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1
In this lifetime, Lee Felix first meets Han Jisung as the latter hides himself in a lifeboat.
He doesn't know what comes over him to lie, but Felix denies seeing the other boy to Second Officer Lightoller and in return gains himself the loyalty and companionship of a stowaway throughout his journey on the Titanic. And Felix, who'd been feeling rather lonely ever since his family had boarded the ship, took to this new arrangement with much welcome and enthusiasm.
And before he knows it, Felix falls in love with the boy whose eyes reflect the stars in the night sky. The boy who speaks in rhymes, the sharp wit pronounced in his thick Irish accent. The boy who's barely older than him, yet set for an entirely different life ahead of them.
Felix almost half wishes that they had been born in a different life, one where they would have the freedom to love each other as a man would a woman. One where he didn't have obligations and responsibilities as heir of his family.
But alas.
They're together the night the iceberg tears into the ship, and Jisung's instincts had led him back to his parents. Before he leaves in search of his junior steward friend, Jisung makes him promise to get himself onto a lifeboat.
But they say she's unsinkable, he says. There's no reason to worry.
But his sweetheart fixes him with hard eyes, and Felix finds himself agreeing. Jisung leaves, and he turns to find his parents.
His father stays behind while his mother pulls him aboard the lifeboat.
Felix wants to weep, wants to tear himself from his mother’s desperate grip on his arm and inflict his own onto the old man. But he knows, he knows his father would never board without having ensured that all the other women and children aboard the ship have.
In that moment he feels like a young boy of ten again, lacking the honour his father has written all over his face.
The lifeboat plummets down towards the sea before he realizes, and now he's looking up along the ship's side. One glance at the ship is enough for Felix to know that there's a high possibility that he'll never see his father again, and his eyes immediately search for his father along the side, trying to memorize every last feature on his face.
As some frigid sea water splashes over him, he remembers that Jisung is still aboard the ship. Surely he'd be able to get himself onto a lifeboat in time?
Felix hopes. And waits. But deep down in his gut, he knows that the chances of that happening are near zero.
Nearly two and a half hours later, the last of the Titanic sinks beneath the surface of the water, taking with it the broken pieces of Felix’s heart.
2
In this lifetime, Han Jisung first meets Lee Felix at a hospital.
Jisung is a soldier just carried in from the frontlines, having lost a leg from a bomb and lucky enough to keep the rest of his body parts about him. He's now resting in his hospital bed, trying to ignore the phantom feeling of where his leg below the knee used to be.
If it was of any condolences, he'll be returning home to Finchley. An honourable discharge from the army they say.
A nurse is tending to him when Lee Felix swoops in and surprises her, and really Jisung ought to get mad. But he locks eyes with a pair of bright and sharp ones, eyes alit with a life that one rarely sees during such war ridden times as theirs.
And just like that, Jisung falls.
Felix speaks of a life in the sky, one where he spins and dips to his heart's content all while shaking off enemy fighter jets. Jisung's heart lurches whenever Felix mentions the close calls, but it's clear to anyone who sees that the pilot is every bit as charmed as his audience.
Despite the bravado he carries, Felix is a man of the arts, and one who loves his sisters with as much love as one can give. Olivia's brighter after Felix's first visit, and she changes Jisung's dressings all while humming a merry tune.
It's obvious that one with such a free-spirited soul as Felix possessed would never be tied down for long, and true enough Felix leaves a week later. He calls out promises of snacks and more stories on his next period of leave, and Jisung hopes he can hold him to that.
One day Olivia doesn't come in as she usually does, and Jisung just knows. Calmly, he turns on the radio and fiddles with the dials to get the right station.
He hears about fighter jets from the RAF getting gunned down by the Luftwaffe, and closes his eyes.
3
In this lifetime, Han Jisung first meets Lee Felix in a courtroom.
Lee Felix has been charged with the murder of eight women and one attempted murder, the last of which was Jisung's client.
On all accounts, this is not a man Jisung would want to be with. His older brother had been wrongfully accused of a crime he did not commit, and had his future stripped away from him. It was further cemented in place when Jisung had found his brother lifeless in his childhood bed, a bottle of pills near his cold hands. Out of anyone, Jisung has the strongest moral code known to man.
And yet, there was something strangely magnetic about the other man.
It wasn't just the way he held himself, or the way he spoke. As abstract as it sounded, it almost felt as though a part of him sought out the man standing across, like a north pole would a south pole.
When a pair of blank eyes meets his, Jisung shivers. There was just…something so intriguing about it all. He'd never quite felt anything like this during his ten years as a lawyer, and yet this one man was just casually tilting his world about its axis.
Perhaps he'd experienced this before…?
Lee Felix is eventually found guilty, and sentenced to the death penalty. Jisung's eyes try not to follow him out of the courtroom, and a part of him wonders what it would be like if this man had been a normal everyday person and not a serial killer.
Disgusted with himself, he immediately squashes the thought out of his head.
4
In this lifetime, Lee Felix first meets Han Jisung in a practice room.
Maybe third time’s the charm after all.