Work Text:
“Oh God,” There is a sound of the chair being dragged across the floor along with a heavy sigh, “How do I do this?”
Seokmin fixes the headset in his ear properly. Usually people sent written message or short video for their past self. Future him sent a voice message, and quite a long one at that. He has to make comfortable before he pushes the play button again.
“Hello Seokmin.” Future him sounds nervous, Seokmin is a little concerned on why he is nervous. He should be the one all jittery because he is going to hear about how his life ahead is going to be, “I am 26 years old you.”
“I don’t know where to begin,” He laughs and Seokmin unconsciously smiles. The excitement feels so real on his voice, “I have so many things I want to say to you!”
There are too many stories he has heard around about grim warnings sent to an unassuming 16 years old, or worse, no message at all.
It is calming to know that his life is going to be good.
“I think this is the time around your audition with Pledis? Don’t worry, you will pass it just fine,” He sighs wistfully, “I am so glad we decided to join them even though, if I remember correctly, it’s only because After School is there. We do have good taste since the beginning.”
Seokmin laughs. Future he still understands years from now.
“Have you met everyone? I want to see them when they were still young and innocent,” Future he scoffed and Seokmin faintly hears ‘unlike now’ right after, “But whatever you do, do not trust a man named Wen Junhui, he is the true e-”
There are footstep sounds coming from the recording before another voice speaks over, “He beat you fair and square you know.”
“Ah, excuse me,” Seokmin hears some rustling and suddenly everything becomes very quiet. Seems like future him is trying to cover the microphone with his hand, completely forgetting that he could just pause the recording instead. He still can feebly hear their bickering.
‘He stole my role! How could you say that to me?’
‘You guys auditioned for that drama together, and I am just stating the truth’
‘Well I am your boyfriend! Can’t you stand on my side just once?’
‘Do not start Seokmin, you know he fits that role better than you.’
Future him clicks his tongue, “Where was I?” He pauses for a moment, “Oh yeah, that guy you just overheard is your future lover.”
A guy?
“He is recently demoted to my second favorite person in the world. From now on if something happens, you call your member named Choi Seungcheol.”
“Hey! I heard that!”
Seokmin paused the recording for a moment to think what he just heard. It’s not every day his future self tells him very casually that he will be happily dating a guy. Not that he has anything against that, but it is unexpected.
“Let’s move on and talk about career yeah, cause if I were you that’s probably the thing that I want to hear the most.” He chuckles, “Life is good to you but you need to work hard to have it. Soon you will find a lot of people that care about you and you will grow with them and—“
Future he stops abruptly and complains loudly before that other voice speaks again, “You just secured your first movie role last week, congrats!”
Seokmin’s jaw drops when he heard the news. They are rustling now, Future him is covering the microphone once again.
He can’t believe that he is going to be an actor in the future. Sure, he dreamed about that a lot but never dared to believe it once. Seokmin dazedly looks up and see Han Dong Geun walks past him. It instantly brings him back to reality.
Seokmin is sitting in a sofa inside Pledis building, three suitcases neatly lined neatly in front of him. He signed with them already and moving in to their dorm today. One of their managers told him to wait there and he would get someone to accompany and introduce him to the other trainees.
The email came late; he had been waiting for it since his 16th birthday last February. Seokmin was too excited to wait until everything settles down and decided to start listen while he waits, figuring whatever his future self tells would not be this shocking. Most people made their email as vague as possible because knowing too much of the future might spoil something and change it all together.
His future lover likely doesn’t share the opinion. Seokmin is thankful.
‘Stop dropping bombs on him!’
‘You are the one who bad mouthed my boy first!’
‘Junhui is not your boy!’
‘You are the one who interrupted my recording first last year!’
‘I want to talk to you when you were cute.’
‘Are you saying I am not cute now?’
‘I didn’t—“
‘Fine I won’t interrupt. Just let me sit and hear what you are going to say to mini-Seokmin.’
Future him removes his hand from the microphone, the scratchy sounds in not nice to hear, “I am really sorry about him but since you already heard anyway; you are going to be an actor years from now.” Despite his begrudging tone, Seokmin can hear how proud he actually is, “Which bring us back on how you have to work really hard from now.”
“Never would I ever imagine I’d be here to see you being all grown up and give a proper pep talk to your mini self.” The teasing is so clear it make Seokmin wish he is actually there so he could high five his future lover for making 26 years old him flustered. He likes the man already.
“Oh shut up!” He coughed, “You will have a lot of amazing people working with you. There is this producer member and you really need to be nice to him,” The other cackles and groans immediately afterwards. Seemed like future him hit him hard, “You still can’t talk to pretty girls properly until you are 22 so don’t even think about dating and just concentrate on your work first.”
Seokmin blows his breath exaggeratingly, totally bummed out. There goes one of his dreams.
“I don’t even know why but there will be a lot of hyung that adores us.”
“It’s because you are really cute sunshine.”
“Yeah yeah I know you love me,” Future him laughs lightly, “You can cook already right? I don’t even know how Mingyu handled those kids before we came around.”
“Your seafood soup is the best!”
“There are a lot of stories behind that. Seungkwan held his grudge against MBC for months.” Seokmin grins. Now he knows somewhere in the future his groups will have a reality show of their own and the skill his sister sort of forced on him finally will come in handy. ”Someone is at the front door; I have to go for a moment.”
There is a sound of the chair being dragged across the floor again before someone else sits in front of the microphone, “Hello mini Seokmin,” He sounds.. Cheerful. The curiosity about his future lover is getting bigger the more he talks. “I hope everything is going well for you right now. Knowing you though, you’d probably just laugh like it is okay even if it isn’t anyway. Terrible habit really, but at least now I can tell how bad it is and talk you out of it before you break down and cry again.”
How long have they been dating?
“Your tears hurt me.”
It seems like he knows future him well.
“About what my Seokmin said earlier,” He snickers lightly, “You know how weird calling him that when I am supposed to talk to you? It’s been a while since I use his real name,” He takes a deep breath, as if talking to him is the hardest thing he ever has to do, “What I am trying to say is you really are adored by a lot of people. That sunny personality of yours draws them in; I know for sure it did me all those years ago. Don’t ever change.”
Of all the things the other could talk about, it was about how cherished he is in the future. It makes Seokmin feels a little giddy.
“It still sucks how long it took us to find each other but honestly I am so happy we are together now. Future you never believe me when I said how lucky I am when I met him,“ His voice trails off, “Seokmin makes me want to be a better person every single day. He changed my life and I can’t be happier now. I am so in love with him I don’t it’s healthy.”
Seokmin was astounded. The other starts talking about what he loves about future him and all stupid things they did together over the years but it all becomes meaningless buzz in his ears. All he can recognize is the genuine love pouring from every single one of his words, leaving warm comforting feeling all over.
He can’t believe that one day he will find someone who loves him for all he is. So, so much it makes him feels like his heart is going to burst from happiness just by hearing his stories.
“Hey Hamtaro!” Future him sounds distant, as if he is screaming from another room far from the microphone, “Chan is here!”
“Well that’s my call,” The chair is moved again.
“I know I shouldn’t mess too much with the past but I am going to be selfish just this once.” His future lover pauses, “I promise I will take care of him, of you, for the rest of my life. You mean so much to me and I don’t want to let you go forever. So please,”
It’s too much for him to beg. Seokmin already decided he will find him the moment he defined what love is with his words.
“For the sake of this spoiled lover of yours, find me,” He takes a deep breath, “Please find us.”
Seokmin could hear the sound of footsteps walking away. He is wondering who his future lover could be when someone else is sitting back in front of the microphone after a few minutes.
“Your future maknae is here, I have to go,” Future him pauses for a moment, “What did he tell you?”
He can’t possibly answer that question now can he?
“I am going to tell you a little secret before I finished the recording. Remember that dream we have? We did it, two years ago,” He chuckles, “This Is the Moment was so much harder to sing up there than how I remembered singing it in the practice room.”
He doesn’t even have enough time to recover from the news when he continues,
“Seokmin?” His voice suddenly softens. Seokmin sits a little bit straighter, “Don’t push yourself too hard okay. You are there to catch our dream and practice does make better but listen to everyone when they tell you to rest. Listen—“ He hesitates for a moment, “I know what I said earlier but please listen to Soonyoung hyung. Taking care of yourself is coming first.”
The silence grows. Seokmin is memorizing the name the other just mentioned before he speaks again,
“You probably heard my nickname for him earlier and Hamtaro is really good for you. He takes care of us and honestly I don’t know what I’d do without him.” Future him laughs in embarrassment, “Wow that sounds kind of terrible when you said it out loud but I am being honest here because he really is and you will find him through your works anyway so don’t try too hard.”
Seokmin grins. Years from now and he is still bad at verbally expressing affection.
“Good luck, I will see you in ten years.”
Seokmin watches the screen as the recording comes to an end. There are a lot of things he missed because some news there just left him in a daze. He needs to listen to everything again to catch them all. He slowly takes off the headset when he feels someone is walking closer.
“Hello,” He is wearing shorts and loose red shirt. Black fringes are framing his chubby face. It looks soft, “Are you Lee Seokmin?”
“Yes,” Seokmin stands up. The other immediately offers his hand and smiles, eyes thinning sharply and all he can think about it how squishy the other would feel looking that way.
“Kwon Soonyoung,” The palm firmly gripping his is warm, “I hope we get along well Seokmin.”