ATEEZ Scenarios

(S.E.)Mirror| The man with the Black Fedora

Hello lovely ATINYs!

This is one of my entries for ATEEZ's Storyline Event.

I thought of sharing it here too.

I hope you like it :)

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I've observed a lot during dimension shifts. I was blessed... or rather cursed, by the ability to travel to other realities and remember everything from them. Some of those memories were delightful, the ones I wanted to cherish and look back to, every now and then when life got a little too overwhelming. Some others were horrifying, nightmare-like, the ones that no matter how hard I tried to erase, were deeply rooted in my memory.

Who was I? I didn't know. I couldn't remember. All I knew was, I was no longer human, if I ever was to begin with. My existence was no different to a shadow. I'd call myself a spirit, because humans didn't see me but they felt my presence. I didn't know how I became what I was now either, all my memories mapped back only to when my normality was this existence of mine.

I encountered many people in my journeys, but no-one that I knew or felt like I knew. No clues, nothing to remind me of who I was. It didn't matter how many dimensions I travelled to, I couldn't figure out where I came from.

I was an unsolved mystery, nameless and lifeless. I didn't know how and when I started to wander in between timelines and I didn't know how long I was doing this for either.

It was miserable, to say the least, but I had long given up. I had no longer any will to investigate my identity...

That is why, when I met the blue haired boy, in a random dimension, I was taken aback. A strong magnet-like force, one I had never felt before, attracted me to him. I observed his daily life for some time and I saw how unhappy and isolated he was, his life was falling apart. It felt as if this dimension he was living in was a result of his bad choices.

An urge to help him started to spread inside of me. I didn't know why I wanted to, was it because of pity? Or was it because of this strange familiarity I felt towards him?

It was forbidden, people like me couldn't make contact with humans, we couldn't interfere with their lives but, as if it was already destined from the very beginning, I found myself walking towards him.

I wanted to help him... I wanted him to make his life right again, save himself and save his closest friends. I wanted him to do what I felt like I couldn't.

I stood before his sleeping figure, placing the hourglass, the only object I had with me, unpurposeful, that is, until now, on top of the table. This would have let him travel back to a dimension before his life was sorrowful; giving him the well needed chance to make it right. The dull hourglass started to glow, the close proximity to this boy made it react.

I leaned close to his ear, whispering. "It's not reality that makes you lose your dream; it is your decision." Those words came out instinctively, as if I knew what he needed to hear.

His body jolted awake. He sat up and retreated more into the sofa as he looked up at me, terrified. The fact he could see me should have come as more of a surprise to me, but as if I was expecting it, it didn't.

As our eyes met, a dejavu-like memory wrapped around my mind. It started as one of the normal memories I had, my presence standing on the side, observing, what looked like a scene of some friends having fun. There were seven boys, running and laughing in this fairytale-like flower meadow. However, what shocked me was, as I lowered my gaze, I saw myself holding a camera. I then proceeded to use it, to take a picture of, who seemed like, my friends.

"Hongjoong!" One of the boys called out to me.

I couldn't wrap my head around what was happening. I had never interacted with humans before... so from where did this memory come from?

As I scrolled through the pictures I had taken, in the camera, I came across a group picture of eight boys, seven of which were the ones in front of me. I was in disbelief as the eighth had the same face of the blue haired boy.

The memory ended only to have another vision flash before me, it was eight men with Black Fedoras.

"Find the versions of yourself that can return to the beginning of the end and solve this disaster. Choose wisely, if you don't want history to repeat itself." A voice echoed, from an unidentified location.

I was brought back to reality, where I stared intensely at the boy.

He might be the answer to my lost dimension...

"W-Who are you?" His voice stuttered, frightened.

"Perhaps... I am you, Hongjoong."