Work Text:
𝘛𝘤𝘩.
Who knows how many times this silver-haired man cursed? Sweat ran down his forehead after working since early morning, and he still had to walk past the crowd to get into the backstage of the show.
For God's sake, it was just a music concert at an ordinary campus festival; why did the audience have to be this crowded? Yes, even if he profited from his position as the event committee, but still, walking past the crowd to carry out all kinds of strange requests from the guest star—which was not his job—made him want to curse everything.
After showing the name tag that said Phainon - Creative Staff which was hanging around his neck, he eventually gained access and entered the waiting area for the guest star, whose song he had never heard before.
"Good afternoon, I'm Phainon from the event staff...?"
Phainon was frozen. He had never handled guest star poster designs or something like that in the creative team, so this was his first encounter with the artist who was reported to be on the rise, and why did he looks familiar?
"Yes? Oh, so you brought the necessities? Come in, place them on the table."
The manager welcomed Phainon while he was still standing at the door, looking at the artist—the reddish-orange-haired 𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳 whose face was being made up.
"Why are you looking around? Is this your first time meeting an artist?" Mydei asked (Phainon only remembered his name after seeing the writing 𝘔𝘺𝘥𝘦𝘪 (𝘎𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘳)’𝘴 𝘞𝘢𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘙𝘰𝘰𝘮 near the door), looking at Phainon through the reflection of the mirror in front of him.
Phainon clicked his tongue. This guest star seemed annoying. Not only did he have many requests (what was the point of asking for a kilogram of pomegranates in exchange for signing the agreement??), his behavior also interfered Phainon's hearing and sight.
"Nothing. Excuse me. If anything happens, please contact the Liaison Officer directly, I'm only here to bring your request. Thank you."
Phainon had just turned around when Mydei spoke up again.
"Who said you could leave? My Liaison Officer said you were a temporary replacement because she had an important errand, so you should stay here while waiting for her to return."
Haha.. Cyrene and all her rash decisions.. Phainon wanted to curse but if Cyrene found out, he might be cursed even worse.
Phainon went back into the room, sitting anywhere as long as it wasn't close to Mydei.
Just as his butt touched the chair, Mydei's annoying voice (according to him) was heard.
"Get me some mineral water. The water you just brought, I can't drink other brands."
Without saying much, Phainon opened the box he had brought earlier to find a bottle of mineral water and brought it to him.
Mydei smiled faintly (still annoying in Phainon's eyes). "Thank you, you can go back to your seat."
Phainon thought he could at least rest for five minutes, but less than two minutes, Mydei's voice filled the silent space again.
"Get me some wet wipes, they're in my bag."
As if Phainon was paying attention to which bag he had. But thanks to his manager's help, Phainon finally found the wet wipes and gave them to Mydei who, he swear, hadn’t finished getting dressed. 𝘐𝘴 𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮 𝘰𝘳 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘥?
Phainon didn't sit down right away. He stood leaning against the wall not far from where Mydei was sitting, watching the 𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳 whose hair was being styled while he scrolled through his phone screen and occasionally giggled for unknown reasons.
𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢 𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘻𝘺 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯, Phainon thought. (As if he had never done the same thing).
Phainon stood for ten minutes, just in case Mydei called him, but Mydei was busy with his own world, as if forgetting the existence of Phainon who he had previously called every minute.
His legs were getting tired so Phainon decided to return to his seat.
"Phainon? Get me a hair tie from my bag, I don't like wearing a hair tie that isn't mine."
𝘐 𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘢𝘳, 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘎𝘰𝘥'𝘴 𝘴𝘢𝘬𝘦, 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘮𝘦 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦??
"Here. Is there anything else? Let me get it." Phainon handed him the hair tie and Mydei giggled hearing the tiredness in his voice.
"Nothing. But rather than getting tired going back and forth, you better sit here." Mydei replied while pointing at the empty chair next to him.
"No, thanks. I'd rather sit on the sofa."
Phainon returned to his seat. 10 minutes, 20 minutes passed peacefully. Phainon occasionally glanced at Mydei whose hair was still being arranged in such a way while he thought again about the same thing when he first saw him.
𝘔𝘺𝘥𝘦𝘪... 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘔𝘺𝘥𝘦𝘪 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘦 𝘮𝘦𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦...
Phainon tried hard to remember but couldn't recall; he knew he wasn't a fan of rock music, thus he'd never seen Mydei in person before. But it felt like that tall, sturdy body and long hair were not the first time he had seen them.
Wait, tall body?
"What are you daydreaming about?"
𝘚𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘴𝘶𝘥𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘦?
Phainon looked away. "Nothing. Not daydreaming."
Mydei chuckled. "Okay. I'm going up on stage in a moment, but Cyrene hasn't come back yet so you have no choice but to stand by in front of the stage waiting for me until I'm done."
Phainon didn't like noisy places, didn't like places with dense crowds. But in the end, he still followed Mydei and separated because Mydei had to get ready at the backstage while he stood in the front row of the audience.
During Mydei and his band's performance, Phainon's eyes couldn't leave how Mydei had changed 180°. Ah, maybe this is what happens when you do something on your passion.
Their gazes met more than once, and Mydei wouldn't let go first. In fact, Mydei always smiled when he found him and occasionally threw an annoying wink that unfortunately made Phainon's heart beat faster.
Ha. Hold on, Phainon. All artists are indeed good at this kind of fanservice.
Wait, Phainon isn't even a fan. All of this must be just because Mydei is annoying and wants to show off his good looks.
Yes, Phainon admits that Mydei is indeed handsome even though his annoying behavior covers it all up.
As the night went on, Phainon thought harder about Mydei and his presence that didn't feel strange, even felt very close as if they had known each other for decades. Phainon didn't understand what that feeling was, could it be that Mydei was the one who could make him not feel awkward? Could it be that he no longer considered strangers as people to be avoided? Who knows which one is right, what is clear is that right now Phainon felt his head spinning.
Phainon was indeed the type of person who was not used to being in crowded places. But right now, he was in the front position, not in the middle of the crowd. This headache came along with abstract fragments of memory, as if there was a film roll slowly showing in his head.
𝘔𝘺𝘥𝘦𝘪? 𝘔𝘺𝘥𝘦𝘪! 𝘔𝘺𝘥𝘦𝘪. No, Phainon didn't call Mydei. But Phainon heard his own voice echoing in his head, along with a fragment of a memory of Mydei swinging his sword to block the sword Phainon had swung at him.
Phainon held his head. What kind of memory was this? Why did it feel like he was having a feverish dream? What were the strange clothes Mydei and himself were wearing in the memory?
Unable to drown in his own thoughts, Phainon refocused himself to look at the stage where it turned out that Mydei was delivering some closing messages to end his performance. Phainon immediately ran to backstage as soon as Mydei walked off the stage.
Although still looking dazed, Phainon accepted the electric guitar that had been around Mydei's neck. Following Mydei back to the waiting room, he handed him mineral water and held a hand fan that was pointed at his face.
"Are you starting to understand your job now?"
Back from the stage, Mydei's annoying personality also returned.
Phainon clicked his tongue. "I don't want to be tagged as not working properly, and if there is another event like this in the future, you won't want to come because you had a bad experience with me."
Mydei laughed. "Oh? So you're trying to be professional, huh?"
Phainon just rolled his eyes, not answering.
"You really don't have any work? You're on the creative team, right? What do you usually do?" Mydei spoke up again to break the silence while the make-up artist cleaned his makeup off his face.
"If I wasn't asked to, then I don't have any. Most of my work is making pre-event designs, so my main task is done. Besides, now I have a new task to accompany you, so they didn't give me any additional work.” Phainon answered while opening his phone, seeing the chat room that was empty, no one mentioned his name which meant that he was indeed not given any other work besides taking care of the artist.
Mydei nodded his head, understanding even though he had never been involved in taking care of events like this. "I want to get some fresh air, it's really hot here. Is there any quiet place?"
Finally, Phainon took him to the back garden of his campus that faced the lake. The sun was about to set. Its light showered onto Mydei's face, making Phainon try to restrain himself from staring at him closely.
"You feel familiar with me, right?"
Phainon was stunned to hear that. "How did you know?"
Mydei smiled. "Then it's true."
"Huh? What's true?"
"It's true that you are the Phainon I know."
Phainon frowned. "You know me?"
"I know you. I really know you."
Phainon was confused by it. "But I don’t know you, how did you know me? I've never even met you."
"As expected."
"Ha, what do you mean?"
Phainon was even more confused, but Mydei didn’t answer and his smile became even more unbearable.
"When you saw me, what did you remember?" Mydei asked.
Phainon looked at Mydei closely. "Your face is familiar, your hair too. Most importantly, when you were performing earlier, my head was suddenly attacked by a strange memory. Did I see you and I swinging swords at each other? But it didn't seem serious because I didn't see anyone injured."
Mydei laughed, this time he couldn't hold it back. "Yeah, no injuries because I can never be injured and I never give out 100% of my strength when I'm with you."
Mydei leaned back in the chair, his gaze straight at the distant sun at the end where only a bit of the top was left.
"You're always fussy. Asking for sparring whenever we have free time. Sometimes we do stupid things like having a competition on who can stay longer in the hot spring pool and end up getting scolded by Aglaea for making the visitors uncomfortable. Whatever we do, it always ends up being a competition, but the result is always a draw."
"Aglaea?"
Everything that came out of Mydei's mouth sounded like a fairy tale, but it felt even more real in his head.
"Leader of the Chrysos Heirs. If not Hyacine, she's usually the one who separates us. Sometimes it's also Tribbie who always shouts to us so that we don't do other stupid things."
"I don’t understand what you're talking about."
Mydei turned to face Phainon, staring at his face that was completely unchanged. "Do you believe in reincarnation? Rebirth?"
"Yes, I do, but what does that have to do with what you said?"
"Do you believe me if I say we are the reincarnations of Phainon and Mydei from hundreds of years ago?"
"Ha?"
"Think again. What's in your memory isn't a dream, you remember all of that not when you were sleeping, but since you saw me, right? You also felt familiar when you saw me even though we've never met before.”
What Mydei said was all true.
"Then, if that so, does that mean you have the same memories?" Phainon asked.
"Yes, maybe mine are even clearer? It used to be just a dream, but the dream comes every day and feels more real. I even knew you were the Phainon I was dreaming about when Cyrene first contacted me and her profile picture was a picture of her with you."
"Wait, wait. Could it be that you intentionally replaced Cyrene with me?"
Mydei laughed. "In that case, I'm sorry. In the end I was really curious so I had to meet you in person and at least spend some time with you so I could be sure. Turns out it was true, right?"
Phainon gaped at his explanation, both surprised and annoyed. "What did you give to Cyrene?"
"Hmm... an autograph? Also a free ticket to my concert next month. Do you want one too?"
"Please focus first, Mydei! So, what else can you explain about this reincarnation?"
"We're dating."
"Ha?"
"In the previous life, we were dating but had to separate because I had to carry out responsibilities to return to Castrum Kremnos, where I was born and raised. Since then, we have never seen each other again."
"What do you mean by dating?"
"It's confusing to explain, but it's not like dating nowadays. What's clear is that we know we belong to each other. And… Kissing too."
Mydei explained while turning his blushing face away.
"All of this doesn't make sense to me but I feel like what you're saying isn't a lie."
"Why would I lie? I'm also sure that your memories of the past will slowly come back. It might still be blurry now, but over time you'll remember as clearly as I remember everything we've done."
"What did we do?"
Mydei didn’t answer. The sun disappeared and was completely replaced by a starry sky. The garden lights started to light up around them.
"Phainon."
"Hm?"
"I know that all the information you received needs to make you think about it slowly. The first time I found out, I didn't immediately believe it and thought it was just a dream. But later, when your memory becomes clearer, or maybe you need to be told some things related to your memory, just call me, alright?"
Mydei looked at Phainon sincerely. His annoying face disappeared completely.
"I want to make up for my mistakes to you in the past. I'm no longer Mydei, the crown prince of Kremnos who is burdened with many responsibilities. Now I'm just an ordinary human being, just like you, who is living a new life with pieces of old memories. I still want to connect those memories but with me and you as Mydei and Phainon in this life."
Phainon took the initiative to step forward and hug Mydei first. He buried his head in the crook of the man's neck.
"Your hug feels warm too, Mydei. Like I have felt it many times before. Maybe you are the missing piece of my memories. Sorry for making you remember everything alone. I will try to remember again so that I know what memories we have gone through together. So, do you want to help me?”
Mydei smiled, tightening their hug. "With pleasure, Phainon. I promise this time I will never leave you."
𝗡𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗵𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗿𝗲𝗱𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝗽𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆, 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝘁𝗼𝗴𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿, 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝘀 𝗳𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝗱 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺.