Chapter Text
2025
Getting off the stage seems easier now for Eun-gyeol. Singing and playing the guitar, those things he loved are now his future, his success and his life.
But on stage, he was always looking for one person- Eun-yu, she had been with him through everything, and he means everything. Explaining how they found each other is strange- people usually look at you weirdly when you talk about time travel. So they invented a lie, Dating app, now deleted because they are a couple, no one asks.
She knew his family, and they have had many dinners together. His family wasn't very different. Cheong-ah and Yi-chan were very much still in the first year of the marriage phase, having been married for more than 20 years.
After another well-done show, another curtain closed while fans yelled outside. SPINE9 had been doing well to say the least. Eun-yu is came to congratulate Eun-gyeol, she always did it in her own sassy way. His band mates: Jong-Hyeong, Ji-O, and Soo-Tak were not surprised anymore, nor jealous, they were happy for Eun-gyeol. Seeing him, Eun-yu smiled at him and handed him flowers, her short hair in 95 is now long.
"I think another fan fell for you tonight," she smiled at him, half-accusing and joking.
Ji-O gave her a look, like he ignored the comment but had to laugh with her. Putting his hand on Eun-gyeol's shoulder, he smiled "like he would ever cheat on you, i been with him for 2 years and-" Eun-gyeol stopped him from continuing. As he his hand away, he kept smirking and looking at the flowers.
"Did you enjoy the show? I worked extra hard tonight, wanted to make it perfect," he asks with a smirk. Taking off his stage jacket, his shirt underneath is short-sleeved.
"Very much, i think some other ladies did too" he looks at her, smile gone for a second. But he knows she is joking, they are very much a known thing on the internet. "Then lets get away from here" he answers her. Taking her hand, his other bandmates smile at him, he got lucky with a girl; they just don't know how lucky.
It's 22:48 when Eun-gyeol got home, and Eun-ho was currently fighting with their parents over monopoly money.
"You landed on my lot, the fine is 2,394,526 ₩ pay up" they didn't hear the door being opened. All of the 3 of them are deaf, and belong on their own little island together. Eun-gyeol saw them so happy together and didn't want to interrupt. But as he got closer, he saw how bad the fight was by how fast his dad was signing. "how can you take money from her like this?" Eun-gyeol smiled at that. Getting closer, Cheong-ah saw him in the mirror's reflection and waved. Eun-gyeol waved back, his heart less heavy than 2 years ago, and so is his mind.
The nightmares over that fateful night in 1995- which Eun-gyeol liked to call 2 years ago, but others might have called it 30 years ago, began to lessen over time. he never told anyone but Eun-yu about what was in that dream, but explained it as seeing someone he loved getting hurt. A therapist he talked to over it called it guilt, and always tried to get him to explain the dream, but he could not, because it would not make sense.
Seeing his dad right now, he learned to tell the difference between 1995 Yi-Chan and 2025 Yi-Chan. The lack of guilt when he looked at his appa was a start- it took him a while to get to this point of seeing what that teen told him back then. His appa's office always being open to him was another help- once he saw his appa happy and alive, he learned to accept the deafness. Eun-ho saw that Eun-gyeol wanted to join, moving a bit Eun-ho invited him to the game.
"Do you want to join us?" He signed. Grinning, he knew Eun-gyeol is bad at this game, and appa used to be the king, until last year, when he started to forget the rules. After that he simply crated his own rules.
"Don't blame me when you lose, i been practicing," he signed to Eun-ho and chose to play as the horse.
After the game, Eun-gyeol went to bed after losing all of his money 4 times, and the wins got shared among the family members. As he laid in bed, unable to sleep, he turned on his phone to text Eun-yu.
Are you awake?
He waited for a message back, a smirk grew on his face while he intentionally looked at edits of himself online and smiled at them. His smiles and appearance easily made him a fan's favorite overnight.
Now you woke me up, so yep, I am awake.
Seeing that she wrote him back, he smirked even harder- Something in her just makes him so happy. She helped him so much, falling for her in 1995 and dating her up until 2025, making it the strangest love story ever since neither of them is even close to 30 years old.
What is it?~ Did my boyfriend miss me too much, or are you looking at your own edits again?
Seeing the second message, he smiled, thinking of what to write back:
How do you even come up with those things?
I got my skills, I will take it as a yes~ don't impress yourself too much with fan edits.
He smiled. Over time, he kept texting her, finally he turned to sleep almost an hour later.
Cheong-ah was the one to open the door to his bedroom, making it an habit after she found him once sweaty and scared. The phone laid near his hands as he slept, Lover's texts open for the entire world to see. It was not hard for her to see that he is very much in love with Eun-yu, he never really did a good job hiding it in the first place. A silent sigh left her body seeing the calm room and boy, she could still remember how he was in the past, how hard he fought- she remembered how he fainted on stage, how his grades fell and how he slept in class on good days. It was hard seeing the nightmares when he never told them about it- that she had to find out his lack of sleep from a doctor after Eun-gyeol fainted. That year they agreed to find someone for him, someone that he could talk with. For the short of it she was happy that his dark period was over. As she put his phone away near his open pills box, she couldn't escape from the similarities between Se-kyung and her daughter, the Se-kyung she remembered at least. As she left the room she tried to close the door as quietly as possible, not wanting to interapt something that was hard earned for him. Never hearing how loud it is, she tried to keep it soundless as possible.
As she entered the master bedroom, Yi chan waited for her to join him in bed. She turned on the light so they could talk without sounds, like they always did. he smiled at her and simply took her hand, still acting like teens in love, on the walls stood many pictures- among them a decayed Watermelon sugar poster, far hiding the identity of one single boy in the group. Beside that stood the wedding photos, both of them still could talk about that day like it was yesterday.
"Is he sleeping soundly?" he asked her, their special language without sound.
"Seems like it, I am so happy he is better than last year," she signed. A woman who hated to move her hands away from his to talk. In this little world of theirs, the only downside of sign language is that they can't hold hands while speaking.
Yi-chan reaches for the bottle of painkillers by the bed. They are standard pharmacy ones. Cheong-ah looks at him with worry in her eyes. When Yi-chan thinks about it, he has never heard her voice, even before the accident, but he is sure that it's as lovely as hers.
"Headaches again?" She pets his head after asking. They've been mild enough and occurring more and more, but how his work keeps him around screens, she guesses it's from there, but is still worried enough to want to get it checked.
"It's nothing, just a headache, nothing to worry about," he tries to calm her worries down, holding her hand, never wanting to let go. Time just made their love stronger, and so did their kids.
Eun-gyeol cleaned his guitar in his room, smiled after hearing a knock on his door. As he looked, he smirked after he saw who it is. He could only think to himself that it was hard not to smirk when she looked so beautiful without trying.
Ever since she came back with him, her life has been mixed, like him, she remembered that shared time they spent in 1995 together, it only strengthened the relationship. He smiled at her, he moved so she could sit as well.
"Grow up, what are you, a child?" She pointed to his toys on the shelf, some dolls of his family he apparently made when he was younger and never remembered
"It's cute, besides, I can't throw it away," he smiled at her as he told her that, as he got closer to her he, took her hand and the guitar was left alone on the floor.
"It's still true, teenage boys are thirsty," she smirked as she said it, she brought up up memories from their time spent together in 95, like it's a secret set of jokes.
"How many miles should I stay away from you?" He still held her hand while smirking. This made her laugh too, old jokes never lose their prime.
Working in his office, Yi-chan got another headache; it was strange even for him, he couldn't hear, but he could feel the ringing in his brain.
Cheong-ah, who had seen it all, began to get worried after a while, with recurring headaches. She remembered one time when a task that would have been nothing for him to finish, in around 5 minutes, had taken him an hour just last month.
"Shouldn't you see the doctor? I am worried for you," she signed after finding him at his office, another headache messing with him.
"I think I knew what it was," he signed to her, fully knowing, or more of a guess, that was enough for her to worry even more.
It hadn't been that far off that others hadn't seen the small change; some tasks sometimes took longer than usual, recurring headaches — Eun-ho surely had noticed, Eun-gyeol too, but Cheong-ah had seen it all; she had been with him the most.
By dinner, Eun-gyeol stared at his dad for a moment too long, Eun-ho too.
"Appa, were you okay?" Eun-gyeol signed, sensing that something was wrong.
"I thought I got a headache from work, that's all adeoul," he said to Eun-gyeol, continuing to eat his dinner beside his wife, smiling. Eun-gyeol didn't buy it; he wanted to object. Eun-ho, seeing how his younger brother had reacted to the answer,
"You should see the doctor, we were worried about you," Eun-ho signed, all seriousness; nothing in his body language was soft.
"Alright, calm down, I would go see a doctor tomorrow." Yi-chan smiled with soft movements, not wanting to worry his family.
The next day, Yi-chan missed work and went with his wife to the hospital, his thoughts were all over the place, he been to hospitals after the accident, to help Cheong-ah give birth. But memories still haunt him from the accident, how he almost gave up after promising to a boy that he never saw again after. That strange boy that used to be in that band, enough time had passed to let worry grow into wonder.
"You okay?" she asked when she saw him stop before the entrance, feeling how cold his hand was, as if he was not sure if he should enter
"I'm okay, I can do it," he says, taking her hand, entering with her.
Yi-chan liked to be healthy, to give to the people he loves.
He liked to be healthy for his grandma; willing to work to bring her the money, and give her a rest as a thanks of taking care of him for 18 years.
He likes to be healthy for his family now. His wife who shares the same world he been living in for 30 years, his two kids who he loves deeply. Thinking that he is trying his best and not quite failing even though he never had parental love of his own. But that boy who came and went in 1995, helping him with everything, and supporting him for a better future. A face he can't remember. The old posters were filmed with an old camera so the ink got ruined, but the face, reminds him of his younger son making him think that maybe his son really came to his rescue in 95.
And he likes to be healthy lastly to himself, so he could give all he can give.
What he was told by the doctor doesn't fit that.
It grew over 30 years. The doctors back then were right: removing it could have killed you. Removing it would still kill you, before it would take you. The doctor wrote that to him on a piece of paper.
On the ride home, Cheong-ah took his hand, a silent reminder that she is there for him. That broke his train of thought.
The same red spot the doctors called a lump 30 years ago would kill him in less than a month in 2025. The same lump the doctors told his grandma would not affect his life or his future, because it was small enough.
But feeling her hand, it was all the comfort that he needed right now.
"Come on, Eun-yu. You can't lie to him like this and win every time." Eun-gyeol stared at her
"What I am still learning, I just translated wrong," she brought back the smirk, a lovers' fight that Eun-ho enjoyed seeing. Not minding the fact that he lost because this drama without subtitles is just too good to miss. Hearing the door open. Eun-gyeol and Eun-yu moved their eyes to the door, leaving no eyes on the monopoly game.
Seeing his two kids and Eun-yu, the girlfriend of one of his kids, there all happy together, Yi-chan didn't have the courage to tell them what was found. Because his son finally seems better after a long time fighting nightmares built out of guilt. Because he likes to be healthy for the people he loves. Cheong-ah respected his decision, simply holding his hand.
He did not dare to tell them at all,
By the end of the month, workers picked up a handful of flowers from the ground so he could have his final rest next to his grandma