Sehyoon should have known, his life would end up this way.
The whole time he had spent it while studying and later working, without having much time to himself. Sometimes he had hated all the pressure, everyone was putting on him, so much that he had thought he could not stand it any longer. But it had worked. With 25 years, he was the youngest, to lead his own group in the company, he worked in. Everything seemed to finally become, like he wanted it to. He even got a date with a woman, he had been eyeing for some time by now.
And then, he died.
It wasn't even his fault. The evening had been a rainy, dark one and Sehyoon wanted to merely cross the street like a normal human being, even doing so on a traffic light, when a truck hit him and presumably catapulted him over the whole street, pressing all air out of his lungs.
At first, he felt nothing, then came the pain and it was overwhelming. Around him, he could hear all kind of noises, but they seemed to be too far away and didn't get through to him. Then suddenly, he could feel a light touch on his face, softly caressing it and it seemed to ease the pain. With all strength left in him, he opened his eyes, to see who the person was.
What he hadn't expected, though, was to come face to face with an actual angel. It had to be one, why else would someone this beautiful hold him while he was dying and cry about it? He was sure to even see a soft glow emanate from him. But even though he wanted to continue looking at the angel, he was too tired to keep his eyes open any longer and he gave into the urge to close them again. He was about to drift away, when he suddenly could hear the voice of the angel speak to him,
"Please, you can't leave me, I love you."
These words were the only sounds that seemed to get through to Sehyoon, but he must have heard wrong. Why should an angel love him? Then he felt lips touching his forehead and again the pain disappeared for a moment.
"I love you." Whispered the angel again, his voice full of despair and Sehyoon knew he had to take one last look at him, before he would die.
This time his sight was clearer and while scanning the face, he had the feeling, he should know it from somewhere. Unexpectedly images, he couldn't keep a hold of, raced through his head. Then all of a sudden, the pain came back and overrun him with full force, making it impossible for him to think about anything any longer. But the pain only stayed for a moment, before everything around Sehyoon became a dark, numb nothingness which completely swallowed him.
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The next time he regained consciousness, he felt as if he was lying on a soft carpet. But it had to be a bed, right? He had to be in a hospital. Thank god, he hadn't died.
Sehyoon slowly opened his eyes and blinked into the sudden bright light. After they had adjusted to it, he started looking around and faltered. His body seemed to indeed be lying on a carpet in a rather strange environment. It was a bedroom which reminded him of his own one, he had owned when he had been around six years old.
The wall had a light blue shade and clouds were painted on the ceiling, complemented by small glowing stars which someone had stuck between them. On the shelves on the walls and on the window-sill, was every inch covered with stuffed animals of all sorts and heights, and the blanked on the bed was Pokémon themed. Realization slowly dawned on him. He was apparently in a children's room. But if that was the case, shouldn't everything be smaller?
While Sehyoon carefully got up, he waited for a new wave of pain but he felt nothing. No aches. Maybe it was a bad dream after all and he hadn't died? He probably was still dreaming and that was the reason for him being in this room with furniture which was way too big, even now that he was no longer lying on the floor, but standing upright.
'Two choices,' he thought. 'Either you find a way to wake up or...no. You got hit by a truck, maybe you are in a coma after all...'
Suddenly he could hear noises from somewhere downstairs,
"Jason! You can't always just run away! Come here and talk to me or I can't help you." Somebody cried out, apparently a woman.
"I don't want to talk!" Answered an upset sounding voice.
It was followed by quick footsteps and in the next second someone burst through the door. Sehyoon found himself standing eye in eye with a small boy with dark hair who stared back similar surprised.
"Who are you? And what are you doing in my bedroom?" He asked astounded.
He wanted to tell the kid that his name was Sehyoon and that he had no idea why the hell was in this room or how he came here, but he couldn't do anything else than stare.
The boy was obviously not older than 10 years old but he was still only a few inches smaller than Sehyoon and that couldn't be possible. He was 176 cm tall. There was no way that a ten-year-old kid could be nearly the same height as him. Confused he started to searchingly look around the room until he found a mirror. He quickly went to stand in front of it and gasped, unable to believe his eyes.
Sehyoon looked right into the face of his own twelve-year-old self, wearing his old favorite Micky Mouse Pullover and still having the baby fat in his face, which he had lost in the process of puberty a long time ago. In a state of shock, he tried touching his hair and saw how the little boy in the mirror did the same.
"But that is impossible! I'm a grown-up man! I'm soon gonna be 26 years old, how can I be...like this."
The other boy, probably Jason, watched him with a frown and cocked his head.
"But you don't look like a 26-year-old man..."
"I know!" He responded and his voice sounded louder and more upset than he wanted it to.
Jason flinched a little and Sehyoon immediately felt guilty.
"Sorry...it's just a lot to take in..." He apologized.
Jason replied by smiling softly.
"Don't worry. I'm used to people screaming at me..."
Suddenly the door behind Jason was opened and a woman appeared in the doorway. She was thin, but not very tall and wore her hair in a tight, neat bun. She probably looked beautiful when she smiled, but right now her expression was far away from happy. Sehyoon stared at her, a little frightened about what her reaction would be, to see a strange kid in the room of her son, but she didn't even look at him.
"Who were you talking to?" She asked her son.
Jason looked as confused as Sehyoon felt. He opened his mouth to answer the question of his mother but she made a dismissive gesture with her hand.
"Never mind, that is not important right now. What is though, is that you got into another fight at school."
She sighed and massaged her forehead.
"Are they mean to you? Do they say bad stuff or why are you doing this?"
Her expression was full of worry but Jason kept silent.
"How am I supposed to help you if you don't talk to me? How will you ever get good grades if you never listen to your teachers and only cause trouble?"
She seemed to become more upset now.
"I told your father it's a bad idea to come here. We should have stayed in Korea instead of moving to the other side of the world! If you suddenly change your mind and want to talk, I'm in the kitchen."
With these words she turned around and left the room, burying her head in her hands in frustration. Jason didn't seem to be really affected by the words of his mother.
He simply closed the door behind her and looked at Sehyoon with a thoughtful expression.
"So...am I the only one who can see you?" He wanted to know with an interested face.
Sehyoon shrugged his shoulders.
"I don't know, you two are the first people I've met so far..."
They stood in silence.
"What is the deal with you and your mother? What happened?" He ultimately couldn't help but to ask.
Jason's features darkened but he quickly covered his true feelings with a smile.
"I don't know your name yet."
Little brat, already knew how to change subjects better than most people in his company.
"Sehyoon," he answered.
Jason's smile deepened.
"My name is Jason. So now that you are here anyway, we can play right?"
Seyhoon could barely hold back a laugh. He was nearly 26 years old. Why would he play with a little kid like Jason? But then he saw the big box with Lego which the other boy had conjured from under his bed and all his resolutions flew out of the window.
"You have the Lego death star?! And a star destroyer!"
He felt how excitement spread in him.
"My parents never wanted to get me one. They said it would be wasted money. Didn't they already stop producing them a while ago?"
Jason grinned.
"No, they are new. If you want to be my friend I can share everything with you. What is mine is also yours."
And like this, they became friends. At least until he would wake up again, Sehyoon swore himself.