“Jinyoung! I told you not to touch that!” Jaebeom can’t help the annoyance in his voice as he glares at the younger boy. “We’re going to get in trouble!” He’s dimly aware of a weird flashing around them, but he’s more focused on trying to quell his irritation and not snap at Jinyoung inadvertantly.

“Uh, hyung?” Jinyoung says, sounding uncharacteristically meek. “I think we have bigger things to worry about than that now.”

Jaebeom follows his gaze to find him staring at the date emblazoned on the news channel playing on the nearest TV. “Wait,” he said slowly, not comprehending what he’s seeing. “That says…2019.” He swallows and looks around. “Are we - are we in the future?” The building is clearly the JYP one, but it does look different - sleeker, more modern, somehow.

Jinyoung meets his eyes, and Jaebeom sees a hint of fear there. “I’m sorry, hyung!” he says, his voice cracking. “I didn’t mean - I didn’t know this would happen! I didn’t know we would go to the future!”

“Okay, okay, relax,” Jaebeom says. He’s still awkward with things like this, still unsure of how exactly to comfort Jinyoung when he gets stressed out, but he at least knows that getting angry won’t help. He takes a few calming breaths to prevent an unwanted outburst. “I’m - I’m not mad.”

“O-okay,” Jinyoung says, clearly still shaken, and Jaebeom feels a little guilty for not being more comforting. “Can I - ?” He breaks off uncertainly before completing the thought.

Jaebeom can guess what he wants, though, so he sighs and gestures for Jinyoung to come closer. “Yes, you can hold on to me. You just don’t need to cling too much, I won’t let anything happen to you.”

“Thank you, hyung,” Jinyoung says gratefully, immediately latching himself to Jaebeom’s side. Unsure of what exactly to do, Jaebeom starts wandering the halls with Jinyoung trailing alongside him, holding onto his arm.

Suddenly, Jinyoung stops short, tugging Jaebeom back. “What?” Jaebeom asks, once again trying to keep a level tone.

Jinyoung is staring inside one of the rooms, his mouth agape. “Isn’t that…us?”

The door is slightly ajar, so they can both easily see inside without being spotted themselves. And what a sight it is: it is indeed the two of them, many years older than they are now. Future-Jinyoung's hair has become fluffy and curly, Jaebeom notices. It looks really cute, if he's being honest, but he shakes the thought away hastily.

"Whoa," the Jinyoung next to him says. "You got really good-looking, hyung."

"Shut up, brat," Jaebeom says, though there's a part of his mind that's incredibly pleased.

The older versions of themselves aren't alone, either. Their future counterparts are surrounded by four vaguely familiar faces and one unrecognizable one. "Hey, isn't that Yugyeom? And Bambam?" Jaebeom whispers, surprised.

“Mark-hyung and Jackson, too,” Jinyoung adds softly. “But who’s the other boy?”

Jaebeom shrugs. “Who knows. But I wonder why they’re all with us?”

“Let’s try and see what they do,” Jinyoung suggests, and Jaebeom nods, turning his attention back to the room and the seven people inside.

What he sees shocks him: it’s his future self, following future-Jinyoung around, pulling Jinyoung in for hugs, leaving no space between them as he whispers in Jinyoung’s ears in full view of everyone. Even more odd, the Jinyoung in the room squirms and tries to move away, but also has a huge smile on his face. And the strangest thing of all is the other five boys either watching them and looking bored or completely ignoring them, almost like they’re used to this behavior.

“Jaebeommie, stop it!” future-Jinyoung finally says, laughter evident in his voice.

Jaebeom stills, and the grip that Jinyoung - his Jinyoung, the one from his own time - has on his arm tightens momentarily. “What am I doing?” Jinyoung mumbles, sounding stunned. “I just spoke informally so casually?”

“Never mind that,” Jaebeom says, fixated on his future self’s reaction - or rather, complete lack of reaction. “What am I doing?”

Because future-Jaebeom is just standing there with an incredibly goofy smile on his face - Jaebeom is embarrassed to even look at it, let alone acknowledge that it’s his own self who’s making that face - gazing at future-Jinyoung like he’s never seen anything better in his life. “But Jinyoungie,” future-Jaebeom says, and Jaebeom can’t believe the nerve of this guy, especially because he is him - how can he stand there, surrounded by people, and allow himself to sound so blatantly and obviously loving? “I believe in you. I trust you.”

It’s in that moment that Jaebeom realizes that maybe future-him has sorted his feelings out by now, and no longer lashes out at Jinyoung because he doesn’t want to get too close out of fear that people will notice that something is different about the way he looks at Jinyoung. Future-Jaebeom apparently doesn’t care about any of that anymore, because there he is, several other people in the room with him and the door wide open, smiling at future-Jinyoung with hearts in his eyes like it doesn’t matter who sees.

His own Jinyoung squeezes his arm gently, and Jaebeom turns to look at him. Jinyoung stares back, a mischevious smile spreading across his face. “Is that what we’re going to be like one day, Jaebeommie-hyung?”

“Don’t count on it,” Jaebeom tries to grumble, but it probably isn’t very effective because Jinyoung just giggles.

And Jaebeom knows it’s going to take a while to get there, because they’re still young and not quite at a level of complete comfort yet - but just from that laugh alone, he thinks maybe it’s inevitable that every version of Im Jaebeom will always eventually end up whipped for Park Jinyoung.