“You sure you don’t want us to come with you?”

Mingyu chuckled as he looked up from tying his shoes. “I think I can handle myself.”

Sitting next to Mingyu on the couch, Seungcheol nodded his head towards Seokmin. “Stop worrying about him.” He playfully gripped Mingyu’s shoulder. “Our Mingyu’s finally going on a date.”

Seokmin laughed from the kitchen as Mingyu grimaced, shaking the hand away. “Don’t say that,” he spat.

“This Wonwoo just sounds super sketchy,” Seokmin clarified as he bit into his apple. Pointing at both of them, he said with his mouth full. “I don’t know if I trust him.”

“You don’t trust anyone,” his friends said together.

Seungcheol smiled. “Seokmin, you literally think everyone’s some sort of government spy or something.”

Rolling his eyes, Seokmin argued, “Everyone has their secrets.”

“You and your conspiracies,” Mingyu groaned as he sat up.

Watching Mingyu brush off his jacket, Seokmin added, “Come on, he’s weird. Ever since he had your phone, I’ve been thinking about it more and more. What if he really is a spy?” His friends laughed as he went on. “Remember what I said about the screensaver and the city thing?”

“Yeah,” Mingyu said, just trying to play along.

“I bet you anything he took that picture himself.”

“He did. He said he took it the last time he was in LA.”

Seokmin scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Probably wasn’t even that long ago. Spies travel all the freakin time.”

Mingyu and Seungcheol both chuckled. Even though they were used to Seokmin’s crazy theories, they never failed to be amused. “Okay,” Seungcheol jested, “What if he is a spy? That’d be kinda cool, but what does he want with Mingyu?”

He took another bite. “Anything. Money. Safety. Compliance.”

“Cats,” Mingyu stated as he headed for the door. “That’s all I can provide him.”

“Oh ha ha,” Seokmin sarcastically laughed back, getting that his friends weren’t taking him seriously. “Look, all I’m saying is it’s all super sketchy. He’s working for someone or hiding something. You said there were people chasing him, right? He has something they want. I bet you people are always following him.”

This time only Seungcheol laughed out loud while Mingyu faintly smiled. He hadn’t mentioned the boy with the pink hair that approached him or what he asked about. It was almost creepy how spot on Seokmin could be. It made Mingyu actually consider the possibility that his overall theory on Wonwoo could be right.

“Well, spy or not, Mingyu should go see him again,” Seungcheol said as he got up. Stretching out his arms, he added, “I got a good impression from him.”

Mingyu sighed, looking away from his roommates. “You’re all crazy.”

“He’s a spy.”

“He’s a date.”

“You both .”

With a smile, Seungcheol headed for the fridge, skimming past the chomping Seokmin. “Just go. At least try to have fun.”

“Try to stay alive,” Seokmin added, pointing with his apple.

Rolling his eyes, Mingyu opened the front door. “I’ll try.” He turned to step outside when his eyes grew wide. He was expecting to see the usual grey cat in the front. Instead, he saw the cat and a guy crouched down in a grey coat. “Wonwoo?”

Turning his attention away from the petting, Wonwoo flicked his head up. His initial surprise turned into a smile. “Hey!”

Okay, now this is really ing weird. Squinting and furrowing his eyebrows, Mingyu hardly knew what to say. He was just too taken aback. He’s ing everywhere. What the . How did he find my house? “Ummm.”

Wonwoo slowly stood up. Mingyu could hear shuffling in the background. His friends were trying to get a good look at what was going on. “Sorry,” Wonwoo said, noticing Mingyu’s confusion. “Is something wrong?”

“Umm,” Mingyu muttered again. “How...how do you know where I live?”

Slightly embarrassed, Wonwoo rubbed the back of his neck and looked away. “I guess he deleted the texts.”

“What?” He could hear giggling just behind him.

Blushing, Wonwoo knew what was going on now. “Um, last night, your friend Seungcheol texted me from your phone.”

Upon hearing this, Mingyu immediately flipped around. He found a giddy Seungcheol right behind him. “When did you do that?” he demanded to know.

Seungcheol chuckled. “I asked to look something up last night, remember. I texted Wonwoo a few things. Don’t worry, it wasn’t like I was pretending to be you or anything.”

“Oh yeah, ‘cause that would be crossing the line,” Mingyu pointed out.

Satisfied with himself, Seungcheol beamed. But Seokmin just glared at him. Aggressively chewing, he stared him down. “See. This is why you can’t trust anybody. You have no idea what’s on people’s agenda.”

Mingyu sighed and turned away from Cupid and the conspiracy theorist to face the boy who set them both off. Wonwoo was standing there just shyly smiling. “What did he tell you?”

“He just told me your address and to come meet up here,” Wonwoo explained. “Sorry. I thought you knew.”

“It’s okay.” Now up to speed on the situation, Mingyu didn’t really care. He was more annoyed with his lack of privacy, but it wasn’t atypical of Seungcheol to meddle here and there. Finally stepping out of the apartment, Mingyu began to shut the door behind him. “I’ll see you guys later,” he called back inside.

“Bye Wonwoo!” Seungcheol cried out.

“If that is his real name,” Mingyu heard Seokmin whisper.

Closing the door, Mingyu sighed again, but Wonwoo seemed thoroughly amused. “This is a nice place you got here.”

“It’s pretty shabby.” But while saying that, he grinned at his grey friend on the door mat. Bending down, he his head. “But the company’s nice.”

“Yeah. This guy’s really cool,” Wonwoo agreed as he fell into a squat. Immediately, the cat shifted his attention to him. Curling his tail up, he made his way around Wonwoo’s legs.

“He really likes you,” Mingyu laughed.

“Yeah? He kind of just came up to me while I was waiting out here. What’s his name?”

“He doesn’t have one.”

Wonwoo looked up. “What? Not Dumpling or Cheesecake or Eggroll for him?”

Mingyu chuckled and shook his head. “Nope.”

“Why not?”

“He doesn’t respond to anything,” Mingyu explained as he watched the cat crawl onto Wonwoo’s thigh. “Usually the name clicks with the cat and they respond to it. He responds to nothing. I’ve tried Waffle, Coffee, Vinegar, Wonton, and like a ton more. He never answers to any of them.”

Wonwoo slowly picked the boy up. “That’s so weird. So how do you call him?”

“I just whistle.”

“Is he the only one like that?”

“Yeah,” Mingyu answered, reaching over to get a subtle on his hand. “He’s a special one.”

“He’s really cute.” Holding him up to his face, Wonwoo made wide eyes at the cat and started saying “hi” in a higher pitched voice, like someone would with a baby. The cat was pleased and his nose and cheeks.

Mingyu watched in amazement. He’d never seen his grey friend exhibit such affection. It was new and awfully adorable. Laughing, Wonwoo turned him so their cheeks were pressed together. “You should call him Wonwoo.”

“That’s not a food.”

“Yeah, but we look alike.” He took a second to glance over at the cat’s face. Copying his expression, Wonwoo lowered his head, made his eyes bigger, and pouted ever so slightly.

Mingyu chuckled as he looked back and forth from both of them. Cute, he thought. For a second, he couldn’t tell who that was referring to. “I admit, very similar.”

Satisfied, Wonwoo put his new friend down. Clinging to Wonwoo’s arm, he refused to go. Mingyu helped get him off as they stood up. “It was nice meeting you,” Wonwoo said as he glanced down at the now even more pouty face.

Mingyu smiled. “So where to?”

“Ummm, we said lunch right?”

“Yeah.”

Wonwoo pursed his lips as they headed for the stairs. Since Mingyu lived in an outdoor apartment complex, the hall wasn’t closed in by walls but rather accompanied by the fresh air. “We can go to that place like last time.”

“Mansae?”

Laughing, Wonwoo lightly shoved his shoulder. “You can’t say it like that. It’s Mansae!” He threw his arms up and flashed a huge smile.

Mingyu couldn’t help but snort, thrown off by the boy’s sudden cheer. “Right.”

“We can head there.”

“Sounds good,” Mingyu replied. He looked over and found Wonwoo smiling at him

It didn’t take too long to get there since the conversation was going smoothly. They talked about Seungcheol’s nosy behavior and Mingyu talked a little about Seokmin, not revealing too much or Seokmin would kill him. Wonwoo was interested to hear about Mingyu’s human companions. He also talked a little more about himself, throwing in some classes he was taking and his interests. Mingyu noticed that, again, the boy wasn’t being too specific. Rounding the corner, they could see Mansae ahead of them.

“I listen to a lot of music.”

“What do you listen to?” Mingyu asked.

“Ehh, ya know, good stuff. I love a lot of groups. There’s just a lot of good music from here.”

Mingyu nodded. “That’s cool.”

“Yeah. ‘Cause I travel a lot, I like listening to songs in Korean, ya know. I get pretty homesick. It’s just nice having songs to keep me company.”

“You should recommend me some,” Mingyu said as they got closer to the restaurant.

Wonwoo eagerly smiled and pulled out his phone. “Yeah, definitely. Actually, I’ve been really into this one group lately.”

“Which group?”

He unlocked it and clicked his music library. He showed it to Mingyu. “Seventeen,” he said.

“Never heard of them.”

“They’re a newer group, but their stuff’s really impressive,” Wonwoo said as he handed over the phone. “All their songs are self-composed and they choreograph all their own dances. There’s like thirteen of them I think, so a lot of talent.”

Mingyu scrolled down the “SEVENTEEN” section. “Adore U, 20, Ah Yeah, Shining Diamond, Jam Jam,” he read.

“Oh yeah, those are all from their first album,” Wonwoo explained. “In their second one there’s actually a song called—”

“Mansae,” Mingyu laughed. “Appropriate. I’ll check it out later.”

“It’s really good!” Wonwoo exclaimed as they passed the alley. They both glanced over to find a clump that looked a lot like Donut napping under the dumpster. They smiled. “Looks like our friend’s sleeping.”

“Let’s not wake him. Living out here must be pretty rough.”

The two of them stopped once they were in front of Mansae. Wonwoo looked up at the sign and tilted his head. For whatever reason, something didn’t feel right. “Ya know, now that we’re here…”

“I’m not really in the mood to eat here,” Mingyu stated.

Wonwoo was surprised at how the boy said what he was also thinking. He questionably looked at Mingyu. “Yeah, I don’t know why.”

“Do you have any other suggestions?” he asked as the two of them decided to keep walking down the sidewalk, past the place where they first met. Wonwoo may not have known why he didn’t want to eat there, but all of a sudden Mingyu had a weird feeling that eating at Mansae would solidify this as some sort of date. He wanted to avoid that at all costs.

Wonwoo thought it over real quick. “Umm, we can go to my house. I think we have some food laying around, if you don’t mind leftovers.”

That’s a lot less date like, Mingyu thought. Satisfied with that option, he replied, “Yeah that sounds good.”

For another fifteen minutes, they walked and talked. Wonwoo listed some of the foods that may be at his house and mentioned how he lived with his parents and grandmother. They all lived in an apartment, but it was never too cramped. Mingyu was curious to hear some more details, but knew not to push as he never really did. Mingyu explained a little more about his friends and their living conditions and how that came to be. The two of them shared a few laughs before getting to their destination.

Coming up to the door, Wonwoo punched in the security code and it unlocked. After stepping inside and riding the elevator to the fourth floor, they made their way to Wonwoo’s home. He smiled as he reached for the key in his back pocket.

“I don’t think anyone’s home. Maybe just my grandma.”

“Your parents working?” Mingyu asked.

Putting the key in the lock, he nodded. “Yeah, they usually get home at five for dinner, but I think they said they’d be staying at the office tonight.”

Five? “Wow, you guys must eat dinner pretty early.”

Wonwoo chuckled. “Yeah, we have to.” Walking in and holding the door open for his guest, he smiled. “That’s just how the schedule ends up working.”

Mingyu cautiously walked into the apartment and slipped out of his shoes. He found himself in the kitchen/living room area. Initially, the place seemed pretty inviting. There wasn’t much decoration, but the space felt warm, like a family lived there. “Nice place,” he said as he looked around.

Wonwoo peeled off his jacket and placed it on the back of one of the dining chairs as he headed for the fridge. “Thanks. It’s pretty cozy, which I like.”

“So, you, your parents, and your grandma?”

“Yep, it’s the four of us,” he replied, rummaging through some tupperware.

“No siblings?”

His head hidden away, Wonwoo still shook his head. “No, always been an only child.”

“Ah,” Mingyu uttered as he slowly sat down on the couch. “Me too.”

“I could tell,” Wonwoo chuckled.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

But before Wonwoo could reply, there was a voice coming from someone’s bedroom. “Wonwoo-ah, is that you?”

Wonwoo recognized who it was, but Mingyu just froze. He was never good with meeting people. “Yeah, Grandma, it’s me! I have a friend over!” he called back.

“Oh!” she exclaimed. Mingyu could practically hear her sweet, old-lady-like personality before even seeing her. Then she came out from the hallway. She looked exactly like what Mingyu was picturing.

Wonwoo’s grandmother was a short, wrinkled woman. She wasn’t small because she looked like one of those people who could consume you in a hug. Shuffling into the room in her slippers, she wore a giant smile. The aging marks on her cheeks made her teeth shine even brighter and her grandmotherly warmth exude even further. After spotting her grandson, she immediately directed her attention to the unsuspecting Mingyu. “That’s great!” she exclaimed.

Based on her excitement, Mingyu confirmed that Wonwoo wasn’t lying about his lack of friends. This woman looked like she’d never seen someone with the title of “friend” from Wonwoo’s point of view. Mingyu immediately stood up and grinned. Bowing his head low, he replied, “Nice to meet you.”

When he snapped back up, he found her smiling and coming up to him. She swiftly took both of his hands and clasped them in hers. Her skin was soft and comfortable. Tilting her head all the way back to look up at him, she beamed. “Nice to meet you, too!”

“I’m Kim Mingyu,” he introduced himself. He was about to stop, but he decided to add a little more to the title. “Wonwoo’s friend.”

She chuckled at that. “Kim Mingyu, nice to meet you!” she said again before letting Mingyu go. “I’m sorry, it’s just that Wonwoo doesn’t really have friends over too often!”

Coming out from the fridge, Wonwoo smiled and put down a few tubs of food. “Grandma, you make me sound like a loser.”

Turning to him, she said, “I would still love you even if you were a loser.”

Mingyu watched the encounter like an outsider. He was pretty distant with his family, so this was new to him. Wonwoo’s grandmother came over and pinched him on the cheek before grabbing her purse off the counter. “I was just heading out to the market, but if you two would like me to stay and cook something…”

“Oh, that’s alright,” Mingyu asserted, not wanting to cause her any trouble.

“Yeah Grandma,” Wonwoo agreed. “We’ll just eat the fried rice from last night.”

“Aww, I don’t want you boys left with just that.”

“We’ll be fine,” Wonwoo said with a smile.

She hesitated before submitting. “Okay, but if you need anything to eat, just call me, okay?”

“Yes, yes of course.” Wonwoo gave her a hug as she headed for the door.

She kissed him on the cheek and walked out. Waving back, she said, “You two have fun! Nice to meet you, Mingyu!”

“Thank you!” Mingyu called back as she shut the door.

Wonwoo laughed and scooped out the rice into two bowls. Tossing it into the microwave, he looked over at Mingyu. “And that’s my grandmother.”

Mingyu came over to sit at the kitchen table. “She’s really nice.”

Wonwoo leaned against the counter and crossed his arms as he waited. He couldn’t help but smile at Mingyu sitting there. “She’s awesome. She basically raised me when I was growing up.”

“Do your parents work a lot?”

“Yeah, they work. They travel. It was hard before I started traveling too,” Wonwoo explained. There was a beep from the microwave going off.

Mingyu watched the boy take out the food, place it on the table, and sit down across from him. There were already some chopsticks laid out. Blowing the steam away, Mingyu asked, “You started traveling with them?”

Wonwoo paused. Mingyu didn’t notice the silence as he started eating. Raising the bowl to his face, he wasn’t looking up. Wonwoo felt his heart race. Should I do it now? he thought. Wonwoo had been considering telling Mingyu the truth about himself for a while now. This weird, pleasant feeling he got from him was intoxicating, but he still knew how big of a deal this was. What if he can’t be trusted? But as he watched Mingyu eat, something said that he could be.

Still, Wonwoo hesitated. Mingyu opened the door. It was a good segway. Wonwoo’s nerves were starting to consume him as he was about to tell the first person, other than those like him, his secret. Mingyu finally noticed the weird tension in the room and looked up from his rice. Putting down the bowl, he asked, “What?”

Wonwoo couldn’t handle it. He immediately stood up again and headed for the living room. Mingyu was terribly confused, since the boy didn’t say anything. He was just freaking out in silence. “Wonwoo, what’s wrong? What’s happening?”

“Ummm,” Wonwoo finally uttered as he paced back and forth. He stepped in front of Mingyu and took him by the wrist.

“Woah, what’re you doing?” But Wonwoo pulled Mingyu off the chair and dragged him to the couch. Mingyu sat on the cushion, but Wonwoo continued to act anxious. “Wonwoo, what’s happening?”

What the is going on? was all Mingyu could think. He had no idea what had just happened. One second, he and Wonwoo were just hanging out and eating. The next, he was acting as weird as he was when they first met. Does he just have spurts of complete and utter weirdness?

Wonwoo bit his bottom lip as he rubbed the back of his neck. “I want to tell you something,” he spit out. His mind was racing. He wasn’t even sure if he was supposed to say that, but it just flew out of his mouth.

“Ummm.” Mingyu was just so unprepared for all of this. Honestly, I should’ve expected as much, though. This kid’s weird. I always knew that. Maybe Seokmin’s right… He immediately shook that thought. The second he admitted Seokmin was right was the second he knew he’d gone insane. “Yeah...sure. What is it?”

Wonwoo abruptly stopped walking and stood in front of Mingyu. “We’re friends, right?” What the hell am I saying? Wonwoo screamed in his head.

Mingyu furrowed his eyebrows. What the hell is he saying? “Uhhhh. Sure. Yeah, we’re friends.” Okay, what the hell am I saying? I don’t want to be friends with a nutcase.

But that response made Wonwoo loosen up. His shoulders slumped a bit as he took a deep breath. He took a moment to just look into Mingyu’s eyes. “I didn’t start traveling with them,” he bluntly said.

Now, Mingyu was even more confused. It took him a second to realize what Wonwoo was talking about. He was referring back to Mingyu’s earlier question. “Oh, so you didn’t start traveling with your parents. Okay, you travel on your own,” Mingyu easily said, trying to make the situation not weird again.

Wonwoo nodded. “Yeah. I travel the world by myself.”

“That’s—”

“I travel every day,” Wonwoo interrupted.

Mingyu squinted at him, not fully registering what he was saying. He looked at Wonwoo’s serious face and could tell he wasn’t lying. But he wasn’t making sense. “What?” was all he could muster.

Wonwoo sighed and rubbed his sweaty palms against his jeans. “Actually, I travel every night.”

I still don’t get it. “What the hell does—”

“I’m a Jumper.”

They both stopped. Wonwoo’s whole body was feeling the adrenaline of finally saying those words to someone. Mingyu was just dazed. He was just way too confused to even recognize that he didn’t know what that meant. Nothing was making sense. What the hell is wrong with this kid?

“A what?”

“I’m a Jumper,” Wonwoo said again, this time with a little less tension in his throat.

Mingyu felt like he was being stabbed with bewilderment. He had never felt so strange before. The closest feeling he could come up with was when Wonwoo shoved him in that alley. But even compared to that, this was way more confusing.

“What’s a Jumper?”

Wonwoo sighed and struggled to stand still. “You won’t believe me.”

You’re probably right, Mingyu thought. There were only a few people in his life that he actually trusted or cared to listen to. The rest he just humored. He felt like Seokmin in that way; not because he believed everyone was hiding something, but just cause he didn’t care to find out what. But for some reason, that look on Wonwoo’s face was really compelling.

“Try me.”

That made Wonwoo smile. Taking one last deep breath, he pulled his hair back off his forehead. “I’m…”

“A Jumper,” Mingyu interjected. “I get that part.”

Wonwoo chuckled. “Sorry. I’m just really nervous, I don’t know what’s happening.”

“Well, I don’t either, so let’s clear that up.”

For some reason, Wonwoo found the boy’s straightforwardness kind of attractive. “I’ve never told anyone this before.”

Then why the are you telling me? But he decided to keep that to himself.

Wonwoo walked over to the armchair a few feet away and sank into it. “A Jumper is someone who ‘jumps’ from city to city every night.”

“Okay,” Mingyu calmly replied, but on the inside he was starting to freak out. This is starting to sound like some crazy sci-fi . Again, he didn’t speak his thoughts. Instead, he just let Wonwoo continue.

“I guess you could call it teleporting,” Wonwoo tried to explain, “but really it’s a little different. We have no control over when we jump or where we jump.”

“We?”

“Yeah,” Wonwoo chuckled, even though this wasn’t funny. “There are a few hundred Jumpers in the world. There’s no way to keep track of all of them, but that’s the number my parents gave me.”

“So your parents are Jumpers?”

He nodded. “Yep. Both of them are. My grandma’s not.”

Mingyu nodded back. “Continue.”

Wonwoo smiled at Mingyu’s interest. “So, I don’t know the technicalities of it, but what happens is…” He took a second to just sigh. “At exactly 6pm every day, I jump from Seoul to...any other big city in the world.”

Mingyu didn’t interrupt during this pause. He was still trying to register. “I don’t know why...but that’s how it works. Every night I’m in a different city. Like last night, I was in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It was 5am when I got there, so I got to spend the day on the beach.” He laughed again, but Mingyu was uneasy. “But then, 12 hours later, I’m right back here in Seoul. From 6pm to 6am every day, I’m in a different part of the world.

“So, that’s the basic rule for all Jumpers. Relative to where they’re born, Jumpers leave their city at 6 and come home at 6. So because of that, not all Jumpers jump at the same time. Like I have a Jumper friend from Shanghai who jumps an hour after I do.”

“You have Jumper friends?” Mingyu couldn’t hold back from asking. That just slipped out.

Wonwoo smiled and quickly nodded. “Yeah, a few. One in Shanghai, another in LA, and one right here in Seoul. We don’t hang out too much though. It could raise suspicion.”

Suspicion. Mingyu immediately thought of the boy with the pink hair and his friend. Is this why they follow him? “So you jump every night…,” Mingyu said out loud, trying to piece everything together as it started to make a little sense. Wonwoo looked at him intensely, trying to help him get it. “You jump every night...with absolutely no control.”

“Exactly.”

Mingyu leaned over his knees as Wonwoo scooched to the edge of his seat. Their knees nearly touched. Mingyu’s mind was racing. None of this sounded real, but it made sense. It was starting to, at least. “So...is it a different city every night?”

“Yeah,” Wonwoo replied. “It’s different from the night before, but it can be somewhere you’ve been already. There are only so many cities, so there are bound to be repeats.”

But there are a lot of cities, Mingyu thought. But there are also a lot of nights in a lifetime. Furrowing his eyebrows, Mingyu clasped his hands together. “So that picture you took…”

He smiled and pulled out his phone to reveal his lockscreen. “The last time I jumped to LA was maybe three months ago. I say I love the night cause I never get to experience a full one.”

How poetic. His thought sounded sarcastic, but Mingyu felt a pang from that statement. He couldn’t imagine losing half of a day in Seoul in exchange for somewhere else’s.

After a long pause, Wonwoo thought it was appropriate for him to continue. “Yeah, so someone can only be a Jumper if they have at least one parent who’s one. I have two...which is why my grandma lives with us. When I was little, both my parents would be out of the country at night so there was no one to watch me. Thankfully my grandma came to the rescue.” He smiled and looked into Mingyu’s engaged eyes. “So how it works is a Jumper doesn’t start jumping until they’re seven years old. I guess that’s when the universe thinks they’re ready. Which is stupid…Trust me when I say I was never ready for that.

“So yeah, that’s the basic stuff I guess. My parents say a lot of it has to do with the universe or whatever. Like the universe picks where we go every night based on what it thinks we need.” Mingyu could hear the disdain in Wonwoo’s voice, as if he found the whole thing to be absolutely ridiculous. “But honestly, I can’t see any ‘greater’ reason why I would need to be in San Juan other than to soak up the sun.”

It was becoming clear to Mingyu that Wonwoo didn’t particularly like being a Jumper. He could see the scowl starting to form. Mingyu didn’t like that look on him. He decided to ask him some more questions. “So…” Wonwoo looked up. “You just...go to different...places?”

He’s cute when he’s confused. Wonwoo chuckled. “Yes. That’s what happens.”

Mingyu couldn’t wrap his head around that. “So for 12 hours, you’re just...in a place...you know nothing about.”

“Sometimes, but honestly I’ve been jumping for...over a decade. I think I’ve been to every major city, or at least the one’s the freakin universe lets me go to.”

Mingyu in his cheeks. Suddenly something popped into his head. “So that time you called your phone and it said it was from London…”

Wonwoo laughed and nodded. “...I was actually in London. I lied before about the caller ID being messed up.”

That makes sense. But Mingyu was still thinking. He had tons of questions, it was just hard to pick where to start. “Right...but how do you do it? How do you survive for half a day in some random place? Where do you sleep? What can you take with you? How does that make any sense?”

Amused, Wonwoo wanted to answer all of his questions. He was grateful that Mingyu was taking all this information seriously, never asking if he was telling the truth. He just believed him, and that made Wonwoo feel really good. “You learn how to survive. But there are some tips my dad taught me early on to help.”

Mingyu listened intensely as Wonwoo went on. “So, you jump immediately from where you are, so I always have to be home before 6 or else someone may see me just vanish into thin air. You also jump back to exactly where you jumped from, so home is the best place. That’s tip number one.

“Tip two: always eat before you jump. You never know where you’ll end up so you don’t know when your first meal there will be, so eating is important.

“Three: always wear a hat and sunglasses so no one can really see your face. People aren’t supposed to know about Jumpers. It’s the same reason wizards and witches want to stay secret: normal people will freak out and probably want to kill us all.”

Mingyu’s eyes immediately grew wide. “Are wizards and witches real then?!” he couldn’t stop himself from shouting.

Wonwoo burst out into laughter, clutching his stomach and falling back into the chair. Mingyu could tell how stupid he must have sounded and blushed pretty hard. But Wonwoo thought it was adorable. Raising and shaking his hand, he clarified, “No, they’re not. That was just an example.”

“Oh.” Mingyu sunk into himself and tried to not be embarrassed.

Wonwoo flashed a toothy smile before going on. “They’re not real, as far as I know. Maybe they are. But Jumpers definitely don’t have any interaction with them. So, when we jump, we cover our faces just in case we end up in some weird national picture or something. The odds of being recognized are really small, but it’s still risky so we avoid it. That’s why I took your jacket, by the way. Sometimes when you jump there’s not enough time to change, so you have to improvise.”

Mingyu chuckled. “Is that how you got that bruise before, too? From trying to take someone’s clothes and they wouldn’t let you?”

Wonwoo laughed. “Yeah, actually. That’s exactly what happened.” He took a breath and continued. “Another thing is to sleep a lot in the day at home. If you end up in a city where you just can’t find a place to stay, you’ll probably be awake for the full 12 hours. Rest is key.

“Other things are like always have US dollars because it’s the easiest to exchange. Never use a credit card, it’s all cash because people can track the cards. Same with phones. My phone, my mom’s, my dad’s, our locators have been disabled, so there’s no way to track them at all, not even from the phone company.”

“You guy’s are completely off the radar,” Mingyu commented, becoming more intrigued and even a little impressed at how intricate Jumper life seemed. It was kind of cool.

“We never want to be on the radar.”

“That’s like me.” Mingyu didn’t mean to say that out loud, but both he and Wonwoo laughed. Mingyu felt a strong connection with the idea of not wanting to be known by many, not wanting to interact with too many, not wanting to be noticed.

“Something we have in common,” Wonwoo mused. He stared at Mingyu’s soft smile and couldn’t help but be pleased with the boy’s reaction to everything.

There was another brief silence, so Mingyu asked another question. “So you said you have Jumper friends?”

“Yeah.”

“How did you meet them if you’re not supposed to reveal…all this stuff to people?”

“There’s no official way to keep track of other Jumpers, cause it could lead to other people finding out about us,” Wonwoo explained. “But there’s an international code between everyone, especially those who want to help Jumpers in the area. Remember I said people jump relative to where they’re from. That way if a Jumper from like New York, for example, ended up here, I would still be in the city for a few hours, you get it?”

Mingyu thought it over real quick. “Yeah, that makes sense. Cause the times don’t overlap for too long, right?”

“Exactly,” Wonwoo affirmed. “When it’s 6pm in New York, it’s 8am here. So how people get in contact with each other is we have flyers around the city.”

“There are Jumper flyers around the city?” he anxiously asked, wondering why he’d never seen them before.

“Yeah, but they’re all in English and they don’t just say Jumper or anything obvious. They all say one thing though, ‘Trampoline for sale,’ cause ya know…”

“Yeah,” Mingyu chuckled. “I get it.”

Wonwoo snorted at the lameness that was the international code. “So yeah, that flyer has an address of the Jumper and when you go there, they’ll ask you why you want the trampoline. The reply is, ‘The spring from my old one broke.’ And everyone says it in English to, ya know, account for the language barrier.”

This part was harder for Mingyu to believe, and Wonwoo could tell. “I know it sounds really, really stupid,” Wonwoo disclaimed. “But apparently that’s how people have been doing it forever. The internet’s too risky and so is every other outlet. This is the only way for us to get any help.”

Slowly nodding, Mingyu tried to return to his state of understanding. “Okay...so that’s how you met your friends?”

“Uh huh. We kind of networked together. I met Minghao in Shanghai and he told me he had a friend in Seoul named Chan. My other friend, Joshua, I actually met when I jumped to Vancouver in Canada. He had jumped there too and was staying at the same Canadian Jumper’s house that I found a flyer for. He was Korean but from LA so we were able to talk and get along. All of us text each other every time we jump to see if we’re in the same place.”

That’s kind of cool.

“That’s kind of cool,” Mingyu said.

But Wonwoo sighed. “Yeah, it’s nice to have friends for something like this. But…” He paused and leaned over his knees, letting his head fall between his arms. “...it’s not all it’s cut out to be.”

“What do you mean?”

He didn’t look up as he talked. “I mean it’s cool jumping and seeing the sights of the world and everything, but I lose out on a lot of stuff.” He lifted his head and looked into Mingyu’s eyes. Mingyu could again see that discomfort on his face. “I...have never taken a vacation, because even if you’re out of your home city, you jump. So if I was vacationing in LA, when it’s 6pm here in Seoul, I’d jump to some random location, then 12 hours later, I’d jump back here.”

Mingyu tilted his head. “I thought you said you jump back to where you jumped from.”

As upset by the topic as Wonwoo was, he was glad to see that Mingyu was paying attention. “Yeah, but for whatever reason, that’s what happens. Again, the freakin universe.” He scoffed and rubbed his forehead. “I’ve never had a sleepover. I’ve never been able to go out at night here. I’ve never been on a date cause I’m scared of someone finding out about this if they want to hang out passed the evening. I have barely any friends in my HOME CITY because for half my life, it’s not my home.” Groaning and genuinely annoyed, he shut his eyes. “And I have people who want to find out my deep secret.”

That’s right. Jihoon and his friend. Mingyu wasn’t surprised that he remembered the stalker boy’s name. Everything about him stood out as suspicious. I guess that’s what they think about Wonwoo.

“So the people that follow you…”

Wonwoo groaned again and sat up. “They’re not just parasites. They’re reporters.”

“What?!” Mingyu was really shocked for some reason.

“Well, they work for a news broadcast company. They were interns when they first started following me, so I don’t know if they’ve been promoted or anything. But yeah, Lee Jihoon and Kwon Soonyoung want the ‘big scoop’ from the weirdo Jeon Wonwoo. I went to middle school with them and they were the only people to notice or care that I never went out past 6. They’ve been tailing me for years, but honestly I don’t think they have a clue as to what I really am.” He chuckled a little. “I bet they think I’m a spy or something.”

They’re not alone, but I’m kind of glad Seokmin was wrong...not that this isn’t just as weird. “Probably,” Mingyu commented.

Wonwoo let out a deep sigh. “I just...wish I didn’t have to deal with this. Being someone who lived on normal hours would be nice. I’d get to move out, not that I don’t love my family but I’ll never be able to have roommates without telling them everything about me. I’d get to sleep in my bed at night for once. I’d get to see the stars from my window instead of some random street corner, if I’m even lucky to be somewhere with stars at that time. It’s all...just...acts of the universe, I guess.”

Mingyu listened to Wonwoo’s pain and tried his best to sympathize, but it was hard for two reasons. One, he was already bad at sympathizing. Two, how do you sympathize with something that you never knew was even possible? But still, he didn’t need to be a Jumper to understand that there were things that Wonwoo was missing out on and he wished he wasn’t.

Thinking through all the questions he had, Mingyu realized that Wonwoo answered pretty much all of them. Except for one. He looked up and furrowed his eyebrows at the boy. “Why are you telling me all of this?”

Wonwoo paused. He bit his bottom lip and stood up, stretching out his arms before walking the few steps to sit down next to Mingyu on the couch. His weight shifted the cushion, but Mingyu was still comfortable. He took a second to let out some air. Wonwoo tried to find the right words to explain what he’d been waiting to talk about.

“Umm,” he started nervously. Mingyu anxiously watched him. “There is...one way to stop jumping.”

Mingyu was confused. How does that answer my question?

“How does that answer my question?”

Wonwoo let out a quivering breath. He looked away as he spoke. “The only way...for a Jumper to stop jumping...is for them to find something significant enough in their life that the universe deems worthy of sticking around for.”

Mingyu froze. He was starting to understand, but he didn’t want to say anything, worried that just speaking would confirm what he was figuring out.

Wonwoo didn’t notice him. “I’ve never gone a day since I was seven without jumping. My parents told me they’d only stopped jumping three times in their lives. Once for two years when they first met. Again for a few days when they got married. And then when my mom was pregnant with me. They both stopped until I was born and then a year after. Then, they were back to jumping all over the place.”

He finally glanced over to see the petrified look on Mingyu’s face. Wonwoo wasn’t particularly surprised, but he was a little disappointed. He’d hoped that Mingyu would take it the same way he had taken the rest of the conversation. Obviously, he was wrong. “Mingyu, I know this sounds—”

“This sounds like bull,” Mingyu interrupted.

Now Wonwoo was shocked. He knew all of this was a lot, but he didn’t think the calm Mingyu would flip so quickly. “Mingyu, I’m not asking anything of you.”

Mingyu scoffed as his heart raced. “It sounds like you’re asking me to help you stop jumping.”

Wonwoo couldn’t deny it. That’s what he’d been thinking about for days now, if this special boy could be the solution to his greatest problem. But he didn’t want it to come off like the only reason he was interested in Mingyu was to “fool the universe.” He felt something for the boy, and he just wanted to give it a chance.

Unfortunately, Mingyu didn’t want that chance. Wonwoo was looking for someone to fall in love with, someone so significant that the universe would deem them worthy or whatever. That could only imply two things. One, that Wonwoo wanted to force some sort of relationship out of whatever it was they had. Or two, that Wonwoo was actually feeling something for him that could be called love. Either way, it disgusted him.

Just when I thought I made a friend. Mingyu didn’t say anything. He just looked freakishly upset.

Wonwoo didn’t know how to answer him. “I—,” he cut himself off. “I’m just telling you...what I’m thinking.”

Mingyu shook his head and looked away. “I cannot believe this.”

“Mingyu, I’m just telling you what’s been on my mind!” Wonwoo exclaimed, not realizing that his tone went up. His desperation was increasing as he saw Mingyu get more and more irritated. “Okay, things were going so well with us and I was starting to feel—”

“Oh my god, no,” Mingyu interrupted as he stood up. Without even looking at Wonwoo he headed for the door. “I want nothing to do with your feelings like that.”

Now it was Wonwoo’s turn to be hurt. “That was pretty harsh, don’t you think?”

Mingyu spun around after slipping into his shoes. “Harsh? You think that’s harsh? You just dumped your deepest secret on me and now you expect me to change what only the universe has control over! I don’t even know if I should believe any of that Jumper crap anymore!”

Wonwoo stood up and craned his neck out. “What?”

Mingyu rolled his eyes. “Maybe this whole thing was just your plan to get to me!”

“What?!” Wonwoo shouted, terribly confused. “You think I would make all of that up?!”

“I don’t know!” Mingyu hollered back. He wasn’t one to yell, but this was really annoying. The one thing he despised the most was what he had to deal with right now. They sounded like a fighting couple. That made him want to barf. “I barely know you! You could’ve made up everything for all I know!”

“Mingyu, I didn’t! Please, at least believe me there!” He glanced over at the stove and saw the time. 5:59 pm. He’d lost track of time again. “If you just wait, I’ll prove it to you!”

Mingyu looked over at the clock. His heart was pumping like crazy, mostly from anger. He didn’t know what to believe anymore, but he knew Wonwoo was right. All of his doubts could be settled in less than a minute. But Mingyu didn’t want to know. He shook his head and reached for the doorknob. “I want nothing to do with you.” In one swift movement, the door shut and he was gone.

Dazed, Wonwoo felt his heart sink. “Mingyu!” he called back, rushing for the door. But it was already too late.

6:00 pm.

— — —

Mingyu stormed into the apartment and slammed the front door behind him. No one was home. No cats were even out front. It was just him. He locked the door and headed for his bedroom. Flopping onto his bed, he buried his face in his pillow.

Why?! Why the did he have to say that stuff?! Sure, a Jumper. That I don’t care about. But this?! What is this, a ing love story?!

Mingyu was just so disgusted and so angry. If it wasn’t already clear that Mingyu hated couples, now it was. He. Hated. Relationships. Period. It was this manipulative, grand gesture whatever that really pissed him off.

After a few more minutes of cursing in his head, he settled a little. Rolling over on his back, he tried not to think of Wonwoo. He tried to forget about meeting him and having lunch with him and talking about cats with him and learning about him and trusting him. All of that was just part of Wonwoo’s greater scheme to use him, for his own selfish needs or for love. Whichever it was, he was still annoyed.

But once he failed to forget, Mingyu just sighed and closed his eyes. No one was there to hear, but he spoke aloud.

“Seokmin was right. Everyone has their own agenda.”

— — —

Wonwoo opened his eyes and found himself somewhere completely different. His apartment disappeared around him and he was standing beside a streetlamp. He looked up and found the night sky, but not one that belonged to Seoul. All of the emotions he was just feeling a second ago were still consuming him. He was not in the mood to figure out where on Earth he was. Thankfully, he recognized the area. He’d been there plenty of times.

LA.

Wonwoo knew exactly where to go.

After a few minutes of figuring out exactly where he was, Wonwoo found the directions to the place. He ran the full 15 minutes to Joshua’s apartment. Once he got there, he quickly entered the entrance code and got on the elevator to the fifth floor. In front of apartment 17, he took a second to catch his breath before he knocked. He didn’t need a clock to tell him it was 1:00 in the morning, but the person he was expecting would definitely open the door.

And he was right.

His eyes grew wide as a surprised smile crawled on his face. “Wonwoo!” Joshua’s roommate/cousin exclaimed.

Even with all of the pain he was feeling, Wonwoo smiled and spread out his arms. “Hey Vernon.”

“It’s Hansol to you,” Vernon laughed and embraced him. “I didn’t get a text from Josh saying you were here!” They were in America, but thankfully Vernon’s Korean was flawless.

“Yeah, I didn’t get a chance to tell him. I just ran here. Where is Joshua?”

“He’s in Taipei.” Rubbing his back, Vernon let him go as he lead him inside. Closing the door, he grimaced. “Eww, yeah your back’s all sweaty!”

Wonwoo didn’t even reply. He just walked to the living room and threw his limp body on the couch.

Vernon, who was in his boxers and a white t-shirt, stood over him, looking concerned. “Dude, are you okay?”

Wonwoo shook his head, covering his eyes with his arm. His mind was pounding with thoughts of Mingyu and what he just did and how he basically asked someone he barely knew to change the universe’s mind with him and...it was all a mess. I really ed up, he thought.

“I really ed up.”

Vernon didn’t need to hear more. Nodding, he understood. “We’ve all been there. Do you need anything?”

Wonwoo shook his head. “I’m just gonna nap, if that’s okay.”

“Yeah man. Do what you need to. If you wanna talk later, you know where to find me.”

Wonwoo heard Vernon walk back to his bedroom. There was a faint yawn, too. Wonwoo sighed and reached into his pocket. He groaned when he realized nothing was there. Craning his neck up, he called out, “Actually, Hansol!”

Vernon quickly came back into the room. “Yeah?” he eagerly asked.

“Do you have any headphones I can borrow?”

Smiling, Vernon disappeared for a few seconds before coming back with Beats headphones. He handed them to Wonwoo and said, “Those are really good. Josh got them for my birthday.”

Wonwoo grinned softly as he put them on. “Thanks.”

With a nod, Vernon went off to bed. Wonwoo hooked them up to his phone and went to his music library. He usually just shuffled everything to see what would come up. After he hit the button, he scoffed as he read what song randomly came up.

LET’S NOT FALL IN LOVE by BIGBANG.

Wonwoo didn’t skip. He just placed the phone on his chest and let the universe laugh in his face.

How appropriate.