A little over a year ago, Nayeon met Yeri.

She was coming out of a very unsuccessful job interview. Having invented the reversal light, but with no idea what to do next, a job seemed like the most logical solution. After all, how hard could it be to succeed when Nayeon could just rewind and fix what she messed up?

Pretty hard, it turned out.

Her first mistake was when they asked her if she had any convictions. Nayeon thought long and hard about it, but she hadn’t really been raised religious, and she was still in the process of figuring her life out, so she answered that she didn’t have any serious ones.

It then dawned on her that they meant if she’d been convicted of any crimes. That was rewind number one.

Rewind number two happened when Nayeon accidentally gave them the impression she was a recovering drug addict. Rewind number three was because she misheard something and ended up implying she sold her body for cash.

That convictions question was a tough one.

Once she got past that, Nayeon thought it would be easy enough, but ten rewinds later convinced her otherwise. Her most memorable slipups were twirling a pen around nervously in her hand before letting it slip and getting a big black line on her face, listing her number one weakness as “I keep getting prettier”, and assuming that the young man who came in was an intern and not the boss of the whole company.

Eventually, Nayeon just gave up and walked out. On her way out, it dawned on her that she’d rewound before she left, so she’d basically stood up at the start of the interview and left without an explanation. She definitely wasn’t getting the job, but this point, she was too fed up to give it one last try.

With the kind of luck she was having today, it wasn’t even a surprise when she exited the building and saw someone trying to break into her car.

“Hey!”

The girl looked up, and Nayeon realised that she was kind of cute right before she bolted. Cursing, she rewound back a few seconds, watching as the girl struggled to open the driver’s door.

“Need some help with that?” Nayeon asked cheerfully.

“Mind your own business.”

Well, it was better than sprinting away.

Nayeon took a moment to observe the girl. She had short, dirty blonde hair and was wearing a shirt and tie with a miniskirt and fishnets, like some high school kid trying to be punk.

“Are you supposed to be in school?”

“What the hell does that mean? I’m an adult.” The girl snapped. “And I thought I told you to mind your own business.”

“Well, I’m trying to. It’s just that you appear to be breaking into my car.”

The girl froze. Nayeon got ready to rewind if she tried to run away again.

“If you want a lift I’ll be happy to give it to you. I’ve got nowhere to be right now.”

The girl shot her a suspicious look, which was a bit rich considering their current circumstances.

“Are you a kidnapper?” she asked.

“No. I’m just bored.”

The girl seemed to believe her. She relaxed, leaning against Nayeon’s car but thankfully not trying to stick a ruler down the window anymore.

“I’m not actually in a hurry to get anywhere. I just wanted to steal your car because of its colour.”

Nayeon smiled proudly at her pink car. Jeongyeon and Jihyo had laughed so hard they cried when she got a paint job, but Nayeon had kept the colour anyway. Looks like she had the last laugh, because Jeongyeon’s old Mini Cooper never got the attention of any cute girls.

“Well if you want I can drive you around in it.”

“You really are bored, aren’t you?” The girl studied her closely, and Nayeon did her best not to look like a shady kidnapper. “I’m Yeri.”

“Nayeon.” She clicked her keys and the car unlocked. “Hop in if you want.”

Yeri did.

They drove around for a few minutes, Nayeon chatting about her job interview (leaving out a few time travelly details) and Yeri explaining what had inspired her to start stealing cars. They reached a red light at the intersection just when she was telling Nayeon about the Youtube video she’d watched where a man showed how to open a car door with a ruler.

“Turns out it’s a lot harder than it looks.”

“Well I’m glad you tried it anyways.”

The light turned green, and Nayeon hit the accelerator. They made halfway across the intersection when a truck came speeding out from the right and knocked into them. Yeri screamed as the car spun around and around, but Nayeon ignored it all, reaching for her reversal light.

Three seconds later, she was back at the red light.

“-lot harder than it looks.”

“Huh.” Nayeon said, too shaken to give a better reply.

The light turned green. Nayeon didn’t move. Yeri turned to look at her, confused.

“Why aren’t you driving?”

“Because of that.” Nayeon nodded to the truck that sped past.

“Huh?” Yeri’s jaw dropped, and Nayeon smirked as she finally tapped the accelerator. “What the heck? How did you know about that? Are you psychic?”

“What?” This time it was Nayeon’s turn to stare at her, baffled. “Oh, well I guess that is the conclusion most people would jump to. But nope, I can’t see the future. I can just live it and then rewind.”

She pulled her reversal light out of her pocket, feeling a thrill at how awestruck Yeri looked.

“This invention of mine let’s me go back up to two minutes in time. We got hit, I rewound, and we survived.”

“That’s insane.” Yeri whispered. “Are you a god?”

“I like to think so.” Nayeon laughed at Yeri’s serious expression. “No, I’m not a god. I was born a human and I still am, I just got hit by lightning a few years ago, and got a different view on the world.”

“A different view?” Yeri scoffed. “That’s one way of putting it. Why were you even at that job interview? With your power you could just take whatever you want.”

“Really?” Nayeon hummed thoughtfully. “I never considered that. I only finished building it a little while ago.”

“Can you help me steal a Nintendo Switch?”

“Seriously?” Nayeon glanced over at her, feeling disbelief at this girl’s forwardness.

“I haven’t been able to afford one yet and my foster family won’t get it for me. But with you and your amazing powers I’m thinking it would be easy.”

“No way.” Nayeon laughed. “I’m not a criminal. I mean, I was arrested for reckless driving, but that was accidental and it wasn’t even my fault that dude in his huge truck just-”

One hour later, she and Yeri were driving around with a brand new Nintendo Switch.

“You know what we should do next?” Yeri said cheerfully. “We should rob an ATM or something. You sneak up and learn the pin, and I’ll steal the card.”

“What? No, I’m not robbing someone.”

“Please? It can be a really rich businessman.”

“It’s not happening.”

“Pretty please?”

“No!”

Thirty minutes later, Yeri was gleefully waving bundles of cash around while the car radio blared Ariana Grande’s latest album.

“I can’t believe you.” Nayeon laughed. “You couldn’t just stop with one, you had to scam three people.”

“I think you mean we scammed three people.” Yeri flapped a wad of cash towards Nayeon’s face. “Don’t act like you aren’t having just as much fun as I am.”

“I’m not!”

“Liar.”

Nayeon didn’t say anything, but she did reach over to crank the radio up a little louder. Yeri laughed, singing the lyrics out of the open window. Nayeon laughed too, the memory of the disastrous interview slowly fading into the background of her mind.

They spent four days together, getting wilder and wilder. By Monday night, Nayeon lay in a five-star hotel bed, admiring her stolen jewels, while Yeri sat at the edge of the bed playing one of the many games they’d gotten for the Nintendo Switch.

“I can’t believe I was really going to work nine to five office jobs.” Nayeon slipped one of the diamond rings she’d stolen onto her finger. “I was lucky I met you.”

“I think I’m the lucky one here.” Yeri laughed, successfully completing another level of her game that Nayeon didn’t remember the name of.

She just sat there, staring at Yeri, admiring everything about her from the way she laughed to her concentration during the game to her cheeky smile that Nayeon had literally stolen millions for.

It had only been four days, but maybe…just maybe…

Yeri’s phone rang.

“Hello?” Nayeon sat up as Yeri answered it. “Joohyun? What do you mean I need to come home? I’m in the middle of- No I haven’t checked the news, why would I? Yeah, that was me, so what?”

The voice on the phone got louder. Yeri started looking a little nervous.

“I told you I was going to do my own thing! You don’t have to take responsibility for me anymore! No, I’m not in trouble! But-”

Yeri sighed as the voice got even sterner.

“Fine. I’m on my way.”

She hung up then, and Nayeon scooted forward, her stomach slowly curling with anxiety.

“That was my foster sister.” Yeri explained. “Apparently our crime spree caught the media’s attention, and she says I need to come home right now.”

“So you’re going?” Nayeon couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Just like that? It’s over?”

“Well yeah.” Yeri shrugged. “Joohyun is terrifying when she’s angry, and this is the worst I’ve ever heard her.”

“But what about me?” Nayeon hated how pathetic she sounded.

“This was fun, and I had a really great time. But my family probably won’t want you seeing me ever again.”

“You were the one who gave me the idea of stealing!”

“Honestly, I don’t think my family will care. I’ll try my best to keep the lawyers out of it, and you can keep all the stuff if you’re mad at me for ditching so soon, but I really have to go.”

She walked out of the room. Nayeon took thirty seconds to register what exactly had happened.

Then she pulled out her reversal light and rewound.

Yeri walked out.

Nayeon rewound again.

Yeri walked out in tears.

Nayeon rewound again.

Yeri walked out laughing.

Again.

Nayeon stormed out.

Again.

They screamed at each other until Nayeon got sick and rewound.

“I only stole because you wanted me to!” she yelled. “You can’t just leave me!”

“As if you wouldn’t have gone into crime anyways!”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Your power Nayeon.” Yeri didn’t even sound angry anymore. “It’s incredible. You joked about being a god but the truth is you’re above the rest of us now. The rules we live our life by just don’t apply to you.”

“That’s bull.”

“Oh yeah? How many times have you rewound this conversation?”

“I-” Nayeon couldn’t breathe, the truth refusing to leave . “That’s not the point.”

“Isn’t it?” Yeri asked sadly. “I like you Nayeon, but we would never work. You and I are on different levels.”

She went to leave, and something told Nayeon this was the last time.

“I love you!”

Yeri paused, turning back around. Nayeon stood there, vulnerable and open, unsure of what to say next. If only she could really see the future, she’d know what the right path would be. Instead, she was floundering in the dark.

“You’ve known me four days.” Yeri replied.

“I still-”

“Do you even know what age I am?”

“What does that-”

“I’m eighteen.”

Nayeon froze.

“You… you told me…”

“I told you I was an adult, which I am.” Yeri smiled bitterly. “You mentioned yesterday that you were twenty one. I don’t think it’s a big deal, but I had a feeling you’d see it differently.”

She was eighteen. She might be younger than Chaeyoung, younger than Tzuyu. Nayeon felt like throwing up.

“You don’t have to look so disgusted. We just made out a lot, we didn’t even sleep together.”

Eighteen. God, how had Nayeon not realised before this? She felt like the biggest idiot in the world. She’d been running around with a damn teenager. Had Yeri even finished school yet?

Yeri went to leave again. This time, Nayeon didn’t stop her.

She hesitated at the door, and Nayeon didn’t have enough energy left to feel hopeful.

“Do you have friends? From before the lightning strike, I mean.”

“Yeah.” Nayeon said dully.

“That’s good.” Yeri nodded. “At least you have some people that know who you are without the power. Keep them close, ok?”

Nayeon didn’t reply, and when Yeri left she didn’t rewind.

The next day, she robbed a museum for the hell of it. She ignored Jihyo’s angry texts, and it was only when Tzuyu showed up to help arrest her that Nayeon finally started to really have fun.

She never told them why she’d started stealing. Yeri’s family must have had good lawyers, because her involvement in it was never made public. None of Nayeon’s friends even knew Yeri existed. Nayeon wondered if she should feel wronged, but all she felt was numb.

Because in the end, Yeri was right. Even with the limit of two minutes, Nayeon was just too powerful.

Sana wasn’t Yeri. Other than being mischievous spirits, they weren’t anything alike.

But the situations were a little too similar for Nayeon to be comfortable with. Which was why she called Jihyo over to help while Sana sat inside one of the hotel’s conference rooms, arguing with Momo and Mina. Nayeon couldn’t hear most of their talk, but sometimes they would raise their voices loud enough for her to catch a snippet of it.

“You kept telling me to stan LOONA! I still don’t know what that means!”

“You could have just googled it Momo!”

“I didn’t think of that!”

“If you stanned LOONA you probably would have thought of that.”

“Sana!”

Their voices dipped back down, and Nayeon was left with absolutely no clue if things were going well or not. Someone tapped her shoulder and she whirled around, relaxing when she saw it was Jihyo.

Then she saw who else she’d brought with her and her relief vanished.

“What, did you get stuck with babysitting duty?”

Tzuyu and Chaeyoung rolled their eyes, creepily in sync.

“You told me it was an emergency, so I figured I should bring Tzuyu.” Jihyo explained. “But Tzuyu wouldn’t leave without Chaeyoung because she thought this was a diversion tactic to lure her out so that you could kidnap Chae.”

“Wow, that’s awfully overprotective of her. Chaeyoung, don’t you feel smothered by that?”

Tzuyu looked murderous, but at least messing with them took some of Nayeon’s attention away from her girlfriend’s big drama.

“Actually, I’m here to stop Tzuyu from killing you, and right now I’m thinking it’s a good thing I came.”

“Interesting, so you both think you’re in control of each other. Doesn’t sound like a healthy relationship to me.”

“Nayeon.” Jihyo stepped between them before Tzuyu swung at her. “What’s the emergency?”

Oh right. That thing Nayeon was trying to avoid thinking about.

“Sana’s friends came over from Japan.”

“Momo and Mina?” Jihyo gasped. “They’re here?”

“Calm down, you can ask for an autograph later. I think they’re trying to convince Sana to go back home with them.”

“Oh.” Jihyo looked far too understanding. “Do you think she’ll agree to leave?”

“Honestly? I’m not sure.” Nayeon shrugged, trying to appear breezy but probably coming off as heavily in denial. “But if she does choose to leave I don’t want to be alone when it happens. I know you have rehearsals but-”

“Of course I’ll stay with you.” Jihyo wrapped her arms around Nayeon, and Nayeon let herself be comforted for all of two seconds.

“So, if this is the emergency should Tzuyu and I just go?”

Jihyo stepped back and Nayeon turned to glare at Chaeyoung.

“Is it just me or have you gotten shorter?”

“Jihyo.” Chaeyoung said pleadingly. “Let Tzuyu push her through one wall, just one!”

“I’ll settle for shoving her through a door.” Tzuyu begged. “It doesn’t even have to be locked.”

Jihyo looked like she might actually be considering it, but thankfully the conference room door opened before Nayeon ended up getting slammed into something. She still had bruises from where Sana had shoved her against the wall, not that she minded that in the slightest.

Her relief faded when Mina emerged, teary eyed, and ran off to the left.

“Is she ok?” Jihyo asked, familiar compassion flashing in her eyes.

“I’ll go after her.” Tzuyu said. “Try to stop Nayeon from… being Nayeon until I get back.”

Nayeon didn’t even respond to that, because she was genuinely worried about what was happening in there. She knew Sana and her friends had issues, but if Mina was crying things were much worse than she had thought.

There was nothing Nayeon could actually do about it. Sana had asked her to let her explain everything to her friends, and Nayeon had agreed. She hadn’t expected it to go down like this, but hey, at least she had a good distraction now.

“Well, well, well.” she smirked at Chaeyoung. “Your girlfriend’s not here to protect you anymore. Not so tough now, are you shorty?”

Chaeyoung kicked her in the shins.

“Ow.” Nayeon hopped up and down on one leg. “Ow ow ow, how come it hurts so much? Oh God, I regret everything!”

“That’s nice to hear.” Chaeyoung said smugly, while Jihyo just smiled and shook her head fondly.

The noise level in the room picked up, and everyone looked concerned.

“Are they ok?” Jihyo asked.

Nayeon hesitated, then thought just do it. She walked over and pulled open the door.

“You told me you were fine with us, even though I would have backed down if you still loved her!”

“This isn’t about me loving her first! I was fine when you two got together, but not when you started ignoring me and making me a constant third wheel!”

“What? I didn’t do that!”

“Yes you did! You’re my best friend and you didn’t even realise how terrible you were making me feel! You still don’t get why I left and you’re here asking me to come back!”

They both stopped yelling, turning to look at Nayeon. She clicked her reversal light.

“Are they ok?”

Nayeon turned around and gave Jihyo a big, fake smile.

“They’re doing fine.”

Both she and Chaeyoung looked less than convinced, but Nayeon didn’t bother with further reassurances. Sana and Momo were getting louder again, and she needed a better distraction.

“I’m going after Mina. Stay here in case Sana comes out.”

“I thought she already did. She’s gay, right?”

“Haha.” Nayeon deadpanned, trying not to smile at how pleased Chaeyoung looked at her own joke. “Just watch the door.”

It was fairly easy to find Tzuyu and Mina. She just walked down the corridor, turned the corner, and they were sitting on a couch. Nayeon hung back, not wanting to disturb… whatever was happening.

Either they were talking really softly, or they were communicating using facial gestures alone. Nayeon couldn’t tell, but it looked like Tzuyu was actually comforting her pretty well. Nayeon eavesdropped for a minute, just to see if she could actually hear them. If she strained her ears, she could make out very quiet whispers, so it seemed they were actually communicating with words after all.

She slipped away then, back down the corridor. The conference room seemed quieter, but Nayeon refused to get her hopes up, especially when she saw the look on Jihyo’s face.

“What happened now?”

“I just got a text from my director.” Jihyo said, her voice cracking. “Chungha’s in the hospital.”

It felt like someone had thrown a bucket of ice water over Nayeon. Suddenly, her relationship drama didn’t seem as important anymore, not when there was possibly a much bigger threat on the loose.

“Was it her? Was it Chanmi?”

“Yeah.” Jihyo nodded sadly. “She ambushed Chungha and injured her really badly.”

“How?” Nayeon asked. “I mean, I don’t know Chungha that well, but I got the impression she could handle herself.”

“The thing is, Chanmi wasn’t alone. It’s all over the news now. This driver crashed his car and accidentally spilled a tub of radioactive waste all over her. Now she appears to have gained the power to control people’s minds, and the first thing she did was get a mob together to try and put Chungha in a coma.”

“Jesus Christ.” Nayeon put her head in her hands. “Of all the ridiculous, worst possible coincidences…”

“Nayeon.” Jihyo said, a dangerous tone to her voice. “I just realised something. How do you know Chanmi and Chungha?”

Well, this day just kept getting better. Nayeon tried to smile at Jihyo, but the force of her glare told Nayeon that she was not in the mood for messing around.

“In my defence,” Nayeon put her hands up. “Sana and I are only partly responsible for this.”

For some reason, that didn’t seem to reassure Jihyo at all.