“Can you do the laundry tonight?” Seokmin begged over the phone.

Mingyu was about to type something into the Youtube search bar, but forgot as he held the phone against his ear. Sushi, one of his cleaner feline friends that Seungcheol let inside, kept him company as he layed on his bed. He hadn’t left the apartment all day. “Why? It’s your turn.”

“I’m gonna be stuck at work for a while. Please, I’ll pay you back.”

Unlocking his elbow to fall onto his back, Mingyu stared at the ceiling. Sushi watched him. Mingyu sighed. “Okay, yeah. I’ll do it later.”

“Thanks so much, Mingyu!”

“You owe me one.”

“Of course! Okay, gotta go! My boss is coming back! Bye!”

The phone clicked before Mingyu could say bye back. Rolling his shoulders back, he tossed the phone aside and let out another deep sigh. He didn’t mind doing some extra chores, but it gave him too much time to think. Typically, that was okay with him. He thought a lot. But ever since three days ago, he couldn’t get one thing out of his mind, or one person.

Mingyu turned and found Sushi staring at him. His eyes were so blue compared to his pure white fur. Mingyu smiled and between his friend’s ears. “So where was I?”

Before the phone call, he was explaining his Wonwoo situation. This was his third time retelling what had happened. The first was to Boba and Berry the other night. The second was to another cat named Kiwi, but she didn’t like listening too much. This was the third, and Sushi was doing a really good job staying engaged.

Mingyu thought it over real quick. “Ah, right. So the two of us got along pretty well. I thought we had potential to be friends. And you know for me that’s saying something.” He placed his arm under his head as he spoke. “I usually don’t like making friends. But this guy seemed pretty cool, especially after how we met and everything.

“So we keep talking and everything’s great until about three days ago. We went to his house to eat lunch and everything was fine. We talked like normal people until he got really weird. Then he told me that he’s a Jumper.”

He looked over to make sure Sushi was still paying attention. He was. “See, I always knew there was something weird about him. I told Seungcheol and Seokmin, ya know. He was...mysterious. Like there were so many questions about him, and normally I wouldn’t care. But I did for whatever reason.

“So turns out he’s a Jumper.” Sushi blinked. “What’s a Jumper you ask? Well, I don’t know if I should even believe him with this stuff,” Mingyu asserted. Since he’d told this story already, it was easier for him to find his words. Boba and Berry got to see him stumble over how to explain this madness. Kiwi didn’t notice either way. “He claims that he ‘teleports’ from Seoul to a different city every night from 6pm to 6am.” Sushi blinked again. “I know, crazy right?”

Mingyu sat up and leaned against the wall by his bed. Sushi quickly readjusted as well, finding a comfortable spot by his leg. “He told me all of these rules with jumping and how you can’t let anyone find out about it. Apparently I’m the first person he’s told.”

Mingyu scoffed, remembering how ridiculous everything was. “So he really seems to...not like jumping. He says it’s getting hard and just not what he wants to do. I guess I can understand. Could you imagine being thrown around the world like that?

“Anyway, none of that bothers me. What bothers me is how, he claims, he can stop jumping.” Sushi was waiting anxiously to hear more. Mingyu smiled and moved him to his lap. It was weird how warm he could feel while talking about something he really disliked. Bringing his head down to his chest, he sighed. He remembered Wonwoo’s words exactly. “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.”

Sushi stared as Mingyu groaned. “I just hate this. Why? Why did he have to say something like that?”

Sushi had no answer for him. “Things were going so well and we were becoming friends or whatever and then...ugh.”

Sushi wiggled his nose. “He’s making it sound like he wants to go out with me, doesn’t it?”

Sushi lowered his head. Mingyu thought it over. “No, he never directly asked me out or anything, but it’s so clear based on what he said.”

Sushi yawned, exposing his sharp teeth and causing Mingyu to roll his eyes. “You think I should be flattered. No, you’re missing the point, Sushi. I. Hate. Relationships. I don’t want anything like that, and if that’s what Wonwoo’s looking for, then he can forget about me. I don’t want to be dragged anywhere near that.”

Before Sushi could suggest anything else, Mingyu felt his phone vibrate on the mattress. He reached down and saw that it was another text from Wonwoo. He flashed the screen at Sushi. “And he keeps texting me. Doesn’t that seem like he wants more?”

Sushi didn’t do anything. Mingyu scoffed and unlocked his phone. “Oh, forget you.”

He checked Wonwoo’s new text.

Wonwoo
Come on Mingyu please say something

Mingyu looked back at his friend, who was waiting for more details. “That’s the end of the story. I don’t want a relationship and he does. It’s done. I’m just so annoyed with this whole situation I can’t even think about how much fun it was to be around him. It you won’t get to meet him. I think you would’ve liked him…”

Mingyu caught himself as he trailed off. He didn’t even realize what he was talking about. Sushi just grinned at him. Mingyu ruffled his head. “Shut up.”

He went back to his phone and reread Wonwoo’s messages. Starting from two days ago, Wonwoo had been trying to get Mingyu to talk to him.

Wonwoo
Mingyu Im so sorry about everything
Please dont get freaked out
I know i was being crazy i promise im not that crazy
You probably wont believe that
I was in LA the other night
Can we talk?
Mingyu I thought we were friends
Ok that sounds really dramatic
But still we should talk
Please?

And then some more. Mingyu hadn’t said anything yet. Even though he told his story calmly, Mingyu was still really upset over everything. His shoulders tensed up when he thought about the boy. His heart would start racing. His hands got all clammy. It was awful.

And at the same time, he couldn’t kick that weird feeling he had. That weird feeling that he missed Wonwoo. He actually wanted to reply to one of those messages, but it would only lead to what he didn’t want. So he tried to distract himself from his feelings by talking to the cats. It usually worked, until Sushi started interrogating him.

All of a sudden, Mingyu remembered what he was going to search. “Oh!” he exclaimed, making Sushi jump. Mingyu pulled his laptop over and typed it in.

He pulled up Mansae by SEVENTEEN and clicked the first link. He pushed the laptop aside at the familiar beat. He looked down at Sushi. “He showed me this song.”

They listened for a while and Mingyu’s thoughts began to wander again. He started feeling all of the feelings that bothered the out of him. But just as the chorus came, he noticed Sushi and his smug face, as if he was reading his mind. Mingyu glared at him. “Shut up.”

— — —

“And he hasn’t responded to my texts since,” Wonwoo said as he the nameless cat’s head and locked his phone.

Wonwoo stared at the apartment’s front door. He’d been sitting there for about two hours now, just waiting for Mingyu to come home. He didn’t bother knocking since it sounded like no one was home. To kill some time, he was telling this grey guy all of his woes.

“Do you think I screwed up, Bacon?”

No response. I guess Mingyu was right. He doesn’t respond to anything. Wonwoo had been trying all sorts of different names.

“I just hope he talks to me again, Dragonfruit. If he doesn’t…” Wonwoo sighed and leaned his head back against the second story railing. “...I don’t know what I’d do.”

The cat purred and rubbed his head against Wonwoo’s jacket sleeve. He smiled. “Thanks, Diet Pepsi. I appreciate your support.”

Still, Wonwoo was pretty down. It had been three days since their falling out and it was starting to look like Joshua and Hansol were wrong. But Wonwoo didn’t want to give up all hope yet.

“So, Nonfat Yogurt, how would you react to all of this?”

The cat said nothing.

“I mean, if you were Mingyu, what would you want to hear right now?”

No response.

“Can I at least practice with you, Double Cheeseburger?”

Almost as if he was laughing at Wonwoo’s joke, he smiled. Wonwoo took that as a yes. Lifting him up, he held the cat up to his face, trying to picture Mingyu instead of this furball. They were both very cute anyway. Wonwoo took a deep breath and tried to think of what to say.

“Mingyu…” The cat stared at him. “I’m really sorry for basically saying I wanted to be in a really serious relationship with you.” He stopped to think. “Too much?”

The cat meowed. “Okay, yeah. Ummm…” Wonwoo tried again, regaining his composure. “Mingyu...IreallylikeyouandIthinkwecouldbereallygoodtogetherandIbettheunviersewouldagreeifyouwentonadatewithmebecauseI—”

The cat cut him off with another meow. “Okay, yeah that was even worse.”

Wonwoo lowered his arms and let his friend just sit between his legs. “I’m really bad at this, Vitamin D Milk.”

The cat just made himself comfortable. As Wonwoo thought of all the flaws in his plan for apologizing, his phone vibrated in his pocket. He shook in surprise and eagerly pulled it back out. MINGYU! He couldn’t help but jump to conclusions as he unlocked it. Which wasn’t a good idea since he was just utterly disappointed to find out who it really was.

Wonwoo closed his eyes and sighed. Opening them, he read the name again.

Jeonghan.

“Damn it Jeonghan,” he muttered.

After his initial reaction, Wonwoo realized this was the first time he’d heard from his friend in a few weeks. The cat looked at him curiously. “Jeonghan’s an old friend. We used to be neighbors until he moved for university.”

The cat nodded and went back to cleaning himself. Wonwoo shifted his attention to the text.

Jeonghan
Hey Wonwoo! I’m coming to your school for a meet this weekend
Are you busy? Can you hang out right now?

Wonwoo looked back up at Mingyu’s front door. He scanned around. No one was coming. He checked the time. 3:00. It was still safe to go somewhere.

Finally accepting defeat for today, Wonwoo hung his head and sighed. Then he replied.

Wonwoo
Hey man
Yeah I can hang out where do you want to meet?

It didn’t take him long to text back.

Jeonghan
Cool! Idk what’s a good place to eat? Im pretty hungry

Wonwoo tried to think of a place.

Wonwoo
Do you know where Mansae is?

— — —

Wonwoo walked into the familiar restaurant and looked all around as the workers gave their usual cheer.

“MANSAE!”

He smiled when he finally found the boy with his iconically long hair. “Jeonghan!” he called out.

Jeonghan’s head shot up from his phone. A huge smile jumped onto his face as he got up from his chair. “Hey!”

Wonwoo went over and immediately hugged him. “Hey man.”

Jeonghan smiled and patted him on the back. The two of them took their seats as he said, “Ah, I’m so glad I could catch you. Sorry it’s such short notice.”

“No, you should always let me know when you’re in town,” Wonwoo insisted. He smiled and pointed at his friend’s head. “I see the hair’s still nice and long.”

“I told you,” Jeonghan laughed as he picked up his menu. “I’m not getting rid of this.”

“I thought swimmers were supposed to be more aerodynamic,” he teased.

“Hasn’t slowed me down yet.”

Wonwoo laughed. He and Jeonghan went way back. Jeonghan lived in the apartment next to his and the two grew up together. Obviously, Jeonghan knew nothing about Wonwoo’s situation, but because of his swimming life, nothing ever seemed suspicious to him. He always had practice for a few hours after 6, so he never asked Wonwoo to hang out during that time. Jeonghan was a fantastic swimmer, and that got him a lot of offers from different schools when it was time for him to go to university. Unfortunately, that took him away from Wonwoo. The two naturally grew apart, but Jeonghan always tried to see his childhood friend when he came to Seoul.

After they placed their orders, Jeonghan took a sip of his water. Holding the cup by his face, he asked, “So what’ve you been up to these days?”

Wonwoo wasn’t sure how to answer. He didn’t really want to talk about Mingyu more, but then that meant he’d been up to nothing. “Oh you know. School’s been a real pain.”

“Come on,” Jeonghan pushed, knowing his friend was holding something back. “Something other than school. You always have great stories to tell me.”

That was true. Wonwoo never told Jeonghan about being a Jumper, but once he moved, Wonwoo admitted to traveling a lot. He would tell Jeonghan all types of adventure stories from his jumps and it always brought a smile to his face.

Wonwoo chuckled and swirled his straw around. “A few weeks ago, I was in Tokyo again.” Obviously he had to lie about how recent it was.

“Agh, see! I’ve always been jealous of all the places you go.”

You shouldn’t be. But still Wonwoo went on. “I was there with my friend Chan and yeah we just got to explore the city again. Tokyo’s pretty damn cool.”

“Ya know, you should invite me one day if you’re going with friends,” Jeonghan joked.

Wonwoo sighed on the inside. He would love that. “I don’t know man. We’re not really that close,” he teased.

“Wowwwwww,” Jeonghan sarcastically replied, drawing up this voice to emphasize his displeasure. “Okay, okay. I see how it is.”

Wonwoo laughed and went on. “We went to this weird cat cafe thing and I swear to god the place was run by a witch.”

“What?” he chuckled.

“The whole thing was sketchy. She watched the whole shop from behind the counter and she had this huge mole on her head…”

For the rest of the afternoon, the two of them chatted and enjoyed each other’s company. Wonwoo felt lucky to have such good friends around lately with what was going on with Mingyu. He was usually all alone, and Soonyoung and Jihoon could confirm that.

“And I still don’t know what you’re talking about,” Wonwoo said after they finished up their lunch. “You travel all the time for swim.”

“Ehh, but that’s just to different cities and different schools,” Jeonghan pointed out. “I want to really travel with you someday.” There was a pause as Jeonghan’s face lit up when he realized something. “Oh! There might be a chance that I go to LA in a few weeks if I win at Nationals.”

“You’re gonna win at Nationals.”

Jeonghan smiled. “IF I win at Nationals, I’d fly out to LA for a while. Do you think there’s any chance you could go with me?”

Wonwoo could see the excitement just radiating from Jeonghan. He didn’t want to take that away, but he had no other choice. Slowly shaking his head, he sighed, “I don’t think so.”

“Awww, why?!” Jeonghan complained, clearly displeased with that answer. He shook Wonwoo’s arm and continued to whine. “It’s not for a while! You have time to plan out stuff! Plus, you’re always raving about LA! It’d be so awesome to go together.”

Feeling bad about his lack of an excuse, Wonwoo tried to make one up. “I know, I know. It’d be really great and everything but I don’t think now’s the best time. I told you, I just went to Japan and I have a lot of homework to catch up on. It’s all just a mess…”

Seeing Wonwoo’s resistance, Jeonghan decided to back off. “Fine, fine. I’ll give you time to think about it.”

“Jeonghan, I don’t think—”

“I know you’re horribly busy, yes,” Jeonghan interjected. “Just think it over before you totally reject me okay?”

Wonwoo watched his friend take out some cash to pay for the meal. He knew there wasn’t a choice when it came to stuff like this, but even so…

“You’re right. I’ll think about it,” Wonwoo finally said.

Jeonghan looked up and flashed a huge grin. Reaching over, he playfully shook Wonwoo by the shoulder. “Good! It’ll be so awesome!”

“I haven’t said—”

“Doesn’t matter! You’ll think about it!” Jeonghan cheered.

Chuckling, Wonwoo forgot about everything else for a second and was taken back to all of the times he spent hanging out with Jeonghan. The idea of going to LA with him was too good to be true. “I’ll think about it.”

— — —

“Come on,” Mingyu said to Sushi as he held the front door open. Ticking his head towards the outside, he said, “Might as well do the laundry now.”

Sushi smiled and followed him out the door. Mingyu locked the apartment and checked the time. 3:05. Usually he’d wait until night to wash the clothes, but he and Sushi weren’t getting anywhere with their conversation. He needed something else to do.

When they stepped out, there was no one there, not even their usual grey friend.

Huh. I wonder where he is.

Mingyu and Sushi headed down to the laundry room and got started on the load. Well, Mingyu did all the work. Sushi just sat under the bench and kept him company.

“Jesus, Seokmin’s stuff smells bad,” Mingyu complained, pinching his nose as he shut the machine. “He really owes me.”

“Meow.”

With a sigh, Mingyu plopped himself down after getting the machines started. All he could do now was wait. And that obviously meant…

Wonwoo.

He sighed again and turned around to lie flat on the bench. He dropped his hand and felt Sushi his fingers. “This is so stupid.”

Before Sushi could add anything, Mingyu felt his phone vibrate twice underneath him. Squeezing his hand into his jeans, he saw what he wasn’t expecting.

Text message from Seungcheol.

Mingyu squinted before opening it up.

Seungcheol
Dude can you do the laundry in my room too? I forgot to put it in the hamper
Please?

“I’m like their maid,” he complained.

Instead of replying, Mingyu decided he’d do Seungcheol’s load later. He put the phone on the ground and went back to his thoughts. If someone walked into the laundry room at that moment, they’d see Mingyu slowly falling asleep, accompanied only by a little, white cat and the sound of the washing machines. He looked content, but he most certainly was not.

After who-knows-how-long, Mingyu woke to the sound of his phone buzzing against the tile floor. Still out of it, he rubbed his eyes and tried to figure out where the hell he was. When he finally recognized the laundry room, he reached down to answer his phone. He noticed that Sushi was no longer there, making his chest sink a bit. He didn’t bother to check who it was. He just picked up.

“Hello?” he grumbled.

“Dude, I texted you. You never answered.”

Mingyu groaned and let his cheek smoosh against the bench. He recognized that voice. “Hyung, I’m not your maid.”

“I know,” Seungcheol replied. “I’m gonna be out late too, though. Come on. I’d really owe you.”

“You all owe me.”

“Come on, Mingyu! I’m seriously running out of clothes.”

Mingyu yawned and rolled onto his back. Staring at the dimly lit ceiling, he submitted. “Fine. I’ll do it soon.”

“Thanks!” Seungcheol exclaimed from the other end, making Mingyu move the phone away from his ear. “Do you want anything? I’ll bring you home some food if you want.”

“No thanks. I’ll go out later or something.”

“Okay. Thanks again!”

“Sure hyung.”

“I’ll see you at home.”

“Bye.”

And then there was a click and Seungcheol was gone. Mingyu checked the time. 5:24. He’d been out for a while. Woah. What the , how’d that even happen?

Taking a few seconds to gather himself, Mingyu noticed the washing machine was no longer on. He must’ve slept through its signal. Wiping the corners of his mouth, he continued to stare at his phone screen. He saw a few text notifications. This time around it was who he expected.

Wonwoo
I hope im not bothering you
Please give me a chance to at least talk to you
I hope youre doing well

“I hope you’re doing well,” he says. God he is dramatic.

Still, Mingyu wished he was doing well. If he was doing well, that meant he didn’t care about Wonwoo like he wanted. But that clearly wasn’t true.

Where the hell’s Sushi when I need him.

He needed to talk to someone, but Sushi was nowhere to be found. For the next 60 seconds, Mingyu just kept rereading that last message.

“I hope you’re doing well.”

Finally, he gave in.

“ it.”

With a few swift movements, Mingyu did something so out of character he wanted to punch himself. Without a second thought, he pressed “call” and pushed the phone to his ear.

Ring.

His eyes squeezed shut. His arms tensed up.

I’m so stupid.

Ring.

His heart was pounding.

What the is wrong with me?

Ring.

He bit his lip. He started lifting the phone away.

What am I—

Click.

“Hello?”

Mingyu’s entire body relaxed. For whatever reason, just the sound of Wonwoo’s voice did that to him. He didn’t say anything.

“Hello? Mingyu?” Wonwoo frantically asked from the other side.

Smacking his palm to his forehead, Mingyu braced himself. “Hi.”

There was a clear sigh of relief from the other boy. “Mingyu, I am so—”

“How was LA?”

There was a pause as Wonwoo tried to figure out what was going on. His confusion was evident. “What?”

Mingyu couldn’t breathe. He didn’t want to talk about what happened before. If they talked about it, they’d be addressing the whole issue again. If they did that, the disgusting idea of being a couple would burn through his mind. He did not want that.

“How was LA?” he asked again. Trying to keep his voice calm, he seemed to be doing a good job.

Standing in the middle of his bedroom, Wonwoo was utterly confused. He was just about to take a nap before his phone rang. Never in a million years would he have expected to hear from Mingyu. But now that he was, it was even weirder. Still, he decided to go along with it. He was afraid the boy would hang up.

“Uh, LA was good!” Wonwoo answered with panic. Rubbing the back of his neck, he tried to think of what else to say. “Uh, yeah. I met up with some friends and just got to catch up with them.” There was another pause. “Are you doing well?” he finally asked.

Mingyu twitched. “Yeah. I’m fine.”

Wonwoo finally caught on from the tone in Mingyu’s voice. He didn’t want to talk about that stuff. Slowly sitting down on his bed, Wonwoo wanted to keep the conversation going. He tried to talk like they did before everything. “Cool. What’ve you been up to?”

“Not much. I’ve been hanging out with some friends too.”

Wonwoo couldn’t help but smile. “Do those friends have tails?”

Mingyu felt his face heat up. “Maybe.”

And just like that, they fell into their easy conversation. It was the weirdest thing for both of them. At the same time, Mingyu was incredibly grateful that it wasn’t awkward. Wonwoo was just happy that Mingyu was even talking to him. With their individual motives, they kept talking. It was like nothing had changed. It was like three days hadn’t gone by with them both aching when thinking of the other. It was like it had never happened.

But one thing did remain from that blowout.

“So these jumps,” Mingyu started, now grinning at the space above him. “I’m still curious.”

“What else do you want to know?” Wonwoo asked, now smiling at his own ceiling.

“I don’t know…” he started. Fishing through his questions, Mingyu picked one. “No matter what, you jump.”

“Yes. No matter what.”

“No matter where?”

Wonwoo chuckled. “No matter where.”

“But what if you’re somewhere ridiculous. Like what if you’re in a submarine?”

“Why would I be in a submarine?”

“Just say you are.”

Wonwoo bit his lip and rolled his eyes. Cute, he thought. “Then you leave the submarine and end up somewhere else. Then after twelve hours, you end up back home.”

Mingyu let that process before asking, “Okay fine. What about where you jump TO? Is it always safe?”

“Usually the universe is pretty nice about where they land you.”

With a scoff, Mingyu pulled back his hair, unable to believe that much. “Oh come on. So you’d never jump to somewhere like…”

“Like a submarine?” Wonwoo teased.

“Like a submarine,” Mingyu laughed. “You’d never end up there?”

Even though the other couldn’t see, Wonwoo shook his head. “Nope. Always in a city.”

“So you can’t even end up in the suburbs?”

“You physically can’t,” Wonwoo said through a laugh. “It’s not possible.”

“That’s insane,” he argued. “What if the Jumper kid is born in the suburbs?”

“My parents told me the universe won’t let that happen. The baby won’t be born until it’s in a city,” Wonwoo explained.

“Wow. That’s ridiculous.”

“Those are the rules! If you have something to say about it, take it up with the universe,” Wonwoo chuckled.

Mingyu reached up and scratched his head. “Yeah, I got some things to say to the universe.”

There was another pause. Mingyu realized what Wonwoo would be thinking after he said that. He refused to be the first to speak, but he was somehow okay with whatever Wonwoo might bring up. It was just nice to talk again. He was ready.

Wonwoo swallowed hard before fully collecting his thoughts. This was his chance to apologize properly. This was his chance to ask Mingyu why he reacted so strongly. This was his chance to see if there was a chance.

Wonwoo closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

“Mingyu.”

He waited. When there was nothing, he replied, “Yeah?”

“I’m really—”

Click.

Mingyu immediately looked at his phone screen and saw that the call was ended. Panicked, he didn’t know what happened and was about to call back. Then he saw the time.

6:00pm.

— — —

“—sorry,” Wonwoo said into an empty line. He felt a cool breeze and knew he wasn’t in his bed anymore. His eyes shot open and he sat up. Scanning his surroundings, he found himself under a large tree in a grassy field. It looked like a park. Where was that park? That he still needed to figure out.

Wonwoo looked down and saw that the call had ended. He let out a deep sigh and felt his insides crumble. He’d lost track of time.

Slowly, Wonwoo picked himself up. Hanging onto a branch, he looked around again. It seemed to be early morning. There was no one around, but there was a clear cityscape in front of him. He didn’t recognize it right away, but he would. At the moment, he was too preoccupied.

Wonwoo was tempted to call Mingyu right back and finish what he was trying to say, but the moment was gone. He was worried about scaring him off again. He didn’t want to destroy what was so beautifully rebuilt.

Maybe it’s a sign, he thought. Maybe we’re not supposed to talk about it anymore. Maybe we’re supposed to be just friends.

As believable as it sounded, Wonwoo didn’t want to face those facts. Still, he didn’t call Mingyu back. When the time was right, they would speak again.

As Wonwoo walked off, his mind was clouded with Mingyu. A huge smile crawled onto his face as he recalled everything the boy said. His voice was so nice to hear. It was all so nice to hear. And for now, that was enough for him. The universe could have thrown him anywhere and it didn’t matter. He was just happy to get that call.