Chapter 8: The Confession

The one thing that brought her heart at ease was that Future Seohyun was still meticulous. When Seohyun went into her closet on the verge of tears, she found a form fitting beautiful summer dress tagged “interview portion”, and below it were strappy high heeled sandals. Behind it was another outfit, long pink form fitting slacks and a thin, plain white button down shirt tagged “first part of photo shoot”. Behind that, she found Yonghwa’s clothing, blue slacks and a less feminine button-down white shirt, and a casual outfit that somehow matched her summer dress very well. That meant that Yunji had outfits picked out in her closet as well.

In the kitchen, Yonghwa was calling his band. She knew Yonghwa would handle it and was really grateful for the way he had taken charge and tried to ease her worry. Oppa will take care of it was a phrase she hadn’t realized she had longed for. When he had said it, twice, her heart had done some sort of flip. Now she had the confidence to stop feeling so out-of-control. If he was willing to take care of her in this situation, she would have to let him.

She was so used to doing everything on her own. She was an only child, an only daughter, and although she had eight unnies who loved her and took care of her, there were times she felt as if she had to be the one to take the microphone to speak or be the one to make members smile when they were sad. Lately Hyoyeon had been feeling sad during different parts of the day, and so many times, Seohyun would wrap her arms around her usually confident, choding unnie and receive a rare real smile from the girl. No other unnie could do that for her.

She would find Hyoyeon, she decided. She would give her that hug and make her smile again after all that had happened. But for now, she had a schedule.  

She took a ten minute shower, blow-dried and flat ironed her already flat hair, dressed herself in the summer dress, and applied make-up. She gathered their clothes and spread them out on the bed and lined up the shoes they needed to take to the photoshoot. 

Then she mentally prepared herself to join Yonghwa in telling Jungshin, Minhyuk, and Jonghyun the absurd truth.

***

“Seohyun and I, we… traveled here from the past.”

It sounded just as insane as it felt, thought Yonghwa.

“Uh,” Minhyuk chuckled. “Just how hard did you hit your head yesterday, Hyung?”

“I lied about that yesterday. Look, I’m telling the truth. Seohyun and I…” Yonghwa trailed off trying to explain it. “Remember how yesterday, I didn’t know any of our songs? Nor did Seohyun?”

“How could we forget?” said Jungshin. “You tore my head off for no reason.”

“Not to mention you messed up on the last two songs and barely got through ‘What’s Real’,” added Jonghyun.

“Why do you think I did that? I haven’t written those songs yet, and I have no idea how I married Seohyun. Seohyun of all people.”

“You woke up late yesterday,” Jonghyun began making excuses. “Didn’t have a chance to get your head together.”

“And had to learn entire songs from the beginning,” Yonghwa pressed. “And couldn’t even begin to play them on guitar. Why would I allow myself to be so relaxed if I can’t perform my own songs? Wouldn’t I know them in and out? I’m promise you, I’m not lying. Seohyun and I woke up yesterday morning, and we were here. From two separate beds. In our future!”

He heard the bedroom door close and soon, Seohyun glided into the living room. He was relieved that she had come to help convince the guys, but then he saw her, other thoughts entered his mind. She was tall and slender, wearing a summer dress that showed off her long legs, the pale skin on her neckline, and the curves of her body. Her black hair was bone straight and flowed over her shoulders, and her make-up brightened her face and completed the outfit. He could smell her perfume wafting off of her skin when she bowed politely at their guests and said hello. 

She was beautiful.

“Seohyun-ah, what are you wearing?” he didn’t mean to snap at her, but it came out angrier than he would’ve liked.

She looked down at the dress. “Oh, I found it in the closet. It was labeled for us to wear during the interview portion. Yours is lying on the bed.”

“You could’ve put it on at the studio,” he suggested, but she still didn’t get it. He didn’t want his dongsaengs checking her out.

He looked over to them expecting to see his same reaction on their faces, but Minhyuk and Jungshin looked indifferent. They were not checking her out, nor marveling at how beautiful she looked, but were looking at her as if she were a sister.

Jonghyun, however, was watching her in a strange way. A curious way. He stood to approach her, and she took a step back from him and looked away, worried that he would try to pick her up again.

“,” he said under his breath, running a nervous hand through his hair. “It’s true. It’s completely true.”  

“What?” asked Minhyuk.

“Hyung is telling the truth. It’s impossible, but somehow it’s possible because they’re not them.”

Jungshin sat forward and took Jonghyun’s beer away from him. “Ok, maybe you should have water instead.”

Jonghyun waved him off. “Think about it. When was the last time Seohyun bowed to us?”

“Yesterday,” Minhyuk offered.

“Pabo. Before that.”

Minhyuk and Jungshin tried to think, and then it dawned on them at the same time. They both looked at her, then Yonghwa, then her again.

“We don’t bow to each other anymore. We’re too close for it,” said Jungshin, sitting the beer down as if it were infected and he was now talking crazy.

“I should’ve known yesterday, the way you two reacted when I picked you up. You never would’ve reacted that way,” Jonghyun added.

“Wait a minute,” Minhyuk was trying to find reason. “What if this is a joke, and they’re acting. We’ll look like idiots.”

“Annio!” Seohyun pleaded with him. Yonghwa watched as her eyes widened like an innocent deer’s. “I would never make something like this a joke. It’s true. Yesterday, Oppa and I woke up here and were thrown into all of this. We don’t even know how old we are or what year it is.”

“You’re calling Hyung ‘Oppa’. You haven’t done that since you got married,” Jungshin noted.

“I wouldn’t know because I wasn’t there,” Seohyun continued. “I don’t even speak to Oppa. How could I marry him? And how could I continue with SNSD if Hyoyeon unnie—“

“Omo!” shouted Jungshin, leaping up. “How is this possible? That name. You know better than to speak that name out loud. Ottoke!”

Minhyuk was still trying to swallow it all, still in disbelief. “It’s impossible. You can’t just travel into the future. It’s kind of stupid and pointless. Stop the joke. It’s not funny.”

Yonghwa told them about the woman on the phone and the spinning purple diamond. Seohyun filled in her story too. Both of them left out the part where they had woken up completely .

“If it happened in the past, don’t you remember it?” asked Yonghwa. “It happened the night before we went off to military duty. What do you guys remember from that night?”

“Certainly not a mysterious woman calling with a purple diamond spinning on your phone,” said Jungshin. “We went out to eat, came back to the dorm, and cried ourselves to sleep.”

Yonghwa sighed. “We don’t have time for you to believe us. We have a photoshoot and interview in 20 minutes. Just answer our questions and we’ll answer yours later. Please, help us,” he requested, his voice laced with desperation.

“We need a moment,” said Minhyuk. He waved the other two guys into the kitchen while Yonghwa and Seohyun exchanged worried glances.

They huddled together and argued in whispers for a minute or so before taking their places again on the couch.  

“Ok,” Minhyuk spoke first. “These two absolutely believe you, but I don’t. Yunji will be my deciding factor.”

“Yunji?” Seohyun asked quizzically.

“Yunji baby!” Minhyuk called.

Seconds later, Yunji joined the adults in the living room, still in her pajamas. Minhyuk summoned her, and she went to sit on his lap.

“Yunji, Samchon is going to ask you a strange question. Can you answer it honestly for me?”

“Nae!”

“Look at these two,” to which Yunji did, “and tell me, are they really your Omma and Appa?”

The little girl thought for a moment and stared at Pudding the Bear. Then she hugged it and said, “I think so. Omma couldn’t open her phone and keeps looking scared, and Appa forgot that my ear was bad. But they look like Omma and Appa.”

And slowly but surely, Minhyuk came around. “What do you need to know?” he asked them weakly. 

A/N: Would you have believed Yongseo?

So much CNSD interaction at Music Bank a couple of days ago! Made me very happy :) Thank you for reading, subscribing, and commenting!!