Work Text:
Wooyoung is the first one to see him.
'Seonghwa!' he yelps, dropping the grocery bags he was carrying. 'You're back! Where were you?'
Seonghwa crosses the room and grabs Wooyoung's face, kissing him deeply. Wooyoung lets out a little noise and kisses back, hands gripping at Seonghwa's elbows.
Seonghwa breaks away and looks at him, a grin breaking on his face.
'Hi,' he says.
'Hi,' Wooyoung replies, breathlessly.
Seonghwa looks over his shoulder and reaches out for San, now within arm's reach.
'Hi,' he repeats.
'Hey,' San whispers, eyes darting all over Seonghwa's face, and Seonghwa pulls him in for a sweet kiss, still holding on to Wooyoung, reluctant to let go.
He pulls them in for one last hug and steps back to just look at them.
'It's so good to see you,' he says. He starts, and wrests the necklace off his neck.
'You don't like it?' Wooyoung asks.
'Where did you go?' San says at the same time. 'We thought you'd left.'
'Oh, yeah,' Wooyoung mutters, and then, louder: 'Is it because of the necklace? Because of what we said?'
'You can just talk to us if you're not comfortable with us referring to the future like that,' San says, and Seonghwa wants to wipe the little frown off his face. 'I just thought we were-'
'No, no, no,' Seonghwa hastens to say. 'I want to be your future, I want you to be my future. I- ' He exhales. 'It's gonna sound crazy. It is. The necklace... I love the necklace. Don't sleep with it on.'
'What?' San looks confused.
'At least during important phases of the moon.'
'Are you okay?' Wooyoung asks.
'I... will explain everything. I promise,' Seonghwa says, 'If... you promise to have an open mind, and believe me.'
'You're kind of scaring me,' San says.
'You know I would never lie to you, right?' Seonghwa beseeches and Wooyoung raises an eyebrow,
'Oh, the lemon juice isn't sour at all, try it,' he mimics and Seonghwa bites back a chuckle.
'Not about big things,' he amends.
San's smiling again. 'Of course,' he agrees easily.
Seonghwa takes a moment just to look at him. Look at them.
'I missed you guys so much,' he says, heartfelt, almost reverentially.
Wooyoung entwines his fingers with Seonghwa's, and San reaches for his other hand.
'We missed you too,' San says softly, and Wooyoung nods.
'We've been coming here to just... hang out. In your space. And water your moss.'
Seonghwa gasps. 'My moss! Oh, I didn't even think of that!' He almost turns to go check on it, but turns back.
He trusts them. He's sure his moss is fine. Or at the very least not completely dead. He's talked their ear off about it enough.
'Are you going to tell us where you've been now?' San asks, voice small, and Seonghwa's heart breaks a little bit.
He nods. 'How about we sit down?'
He tugs them towards the couch, and notices it's set up the way Wooyoung likes it, cozy and full of pillows.
He had been so focussed on his own predicament he hadn't quite thought about what they might have been going through here.
'So?' Wooyoung prompts when they're all ensconced on the couch, legs and arms entangled in such a way it's difficult to tell where one ends and another begins.
Seonghwa takes a deep breath.
'It's magic,' he says, simply. 'The necklace. It... I woke up in an apartment I didn't recognise, next to someone I did. From my mirror.'
San looks confused. Seonghwa doesn't blame him in the slightest.
'It's... ' He falters, unsure of exactly how to explain it.
Funny, the only thing that comes to mind is Yunho and his rewatching of the Spiderman movies for comfort in his confusion - Seonghwa could only watch them so many times before he put the boy out of his misery, but by god did he watch them. It's odd, he thinks, that Marvel movies are the same in both places (or maybe it isn't, he's still pretty confused about the convergences and divergences between the worlds).
'It's like the multiverse,' he says, 'you know, like in Marvel? Or- that other movie, that... Everything... bagel or something.'
'You met a different version yourself?' Wooyoung says, eyes round. 'Like. in a different dimension?'
'Something like that, yeah,' Seonghwa says, nodding, grateful that Wooyoung seems fully on board with the idea.
'A different dimension?' San repeats, looking on the verge of sceptical (also... not a surprising reaction, if Seonghwa is honest. If he hadn't woken up facing himself he probably wouldn't have believed it either.)
'I told you to have an open mind. I told you it would sound crazy,' Seonghwa reminds him.
'Were we there?' Wooyoung asks as San gives a small nod, brow furrowed.
'Kind of? I met San, once. I didn't meet you, but I think other me and Yunho did know a Wooyoung there. But they weren't close.'
'Yunho?' San asks, head tilting.
'I lived - other me and him are roommates.' Seonghwa pauses. 'Were roommates. Are roommates? If you start dating your roommate, are you still roommates, or does the boyfriend title supersede it?'
'Supersedes,' San answers instantly, 'For sure.'
'Did you get them together?' Wooyoung asks, eyeing Seonghwa.
'I... I mean, I might have played a part,' Seonghwa concedes, 'But you should have seen the way Yunho looked at him. Other me. I was very surprised he hadn't noticed already.'
'Are you?' Wooyoung asks archly, 'How long did it take for you to realise our intentions?'
Seonghwa shoots him a look.
He's right, but Seonghwa doesn't want to give him that.
'Anyway.' He moves on. 'I didn't do that much. Just showed me what I - he - was missing out on.'
'You slept with Yunho,' San says and Seonghwa gives a half shrug.
'I needed to get my mind off things,' he says, his voice barely above a whisper, and Wooyoung cuddles in closer to his side.
'We'll have to compare notes,' Wooyoung says, his voice purposefully light.
'Of how we kept our mind off things?' Seonghwa asks and San laughs.
'No,' Wooyoung scoffs, 'Sounds like we had much the same methods. No, Yunho, of course. How similar do you think the different Yunho's are?'
'Might even be able to arrange a direct comparison,' San teases, and catches Seonghwa's gaze.
Seonghwa relaxes as he sees nothing but acceptance in his eyes.
He didn't doubt he would get there - San's wonderful like that - but that doesn't make it any less of a relief to see.
'Maybe not immediately.' Seonghwa reaches out to run a thumb on San's cheek. 'I think I just want to be with you two for a little bit.'
'Wait!' Wooyoung exclaims at a volume that makes Seonghwa jump and San yelp.
'Why would you do th-' Seonghwa starts, refusing to admit he's whining, but Wooyoung speaks over him, not listening at all.
'Did you fuck yourself?' he asks.
'Wooyoung!'
'What?' Wooyoung demands of San. 'Are you saying you wouldn't fuck yourself? I'd fuck myself. It'd be the first thing I would do. Probably.'
'Don't you think it'd be weird?' San says.
'You say that like weird things can't be really hot,' Wooyoung says dismissively and Seonghwa bites back a laugh. Wooyoung turns his attention back to him. 'Well?'
'Define fucked myself,' Seonghwa says delicately, and San's eyes glaze over a little bit as Wooyoung gapes a bit.
'Any dick action,' Wooyoung clarifies, eyes fixed on Seonghwa with laser focus.
Seonghwa kind of wishes he had a glass of something to sip at as he leans back against the couch, stretching his back a bit.
'I look so good on my knees. You guys are so lucky you get that view,' he says as nonchalantly as he can manage.
San makes a small sound in the back of his throat. Wooyoung makes a louder groan.
'You're welcome,' Seonghwa says lightly, and winces as Wooyoung bites his earlobe.
'That's so hot,' Wooyoung whines and Seonghwa flutters his eyelashes at him. 'You so have to tell us more about all of that.'
'I definitely want to know more about the other world,' San agrees.
'And the sex,' Wooyoung makes sure to clarify. San nods.
Seonghwa laughs, and reaches out to grip their thighs. He looks at the two most important facets of his future, the ones he wasn't sure he was going to see again for a while there, and feels such a rush of love and relief in him.
'I'm so glad I'm back,' he whispers, not trusting himself not to cry if he speaks at full volume. 'I'm so glad to see you again. I'm so glad you believe me.'
San covers his hand with his own. 'Of course,' he says, his voice so full of trust and love that Seonghwa might still cry anyway.
'Yeah,' Wooyoung says, 'Like you said, you'd never lie to us about anything important.'
Seonghwa turns to give him a grateful look.
'Although,' Wooyoung continues, 'Maybe we should think of a different story to tell our friends. And the police.'
'The police?' Seonghwa exclaims.
'You were missing,' Wooyoung defends, 'No note, your phone in your apartment, food rotting in your fridge, and we went to the library and they said you were a no call no show! Of course we went to the police! Emergency alerts and everything!'
'If I tell them a necklace transported me to another dimension they'll throw me in an institution!' Seonghwa yelps.
'Yeah, so, like, what story do we tell them?'
'Do we have to tell them one?' San says, 'I mean, you're clearly alive and here, can't we just tell them, like. False alarm? How do you report someone unmissing, is that a thing?'
'No, no, you're right,' Seonghwa says, 'They don't have to know details. I can be vague. Make up something. That's fine.'
'And the library?' Wooyoung asks and Seonghwa wrinkles his nose.
'Mm. Yeah. That may... be a bit more difficult. ... I might not have a job anymore, huh.' His eyes widen. 'Oh, no, did I get paid? Did my bills go off? Where's my phone-'
'We put money in your account in case you needed it,' San hurries to assure him.
Seonghwa exhales heavily. 'I could kiss you.'
A tiny smile pulls at the corners of San's mouth, and he turns his head, pushing his cheek towards Seonghwa and tapping it.
Seonghwa rolls his eyes and gives his cheek a wet sloppy kiss that has San giggling and wrinkling his nose.
'And me!' Wooyoung complains, draping himself over Seonghwa's shoulders and doesn't wait for Seonghwa to turn to him before planting his own sloppy kiss on Seonghwa's cheek.
It's a mess of kisses after that, on cheeks, eyes, ears, noses and even occasionally lips, and Seonghwa's at the bottom of a very wiggly pile.
He's never been happier.
*
Seonghwa yawns and stretches as he wakes up, peering around to make sure he is still in his room. He has been for at least a solid month now, but sometimes there's still a moment in the morning where he holds his breath before opening his eyes.
Life has mostly gone back to normal. He's part-time at the library for now, somehow having kept his job - although telling people he had a bit of an emotional breakdown does mean that his coworkers are treating him with kid gloves. Still. It's a better outcome than he could have expected, really. And of course, he's had San and Wooyoung attached to his side - they've been reluctant to let him out of their sight, and he returns the sentiment.
He scratches at his stomach as he meanders out of his room, spotting a familiar figure and going to wind his arms around San's waist.
'Morning,' he murmurs and gets a hum in reply.
The apartment is tranquil and quiet.
Hmm.
Too quiet.
'Where's Wooyoung?' Seonghwa asks.
San hold up a note with a sigh.
DO NOT CALL THE POLICE!
I've taken a sabbatical from work and made sure all of my stuff is paid for. Told my family I was going on a private trip with you guys to celebrate Seonghwa being back, so don't answer their calls until I'm back. If they call, that is, I told them no contact.
I hope it's not too long of a trip, but I was just dying of curiosity.
Love you!
Seonghwa blinks at it a few times, his half-asleep brain still processing it.
'Necklace is gone from the shelf,' San says helpfully and Seonghwa blinks again before sighing into San's neck.
'He's gone to go fuck himself, hasn't he.'
'Hundred percent,' San responds. 'Honestly, we shouldn't be surprised.'
'Did he think we'd try to stop him?'
San shrugs. 'Do you think he'll be successful in his quest?'
Seonghwa thinks back to his own conversations with his other self.
'Yeah,' he says, 'The differences between the versions aren't that big.'
San's quiet.
'You okay?' Seonghwa asks. 'Look, at least we know where he's gone.'
'Yeah, yeah,' San says, 'No, I'm fine. I'm just. Gonna miss him, is all.'
'Not looking forward to some peace and quiet?' Seonghwa teases and San laughs.
'You think you're gonna get peace and quiet? Big mistake. Huge.'
Seonghwa laughs and squeezes him tighter.
'Want some breakfast?' he says, unwinding himself from San as he nods.
'We should've seen it coming,' San says, taking a seat at the table as Seonghwa moves into the kitchen. 'With the way he's been talking about you hooking up with other you since you got back.'
'It's like Hongjoong told him to go fuck himself so many times it became a kink,' Seonghwa replies and San chokes on his laughter.
Seonghwa's going to miss Wooyoung something desperate, of course he is.
But he's going to come back, and Seonghwa's going to keep a hold of that thought until he does.
He has to.
He's their future, after all.