Treasure tales

Short 22: Embracing emotions

I put down my pen with a groan. I was mentally exhausted. Pummeled to dust and pieces. I would have no choice but to stop studying for the night, or else I would really go insane. I picked up my phone, and looked up at the night sky. I felt a wave of loneliness wash over me, the kind that everybody feels when they have reached that time of the night. The strange midnight mood.

The last message I have received was from Hyunsuk. It reads: [Hey, I just wanted to say sorry for all the trouble I have put you through, and everything else that will happen in the future. But...thank you for sticking with us :)]

Impulsively I pressed the call button. A few moments later the call connected.

"Hello," I heard Hyunsuk say uncertainly from the other end of the line. "How's it goin'?"

"I called because...um," I stammered. "Well you were the first chat on my phone and I felt like calling someone." I was never that good at lying anyway. People often said I wore my heart on my sleeve.

I heard Hyunsuk cackle on the other end. I smiled, glad that it amused him.

"No worries, I was thinking about calling you anyway," He said after a while. "I wanted to tell you something, actually. What I told the boys wasn't the whole truth. Even Jeongwoo doesn't know. Yoshi and I alone know this."

"Then why would you tell me?" I asked.

"Ah, why..." Hyunsuk chuckled nervously from the other end. "I don't really know myself either. Hehe...sorry I don't really know what's gotten to me, must be the night air."

"The night air can be dangerous," I agreed. "I have done far too many embarrassing things because of it."

"But I want to indulge in it, maybe just once," I heard him mutter dreamily from the other end. I frowned. I wonder what had gotten into him.

"Hey Rin...can I tell ya somethin'?" He murmured. His words were getting more muddled by the minute, and his speech was becoming slower. I heard him cough on the other end.

"I will listen," I promised.

"I have repeated every...everythin(he pronounced 'th' as 's')...three times..." He muttered. "And each time I saw...I saw..." I heard him cough again, then sniffing.

"Are you crying?" I asked, alarmed.

"How could I? I need to be stronger...to save..."

"Hyunsuk, calm down," I said sternly. "I know you feel terrible about this, but I need to get this straight. You have repeated everything three times. And they all ended in a failure?" I understood what he was trying to say, almost immediately. I knew that Hyunsuk was a time manipulator, so deep inside me, I could already guess that something like this would happen, as anyone with the ability to change time would do. I could already guess that he had visited the past multiple times to correct mistakes in the future, because reality did not always play out the way we wanted. Still, I had not expected the gravity of consequences associated with their secrets.

I could hear him trying to muffle his tears on the other side, but to no avail. I furrowed my eyebrows. Just what kind of tragedy awaits in the future to make this dependable leader wail like this?

I sighed. "I'm sorry. It must be lonely to be the only one who has to deal with it alone. To see everything and remember all the horrors so vividly. It would be nice if you could finally reach a future and breach whatever barriers are keeping you from it," I murmured.

"I don't want to fail anymore, but...I'm so scared..." He spluttered.

"Tell me what you saw," I said firmly. Then my tone softened. "But if it was too traumatising, don't force yourself. Your wellbeing is more important."