Requested by Oliv.

You and Ha Eun-gyeol had found yourselves in the past. Randomly, impossibly—it was never supposed to be this way. One moment, you were standing in the present, the hum of the city around you; the next, the world had twisted, and he was standing in front of a boy who could only be his father, hands roughly cupping the man’s face—his face twisted into a funny grimace.

“Dad?!” Eun-gyeol’s voice cracked with disbelief.

The boy froze, eyes wide. After a beat, he pushed Eun-gyeol’s hands away, his brow furrowed. “Ha Yi-chan,” He said cautiously, confusion etched across his features.

You yanked Eun-gyeol back by the arm, pressing a finger to your lips. “He doesn’t know who you are!” You hissed.

He blinked, then nodded reluctantly. His gaze darted back toward his father—but the boy had already slipped away, disappearing down the alley with a friend, leaving nothing but echoes of what could have been.

“We need to talk about your approach to people who don’t even know you exist yet,” You muttered, sarcasm coating your words.

“Whatever,” He replied, shaking his head with that familiar mix of stubbornness and exasperation.

Still, when he caught your wrist to keep you close amid the crowd, it wasn’t aggressive—it was instinctual, a tether to reality when everything else was chaotic. His fingers were warm, grounding.

You exhaled, trying to focus. “Okay, listen. This isn’t just about you being impulsive. We’re here for a reason. Your parents’ relationship—it’s fragile. We can’t just… interrupt them like some random event. We have to be careful.”

Eun-gyeol’s jaw tightened. “So? We just… manipulate them?”

“No,” You corrected gently. “We guide them. Make them remember why they cared in the first place. If we do it wrong…” You hesitated, letting the weight of your words sink in. “We could erase everything you know. Everything you are.”

He swallowed, lips pressed into a thin line. “And… what about us?”

You turned to him, letting your hand brush his. “We’ll figure that out,” You murmured. “But first… them.”

“We need you to exist for that conversation to happen,” You reminded him, tugging gently at his sleeve before starting to walk.

He followed without hesitation, his movements almost automatic.

Yeah… well, something had been brewing between the two of you—tension was the only word that came close to describing it.

Over the next few days, you found yourselves in increasingly chaotic situations. Somehow, you always ended up in the middle of the mess—awkward encounters, near-disasters, and inexplicable coincidences. Eventually, you even infiltrated into his father’s friend group, which turned out to be far more helpful than you had anticipated.

Gradually, Eun-gyeol showcased his talent and eventually joined the band: Viva la Vida. Meanwhile, you focused on building a friendship with his mother, careful not to disrupt the fragile past too much.

Now, you found yourself at one of the band’s concerts—not the first, but the one that truly mattered. Eun-gyeol’s mother, Cheong-ah, had initially thought the invitation was a joke—a performance she wouldn’t understand anyway, given that she was deaf. But after discovering that Yi-chan had learned the hand signs for the lyrics just for her, she had agreed to come, and you had brought her along.

In theory, the evening should have been simple: watching Cheong-ah admire her future husband, seeing him shine on stage. But you couldn’t take your eyes off Eun-gyeol. The intensity with which he played, the way he poured himself into every note, made it impossible to look anywhere else. By the tenth time your gaze flickered back to him, you gave up on trying to stay detached.

It was, without doubts, the best choice you’d ever made.

After the concert, Cheong-ah and Yi-chan were beaming, chatting animatedly with one another. Cute.

You, however, faced your own private embarrassment. Fumbling awkwardly, you patted Eun-gyeol on the shoulder—a gesture clumsy enough to be almost criminal—and mumbled something incoherent about him being 'Good on stage.'

He was just as awkward.