Chapter 2

WOOHYUN

The first thing he does once he finishes eating is research. Woohyun finds the nearest Internet café and pays for an hour at the computer. He would have preferred more time for research, but there isn’t much cash left in his wallet, though Woohyun supposes he should be glad that he even has money (if he had showered before he slept, he’ll be in boxers only and that would have been a horrible way to travel across parallel universes…). Once the computer boots up, he quickly settles in and types up what he can think of to search.

Parallel universe. How to get back to my original universe. Dimension travelling.

When he runs out of search terms and is no closer to figuring out how to get back home, Woohyun pinches the bridge of his nose. His hour is almost up, and he’s considering if he can spare paying for another hour of Internet. He doesn’t know how long he might be stuck here for, and it’ll be wise to budget his cash, especially since his credit card hadn’t worked earlier when he tried it. To be honest though, after the phone numbers incident, Woohyun hadn’t been holding on to much hope of his cards working, but he had to try. Slumping in his seat, Woohyun is weighing the cost and benefits of doing more (potentially useless) research, or just going somewhere else and try to figure things out, when he hears a girl’s voice.

“Yeolna, stop rushing me! The INFINITE fansign isn’t for another hour! Let me finish this game!”

INFINITE? Woohyun immediately recalls his earlier guess. He’s not sure if the answer to getting back is to date himself (or rather, date the other Woohyun), but there’s no harm trying that, right? It’s a lame plan, but Woohyun can’t think of anything else so he tries not to consider how ridiculous the situation is, or that he’s following two teenage girls as they head off to (what he thinks is) an INFINITE fansign with little idea of what he’s going to do after that.

Not only that, idol fansigns aren’t really his thing, especially not for male groups (that’s more up Sunggyu’s lane), and he’s not sure how things will go. Will he even be able to talk to the other Woohyun? Ducking his head to hide his face as he boards the bus after the two girls, Woohyun quickly finds a seat where they won’t notice him, and he sighs. If Sunggyu-hyung ever learns of this, he’ll never hear the end of his teasing.

When he gets to the venue, Woohyun isn’t surprised that there’s already a bunch of girls standing around. What he’s mildly surprised by is the fact that they’re all clutching tickets and CDs and various other merchandise.

Of course this thing needs a ticket. Of course. Did you think it’ll be so easy?

Woohyun huffs as he leans against a low wall. Maybe he can try loitering around, and see if he can catch the other Woohyun when the fansign thing ends. But he doesn’t think it’ll work, because he spots security checking each of the girls entering, and he doesn’t think the idols will ever be in a situation where Woohyun can just walk up to them without getting past all these layers of security.

Great. Just my luck. Why does my other self have to be an idol? Why can’t he be just a guy working somewhere where I can walk in and say hi, like a chicken restaurant? That’ll make things so much simpler.

Woohyun’s wondering if he should just loiter and try anyway – because this whole thing is a pretty ridiculous attempt to begin with, and there’s no harm in just going through with the plan since it’s already so messed up and it’s not like he has anything to lose – when someone walks up to him. It’s the girl from the Internet café earlier, one of the two he had been following. Now that she’s standing in front of Woohyun, he can see that not only is she ridiculously tall, made taller by her hair being up in a bun, but she’s also actually kind of pretty. When he had been following the girls, he had only seen their backs, and he had been mostly focused on not walking too close to them at that time. Now that he’s facing this girl though (who’s really quite cute despite