From Zero ⨝ [Chae Hyungwon x Reader]

Chapter 1 Broken Watch

      The next morning I woke up again to the same alarm buzzing in my ears. I woke up and performed my daily routine and went to University like every day. We got new assignments to work on. Other than that, the day was pretty eventless.

      I went to the library to borrow some books before going to the cafe. I liked reading books, especially mystery and thriller novels. I would sometimes take some books to the cafe to read whenever I got a break.

       Since I went to the Library before work, Minhyuk wasn't with me and I had to walk to the cafe on my own. I noticed that there weren't a lot of people on the roads. Maybe because it was raining every day around evening, which was the reason why I had to carry an umbrella around whenever I went outside as it was the month of September.

        I was greeted by Minhyuk's loud voice once I entered the cafe. I quickly changed into the uniform and took my place behind the counter table. Only a few people came by today. That included three regular customers and a group of high school students. Minhyuk had already taken their orders so I just had to take whatever they ordered to their tables.

I walked over to the group of girls with the tray in my hand that held their beverages and sweets.

"Hey, have you heard that there was a time traveller in our town?" One of them spoke.

"Really? I've never heard of that before." Another one replied.

"You didn't know? It was on the news for a while. People say that he skipped town." The previous one said, earning reactions of disbelief from the others.

       I placed their order in front of them and went back to the counter. 'Time-traveler?' I thought. How would people even know if someone was leaping through space and time? 'It's just some nonsense the news channels broadcast to get viewers, of course.' I thought.

      Since I had nothing to do until anyone else showed up at the cafe, I started reading the book I borrowed earlier. I read it for a while before Minhyuk came up to me and started chatting. I lost track of time as we spoke to each other. The customers left after a while and it was time to close the cafe. It started raining as we were about to leave and Minhyuk hadn't brought his umbrella so I walked him to the bus stop as we shared my umbrella.

       I walked through the almost empty streets as it got colder and colder because of the rain. As I turned around a corner into a roadway, I was surprised that there was no one except me. This way was blocked a few days ago because of a car accident. It had finally opened now. I expected it to be really busy but there was no one here. The road was dimly lit with street lights which made it hard for me to notice someone standing under an umbrella in the distance, who I saw when I was only a few meters away from them.

        As I walked closer, I noticed that it was a man in a suit. I couldn't see his face or anything but what got me suspicious was that he was just standing there doing nothing. He stood in the opposite lane to me, staring off in the distance. What caused me to look away from him was an object on the road in front of me that was shining. I didn't notice that I was walking much slower than before as my eyes were planted on the object that reflected the light coming from the lamps. I didn't know what it was until now that I was standing right over it.

       For some reason, I stopped walking completely as I stood before a watch. I didn't know whose it was. It could be the man's who was standing there. I suddenly had the urge to pick it up for some reason. I wouldn't be concerned to even look at something that someone dropped on the road but this time, it felt like it was pulling me to it. I slowly bent down and picked it up.

      Its glass was cracked but the hands were working. It was pretty big for my hand and I didn't need a watch, to begin with, let alone a broken one, but I didn't know what got into me that I stuffed the watch into my pocket. I looked up at the man standing there one last time.

      I looked down to the ground before I started walking again. Once I reached home, I sat at the couch and took the watch out from my pocket. I scanned it for a while. It was working despite the broken glass so I'd need to change the glass later. I saw that the time in the watch was a little late. I checked the time on the wall clock. It was 9:08. I turned the crown to adjust the time but just as I was about to press it, my hand slipped and the hand went five minutes forward before I pressed it. A strange pattern appeared in the dial of the watch when I did so.

       Before I could correct the time, I noticed that the rain had suddenly stopped. It was raining pretty heavily so it would have taken the rain some time to slow down and stop but it just stopped abruptly. I stood up and walked over to the balcony. The neighbourhood suddenly went silent too. I could only say that because I could faintly hear my neighbour's T.V but now it was turned off.

      I went back to the couch and picked the watch up. I looked up at the clock and was shocked that it was exactly five minutes fast. I took my phone out from my pocket and checked the time, which to my surprise said 9:13. I stared at the watch in horror. 'How did that happen?' I thought to myself. I quickly rewound the time five minutes back, also paying attention to the wall clock now. I was even more shocked when the hands of the watch and the clock moved backwards together.

       My throat went dry and my mouth fell agape as I stared at the watch in my hand with wide eyes. 'Did I just go five minutes forward in future? But how is that even possible?' I thought. The conversation of the high schoolers from before flashed through my mind.

"So...this watch...can make me travel through time...?"

To Be Continued...