time step - A BTS AU (Random Updates)

Chapter 9

The noise in my head was chaotic. A low sound that usually accompanies tv static overlayed with the low drumming of my confusion. Who knew that such simple words could send my head spinning like an uncontrollable merry-go-round, 'what happened to me?' Heck, that is what I want to know.

Given all that I had just been told, information that should aid me in finding an answer, I should have felt some sense of understanding.

Yet, I felt like I was thrown into a ocean of rapid waves, the information beating down on my brain like the monsterous weight of nature's dense rapids.

Dense... that is what I felt: dumb in the fact that I couldn't even understand what happen to me. I lost years, but I hadn't aged. How is that posible? It couldn't be, I didn't do anything to make it possible. My top lip twitched towards my nose as I realised that this must be a joke. If not by fate or god, than at least by humanity. Someone was playing a prank on me and I was not willing to play along and be fooled any longer.

So I sat back and straightened up, my mind cleared of sound, and thoughts trailed in slowly. My next step?; to catch them out. Reverse the prank, make them the fools.

Wetting my lips, clearing my throat, I was ready to speak, "well, given all this information the only plausible posibility is that I travelled through time. No?" It was all I could think of on the spot, remembering all those sci-fi shows I watched with my dad as a child.

"Wh- what? That seems impossible?" The woman asked, questioning not me but perhaps her understanding of the world's workings, "how could you even manage to do that and why?"

The others seemed to agree, even the professors and Mireu, and they all looked to me for an explanation.

Why what great actors. I mean, that has to be the reason they were so good at this prank, why I had never seen these professors before, why Mireu looked familiar; I must have seen him on tv before, surely.

With their gaze I just shrugged and relaxed into the chair. I didn't like the attention, but I don't like being made a fool of either. So I replied with the knowledge those shows instilled in me, "impossible no, improbable yes. It is theoretically possible, it has just never been proven. Well maybe now is a good time to start," I said in the most nonchalant manner I could muster.

"Oh, I guess another explanation could be alternate realities. I bet the scientists are going to have fun figuring this out," I said with an amused smile as I imagined how excited and confused the scientists would be if either scenario had really happened to me. Then I also thought about how bad that could be; I could end up as a lab rat. My smile slowly fell as this thought crossed my mind and I focused my eyes back on the room.

They looked serious and shocked and Mireu shuffled over to me, a slight wiggle of his body before he placed a gentle hand upon my leg.

"Eunha," concern filled his eyes as he looked up at me, peering into my soul with worry and uncertainty, "are you ok? You seem too calm, you shouldn't be calm this calm".

He said, not quite explaining himself and his worries for me, but I got the gist; the show wouldn't be as fun if I didn't freak out. Right?

Even if he was lying and trying to embarrass me I still liked the guy, but I couldn't figure out why. So against my rationality I decided to comfort him, placing a hand upon his shoulder as I spoke, "It is ok, I am ok".

He didn't trust my words. He couldn't believe that I could be this calm, especially if I believed the thories that had been thrown so carelessly into the air. This had to be a front, I had to be panicking inside and he hoped his grandfather could get here soon to help.

Just as the thought once again crossed Mireu's mind, the man walked in. A small knock at the door before Professor Kim broke his own glazed trance and beckoned him inside his office.

Mireu jumped up from besides me as the man passed the door. He rushed to greet him and I turned to see him hug the new presence as he called, "grandfather". He didn't know what else to say, no one did. In turn he received a nod of recognition and a pat on the back before slowly moving to the side to let the man fall into my view.

I wrinkled my eyebrows, confused by the familiarity of this man's face. And then as he took a step forward a bubble of recognition popped within me. He looked like an aged version of my brother.

As he drew closer I laughed, unable to hold it in at the image of the man before me. What had they done to him? Whatever it was, they did a great job, I mean he really did look much older. Props to the make up team. And production for getting him in on this, it is just the kind of joke he would love to pull.

As I laughed and bent forward to hold my stomach the movement of the room seemed to stop; holted by the unfinished step of Doyeong whose desire to meet me again after all these years was abruptly morphed into supprise and then annoyance.

"Yah! Why are you laughing? Do you know how worried we were?" He said as he stormed over to me and wacked my head before taking Mireu's seat.

Everyone just watched, and then it was my turn to look shocked. That hurt. I hate being hit and he knows that, even if he doesn't know why.

"Yah," I returned his greating, "Doyeong! Why would you hit me you idiot". I looked to him with irritation in my eyes as my brows rose in question.

He knew it was me the moment he saw my curious and uncertain face. He didn't think it was possible but somehow he knew. And now all doubts were gone from his mind - seeing me so close, my angry eyes, my tone, my words, my posture - it was all me, just how he remembered.

"Our parents are going to kill you", he mumbled.

And then he broke down and cried leaning forward into me. I panicked and grabbed his back in a hug, wondering why the hell my cheeky and annoying brother was crying now. He couldn't act, not like this. Even if he looked the part of an old man, playing the role the show had set him would be nearly impossible. The shoes were to big and he could never walk in them. And definitely not as well as he appeared to right in that moment.

I pushed him up slowly, looking at his features. A slight glare fell upon my face, a scrutinizing fold of my lids as I analysed him. It was real, too real, "when did you learn to act?" I said. A dubious question from my doubtful mind.

Doyeong's tears tumbled to a slow trickle, the lines that flowed down his cheeks all but stopping as he blinked.

"What?" He asked confused, annoyed as he continued, "I am not acting Eunha".

I tilted my head sideways, my eyes moving about his serious features curiously as I thought.

"Yes you are," I insisted, "your make-up is good, but not good enough to fool me". That was a lie, I thought they had done too good a job on my 23 year old brother. Hell, he looked about about my dad's age when I last saw him, and he was 68. What excellent make up artists; they got him to look exactly how he would need to, to fit the story of time travel.

"Eunha," he said softly, his tone sad and almost sorry as he spoke this news to me, worried how I would respond, that I would break, "it isn't make-up".

I blinked, no words comming to me in response and instead all I could think to do was look around the room. The people there, the observers to our reunion, kept quite, but something in the way they looked on told me that this was serious. That he was serious.

Maybe it was the pity, maybe the uncertainty, or maybe even the silence in their eyes.

Maybe it was the way that Mireu was looking at us, bitting his bottem lip as his eyes began to shine with the comming tears. And then, seeing his face in that moment, I considered that perhaps he wasn't an actor like I thought he was; that perhaps none of them were.

My hand slowly left my brother's sholder, snaking up the left side of his neck to gently caress his face. His wrinkled, aged face. His natural face. His make-up less face.

And I gulped down reality, the fact, the realisation that all along I really was the fool.

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A/N
I was planning on realising this chapter earlier but then I confused myself with the timeline - ha ha haa (ㅠ~ㅠ). But I think I have sorted that out now, no promises though 😗😗😗