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Hyungwon paced the subway floor, heart thumping against his ribcage. The lights flickered on and off as he rode the subway. Around him, the windows and subway walls compressed and stretched, distorting his surroundings. He was lost in a never-ending time loop. He sighed. It was a fitting punishment for his meddling ways.
He thought about what happened in the morning as he walked. Early in the day, he had been on his way home after escaping the police. The subway was his favorite form of transportation, so he grabbed the first train he saw. If he had paid close attention, he would have noticed something strange. But he didn’t pay attention. He ran his fingers through his dark brown locks. There was nothing he could do but wait.
His mind wandered back to the six men he ‘helped’. Every day he was haunted by the mistakes he made. A sigh left his lips as he paced the floor. He glanced at the spinning hour and minute hand on his watch. There was no way to tell how much time had passed since he entered the subway. A frown fell across his lips as he walked toward the subway seats.
“I don’t even deserve to be saved,” he said out loud, taking a seat.
As he sat on a subway seat, he thought back to years ago when all he had were dreams. As a young boy, Hyungwon had always been passionate about time and space. During his earlier years in High school, time travel was still in its earlier stages. Many scientists researched years and years in their field, hoping to find answers.
Once Hyungwon entered university, he was ready to embark upon a rewarding scientific journey. There was no limit to what he would discover. During his first semester of University, time warp became a reality. He had been excited by the new discovery. There weren’t any professors interested in the subject, so for a semester he participated in self-study. And then Dr. Cho came to his University.
He first met Professor Cho at a panel organized by a STEM organization at school. Hyungwon became impressed by every answer the older man gave while seated on the panel. Dr. Cho dreamed big dangerous dreams about space and alternate realities. As a bright young freshman, Hyungwon wanted to learn more. He decided he wanted to lean further into the unknown.
For a while, he studied and researched. Dr. Cho was a strict man. Many students tried to get into the special time warp project of his lab, but none had been successful. By the end of his freshman year, he was confident in his knowledge and decided to take a chance on applying for Dr. Cho’s special project lab. The professor took one look at his notes and decided to give him a chance.
For all his sophomore and junior year, he worked closely with Dr. Cho. Together they tried to create a way to effectively use time warp. At the same time, the science community and the government were turning their back on time warp related research. There had been too many accidents involved with time warp research. But Hyungwon continued to work hard not only for himself, but for his best friend Hoseok.
His good friend had been plagued by dreams of a man he didn’t know. Hyungwon decided he had to help any way he could. After the first time- warp watch was created, Dr. Cho gave him one look and said, ‘We have done it’. Hyungwon should have assessed the situation. He should have looked at the warning flags, but he was too fascinated. One day Dr. Cho frantically wrapped up his research, telling Hyungwon to forget what they learned. Hyungwon remembered the large nervous eyes of his professor, his mentor. He should have listened, especially after the government banned Time Warp for good.
His stomach rolled as the subway moved. He was careening through time, passing through several alternate realities. Nervous energy swirled within his chest. Hyungwon tapped on the screen of his watch once and then twice, sending several more messages. Despite the broken state of his watch, he was still able to send an SOS using the messaging feature. Maybe he was selfish to want to leave his self-inflicted prison. But even with a time altering watch, he didn’t feel powerful. He was still a man. He still got scared.
A whooshing sound filled the subway.
Hyungwon got to his feet. “Hello?”
His eyes widened at the sight of a familiar teen entering through the subway wall. The teen dropped to the ground, hitting his knees on the solid ground. A curse left the teen’s lips as he got to his feet. Hyungwon arose. They found him. A small smile crossed his lips. He hoped they would find him. Soon more people entered through the subway wall.
“Uhm,” the first visitor said, taking a seat by him. “Hey, we got your message.”
Hyungwon nodded. “I hoped you would.”
“I’m Jooheon.”
“I know.”
Jooheon blinked several times.
“You—you know?”
Hyungwon nodded. One thing he learned about alternate realities was there will always be at least one thing that stayed the same. He figured the names of the men he ‘helped’ should match the names of the men that found him. It was an educational guess. He glanced at the familiar faces on the subway. The need to apologize bubbled up within him.
“I’m sorry,” Hyungwon said, taking a seat again “I shouldn't have called any of you. It would have been better if I accepted this fate.”
Jooheon sat next to him. His gentle hand rubbed up and down his back. Hyungwon wanted to laugh. These men looked at him as if he meant something. They looked at him as if he were a friend, but they didn’t know him. He sighed. Due to Hyungwon’s interference in time, he had unknowingly tied himself to several other alternate realities.
“You are trapped right?”
Hyungwon looked up, analyzing the concerned expression on Kihyun’s face. For a second, he thought about the other Kihyun. He remembered how much the other man wanted to change things. In the end, the man had to give up his own life to save his friend’s. The memory still haunted him. And his heart ached more and more as he stared at alternate Kihyun’s face.
“Yes. But it is my doing,” Hyungwon said.
“How?” Minhyuk asked.
Hyungwon looked to Minhyuk and sighed. It hurt. It hurt to see the others. It wasn’t as if he knew the other men too well. In his time, he handed them watches without contact. Only person he truly interacted with was Kihyun and his best friend Hoseok. After he gave away a watch, he used his own to check on the watch users. Part of him wished he hadn’t made the watches at all.
“I tried to mess with time,” he said. “And I’m getting my well- deserved punishment in return.”
“No one deserves to be stuck on a subway train like this,” Hyunwoo said, taking a seat across from him.
“Perhaps,” he said. “But I know I am the exception.”
“Why do I know you from somewhere?” Changkyun asked.
Hyungwon shook his head. “You don’t, Changkyun. I know you, an alternate you. You only feel like you know me from somewhere, but you don’t.”
His fingers tapped a pattern onto his knees. He didn’t quite know when the train would stop. The hand on his shoulder hadn’t stopped moving. He was grateful for the comfort. Despite not knowing them well, he felt like he belonged among them. And that was a problem he needed to resolve.
“Why did you mess with time?” Jooheon asked.
“Because I was curious,” he said. “Because I wanted to help my friend ease the pain. He missed someone he had never met, and I wanted him to get a chance to find answers. And in doing so I discovered other men who needed my help. When I helped them, I unknowingly tied myself to them. So, in any alternate universe where people just like you exist there will be a connection to me.”
Changkyun’s eyes widened. “Wow, that is—wow.”
Hyungwon rested the back of his head against the window, lips pressed in a thin line.
“Will you tell us how you helped us?” Kihyun asked. “You said you helped but you didn’t say how. What do you mean you helped someone find answers?”
Hyungwon sat up straight, glancing at them. Much like the other reality these men didn’t know each other. He noticed who gravitated towards who. In his timeline, Changkyun was Minhyuk’s younger brother. Kihyun and Jooheon were friends, and his best friend Hoseok was tied to a man named Hyunwoo centuries in the past. But in this new reality things were different.
He pinched the bridge of his nose. All the time he had been in the loop, the world outside continued on, but he remained spinning in time. He knew he didn’t spend as much time on the subway as he thought or felt. Time spent on the train seemed like years, but it may have just been hours, maybe a day. Either way, he hadn’t wanted to remain trapped and he reached out to the men for help.
He glanced at the curious faces and then decided to explain. Different emotions flashed across their faces. Some seem relieved as if the answers comforted them. He peered out the window, a small smile on his lips. The familiar sight of a subway station came into view. They were close to stopping. He looked at the men. In another time, he would have stayed longer. But he couldn’t keep thinking about it. He had to forget and move forward. There was too much left unfinished in his own time.
The watch fiasco caused a lot of trouble for him and his poor friend that had been caught. News channels talked about him as if he was some villain. They warned all citizens that no one should ever take a watch from him. He had been reckless. He shouldn’t have made so many watches.
“I hope I’ve given you all the answers you need,” he said, getting to his feet.
Through the window, a bright blue sky came into view. Once there had been nothing but never-ending darkness, but not anymore. He was no longer within the time loop. Their reunion had completed some strange cosmic task. He licked his chapped lips, waiting for the train to make a stop.
“Look, Joo,” Changkyun said, pointing through the window. “I can see the sky. I don’t think we are traveling through the unknown anymore.”
Jooheon nodded. “That’s good. Hey, what is your name? You never told us.”
“Although, it would be better if you didn’t know,” he said, eyes focused on the station coming into view. “I’ll tell you. My name is Hyungwon.”
“Hyungwon,” Hoseok said. “Oh, it sounds so familiar.”
“So, what now?” Kihyun asked, standing by him. “We’ve met you. And the train is finally stopping.”
Minhyuk glanced at them. “Oh, maybe it is meant to be. What do you think, Hyunwoo hyung? Maybe it means we’re supposed to meet like this. It’s our destiny.”
Hyunwoo nodded.
Hyungwon shook his head. “It may be destiny for now. But it was never meant to be. I must disconnect.”
“Disconnect?” Minhyuk asked. “Wait you are leaving?”
“Leaving?” Hoseok asked. “We just met you. Doesn’t that mean something?”
“It doesn’t,” Hyungwon said.
The train slowed to a stop at an empty station. Hyungwon waited for the doors to open, eager to get away. He had to make distance. All his life he should have been cautious. He shouldn’t have played around with time. He never should have given those other men or anyone else watches.
“I don’t think this should be goodbye,” Kihyun said.
“I’m a wanted criminal,” he said. “What I did isn’t being taken lightly. Already they found many watch users and have taken them to jail. My best friend has been arrested as well. So, sadly yes, it should be goodbye.”
There was a whoosh as the doors slid open. Hyungwon got off the train, eyeing them inside. Every single face looked back, saddened. His heart clenched within his chest at the sight. But he shook the thought from his head. There was no reason to be concerned. These men didn’t know him, they weren’t his friends.
“Don’t leave so soon,” Hyunwoo said. “I think there is still much we can learn.”
Hyungwon shook his head. There wasn’t more to know. He told them everything he could explain. It was time for him to step back. He had to disentangle himself from the delicate web of their lives. A hand reached out, grabbing his sleeve. The subway screamed at the interference. A constant warning voice started to tell them to stay clear of the doors.
“He is right. There is something about you. I feel like we shouldn’t let you go. I mean, you brought us together, Hyungwon. We don’t even know each other, but us all being here feels right,” Kihyun said. “Please, just give us one day. One. And then I promise you we won’t bother you ever again.”
“I agree with Kihyun,” Hoseok said. “I know we aren’t the only ones who feel so strongly about this. Please just give us one day.”
The others nodded, repeating the exact same words. Hyungwon looked at them. The birds flying over the empty station, chirped softly. A nice cool breeze swept past, rustling his hair. While the soft sounds of a calm afternoon surrounded them, his heart and mind warred against each other. In the end, his aching heart one.
Hyungwon placed a single foot back into the subway. He could give them a day. A day never hurt anyone. He would give them his time and then leave. He kept repeating the thought to himself, but he knew the truth within his heart. He didn’t want to leave. The thought of heading back home terrified him. Maybe he was afraid of the consequences. Maybe he was afraid of facing the mess he caused. Maybe he was afraid of seeing his best friend in jail because of him.
A large, heavy hand landed on his right shoulder pulling him out of the train. Another hand grabbed his left wrist. The six men inside the subway looked at him eyes wide. He looked over his shoulder. His mouth went dry. It was the TWP, Time Warp Police.
“CHW, Chae Hyungwon, we are from the TWP, Time Warp Police,” a short man in a black and white suit said. “You are under arrest for illegal use of time warp, distribution of dangerous time warp devices, and the endangerment of all timelines. Do not resist arrest.”
Hyungwon’s gaze turned toward the men in the subway, a silent apology in his heart. The officer grabbed his wrists, locking them in heavy cuffs. He licked his trembling lips. There was no way to escape. And he didn’t deserve to escape knowing that Hoseok was in jail.
“Citizens of the alternate timeline,” the officer said, talking to the others. “You’ll be returned home and will never have contact with Chae Hyungwon again. Any thought of future communication is ill-advised. You will leave our timeline and return to your own.”
“Hold on a second, ” Jooheon asked, looking at the two men. “You both are going to arrest him for—for what trying to help others? For doing what he thought was best for people suffering?”
“This is not your concern. You’ll be returned to your timeline immediately. It is an official request by the president. You will not face any consequences for interfering with the time loop.”
Hyungwon’s heart stilled, nausea washing over him. All this time he thought he created the never-ending time loop, but he had been wrong. The TWP found him and trapped him within the time loop, so they could arrest him with ease. The six men inside the subway must have interrupted the TWP’s well thought out plan. The thought of it all made him a little dizzy.
“Wait! You can’t just arrest him,” Minhyuk said, moving out of the subway. “We were all brought together for a reason. Isn’t that something you all can understand as the time police? You all know everything about time. Don’t you know anything about destiny? Sometimes people are destined to meet. We all feel we are destined to meet Hyungwon.”
The taller of the two men narrowed his eyes. “Destiny is not considered a reason to disrupt time. Therefore, no we do not and will not understand. Now, it would be in your best interest to get back on the subway and go back to your timeline.”
Before Minhyuk could disagree, Hyungwon shook his head. He mouthed the words ‘It’s done’. Minhyuk frowned, stepping back into the subway and taking a seat near Hyunwoo. The shorter officer walked toward the train and pressed a black gun to the outside wall of the subway.
He had seen the device before. It was the infamous Time Reorganizer device he had heard about. The gun helped send unwanted guests back to their timeline. The police officer pulled the trigger. The doors of the subway train closed, the train reversed down the track, and then disappeared through a tear in time.
Hyungwon heart dropped into his stomach. He stood there, eyes on the empty track. He should have been concerned by his arrest, but he wasn’t. All he could remember were the concerned eyes of the six men on the subway train. The grip on his arms tightened and he winced.
“I would spend time worrying about yourself. You are in a lot of trouble,” the shorter man said. “After you’ve been disconnected from any connections you’ve made with that time line and any other timeline, you’ll spend the rest of your life in jail for your crimes.”
Hyungwon didn’t respond. He accepted his punishment and walked in front of them toward the awaiting dark black vehicle. A door opened, and another man stepped out of the back seat. The president sent out three men to take him to jail. Everyone must have thought he was truly dangerous. A sigh left his lips as he was pushed into the back seat. One of the men sat near him, arms crossed and dark sunglasses on his face. The other two men in the front put on their own shades. Hyungwon wanted to laugh but the memory of everything he experienced since the watches kept him silent.
The car roared to life and pulled out of the station’s parking lot. Moisture collected in his eyes. He didn’t know what hurt more, the aspect of jail or the people’s lives he had ruined. When he arrived at the station, they gathered some information, confiscated his watch, and then led him down a long narrow corridor. On his way down the corridor, he noticed the doors glowed blue. He gulped. Electricity ran through the door of the cells to ensure no misbehaving from prisoners. On his way toward his cell, a familiar set of deep brown eyes stared at him from one of the cell windows.
“Hoseok?”
Hoseok eyes widened as he looked at him through the tiny window.
“Wait! Please let me talk to him!” Hyungwon said, heart breaking. “Please, its me you wanted all along. Let him go. Please, he was going to save a lot of lives.”
“Do not speak prisoner 1200,” the guard stated.
Hyungwon nodded, heart aching. Hoseok had such a promising future. He was going to help so many people as a doctor. But then Hoseok kept having visions of a man from centuries ago. Hyungwon gave him a watch thinking it would help. His heart grew heavy in his chest. They stopped in front of the cell at the end of the corridor. The guard opened the cell door, uncuffed him and pushed him inside. He heard the lock closing and footsteps retreating. He sat down on the bed and then rested his head against the stiff pillow.
A memory of what Minhyuk said about destiny drifted into his head. He sobbed, tears rolling down his cheeks. His heart shattered further as he lay in bed. There was nothing he could do. Even with an upcoming trial, he knew the verdict. He turned toward the cream-colored wall of the cell, eyelids falling from exhaustion. An image of six smiling faces came to mind as he drifted into a restless sleep.