After a brief pause, Han continued, "And Hyunjin." His eyes widened as he waited for a response from the other end of the line.
...
Felix abruptly ended the call without saying a word in response. Minho was confused and asked, "Woah! Why did he just hang up like that!?"
Han lied and said, "I think it dropped. It must be my reception here." However, he was a hundred percent sure that Felix had freaked out at the mention of Hyunjin's name and hung up the call out of shyness.
Minho tilted his head, his eyebrows furrowing at the last thing his boyfriend said. "But he got nervous when you mentioned Hyunjin. Why? Do you know?" Minho asked and looked to the back seat where Hyunjin sat quietly. He looked puzzled as they all were. His eyes widened in surprise and confusion at the same time.
Han then blurted out, "He has seen Hyunjin at school, and I know something you guys don't know." He then paused, and his eyes widened.
Han tried to play it cool and immediately grabbed the phone and started to call Felix again. Before, they asked more questions and got him in trouble since he is terrible at keeping secrets.
He was actually really proud of himself for keeping it for this long. Still, now that the elders are aware that he is keeping something from them that they did not know, they are going to ask and ask until he folds and tells them.
He couldn't risk making Felix mad. He seems like a sweetheart, and he is, but when he is angry, it is another whole story. Han's body shivered as the thought of seeing the younger mad came to his mind making him cringe a little.
As the phone rang, he noticed the two males still looking at him, making him nervous, and without thinking, he said. "Felix is going to be glad to come with us, believe me." Han's eyes immediately opened wide yet again as he covered his mouth with his hand and gasped. "STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT!!!" He had almost revealed Felix's secret, which he had entrusted him with in complete confidence.
Hyunjin tilted his head and asked, "Why is he going to be glad to come with us?" dismissing the last thing Han said.
Han chuckled nervously and shook his head, saying, "Nothing, really. Nothing at all." However, he knew that Felix, the brunette, had been crushing on Hyunjin ever since he first saw him two years ago on the first day of school. Felix was too shy to act upon those feelings, but he was head over heels for Hwang Hyunjin.
Han had caught him staring at Hyunjin with a smile on his face several times. Eventually, He teased him until Felix confessed his feelings. But not before he made Han pinky promise not to tell anyone about his feelings toward Hyunjin.
Despite all of this, the excitement about the doppelganger thing almost made the words slip out of Han's mouth. He was about to spill the beans when, finally, the ringing tone stopped.
"Why are you calling me again!?" Felix snapped as he answered the call.
"Um- We need to show you something." Han stuttered.
Felix whispered-yelled into his phone, "I don't want to see anything, not with Hyunjin there. You know he makes me nervous." Suddenly, Felix gasped loudly and accused the person on the other end of the line, "You told him I like him, didn't you!? You IDIOT! I should have never trusted you!" His voice was filled with palpable anger. "Is that what you want to show me? How he does not like me back? You hate me that much!? What have I ever done to you!?" Felix kept on yelling at the call, but Han could only smile as the younger had finally revealed the secret to the person who needed to hear it the most.
Before Han could respond, Hyunjin's voice boomed loudly from the back seat, "HE WHAT!?" The shock in his voice was evident. Minho quickly shushed him, covering Hyunjin's mouth with his hand as he waited for Han to speak.
"I didn't, Felix. You just did," Han chuckled, his voice laced with amusement and a devilish grin on his face.
He was so happy that the cat was finally out of the bag, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. There was no secret for him to keep to himself anymore. He does not like to keep secrets at all.
"And I would never hate you! Why are you saying that!?" Han asked, puzzled.
As they continued to argue about Hyunjin, Minho interjected and grabbed the phone from Han. Without giving Felix an opportunity to respond, he abruptly ended the call after saying, "Just meet us at Grandma's."
Hyunjin was curious about Felix's feelings towards him and asked Han, "He likes me?" He could just not believe this was happening. Han simply nodded in response. Placing his hand on his chest, Hyunjin felt his heart fluttering desperately inside.
The way Felix was freaking out about him made a smile to be permanently etched on his face. Knowing that Felix felt the same way brought him a tremendous sense of relief as if a weight had been lifted from his heart.
Whenever Hyunjin looked at Felix at school, he experienced a sense of déjà vu. Although Felix had just transferred from Australia, it was as if they had met before. Still, Hyunjin could not remember where or when.
Suddenly, he remembered the day when he saw Felix and Minho talking casually in front of the locker room. Felix freaked out when Hyunjin approached them and stopped in front of him. Felix ran away when Hyunjin smiled at him and started talking to Minho. Hyunjin then ignored Felix and was more interested in finding out where his best friend knew him from. On that day, Minho had told him that Felix was his cousin and that he had just moved here.
Hyunjin still held Yongbok's picture and looked at it as Minho drove. The only difference he could see between the picture and Felix was their hair and eye color. Yongbok had long blond hair and deep, blurred ocean eyes, while Felix had dark brown hair and honey-colored eyes. But the freckles and the smile were the same. They were the same person a hundred years apart. How is this even possible?
This confused Hyunjin, who asked Han, "Hannie, does Felix really like me or is this all a joke?"
"You heard him didn't you? If you want to know more about it, you need to ask him yourself. I am not saying anything else," Han replied, turning to look at the street.
Hyunjin felt an electric shock throughout his body, but he didn't understand why. It was as if fate had brought them together. He wondered if this was what Granny Lee was speaking about. 'What if we are the ones who reincarnated from Yongbok and Sam? What if we are meant to be together?' Hyunjin thoughts were running wild in his head and his breathing increased.
Hyunjin gathered his courage and decided to open up to Minho and Han. "You know, guys, I've been feeling this way for a long time now. I like him too. I've liked him since the very first time I laid eyes on him," he whispered to his friends as he kept his gate to his thighs. "It's been years, but I've never dared to tell him."
"Wow, I had no idea," Minho said, surprised. "I'm glad you told me." Hyunjin nodded in response.
The rest of the drive was silent. They were all up in their heads. Minho did not know how to feel about the whole situation. Han was concerned about how Felix would react when he saw him there, and Hyunjin just wanted to find the perfect way to confess his feelings to Felix and kiss him.
When they arrived at Grandma's house, they knocked on the door, and Minho's grandma welcomed them warmly. She was delighted to see them and said, "Hi, Minnie! Come in, guys! How are you? Are you hungry?" she asked as she opened the door.
"No, thank you, granny," Minho replied politely.
"Guess who's here?" she exclaimed, "Felix is here!" As they walked in, Minho's grandma noticed Hyunjin and was taken aback. With a loud gasp she cupped his face and said, "If I didn't know any better, I would've thought you were Sam! The resemblance is remarkable," as she examined Hyunjin's face closely, and he hummed with a shy smile.
"Come in, let me get that picture of Sam," she said, walking inside.
Hyunjin's heart was still racing from his confession to his friends in the car, but he was also relieved he had gotten that out of his system before it could eat him alive. As Hyunjin Minho and Han went inside, he stayed behind them as they led the way to the living room.
They all halted when they reached the living room and found Felix sitting in the corner on the couch. He wore black sweatpants and an oversized black hoodie. His face was hidden under the hood as he hummed some song he was listening to on his Air Pods.
"Felix?" Minho called, but the younger did not even flinch.
"He must have the music playing loudly," Han replied with a chuckle.
Minho scoffed and walked toward him. "He is always like this." Once he reached the younger, he stood before him and snapped his fingers on his face. "Why do you always block everyone from your life?" he asked, annoyed.
Felix looked up and spat, "Oh, you are finally here? What took you so long?" He asked and Minho just glared at him. " Anyway, what is it that you guys want to show me? I want to go home!" He had a Resting Bitch Face, showing annoyance about the whole thing. He then looked at the living room entrance, and his face changed when his eyes landed on Hyunjin. Who was looking directly at him with a smirk.
The man he had been secretly crushing on for years, secretly until minutes ago. Felix, then feeling embarrassed, muttered, "Oh my God" under his breath and wished that the couch he was sitting on would swallow him whole and spit him out in another country when he could not be found.
"Hey, Felix!" Hyunjin said and smiled at him once again.
"Hey," Felix responded dryly, not wanting to further embarrass himself. "Are you guys going to tell me? What's going on? I don't have much time to lose!" He said, this time asking Han.
Han walked closer and sat beside Felix, who flinched and scooted closer to the armrest. "Your grandma is looking for a picture to make this clear for all of us, but I will start, and then we can figure it out later when she comes back." Felix hummed and motioned him to keep going.
"Alright, just get it over with," Felix said impatiently when he noticed Han calling on Hyunjin to sit beside him.
"Do you know the story of Sam and Yongbok?" Han asked, and Felix scoffed. "Everyone knows about them after you keep repeating the same dumb story over and over again." Felix spat showing indifference about it.
"It happens to be your ancestor, and guess what?" Han paused to read his facial expression. "What? That I look just like him? I am not Yongbok." Felix said, catching everyone by surprise. They all had wide eyes as they looked at him, making him stutter out nervously, "I h-have seen the pictures, o-okay! It is just a coincidence. Nothing out of the ordinary. It is not the first time it happens."
As the other three males in the living room tried to find words to explain it to the younger Grandma Lee came to view the room and said. "This is not a mere coincidence; it is fate," she said, her voice clear and strong. Leaving all of them dumbfounded as they looked at her. She had the picture in her hands, clutching it softly as she smiled at it.
As they stood there, Grandma Lee began to recount a story from her youth, one that had been passed down through generations of their family. "My father told me once that our family had doppelgangers and that there was another family in town with the same story. He explained that his father had met the last pair, which happened to be Yongbok and his husband Sam. According to the story, the same man from both families reincarnates every hundred years and is destined to be with his other half. They are soulmates in every lifetime. They have always fallen in love with each other, in every life they've lived. It is simply their fate." She paused and looked at the four teenagers, who were listening intently looking at her with stars in their eyes.
"We all know who looks just like Yongbok, but-" She started to say, but Felix interrupted her.
"I am sorry, but WHAT!? Are you saying that I am a clone of someone else? Am I destined to suffer the same fate as Yongbok did?" His eyes were open wide and filled with tears.
"No, honey. Not every doppelganger goes through the same experience. That suffering happened to be Yongbok's fate." She said soothingly.
Felix rose from the couch. He walked past Hyunjin and Han and reached out to take the picture from her hands. As he looked at the photo, he couldn't help but gasp when he saw it. "Who is this?" He asked. "That is Yongbok's husband, Sam," She replied.
His eyes widened in shock when he realized that the man in the picture, Sam, looked incredibly similar to Hyunjin. He was taken aback and asked with a hint of disbelief, "How is this even possible?" He asked. "Who is the other family's name, granny?"
She reached out and took his hand, a wistful expression on her face as she replied, "My father called them the Hwang's."
Felix's expression was a mixture of surprise and confusion. He then looked at his grandma and stammered, "B-but how can Sam look just like Hyunjin? It's uncanny!" He shifted his gaze from the picture to Hyunjin and then back to the picture, trying to find any differences between the two.
The others became curious. They stood from where they sat and gathered around Felix to see the photo for themselves. "This is creepy!" Han exclaimed as he examined the old colored photo, which had a vintage look to it. The person in the photo had Hyunjin's facial features down to the slightest detail.
"Wow, he looks just like me!" Hyunjin said, leaning over to Felix to get a closer look at his past doppelganger. As he did, his warm, minty breath brushed softly against Felix's cheek, making him shiver under the older male's proximity.
Felix's loud scoff caught the attention of both Hyunjin and Han, who gasped in surprise at his sudden dramatic exhale and looked at him. "Well, I still think this is bullshit," Felix exclaimed, his voice filled with doubt. "But-" Hyunjin tried to interject, but Han interrupted him before he could speak.
"What the heck are you talking about? You are crazy about Hyunjin," Han said in disbelief. Felix slapped his arm in frustration, realizing he had just revealed his feelings yet again and now with him in the room. The younger's face felt like it was burning hot as a deep blush grew deeper and deeper with every second that went by. "So much for keeping this to yourself, huh?" he muttered under his breath, his eyes looking to the floor.
Granny Lee, who had been standing silently behind Felix the entire time, turned to Felix and asked, "Do you have feelings for Hyunjin?" She tilted her head to the side and thought about what her father said again. 'The Hwang's and the Lee's doppelgangers are destined to be together. Someday, they will reincarnate and fall in love all over again.'
Han, not one to keep a secret, did not wait for Felix to reply to her question when he looked at the younger's face twitching, trying to form words to deny he was in love, and blurted out, "Yes! He does, and Hyunjin is in love with him too! Isn't this amazing!?" His excitement was so overwhelming that his voice was loud and squeaky like a little squirrel.
Hyunjin couldn't bear to look at anyone. He covered his face with both hands and let out a frustrated groan as he walked over to the couch and sat down, completely ignoring the rest of the group.
As the elder heard the words, his heart skipped a beat, and his entire body experienced a burning sensation from embarrassment. He felt as if the ground beneath his feet was slipping away. He hid his face using his big hands, but his cheeks still turned bloodshot red. Hyunjin felt overwhelmed by the entire situation and wished the ground would swallow him whole. The embarrassment was too much to bear. This was not the way he wanted Felix to know about his feelings toward him.
Unable to believe what he was hearing, Felix walked closer to the elder and asked, "You are in love with me!?"
Han, who seemed to be enjoying the situation, yelled, "He is! He told us in the car ride here. He has been crushing on you for years!" Felix looked back at him with an angry face and asked him to leave, "Can you please shut your cake hole up? Don't you see that he is fucking embarrassed? Can you just get the fuck out before you make everything worse?"
But Han refused to leave, "Hell no!!! I am not going to miss the chance to witness the main characters of my favorite story reunite and find out that they have loved each other for years. Finally, they can stop waiting for the other to come back! He is here. Take what's yours!"
Minho let out a long sigh of frustration and exhaustion as he grabbed his boyfriend's arm and pulled him out of the room, feeling anxious and overwhelmed. Han squirmed around, trying to get out of his boyfriend's firm grip, feeling confused and disoriented.
"I don't want to leave," Han said in a pleading tone, hoping to stay and to see how things worked out. "Let them talk. Give them some privacy!" Minho spat back, feeling agitated and impatient, not wanting to deal with any further childish tantrums. Han reluctantly nodded, giving up at his boyfriend's harsh words, feeling defeated and hurt.
Granny Lee watched the scene unfold with a heavy heart, feeling emotional and touched by the couple's struggles. Felix was kneeling in front of Hyunjin as he waited for a response. "If you two are destined to be together, no one will be able to change that. If it is fate, that is what will happen," she said gently, hoping to offer some comfort and reassurance.
"I just want to tell you that I wish you an eternity of happiness and a full life filled with love." A tear rolled down her rosy cheek as she spoke, moved by the depth of their unknown love. Witnessing this once-in-a-lifetime encounter was priceless, a moment that she would cherish forever. She knew she was lucky to finally confirm what her father had told her since childhood. With a loving smile, she exited the room, closing the door behind her, feeling grateful and content.
As soon as the last person left the room, Felix took a deep breath and slowly turned to face Hyunjin. He reached out and gently grasped the blonde's hands, pulling them off from his face. Then, he placed his hand on Hyunjin's cheek and made him look at him, holding an unbreakable eye contact with the elder as he asked with a hint of uncertainty in his voice, "Are you really in love with me?"
Hyunjin's eyes were fixed on Felix's, and as he slowly nodded with a slight pout, a tear dropped from Felix's right eye. Hyunjin's lips curved into an adorable dumpling shape. "Do you think we are destined to be together?" Felix questioned, his voice trembling slightly.
"I don't know," Hyunjin replied, his voice soft and hesitant. "But I just know that my heart has been feeling this indescribable love for you since the very first day I laid eyes on you."
Felix's heart fluttered at Hyunjin's words, and he felt the tears welling up in his eyes. "If we are destined for each other again, promise me that you won't leave me alone again," Felix implored, his voice barely above a whisper. "I just don't want to feel what Yongbok felt when his Sam left him. I don't want to lose you if I am going to be with you. I am already broken as it is."
Hyunjin gasped at Felix's words, feeling a wave of emotion as Felix shared his thoughts with him. He could sense the pain in Felix's voice, and his heart went out to him. Hyunjin knew that Felix needed him, and he wouldn't let him down. He wrapped his arms around Felix and held him close, feeling the younger's body trembling in his embrace. "I'll never leave you again, Felix. I promise," he whispered soothing words to his ear.
Hyunjin pulled from the hug and looked at Felix. He leaned forward and was about to kiss Felix's heart-shaped lips when he halted, letting his plump lips brush against the younger's, savoring the anticipation of what was coming.
He could feel the warmth of Felix's breath on his lips, his heart racing with excitement.
"Felix?" he murmured.
"Yes?" Felix replied, his voice barely above a whisper as they held eye contact.
Hyunjin looked into Felix's eyes, his gaze lingering for a moment before he spoke. "Can I please kiss you?" he asked softly.
Felix nodded, "Yes," his eyes closed as he waited for Hyunjin's lips to meet his own. Hyunjin leaned forward and pressed his lips to Felix's, savoring the softness and warmth of his mouth. He wrapped his arms around Felix's waist, pulling him closer as they kissed passionately.
As they broke apart, Hyunjin looked into Felix's eyes, feeling a deep sense of love and connection between them. "I'm so glad I finally found you, Felix," he said, his voice filled with emotion. "I love you, and will love you forever and always," he whispered, his voice filled with affection. Felix's heart swelled with emotion as he looked back at Hyunjin. His eyes welled up with tears, but he managed to reply with a smile, "I love you too." The warmth of their love enveloped them both, and they held each other tightly, feeling grateful for the bond they shared.
With Felix having found his soulmate, his doppelganger— the dock madman— AKA Yongbok— would no longer haunt the area at night. Yongbok was finally free to rest, his soul finding its way back to his husband. No one would ever be able to separate them in this lifetime. They would grow old together and do it all over again once they were no longer here.
The doppelgangers found their way to each other. Fate has finally done justice to the couple once again.
The end! ❤️
SAM!
Yongbok!
Felix!
Hyunjin!