TaekWoon finally got his wits together. He was fully aware that he was in his dorm. He and HakYeon had officially – kind of, sort of – become a “thing” a few weeks ago which still made HongBin sour, but he didn’t object to it. The four still met up around campus to hang out, but when the nightlife hour came along, they would part ways, HakYeon always trailing after TaekWoon so they could sit quietly in TaekWoon’s dorm.

TaekWoon remembered that particular day, they went out to eat dinner before going back to the dorm. Well, they went out to dinner, but TaekWoon didn’t exactly have much appetite; they split an entrée and dessert. When they arrived back at TaekWoon’s dorm, he collapsed to the couch to recharge with a quick nap.

He had pulled himself together.

But HakYeon confused him all over again.

“We were gods.”

Normally, at this point, a person should respond, “You’re out of your mind. What are you talking about? Have you been doing drugs?” But even though the words HakYeon spoke were outlandish, TaekWoon felt no doubt that HakYeon was telling the truth. It was like old news, some detail TaekWoon had known before but forgot through the years.

That doesn’t mean it made any sense, though. “What do you mean?” TaekWoon asked.

“We were gods,” HakYeon repeated. He then held out both of his hands, palms up. “The two gods of Time, each of us in charge of one direction. You were in charge of time moving backwards, time in retrospect, memories, restraint, and careful judgement. I am in charge of time moving forwards, time in prospect, aspirations, hastiness, and spontaneity. Together, Time’s twin lovers worked in a balance, perfectly moving forward by each second.”

“So… a polytheist world? Like the Greek gods?”

“Mmm, yeah, kind of. Different people will tell you different things. But seeing how I’m the real deal, you can trust what I say.

“In any case,” HakYeon continued, “we were gods doing our godly things. Humans worshipped us for one reason or another, and we did our thing. We weren’t restricted to our heavenly roost in the clouds, though, so you were always nosing around in the human world. But that was fine. No one would do anything about it since, really, all you did was stroll around and play with children. No one could do anything about it because we were gods.

“Well, you know how stories go. Someone felt mad about something, so that human gathered other like-minded humans and started to confront the gods. Obviously, we were immortal, invincible beings, so they couldn’t directly do anything to us. But the people who worshipped us fought back in our stead. It wasn’t pretty. Humans died, left and right, and we couldn’t do anything about it. If we got entangled in their war, we became mortal, susceptible to injury and death like any other human.

“Of course none of us gods were a fan of what was going on, but no one wanted to go down to try and stop everything, either. Sure, one or two would go down to lend a hand here and there, but it was never anything that would change the course of the war. It wasn’t until they directly attacked one city you happened to favor that you suddenly changed your mind. You disappeared into the city one day without a word. I tried to find you, got caught in the middle of an ambush, and – still embarrassed to say – I lost the fight and died.”

The nightmare rose again to the front of TaekWoon’s mind, and he squeezed HakYeon’s hand. He hadn’t realized HakYeon had been holding his hands the entire time.

“It happened just as you saw. I was gone before you reached me. But you, stupid idiot, thought you couldn’t live without me and decided you’d break the biggest rule in the godly house: You decided to use your godly power to turn back time and bring me back to life, Fate be damned. Well, as soon as I took my first breath, we were swept up by those annoying hall monitors up to Mr. Big himself.”

Another image came to TaekWoon’s mind, that same feeling of an old, old memory slowly rising up from the depths of his mind. Kneeling in a huge chamber, darkness surrounding him save for the burning lights on both of his sides. The darkness didn’t cloak the pressure of the presence of the others who stood in the chamber, especially not the incredible power that stood in front of him.

He knew everything was over. He accepted it.

“Stop!!”

HakYeon’s voice was clear, even in his mind.

“You took the punishment for me,” TaekWoon interrupted, finally speaking up.

HakYeon’s eyes narrowed slightly, but he nodded. “Going against Fate for any selfish reason is unforgiveable. For your sentence, I would have become a mortal human, and you would have had to live and watch as I reincarnated and died in front of you for all eternity. An endless cycle. My last-ditch plea worked, so our sides were switched. Now I’m the one who has met you a million times in a million different lives only to see you die in one way or another. Then it’s just skip, skip, skip through time until I find you again.”

“So all those times… It was you, wasn’t it? On the train, in my car… when things were going backwards…”

“Mm I guess so. When I leave your late manifestation to find your next one, I have to jump forward in small bits until I find you. I can only do small bits because I might overshoot. I did that, once, and found you just as you got an arrow in the heart. That was more of an annoyance than a heartbreak. Anyway, as I’ve said before, I’m in charge of time moving forward. Even though you were gone, I was not allowed to go backwards, but I still did it in small bits, too. That’s how I was able to root myself into your friends’ memories. Of course, if I do that too much, then the hall monitors find out and try to catch me to punish me.”

“Hall monitors?”

“Oh, I just call them that because that’s how annoying they are. They’re also twin gods but of the sun and stars. Daytime. Light. Whatever.”

“So… that time you jumped in my car? Were you running from them?”

“You got it.”

TaekWoon let out a deep breath. It was still incomprehensible. How was this really possible? Was it even real? It could very easily just be a ridiculous story HakYeon made up for… what reason?

But no. As he looked into HakYeon’s dark eyes that twinkled with elfish mirth, he knew with certainty, the memories that came to him and the familiarity of the words HakYeon spoke, all of it was true.

“A million times in a million different lives…” TaekWoon murmured.

HakYeon nodded. “Yup. A different person each time even if there are some parts that are still the same. Once, you were a haughty little rich kid. That was annoying. I even met you in Vegas one time.”

“Vegas? What was I doing there?”

A slow smirk wormed its way onto HakYeon’s face, and it made a chill go down TaekWoon’s spine. “Well, I’m sure you know how the saying goes.”

“But have I always been… broken… like this?”

“Ill of sorts? No. There were times when you were perfectly normal and happened upon an accident one way or another. There was one time you were happily married with a wife and children, and I had to resort to being the gay friend with an unrequited love. Save for being president, I think you’ve been everything a human could possibly be.”

TaekWoon moved closer to HakYeon on the sofa until he could rest his head against HakYeon’s shoulder. Throwing his arm up and around TaekWoon’s shoulders, HakYeon pulled him in and buried his nose in TaekWoon’s hair.

“How many times…” TaekWoon whispered, “have you told me, ‘Nice to meet you’?”

“More times than I’ve breathed.”

His voice caught in his throat before TaekWoon could ask the next question. “How long will it be… before I die?”

HakYeon didn’t reply.

A/N:

Ok maybe not, but I was thinking I'd get at least a little more reaction from TaekWoon's plot twist.

SPEAKING OF PLOT TWISTS LOL and just in time for VIXX's comeback hehehe wtf I swear I'm not a Jellyfish insider so how bout that? Now I can finally reveal that I used this as my prompt with a little of this, too. (That's my other Tumblr. If you click the Challenge accepted tag, you'll see where more of my ideas may or may not come from ha ho hee).

In any case, who remembers the “even if I met you a million times in a million different lives, I would want to be matched with no one but you.” line?!?!?! Surprise~~

I feel like I'm forgetting something...