Juncture (A HaruYoung & JeongKyu Fanfiction)

Chapter 8

"I am." Haruto's eyes sparkled.

"You can ruin your entire life for it, you know?" Jeongwoo genuinely said, "People have gone mad, have died, have committed suicide from utter depression. Time isn't something you can manipulate, Ruto yah."

"I'm not gonna manipulate time, I'll just travel to the one behind us."

"You wanna travel to a different universe?" Jeongwoo asked for clarity. Haruto nodded.

"How?"

"That's what I'm gonna figure out."

"If you fail?" Jeongwoo asked.

"At least I'll know I tried." Haruto looked sad, "What I should have done at the right moment."

Jeongwoo frowned. It wasn't like he didn't believe in Haruto. He was just scared. They were barely twenty. People way smarter than them failed again and again. Why wouldn't they?

Standing at their self made laboratory nine years after the very first talk, he found the answer. Haruto, the genius with the strongest will was just made to make the impossible happen. Jeongwoo, the biggest assistant and spectator of the whole process, knew it in the best way.

Haruto stood in front of the sophisticated structure. The control panel way more complex than any he had seen. Just a small round compartment, a gateway. Building that took them 9 years! That too because they were extremely lucky and careful. Haruto took a step, let his foot touch the cold, metallic floor of the gateway. Jeongwoo gulped.

"Ruto!" He called. Haruto turned around. Jeongwoo's lips parted, trembled slightly. He wanted to say something, but he couldn't. Right after Doyoung's death, things became so complicated that he couldn't focus on himself, his own feelings for the senior in his school. Junkyu waited for him, but not for long. Only when Junkyu was gone from his life did Jeongwoo realize how much Junkyu meant to him.

He had nothing to do. He watched Junkyu graduate, heard about him getting together with someone else. He should have moved on, but he couldn't. He didn't feel the same for anyone, the way he felt for Junkyu. When Haruto invested his all to build the certain gateway, he too invested all his being into it, staying away from any attachment with anyone else. He thought he could go on like that forever; but now that Haruto was actually at the edge...

"Hm?" Haruto asked. Jeongwoo shook his head, "Nothing, just... Don't get lost."

Haruto smiled. He knew Jeongwoo so well! He understood everything at the first call. "Jeongwoo yah, if I do reach the desired place, I'll make sure you get to have your Junkyu hyung as well."

Jeongwoo protested, "Hey! No it's fine! I don't wanna bother you or anything."

Haruto kept smiling, "Don't worry. Yours was always part of the plan."

Jeongwoo felt grateful. It's true, going back and fixing everything was appealing, he was happy Haruto thought about him too.

Haruto stepped his other foot on the round metallic surface as well. Jeongwoo called him again, "Ruto yah!"

Haruto didn't even have to look back. He felt Jeongwoo hugging him all of a sudden.

"Promise to come back safe and sound!" Jeongwoo spoke, "You're all that I got."

Haruto patted him on the head. He had to make everything right. Nothing would go wrong, they checked a thousand times already!

Jeongwoo let go, stepped away little by little. The last thing to do was to set up the timer and push the large lever down. He set the time as 30 minutes. With all the relative calculations, this was the optimum time needed in their realm. Jeongwoo took a huge intake of breath. Haruto was scared, he could tell. But the eccentric gleam of doing something he always wished for made him look so brave!

In the count of three, in the name of God, Jeongwoo pushed the starter lever down. He heard metallic clicks, turns and electric beeps. On the projected screen, several instructions were seen, and the procedure started.

Jeongwoo saw his friend disappear into thin air. The particles around him were bright, illuminated. Haruto turned into numerous of them that lost intensity and just vanished. Jeongwoo was holding his breath, gritting his teeth so strong that it hurt. The huge uncertainty whether he would ever find Haruto back was occupying his everything. He just prayed that everything they studied and researched about all those years would work, that whatever happened out there, he would get his friend back!

He didn't wanna lose his friend who just invented the astonishing 'Human Fax Machine.' Heck! He didn't wanna lose a friend a second time! Losing Doyoung all the years back still haunted him!

With clutched knuckles and hitched breath, he waited for the replacement; the existing Haruto of the universe 12 years behind their time.

-

Did it make sense?