The Man Who Could Not Stop Time (Monsta X Fanfiction)

Chapter Twelve: Bad Bet

"I have something to announce!" Hyungwon yelled once the three of us came home later that evening from dance practice

Wonho let out a sigh, setting down his bag by the couch and flopping down on it, "Bro, I just came home. Can I breath for, like, two seconds before you start announcing stuff?" He chuckled.

"He's got a point." Shownu added, sitting down next him.

"No rest for the wicked." Hyungwon replied, gathering all of us together so he could make his statement, "I've decided a week is too long to wait to start going back in time."

"Why do you say that?" Kihyun asked.

"Yeah, just yesterday you said we should wait a week, what's changed?" Jooheon continued.

"Well..." Hyungwon said, raising his hands to silence everyone's murmurs, "I was being followed today. So we really don't have waiting time. I think they might be catching on to us. Therefore, we start our plans tomorrow morning!"

"Followed? Did they follow you to the house?" Wonho asked, looking worried.

"No they didn't. Don't worry about it too much." Hyungwon brushed him off, "We just need to get things over with so we can all go back to our regular lives."

"Okay, then who goes first?" I asked. He was right, we needed to get this over with. Besides, I had a life I needed to get back to. If I spent too much time with these guys, I might miss them too much when we parted ways.

Hyungwon smirked at me, "That's a great question." He turned to face the boys and said. "Tomorrow, we will start by taking Wonho back in time."

Time froze for a moment for me.

Why Wonho? I was just starting to kindle a bit of summer love with Wonho and Hyungwon was going to send him back first? Would I ever speak to him again? Or see him again? Whatever excitement I felt about the innovation of time travel faded away into sadness.

The boys all looked equally as surprised as well.

"Why him first?" Kihyun asked.

"Yeah, why not me?" Changkyun chimed in. "Or anyone else with more dire things to deal with?"

"I've thought it through." Hyungwon said, "And I think our toughest guy should go first. So you all don't get scared about how this works."

Wonho smiled at the boys before looking over at me. He seemed to noticed I was disappointed.

"It's okay guys." Wonho said, "I'm not scared to go first. And this doesn't mean I'll never talk to you guys again!" He looked at me when he spoke next, "It'll be like nothing happened. Except I'll be a better person when this is over."

"I don't know..." Shownu started to say, looking a bit worried, "I'm the oldest, shouldn't I set the example?"

"The decision has been made." Hyungwon said. "So sleep well tonight, because we've got quite the day waiting for us tomorrow."

I woke up the next morning after a sleepless night. I couldn't stop thinking about Wonho and whether or not I'd ever be able to speak to him after today. The implications of time travel worried me as well. What if we split the space-time continuum? Or whatever all those science movies were about.

I sat up from my bed once I heard Hyungwon get up and leave. I got my clothing together for the day and got dressed.

My solemn attitude seemed to be reflected by the others, because once I entered the living room I saw that all of the other boys were very quiet too.

"Good morning everyone!" Hyungwon said cheerfully once he noticed everyone was awake. He seemed to be the only one that wasn't sad that morning. "Gather along so we can talk strategy."

We all gathered together, Wonho seemed to be the slowest to gather into the circle. I watched him until he looked up at me and gave me a halfhearted smile.

"So Wonho wants to go back in time and stop a bad bet.  I want you all to watch and see what happens when he encounters himself. During my research, I found that if you avoid your past-self, then you can return to the present without having to live out your life again. However, if you go back in time and come into contact with yourself, then you'll fuse with your past-self and live out your life again until the present. You can't fuse with your past-self and return to the present. The watch won't take your fused-self back to the present, anyway. What do you want to do, Wonho?" Hyungwon smirked at him.

Wonho had to shake himself out of a daze before saying. "I have to fuse with myself. It won't work any other way."

"Okay!" Hyungwon said excitedly. "That works, but keep in mind that you can't mess up. You get one try, that's it. Multiple fusions in one timeline could kill you. So hope that everything turns out well."

Hyungwon pulled out the timepiece and adjusted it to the day that Wonho wanted to return to.

"Okay everyone, hold hands." Hyungwon said.

I started to feel nervous. I wasn't entirely sure that time travel wouldn't kill or hurt us. What happened if we all got stuck in the past together? I started to panic a bit.

Then I felt someone grab onto my hand and looked up to see it was Wonho. He gave me a warm smile before squeezing my hand to comfort me.

I took a deep breath and before I knew it we were a year in the past.