Chapter 7: A Leader’s Truth

Seohyun stretched and blinked in the large comfortable bed. It took a full minute for her to fully wake up, and then she remembered everything. Yonghwa. Yunji. Hyoyeon. The future.

She sat straight up, looking around the room, expecting that it had all been a terrible nightmare. Only it hadn’t been. She was still in the bedroom that she had woken up the day before. The wedding picture still loomed above her head. She heaved a long sigh of frustration. She was too mad to cry or freak out.

At her side, Yonghwa was curled up on the bed lying on his side, lightly snoring.

“Yah!” she shouted in utter disbelief, smacking his arm. “Yah!”

Yonghwa tossed and turned roughly until he too leapt up and glared at her. “Wae! Wae! Wae!”

“What are you doing on the bed? You’re supposed to be on the couch!” she scolded him.

Yonghwa took a second to remember the predicament that they were in, still stuck in the future. The woman over the phone meant business. Apparently, it wasn’t going to be a one time thing.

He sighed. “I fell asleep comforting you. I’m on the bed because of my good deed.”

“Ottoke. We’re stuck here,” Seohyun whined. “I can’t do another day of this.” She tilted her head to the ceiling. “Woman on the phone, what do you want from us? Wae?”

The bedroom door open and there stood little Yunji in the doorway, holding her bear Pudding by the arm.

“Omma, Appa,” said the little girl shyly. “Are you waking up yet?”

Seohyun nudged Yonghwa and whispered. “Get off the bed. This is inappropriate for her to see.”

“No it’s not,” he whispered back. “We’re her parents. The only one uncomfortable is you.”

Seohyun hopped out of bed quickly, having slept in her sweat pants and t-shirt from the day before. She knew it was stupid. Yonghwa was right. In Yunji’s eyes, they were her parents, two people who slept in the same bed and loved each other. Two people who had created her out of their love.

But she was not Future Seohyun, and Yonghwa was not Future Yonghwa. Yonghwa should’ve respected her feelings more.

Yunji ran over and hugged her around the legs just as she had done the morning before. Seohyun hugged back, marveling in how soft and fragile the little girl felt. She then crouched down and fully embraced the girl in her arms. The fur from the bear nuzzled her neck as Yunji swung her tiny arms around her, clutching Pudding in her fist.

Her daughter. Yunji was her daughter. Seohyun suddenly had an overwhelming feeling of motherhood. She remembered how Sunny had clung to little baby Seunghwan with love or when Taeyeon had used that strict voice for Tae Joon that Seohyun hadn’t been sure Taeyeon even possessed. Seohyun knew at once that she couldn’t ignore Yunji anymore. She hadn’t even realized that she was ignoring her, but now, she was going to be a mother while she had the responsibility. 

“Wake us up later, Yunji,” Yonghwa told the little girl. “Omma and Appa are going to sleep a little longer. Go back to your room.” He defiantly fell back onto his pillow, ready to return to sleep.

“Oppa, what are you doing?” Seohyun asked impatiently.

He groaned. “Please don’t nag. For once in my life, I think I deserve to sleep in. Both of us deserve it.”

“I lost a lot of precious time with my mom when I became a trainee. If I’m stuck in the future, I don’t want the same thing to happen. I’m spending the morning with my daughter while you snore.”

“Fine.” Yonghwa buried himself back into the blankets.

***

Out in the kitchen, Seohyun and Yunji sat at the table eating breakfast. Pudding had joined them, and Seohyun swore that he was being fed more food than Yunji was eating herself. Seohyun asked her questions, like what was her favorite color (yellow) and if she had ever played with Tae Joon (Nae! But he doesn’t like to share his toys), and made her recite the Hangul alphabet. They were enjoying their bites of fruit when Seohyun’s cellphone began rattling. She grabbed it off the table, first thoughts thinking that it was the woman, but she couldn’t open it up. She struggled, pushing hidden buttons and running her hand over it until her fingers were strained.

Yunji watched her, then reached out with her small hand, typed in an invisible code with her small fingers, and the phone morphed into… an actual phone.

“Kamoyo,” Seohyun thanked her daughter in amazement and looked at the screen.

Noon. Family photo shoot with MBC.

Prep with Yong and Yunji baby.

Who knows what the hell they’ll

make us do.

It was a calendar and flashing in front of her eyes was an alert. She looked at the time. 11:00am. One hour!

“Omo! Omo! Not again! Chinja,” she whined. She fled from the table, leaving Yunji still finishing up her food, and barged into the bedroom where Yonghwa was finally awake and wandering out. They ran into each other once the door opened, and she fell into him.

She didn’t have time to blush. She straightened herself and went into a full panic.

“It’s happening again, Oppa!” she cried. “We’ve got one hour!”

Yonghwa was still trying to wake up and clear his head. “Slow down. What?”

Seohyun huffed impatiently. “We’ve got a family interview in 1 hour with MBC. A family interview, you know, about how we’ve been married for… we don’t even accurately know how long. This is bad, Oppa. Music, we can figure out. 8 or more years of history, we have no clue.”

She was on the verge of tears again. She usually prized herself on staying calm in most situations and remaining eloquent, but this was too much. She couldn’t handle living in one big anxiety nightmare.

“Hey, hey, listen,” Yonghwa seized her by the shoulders, calming her with his long gaze. “Oppa will take care of it.”

Seohyun caught her breath, her eyes locked onto his.

“Oppa will take care of it,” he repeated.

“How?”

“Yesterday we got really lucky, but we can’t do this alone. I’m going to call the guys.”

“Guys? What guys?”

“My dongsaengs, who else? Go take a shower, relax yourself, and I’ll call them over,” he ordered calmly.

“Do you think that’s a good idea? They’ll think we’re insane!”

“At first, but I can convince them.”

Seohyun didn’t care anymore. Yonghwa was absolutely right. They needed help. Faking it at an interview would be public suicide. “Call on my phone. Yunji figured out the key.”

***

First Yonghwa called Jonghyun, who was with a woman. “Oppa, hang up,” he heard the woman say in the background with a giggle, “I miss you already.” He said he’d be right over. Next was Minhyuk, who had a crying baby in the background. Yonghwa heard the sounds of an acoustic guitar and Minhyuk had interrupted him and called out to whomever was with the baby “It’s working. Keep playing”. Last was Jungshin, who sounded very tired. “Oh, Hyung, I’m just leaving my photoshoot. I haven’t eaten yet. Is it that important?” Yonghwa wouldn’t take no for an answer.

He felt a little guilty that he hadn’t asked them anything the day before. If they had girlfriends or if they were married. If they were filming dramas or hosting variety shows. He had been too caught up in his own life to ask how theirs was going.

Classic CN Blue style, all three of them arrived at Yonghwa and Seohyun’s door at the same time. Yonghwa let them in, and there was a series of loud, playful greetings.

Yunji peaked around the corner shyly at first. When she saw the group, the largest smile spread across her face and she ran to them. “Samchon!!” Jungshin was the first to swoop her up in his arms.

“Yunji baby!” he hugged her to him. “Take me to the breakfast.”

“Pudding, are you doing well?” said Minhyuk, shaking the bear’s fake furry paw.

Jungshin led the way down the hall, bouncing Yunji on his nonexistent hip. Once he reached the kitchen table, he grabbed a bowl of food, took a seat on the couch, and began eating. Jonghyun and Minhyuk didn’t even bother with the food. Minhyuk and Jonghyun maneuvered around the kitchen as if it were their dorm, Jonghyun helping himself to a beer and Minhyuk settling for juice. They took their places on the couch and Yunji sat on Yonghwa’s lap.

Yonghwa simply stared at them.

“What?” asked Jonghyun taking a swig at his beer.

“Is this your house? Do you just help yourself to anything and everything without asking? None of you have changed one bit,” Yonghwa scolded.

Minhyuk scoffed, “As if you don’t when you come over? Hyung is such a hypocrite these days.”

They had to get down to business. There was only a half an hour left of time. He wondered what was taking Seohyun so long in the bedroom, but he decided to start without her.

“Yunji,” he told his daughter lovingly, “go to your room. Your Appa has to have grown-up talk.”

“Ok, Appa,” she kissed his cheek sweetly and left the four of them.

“Hyung, what’s up?” asked Jungshin.

“I’ll get straight to the point,” breathed Yonghwa. “It’s going to sound like a joke, but I need you guys to listen to me, and to believe me. No matter what. Just… listen to what I have to say.”

“You’re talking crazy,” Jonghyun eyed him warily.

“Wait til you hear what I have to say next.”

“So, what is it? What’s so important?” asked Minhyuk.

Yonghwa took a deep breath and met each pair of eyes. “Remember a long time ago, when we got drunk that one time, and we all promised that if something impossible happened, like we time traveled or came back from the dead, that no matter what, we would believe each other?”

Jungshin laughed. When he saw that no one else was sharing his amusement, he sobered and looked worriedly at Yonghwa.

“Well, it’s happened,” the words tumbled out of his mouth. “It actually happened.”

“Exactly what happened?” Jonghyun pressed, leaning forward on the couch.

Yonghwa came right out with it. “Seohyun and I, we… traveled here from the past.”

A/N: Thank you for reading, subscribing, and commenting!! Next chapter will be up soon. I’m so busy and tired these days so I’m not getting the chapters out fast enough. Sorry! Please forgive me :)