You sat on the floor, your back against a wall of the dimly lit hallway that led down to the subway station. You pulled your knees to your chest and wrapped your arms around your legs as you looked up at the boy who was sitting against the wall opposite from you.

He sighed as he hung his head and propped his arms on his knees.

“Do you have to leave?” you asked softly.

“Yes, I do,” Yesung replied with his head still bowed.

“Can’t you stay longer?”

“You know I can’t.”

You could feel your frustration starting to bubble as you took a shaky breath and pressed your lips into a firm line, “Why not?”

“______-ah, you already know why,” he sighed, lifting his eyes slightly to meet yours.

“Not actually,” you mumbled under your breath, “You never fully explained it to me.”

Yesung his lips and rested the back of his head against the cold, cement wall.

“I’m a time keeper. I’m only allowed to stay in a time period while I complete my assigned mission. I make sure that certain event that are important to the future happen,” he said, willing you to understand, “If I don’t leave now, everything in the future is going to be affected.”

“Well, what did you have to do?”

“I … I’ not supposed to tell you,” he said slowly, “or anyone for that matter.”

“Well why not?!” you stood up in frustration, your voice echoing throughout the hallway.

“Because-”

“Is there even a ‘mission’?” you cut him off and made quotes in the air with your fingers, “Or are you just making it up?”

Yesung narrowed his eyes before getting up on his feet, “Why would I make something like this up?” he asked in a dangerously low voice.

“As an excuse to leave me!” you screamed.

Yesung felt a stab in his heart when he heard your words and was sent into a shocked silence.

“Did the last few months even mean anything to you?” you whispered, tears starting to blur your vision.

“Of course it meant something to me,” he replied softly as he took a small step towards you.

You didn’t move away from him but continued to stare down at the ground, desperately trying to blink back the tears that were filling your eyes.

 “It meant everything to me,” he mumbled.

“Then why do you have to leave? What was the mission that you completed?” you said, trying to control your voice from shaking.

Yesung took a shaky breath before speaking, “To make you fall in love.”

You looked up at him and narrowed your watery eyes in anger, “What kind of sick mission is that?”

“I didn’t choose to do this,” he tried to explain.

You held up a hand to tell him to stop, “You’re telling me that your mission was … to break my heart?”

“Technically, yes,” he bowed his head in shame.

You let out a harsh laugh and shook your head with a smile of disbelief, “Well, you succeeded.”

“______-ah,” he reached out to you.

You took a step away from him, “Go.”

“What?” he asked, confusion written across his face.

“Leave,” you turned your back to him as tears started to fall from your eyes and crossed your arms over your chest, “You completed your mission, so leave.”

Yesung wanted to say something, but he couldn’t seem to be able to form the right words. He bit his lip and glanced down at his gold pocket watch.

“I promise I’ll come back,” he whispered before turning away from you.

You silently listened to his footsteps echo off the walls. You turned around when everything went dead silent and saw that you were in the hallway all alone.

You bit down on your lip as you sat against the wall. Your tears continued to flow out of your eyes as you drew your knees to your chest and sobs racked through your body.

---

You closed the cover to the book in front of you and handed it back to the young girl standing in front of you.

“Thank you so much for coming,” you smiled as the girl hugged the book to her chest.

She nodded her head shyly before quickly scurrying away.

“Next!” one of the bookstore workers called.

Another girl, this one around your age, walked up to the table and handed you the book she was holding.

“Hi,” you smiled as you opened the front cover.

“Could you make it out to Kyungmi?” she smiled.

“Sure,” you nodded your head and started writing a short message to the girl.

“Can I ask you a question?” she asked.

“Go right ahead,” you glanced up at her with a smile before returning to the message you were writing.

“The girl in the story, why didn’t she chase after the time keeper? Why did she just let him leave? They were so in love and she didn’t really fight for him to stay.”

You signed your name and closed the book before handing it back to her, “She was scared and confused. So she did the only thing that she could to protect herself and that was pushing him away.”

“I guess that makes sense,” she nodded her head in understanding, “Thank you so much for signing my book, you’re my favorite author.”

You smiled at her compliment, “Well, thank you so much for buying my book.”

She gave you a small wave as she walked away from the table.

“Okay we’re really sorry, but we only have time for one more!” one of the bookstore workers announced.

A chorus of groans and complaints were heard from the long line of people who were still waiting to get their books signed by you. You gave them an apologetic smile as they were escorted out of the bookstore.

You played with your Sharpie as you waited for the last fan to walk up to the table. You didn’t want to admit it, but you were already past exhaustion. You didn’t expect over 200 people to show up to your book signing.  

You didn’t look up when a book was placed in front of you and just opened the cover.

“So who am I making this out to?” you asked as you uncapped the pen.

“Yesung,” the boy in front of you answered.

Your eyes widened when you glanced up and saw a very familiar gold pocket watch hanging from a chain around his neck. You jaw dropped when you saw Yesung, the boy that was the inspiration for your best-selling novel, standing in front of you.

“I promised I’d come back, right?” he smiled.