Chapter Text
****JiEun/Wang So POV***
The door closing behind him had been enough to make JiEun waver. That one moment it took to lose control of his emotions and feel the sadness of losing Ga Eul was more than enough. A tear may have fallen and that was it JiEun was nothing more than a screaming trapped prisoner in the back of his own mind again. He wasn’t able to control his movements or voice and only barely lucky enough he assumed that he could see and hear what was going on. This must have been what Wang So felt like all those years after he died being stuck as nothing more than a dream in Ji Eun’s world. Had he been aware or unlike Ji Eun had he been truly dormant and waiting for an awakening?
“Where is Hae Soo?” So was looking at Jung expectantly and completely stoic if a little impatiently waiting on his answer.
“Hae Soo? Wasn’t that-” Another person, a woman, was in the room with him and had echoed his words starting to talk and falling silent when his gaze fell on her. He only vaguely noticed the other part of his consciousness fluttering around like a caged bird and an emotion like panic coming from it. He also noticed Jung shaking his head at the woman out of the corner of his eye.
“Go on.” He said taking on a regal air that didn’t leave much room for arguing. She seemed to shrink in on herself moving a few items around that looked familiar to him and it was only then that his eyes focused on what he was seeing and where they were.
“This is the make up Hae Soo used to make for me.” His eyes scanned the place and fell on the painting at the back remembering the moment it happened all too well. I’m not alone. You’re here. He smiled at the memory then frowned.
“This is Hae Soo’s isn’t it?” He asked softly voice echoing into the space almost reverently. It was something she would have wanted. Her own place to work like the Damiwon, but with more freedom to be who she was. He gently picked up a brush spinning it around in his hands and a much more recent memory appeared in his mind.
He’d been here before. It was a bit like looking at the reflection of an event in water but he’d seen her. Her hair was lighter, a bit like dark honey rather than being as black as coal. She seemed more sure of herself than he’d seen her in a while though she still seemed to have been reserved like she had been that first time she’d done this for him. He supposed that this was her first time doing it for this person too. Ji Eun. He remembered what Jung had called him and heard the conversation they were having fall into place.
“Who is Wang So?”
“How did you come to have a scar like this?”
“Why were you so sure that I was whoever this So guy is?”
“He looks like you. Or you look like him. He even has a scar like yours….Done.”
Just like that the memory had ended and he shook his head to get rid of it reaching his hand up to touch the place where his scar was only barely hiding beneath the surface of makeup trying to use it as an anchor for his reality. He could feel it. It was still there. This was real and he now knew what he had hoped and feared since waking up in that room with Baek Ah’s paintings hearing her voice. She remembered him.
“Where is she?” So asked, hopeful, and looking around. She was alive. Somehow she was alive.
“So, you can’t see her right now.” Jung said. He wasn’t smug about it, but he did seem serious and So didn’t like that one bit. She was his person and now he had a second chance and Jung, the one who had stolen her right from under him once before, was telling him he couldn’t take it. How dare he? How dare his brother try to do this to him for a second time? Where in all of the gods' realms was this deemed fair? He wouldn't stand for it... Not again.
“She thinks you’re Someone else, dumbass.” Jung said using an expression he didn’t quite understand, but immediately knew he didn’t like and Ji Eun apparently didn’t like it either as he heard a scoff come from somewhere in the recesses of his mind.
“What does that matter? I am here now and apparently my betrothed just walked out on me. So why can I not see Hae Soo. From what I understand in this world she is no longer your wife either, little brother. You told me as much on the way here.” So had him there and he floundered for some serious excuse as to why he still couldn't do that other than just that it would upset her reality and that it wasn't fair.
“Excuse me. Yes, hi, shop’s other owner and Ha Jin's best friend here. What the hell is going on?!” Jimin spoke up and they both looked at her like they’d forgotten she was there.
"Jimin now probably isn't the best time… it's a long story." Jung turned to speak to the woman and So tried to place who Ha Jin was to even merit relevance in this conversation.
"Well I'm not exactly going anywhere. I've got until we close and it's a slow day so spill it and explain like you're talking to someone who didn't live through it. In fact, you are, so that should make it easy." The woman spoke strangely, but the general idea was the same. She knew about their predicament. That meant someone had to have told her and from the look on Jung’s face it hadn’t been him. Seeing as how he was just now coming to be here it wasn’t him either. That only logically left one person to have relayed their story.
“You know about Hae Soo? Where is she? I need to see her. Did she tell you about me? Does she miss me? What about our daughter? Is she here?” So threw questions one after the other at the woman. He had to know and since Jung wasn’t giving him answers.
“Ji Eun are you… wait… Gwangjong?!” The woman turned her focus from him and gave an accusatory glance to his little brother.
“Afraid so.” Jung replied, getting a sheepish look on his face.
“Do I even want to know how this happened? Ha Jin said you were the only two that remembered. What did you do?” She demanded.
“You think I wanted this to happen?! If I had my way he would have stayed where and who he was. He had Ga Eul. I could have made things right with her if he wasn’t here.” Jung waved a hand at him and he scoffed.
“Well, you had to have done something because wasn’t he just himself a few seconds ago? That was Ji Eun hugging his fiance just then. I doubt he would have even looked at Ga Eul let alone kissed her goodbye.” She argued. They were both ignoring him now and the only thing he was really drawing out of this was that neither of them had any more of an idea why he was here than he did.
“Not that this isn’t amusing, but neither of you have answered me. Where is Hae Soo?” He interrupted their squabbling once again.
“You can’t see her right now.” Jung snapped.
“She’s not here, but I can call her.” the woman, Jimin, answered him.
“No. Jimin you can’t do that right now.” Jung’s attention returned to the woman when he registered what she’d said.
“Call? Is that like sending for her? If so then yes, I would very much appreciate it if you would send someone for her... please.” He said. It sounded more like an order than a request, but that didn’t matter if either way he got what he wanted. The woman snorted like she'd heard something funny.
"Is there something wrong?" He grew annoyed with all of these delays. Surely she wasn't so far away that she could not be sent for. Jung was shaking his head looking like he'd wished he was anywhere, but here.
"No! No of course not. It's just kind of funny. All of this. I mean the two of you… standing here. Whatever this is it's just ridiculous, and the balance of things can't be lining up right now. Wherever that Ji Mong guy is he's either laughing his ass off at a private joke or panicking because I don't know which one of you it is, but one of you isn't supposed to be here." She said.
"Ji Mong? You know the royal astronomer?" So's eyes widened upon hearing the name of his trusted mentor and friend. She was moving around the room and putting jars back on the shelves where they went. She was clearly procrastinating so she didn't have to do as he'd requested. His jaw ticked and he had to remind himself this wasn't the palace he couldn't make demands of strangers. Hell he couldn't even make demands of his own brother wherever this was. It was all too strange to him. A day ago he would have given up all of his power and control to know Hae Soo was alive and now he knew, but there was nothing he could do about it, whoever this Ji Eun person was, not one person he’d met since his awareness was returned to him appeared to be obligated to him like they would have been before. He was helpless and had no control over anyone’s actions, but his own. It should have been a relief, and a freeing feeling, considering the years he’d spent with the weight of a country on his shoulders. Instead, it was infuriating to know he was being disregarded like he'd been all those years before meeting Hae Soo.
"Not personally no. At least not that I know of. If I did he'd have a knot on his head by now. He's supposed to be fixing the past mistakes not playing around with timelines. None of you should remember any of the past events, let alone be walking around as your former selves in 2019. It just doesn’t make sense for things to be this out of balance ..." She trailed off muttering about things he had no understanding of so he tuned her out and waited for someone to do as he’d asked.
****Jaehyung POV****
The way that Ha Jin’s friend seemed perfectly at ease with all of this was bothering him. He’d had years to get his mind wrapped around this and he still wasn’t comfortable with the knowledge that yes he was two people and also that everything in his dreams was memory and fact instead of some twisted fiction. Sometimes he even wished he was like those other people who suffered from reality slips like this and could cure it by medicine. She was going on about how crazy it was that they were in this situation in the first place when she let something slip. Something he didn’t think he was meant to catch but he had and now he knew someone else who might have answers.
“How would you know that Ji Mong is supposed to be fixing things? Ha Jin and I only just found out this morning.” Jae Hyung asked her and studied her face. He may not be able to tell a liar himself very well, but he had once lived in the palace surrounded by them and learned to pick up on it. You had to learn things like that in order to survive and honestly right now he was more Jung than himself now. There were too many links to the past surrounding him and thanks to this whole thing with Wang So he was barely holding his grip on which part of him was the real thing anymore. He didn’t feel like a print shop worker and yet there was a dysphoria between him and the exiled prince and grieving widower he once was because of how long he’d kept all of this buried only to have it forced in front of him now. It wasn’t like how Wang So was because he’d never suppressed that side of himself; he'd just grown and adapted to the life he was living around it.
Jae Hyung's life had been lived like vines growing around an old tree while Ji Eun’s had been lived like a river dam that was barely holding itself together. Where one had symbiosis the other was just waiting for the flood to take effect, and clear to Jae Hyung now the dam had obviously broken. His friend was gone, but his brother was returned to him. Before meeting Ha Jin the thought would have excited him, but now he was just scared. Wang So had always been a force to be reckoned with and it had always taken Hae Soo to reign him in. To get him to be merciful and kind and good how she insisted he was. Jae Hyung had to admit seeing his brother without Hae Soo at his side or without Seol to soften his bitterness was something he’d never had to be afraid of before, but here they stood and he looked like he was only barely controlling his temper. Maybe Jaehyung should let Jimin call her and let them face each other quickly. Things could go back to a semblance of normalcy if his brother had someone to teach him. To try and root out what was left of Ji Eun beneath Wang So.
***Ha Jin POV***
After hanging up with Jimin she'd tried staying home and clearing her head. Wang Yo wasn't the only one here. So was she. So were Jung and Ji Mong. This couldn't be her doing. Maybe Ji Mong had been lying about Jung and he'd brought them all forward on purpose. All… Did that mean that he would be back too? And what about So? Would Ji Eun remember himself Like she and Jung had? What did this mean for them? She thought of watching them all die again. Her breathing became short and her blood thunderous in her ears. Her chest contracted in pain.
"N-no," she stood fighting to still the tremors in her hands and her wobbly legs. She knew it was a panic attack but her memory filled her head with torture induced injuries and a heart condition that had ended her cousin's life then eventually her own. She fumbled on the counter to get her keys a light sweat starting to form at her hairline on the back of her neck.
She didn't know where she was going until she arrived a few bus stops later at the coffee shop just down from Moon Company in Itaewon.
"Welcome back. What can we get you?" The waiter came over with a notepad and an easy smile.
“Matcha latte and- Sorry could you hold on a second,” She asked as her phone started ringing.
“Hello?”
"Ha Jin?" It was Ga Eul's voice that came through on the other line. She sounded like she'd been crying.
"Eul-ah are you okay?"
"Oh, yeah I'm fine. I just... Ji Eun and I we... I know this was my choice, but it felt like talking to a stranger when I told him that I would be leaving. He hardly reacted to me, but you..." she sniffled in between words and gave a humorless chuckle. The woman's sleeve made a static sort of rustle over the line and Ha Jin assumed she must have wiped at her eyes.
"Are you okay? Is there something I can do?" Ha Jin felt a pit in her stomach. This was why she hadn't wanted to get involved with them. Ga Eul's life had become intertwined with her now as well and she just wanted everyone to stop being hurt because of her. Ga Eul hadn't said the words out loud but it was there hanging between them. At some level, some moment during their short friendship, she'd grown jealous or seen something between Ha Jin and Ji Eun, something more than just two acquaintances that were mutual to her.
"Wha- oh, no. I'm just packing. I'll have to get some things from Ji Eun tomorrow. I just can't right now. You understand, right?" She sniffed again.
"Yeah, I- I understand. I'm at a coffee shop in Itaewon if you need anything."
"No, really I'm fine, I called because I... could you... could you check on Ji Eun for me. He's not really open with his emotions all the time and I'm worried about him."
"Eul-ah I don't think-" She was interrupted.
"Ha JIn please. For me, can you do this?" Ga Eul pressed.
"Okay." Ha Jin agreed twisting a napkin in between her hands to get some of the tension out of her system. The waiter hadn't left, but he'd very studiously been making an effort to at least pretend like he wasn't listening. It was a slow day for them apparently as there were only two other patrons sitting together on the far wall inside the cafe and three more in the line waiting for orders so they could leave.
"Thank you. You really are a great friend." Ga Eul sounded relieved, almost as if a last tie had been cut and she was free, before Ha Jin could respond the line clicked dead and she was left staring at the black screen of her phone. Sometimes, she thought bitterly, I'm too good of a friend.
"Everything okay?" The server asked showing a concern that wasn't really necessary. His voice once again pulled at some memory in her mind, but she shoved it away.
"Yeah, just a friend moving away is all."
"That's always a little difficult. So, matcha latte and?" The server prompted his pencil dramatically posed like he was ready to write whatever she said into law. She laughed lightly and just like that the heavy emotions were gone again.
"A cardamom bun please. I didn't get to try one the other day." She responded.
"Coming right up." He made a few scribbles with the pen and then walked away to put her order in.
Ha Jin looked out the window watching the pedestrians walk by. Some shifted in their coats if the wind hit them in an uncomfortable manner. Quite a few passed by talking whether on their phones or to someone standing next to them the latter always in a more animated fashion with their hands waving or eyes sparkling from excitement over the topic and the company they were with. She smiled. It was easy to remember times as Hae Soo when her eyes sparkled like that or she would be having a vibrant conversation with one of the brothers in her early time at the palace. She remembered singing the funny birthday song for Eun and watching his frustration with the insulting words turn to delight as she kept going and encouraged her to join in her funny way of dancing and celebrating his birthday.
"Here you go," her reverie was interrupted by the soft sounds of a cup and saucer being sat down on the table and the gentle voice of the server.
"Thank you," she sat up a little straighter and smiled at him. Her eyes probably still had a wistful glint in them because he gave a small smile in return before walking away without another word.