Chapter Text
Prologue
(Earth XXI)
Lee Do’s awakening did not come easily.
He could still hear the echo of gunshots, still feel the pain as they pierced through his body.
Moon Baek’s cold voice lingered in his mind.
“You will wake up to a whole new world.”
Those were the last words he heard before blacking out.
He thought he would wake up in a hospital bed — the steady beeping of machines filling the room while the staff pumped enough morphine into him to render him senseless.
But now, he felt none of those things.
There was no searing pain in his side. No rhythmic beeping from a heart monitor. And the bed beneath him wasn’t hard at all.
It was soft.
Too soft.
As he slowly opened his eyes, an unfamiliar ceiling greeted him.
The bedroom was enormous. Heavy curtains blocked out most of the morning light, but he could still tell the room was expensive. The bed beneath him was absurdly soft, the blankets heavy and warm against his skin.
This was not a hospital room.
And it definitely was not his house.
“What the hell—”
Lee Do said exasperatedly as he slowly sat up in bed.
The moment the covers slipped to his waist, he noticed how cold the room suddenly felt.
He looked down at himself.
He was naked.
For one stunned second, Lee Do’s mind went completely blank.
Then he yanked the blanket back over himself.
His policeman’s instincts immediately kicked in, his mind working overtime to piece together how any of this could have happened.
But nothing made sense.
Nothing could explain this.
So focused on his spiraling thoughts, Lee Do failed to notice the rustle of sheets beside him.
Suddenly, an arm shot out from beneath the blanket, catching him off guard and shoving him back onto the bed.
Instinct took over. He was ready to fight back—
But the moment the stranger’s face emerged from the covers, he froze.
“Morning, sweetheart.”
It was Moon Baek.
His face, still groggy from sleep, hovered inches above Lee Do’s as though this were the most normal thing in the world. His skin smelled faintly of cologne and musk, warm from sleep.
He lifted a hand to Lee Do’s face, gently caressing his cheek.
"You still have energy for another round?" Moon Baek teased.
Lee Do’s eyes widened as his brain short-circuited.
Another round?
What round is he talking about?
And why is he in bed with Moon Baek of all people?
Naked on top of that.
And now that he was fully aware of his body, Lee Do became painfully conscious of the lingering ache he desperately did not want to think about.
No.
No way.
There was no universe where he would willingly sleep with Moon Baek.
Not after knowing what he had done.
Not after hearing the contempt in Moon Baek’s voice as he tore apart everything Lee Do stood for.
It didn’t make sense.
As Moon Baek slowly leaned in, clearly intending to kiss him—
All Lee Do could remember was this man pointing a gun at him and his captain.
So he did the only thing he could think of in that moment.
He punched Moon Baek.
Moon Baek fell back onto the bed with a pained groan.
Taking advantage of the moment, Lee Do practically threw himself out of bed and ran straight into the connected bathroom, slamming the door shut behind him.
He pressed his back against the door, cold bathroom tiles under his feet, his mind whirling a hundred miles per hour.
But through all the panic and confusion, one thought kept repeating itself.
Why am I in bed with him?
Had Moon Baek kidnapped him after shooting him?
No. That was impossible.
That man had shot him more than five times. Lee Do should have been lying in the ICU, barely conscious.
Had everything that happened back then been a dream?
No. He had taken enough bullets in his life to know exactly what getting shot felt like.
None of that had been fake.
“What the hell is going on?” Lee Do muttered aloud as he staggered toward the bathroom sink.
He splashed cold water onto his face, trying to calm his racing heart.
But the moment he looked up into the mirror above the sink, he froze.
The man staring back at him looked familiar, yet strangely wrong.
The guarded sharpness etched into his features after years in the police force was gone. Even his hair was different — no longer the short, practical cut he had kept since he was a teenager.
It was longer now, neatly parted to the side, dark fringe falling across his forehead.
The bathroom was still dark since Lee Do hadn’t turned on the lights before rushing in.
But even in the dimness, he could tell.
There was no recent wound anywhere on his body from where the bullet should have been.
But an old scar caught his attention and made him freeze.
His stomach dropped.
Slowly, his gaze lifted toward his shoulder.
A pale scar rested there — old, healed, and unmistakably left behind by a bullet.
As he stared at it, wondering about its history, the bathroom lights suddenly blazed to life.
The sudden brightness burned his eyes.
A second later, the bathroom door creaked open.
Lee Do’s heart dropped.
In his panic, he had forgotten to lock the door.
“Ow… You hit hard. Why did you hit me?” Moon Baek muttered, holding his cheek.
But after noticing the panic written all over Lee Do’s face, his expression softened slightly.
“Everything okay, love?”
Lee Do simply stood there, staring at Moon Baek, completely unsure how to respond.
The sheer nerve of this man.
Not long ago, this same man had been pointing a gun at him and pulling the trigger.
And now he was talking to Lee Do like they were lovers.
“Moon Baek, where the hell am I?” Lee Do demanded, his voice sharp with warning.
Still rubbing his aching cheek, Moon Baek looked at him in confusion.
“What do you mean?”
Lee Do nearly laughed at the question.
Seriously?
Moon Baek didn’t get to stand there pretending to be confused after everything he had done. Not after manipulating Lee Do into trusting him.
“Why am I here? What happened to my captain?” Lee Do accused, sounding angrier with every word.
At that, Moon Baek finally lowered his hand from his face and studied Lee Do seriously.
“Love,” he said carefully, concern beginning to creep into his expression, “what are you talking about? You’re home.”
Then his frown deepened slightly.
“What captain?”
Lee Do stared at him incredulously, ready to snap back—
But something suddenly caught his attention.
His left eye.
“What the hell…?” Lee Do whispered.
Before Moon Baek could react, Lee Do stormed over and grabbed his face. Ignoring Moon Baek’s pained protests, he tilted his head toward the light for a closer look.
“Ow, ow, ow—my dear, be careful. Your punches still hurt, you know,” Moon Baek complained.
Lee Do ignored him completely.
It wasn’t the striking blue Lee Do remembered.
Brown.
Both of his eyes were brown.
Matching.
His stomach twisted.
“Are you wearing contacts?” Lee Do demanded.
The other man frowned in confusion.
“What? No, love. I literally just woke up. Besides, I don’t wear contacts.”
Lee Do still wasn’t fully convinced by the answer.
He could still be lying.
But the moment Lee Do’s gaze dropped to the opening of Moon Baek’s bathrobe, he knew that wasn’t possible.
The sun tattoo stretched across the place where the surgical scars were supposed to be.
Gone.
Shocked, Lee Do grabbed the edge of the bathrobe and shoved it farther open despite the questioning look Moon Baek gave him.
The long surgical scars Moon Baek had shown him just days ago flashed through his mind.
“First, Seoul.” Moon Baek had said, tracing a finger down his chest slowly.
“Then Busan.” His finger had stopped near the left side of his navel.
“From Busan to Gwangju.”
The trail had ended near the right side of his waist.
Completely gone.
Only the tattoos remained in their place.
There wasn’t a single scar left.
Lee do shakily removed his hands from the bathrobe.
Slowly, the horrifying realization began to sink in.
Scars didn’t vanish overnight.
Eyes didn’t suddenly change color.
And the Moon Baek Lee Do knew definitely did not act like this.
Lee Do inhaled shakily.
The only possible explanation for all of this was so absurd it made his head spin.
He wasn’t in his world anymore.
Somehow, impossibly, he had ended up somewhere else.
Lee Do looked toward Moon Baek, who was still standing there with a familar faint pout on his face, clearly confused by Lee Do’s behavior.
And no matter how much Lee Do wanted to deny it, the truth was becoming impossible to ignore.
Somehow, Moon Baek had shot him enough times to send him into another world entirely.
In this world, he and Moon Baek were lovers.
This Moon Baek had not caused the gun chaos in Seoul.
This Moon Baek had never shot him.
As panic began clawing its way back into his chest, Lee Do suddenly remembered Moon Baek’s final words before everything went black.
“You will wake up to a whole new world.”
What a ridiculous irony.