Jin was gone.

Your boyfriend of two years left a note saying Sorry and then he simply left.

No, he didn’t break up with you. He didn’t move out of your apartment. He didn’t take any of his belongings but he was gone from this world.

Because Kim Seokjin had a special ability: he resonated with the existence itself and he could not only travel back in time but switch between parallel universes.

“It’s like having a wardrobe with drawers and I decide which one I open,” he explained when he first showed you his power. He took you back in time a bit, nothing major, only a few hours tops on a lazy Sunday but he said even the lightest stir in the water can lead to drastic consequences.

“Which one is real?” you looked up at him, resting your chin on his firm chest as the two of you chilled on the worn couch of his living room. Your index finger drew mindless patterns and figures into the material of his soft sweater just over his heart.

“All of them. None of them. It doesn’t matter,” he smiled softly with fingers your hair, brushing the stray locks away from your eyes. “If you believe in it, it’s real.”

You hummed, understanding in a way, but ever so curious you still had questions.

“Have you met me in other universes?”

“I haven’t been in other universes since I met you in this one but I’m pretty sure every single one of me out there would fall in love with the you in their world,” Jin whispered caressing your cheek gently and you felt those familiar happy bubbles in your stomach.

“Aww you are so cheesy!” you hit him on the shoulder out of second-hand embarrassment but didn’t resist at all when he grabbed your wrist and intertwined your fingers.

“You love it,” he flashed a cheeky smile and you shut him up with a kiss.

You were happy. You lived a simple life in which you didn’t have much but you were together. You were the envied couple of the block. It was all close to perfect. So why? Why did he decided to leave? Was it because of Jungkook’s accident? It wasn’t his fault. Even the younger boy currently healing in the hospital didn’t blame him. Or was it maybe because of what Tae did? Most of all, why didn’t he tell you the reason? Did he expect you to just accept his decision and move on? Then he didn’t know you well enough. You never gave up without a fight.

You were knocking on Namjoon’s trailer’s door for half an hour when the boy showed up behind you carrying antiseptic and a few bottles of beer. Not much of a grocery. He looked exhausted, dark circles under his eyes. He must have taken another double shift at the gas station to pay for Taehyung’s bail.

“Hey, whatcha need?” Namjoon fixed the beanie over his ears, pushing his dark blonde hair more onto his forehead

“Have you seen Jin lately?” you blurted out, quick to get on the topic.

“Not since the funeral. Why?” the boy searched for his keys, they rang as they clinked together. The cute keychain from Namsan Tower reminded you of happy times but the word funeral left a bitter taste in your mouth, metallic like blood.

You remembered that day clearly. The rain pouring down like tears. The salty taste of a cold kiss. You remembered when you had gotten the news in the middle of your dinner date with Jin. He’d taken the call and as he’d anxiously answered, the grief and sorrow you had seen in his eyes had been haunting you for long. Just like that your perfect little life had taken a 180 degrees turn and nothing had been the same ever since. You small group of friends started to fall apart.

“I talked with the others. Nobody has seen him in the last three days. I tried not to worry but today I found a folded paper with Sorry on it and I…” you rambled and you knew you rambled but you didn’t care. None of the other boys could help, not even his family had any idea where he could be. But if he wasn’t here, then he must have been somewhere out there, beyond the edges of this universe.

“You think he jumped,” Namjoon nodded, finishing your sentence and you gaped at him, at the casualty he mentioned this option as he invited you in his modest home.

“You know about that?”

“You didn’t think you were the only one, did you? We have known him for longer.”

He was right, of course, but since nobody ever mentioned it out loud, you kind of assumed it was a secret.

“What do you think he’s doing?” you asked as you stopped by the kitchen counter worriedly eyeing all the dirty dishes in the sink. Namjoon put the beer pack into the almost empty fridge and he sighed.

“I have no idea but I hope he doesn’t try to fix this mess because it will only get worse.”

As he plunked down on an old armchest massaging his temple, you felt sorry for him. Not pity, but empathy. You shared his pain and you didn’t want to add to the list of his troubles but this thing with Jin really bugged you. It was so out of character, he wasn’t like this and it had you sick with worry. You had to do something.

“Namjoon, do you perhaps know… if it’s possible for me to go after him?” you asked tentatively and the boy, he looked at you so hopeless. He tore a piece of paper off the local newspaper and scribbled something down on the job section in his messy handwriting.

“Go to Hyungwon, he might know how,” he hand it over to you and you left after a few grateful words.

It was an address. The location of an old-fashioned clock store downtown. You took a deep breath and stepped in. A bell rang above the door and chills ran down your back immediately. Inside of the shop, there was a young man in suit repairing a broken watch behind the counter. Even though it was polite to greet customers, he didn’t pay attention to you at all.

“Sorry… I’m looking for someone called Hyungwon,” your steps halted in front of him, voice just a bit uncertain.

“Well, you found him,” the shop assistant stood up, straightening his back and offering an awkward smile. “How can I help you?”

On your way here, you had practiced your request over and over again but now that you stood face to face with the actual person, the words didn’t come out. Your monologue sounded absurd even to you but you gave it a chance anyway.

“Uuh it might sound crazy but my boyfriend can go to parallel universes and…”

“Oooh a reflection traveller. I haven’t met one in a while,” Hyungwon hummed, not one bit shaken up. He lazily played with the cuff links on his suit. “He can go back in time too, right? But not before his birth.”

“Uh yes,” you blinked trying to overcome your surprise. Of course, he knew about these things! Otherwise Namjoon wouldn’t have suggested him. “So he left without an explanation and I want to find him.”

“Where is his body?” the man asked in an urgent manner but it annoyed you a bit. Didn’t he hear what you just told him?

“Like I said he’d left so I don’t know. I checked everywhere he could be but he’s gone.”

“That’s not good. He did an entire-being projection,” Hyungwon drew the conclusion as a professional but you were slightly confused. He probably noticed it because he started explaining the concept right away. “You know, normally if someone switches between universes, it’s only the conscience. The body stays in the original place, sleeping or in comatose state depending on the duration of their leave but if he jumped physically too, he’ll erase himself from this universe if he doesn’t come back. For how long has he been gone?”

“It’s the fourth day.”

“Not good,” he repeated tilting his head from left to right. “I would give it two weeks and he won’t exist here anymore which means he can’t come back.”

Suddenly, you felt faint, legs giving up, so you had to grab the counter to prevent the fall. You had to be stronger than that or you couldn’t help anyone.

“Is there a way I can prevent it? Bring him home?” you asked almost desperately, pleading eyes settling on Hyungwon.

“You know… maybe he had a good reason to go,” he said lightly as if trying not to hurt your feelings and preparing you for the worst outcomes. But nothing could have been worse than this painful void he left without excuses.

“Then he should tell me.”

For a long, quiet minute the shop assistant looked at you strangely, ponderingly, waiting for you to change your mind but when you didn’t, he took out a wooden box from a drawer. Inside of it there was a non-conventional, elegant watch.

“Since the universes are parallel lines or rather dimensions, you can either go back or forth,” he pointed to the two buttons on either sides of the clock face. “You can only switch once every twenty-four hours. Lucky for you even a reflection traveller can’t skip universes so you might catch up to him. Time is a funny thing when you travel, so don’t forget you have two weeks to come back or both of you will be erased from here.”

“Thank you,” you took the special watch carefully and put it on. It made you feel nervous for some reason. You had never travelled between universes before and Jin warned you about some brutal ones. But you couldn’t give up now. What if he got stuck somewhere and he didn’t know how to get back to you?

“Good luck,” Hyungwon nodded towards you with a forced smile before he glanced at the watch on your left wrist.

You had no time to waste. Jin had some explaining to do and you were ready to drag him home if you had to. You inhaled the dusty air of the shop one last time and pushed the glowing forth button without hesitation.

For a moment nothing happened and then everything went black.