Eunbi returns the hug contentedly. It’s a cute moment between the two.

 

“Eunbi?!” The two blondes scream in unison from afar. Still in disbelief, they scurry to the front door where Yujin greeted the woman.

 

“Yujinnie, you must have missed me a lot” Eunbi murmurs through Yujin’s shoulder, where her face is buried. “Is it obvious?” The tall girl isn’t letting her go soon.

 

“Ya! Ahn Yujin!” Both Yena and Jae try to detach the beagle from the bunny, but their efforts end up in vain. A duck and a chicken are just not strong enough compared to a beagle who actually goes to the gym. The blondes resort to their last technique. They smirk at each other before actually doing it.

 

Yujin was soon tortured with several smacks all over her back, two coming from cream bread hands, and the other two coming from bony hands. She screams in pain, and eventually lets go of Eunbi. As she faces the two blondes, the duck flees the crime scene in a blink of an eye. The duck is in yet another chase with the beagle.

 

It all happened so fast, Eunbi couldn’t process it all at once. forms an ‘O’ and any word refuses to come out. She could only let out a dumbfounded laugh, and her free hand landed on her face.

 

Jae giggles at the sight, “Sorry about that. They’re like this everyday, I have no other choice but to play along.” He tells the still speechless Eunbi as he offers to take the bag that she was holding.

 

“Come in.” The tall man gestures for Eunbi to come in, and she gladly does so. She beams a smile at him as she takes her shoes off, and Jae replies with a nod. “I brought fruits, we can eat it altogether.” Eunbi adds, to which Jae responds, “Sure, thank you!”.

 

They make their way to the kitchen where they stumble upon Yena being held captive by Yujin as the latter grabs drinks from the fridge. The taller girl’s arm is wrapped loosely around Yena’s neck.

 

“Yenjin!” Jae managed to grab the attention of the duo. “Eunbi brought fruits. I’m gonna wash them so keep her company.” He commands. The Yenjin duo responds “Yes!” in unison.

 

Eunbi can’t help but to smile. The trio has grown a lot since she last saw them. She’s pleased by the thought of Jae leading the two despite being alone like this. The motherly smile never leaves her lips.

 

The duo brings four bottles of Sprite and sits next to each other on the dining table, across Eunbi, so they could talk to each other properly. Plus, they have lots of questions prepared for the older woman, so it could feel more like an interrogation or something along these lines.

 

Eunbi initiates the conversation, “So, how have you guys been?” as she opens the can of Sprite and eventually takes a small sip from it.

 

“We’ve been doing pretty good! With our jobs, and each other, of course, we managed to make it work.” Yena says in response to Eunbi’s question. The youngest one nods in agreement as she takes a sip from her can of Sprite too.

 

“That’s good to hear.” The oldest flashes a relieved smile, “Don’t make Jae have too much of a hard time, he’s getting old, so..” she mumbles so he wouldn’t hear her. The three chuckle at Eunbi’s remark.

 

“Ey, of course! We’re still cousins in here, so.. yeah!” Yujin states.

 

Jae arrives with the fruits, “So, what did you guys talk about?”, he asks. To which Yena responds, “Nothing, just some small talk.”

 

The four of them spend their morning just catching up with what’s happened with their lives for the past year. They haven’t been with each other ever since Eunbi left the city to reside in her hometown, mainly to take a short break and to dedicate her time with her family. Eunbi was overwhelmed by the series of events, she had to take some time off, away from her friends, and clear her mind just for a little bit.

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Minjoo and Chaewon arrive at the university where they’ll be doing the assigned work for them today. And as Chaewon mentioned earlier, they’re gonna be working on the time machine again.

 

Their work on the time machine is extremely confidential. No one else knows about it apart from them, of course. Not even their closest family members, nor their closest friends. You know what others say, you never know who you could trust.

 

The Kim duo make their way to their ‘secret room’ where they talk about stuff like this. Theories, projects, and etcetera.

 

Both of them were quiet. Neither of them was willing enough to break the silence. It was awkward. Just walking next to each other, like how normal colleagues would on a normal work day.

 

And at last, they finally arrive at the secret room, “I’ll get it.” Chaewon volunteers to open the door for the both of them.

 

The Kims were greeted by Hyewon. Their colleague. The leader. The mastermind behind the time machine. She’s a prodigy. Their juniors look up to her, and she’s often compared to her brother, which is also their senior. Brian Kang.

 

“Good morning, take a seat.” Hyewon tells the Kims, as she directs her eyes to the empty chairs, indicating them to take a seat. They gladly do so.

 

Chaewon is sitting next to Minjoo, and Hyewon is sitting in front of the two. “So.. about the time machine.” The oldest breaks the deafening silence in the room. Minjoo rolls her eyes upon hearing her remark.

 

“Are you serious? That event didn’t affect you at all? Well because for me, it did. That still haunts me to sleep. And you’re acting like it’s nothing.” Minjoo contradicts Hyewon’s idea. With how she spoke, it’s like she despises that so-called time machine. The latter was flustered by how Minjoo reacted, “I have my own reasons, please just listen to me for once.” she calmly states, trying her best to keep herself calm.

 

Chaewon caresses the other Kim’s hand in an attempt to calm her down. “You heard what she said. Let her explain, and we’ll work this out.” are the words that she spurted out, to try to console the latter.

 

Minjoo lets out a long and heavy sigh, “Okay, I’m sorry. I was just taken aback. Go on, I will listen.” she lets herself loose, and slowly leans back in her chair.

 

“Thank you. Now, I didn’t tell you about this, but before I do, please promise me you won’t get mad.” Hyewon asks the two, just to make sure. She was just a little afraid Minjoo would go full-on angry frog mode again.

 

Chaewon and Minjoo nod in unison. But the confusion is much more visible on the short-haired one’s face.

 

“You see, after that incident, I was really baffled about how there was hardly any effect on everything else apart from Eunbi.”

 

Inhale.

 

Exhale.

 

“Finally! The time machine is.. DONE!” Hyewon exclaims, and cheering sounds from Chaewon, Minjoo, and Wonyoung could be heard from all across the room. Finally. After 2 years of hard work, a ton of misunderstandings with the University heads, and nonstop research, it’s finally done.

 

The time machine is finally done.

 

They couldn’t have done it without each other. It’s been Hyewon’s dream to be able to build a time machine ever since she was a child. And now that her number one dream is finally fulfilled, there’s nothing else that she could ask for.

 

Now what’s left to do is to actually try the time machine.

 

The time machine. It doesn’t look that special, but it is. It’s actually just a small and compact box. Like a shower box, almost. But with buttons and stuff inside. The space is enough for one person only, and its ceiling is actually pretty high, so Wonyoung could fit in it.

 

And comes with it is a smartwatch, which should be worn by the traveller. It would help you with navigating through time once you’re where you wanted to be. Lastly, the watch would be the one to turn to so you could go back to the present!

 

There are many consequences that come with travelling in time. The possibilities are wide!

 

However, with this time machine that the quad invented, you can only go back to the past.

 

And you MUST NOT interact with anyone, and anything. Because once you do, it’s going to cause a butterfly effect, and who knows to what extent that butterfly effect could cause?

 

You’re just there as an inspector in short.

 

It sounds pretty impossible, but you never really know what could happen once you try, right?

 

Now, it’s time.

 

She’s never felt this excited before. Apart from that one time she saw a cake vending machine for the first time.

 

“You know the drill, Chaewon.” Hyewon makes sure Chaewon doesn’t forget about THE drill.

 

“Follow you there if you haven’t returned in exactly an hour.” Chaewon recites, like she was in kindergarten or something. She tried to come off as intimidating, but nope, she’s Kim Chaewon after all.

 

“Okay, okay.” The purple-haired girl nods, and laughs at how cute the baby cub’s response was. She witnesses it all the time, but she can’t help it, she’s too excited.

 

Inhale.

 

Exhale.

 

Right before she steps into the time machine, “Take care, Hyewon-ah. Don’t do anything stupid.” Minjoo warns her, mixed with genuine concern and a little bit of sarcasm.

 

“Don’t worry, Minjoo. I won’t! Trust me.”

 

She then steps in there for real now.

 

Inhale.

 

The fun starts now.

 

Exhale.

 

Everything is blurry. Her head aches. She feels sick. She takes her phone out from the pocket of her jeans,

 

10:29 a.m.

September 29, 2017.

 

It was a success. She made it. Her time machine worked. She’s the happiest person in the world.

 

But she has a mission.

 

She knows all the rules. Of course she does. There’s a reason why she wanted to go back to this day specifically. To try and save her friend.

 

Right now she just doesn’t care about the consequences anymore. She’d do anything just to save her.

“Don’t do anything stupid!” Minjoo’s voice keeps ringing in her head. It won’t stop.

 

I’ll try my best.

 

The purple-haired girl studies her surroundings. This place is it. An open parking lot of a well-known grocery. It’s a Friday morning, so the parking lot is somewhat empty. You could count the cars parked there with your hands.

 

And there she sees Eunbi’s car. A gray mid-sized car.

 

Hyewon hides herself behind the pole as she waits for a certain someone to walk out from the exits.

 

After minutes of frantic pacing, countless heavy breathing, Hyewon finally sees the person she’s been waiting for.

 

As Hyewon saw Eunbi walk out from the exit doors, she lowers her head and covers her face with her ube-colored hair. That was kind of a stupid idea since she can’t see anything now. What if Eunbi’s already gone by the time she clears her sight? Then all the fuss would be useless if she couldn’t save her after all.

 

That’s when Hyewon looks up and fixes her disheveled hair.

 

At the very moment that Hyewon opens her eyes, she meets a wide-eyed Eunbi.

 

“Oh? Hyewon-ah!” Eunbi grins, “Why are you here?”, she adds as a question.

 

Flustered, Hyewon opened slowly and it took a few seconds for words to finally come out, “Uh.. shopping?” she blurts out.

 

Her pupils are shaking, sweat starts to trickle down her neck. is as dry as a desert, and her heart starts beating faster. She just wants to yeet herself out of this place. But no. She has to stand with her own decisions.

 

Eunbi lets out an awkward laugh, “You dyed your hair to purple?” amazed, she starts Hyewon’s fried hair. “I never thought you’d go this crazy on your hair.”

 

Hyewon knows all of this is wrong. This shouldn’t be happening. What if she comes back to the present and suddenly the time machine doesn’t exist anymore?

 

“Please wish Yena a happy birthday for me. I’m sorry. I gotta go.” was Hyewon’s last words before running away from the scene.

 

Eunbi didn’t even have enough time to react. It happened so quickly. She wonders why the younger was like this all of a sudden. She shakes it all off and heads home to celebrate her friend’s birthday.

 

.

 

Hyewon ran as fast as she could. She didn’t care where her feet would take her. All that was in her mind right now was,

 

Would I still be able to return to the present?

 

What if I can’t?

 

What do I do?

 

After minutes of sprinting, she stops at an abandoned playground to catch her breath.

 

Inhale.

 

Exhale.

 

Hyewon calms herself down after a short breathing session. Still anxious, she tries to turn her smartwatch on. Being stuck in the past is the last thing she wants to happen to herself right now.

 

Ding Dong! Thank God the smartwatch . She clicked on the button that’s supposed to take you back to the present.

 

But it’s not responding. Maybe it’s just lagging! Hyewon counts to 5, but still, nothing. Her heart starts beating faster again.

 

She’s panicking now. She starts tapping the button repeatedly in hopes of it finally responding.

 

But no. The smartwatch does the exact opposite of what Hyewon wanted. It turned off.

 

“God damn it!” she plops herself onto the ground. All hope is lost. She starts accepting the reality. The reality is her being stuck in the past. But she wonders if she DID save Eunbi’s life? Since that’s what she came here for anyways. She’s most probably stuck now, so the first thing that comes to her mind is to check on Eunbi.

 

She takes her phone out of her pocket, and calls Eunbi.

 

It’s ringing.

 

She answered! Hyewon jumps up from her previous position and now she’s smiling unconsciously.

 

“Oh, Hyewon-ah! Hello?” There was so much noise in the background.

 

Hyewon was getting all giddy. She might be stuck in the past but at least she saved her crush friend from the accident, right?

 

“Hyewon? You there?” The girl on the other side of the phone asks as Hyewon was not responding. 

 

                                         “Oh, yes. I’m here. Where are you?”

 

“I’m at Yena’s house, why?”

                                         “Nothing. Wish her a happy birthday

                                                              for me, okay?”

“I already did, you dummy.

She said thanks.”

                                                     “Okay. Uh, I gotta go.”

 

“Okay! Bye Hye-” Hyewon abruptly ended the call without letting Eunbi finish her last sentence. Since when did she become a panicked gay like this? The time machine really does wonders.

 

Hyewon plops herself on the ground once aga