Chapter Text
“When in need of an answer, flip a coin.
It was nice meeting you, kiddo…”
Darkness and then Eun Gyeol snapped his eyes open, only to see the same guest room he’d stayed in the Jinsung Mansion. ‘What happened? Did it not work? Why am I back here?’
With his hands trembling, he got up looking around, trying and failing to make sense of his surroundings. It looked exactly like the Jinsung family guestroom but there were electric guitars and a laptop that Eun Gyeol knew did not belong in 1995. ‘Is…is this a dream again? Just what was in the lavender tea?’ He frustratedly pulled his hair, as he tried to come up with a way to verify where exactly he’d ended up.
“Sorry, I did not catch that.”
Eun Gyeol startled badly and whipped around to face the sleek white and gold object. Squinting at it, a sudden smile bloomed on his face.
“What is the year now?”
The answer came quickly and yet didn’t reduce his confusion in the slightest.
“Its 2023”
If he was back to the present, then why was he here of all places? Did something go wrong? Eun Gyeol shook his head resolutely and shoved the covers away from his feet. He needed answers and the only way to get them was to leave the room…no matter how nerve wracking it was.
He’d hoped that when he eventually went back to his time, whatever changes took place he’d get to know the minute he was back. Like a system update. But the last thing he remembered was walking into the bookstore. So, here he was running through a mansion with no idea how his life had changed.
He’d reached the same corridor where he’d spotted the old family portrait and then he stopped dead. Instead of the family portrait he was used to, he saw his own family staring back. His father, mother and hyung all grinning at him. And the addition of Chairman Yoon or, Eun Gyeol thought rather hysterically, his maternal grandfather.
Everyone looked so content in the portrait. His parents lacked the lines on their faces which their previously hard lives had given them. Eun Gyeol himself looked happier in the picture. His eyes lighter and shoulders higher without the burden he’d carried his entire life.
Eun Gyeol could feel the glaze of tears coming on but he stopped himself. He had verified that his family was alright. He still needed to make sure Eun Yoo was alright too.
Dodging every attendant he’d come across, which was far too many considering he lived as someone from a middle class income, he finally made his way to Eun Yoo’s house.
The familiar road brought a pang to his heart as he remembered the kind man who gently introduced him to music and left as suddenly as he’d come in.
Jonathan Ahjussi, Viva Harabeoji, Master….
Eun Gyeol had the privilege of knowing him in so many ways. He took a deep breath and rang the bell, hoping to meet either Ahjumma or preferably Eun Yoo. He didn’t know how he would react to meeting the Choi Se Gyeong he thought, would date his father. The whole scenario made him intensely uncomfortable and embarrassed. But to his good fortune or rather bad fortune, a complete stranger opened the door.
“Sorry, who are you? Did you come to the wrong house?”
Eun Gyeol blinked, looked outside as if making sure and then shook his head.
“It’s definitely the right house. Did you know where the previous tenants went?”
The woman, if possible, started to look even more suspicious and began to slowly close the door.
“Previous tenants? I built this house five years ago, and have been living here since. Please stop bothering me.”
Eun Gyeol in his shock simply stepped back and let the woman slam the door in his face.
‘Did….did Eun Yoo not make it? Did she get stuck somewhere and lose the window of opportunity? Or did she deliberately not come? To make sure she…’
He stopped his train of thought, unwilling to entertain such notions even in his head. He was sure Eun Yoo wouldn’t do that to him. After all, she was the one who pushed him and scolded him to make him see sense and come back home. She was finally happy with life and wanted to live. She wouldn’t change her mind after that…Right?
It was like a stone dropped in his stomach. The joy he’d had in seeing his family in a better place than before, was undermined by the idea that Eun Yoo may not have made it back.
He whipped his phone out, heart beating desperately. He needed to know she was alright. He needed to know that she had made it.
But no matter how many times Eun Gyeol called her, all he got was the grating voice of the operator saying that the number doesn’t exist.
He was nearing his wits end, the previous three days of hell slowly catching up to him. The stress of being kidnapped by the goons that witch had hired and then nearly dying and losing Yi Chan at the same time. Everything happened so quickly that Eun Gyeol didn’t really have time to process it all.
But with Eun Yoo, the only other person in the world who knew exactly what had happened, missing, Eun Gyeol thought he might lose his mind.
His phone began vibrating and Eun Gyeol felt like he could breathe again. Only to find his spirits slightly fall as he read the name “SPINE9 Jun Hyung calling” instead of Eun Yoo.
But he was still happy to talk to him after all these days.
“Hyung-”
“Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for you at the salon?! Forget it. I’m on my way to pick you up. Stay right where you are. Don’t move.”
“What? Hello? Hello?” The line was dead.
Eun Gyeol put his phone back down, reeling from the one sided conversation.
‘Salon? Why a salon?’
He was about to call him back when he heard his name.
“You’re him, right? Ha Eun Gyeol, from SPINE9?”
Just as he thought his day couldn’t get crazier, he had to be approached by these randos as well. Trying to stay composed, he replied, “Do you know me?”
It was the wrong thing to say.
The girls burst into action with one shamelessly taking his photos and ignoring his protests and the other asking for his hair, of all things.
He was done. Ha Eun Gyeol simply turned tail and ran.
Unfortunately, that was the wrong move too.
Before long he had accumulated quite a mob. A terrifying mob of teenage girls, screaming and chasing him. He doesn’t think he’s ever been this scared.
‘Why are they following me? Am I famous or something?’
The girls had nearly caught up to him and Eun Gyeol was running out of roads to take diversions but as if a gift from the heavens, a black van stopped right in front of him, with a hand urgently waving.
Throwing caution to the wind, he launched himself inside the van, happy to simply be rid of the mob. He began thanking the person who saved him, only to come face to face with his band members.
They all looked so different and did Ji-Ho hyung dye his hair?
They also looked distinctly pissed. Well shit.
“Hyungs! Wow, you all look so fancy! People would think you guys were artists from MJ Entertainment.” He tacked on a bright smile hoping to stall and get out of this sticky situation.
As always, the perpetually pissed Soo-Tak hyung spoke up.
“Wow, look at this sly punk. He’s trying to weasel out of this mess.”
Eun Gyeol could only muster fondness for his hyung’s acerbic tone, having desperately missed his band members despite knowing them only for a short while.
Jun Hyung spoke up, forever the mediator,” Forget it. The tour dates are during your school break. Did you get their permission?”
Eun Gyeol blinked. Cursing Master or Jonathan or whoever he is, for leaving him so out of depth in his own life, he tried to formulate a reply that wouldn’t make them more suspicious.
“A tour? Are we going on a travel tour as a group?”
Jun Hyung, who was trying to maintain civility, burst out incredulously, “A travel tour, my foot. I’m talking about our tour abroad, you moron.”
Eun Gyeol, repeated the words in a dazed manner. “Our tour abroad? Us?”
Soo Tak hyung, smoothing out his already flawless hair as if holding onto his last bit of patience, spoke up.
“We’re opening the show for Yoon Dong Jin as his supporting band. I told you to get permission from your parents for the tour. Did you just come back from your previous life or something, huh? ”
Ji-Ho hyung quickly jumped in to de-escalate the situation, hearing Soo Tak’s voice rise.
“He’s just sorry because he was late.” Turning to face Ha Eun Gyeol, he continued.
“First of all, Soo-Ji will come to our event for us. So, as soon as we arrive you can go get your make-up done and put on-”
Eun Gyeol interrupted, feeling as if he was in an alternate reality instead.
“Our event? What event?”
This time all three of his hyungs yelled at him and Eun Gyeol could do nothing but get his earful.
And surprisingly it helped. By the time he had reached the venue, he had surmised enough details from all the raging his band members did.
“So let me get this straight. We’re artists from MJ Entertainment and the endorsers of Jinsung Musical Instruments as well. They’re throwing a party for the launch of Goliath and we’re giving the celebratory performance…...and I’m the grandson of the Jinsung Family?”
His hyungs who had long since given up making sense of his sudden amnesia, were simply glad that he sounded coherent.
“Finally you’re back to your senses? Now can we please go to the green room? ”
Eun Gyeol nodded, his head a million miles away as he tried to process all of this. And Jun Hyung, bless him, must have seen something on his face that made him shoo the rest of the members towards the green room and leave him alone.
It was surreal. Seeing his face and the others blown up like actual artists’ posters and reading the posters that said “SPINE9 Celebratory Performance for the Goliath Launch”
The flashes from the relentless camera people only enhanced the dream-like quality of everything he was seeing. Eun Gyeol didn’t know if he even wanted to wake up from this dream. Suddenly he felt a tap on his shoulder. Turning to see, he saw his hyung looking put off and signing and asking what took him so long.
Eun Gyeol didn’t even pause and launched himself at his big brother, never mind that he was pushed away soon with Eun Ho looking around in embarrassment. But despite his embarrassment, he’d held Eun Gyeol just as tight, as if understanding from some older sibling's intuition that he needed that hug desperately.
But the hug didn’t stop him from berating Eun Gyeol.
“Where’s your suit? I told you to wear it since you have to greet Father’s friends.”
Eun Gyeol gently interrupted him. He felt like if he didn’t say this now, he would never be able to say it again.
Signing carefully so that Eun Ho doesn’t miss a thing, he begins telling his hyung something that he should have made clear a long time ago. Something that weighed so heavily on his mind that it made breathing hard at times.
“Hyung, I have never, not even once, considered you my burden.”
And Eun Ho’s eyes softened with understanding but he teased his brother, he knew that it was something that bothered his baby brother quite a lot and to tease him would be the best way to let him know that he knew and understands exactly what Eun Gyeol meant.
“Is that so? But I have considered you my burden many times. Like now, for instance.”
He wet his hands, with mischief sparking in his eyes and brings his hands forward to try and rearrange the mess that was his younger brother’s hair, but was predictably stopped by the said brother.
Eun Gyeol having successfully saved his hair from his hyung’s clutches, asked the question that was ringing in his head since he stepped into the venue.
“Where is mom and dad?”
Right then, the sounds of flashes going off increased and the brothers turned to face the escalator. Eun Gyeol took this gap to go to Naver and look his mom up.
His heart felt like bursting as he read further about her accomplishments. Just then he heard the brisk tapping of heels, clear amongst the other chaos going on and he looked up to see his mother. Sleek and chic, but still with the kindest smile he has ever seen , she walked towards them.
He hugged her feeling as though all those awful days cleaning pools and getting beat up by henchmen was all worth it, for this one moment.
She gently drew back, with a teasing smile she began to sign.
“There’s no use buttering me up. Your dad’s thoughts and my thoughts are clashing, you know that. Don’t forget that I let you join the band only because you promised me that you’ll get into college. The moment your grades fall, the trip is cancelled.”
Eun Gyeol, confused, but sufficiently threatened followed her as she made her way through the crowd and into the hall.
Watching her comfortably greet men who signed back to her, Eun Gyeol turned towards his brother. “Who are they?”
Eun Ho, who’s been watching him weirdly ever since he googled their own mother, responded cautiously, “Our father’s high school friends with whom he had a band.”
He turned back to look at them closer, his heart hurting curiously as their images seemed to merge with their eighteen year old selves that Eun Gyeol was more familiar with.
He remembered the way Eun Yoo had said that it was his father who cut all ties with his friends as seeing them made him sad and made him miss the old days, and his friends seeing Yi Chan like that made them miserable too.
But what he was seeing right now was the complete opposite. The easy way all four conversed using sign language and their comfortable body language implied that there never was a time that they stopped contacting one another.
Eun Gyeol felt like a huge stone fell off his chest. Here, was living breathing proof that his presence in the past changed things for the better. But there was an awful voice in his head that kept reminding him that he still hadn’t seen either his father or Eun Yoo.
Before he could sneak out and try and look for either of them, his mother strong-armed him into sitting in the audience before the program started. He still felt like ants were crawling on his skin and he looked at his brother to ask for the hundredth time where his dad was. However Eun-Ho, tired of his antics, signed at him to shut up.
Just when he was about to get up, the host began speaking and announced that the floor was open for Director Ha Yi Chan, who spearheaded the Goliath Project.
Eun Gyeol watched as his father walked across the stage with his head held high, looking so similar yet different to the eighteen year old boy who was ready to take the world by storm.
His father held the audience captive, his charisma unhindered by his inability to speak. Standing tall, he stood at the center of attention as he always did and Eun Gyeol thought he could weep enough to fill oceans as he saw his father still sparkle after all these years.
Yi Chan played his signature guitar riff and left the stage with a standing ovation and Eun Gyeol's heart had never felt fuller.
As he made his way out to get ready for his own performance, there he was. His father, 46 years old and Ha Yi Chan 18 years old. Both the images superimposed on each other.
Yi Chan, on seeing his youngest, began to sign but was interrupted with him hugging him tightly. Wordlessly he hugged him back, feeling vibrations as if his son was speaking to him. There was a nagging sense of worry that sparked on seeing his son's tired face. The sudden hug did nothing to elevate his worry.
Eun Gyeol pulled back and signed.
“It's my turn to be cool. Look forward to it.” And walked away, afraid that if he stayed any longer, he'd do something embarrassing like start crying.
Yi Chan stared after him a little worriedly. He'd seen how the corners of his eyes tightened like he was about to cry because Eun Gyeol though a sensitive child, wasn't one to cry for no reason.
Right when he was about to walk into the hall, an object caught his eye. A cassette, like the ones he used to use, back in the day. Then something stopped him cold. The name written on the cassette. “A Song for You”
The fateful cassette that he made all those years ago….how did it end up with Eun Gyeol…he was sure he lost it that day….it couldn't possibly mean that-
Yi Chan shook his head resolutely and walked on, quietly pocketing the cassette.
As he watched his son perform, all the memories he'd thought he'd forgotten came rushing back. So, that kid wasn't lying after all. Somehow Eun Gyeol had manages to come to past.
Yi Chan smiled. There's no one that's gonna believe him. But he had no doubts that for whatever reason the apparent time travel had taken place, it only had good consequences.
Eun Gyeol was done with the first performance which to his good luck was ‘Higher’ but now the audience was demanding an encore and he was getting more nervous by the second.
He didn't know another song. ‘Higher’ was the only song SPINE9 had made that he knew perfectly. Just as he was drinking water and trying to find some excuse about not knowing how to play his own song he spotted somebody.
It was like the world froze and only he could move and yet he stood frozen as he watched her make her way through the crowd and leave.
And suddenly the world was back in motion but Eun Gyeol had eyes for only one person. He removed the guitar strap and ran, paying no heed to Jun Hyung shouting after him.
Once outside the venue, Eun Gyeol scanned the premises frantically, desperately. Till he saw her standing against the railing, smiling expectantly at him.
“Its been a while, Ha Eun Gyeol.”
And as always, he went to her.