MEETING THE ONE WHO CAN MANIPULATE TIME TOO (?)
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"and that leaves you with the last member." jaemin directs at hongjoong who nods with a scrunched nose.
"we have a general area that has detected your mutant energy frequency. somewhere in jinju-si."
"and though we don't know of their exact location or face, we do know their name."
"park seonghwa."
hongjoong gasps slightly and let's his notebook fall open to the page with his scribbles, flicking the pages to his one drawing of the man he saw that night.
"i-i had a dream the other day." he begins to explain, everyone else in the room already knowing that it definitely wasn't just a dream. "it was the end of the world, the beginning of an apocalypse and there was someone there called seonghwa. the... the quality of the drawing isn't the best, i know. but i feel like it could help."
"at this point, anything can help." jaemin acknowledges the drawing. "you have the toughest job, we know the least about seonghwa because even he doesn't know about his powers. at least wooyoung knows how to use his powers, knows that he's a mutant and is stuck in one location."
"so you're saying i have to basically look all over jinju for him?" hongjoong asks bewildered, not wanting to ask a bunch of random people if they've seen someone that looked like the drawing.
"i know it sounds like searching for a needle in a haystack but trust me when i say this, you will know when you see him. you'll feel it in your gut and he will too."
"you will know hongjoong." jeno reassures. "trust me."
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hongjoong didn't know if it was considered cheating but looking into the future just seemed like the best way to locate seonghwa. and well, he wasn't in school. there wasn't such a thing as cheating. he was merely doing what had to be done, in the most efficient way he thought how.
sitting on his desk he forces himself to look into the events to occur in one week's time.
but when he saw death and destruction he realised he looked a bit too far into the future.
a chill struck him to the core when he realised that those visions he's had for the past few nights were going to come true in only a weeks time.
his curiosity was itching him to go back and to further analyse what was going to happen in that week. but hongjoong knew better than to look too far into the future. he'd read in his father's journal that knowing too much about the future would cause it to change.
possibly for the better, but more likely for the worst.
the second law of thermodynamics states that things get more disordered as time goes on. and hongjoong definitely didn't want a future worse than the one he had a mere glance at, so he shoves the curiosity away in favour of his original task at hand.
he quickly removes himself from the future and comes back to the present.
his mind suddenly started spinning, hongjoong feeling really lightheaded after exerting himself more than he had been previously. he hadn't done that in a while, looking into the future that is. it drained him more than he remembered.
grabbing a square of chocolate from the jar on his desk, he lets the warmth of his mouth melt the chocolate, sucking on the slowly disappearing piece of candy before continuing again.
he only had to look 24 hours in advance to get a clear picture of seonghwa.
the scene in front of him made him shiver. an ominous excitement hanging over the frozen scene. the amount of information that leached out of this one snapshot of the future made hongjoong unbelievably uncomfortable. he didn't even dare try and unpause the moment he had chosen to look at, because he had a sinking feeling that knowing any more information may cause the future to change into something that he didn't want.
all 8 of his cluster (that thought alone was enough to make hongjoong uncomfortable) were at their training room, everyone busy fighting and sparring with each other. seonghwa had busied himself with someone he didn't recognise, gasping when he realised that this was wooyoung. the two were staring each other down with intense glares.
seonghwa looked exactly like he did both in hongjoong's dream, or at least the split second glimpse that he managed to cling onto.
the hand grasping a pencil starts to quiver and then when the lead makes contact with the paper below, he starts furiously scribbling down every last feature of seonghwa that he could manage. he takes note of the sharp angle of his jaw, his high cheek bones that seemed to stick out of his small face. his curly, grown out hair was drenched in sweat, a confident smirk gracing his wonderfully plump, pink lips.
he feels like he manages to capture as much of seonghwa as he could but doesn't leave until he takes a closer look at wooyoung. wooyoung's shown up in his dreams many times, but only as a name that slipped out of people's mouths and drifted through swirling air. he's only seen wooyoung from afar, never this close, but without those runes littered over his skin, he almost look unrecognisable. the cheeky grin spreading from one ear to another was infectious and completely different to the power and dominance of the wooyoung in his dreams.
frankly, hongjoong never thought that the wooyoung in his dreams would be part of his cluster, and it seemed to have raised more questions than answers for him.
but knowing that time really is of the essence, hongjoong extracts himself from the future after he's satisfied with the drawing in front of him. when he makes his way to jinju, he was sure that if anybody knew seonghwa then they would recognise him from the sketch.
he tries to not think about it, but he can't stop the little inkling in his heart that told him there was something about strange wooyoung that he just couldn't quite pin point.
taking another square of chocolate and a sip of his water, he changes out of his ratty, oversized sweater and pants, into something more presentable. his choices were limited, clothes took so long to reach the elite that hongjoong just never bothered to be very experimental with his fashion choices.
he sticks with a basic white button up tucked into coffee coloured jeans (silently praying that he would manage to keep both clean.) keeping his glasses on instead of wearing contacts, hongjoong takes one more square of chocolate, shuts his eyes and pulls himself in the direction away from the facility towards jinju.
he blinks his eyes open. he's in the back alleyway near some some sort of restaurant, hidden perfectly behind a large dumpster. cautiously looking around, he grimaced at the stench and rats scurrying past his leather shoes, quickly making his way out onto the main street.
from his research, he saw that jinju wasn't that big of a town, surely someone working at a popular store would have at least a guess as to where seonghwa could be.
he just let his feet do the moving, mind somewhat blank, taking in this rare opportunity to see the world outside of the elite. jinju was a gorgeous town, he had to give it that.
hongjoong didn't know where exactly he was going, yet felt as though he knew he was going in the right direction. the mutant energy in him was calling out to find its other half, playing a game of adult hide and seek. hongjoong merely followed the gut instincts that pulled his body to take a left turn instead of a right at the fork. he felt like a marionette getting dragged by its owner, a puppet that had no self control without the hands of its master. but he let it happen, feet stumbling over each other like a lovesick puppy finding its soulmate, winding through the streets of the small town.
and he ends up finding himself stood outside sort of cafe, taking a note of its name emblazoned on the wall in a flashing neon sign, 딸기 카페.
the door opens with a soft ring of a bell, a waiter wiping down the table sending him a soft smile. the cafe was filled with students typing away at computers, friends laughing and socialising over coffee and cakes. little succulents were dotted by the windowsill and on each table, the pastel aesthetic of the store pleasing to the eyes. the cafe seemed to be filled with soft pink tables, white chairs and baby blue cushions, everything clearly well thought out.
standing behind the cash register was the devil himself. seonghwa's incredibly handsome face made him stick out of the crowd despite the old, stretched out white t-shirt he wore underneath his apron, a page boy cap nestled on his fluffy black hair.
seonghwa, despite the idol-like face, looked very normal to hongjoong.
to be fair, hongjoong himself didn't look too wild either, with a telltale mark that could be easily hidden under a long sleeved shirt. but he sort of expected seonghwa to look more.. superhuman like. he expected some sort of aura that he just wasn't getting from seonghwa.
the mutant energy was obvious in him though, it was clear that they had to be cluster mates. the attraction was undeniable and he had a sinking feeling that seonghwa felt it too, the two locking eyes whilst seonghwa was still taking the order of the person in front of him.
the person at the front of the line leaves to go sit down and seonghwa stares at hongjoong as though he was looking at an alien.
"have i met you before?" seonghwa asks cautiously.
hongjoong didn't know how to answer.
"no. no i don't think so." he responds with a smile after a beat. "i'm hongjoong by the way, i'm just stopping by here."
"i'm seonghwa, welcome to jinju! it's nice to meet you, hongjoong. what would you like to order today?"
hongjoong's mind was racing. what could possibly be his superpower? elementalists tended to have naturally bright hair colours, animagi had animal features on their bodies. to be fair, seonghwa did look kind of like a dragon, that would definitely be an asset to the cluster. maybe he was hiding horns under that hat of his.
"i'll just take the strawberry milkshake." hongjoong responds, seeing that it was one of their more popular menu items.
"that's my favourite! you'll definitely enjoy it." the taller beams as he inputs the order into the cash register.
hongjoong keeps his eyes down, passing his card to seonghwa, their fingertips brushing for a split second. hongjoong feels something strange about seonghwa. strange in a way that he has never experienced before.
and that's saying a lot coming from a guy that has grown up around people who were the literal definition of strange.
hongjoong bows politely, going to take a seat.
normally people of the same cluster have gut feelings and can guess the super power of their fellow cluster mates. hongjoong was especially good at this considering the small size of his cluster, the strength of his cluster and hongjoong's familiarity around mutants. when yunho first joined, he looked smart, he looked perceptive and that made him guess that yunho had some sort of mind related power. san had a toned and muscular physique, and was very flexible, which lead to the assumption that his power was related to his body.
they were hunches at best, but they were accurate to an extent. yet hongjoong just couldn't get a read on seonghwa.
he thought he might've had the wrong person, but pulls out his notebook and sure enough, the face matched to a tee. the feeling he had was undeniable too, surely this seonghwa was the person he was looking for.
hongjoong was actually surprised he was able to capture seonghwa's expression so well, it was almost creepy. he caught himself staring at his cluster mate as his hands moved expertly, flurrying through the kitchen in an organised mess, spooning in some ice cubes, pouring in ice cream and strawberries into a blender to make hongjoong's strawberry milkshake.
he seemed stuck in his own world, smiling when he pours the milkshake into a tall glass.
with a bright smile on his face, seonghwa walks out from behind the counter with a tray in his hands and hongjoong's strawberry milkshake perched on top. the one sitting down sends a small smile back, hiding his notebook by placing it face down on his lap, unable to hide his genuine excitement for the delicious looking drink with a small yellow umbrella that was making its way over to him.
"one strawberry milkshake for you." he expresses gleefully. their hands touch momentarily when hongjoong's palm rests on top of seonghwa's to help guide the milkshake safely to the table.
he couldn't believe what he saw when he sees seonghwa's eyes flash a dazzling blue colour from their previous dark brown.
that's a tell he's never seen before. he's seen people with strangely coloured irises, purple, orange, gold, but never eyes that shifted colour.
now after seeing the tell, he was even more confused than before. what could his power possibly be?
"is.. is there something on my face?" seonghwa asks, hands reaching up to his face. hongjoong didn't realise that he was staring and grabs the hand of the taller.
his eyes go bright blue once again.
"no, no! don't worry. i was just..." the boy sitting down didn't know how to finish the sentence, instead leaving the thought incomplete, nothing really processing in his mind.
"anyways... my shift is literally about to end, do you mind me joining you for a little bit? you seem really nice, i'd like to get to know you and show you around." he offers, wiping his hands on his apron and positioning the tray behind his back. hongjoong agrees to it very quickly. at least the other was being really nice, it's making his job much easier.
seonghwa's smile grows into an even wider grin, the boy scurrying behind the counter to take his apron and page boy cap off, folding both neatly and placing it under the counter.
"no horns..." hongjoong mutters under his breath. sometimes mutants had multiple tells but it seems like seonghwa's was just the one.
he comes bounding over to the table, oddly energetic, which hongjoong didn't really mind. but it was clear that the taller had far too much energy in him when his hand coincidentally lines up with the strawberry smoothie and it starts to tip sideways.
"no!"
then the milkshake freezes halfway in the air.
hongjoong was surprised, he knew he didn't do that. he doesn't get random outbursts of energy like that, at least not anymore. he's too in control of his power for that. and even if he did, he would feel himself stopping the clock. he looks around and sees that, sure enough, everybody had come to a complete standstill. as though time had decided to freeze without his doing.
well, everybody except for seonghwa who immediately jumps back in surprise, eyes opened wide like saucers.
"w-what? what the fuck? hongjoong, why is a smoothie frozen in the air?!" his pupils were spasming back and forth, head pivoting around frantically to see that, indeed everybody in the cafe had frozen in time except for hongjoong and himself. some of the students were midway through a laugh, you could even see the spit particles of someone who had just sneezed. all suspended, frozen in time.
hongjoong could see seonghwa's breathing start to escalate quickly, hyperventilating when he realised that he was moving when everyone else wasn't.
"seonghwa.. seonghwa i need you to breathe." hongjoong immediately stands up, his notebook falling onto the floor when he rushes over and envelops seonghwa with his arms.
guess he has time powers. they were few and far between, at least hongjoong knows how to use his power, he'd be able to train seonghwa personally. it does explain the changing eye colour. a rare tell for a rare ability.
things still weren't lining up though.
it doesn't make sense to have a duplicate power in a cluster, especially one that was that small. their powers were meant to compliment each other, it didn't make sense for them to have overlapping abilities.
either way, that was a problem he would solve when he got to it. hongjoong's priority was to calm the other down so they could get time moving again.
the poor thing was quivering in his arms, staring down at his hands and then at his surroundings. even the birds outside were stuck halfway through wing beats, it all felt like a fever dream, it didn't feel real.
it slowly dawned on seonghwa that hongjoong hadn't frozen in time like everyone else.
"w-wait you're moving too!" he shouts in shock, tumbling out of hongjoong's grasp and falling onto the floor with a loud bump.
seonghwa utters a grunt of pain, rubbing the hip bone that he fell on, yet still manages to keep that incredulous expression on his face. things just weren't clicking in his mind, this wasn't right, people don't just freeze time like this.
hongjoong's face morphed into a sympathetic expression, helping seonghwa back onto his feet, he helps the taller into the opposite chair.
"i can't do anything to fix this. you're going to have to be the one to unfreeze the time." hongjoong takes the milkshake from its suspension in the air and puts it down on the table, just to make sure that it really doesn't spill later on.
"i-i don't know how." seonghwa still was unable to comprehend the situation, thinking he was on a prank show or something. but prank shows can't stop smoothies halfway in the air.
this is all too real.
"here." hongjoong takes the slender hands in his own, a blush dusting itself onto the other's cheeks. "imagine you have your hand on a dial. it's usually constantly spinning forward but your hold on it is stopping it from turning."
"relax, focus on the dial, the tension in your hands from the dials resistance and desire to churn forward. take one big deep breath in." they both do such in sync. "good. now slowly, let go of the dial. let it start to rotate once again."
he lets go of the dial.
he lets go.
then when the eyes he didn't even realise were closed open up once again, the bustling of the cafe was back to how it was, a few moments prior.
he was proud of the rookie for doing such a thing. he took on instructions well, something hongjoong was incredibly grateful for and excited to see.
seonghwa blinked a few times. his eyes blank when everything slowly started to fall into place.
"care to explain to me what the fuck just happened?"