pairing: BaekChen
length: 3980 words

Jongdae unconsciously stuck his tongue out of his mouth as he scrunched his nose and stared at the blank page in front of him. It had been months since he last designed an original character; most of his commissioned work was based on landscapes and still life recreations. He was a master at replicating anything and everything, down to the tiniest detail.

But despite this talent, Jongdae thoroughly enjoyed creating his own characters and bringing them to life by giving them back-stories, relationships, motives, etc. If he ever grew his personal brand enough to be noticed by a major production studio, he’d immediately jump at the chance to write and develop scripts that could later be transformed into full-length films or television shows. That would be the dream.

However, he also needed to put food on the table and keep a roof over his head, which meant earning money through drawing commissions for others. Jongdae didn’t hate it, but he would much rather work on his own ideas instead of mindlessly duplicating images and scenery. Not everyone could own the original Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh, but with Jongdae’s artistic talent, they would be able to own a perfect copy that could only be discovered as a fake through extremely advanced software. Not even art experts could discern the virtually nonexistent differences without the aid of sophisticated technology. Jongdae’s cousin, Junmyeon, had tested that theory by bringing several of the artist’s duplicates to esteemed museum curator, Choi Minho. Needless to say, Junmyeon had almost gotten fired by Minho that afternoon.

After working on commissioned artwork non-stop for more than half a year, Jongdae had finally closed requests for two weeks in order to rest and recharge. He had enough money saved up to spare a short break while ensuring that he could afford groceries during that time and also pay rent on time. The artist felt like he could finally breathe and he had celebrated his brief window of freedom by purchasing a new black ink pen that he could use to outline his pencil sketches.

Deciding that forcing out a design would be no good, Jongdae began writing down random thoughts in order to build the character. If he—the artist had already decided that the character would be male—had a story, perhaps it would be easier to visualize what he would look like.

He would be in his late twenties, perhaps twenty-eight. That was Jongdae’s age as well. Not too young to be treated like a child, but not too old to be worrying about families and marriage.

He would be a young actor, the male lead of a successful fantasy film that had broken box office records with its first-week sales. Jongdae lightly tapped his chin with his pencil as he wondered what kind of fantasy film would do so well. It would have to be an action film as well, to attract a larger audience, but the artist didn’t want to venture into the superhero genre. Perhaps high fantasy, like Lord of the Rings, but with an apocalyptic premise that dealt with modernizing traditional values and customs in order survive a dangerous new age.

The artist debated for a moment whether he wanted his character to have a love interest before ultimately deciding that it wasn’t necessary. After all, he was a rising star who most likely didn’t have time for romantic relationships. He would be too in love with his career to consider dating at the moment, although he did have a handful of established friendships, both within and outside of the entertainment industry.

With his sociable personality, he would be able to easily capture the hearts of others. There would be a dash of flirtatious charm to liven him up, making him a bit of a heartbreaker since those who confessed to him would be turned down—kindly, though, which would make the actor all the more dashing. He would be a philanthropist as well, donating his money and time to various charitable organizations. Kids would see him as a role model, an idol of sorts, and parents would gush over how they wished he were their son.

It would be too easy to give him a tragic back-story, but Jongdae didn’t want to fall into the trap of being too cliché. Not every main character went through the darkest trials to emerge victorious at the end. Some people rose to the top through a combination of hard work, good ethics, and a bit of luck. In his character’s case, he would have been given the opportunity to fill in for a small supporting role for a popular television drama that his college roommate had been a production intern for at the time. That was his “foot-in-the-door” moment that eventually led to his breakout lead role, several years later.

Now that he had the structure of the character properly fleshed out, Jongdae allowed his hand to mindlessly guide his pencil across the white paper. It was easiest for him to start with the head and then build downwards. A small head with a pointed chin, but soft and high cheekbones. A straight nose that was rounded at the tip, above a pair of thin lips that were slightly curved into a saucy smile. A pair of almond-shaped eyes with double eyelids and a striking, strong gaze. Relatively large ears with a single, simple piercing on each earlobe. Feathery, dark hair that was parted to the right and looked soft enough to .

Friendly yet charismatic.

Jongdae then started designing his outfit. As a high-profile and fashionable actor, the character needed to look sharp. A white suit over a navy blue dress shirt and sparkly silver bowtie. Matching silver sequins sewn onto the shoulders in a crescent moon pattern. Sleek black leather Oxford dress shoes. With his handsome and youthful face, it looked trendy yet simple at the same time.

He’d fix up the somewhat sloppy pencil lines and add finer details when he went over the drawing in ink.

Now, Jongdae needed to give him a name.

It took him several minutes to think of one, since his artistic creativity didn’t extend to naming people, but the white suit prompted a decent idea that he liked. Wielding his new ink pen, Jongdae carefully wrote the name in clean calligraphy at the top right corner of the page. He blew on the characters so that they’d dry faster and then began inking the pencil sketch.

--

He stretched his back, feeling it crack in several places from bending over for too long, and sleepily rubbed his eyes. It was almost midnight, but Jongdae had managed to finish the character design before the day was officially over. He surveyed his work, smiling with satisfaction at what he had accomplished today, before capping his pen and placing it next to the open sketchbook.

Standing up with a loud yawn, Jongdae lethargically padded to the bathroom to brush his teeth and wash his face. Once he finished washing up, the artist turned off the room lamp, plunging the bedroom into darkness. As his eyes closed and his mind began blanking out, Jongdae mildly thought to himself that it was a good thing he was already wearing his pajamas. He was too exhausted to even consider moving around to change his clothes.

--

The alarm rang at exactly nine o’clock, so Jongdae drowsily rolled out of bed and headed to the bathroom to brush his teeth. He then took a quick shower to wake himself up, quickly toweling his body dry afterwards and slipping on a large white bathrobe. The hot steam from the shower and the fluffiness of the robe made him drowsy again, and the artist stumbled out of his bedroom in a state of stupor.

In fact, he was so out of it that, on his way to the kitchen, he didn’t realize the television screen was on until a male voice said, “Hello!” from the couch in the living room.

The artist’s half-open eyes alighted on a black-haired man who waved at him cheerily.

Jongdae’s immediate response was to scream as if he were being murdered.

The other male began to panic as he jumped from his seat and stepped towards Jongdae, wildly waving his hands in an effort to calm down the hysterical male. “Please stop screaming! Everything is okay!”

“Get out of my apartment!” Jongdae shrieked as he grabbed the first object within reach—an unopened water bottle—and threw it at the stranger. “Get out!”

The other male quickly ducked to avoid getting smacked in the face by the heavy bottle before popping back up to shout, “Wait, it’s me! Byun Baekhyun! The star of Blue Dawn!”

It took a moment for the names to register in Jongdae’s mind, but when they did, he paled instantly. The artist stumbled backwards until he hit a wall and then his limbs seemed to lose all strength as he slid down, fearfully looking up at the stranger. “N-no, this isn’t r-real,” he stammered, almost maniacally. “Y-you’re just a d-drawing I m-made. You c-can’t be a real p-person.”

“But I am,” Baekhyun replied gently, his steps slow and measured as he moved closer to the frightened artist. “Look, I’m just as surprised as you are, but I think I know how this happened. Just please let me explain without you trying to knock me out or make me go deaf, okay?”

Jongdae opened his mouth, but no sound came out so he ended up looking like a fish out of water—he definitely felt like one at the moment—before shutting it several seconds after and stiffly nodding his head. “Y-you promise n-not to hurt m-me?” he barely whispered when Baekhyun offered him a hand.

The other male sent him a kind smile. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

--

Both Jongdae and Baekhyun were currently seated at the artist’s square dining table, opposite of each other. Jongdae was chugging down a mug full of piping hot coffee while Baekhyun primly sat in his white suit with a cup of citron tea placed in front of him. Jongdae had also changed out of his bathrobe and into a T-shirt and jeans, after the other male had quietly pointed out his unorthodox outfit, causing the artist’s face to flame up from mortification.

Once Jongdae slammed down his empty mug and roughly wiped away any coffee stains on his mouth, he stared straight into Baekhyun’s eyes for several seconds. “Explain,” he ordered, his face stoic as he leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest.

The actor bashfully scratched the back of his head as he began, “Well, like I said, my name is Byun Baekhyun. I know you know that already, since you sort of picked it out, but I thought it would be polite to properly introduce myself anyway. I’m the lead actor of Blue Dawn, a fantasy and action film that discusses the divide between tradition and progress while society deals with the apocalypse. I’ve been nominated for several awards this year and I’ve already been cast for another film that—”

“No, not you,” Jongdae unapologetically cut in. “I made you. I already know all of that. I meant this.” He gestured to Baekhyun’s body. “Explain how you’re real and in my house, and why I shouldn’t just call the police and have you thrown out for trespassing.”

Baekhyun winced at the callous tone the artist was using, but still did his best to project a friendly aura so that the tension in the room would dissipate. “Well, the simplest answer is that you actually didn’t create me since I’m from another dimension. One that’s very similar to this one, but has a bit more magic infused in it.”

“Magic?” Jongdae raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

The actor nodded. “Your idea of magic actually originates from our dimension. In fact, all of your fictional characters exist in our dimension. You know Harry Potter, right? Brown-haired kid with round glasses and a lightning bolt scar on his forehead?”

“Yeah, almost everyone has either read or watched the Harry Potter series. J.K Rowling is a legend for creating the Harry Potter universe.”

“Not quite,” Baekhyun contradicted with an awkward smile. “She didn’t create him, or any of his friends or family.”

“Huh?”

“Harry is a practicing wizard who defeated Lord Voldemort as a seventeen-year-old. He currently lives with his wife and children, and works as an Auror for the Ministry of Magic.”

“Yeah, I know that already—”

“And he’s also my neighbor.”

“What?!” Jongdae squawked, staring incredulously at the actor who was nervously tapping the sides of the teacup.

“Harry and I have been neighbors for several years now. I actually live near a lot of people who are pretty famous in your world,” Baekhyun admitted with a lopsided grin. “Does Ash Ketchum ring a bell?”

“The main character from Pokémon? The ten-year-old kid who never ages?”

Baekhyun nodded vigorously. “He and his legion of Pokémon are also from my dimension. They live much farther from the rest of us, just because of the sheer number of Pokémon that exist.” He chuckled a bit as he added, “I don’t envy how Satoshi Tajiri and Ken Sugimori have to keep up with all of them. It must be a handful.”

“Wait,” Jongdae’s eyes narrowed suspiciously, “how do you know that they also exist in my world or who they’re created by?”

The actor pointedly averted his gaze while answering, “It’s common knowledge in my dimension. We’re all bonded to someone from your world and after our ‘creator’ is born, we receive notice and start preparing ourselves to connect with them once they’re old enough to bring us into existence.” After a short pause, Baekhyun quickly added while looking back up at the artist, “Figuratively, though. We’re just supposed to live our lives and then appear in your dreams or thoughts every once in a while to give you a nudge on how to tell our tales.” 

“Then what happened here?” Jongdae gestured towards the other male again. “Clearly you broke some rules that you shouldn’t have.”

Baekhyun’s expression turned pinched as he replied, “It wasn’t that I broke the rules; I was forced to come here.” His eyes quickly glanced around the small apartment before returning to Jongdae’s face. “You wouldn’t have happened to have drawn me with an ink pen, would you?”

“Of course I did,” the artist answered, rolling his eyes. “What else would I have used to ink my sketch?”

“May I see this pen, please?”

Jongdae didn’t know what was so special about a regular black ink pen, but he obliged and disappeared into his bedroom to grab it. Seconds later, he returned and tossed it to Baekhyun, who easily caught it.

The actor inhaled sharply when he found a familiar silver insignia engraved at the end of the pen.

“What is it?” Jongdae asked curiously.

Baekhyun then sighed as he pushed the pen back to the artist before asking, “Where did you get this?”

“I bought it yesterday at the store I usually get my art supplies from. Why?”

“This,” the actor pointed to the ink pen that lay innocently on the table, “belongs to my best friend who left my dimension years ago to live in your world.”

Jongdae looked at him in confusion. “But I thought that wasn’t allowed. And what does this pen have to do with your friend?”

“My best friend grew bored of waiting and waiting for his ‘creator’ to be born,” Baekhyun began explaining. His hands were now clenched tightly into fists and resting on his knees. “He knew he was destined for greatness, but that also meant he wanted his story to be told as soon as possible, so he could enjoy reveling in the success while he was still young. There’s a Wishing Well in our dimension that will gift you a unique object—only once, though—to help grant your biggest dream. He received that pen.” The actor pointed again at the ink pen. “He used it to draw a portal into your world and then began his new life as a superstar.”

“He honestly sounds pretty selfish to me,” the artist observed disdainfully.

Baekhyun smiled tiredly at the other male while shaking his head. “I promise he isn’t that bad. He’s just…impatient and a bit reckless. But his recklessness led him to the life that he lives right now and he’s happy, so I can’t blame him for leaving.” His gaze then hardened as he continued, “But I can blame him for losing the pen. He knows not to be irresponsible when it comes to guarding our magic from your world. If you hadn’t gotten it first, who knows where it could’ve ended up?”

Jongdae shrugged. It wasn’t like the ink pen being in his possession was any better, since he had still managed to accidentally bring Baekhyun to life in his world. “By the way, who is your best friend? He must be some big-shot celebrity, especially since you’re a famous actor back at home.”

“Zhang Yixing. But you’d know him better as—”

“Lay?!” Jongdae’s jaw dropped when Baekhyun nodded in confirmation. “He’s only the biggest celebrity in all of Asia! He’s the most sought-after Chinese actor we’ve had since Jackie Chan hit it big with the Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow, all of his music albums hit the top of the charts and stay there for months until his next release, and he’s on almost every advertisement that’s plastered around the continent. Oh my god…” The artist’s mind was spinning from the revelation. He had seen several of Lay’s interviews, sometimes to draw inspiration for character designs, and the man was a piece of work. A bit haughty, but very satisfied with life and eager to show what he could offer. Jongdae had always imagined that the indicator of him officially reaching his dream was if he ever had the chance to cast Lay in a film that he wrote.

“Yeah, I suppose it’s a bit of a shock. He’s done really well in adapting to your world, though, and the rare moments he gets to visit, he’ll update me on whatever new work he’s done,” Baekhyun smiled proudly, as if Lay’s accomplishments were his own. “It helps keep me motivated to reach the top as well.”

Jongdae could respect that as someone who was hustling to make it in the entertainment industry as well, albeit in a different way. But that still didn’t solve the problem of this fictional-yet-not actor sitting at his dining table, uninvited. “So how do we get you back to your dimension?”

“The only way for me to return home is if you rip up the page I was drawn on. It breaks the ink’s hold on me. But please don’t rip me up yet,” Baekhyun begged when he saw Jongdae start towards his bedroom. “At least not until I get a chance to talk to Lay. I need to find out how he got separated from the ink pen and either give it back to him or take it back home with me. Magic like this can’t exist in your world if he won’t be responsible for it. Otherwise, it’ll throw everything out of balance.”

“Wait, didn’t you say Lay drew a portal to come here?” the artist pointed out. “Then can’t we just draw a portal to send you back?”

Baekhyun shook his head, a regretful expression painting his face. “The pen will not draw was does not already exist or draw duplicates. Lay has the portal page with him and he uses concealment magic to hide it away most of the time.” The actor then smiled wryly as he added, “I’m sorry that you’ve been pulled into this mess. If you’d like, I can arrange a memory wipe for you after I find Lay.”

The artist was silent for several minutes as he thought about the proposal. It was still…surreal to him that Byun Baekhyun was actually real. That the reason he existed—aside from the magic ink pen—was because they had some strange, inter-dimensional connection with each other. Jongdae wondered if he also happened to be the “creator” of anyone else from that dimension. The more he thought about it, the less sure he was about wanting to be responsible for anyone other than Baekhyun. Especially since being the actor’s creator was already a huge headache less than twenty-four hours into the job.

Baekhyun was still waiting for a response, so Jongdae finally asked, “Will it be a danger to either of our dimensions if I know all of this?”

There was a slight pause before the actor replied, “I don’t think it will, but I’m not sure, to be honest. Lay has managed to live well for all these years, but that’s because he actually knew what he was getting himself into and he has magic to protect himself if anything goes wrong. But I do remember him being given the option to wipe his memory from the High Court—that’s our government, by the way—in case he wanted to permanently stay here with no strings attached.”

“Oh, okay. Will they force me to forget, since I’m not from your dimension?”

“The High Court does not impose their will on others, so it will most likely be up to you.” the actor reassured Jongdae. Baekhyun then quietly asked, “Do you want to forget?”

“I…I don’t know…”

Baekhyun smiled sadly, feeling a twinge of pain in his chest. “You don’t need to decide now. Our top priority is finding Lay and I’ll need your help to do that.”

“Okay, but just so you know, I’m only a regular person,” Jongdae reminded the other male. “Lay is literally the biggest star in Asia and I know next to nothing about the entertainment industry, much less how to get to him.”

“That’s totally fine! As long as you introduce me to someone with a bit of pull—doesn’t have to be in entertainment—I can eventually get to Lay.” Baekhyun winked as he straightened his white suit jacket, feeling much more confident now that they had a game plan. “I can be a dazzling fellow when the occasion calls for me to be.”

The artist didn’t doubt that and he found the edges of his lips tugging into a half-smile as he said while standing up, “Okay, I’ll make a few phone calls today. For now, you can live here. I don’t have a guest room, but I do have a fold-out bed that I can put in my bedroom for you to use while you’re here.”

Baekhyun also jumped up and began following Jongdae out of the dining area. “Great! Thank you so much! I can set it up as well while you do whatever you planned on doing today.” He sent the artist a sheepish smile as he rubbed the back of his neck. “I know my sudden appearance probably messed up your plans and I’m really sorry about everything that happened. I won’t impose for long.”

“It’s fine. It’s not your fault.”

The fold-out bed took a while to find, since Jongdae didn’t usually have guests stay in his small apartment, but it was soon uncovered from the depths of his storage unit where most of his extra art supplies and other miscellaneous items were stashed. They both dragged it to the bedroom and Baekhyun began to assemble it while Jongdae stepped into the living room with his cell phone. He dialed the first person he could think of and started to tap his foot restlessly as the ringing tone continued past three rings.

After the sixth ring, a voice greeted him. “What’s up, Jongdae?”

“Junmyeon, I need you to do me a favor.”

♈♈♈