Characters/Ship: red velvet, irene/seulgi Tags: time loop, mcd? Permission to Remix: Yes -
Joohyun wakes up with a start, a gasp escaping her mouth as she shoots up in the bed. Her hand immediately reaches to tap around the space beside her and all she finds is an empty warm spot and despite knowing it better, panic settles in her sleep-dazed mind. She wants to scream, but her throat is dry and achy from the nightmare she lived through again, when suddenly she’s blinded by the outpouring warm golden light of the bathroom, a silhouette appears, unknowingly slowing the quick chase of Joohyun’s pulse and breathing.
“Oh, are you up? Did I wake you? M’sorry.” Seulgi whispers into the night, like she’s afraid she’d wake up someone else. She squints at her from her puffy eyes as she falls back on the mattress beside Joohyun, wrapping her limbs around her and dragging the blanket over them. She mumbles against the curve of Joohyun’s neck. “Go back to sleep.”
The twin-sized bed is too small for the two of them; two pillows squished together and one blanket because two wouldn’t make sense. Another single bed sits untouched in the other room of the apartment, where Seulgi sleeps only those times one of their parents come to visit.
Joohyun bites her lip until she tastes blood on her tongue.
Seulgi will die today. Just as she died seventy-two times already.
Each day starts the same. Joohyun wakes with a start, finding Seulgi stumbling back from the toilet. They have breakfast that Joohyun makes, when her mother calls (“When are you planning to move out? Having a roommate at thirty-three is not embarrassing for you?”) and Joohyun tried to hack it, lie and confess and hang up, but nothing changes the timeline. They have a date today in the park, but it’s just an excuse for Seulgi to work more – she takes pictures of Joohyun, of flowers blooming, of everything that is too mundane for Joohyun to notice but it’s extraordinary for Seulgi enough to waste polaroid paper on them. In turn, Joohyun takes a picture of Seulgi because she, after her first death, remembers that she barely has any photographs of her to remember from.
The day always changes from there. Sometimes they have dinner in a hole-in-the-wall restaurant where they’re free to hold hands under the table. Sometimes they go home and eat in front of the TV, watching a stupid game show. Sometimes they skip dinner altogether and stumble into bed. Sometimes Joohyun has a ring in the back pocket of her jeans, a simple band of silver that doesn’t attract any attention. Sometimes it sits on Seulgi’s ring finger for a few hours prior to her death; sometimes it’s too painful to go through an emotional catharsis right before the unskippable happens, so the ring stays in her back pocket with the thought that the next day she can be braver.
Then Seulgi dies. Each day, whatever Joohyun changes in the timeline, the end is always the same. It happens differently – a car crash, a bee sting, a slip on the wet bathroom floor. But the result is always the same. Joohyun is given the chance to save her over and over again, but the key to it escapes her.
It doesn't get better. Or easier. There's no moving on, no future to heal the wounds. Seventy-two times, Joohyun has watched the end of Seulgi’s life, just to be rewinded to the first seconds of the day over and over again. Seventy-two times she lived the same day, trying to fully cherish each second with her to beg her soul to stay.
Joohyun carves another line into the headboard with her nail. Seulgi always questions her about it in the morning, having no clue about the appearance of those lines that are Joohyun’s only lifeline to sanity. Seventy-three. Maybe this time she can save her.
Pulling her closer, until she can feel her warm breath on the base of her neck, Joohyun kisses her forehead. Seulgi molds into her, taking up Joohyun’s shape like it’s the easiest thing in the world.
“What if we stayed in bed today?” Joohyun asks a few hours later, playing with the tip of Seulgi’s plaits. After waking up, sleep evades her and instead she spends time etching every single detail of Seulgi in her mind. Who knows how many more attempts she’s gifted with?
Without opening her eyes, Seulgi answers. “And waste a day of our life? No thank you.”
Her hands tighten around Seulgi’s lithe body. A person too good to be true in this world, and only Joohyun to save her. A tug-of-war she already lost.
“You’re right. What do you want to have for breakfast?”
[FILL] just a carousel spinning around
Tags: time loop, mcd?
Permission to Remix: Yes
-
Joohyun wakes up with a start, a gasp escaping her mouth as she shoots up in the bed. Her hand immediately reaches to tap around the space beside her and all she finds is an empty warm spot and despite knowing it better, panic settles in her sleep-dazed mind. She wants to scream, but her throat is dry and achy from the nightmare she lived through again, when suddenly she’s blinded by the outpouring warm golden light of the bathroom, a silhouette appears, unknowingly slowing the quick chase of Joohyun’s pulse and breathing.
“Oh, are you up? Did I wake you? M’sorry.” Seulgi whispers into the night, like she’s afraid she’d wake up someone else. She squints at her from her puffy eyes as she falls back on the mattress beside Joohyun, wrapping her limbs around her and dragging the blanket over them. She mumbles against the curve of Joohyun’s neck. “Go back to sleep.”
The twin-sized bed is too small for the two of them; two pillows squished together and one blanket because two wouldn’t make sense. Another single bed sits untouched in the other room of the apartment, where Seulgi sleeps only those times one of their parents come to visit.
Joohyun bites her lip until she tastes blood on her tongue.
Seulgi will die today. Just as she died seventy-two times already.
Each day starts the same. Joohyun wakes with a start, finding Seulgi stumbling back from the toilet. They have breakfast that Joohyun makes, when her mother calls (“When are you planning to move out? Having a roommate at thirty-three is not embarrassing for you?”) and Joohyun tried to hack it, lie and confess and hang up, but nothing changes the timeline. They have a date today in the park, but it’s just an excuse for Seulgi to work more – she takes pictures of Joohyun, of flowers blooming, of everything that is too mundane for Joohyun to notice but it’s extraordinary for Seulgi enough to waste polaroid paper on them. In turn, Joohyun takes a picture of Seulgi because she, after her first death, remembers that she barely has any photographs of her to remember from.
The day always changes from there. Sometimes they have dinner in a hole-in-the-wall restaurant where they’re free to hold hands under the table. Sometimes they go home and eat in front of the TV, watching a stupid game show. Sometimes they skip dinner altogether and stumble into bed. Sometimes Joohyun has a ring in the back pocket of her jeans, a simple band of silver that doesn’t attract any attention. Sometimes it sits on Seulgi’s ring finger for a few hours prior to her death; sometimes it’s too painful to go through an emotional catharsis right before the unskippable happens, so the ring stays in her back pocket with the thought that the next day she can be braver.
Then Seulgi dies. Each day, whatever Joohyun changes in the timeline, the end is always the same. It happens differently – a car crash, a bee sting, a slip on the wet bathroom floor. But the result is always the same. Joohyun is given the chance to save her over and over again, but the key to it escapes her.
It doesn't get better. Or easier. There's no moving on, no future to heal the wounds. Seventy-two times, Joohyun has watched the end of Seulgi’s life, just to be rewinded to the first seconds of the day over and over again. Seventy-two times she lived the same day, trying to fully cherish each second with her to beg her soul to stay.
Joohyun carves another line into the headboard with her nail. Seulgi always questions her about it in the morning, having no clue about the appearance of those lines that are Joohyun’s only lifeline to sanity. Seventy-three. Maybe this time she can save her.
Pulling her closer, until she can feel her warm breath on the base of her neck, Joohyun kisses her forehead. Seulgi molds into her, taking up Joohyun’s shape like it’s the easiest thing in the world.
“What if we stayed in bed today?” Joohyun asks a few hours later, playing with the tip of Seulgi’s plaits. After waking up, sleep evades her and instead she spends time etching every single detail of Seulgi in her mind. Who knows how many more attempts she’s gifted with?
Without opening her eyes, Seulgi answers. “And waste a day of our life? No thank you.”
Her hands tighten around Seulgi’s lithe body. A person too good to be true in this world, and only Joohyun to save her. A tug-of-war she already lost.
“You’re right. What do you want to have for breakfast?”