For some reason getting up from his bed this early morning becomes exceptionally unbearable.

Lee Minhyuk finds himself drowning in his own sea of thoughts; whilst his physical body lay limp on the soft cottony fabric of his duvet, where a swirling mass of magenta and white are having a battle for dominance. He doesn’t want to get up. He knows, for this day, is when he is going to have to face it again. Not that it was dire—it wasn’t, in any way, but something in the manner that he was always dragged into doing this made him rather unwilling into stepping into this specific date in the calendar, year after year. Somehow, though, he knows that sooner or later he might have to get up from his bed so he does, after a moment of concession to his wisdom. He will have to do his chores today, and he has to hurry, before time has sharpened its claws again to pick him out from his timeline and transfer him into another one.

He glances at the calendar, somehow praying before he sees the date that not now, not yet because really—this is getting into his nerves. Lee Minhyuk is a proud man; the first time he discovered this curse he turned it into a blessing and was taking pride in that until a few years ago. This time-travelling ability of his, he’s been able to control it, except on this day of the calendar. His pride couldn’t take it. He couldn’t control his time-travel every 9^th of February.

Rolling his eyes, he sighs at how much the calendar has failed him. Indeed, today is the day he least likes. But he has to go on then, wait for the pick-up time later, and while waiting for it, he’ll have to do his chores.

Lee Minhyuk is intrigued.

As everyone in the university grounds start to disperse, going to their respective classes, he finds himself mesmerized by a certain figure situated not so far away from where he stands. While his hand is on his shoulder to hold the strap of his bag, his gaze follows every movement of a girl with long black hair and a happy smile. She’s not necessarily pretty, but she is, striking. Something inside him stirs; he can’t exactly pinpoint what it is but something about her is absolutely magnetizing. Something more like an…uncanny resemblance with someone else? He continues to observe the girl until he feels something weigh on his shoulder, and he realizes that it’s an arm. “Hey,” Eunkwang grins at him. “What are you looking at? Get moving, man, your class is about to start!”

Minhyuk blinks several times. Eunkwang’s right. He should get moving now.

Hoping that he wouldn’t disappear in the middle of the class, Minhyuk saunters seemingly calmly across the hallway, but inside him his insides are churning in nervousness. When he enters the class hall he sees the girl who captured his attention, and, ostensibly, this eases him a little. Her presence makes a calming impression on him—in him, for some reason. Seeing that the seat beside the girl is the only one vacant, he resolves to sit in the same row as her; not too close, not too far, either.

The hall is noisy. The professor isn’t in the classroom yet, so the students are free to do whatever they want. At the back of their row a friend of the girl with black hair leans forward and giggles at her friend, and it reaches Minhyuk, “So what’s your wish?”

The girl with black hair waves a dismissive hand. “I don’t have a wish; I’ve lost my faith in them since childhood,”

“Heh,” her friend snickers. “What about you wish for a boyfriend? Come on, girl, there’s got to be someone you’re wishing for! It’s ironic that you’re a romance novelist and yet you have no romance,”

“That’s not really necessary,” the other laughs affably.

Minhyuk, curious about what they’re talking about, lets himself turn his head for a brief while. Then his curiosity is even more aroused when he catches the look on the girl’s face—one that seems a little sad, and there’s a glimmer of dead hope in her brown eyes that says there’s a story behind that look.

“Besides, I wished before, but it’s long dead. The wish, that is.” she answers. “Anyhow let’s just enjoy my day today. Let’s just forget about that birthday wish,”

So it’s her birthday? Minhyuk is suddenly enchanted by the idea. He wishes he could have the guts to greet her. Unfortunately, he’s a total stranger, and maybe he’d earn a bad impression if ever he greets her. He doesn’t know what might happen, really, but he’s somehow concluded of that prejudice.

Soon enough, the professor enters, and the class starts. Though a single thought overshadows all the other thoughts in Minhyuk’s mind right now, he tries to listen to the prof’s discussion, to at least let himself get distracted from the impending trial he is yet again to face today. With a hand on his cheek, he looks at their professor in philosophy class.

“Who among you here believes in the concept of predestiny?” the prof asks for a starter, proffering a hand upward to encourage the participation of the students.

The students are silent for a long while. They merely look at the teacher; not everyone knows what he’s talking about, apparently.

“Wondering, eh?” he snickers, and puts down his arm. “Predestiny, or predestination, children, as defined by the dictionary, is an advance decision of God about events. In some religious beliefs,i t is the doctrine that God, or some other deity, or fate itself, has decided what is going to take place. And that, apparently—” he spreads his hands on either side of him to display a shrug. “No one can change this.”

Lee Minhyuk sees that this lesson has caught the interest of several hearts in the lecture hall.

Seonsaengnim continues to talk. “Let’s make this a little more interactive: what do you think about it?”

Much to his surprise, Minhyuk finds the girl seated near him raising her hand. The teacher calls her. “Personally, sir, I’d beg to differ.”

The prof is impressed. With a smile of surprise, he nods his head, and asks, “Why so?”

“I think, sir, that the fate of a person rests in his hands. It’s up to him what happens to him,” she says calmly, but obviously she’s very eager and serious about this. “Life is about choices. You get to choose whatever you want and how you want it to happen. Our so-called ‘fate’ changes every day. For every moment, every second, every decision we put into account—we have our life in accordance to our will, and it’s up to us on what we’re going to do with it.”

Though he fancies this girl, their interests might have to deviate on this particular matter. Minhyuk snickers. Being a time-traveler himself, he’s been to the past and the future. He’s seen so many lives get changed because of this thing called predestination. “You have no idea what you’re talking about,” he mumbles under his breath with a clandestine, almost mute, chuckle.

However, the lady beside him hears it, that she regards him with a sharpened look, and tilts her head to one side, having been rudely interrupted. “Excuse me?”

He gets startled. Snapping his head to her direction he repays her with a confused look. Did she just hear him? “Y-yes?” he could feel his face warming up, when he realizes that all the pairs of eyes in the hall are aimed at him.

The professor, though, seems to be blind to the tension slowly building up in his class. “Seemingly, we’re gonna have a debate here! Mister Lee, seems like you’ve got something to say in accordance to what Miss Cho has said?”

Minhyuk swallows. He does have something to say, but something is holding him back. “Why, sir,” he clears his throat with a fist before his mouth, and slowly rises from his seat. “Miss Cho and I seem to be differing in our personal opinions,”

Miss Cho a brow. “Is there something wrong with what I said?”

“No!” Minhyuk interjects. Though her opinion was laughable, the time-traveler respected the concept of everyone being entitled to their own opinion. “Gosh, no. Actually, Cho-ssi, don’t you think that the decisions we make are coincidentally coinciding with what our destiny may be?”

It’s barely obvious, but somehow, the boy notices the micro-movement of the girl tilting away a little from him. “How come you say that?” she counters.

Because I’ve seen it before my very eyes, he wants to answer, but Minhyuk lets himself get beaten in this minor argument. After all, he knows he’s right, no matter what. “Nothing, nothing,” he hums. “I’ve just come to that thought...because, well, think about it. Some divine force has already influenced us, that we come to make such decisions, right?" his shoulders slump in surrender. "It's somewhat tacit. Just...think about it. My point is somehow subliminal,"

Surprisingly, Miss Cho nods. As to the matter whether it's out of agreement or dismissal, Minhyuk doesn't know, but sensing that this is the proper time to give the floor back to the original speaker, he settles in his seat and lets her further go on with her point.

The class ends an hour later. Minhyuk proceeds to the comfort rooms, as the familiar tight feeling in his gut is there again. When he comes in he's thankful that he's the only one in there. Breathing in, breathing out, he wills himself to relax, because maybe he can still stop this. But maybe. Just maybe. He evens out his breath for as many times as he could remember, but then time is more powerful than he is. No matter how much he resists, the claws of time take him out from where he is.

With one, short, sharp breath, he gasps, and then he disappears.