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He doesn't remember at first. When he does remember he can't figure out how he forgot.
It starts small. He is on a mission, he meets Seo-yeon. She's perfect and beautiful and he keeps thinking that she doesn't look like she should.
Her hair is a shimmering black curtain where it should be a half cut tumble of red curls. That doesn't make sense. He tries to think back through all of his missions. Freckles and red hair and a voice yelling at him. Telling him that the leading man always has the love interest best interests at heart.
The words don't make sense and he still can't picture the face but those words are like one of his missions. He can't walk away from mission.
When Seo-yeon saves him after he gets in over his head on his mission, he apologizes. He thinks he hears the same voice in his head going over how to make a proper apology.
Who is this? There are rumors of a spy organization that can wipe a spy's memory and make them work for the enemy. Is that what this is? Has he somehow been compromised?
He keeps going on missions. Seo-yeon continues to help him and becomes more skilled over time. It is obvious that despite what Joon Park's ex lover turned handler wants, he and Seo-yeon will become partners.
This should make him happy. Having a trustworthy partner again validates his years of service to The Program since the loss of his old partner.
There is talk of a new supervillain with a portal machine. They have one chance to stop the machine and steal the plans back. He and Seo-yeon go into the lair. They fight together as the perfect team. As they walk through the lab's door, leaving a swath of knocked out henchmen behind him, he can taste the oncoming rush of something that is destined to happen.
The doors swing open. On the giant portal machine a stooped man, short, with his hair slicked smiles down at them.
This is wrong, though Joon Park cant verbalize why. It's like those strange dreams of the girl with the red hair. He knows that it's supposed to he his old partner standing in that spot, not this stranger. Only Joon Park hates him, wants to get between him and Seo-yeon, wants to pound his face in.
How can he feel like this, if the man is truly a stranger?
They stand there, frozen for a minute. Then the man starts to laugh. "I wondered when you would get here Joon Park. And Seo-yeon, my love. This super agent look is very fetching." He waves at her suit, crisp and perfectly white and black despite the people they fought through.
Why does that detail stick out to him above everything else? He looks down at his equally perfect clothes. Then back down the hall. It is empty. Not a single henchman lays on the ground. But that doesn't- his head is pounding
"Seth!"
Joon Park's head whips around at the panicked sound on Seo-yeon's voice.
"So you do remember me," Seth waves around at the lab full of strange buzzing and whirring electronics, "even in this new world. I knew we were destined for each other."
His maddened smile and the way Seo-yeon steps back pushes Joon Park into motion despite the increasingly disjointed thoughts that keep insisting they should be in a restaurant.
He jerks forward to get between Seth and Seo-yeon.
"Uh-uh-uh." Seth says. There is a shriek as the device he is standing on powers up. "Nobody is going to interfere with my destiny this time."
There is a burning, tearing pain as Joon Park is pulled into a portal. The portal squeezes and tugs at him, making him more that he was when he entered. He remembers now. Claire and Seth and the truth of Dramaworld.
He stumbles out of the portal onto an unfamiliar street. There are strangely designed buildings on either side. An angry driver shouts for him to get out of the road as he drives past. There is a emblem on the car's front grill. Unlike any car he's every seen.
Has anyone ever shouted at him to get out of the road before? Cars have always waited patiently for him to have emotional breakdowns or simply run him over. Another driver speeds past. The curses they shout at him are not edited out.
He runs to the sidewalk before any other cars have a chance to drive past. It's only as he collapses onto the pavement that be realizes he is holding the briefcase with the portal plans inside. Maybe he can use those to get back to his world and stop Seth from Destroying Dramaworld.
He opens the briefcase. inside are a few mostly blank pages of paper and a book 'The Laws of the real world. A Hero's Guidbook to saving Dramaworld."
On the first page is a table of contents. 'Chapter 1: Finding the Girl'
Claire. He nees to find Claire. She would know how to fix this. She'd fixed things last time. He stands, papers from the open briefcase scatter everywhere and he scrambles to stuff them back into the briefcase.
A few of the bystanders stoop down to help him. He doesn't feel an instant spark of destiny with any of them.
And when he thanks them and they leave, he doesn't feel the need to follow them to learn more about them.
This place is very strange. He stands still, processing that thought, long enough his adrenaline to begin fading. He wavers on his feet.
Claire. He has to find Claire. The usual tugging in his chest that tells him what to do is still there. It will lead him to her. It has to. How can he be without her now that he remembers her?
So he runs, down unfamiliar streets, though gardens, over fences, until finally he runs into in a small food stand.
And he sees Claire's beautiful face.
She is dressed in the outfit she'd been wearing when she first fell into his arms. That is what finally makes him realize the truth of the situation. He is in the realworld, Claire's world.
He thinks he stammers out something about needing to save Dramsworld before the adrenaline crash catches up with him. Then there is just the cold floor and darkness.
He wakes laid our across a restaurant both, the table overlapping the bench and making it hard to sit up.
He scrambles his way to a seated position after a few undignified attempts. She is waiting for him, sitting across from him on the other bench.
The book of rules is open in front of her, she is chewing on the nails of her left hand absentmindedly. She is the most beautiful thing he has ever seen.
"So you said he needed my help to save dramaworld, what's-"
He lunges across the table before she can finish her sentence. Then he is pulling her into a kiss. She is as perfect as he remembers, even if her lips are a little chapped and she smells more like cured meats and vinegar than he is used to.
She stays there, head cocked ever so slightly and eyes closed as he pulls away. Then she shakes her head and her expression is once more the canny and determined look he loves so much. "Come on. It's time to save Dramawold again. We can kiss more after. Now tell me what is happening."
"o-ok-ay." He likes the sound of that. But she is right. Seth needs to be stopped and between the two of them it will only take a day or two. Then they can spend the rest of their lives kissing.