Ah, that incessant tapping was driving him crazy, and he already had a blinding headache. Wait. Chanyeol froze. He was back in the line, everyone acting like nothing had ever happened. And. And the guy. Healthy as a horse, happily tapping away, competing for the world's most annoying person. He couldn't deny that he was relieved this guy was alive, even though it meant there was something very very wrong with him. What was going on? Was he going completely crazy? Did he space out after overworking himself? Had he actually imagined the whole thing? Again? This was more than a little strange. He looked at his hand, it was clean as a whistle. Yet it was trembling. The blood had felt so real. It had all felt so real.

What if it had been real? Was he crazy for even entertaining the possibility? But that would mean that he had traveled back in time. That he had gotten a do-over. No. It was impossible. And why only around that guy? Kyungsoo. If that was his name. It was the name his crazy brain had given him. What was so special about this Kyungsoo? It was more likely that the annoyance he felt when he was near him triggered some kind of psychotic episode, leading to these incredibly vivid and very disturbing hallucinations.

Yeah, that had to be it.

Still, it didn't sit right with him. Nothing sat right with him. Furtively he looked up. There she was, the woman from before, sitting there like she hadn't just accidentally killed a guy with her lack of table manners. Laughing leisurely at something her companion said, she cut her steak with the knife that had pierced Kyungsoo's skull only moments ago. Had he really imagined the whole thing? How had he known what that woman looked like? Well, he could have randomly looked up before without noticing, his subconscious taking a mental picture of her to use in its scheme of scaring the living daylights out of him, just for fun.

Suddenly a thought occurred to him. A brain tumor. They were famous for messing up perfectly normal brains, taking over and making them go haywire. He got a pang in his stomach. Maybe he had one. He didn't want to die. He made a mental note to go have a check-up on his next day off, pleading for it to be benign. It was the explanation that made the most sense though. But he wasn't sure whether he wanted less, to be going crazy or to be dying from cancer.

Chanyeol gasped. He watched as the woman on the 2^nd floor used the railing as an armrest, waving the knife around, too engrossed in her conversation to notice what she was doing. He looked at Kyungsoo and then up again, the knife too well-positioned to hit Kyungsoo's head for comfort. No, he couldn't take the chance. No matter how unlikely, he couldn't risk it happening again. Or well, for the first time for everyone except him, apparently. He jumped out of the line, giving up his hard-earned spot for a delusion. Taking two rapid steps forward, he grabbed Kyungsoo's expensive jacket and yanked him out of harm's way.

Kyungsoo looked absolutely livid. As if he wanted to fight him but was hesitating since he was quite a bit smaller than him. His plans were interrupted by the woman on the balcony as she yelled,

“Watch out!”

A second later, Chanyeol heard the sharp clink sound as the knife hit the pavement. He couldn't believe it. It actually happened. It happened exactly as he had thought it would happen. Like he had lived it. Except now the guy hadn't been in the way to soften the landing of the knife, getting a death sentence in the process. Now he was fine. Chanyeol had saved his life!

“What are you smiling about?” the guy asked in a low, irritated voice.

“Don't you see? I saved your life!” Chanyeol exclaimed, pointing at the knife that was right where he had been standing before.

Chanyeol was so relieved, so happy. So this was the feeling of saving somebody's life. He had actually made a difference. Not just shuffling paperwork day in, day out, which at the end of the day only influenced the amount of money some very rich people earned. Yes, if he failed, the rich people earned less money and got pretty angry at times, but if he thought about it, it had no meaning. For the first time in his life, he had done something worthwhile.

The guy let out a low, ironic hiss.

“That thing? That small steak knife? Is that what would have been the end of me? Really? That's what you're going for?” he asked mockingly.

Mr. Hyde was back.

Chanyeol didn't understand where he was going with this, so he just nodded.

“Oh please! My head is thicker than that. And the odds of the knife hitting me with the tip facing down are minuscule. What's your game? Are you just the worst con-artist ever or are you completely certifiable?”

The guy looked at Chanyeol like he was a runaway from the nearest loony bin, scanning him with his eyes to see if he posed a real threat or was simply a small annoyance that needed to be kicked out of his field of vision.

“How much are we talking?” the guy quietly asked, a flash of curiosity in his eyes.

“How much of what?” Chanyeol asked back, holding his ground.

He didn't like the tone of his otherwise hauntingly beautiful voice. He clearly wanted to get rid of him and fast. He acted like Chanyeol was nothing but a speck of dirt on his shoes, waiting to be wiped away, discreetly.

“Oh, come on, like you don't have a number in your head right now. I expect you've done some research on me, so you know how much I'm worth, huh? Or are you that bad that you just start following the next well-dressed person you see in hopes of squeezing some dough out of them?”

Kyungsoo raised his eyebrow with contempt.

“It figures. Why would you put more work into choosing your targets than into your actual scam, and man your scam ! Seriously dude, you at least have to make it look like there is a proper accident about to happen to have a chance of a reward. Killed by a flying steak knife? Please! You and your girlfriend up there seriously need to find yourselves a new profession,” he concluded.

“You could have died!!” Chanyeol spat at him, but he knew it was useless.

That arrogant pompous would never believe a word he was saying. He despised characters like that, stepping on the little people to appear taller themselves. And this guy was so tiny, he needed to step on a heap of people.

The guy snorted, “Okay, let's be fair. You did probably save me from a hell of a headache, even though it would've been caused by your little girlfriend there. So hmm, annoyance and a bottle of aspirin. I'd say 5000 won.”

He opened his wallet, it looked like it was worth more than what was in it.

“Ah shoot. I don't carry such small bills. Fine, since I'm in a good mood, here.”

He shoved a 10.000 won bill into his hand.

Chanyeol was about to protest when he was interrupted.

“Oh, Kyungsoo-ya!”

The middle-aged woman came running from inside.

Only, her expression couldn't have been more different from the one she had had in Chanyeol's vision. Her face was glowing, a big bright smile on her lips. She looked at least five years younger.

“Why are you standing out here in the line you silly boy, how many times have I told you to stop giving in to customer requests to meet you? You're famous now, you don't have to be so nice to everyone,” she said out of breath, pinching his cheeks.

“Mooom,” he complained, but everyone could see he liked it.

Dr. Jekyll was back, purring like a kitten.

“Ah, you sweet boy. How is it that some gorgeous girl hasn't snatched you up yet? I really don't know what girls are thinking these days. Handsome, successful, and with a heart of gold, what more do they want?”

She shook her head, dragging Kyungsoo in after her.

Heart of gold! Yeah, actual gold maybe, calculated in dollar bills. That Kyungsoo! Cold water ran down Chanyeol's spine. So his name was really Kyungsoo. How had he known that? He was scaring himself. Everything that had happened in his psychotic episode had happened again for real. Had he really rewound time? Or had it been a vision? It had felt a little too real to have been a vision though. His hands were still trembling, the lingering feeling of Kyungsoo's limp body giving him the creeps. He looked around. Nobody else had been affected, they were just standing in line, waiting for their turn. Two nosy girls were eyeing him with a condescending look, clearly having heard his conversation with that Kyungsoo character.

The line had become even longer and Chanyeol had lost his place in it. It didn't matter, he wasn't in the mood for spaghetti anymore anyway. He had a blinding headache. He just wanted to go home, imagining his comfortable bed. , the deadline! He looked around for his documents, realizing they were still in his hand. Oh, right, he hadn't dropped them this time around. It was getting hard to discern what was real and what was not. Turning around, he nearly ran into someone.

Kyungsoo.

Chanyeol's heart sank. Not that jerk again. His entitled face was the last thing he wanted to see, pretty but deadly. Kyungsoo was looking at him like he knew something, like he had a hidden card up his sleeve.

“I remember you,” he said, smirking.

“I see now that I had you pegged all wrong. That night at the traffic lights. So you did do your homework, huh? I'm flattered, but you're really not my type. I don't know what rumors you've been listening to, but they're not true. I'm not... so inclined. I'm also not the damsel in distress kind of guy, I can take care of myself. Go find yourself a sugar daddy somewhere else.”

He was staring so intensely at Chanyeol that it felt like he was trying to kill him with his stare alone.

Chanyeol just stood there, speechless. Was there no end to the bull that came out of that guy?

“I'll let you off the hook this time. But next time, I won't be as understanding. If you don't believe me, here's the business card of my lawyer.”

Kyungsoo threw a card at him, clearly not hating the idea of having an admirer. He was acting all big and important, like Chanyeol should be thankful that he was even giving him the time of day. Chanyeol had never experienced anything like it. He was used to rich s acting entitled around him, but this particular one was getting under his skin. Did he really think he was his personal stalker? Seriously? He just saved his life and this was the thanks he got?

Annoyed, he handed him back his 10.000 won bill, trying his hardest to be civilized.

“You can keep your money. Have a nice day,” he said sarcastically and got the hell out of there, swearing never to save his life ever again.