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CHAPTERNINE

❝TRICYCLES,LIONS,AND

JELLYFISHES,OHMY❞

"Did mom really time travel?” Woohyun asked, looking over his shoulder. He gripped the metal chains attached to his seat tightly as he was pushed forward.

“No one can really say for sure,” the voice behind Woohyun answered. “I don’t, though.”

“Why not?” He wondered aloud as he flew backwards. He tucked his feet in, gaining speed, the wind howling in his ears.

“Because,” the voice didn’t continue.

“Because?” He felt a pair of hands push him forward again. He swung his feet in the air to gain more momentum.

“Just because.”

“Aw! Boohyun!” Woohyun whined. As he grew closer to the ground, he kept his feet out. They scraped against the dirt below, slowing him down. He didn’t feel his brother’s hands pushing him. He jumped off the swing as it came to a stop. He turned around to give his brother a big pout.

Boohyun chuckled at his little brother’s behavior and ruffled his hair. “Maybe when you get older, I’ll tell you.”

“How old?”

“Maybe when you’re sixteen–”

Woohyun groggily opened his eyes, feeling something wet trickle down his face.

Rain?

When did it start raining?

His eyesight was blurred. His head was pounding. His surroundings sounded muffled. He could’ve sworn he heard someone calling his name. He wanted to wipe the water off his face, but he couldn’t feel or move his left arm. His right felt okay, though. The pounding in his head intensified as he tried to move.

 Woohyun closed his eyes, trying to block out the pain. He lost consciousness soon after.

“What do you know about time traveling?” Boohyun questioned after the waitress placed their food on the table.

“Besides from what I’ve seen on TV, not much,” Woohyun grabbed a pair of chop sticks, immediately digging into his food.

“Well,” Boohyun began to explain. “Time travel is the concept of moving backwards and/or forwards to different points in time.”

Woohyun’s head began to throb immediately. He didn’t know where the pain came from, but it was sharp and severe. He heard faint yelling in the background, but Woohyun wasn’t sure where it was coming from. The restaurant was quite empty, and he didn’t see anyone outside.

He could’ve of sworn he heard his name being called.

“Generally, there are three rules when it comes to time traveling,” Boohyun continued.

“Huh?” Woohyun looked at his brother, confused on what Boohyun was talking about. Was he still going on about this time traveling?

“Three rules, Woohyun. Try and pay attention to what I’m saying,” Boohyun frowned, not looking up from his plate. He was eating spaghetti.

“Is it hot in here, or is it just me?” Woohyun mused, suddenly finding the temperature of the restaurant high. He used his left arm to fan his self. However, it slightly ached as he moved it. Woohyun wasn’t sure why it suddenly hurt, though. He hadn’t accidentally slammed his arm against anything or anyone during soccer practice recently.

Why was suddenly everything hurting?

“It’s just you,” Boohyun chuckled.

“Woohyun!”

The brunet snapped his head to the right. He knew he just heard his name a moment ago. No one was sitting next to him. No one was paying them any attention. Not even Boohyun.

“Rule number one: There is a single fixed history, which is self-consistent and unchangeable. In this version, everything happens on a single timeline, which does not contradict itself and cannot interact with anything potentially existing outside of it.”

Woohyun felt liquid drop on his hand. He looked up wondering where it came from.

Was there a leak coming from the ceiling?

They’re inside, so it couldn’t be rainwater. It was sunny out. It hasn’t rain in a week. Woohyun looked at his hand. The liquid was blood. A few more droplets of blood splashed on his hand.

“Wake up!”

He then felt something trickle from his nose. He wiped his nose with his clean hand. When he looked at it, it was smeared with blood. Woohyun panicked. He looked up to his brother, but the older man wasn’t paying attention. He was still going on about the physics and science of time travel.

“Number two,” Boohyun held up two fingers. He was looking at Woohyun now, but it seemed as if he was looking straight through him, as if he didn’t even notice what was going on with Woohyun. “History is flexible and is subject to change. Changes to history are easy and can impact the traveler, the world, or both. History is change resistant in direct relationship to the importance of the event. In example, small trivial events can be readily changed, but large ones take great effort. ”

The brunet grabbed a napkin, quickly pressing it against his nose, hoping to stop the bleeding. His whole body ached. Woohyun wasn’t sure where this pain was coming from. He hadn’t done anything to cause it. He’d barely moved in his seat, and he only took one bite out of his food.

“Boohyun…” Woohyun whispered. It was getting hard to breathe. “Something’s wrong with me…”

“Please wake up!”

The napkin Woohyun was using was soaked in blood. More blood seemed to dribble from his nose. He grabbed a few more napkins.

“And the final rule: alternate timelines,” Boohyun said. He placed his chopsticks to the side. He was done with his meal. “In this version of time travel, there are multiple coexisting alternate histories, so that when the traveler goes back in time, he/she ends up in a new timeline where historical events can differ from the timeline he/she came from, but her original timeline does not cease to exist. This particular rule occurs more often than the other two.”

“WOOHYUN!”

Woohyun felt he was going to pass out. With a struggle, he stood up. “Boohyun,” he whimpered. The pain intensified with each movement. “I think I need to go to the hospital.” He tried to raise his voice to get his brother’s attention, but it only came out as a hoarse whisper.

“I believe, in your case,” Boohyun looked him straight in the eye. “You’re experiencing rule number two. You’ve time traveled. You’ve slightly altered history for yourself and the people you knew of your time. But because you’ve traveled to the future and not the past, you’ve haven’t caused much change. But if you were to go back in time at this very moment and told someone of the things that would occur in the near future, the future would change. For better or for worse… who knows?”

“Please…”

Boohyun stood up, “But I highly suggest you don’t tell Suji what’s going to happen to her, that she’s going to get kidnapped, that she’s going to be experimented on, that she’s going to be into a worm hole and never see her friends and love ones again. The results and the future would change drastically. You and I would not be born, for one thing. But it wouldn’t just affect us, but Sunggyu–”

“Woohyun!”

Woohyun gasped. His eyes snapped open.

He felt a hand on his cheek. Woohyun turned his head slightly to the right. Sunggyu was looking at him. His eyes were stricken with panic. He was mouthing something to Woohyun.

“W-What?” Woohyun wheezed. His chest hurt. The seatbelt was digging right into his diaphragm. He could hardly breathe.

“Are you alright?” He repeated.

With great difficulty, Woohyun shook his head. “Can’t breathe,” he whispered.

Now that his mind and body was completely alert, he realized the situation he was in. He was upside down in the car strapped to his seat. Glass littered the ground above his head. He couldn’t see Dongwoo and Hoya in the front seat. He hoped they were still alive and in one piece.

Woohyun felt liquid continuously trickle down his face. He used his right hand to wipe some of the liquid off.

It was probably blood.

He couldn’t really feel his left arm.

It was probably broken.

Sunggyu reached into his pocket and pulled out a knife. “It’s probably from the seatbelt. Try not to move; I’m going to cut it.” He gripped the seatbelt that was wrapped tightly around Woohyun.

As soon as the seat belt came apart, Woohyun fell down. His head hit the ground, which was littered with glass, with a loud thud. Woohyun moaned in pain. At least he could properly breathe now, though. With glass digging into his skin and the ripped sleeve of his jacket, Woohyun used his good arm to maneuver his body into a more comfortable position.

“I thought you died,” Sunggyu mumbled as he helped Woohyun.

“What?” He gave the man a strained, puzzled look. It was hard to concentrate on what the older man was saying when his body was screaming in agony.

“You weren’t responding when I called your name.” He grabbed Woohyun by his good arm and tried to pull the brunet out of the broken window of the car.

Woohyun suddenly remembered his dream when he was unconscious. The first dream was of him and Boohyun when they were younger. It was more of a memory than anything else. Boohyun used to always take him to this small playground by their old house. He used to always pester his brother about the various things Suji went on about at home. Boohyun would always stray from the actual subject of the conversation and talk to Woohyun about something else, always telling Woohyun he would explain the ways of their mother when he turned sixteen. But instead of explaining like he promised he would, he disappeared when Woohyun was sixteen.

The second dream, though… It made no sense. What was Boohyun talking about? Rules of time travel? Don’t tell Suji about her future? Woohyun was well aware of the possible consequences from telling his mother about what was to become of her. He had seen enough movies to know the possibilities, but what confused him the most was what did it have to do with Sunggyu?

“I thought I lost you,” Sunggyu admitted, not looking Woohyun in the eye. Woohyun opened his mouth to say something, but Sunggyu continued. “I don’t know what I would’ve done if you died in this crash.”

Woohyun’s cheeks tinted red at the statement.

What was Sunggyu trying to say?

Did he actually care if he had died?

“How would we continue the mission, if our bait died? This would have all been for nothing! A waste of our time and a perfectly good car! I think I broke a nail too!”

For a second, Woohyun wished he did die just to spite Sunggyu.

“Sunggyu, hurry up!” Woohyun heard someone yell from outside. It sounded like Hoya.

“Gas is leaking everywhere! The car might catch on fire in any minute!” It s