The World Through Your Eyes || SeungJin

The End of the World

So, Hyunjin didn't steal Seungmin's watch after all. After Hyunjin spent a good 15 minutes explaining that he had simply found the nifty little thing and kept it with him afterwards because he thought it was neat, Seungmin belatedly realized that the watch must've been one of the countless things he had left in Hyunjin's world in his time-travel expeditions. Since Hyunjin had the watch in his possession, it must've served as a bridge through their timelines, Hyunjin's being in the past relative to Seungmin's.

While Hyunjin helped Seungmin carry all the things he needed in a few trips to and from the storage room to his bike (his bike housed a very large basket that Hyunjin suspected had no limit in space in terms of items it could carry), they also managed to establish that Hyunjin was not crazy, and that the entire situation was a very rare and impressive occurrence, and that Seungmin was not crazy either nor a liar.

"So, you do this often? Leaping through time?" Hyunjin had questioned Seungmin, and he merely laughed in response.

"What, do you think I have the time and resources to routinely travel through time and space?" he had questioned back, and much to his surprise, Hyunjin had nodded earnestly, to which he had no reply.

"Of course. It just — it just makes sense. You," Hyunjin fumbled uncertainly, "seem diligent enough."

Seungmin seemed to ponder a bit, wondering how to word his answer. "I'm not the one with the resources, but a friend of mine is. Or, I mean, he was the one with the resources. I'm just the silly guy that jumped dimensions" He glanced at the pocket watch, noting how the hour hand had shifted. "I don't know if you can tell, but the environment here is much less than ideal for living. I've been tinkering with various things to find solutions to many of the issues here, like that chemical puddle you stepped into when I met you today."

Hyunjin nodded ardently in understanding, and Seungmin couldn't help but feel something fond for how sincerely he reacted to everything he said.

A long conversation later, Hyunjin bade Seungmin farewell, announcing that he was going to go back to sleep to get back to his home. Seungmin climbed onto his bike contraption thing (he never could put an exact name to it) and rode off into the distance.

Silence often served as an environment where Seungmin could think about different things, and his bike ride was no exception.

Seungmin didn't know what to think of Hyunjin. Sure, he was endearingly eccentric, loved dogs (Seungmin wanted to see what Kkami looked like in person after hearing Hyunjin's affectionate description), hated certain vegetables (what's so bad about eggplants and onions?), and could create some of the most beautiful artwork Seungmin had ever seen (Hyunjin's shirt coincidentally had the graphic of a sunset he had painted), and everything was fine, but . . . was it worth it?

Creating a friendship that transcended time and space sounded like something Seungmin would find in a book of rules called "Things Not To Do To Survive A Dangerous Town: #1: Don't make friendships you can't uphold."

The second thing in the book, Seungmin thought, would be "Do not drink water from any open body of water unless getting mutated parasites in your stomach seemed like a fun activity. And the third reason . . . well, that would imply that the person had survived long enough to avoid doing either of the aforementioned rules.

The air had begun growing colder as Seungmin continued pedaling briskly, the surroundings shifting from the random monochromatic buildings, most probably abandoned, to makeshift huts and tree-like structures.

At long last, he reached the furthest hut from the rest of the others. Solitary and uninviting to the unlikely passerby — Seungmin's abode.

Carefully setting his bike and its contents towards the back side of the hut, which resembled a poor recreation of a cave of some sort, Seungmin entered the hut, and within a few minutes, fell fast asleep.