Being the God of Causality and Time¹ was honestly more exhausting than Woohyun thought it would be. Sure, he was a God and thus, he was immortal and had the entire fabric of time under his command but being a God brought responsibilities and Woohyun hated responsibilities.

“Hyung, do I really have to do this?” He whined into the inter-dimensional portal he opened with a slight wave of his hand. On the other end of the portal, Sunggyu rolled his eyes. Specifically, he might have but the other immortal’s eyes were under a fancy pair of Chanel sunglasses. Behind Sunggyu was endless oceans and even through the portal, Woohyun could smell sand and sea-salt and he pouted. “Why do I have to do this? Couldn’t Sungjong or Sungyeol do it?”

A guffaw. “If I made Sungyeol interim God of Causality and Time, I’d be better off kissing reality goodbye. Sungjong’s busy, apparently he’s off to infect some Holy Grail² and some with his taint.” Sunggyu frowned a bit. “Do you really want Sungjong to hold power over causality and time knowing his…moods?”

An image of a gargantuan Sungjong with flashing red eyes and pitch-black, inky darkness surrounding the entirety of the universe popped into Woohyun’s head. He shivered. “Ugh, no, thank you. He still hates me for messing his plans up when he turned a human high school into his own Final Destination³ set.”

“See? That’s why you’re perfect for the job!” Sunggyu exclaimed, just in time as a wave crashed on to the shore behind him, sending sand and sea water in the air. Sunlight struck and Woohyun grimaced as rainbow-coloured light flashed on the other end.

He whined again. “What about Dongwoo?”

“He can’t.” Sunggyu replied, rapidly turning his head away and moving close to the portal to cover the entire thing with his upper frame. Woohyun squinted at him, suspicious.

“Why?”

“He just can’t.”

“I need a better explanation.”

“You need a better face.”

Rolling his eyes, Woohyun raised a hand and sliced the air horizontally, extending the portal until it was roughly the size of a car. Sunggyu, not expecting it, screeched as he fell forward and smacked his face into the cosmic floor. Woohyun glared at him before peeking his head into the portal. “Dongwoo?”

A hand shot out of the sand before a volley of eruptions followed, Dongwoo blasting out of the earth and landing gracefully before Woohyun. He was shirtless, and wearing a pair of beach shorts with coconut tree designs. “Hey, Woohyunnie!”

Woohyun turned to Sunggyu, who finally managed to stand back up. “I can’t believe you’re making me do this just so you can go on a date with Dongwoo.”

Sunggyu took off his shades and glared back. “Hey, the last time Dongwoo and I were on a date was fourteen thousand years ago!”

“Still—“

A pair of hands grasped his shoulders and Woohyun turned, and promptly regretted turning as he took Dongwoo’s Puppy-Eye Face at point blank range. “Woohyunnie, it’s our anniversary. I wanted to go somewhere special with Gyu.”

Woohyun tried to resist. He honestly did.

Dongwoo’s lower lip trembled.

“Fine!” Woohyun exclaimed, already disgusted with himself as he distanced himself away from Dongwoo, groaning to himself as the two lovers exclaimed in delight. “But only until you get back!”

He emphasized, a finger pointed at Sunggyu.

The original God of Causality and Time chuckled to himself, and obnoxiously waved Woohyun away. “Whatever you say, Hyun. Ta-ta for now!”

And with a snap of his fingers, Woohyun rolled his eyes as a portal opened under him and he fell, landing back on the cosmic throne of the God of Causality and Time, Sunggyu’s laughter reverberating in the silence that followed. Standing back up, Woohyun sighed and started looking around.

There was the huge throne where Sunggyu usually sat (and sometimes slept in), and in the center was an overview of the entire fabric of reality, glimmering and shining. Woohyun sighed to himself again, determined to make the best of his situation, and ambled forward. “Let’s mosey⁴, then.”

∞

Causality and Time were cosmic powers Woohyun never had much experience manipulating. Truth be told, he was a minor deity, and his realm was more focused on minor reality manipulation. He was often responsible for little fluctuations of realities for humans, things like déjà vu, rumored paranormal experiences and illusions. It wasn’t to say that he liked being responsible for things that may seem, to humans, a little mean and a little mischievous. It was just the way he is — and he alludes that to the Great Will⁵’s scheme of all things. Earth was often the field of his focus, although he did like to delve into other galaxies and dens of life like Midgar, or parallel universes. It was fun, really, and Woohyun loved his job.

So, when Sunggyu — the original God of Causality and Time, right-hand of the Great Will — decided to make him interim God and deign him with a trace of his powers, Woohyun honestly thought he was the wrong man for the job. After all, causality and time wove tedious webs across reality and Woohyun kinda sees why Sunggyu is constantly irritable, unless he was in the presence of Dongwoo, whose powers of emotion really eases Sunggyu on a daily basis. They were perfect for each other, Woohyun grumbles.

Walking to the overview of the Higher Universe, Woohyun peeks at the widespread fabrics and observes every twinkle and minute thread connecting each other, juncture points that move cause and effect and time that governs them all. They all rather look like complicated math equations that Woohyun notices most humans complain about. He can see why.

“I am so ed.” He whispered to himself.

“I think you’d do a splendid job!” Woohyun jumped, turning around to see Sungyeol slouching on the throne, a book spinning on the tip of his finger. Woohyun takes a moment to look at it before turning his gaze over to the other immortal.

“What are you doing here?”

Sungyeol placed a hand on his chest and mock expression of hurt flitted across his features. “Can I not visit my hyung when he is promoted to a higher position? Does my friendship mean nothing to you?”

Rolling his eyes, Woohyun leaned back on the pedestal, making sure not to mess anything up. He remembered Sunggyu telling him about how his previous assistant accidentally shifted the juncture points, and caused World War 2 to occur on Earth. Sunggyu delighted in telling Woohyun how that previous assistant was sentenced to push a boulder up a mountain, forever and ever. Woohyun still feels slightly scared of his hyung like that.

“Yeah, yeah. What are you up to?”

“Always straight to business,” Sungyeol mocked, and he disappeared, only to reappear next to Woohyun. A book is promptly pushed into his chest. “Sunggyu hyung wanted me to give this to you.”

Holding the book with one hand, Woohyun glanced down, read the title in embossed gold letters: A Dummy’s Guide to Causality and Time and his eyes narrowed as he spied a newly written down sentence below the title. (Yes, Woohyun, this is for you).

“I find it hard to believe that Sunggyu would give this to you and not to me directly.” Woohyun said, setting the book next to his hip. Sungyeol fake gasped.

“How dare you! Are you implying that I am not trustworthy?”

“I’m not implying it, I’m saying it outright.”

Another fake gasp. “I honestly do not know why Sunggyu put you in charge, but he seems to believe in your capabilities. Well, I’m off to do more fun things—“

“Funner.” Woohyun corrected.

“—and I’ll leave you to your…chores.”

With a snap, Sungyeol phased out reality. Woohyun sighed again, raising a hand to scratch his head. The emissary of discord could be a little aggravating at times, but Woohyun was lucky that he was more playful than bored today. When Sungyeol was bored, things tend to go from bad to worse.

“Let’s get this over with.” And with a flourish, the book floated, raising to Woohyun’s level of sight and the cover flap shifted open. Stretching for a bit, Woohyun began his duty as interim God of Causality and Time, taking in Sunggyu’s fine penmanship in flawless cursive.

Causality and Time play a critical, symbiotic role in the foundation of reality. Mastery of one requires knowledge of the other, and any manipulation involving any or both cosmic powers can tip the scales in the favour of either balance or chaos. To begin, Causa…

 

∞

After what seemed to be hours, Woohyun mentally let the book close and watched it slowly descent and rest on the pedestal’s edge. He leaned back from the fabric and stretched, groaning as he straightened a few kinks out from bending too long.

It seems everything was in order, and Woohyun couldn’t be prouder — that was until he started taking note of the minute flashing in central Earth’s district. Moving to the southern end of the pedestal, Woohyun angled his head and peeked in, wondering what the flashing meant.

Opening the book, Woohyun read through Sunggyu’s entries.

Any form of persistent flashing denotes obstruction in the channel of cause and effect. Something is not going right, or is preventing something from going right.

Woohyun scanned the few entries below that.

To repair the channel and allow causality to take its natural course, move the adjacent juncture points in a clockwise manner.

Woohyun followed the instructions, moving one point and another slowly. Double checking that he did it right, Woohyun scanned the entry below that entry.

Woohyun, if you think you double-checked if you did it right, just be sure and check it again.

Frowning, Woohyun looked at the thread again, finding that it was all arranged correctly. The flashing still persisted. He looked down again.

If the flashing persists, then direct intervention is required.

“Oh, .” Woohyun whispered, emulating what seems to be the universal expletive for expressing dislike — he’s noticed the word is repeated across all universes, to his amusement. Direct intervention wasn’t something he liked doing. It took too much time, involved too many obstacles and honestly, he hated being down there on Earth. It was hot and honestly, there were just too many humans for his liking.

Looking into center point of the flashing, Woohyun squinted his eyes.

On Earth, he sees a boy in a classroom facing a window, looking decidedly somber as he stares at something in the distance. Woohyun followed the boy’s gaze and pinpointed the target to be another boy, who was playing basketball with a few others and when the said boy managed to get a goal, the boy in the classroom sighed in longing.

Woohyun felt his mouth hang open. Love.

The flashing was on unrequited love.

Honestly?

As if to mock him, the flashing shone brighter and Woohyun groaned. Leave it to his own luck that of all the things that had to go wrong when he was doing a good job, it had to be something romantic in nature. Honestly.

“I swear to the Great Will, if this is what Sunggyu does on a daily basis, I am so ed.” Woohyun whispered again. Deciding that nothing was going to get anywhere if he kept on complaining, he breathed in deep and jumped right into Earth.

Sunggyu was going to pay big-time for this.

∞

One thing Woohyun disliked above all else, Sungyeol’s interference and honey-mooning lovers included, was high school. It was just the perfect mix of everything Woohyun disliked in humanity: noise, sporadic hormones, body odor, puberty and worst of all, mood swings. He knew he sounded a bit hypocritical with that, considering his own fluctuating moods, but by all the gods, high school students took the entire cake (and more) at that. How else would you consider this…warzone?

Woohyun sighed as he stood in the hallway, incorporeal and invisible, as he watched students run noisily down the hall and when he turned his head, he caught a few couples making out, in broad daylight, in public view.

He should really push up a proposal to remove puberty from the line of equation. Honestly.

Walking down the hall, ignoring the students that seemed determine to be as loud as possible, Woohyun walked all the way until he reached the last classroom at the end of the hall and he peeked in. Class was still going on, and the interim God spied his current problem: the hopelessly lovestruck Kim Myungsoo.

Myungsoo was sitting at the back of the class, tall for his age and with fine features. Woohyun found him attractive, a bit jealously at that, and when he looked around the class, he caught sight of Myungsoo surreptitiously glancing to the other corner. Woohyun followed his gaze and aha!

There he is, the apple of Myungsoo’s eye and all that human crap: Lee Howon.

Taking in the other end of this specific thread of causality, Woohyun nodded to himself. He can see why Myungsoo would be smitten with this student. Taking a peek into Howon’s existence, Woohyun knew he was right. Star track player, leader of his own dance crew, a straight A student, good-looking and nice, albeit a bit snarky. Howon seemed like the guy anyone could fall for, and put all those attractive qualities in a high school student, in the midst of all unpredictability (hormones and all), and it was bound to cause waves – like trying to put out a bonfire with a marshmallow.

“So, all I have to do is make Howon fall in love with Myungsoo,” Woohyun whispered to himself. The teacher paused in her writing, chalk an inch away from the board. She turned to the class. “Did someone say something?”

Woohyun made a face and rolled his eyes as he watched the class shake their heads in negation. The teacher resumed writing.

Hmm. So, how to go about this one…

Well, if all his meddling in human affairs had taught him anything, it was that humans were very finicky and they often respond to the slightest things.

Looking back to Myungsoo, Woohyun decided to take a peek into his own existence. Ah, the odd one out, the proverbial black sheep of the classroom. For a species that often took pains to be individualistic and unique, humans often degenerate to tropes, or so Woohyun surmises.

An aspiring photographer, a comic book lover, draws his own mangas and manhwas (Woohyun doesn’t really care about what sets those two things apart but apparently it seems important to Myungsoo) and extremely shy despite his ethereal good looks. Woohyun clicked his tongue. Sometimes, all it takes is a push out the comfort zone.

“Alright, so who here can tell me how the Gwanju Democratization Movement started?”

Aha!

Woohyun turned, watching as the students tried to look busy or contemplative as the teacher waited for a volunteer to answer her question. He turned to Howon, saw him do the same keep-away gimmick and narrowed his eyes.

He turned back to the other and Myungsoo was no different.

Apparently, things were not going to work at this rate. Plus, the first thing you need to do to get a lover is to get attention first, anyway.

So, with a little maneuvering, Woohyun stood next to Myungsoo’s chair and unceremoniously jabbed the student by his ribcage, knowing how ticklish he was in that area.

A cry of surprise, with faint laughter, and the teacher looks towards their area.

“Yes, Myungsoo? Stand, and answer please.”

Woohyun smiled to himself, visibly pleased as all eyes turned to look at the normally silent and taciturn student, including Lee Howon. Myungsoo abruptly paled and when he stood, he was as rigid as a stick.

“I…I…I—“Myungsoo stammered. Woohyun’s smile faded, frustration growing.

The teacher frowned. “You, you, you.”

And Myungsoo looked down, silent as the grave. Woohyun closed his eyes and silently groaned to himself as the teacher berated Myungsoo for disrupting class with his shout and not even having an answer for her question.

This…was going to be a lot more difficult than he originally thought it would be.

But, and Woohyun opened his eyes in realization, at least Lee Howon finally knows Myungsoo exist!

Score!

∞

Woohyun’s next attempt is during recess. It seems Myungsoo isn’t really the blacksheep he seems to be, if his small circle of friends is anything to go by. They’re comparatively quieter than the other groups in the lunch hall, but Woohyun spies the smile on Myungsoo’s face as his friends Eunji and Yejin argue and Inguk glowers (and from Myungsoo’s memories, more so than usual) as the two girls make fun of him, Myungsoo’s laughter not helping.

“I’m gonna get juice.” Myungsoo says and Woohyun perks up from the corner where he’s sitting and watches the rest of Myungsoo’s friends ask him to bring them some, as well. He turns around and spots Howon making his way to the canteen.

This was his chance! Woohyun’s sure he’s not going to make a mess out of this one.

When Myungsoo reached the canteen, Woohyun ambled to his side, and he whooped in silent delight as Howon stood behind the other, waiting for his turn. Now, Woohyun’s brilliant plan is that — and he’s seen this in the romantic movies he told himself to watch while he paused time and brainstormed ideas — when Myungsoo turns, he’ll accidentally slip and he’d fall into Howon’s strong, safe, waiting arms and they’d look into each other’s eyes and bam! Kiss, kiss, fall in love.

What Woohyun didn’t account for, is when Myungsoo turned, and the interim God altered the tile to make it forty times slipperier than usual, that Howon would turn his gaze, catch sight of a friend and promptly leave the queue to high-five the other student.

Myungsoo shouts as he slips, and with Woohyun’s eyes as wide as they can go, and the poor student’s arms are waving all over the place as he slips and collides into the next student. They both screech in surprise and tumble to the ground, and Woohyun winces as he hears the slam. He peeks one eye open.

“Op—oppa…” The girl slowly ventures out, her own eyes wide, as Myungsoo notices the position they’re in: she’s on the ground, and he’s on top of her, straddling over her groin, her skirt brought up precariously and Woohyun watches Myungsoo’s higher brain functions shut down as he turns and sees Howon looking at them in shock. Then, Myungsoo turns an alarming shade of red and before Woohyun could honestly do anything, Myungsoo’s disappeared. All they see is a screaming student in the distance, running to hide.

“Oh. .” He says to himself, ignoring the student beside him jumping in surprise at hearing his voice.

∞

“Hyung, I made a fool out of myself.” Woohyun grimaces as he hears the embarrassment and shame in Myungsoo’s voice. They’re in the fourth floor boys’ restroom, and Myungsoo’s locked himself in the cubicle, Inguk standing outside it.

“It was an accident, Myungsoo. Don’t beat yourself up over it.” Inguk says, sighing to himself and Woohyun sees he’s not used to trying to comfort people.

“Easy for you to say, hyung. You’re not the one who slipped and accidentally assaulted Soojung. Hey, shut up!” Inguk stifles his chuckles and leans close to the door.

“Come on, I’m sure people will forget by tomorrow.”

Myungsoo says something indecipherable that even Woohyun follows Inguk as they both angle their ears to the door.

“What?”

Myungsoo sighs. “I said, Howon was there. He saw everything. I’m so embarrassed.”

Inguk clucks his tongue and makes a cooing noise that sounds oddly out of character. “I’m sure he’ll think of it as an accident, too. Don’t you worry, I know Howon — he’s not a jerk.”

The other student groans. “Why does this happen to me? I have the most rotten luck.”

Woohyun grimaces and slowly tiptoes away, not wanting to hear anymore, already feeling guilty.

Things weren’t going his way, but if there’s one thing Woohyun knows he is, it’s that he’s determined. He has to up his game, and this time, he has a better idea — especially when he spies one good-looking, popular straight A student making his way to his classroom.

∞

The next class that Howon and Myungsoo shared was Home Economics. For the current quarter of the year, the class was dealing in crochet and Woohyun spied on the two’s projects. It seems Myungsoo, who apparently recovered from his earlier embarrassment and was trying to make himself as scare as possible, was making a black sweater with purple lining. Looking across the room, he spied Howon making a similar sweater, except it was all in purple. Figures.

Now, his plan involved stealing Howon’s ball of yarn and when the student would notice it and realize he can’t finish his project without it, would promptly see Myungsoo and his purple ball of yarn and ask for some, thus instigating conversation which would lead them to falling in love which equals success in Woohyun’s book.

He’s a simple deity, after all.

Quietly moving to Howon’s table, the interim God made sure that the other students were not taking notice, and when Howon turned to grab something from his bag, Woohyun grabbed the ball of yarn and pocked it into a small interdimensional portal.

When Howon turned back to the table, Woohyun watched confusion run through his features as the student started looking around the table, even under it.

“Hey, have you seen my yarn? The purple one?” He asked, and the student he was sharing a table with shook his head.

“No, man. Sorry. It’s purple right? I have some extra here.”

And Woohyun promptly slapped himself in the face.

“Oh,” Howon smiled. “Thanks. I’ll pay you back.”

“It’s not a problem.”

Oh, but it is. Woohyun thought, and watching Howon move the new ball of yarn to his side of the table, he moved the other student’s chair backwards. When the student tried to sit back, and fell to the floor as a result, Woohyun then pocked the ball when everyone’s attention was on the student.

“Dude, you okay?” Howon asked in concern. A pained nod, and Woohyun smiled to himself as Howon started looking for the yarn again.

“Okay, that’s the second time. This is getting annoying.”

“I’m sorry, I ran out. Tough luck, Howon.”

And Woohyun smiled to himself again as Howon started turning around, and this would be time where he would notice Myungsoo working in the corner quietly with his purple yarn and Howon would notice and would ask to use some and he’d notice how good-looking Myungsoo is and everything would follow and Woohyun can say that he did his job well.

He also didn’t take into account the other students having their own balls of yarn.

“Oh, Howon I have some extra purple right here.”

“I got some here, too.”

“I’m not using the purple, so you can have them.”

“I just finished mine, so you can have the rest.”

There was a lot of chair-pulling and falling that day, and Woohyun knows inter-dimensional portals shouldn’t be used to hold balls of yarn but Howon was stubborn.

He watched the student walk around, looking under tables because how could eight balls of purple yarn disappear in the span of twenty minutes with no trace?

Howon stood back up, shoulders slouching and when he turned his gaze over, he caught sight of Myungsoo – who had taken notice of the commotion but took no part of it because he had already embarrassed himself previously. Woohyun whoops in delight as Howon notices the purple yarn on Myungsoo’s table and started making his way over.

Fates bless his soul, it took Myungsoo ten seconds before he noticed another presence beside him and when he looked up to Howon, his ears went bright red.

“Hey,” Howon greeted, smiling. “You’re Myungsoo, right?”

“Um…” Myungsoo replied intelligently. “Uh…”

Woohyun pinched his side. Myungsoo jumped. “Yah! I mean, yeah, yeah, I’m Myungsoo. No…other…Myungsoo. But me. The Myungsoo. Yeah.”

An unsure chuckle that sounded more like a dying cow than actual laughter followed Myungsoo’s stammering. Woohyun felt second-hand embarrassment for the kid, but Howon still continued smiling. Fates bless his soul, too.

“Great, great. I’m Howon.” A hand out and Myungsoo stared at it like it would rear its head and bite him. It took him a while to raise his own hand and shake Howon’s hand. “I’m Howon, by the way. Lee Howon. We share History and P.E.”

When Howon had let go, Myungsoo inconspicuously stared at his own hand like it was something miraculous. “So, um, I really hate to ask this of you, but I ran out of purple yarn and somehow, all the yarn disappeared? So…um, is it okay if I ask for some of yours? I mean, I’ll pay you back of course.”

A smile and Myungsoo was nodding. Woohyun was pretty sure he wasn’t even listening.

“Awesome!” Howon smiled, eyes shining. “I’ll work with you here so we can share it together.”

Myungsoo’s eyes widen. “Oh. Um. Uh…”

Too late though, as Howon settled himself beside Myungsoo and resumed working on his sweater. Myungsoo was quite obvious in his staring, especially at the dexterity of Howon’s hands and Woohyun clapped to himself in the back as the Great Instigator of this Love.

As the fates would have it, even Gods (no matter how temporarily) were victims of their own machinations and as Woohyun was still adjusting to his powers, his clapping accidentally opened an interdimensional portal.

Which decided to spit out eight balls of purple yarn.

“Oh, .” Woohyun cursed as the balls fell and, hoping to have them hidden before the two lovebirds noticed, Woohyun hurried in chasing after them as the balls unraveled all over the floor.

Just as luck would have it, Howon decided to stand to go to the restroom, and not noticing the lines of yarn behind his feet, tangled with his laces, and instantly tripped.

Right into Myungsoo.

Thankfully, nobody got stabbed with the flying crochet needles, but Woohyun would surmise that having your crush trip into you and accidentally have their lips pushed against yours (by pure accident of course) would be death for anyone else.

Howon pulled back immediately, hands reaching up to cover his lips, eyes wide and face uncharacteristically flustered. “Oh my — I am so sorry.”

Myungsoo’s eyes were wide as well, face characteristically flustered and Woohyun was again privy to how fast Myungsoo could run and hide when he was embarrassed, if the slowly swaying door that Myungsoo hightailed out of was any indication.

∞

This was it.

This was his last chance.

If he still wasn’t able to fix this, he’ll ask Sunggyu for help.

After all, being God of Causality and Time wasn’t part of his original job description. He’s not above asking others for help, especially if said others meant the original God who is on a honeymoon with his lover.

The last class of the day, and the last class that Howon and Myungsoo shared, was P.E. After multiple attempts at coaxing Myungsoo out of the restroom cubicle he had locked himself in again, Woohyun thanked whatever fates were helping him when he saw Inguk drag a red-faced Myungsoo into the gym. Across the floor, Howon turned and noticed Myungsoo and also promptly turned is head away, face suspiciously red.

The class was taking up volleyball for this year and Woohyun watched from the bleachers, munching on a pack of Doritos he had stolen from the canteen, as the instructor called everyone in to assemble on the field. The group of students were divided into four groups, the first two groups up for play.

Woohyun watched as Howon assembled on the field with his team, and Myungsoo walked off to sit on the bleachers, waiting for their turn.

His last plan was simple, it was so simple it was flawless. Nothing could honestly go wrong, and Woohyun made sure not to do any clapping or hand gestures of any sort.

What he planned was, knowing how Howon was naturally good with any sport, manipulating the trajectory of the ball the moment Howon made a spike and have it land near Myungsoo. The other student would then notice it, and politely return it to Howon while the student made his way nearby. In his sweating glory, running on hormones, Howon would notice how Myungsoo was so good-looking, he would kiss him — or ask for his number or ask him to go out for coffee sometime.

Theoretically.

It depended on the mood, really.

So, when the time came for Howon to spike, Woohyun raised a hand and shifted density, speed and direction and allowed himself to smile in victory as the ball oddly flew a different direction than what Howon intended. The students all watched – even the instructor – as the ball hurtled towards Myungsoo’s area.

Unfortunately, Myungsoo was spacing out (as per usual) and didn’t take notice.

And, to herald more bad news, Woohyun forgot to add in resistance. The ball was not slowing down.

And, comically, hit Myungsoo right in the face – knocking the poor boy out.

∞

“What did you do?” Was the first thing Sunggyu asked the moment Woohyun opened the portal, and the God’s displeased face promised retribution and maybe a millennium spent with Woohyun in the body of a small, red lizard⁶.

Woohyun sighed, and as if preparing himself for war, began recounting everything that happened with Myungsoo and Howon. As he went further and further, Sunggyu started looking more and more displeased, he wouldn’t be surprised if red flames would start exploding behind him. But no such thing happened — what did happen was Dongwoo running the background, tripping on a rock hidden in the sand, and hurtling face-first into the dirt. A gull squawked above.

“And…that’s what happened.” Woohyun ends, wringing his hands and looking at anywhere but Sunggyu’s fuming eyes.

A breath of silence passed before Sunggyu spoke, in a dark tone that seemed to echo in multiple voices. “I’ll deal with you later.”

Then, he turned to Dongwoo and, in a honeyed, loving tone completely unlike the one he used with Woohyun, called out to Dongwoo. “Honey, I’ll be back okay? Woohyun needs help with something.”

A hand erupts from the sand and flitters at them to go.

Sunggyu smiles at Dongwoo’s hand and turns to Woohyun, face losing mirth as he steps out of the portal and back into the cosmic throne. Woohyun takes notice of Sunggyu’s bare legs under the beach shorts. “Did you shave your legs?”

“Silence.” And the galaxies flashed red. Woohyun shut himself up; okay, definitely mad.

He meekly followed the God to the overview of the Higher Universe and stood behind him as Sunggyu swept a hand out, the pinpoints of light – juncture points – floated in the space before them. A thin line of light reached out to one point, then to another and over and over until a beautifully woven silver web floated before them, each point pulsating with something like life.

“Causality is not something you play with,” Sunggyu begins and Woohyun feels himself shrinking in embarrassment. “each action you make, each tiny thing you alter – no matter how miniscule and insignificant it is to you — creates ripples and waves, causing a series of reactions that alter the entire tapestry as a whole.”

Sunggyu turns his head and Woohyun meeps as an angry bright red eye glares at him. “Even by manifesting, just by your presence alone, you can change so many things and the entire direction of reality is shifted.”

“Sorry?” Woohyun ventures out, letting out an unsure grin. The galaxies flash red again and Woohyun jumps.

The God swepts his hand back and the web returns to the fabric, now back to its original form. Sunggyu turns to the flashing point and waves his hand, opening a portal. “Let’s see what damage you brought, and how many centuries you’ll spend as an underwater sponge^7.”

“Hey, to be fair, you gave the job to me, remember?”

“Only vividly.” Sunggyu responded in a dry tone before they both turn to the portal.

∞

When Myungsoo opens his eyes, he first sees bright white light. He thinks he’s dead — he wouldn’t complain; with the day he just had, being dead would be the silver lining in a ty situation. But, then, a dull throb had him groaning, raising a hand to the side of his face as mortality and pain made themselves known to Myungsoo. Not dead yet, he thinks in misery.

“Oh, you’re awake.” And Myungsoo’s eyes open wide as focus returned and Lee Howon’s concerned face came into view.

All pain is forgotten as Myungsoo feels himself flushing, entire body rigid and stiff under the bedsheet. It takes him a while to note that he’s in the school infirmary, if the sterile white walls and the mandatory Do’s and Don’t’s posters were any indication.

“Wh—“he ventures out, feeling oddly bold to speak to his crush like this. Then again, he just embarrassed himself in front of Howon not just once, but four times, in the span of eight hours — after that last tumble, Myungsoo was probably impenetrable to shame. “What’re you doing here?”

“Um—” and it seems it was Howon’s turn to look sheepish and flustered, as red painted his ears bright. Myungsoo found it incredibly endearing and adorable as the normally confident student looked everywhere but at his face. “I did hit you with the ball, so it’s only right that I’m worried about you.”

Taking in Howon’s words, disappointment flashed inside Myungsoo as he visibly deflated. “Oh.”

Howon mistook his disappointment as anger as the other student gestured with his hands. “No, no, no. It was my fault, really. I didn’t know what happened, and honestly — hitting the guy you like with a volleyball is the last thing I wanted to do today. Or any day ever.”

And, as if realizing what he just said, Howon promptly shut up and his entire face started reddening.

Myungsoo, on the other hand, was dumbfounded. Howon…liked him?

Apparently not used to uncomfortable silences, Howon rambled. “Uh, I mean…uh, that’s to say that, um, well…If you put it this way, um, I do, did, um still do, sorta, kind of — maybly? I mean, maybly! Who says maybly? But um, yeah. I do. Kind of. Like. You.”

Realizing that he just sold himself out even more, Howon’s neck started reddening as well. Myungsoo couldn’t stop the smile growing on his face and when Howon caught sight of it, promptly barked out.

“Shut up.”

Myungsoo laughed, feeling relieved and smitten and a whole lot better. He’s still probably running on adrenaline, and he’ll talk himself into an emotional breakdown later, that’s the only explanation as to where this boldness was coming from. “Well, to be fair, I really didn’t think our first kiss would happen the way it did today.”

Which shut Howon up, eyes wide as he took in Myungsoo’s words. “Our…first…kiss?”

Myungsoo nods, still feeling bold (for now). “Yup. I thought it would be on our first date, but things didn’t really go according to plan today, didn’t it?”

Howon repeated. “Our…first…date?”

The other student nodded. “Mmhmm. So, how about it? Do you want to grab some coffee later or—?”

“YES!” and as if Howon’s excited, though still-unbelieving sounding answer kick started his brain back into reality, Myungsoo felt himself flushing and growing incredibly shy as Howon beamed at him, canines and all.

“Oh, um. Okay, then.” Myungsoo replies, and looks down, feeling incredibly lucky (in spite of the incredibly unlucky day he had been having — and to think, he was quite sure someone in the universe was out to get him).

And if he looked up just when Howon looked down, and he’s not sure who started it — if it was Myungsoo or if it was Howon — but in the long run, it didn’t matter. This second kiss was starting to get a lot better.

∞

The flashing dimmed, and dimmed, its bright white fading until it disappeared. Then, a thin line extended from one juncture point to the other, connecting. Weaving itself together, it joined the rest of the cosmic web, a moving masterpiece in the grand scheme of things. Cause and effect.

Sunggyu was silent, raising hand to close the portal, the image of Myungsoo and Howon finally together fading back into space. The God didn’t speak, merely stood where he is, still looking at the web.

Beside him, Woohyun grinned, pushing himself to the God’s sight.

“Say it.” He prodded.

“No.”

“C’mon, say it.”

“No.”

“You know I did a good job, just say it.” Woohyun grinned this time, pushing his shoulder into Sunggyu’s.

The God sighed and turned to him, red eyes reverting to their benevolent brown (or as benevolent Sunggyu can get when it comes to anything but Dongwoo) and he sighs. “Fine. You did a good job.”

Woohyun raised his hands and did a little celebratory dance. “Oh yeah, Woohyun the God of C—“

“Temporarily.”

“—ausality and Time is on a roll!”

“Fates, help me.”

Woohyun allowed himself one more round of his celebratory dance before Sunggyu turned to him, a little confused. “What made you intervene in the first place?”

The minor deity paused. “What?”

Sunggyu frowned. “The God of Causality and Time shouldn’t intervene when it comes to obstructions. All you had to do was move the adjacent junctures—“

“—in a clockwise manner, yeah I know. I did that, but it didn’t work so I went for the emergency precautions.”

“Wait. Clockwise? It’s supposed to be counterclockwise. If you move the adjacent junctures in a clockwise manner that would—“

A red flash on the fabric of the Higher Universe and both turned to look at it just as Sunggyu ended his sentence.

“—create another universe altogether.”

The God swept a hand and a portal opened, and they both turned to face the interdimensional window.

And both watched in shock as they saw themselves, along with Dongwoo, Howon, Sungyeol, Myungsoo and even Sungjong (who looked surprisingly angelic) dancing to a pop song in front of thousands of fans. The screaming was so loud, they could even hear it from the rift between time and space, hearing the fans chant “Infinite! Infinite! Infinite!”

When Sunggyu turned to Woohyun, the minor deity coughed and turned away from the burning bright red of Sunggyu’s eyes. “What. Did. You. Do.”

“I just did everything the book said!”

“WHAT. BOOK.”

“THIS!” and Woohyun brings up the book Sungyeol had given him and the God of Causality and Time took it from Woohyun’s hands. He flipped through the pages, reading the entries until his eyes narrowed.

With a howl that could shake the entire Higher Universe, and made Woohyun pee his pants, Sunggyu’s shout reached across all crevices of the fabric of reality – past, present and future. “SUNGYEOL!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

∞

On a distant plane of existence, Sungyeol chuckled to himself as he closed the portal, the image of Sunggyu’s fiery countenance disappearing. Brandishing an apple out from nothingness, Sungyeol took a bite and continued to read through the comic book he had pilfered from Myungsoo’s bedroom while he was on Earth — recalling with delight how he sabotaged Woohyun’s every attempt to make the two meet and fall in love and all that stuff. Boring, he thinks. Chaos was much more fun. Everyone should know that, like really.

“You need to find a new hobby.” Sungjong says, albeit a bit distractedly as he flicks his hand and causes an invasion (and space warfare) on some planet named Naboo.

“I think this is a wonderful hobby.” Sungyeol retorts, turning another page. This Duel Monsters comic was starting to get really interesting.

“Suit yourself.” Sungjong primly says, before he reverts to his original form of a gargantuan, centipedal monstrosity — one part God, one part nightmare fuel⁸ —and slithered off, probably to cause more chaos in some spirit realm.

Sungyeol flips another page and whistles as he came across a full-length Seto Kaiba print. “Oh, damn.”

---

^{Foot notes for all the references I made:}

^{1 -} Deus Ex Machina (Mirai Nikki: The Future Diary)
^{2 - The Greater Grail (Fate Stay Night)
3 -} Another (Another)
^{4 -} Cloud Strife (Final Fantasy VII)
^{5 -} Cid of the Lufaine (Final Fantasy I; Dissidia)
^{6 -} The Powerul, the Pleasurable, the indestructible Mushu (Mulan)
^{7 - I'm ready! I'm ready! (SpongeBob Squarepants)
8 -} Koh (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

^{As you can see, I am aptly bored.}