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Waking up in someone else's bed on his birthday wasn't exactly what Hyunjin had signed up for, or, for that matter, expected, since it wasn’t like he'd been drinking last night. True, when he got really tired he sometimes ended up sleeping in random places, but… not in someone else's house.
He sat up and looked around the room, which was vaguely familiar. Some comic books on a desk, a laptop beside a picture of a white, fluffy dog, and a pile of clothes in the corner. None of his own clothes, though, and when he glanced down at himself, he realised these clothes weren't his either. If anything, they looked like they belonged to-
"Jisung."
Hyunjin shot up out of bed and stumbled over his feet, his body feeling wrong somehow. Ignoring that for the time being, he shuffled over to the dog picture and saw a cute puppy he now recognised to be Bbama with its tongue hanging from its mouth. Bbama. As in, Jisung's dog. Hyunjin spun around, confused as to why he was in Jisung's room. After all, they knew each other, but although they were friends, they weren't close enough to have sleepovers.
He ran a hand through his hair, and froze when it was shorter than usual. Oh no. He didn't know Jisung that well, but surely he wouldn't have cut Hyunjin's hair in his sleep? What would even be the point?
His gaze fell to his hands and he paused, frowning. That… did not look like his hand. This hand was much smaller, the fingers shorter, and now Hyunjin was starting to freak out. He rushed out the room and, after glancing left and right, stumbled in the direction he assumed the bathroom must be. He shut and locked the door behind himself, then cursed when he didn't see a mirror above the sink. Luckily, he quickly spotted one to the side, which he promptly dropped when he saw his reflection.
"Shit," he hissed when the mirror shattered into pieces at his bare feet, but he figured he could sweep that up later. More pressing was the fact that Hyunjin's reflection wasn't Hyunjin: it was Jisung.
He sank down onto the floor, away from the glass, and took several deep breaths. This couldn't be real, right? He couldn't- how could he be Jisung? Was he dreaming? He pinched his arm and let out a squeak of pain. Okay. So not a dream.
After a few more moments of panicking, he decided to just- go out and see if anyone else was around. Then again, Jisung didn't have a roommate, which was a shame, and after a quick search, he indeed found no one else. He did, however, find Jisung's phone. After some frantic thinking, he realised he could unlock it using his fingerprint, and then he was left to navigate to his chat apps.
Which was where he stopped. Who could he even contact? Who would believe him? There were a few unread messages from Minho and Changbin, but Hyunjin was pretty sure they'd think it was a joke. He knew he would.
He scrolled down in dismay and found a chat between the two of them, with the last messages being something along the lines of "can you bring some drinks?" "ofc baby lol", but now he'd have to use it for something else.
Jisung
Jisung? I think we need to talk
He waited a bit, then realised Jisung might still be asleep and decided to sweep up the mirror instead. As far as he remembered, he had fallen asleep at home, which meant Jisung should be in his bed right now. He could have breakfast, but… he couldn't say he was particularly hungry. The best course of action would be to get dressed and go over to his own place so they could discuss this in person, but he was terrified.
At the same time, he had no clue what time Jisung usually woke up, so he shot him (himself?) another text to tell him to stay put, just in case he'd wake up before Hyunjin got there, and then quickly showered and got dressed in what he hoped were clean clothes. He had only visited Jisung a few times and once he was out on the street, he opened up Naver Maps to double-check the route back to his own home. He sighed in relief when he saw it was pretty straightforward, because this was all odd enough and he just wanted to be home.
He made a mental note to reimburse Jisung for the travel costs home, even though it wasn’t much. And, since he jumped every time he saw his reflection in the window, he felt like perhaps he deserved to be paid for this. Not that Jisung wasn't nice to look at, because the more he stared at his face, the more Hyunjin thought he was one of the prettiest and cutest people he'd met, and his arms-
Anyway.
It was odd to suddenly be shorter and see everything from a lower angle, but Hyunjin kept his head down and hurried home, sighing in relief when he saw his building come up. He checked his- Jisung's phone again, and saw his message was still unread, though there was another message from Minho to ask if they were still meeting for dinner tonight. Were they dating? Had Hyunjin somehow missed such a crucial part of information? Oh god, what if he ruined things between them if he didn't respond? What if Minho came looking for him? What if Minho tried to kiss him?
"Calm down, Hyunjin," he mumbled to himself, flinching at the foreign voice leaving his throat. He'd be seeing Jisung soon and then he could sort out Minho before they tried to fix this entire mess. Taking a deep breath, Hyunjin put in the code to his door, only relaxing when the door beeped and he had stepped through it. Home. This was where he was meant to be, though- not so much where Jisung should be.
The flat was quiet and when he peeked into his bedroom, he spotted himself, still deeply asleep. It was an odd sensation, to say the least, but he shoved his anxiety aside and shuffled into the room, hesitating next to his bed. "Jisung?"
Nothing. Hyunjin huffed and reached out to shake his shoulder, stomach clenching. "Hey. You need to wake up."
This time he was rewarded with a groan, so he shook him again, backing away as soon as Jisung turned over and grumbled as he forced his eyes open.
Hyunjin swallowed hard at the sight of himself, because this was just weird. Bad weird. He could tell Jisung was thinking the same thing, because as soon as they made eye contact, he froze, his eyes widening comically.
"What the-" Jisung shot up in bed, Hyunjin's long hair a mess on top of his head. "What- How?" He looked around the room, consciousness returning to his eyes rapidly. "Where am I? Who are you?"
"I don't know what or how," Hyunjin began, speaking slowly and holding out his hands as though he were approaching a scared animal. "But you're in my- you're in Hyunjin's room. And body. And I'm you, but really, I'm Hyunjin. We switched."
Jisung blinked repeatedly. "What the fuck are you talking about?" He scratched his head, pulling a face at how different that must feel. "Am I dreaming?"
Hyunjin scoffed and sat down next to Jisung, who scooted over so quickly Hyunjin would have been offended were it any other situation. "I wish." He dug through his bedside drawer and pulled out a small mirror. "Here."
Although he gave Hyunjin a weird look, Jisung gingerly accepted the mirror and looked into it, gasping when he saw his reflection. "I-" He frowned and leaned in closer. "How do you look this good when you've just woken up?"
Hyunjin sputtered, turning red, and resisted the urge to say that Jisung himself was ridiculously adorable first thing in the mirror, because they had more important things to focus on, thank you very much. "Look, we need to figure out what's going on and how to undo this. Because you're cute and all, but I don't want to be stuck like you forever."
Jisung fluttered his eyelashes at Hyunjin and Hyunjin made a mental note never to do that himself. "Aww, you think I'm cute?" he cooed.
"Not the point!"
"Except what if it is?" Jisung looked in the mirror again and examined his new face from every angle. "In the movies it's always because people need to overcome difficulties or kiss or whatever, right?"
"Are you suggesting we make out?" Hyunjin asked slowly. God, he hoped not, because: "What about Minho hyung?"
Jisung wrinkled his nose. "What about him? I mean, if you want to kiss him, go for it, he likes kissing people, but I'm not sure he'd be into it if you look like me." He paused. "No, he'd probably still be up for it."
"What? No! I mean- is anything going on between you two?"
When Jisung continued to stare blankly, Hyunjin showed him his phone. Jisung tapped the messages to read them and snorted. "Dude, we're going for a meal. You and I have done the same, do you think we're dating too?"
Hyunjin opened and closed his mouth. "It's- he calls you honey."
Jisung rolled his eyes. "He calls everyone honey! So do I, actually. Or baby - you should know that." He sighed and started tapping away on his phone. "I'll let him know we can't meet tonight, because I doubt this will be resolved by then."
"If ever," Hyunjin mumbled under his breath. He peeked over Jisung's shoulder as he mentioned he had made impromptu plans with Hyunjin instead, which wasn't a complete lie. When Minho's response of "oh ho, I see, have fun 😏" came in, Jisung locked his phone and tossed it to the end of the bed.
"It's nothing!" Jisung shouted when Hyunjin went to speak. "Shut up. He's weird." He crawled out of bed and nearly tripped over the sheets, turning around after taking a moment to release a deep sigh. "We need to figure this out."
Hyunjin nodded and got off the bed as well, picking up his phone on the way. "Maybe we can ask Chan hyung? I mean, I'm not saying he'll know what to do, but what if he does?"
"We really go to hyung for everything, huh?" Jisung sighed, following Hyunjin out the room. "Oh, it's weird being taller than you."
"You're just super tiny," Hyunjin teased, laughing when Jisung glared at him. "And I know we do, but he's the only person who might believe us." Felix might, to be fair, but he'd probably come along anyway if they asked for Chan.
"You have a point," Jisung agreed. He patted down his pockets and sighed when he realised he had left his phone in the bedroom. "Hang on, I'll be right back."
Hyunjin nodded and quickly sent a message to Chan while he waited for Jisung to return. It took only a few moments for him to reply, assuring him he'd be there soon, and did he want Felix to bring any of his chocolate chip pancakes? He shot back an "always" and fell back onto the sofa, brushing the shorter yet fluffy hair away from his face.
"Chan hyung is on his way," Hyunjin confirmed when Jisung re-entered the room. "Felix is coming too, he's bringing pancakes. I figured we should at least try to eat." He furrowed his eyebrows when Jisung froze in the doorway, his eyes wide in terror. "Jisung…?"
"Why- erm." Jisung cleared his throat before taking a seat on the very edge of the sofa. "How come Felix is coming?"
"Because he's Chan's boyfriend," Hyunjin explained slowly. "Or- are you not comfortable with explaining this to more people?" That made sense, actually: perhaps Jisung had preferred to keep this between as few people as possible. A wave of guilt swept over Hyunjin, because he really should have checked beforehand. "I'm sorry, I'm so used to telling Felix everything, but if you want, I can ask Chan if he can come alone instead?"
"No, no, don't." Jisung laughed and rested his head on the back of the sofa. "Oh, this is just- it's bad. But he would have found out anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter."
"What are you-" Hyunjin stopped when there was a knock on the door. Felix lived only one floor above Hyunjin and if Chan had spent the night there, it must be him. And Felix, who for some reason instilled fear in Jisung - which was quite amazing, since Hyunjin was convinced Felix was the least intimidating person in the world. "That's probably them, can I let them in?"
He waited for Jisung to nod, though Hyunjin could hardly recall a time his face had looked that miserable. Bewildered, he made his way to the door and opened it so he could greet his friends.
"Oh, Jisung!" Chan blinked in surprise, Felix peeking around him while holding a plate of food. "I didn't expect to see you here."
"Wha- Oh!" Hyunjin chewed on his lip and stepped backwards. "It's… a long story. Come in, we're both in the living room." He shot a curious Felix a smile and went ahead of them, leaving Chan to shut and lock the door behind them all.
Hyunjin sat down next to Jisung, avoiding looking at him because it was still too weird to look at himself. Felix entered the room right behind him but stopped as soon as he saw Jisung. Or, well, once he saw Hyunjin. God, this was confusing. Chan seemed oblivious and smiled at them both, though there was some bewilderment at the edges of his smile.
"Shall I grab some more plates?" Chan asked, glancing between Felix and the pair on the sofa. "Or are you going to share?"
"Oh, crap!" Hyunjin got up, ready to grab the plates himself; in all the stress, he had completely forgotten. Before he could move, though, Felix held his hand up to stop him.
"Stop. Sit, both of you." He pointed at Jisung. "And you stay where you are."
Chan and Hyunjin exchanged a baffled look but did as asked, while Jisung fiddled with his hands and avoided all eye contact with anyone. Felix carefully placed the plate down on the coffee table and folded his arms, his eyes fixed on Jisung.
"Jisung. What did you do?"
Hyunjin's mouth dropped open and he hurt his neck when turning his head to look at Jisung, who was making himself as small as possible. How…?
"Erm, Lix…" Chan shot his boyfriend a bemused smile. "That's Hyunjin."
Felix shook his head. "Yeah, I can see why you'd think so. But no. That's Jisung. And that," he nodded over at Hyunjin, "that is Hyunjin. Because even though Jisung promised not to, he switched them."
"Wait, what?" Hyunjin straightened up, shocked. He looked over at Jisung, whose head was lowered, at Chan, who looked even more confused than Hyunjin felt, and at Felix, who was emitting a quiet anger that Hyunjin had never encountered from him before.
"Jisung?" Felix prompted. "Do you want to tell him or should I?"
Jisung winced and threw Hyunjin the saddest, most apologetic look, which wasn't that effective coming from his own face. "Give me thirty seconds to think of a lie," he blurted out.
Hyunjin recoiled. What did that mean? And how had Jisung even done this?
"No, I think you should tell the truth," Felix interrupted. "And I also think we should leave." He turned to Chan and tugged him up by his hand. "Come on, we'll let them deal with this themselves. You two: don't forget to eat. Text us later."
Hyunjin nodded dumbly and watched Chan and Felix leave, Chan complaining that he didn't understand what was going on and Felix promising he'd explain it to him. Once the door shut behind them, after a "good luck" from Felix, Hyunjin twisted to look at Jisung. "Jisung… What was Felix talking about?"
Jisung groaned and buried his face in his hands. "Okay, so… I- It's hard to explain. You might not even believe me."
"We switched bodies. What can you tell me that's weirder than that?"
"Right." Jisung took a few deep breaths, then moved so he was facing Hyunjin, knocking his knees into him. "Shit, sorry. Right. So." He winced. "I can kind of do magic. Like… actual magic."
Hyunjin stared at him as he processed those words. "You what?" Magic? "Did you do this to us? And… why?"
"It was an accident," Jisung hurried to explain. "I came across a ritual, a new one, when I was with Felix - he'll have to tell you his side of the story - and it was a bodyswap one. I joked that it might be fun to try it, maybe with you, but I never meant to actually do it. You know? Felix told me not to because the ritual didn't say how to reverse it and I promised him I wouldn't try, that it was only a joke. It just- I got excited and I didn't think it would really work, because the book it was in didn't look that reliable."
"Wait." Hyunjin got to his feet, frowning. "You know magic is real and you tried unreliable magic that you can't undo because-" He shook his head, trying to understand, and still wrapping his head around the whole 'magic is real' thing. "Because why, Jisung?"
"Because I wanted to be closer to you." Jisung spoke so fast Hyunjin struggled to understand him. "But I always get awkward around you and I thought, maybe if we swapped bodies, we'd be less awkward?” He grinned sheepishly and shrugged. “It made sense last night, but I was pretty sleep-deprived.”
“You wanted… to be closer to me?” Hyunjin sank back down on the sofa. “I’m so confused.” None of this made any sense.
“It’s because I like you, you idiot!” Jisung rubbed his hands down his face. “Lord knows why, you’re so fucking oblivious, but for some reason I find that endearing instead of annoying. Minho hyung knows, he’s been trying to get me to just ask you out and I’ve been telling him I can’t.” He bit his lip as he looked at Hyunjin. “I probably should have listened to him, huh?”
Okay. So Jisung liked him. Well. That was unexpected. Jisung had admittedly been kind of awkward around him, but Hyunjin had just assumed that was what he was like: cute and a little silly, kind of awkward but in a precious kind of way. “Yes, yes, you should have! Who thinks swapping bodies is the way to go?” He flicked Jisung’s ear. His own ear. For fuck’s sake, this was annoying. “You call me the idiot, but I probably would have said yes if you’d asked me out like a normal person.” Because, sure, he didn’t know if he liked Jisung like that, but he at least found him cute enough to agree to a date. It would be interesting, that was for sure, and he could do a lot worse than Han Jisung.
Jisung stared at him in surprise. “Wait, for real?”
“Probably still would,” Hyunjin admitted begrudgingly. Perhaps he was an idiot as well, but Jisung was still cute and although his methods sucked, it was sort of flattering. Sort of. Look, it was hard to be angry with Jisung when he was being all earnest, especially because it did sound like he had messed up and never intended to hurt anyone or, in fact, believed it would work. “If we ever make it back into our own bodies.”
“Right.” Jisung played with his - Hyunjin’s - lips, then suddenly stopped. “Remember what I said about how sometimes a kiss is the answer?”
Luckily, Jisung was right this time and the kiss worked to put them back, though Hyunjin had to say, kissing himself was an experience for sure, but he didn’t know if he wanted a repeat of it. On the other hand, he did appreciate kissing actual Jisung when they turned back in the middle of the kiss and knowing it had been him the entire time did help. Once they were themselves again, Hyunjin pulled back, chuckling when Jisung tried to follow.
“Take me on a date first. And…” He leaned in closer, grinning when Jisung stared at his lips. “You’ll have to work for it. Without magic.”
Jisung promised he would, vowing to make it the best date ever. As he started brainstorming out loud, Hyunjin chose not to tell him he’d likely kiss him again either way.
(Although he did let him know that if he took him on the haunted walking tour, he’d never kiss him again. “Not a threat, just a fact.”
Judging by Jisung's wide-eyed nodding, he was convinced.)