It was a beautiful autumn day with the sun shining just enough that you wouldn't need a jacket and the fallen leaves crunch under the tires of my cool new bicycle. I’d purchased it with the money I’d earned from playing in a band with my friends, Jongin, Sehun and Chanyeol. Since it was lunchtime I thought I'd go in at my parent's house to raid their refrigerator. They were always keeping leftovers available just in case their struggling college age son needed a hearty meal. My parents were the best. They knew going to college, working and being in a band was difficult but they never once suggested I should give up on my rock and roll dreams.

 

I was just setting the timer in the microwave to reheat the large container of shepherd's pie that was undoubtedly made especially for me since everyone else in the family thought it was gross, I heard a noise that sounded like it was coming from the backyard. I went out to find out if it was one of those rowdy boys that were always hanging out at the house two doors down.

 

The ruckus was actually coming from my neighbor’s house. The guy was a bit of an odd duck, always tinkering with something which he swore was going to be the next big thing. I haven’t seen anything impressive outside of the hot fireman, Kris, of whom I found out the hard way that he had a very possessive boyfriend.

 

There was no sign of smoke or sadly Kris, a guy could look couldn’t he? I was just about to head back to the house when I heard a shriek, quickly followed by a splash, soon after a stream of sputtered curses and raucous laughter. The Do's must be entertaining….again, I thought ruefully.

 

My stomach reminded me about my waiting treat but as I turned to head back in the house, my luck took a turn. Peter, came hurrying out of back door of the house, waving excitedly for me to come closer.

 

“Yixing! You won't believe it! I cracked the mystery of time travel!” Peter stage whispered when I was close enough to him that he could grab my arm as he pulled me in the direction of his living room. He claimed he built a flux capacitor, like the one from the movie and used his couch as the transportation unit. He claimed he'd gone to the year 3000, not very much was different except now the main portion of the population lived under water and my great, great, great granddaughter was doing well.

 

The whole thing sounded a little too crazy to be real and I started to worry that Peter may have been exposed to some questionable substances when he pulled out his phone and showed me a picture of a girl. Her hair was styled like that princess from that movie, Star Battle or something like that except she bore an uncanny resemblance to me.

 

“You should check it out! It’s amazing!” Peter said as he bounced from foot to foot in his excitement.

 

I’d just opened my mouth to attempt to make a quick escape when I heard a very unwelcome sound.

 

“Yixing? Dude where are you? You were the one to say we needed to practice.” Chanyeol’s unmistakeable voice drifted through the open windows of Peter’s house.

 

“Perfect your friends can come too!” Peter cheered before quickly racing through the house to fling open the back door. “Guys! How do you two feel about…. time travel? Yixing and I are going to the future! Wanna join us?” He asked excitedly.

 

By this time Peter had lead Chanyeol and Sehun into the arched doorway that separated the dining area and living room. It was no surprise that Chanyeol was nodding eagerly before Peter could finish his speech but Sehun was less reluctant to agree. He met my eyes across the room to silently confirm that this was happening, only to get a noncommittal shrug in reply.

 

“One question. How do we get back to our time?” I asked, half hoping to stall for time until we could get away quietly.

 

“They mastered the time travel thing years ago but don’t use it much because if you change one thing in the past you can change everything! Everything!” Peter’s laugh was a little unsettling like he knew something that maybe we should know, too.

 

“Of course that makes a lot of sense.” Chanyeol agreed nodding along sagely. Meanwhile Sehun and I exchanged silent eye messages across the room.

 

“Great let’s go there’s so much I want to show you!” Peter said as he almost bounced over to the couch. He lifted the lid of what looked almost like a food processor, dropping in a banana peel, some coffee grounds and can of Red Bull.  Ewww….. I hope he wasn’t making smoothies for the trip.

 

‘I kinda stole their ideas on how to power the flux capacitor. Otherwise we would need some weapons grade uranium to power the time machine.” Peter shared casually as if everyone kept that in their cupboards.

 

“Dude! That’s awesome! You have to show me how it works when we get back.” Chanyeol said, taking everything in stride like the entire conversation was totally commonplace.

 

“Ready?” Peter asked as he flipped a switch and the couch began to glow from under a cushion.

 

Eh, why not. I’d never hear the end of it if I didn’t go because than Sehun won’t go and Chanyeol wouldn’t go if he thought he was ‘the only one having all of the fun’ and he’d never let me forget about it.

 

Peter carelessly flung the cushion away that was covering the glowing vortex and dove in head first, we chose the more cautious approach by entering feet first. I took a deep breath and went for it. Chanyeol and Sehun didn’t hesitate to follow my lead and entered the vortex without hesitation. We oddly enough came out of another coach-like piece of furniture at the end of the trip. The walls of the room appeared to emit a soft white glow to light the room. Homeowners seemed to go with a minimalistic design if the room was anything to go by. As we tried to adjust to after effects of our journey we were pleasantly surprised to be greeted by three beautiful young ladies. they were wearing cool silver metallic dresses and they all had silvery, pink hair. They didn’t seem surprised to see Peter or three strangers in their living room as they smiled warmly in greeting.

 

“This is Stevie, Stephanie and George.” Peter introduced the girls. “They don’t talk much.” He whispered loudly to us. “They communicate more telepathically.” He added.

 

“Hello, Yixing, Chanyeol and Sehun, friends of Peter. Welcome to our home.” The one called Stevie said.

 

Sehun ‘discreetly’ smacked at Chanyeol’s forearm in his excitement, whether it was from the time travel, the lack of need for introductions or maybe he just needed to use the bathroom, one could never tell with Sehun.

 

“Will you be staying long? We had plans to attend the local music festival tonight.” Stevie said with a coy wink in our direction.

 

“Uh….. no….” I replied not quite sure why attending a “music festival” was something to wink about and perhaps over the years it had become something more …. intimate? “We wouldn’t want to accidently change our future by moshing with the wrong people.” I attempted to joke.

 

“Moshing?” Stevie said with a head tilt, a small frown formed between her brows. She stared at me intently for only a few seconds before the frown disappeared and the smile was back in place. “Ah!” She said with a small chuckle. “May we offer you refreshments before you return to your time?”

 

Sehun and Chanyeol eagerly nodded. Those two were always hungry but I was still wondering what Stevie have learned from her reading of my mind. Shouldn’t they ask permission or sign a waiver or something before they do that?

 

“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I was simply unfamiliar with what “moshing” was. Next time I will just Google it.” Stevie said fighting back the giggle at my pout.

 

“You still have computers?” Chanyeol asked in an awed tone. “Can I see what it’s like?”

 

“Of course, but ours are all thought controlled so it may be a little hard for you to control by yourself. Let me help.” Stephanie said as she glided forward to lead Chanyeol to what looked like a giant flat screen TV.

 

As they approached the screen lit up and three girls appeared on the screen.

 

“Oh. These are our friends Lu, Kris and Baekhee.” Stephanie said as she waved to the girls who waved back while squealing and giggling. “They dressed all retro for the festival tonight.” She explained.

 

One of the girls reached out and grabbed my tie, using it to pull me through the screen to where she was with her friends. Wait since when was I wearing a tie?

 

And that's where the dream ended. At least I think it was a dream except for the fact that Chanyeol keeps saying weird things like “our 7th album will sell better than Kelly Clarkson’s" and “Boy bands and another one and another one, but we’ll be the top boy band.” That and Sehun’s obsession with ‘Lu’. I thought maybe he'd gone and fallen for Kyungsoo‘s rowdy friend, Luhan but I hadn't heard that they'd even met.

 

As the weeks turned into months and fall gave way to winter and finally spring, the neighbor’s son came home from college. I hadn't even realized it had been awhile since I'd seen or heard from Peter so when I asked Steve about it he acted like I was crazy, claiming that he was an only child. Chanyeol response to hearing this was a muttered “never mess with time travel".

 

We were trying to practice our new song in my parent’s garage but the warmer weather also meant a return of Kyungsoo’s loud friends.

 

I was just changing a string on my guitar when a beach ball rolled to a stop at my feet.

 

“Oh! I'm sorry! Could you toss that back please?” A voice I'd never heard before asked.

 

I looked up only to find myself staring at the most beautiful man I'd ever seen. When he smiled at me I felt like my world was just turned upside down and firmly shaken.

 

“Yixing the ball?” An all too familiar voice snapped only to be followed with, “Oh… hi Jongin.” in a soft dare I say shy tone.

 

I tore my gaze away from the vision of hotness to look at my friend who was blushing madly.

 

“Hi Kyungsoo. We're trying to practice could you please keep down the noise?” Jongin added when I gave him a pointed look.

 

“Sure thing but then you have to do something for me.” Ah, there's the Kyungsoo I was familiar with. “I need a date to a party and I've chosen you.” Kyungsoo said as if it was already decided.

 

Right, like that was going to happen I thought smugly to myself only to hear Jongin reply. “Okay. What time?”

 

My shocked expression was mirrored in the faces of the rest of the band's until the rest of Kyungsoo’s crew strolled over to see what the hold up was with retrieving the beach ball.

 

Luhan, now sporting hair in a soft pink color, sidled up to a blushing Sehun. He slid a hand over the strings of Sehun’s bass before looking up into the taller man's face and said. “I think bass players are so hot.” He purred, making Sehun blush even more.

 

“Okay so it's settled.” Kyungsoo said. “bass guy you are taking Luhan to the party, drum dude you will Suho and Baekhyun has, for some unknown reason taken a fancy to you Yixing so pick us up here this Saturday and you had better not be late. Bye Jongin!” Kyungsoo states, adding a wiggly finger wave in Jongin’s direction before turning to go back to his own house.

 

“Who’s Suho?” Chanyeol broke the silence after the wake of Kyungsoo’s leaving.

 

“Kim Junmyeon. He was our class President all through high school, wore ugly sweaters a lot-” Minseok started to clarify only to be interrupted by Jongdae fake coughing while saying “Nerd.” Which earned him an elbow to the stomach, knocking the air from his lungs.

 

“Awhea~~” Jongdae whined. “Is that any way to treat your boyfriend?”

 

“I was just defending the Kim name.” Minseok shrugged casually trying to ignore his boyfriend's cute pout.

 

“I’m a Kim, too! Why do I get hit?” Jongdae persisted.

 

“I'll kiss it better later.” Minseok whispered in his ear. The pout was quickly replaced by a brilliant smile.

 

An awkward silence followed while everyone pretended not to have heard what had been said. Jongin broke the uncomfortable moment by raising his hand and asking “I'm a Kim. Does that mean I get protection?”

 

Minseok's intense stare made everyone else cringe, except for the young man behind the keyboard. “Yes, but only because Kyungsoo fancys you. If you do anything to hurt him…..”

 

“Cool.” Was Jongin's calm reply. He was either oblivious to Minseok's barely veiled threat or had every intention of keeping the smile on Kyungsoo's face for the future.

 

We watched the trio walk back towards Kyungsoo's yard, Baekhyun glanced back over his shoulder giving me a smile and wave as he went. I refused to acknowledge that his smile did things to my heart.

 

“Wasn’t Junmyeon the guy you knocked on his that one time you were saying how well you could walk backwards? Didn't you have a massive crush on him in high school?” I asked Chanyeol.

 

“It wasn’t that big of a crush. Where's Sehun?” Chanyeol brought us abruptly back to reality while smoothly changing the subject. We all glanced frantically around calling his name until he popped up from behind our stack of amps. His hair was messed up and he was wearing a different tee shirt from earlier.

 

“I'm here.” Sehun said as Luhan slid out from where Sehun had been a moment ago, looking quite smug and equally rumpled. The mystery of Sehun's shirt was solved, Luhan finished pulling it into place as he walked.

 

That was fast, I thought to myself or maybe Luhan was the 'Lu’ Sehun kept referring to recently.

 

----------

 

I was still trying to believe how comfortable and yet wonderfully exilhrating having Baekhyun as a boyfriend could be. Summer was coming to an end and the now expanded 'gang' could almost always be found hanging out together. We were all sitting at the town's one hipster coffee shop, having just caught the last local performance of Les Miserable, Luhan and Sehun had disappeared soon after we'd arrived, claiming they were going to the restroom. We didn't question or expect them back any time soon. Baekhyun was cuddled up to my side and I had my arm draped over his shoulders. Junmyeon was blotting whipped cream off Chanyeol's lips as the latter grinned happily at his beau. Kyungsoo and Jongin were too wrapped up in whispering to each other and smiling sappily into each other's eyes to participate in the conversation that flowed around them.

 

“If I had to choose I'd name my son Taehyung and my daughter Baekhee.” Baekhyun said in response to Jongdae's question which I have to admit I'd been too distracted by Baekhyun's closeness to pay attention to, but the mention of “Baekhee” triggered something in my memory. Baekhee is family a name. It's supposed to bring luck to each generation or something. It all started with my Great, Great,  Baekhee counted off on her fingers with a cute head tilt, Great Grandparents. No. Way. I refused to believe my dream was anything more than that until another memory resurfaced. This one had my neighbor Peter excitedly saying Your Great, Great, Great Granddaughter is doing fine. While holding a picture of Baekhee.

 

“Do you think time travel is possible?” I blurted out loud.

 

Baekhyun giggled. “No. Do you?”

 

“Ha... Ha…. Of course not.” I scoffed but not as sure as I once was.

 

A quick glance around the table didn’t help ease my mind. I found Junmyeon cutting up Chanyeol’s food into bite sized pieces, Kyungsoo and Jongin were busily trying to look too casual for nothing to be going on below the table and Luhan had returned to the table with a brand new hickey. What was most disturbing was the looks I was was getting from Sehun and Chanyeol, almost as if they knew something but wouldn’t or couldn’t tell me. It was all so confusing.

 

“Are you okay, sweetheart?” Baekhyun asked with a concerned frown, placing a cool hand against my forehead.

 

“Yes. Just a headache I guess.” I tried to dismiss the lingering feelings of something being off when Baekhyun changed our orders to go and made our excuses, saying I was probably overtired and needed a nap.

 

When we got back to my house Baekhyun offered to tuck me in and sing me to sleep when another memory popped into my head My friends and I are going to enter the singing contest at the festival. Great singers run in my family as well as our stunning good looks. Baekhee said with a saucy head toss.

 

My look of distress must have made Baekhyun think I didn’t want him to stay. He gave me a brief kiss before he turned and left. “Feel better Xing. I love you.”

 

That was the first time he’d actually said the words. I was so stunned I could do nothing but gap at his retreating back.

 

“He’s a keeper.” A voice said from behind me. I swung around to see Peter lingering at the corner of our house. Wait where did he come from.

 

“I accidently messed something up and had to put things right before I could come back.” Peter explained. “And it turned out my parents had given the couch to a second hand store. That sure took some explaining when I showed up.” He chuckled as he wandered back to his own house.

 

Had Peter always had a tail? Weird that I'd never noticed that before, but there it was swishing back and forth as he walked.

 

“Baekhyun! Wait!!! I LOVE YOU, TOO!” I shouted as I ran after the best thing to happen in my life. I wasn't going to take any chances, I may wake up to discover this is just another crazy dream but if it isn't......