Chapter Text
“So…are you in?”
The anxiety was at an all time high, at least thus far in his life, and the tension in the air was palpable. Seokjin implored as best he could with just his eyes and clasped hands as he faced Jungkook. A scant second passed, it felt like it stretched to an eternity as the world shrank to just be the two of them.
Then Jungkook spoke. A simple sentence that brought visible relief to the shorter man, “Am I in? Of course I’m in.” Jungkook reassured automatically as he took off his shoes before he properly stepped deeper into the BTS dorm.
“Oh thank god.” Seokjin said out loud with an exhale. His noticeable Southern accent being a major differentiator between the man in the apartment, and the Seokjin Jungkook knew.
(Jungkook would later realize that this detail played a major role in why his brain readily accepted the idea of multiple worlds without a hint of skepticism.
Or at least a tiny bit to be frank, but certainly not to the degree most people in the world would probably have.)
“You just have to explain again cause I’m not sure I caught everything.” Jungkook honestly said with a calm of a voice as he hoped it was. He can tell the other was obviously distraught but his brain was most likely slower to parse the information then what Seokjin probably would’ve liked.
“Y-Yeah, sure.” Seokjin nodded in agreement as he was gently led over to the couch. The two sat down and Jungkook allowed a moment to pass for Seokjin to take a deep, calming breath.
Even then Seokjin still looked tensed up with bundles of nerves. Like the couch was about to catch on fire due to the vibration of his skin. In contrast to the troubles inside, the immediate world outside the window behind Seokjin seemed to carry on underneath summer blue skies. As if the planet just made it clear that it don’t give a shit about the distressed soul in the BTS dorm.
(Jungkook was also instantly happy on his guest’s part that it was just him for right now. The rest of BTS were back filming a company wide variety game show that included Enhypen, TXT and Lee Hyun.
He imagined Seokjin would’ve been more overwhelmed if all seven arrived at the same time. Jungkook knew he would be.)
Seokjin loosely hugged his waist as he glanced absentmindedly towards the floor. After a pause, but right before Jungkook was about to encourage him to begin, he shifted his gaze to the maknae. His voice was steady despite the subtle awkwardness that seeped through.
“Where should I start?”
“Um, start at the very beginning. With the alleyway.”
“Alright,” Seokjin maneuvered his body so he was directly in front of Jungkook. He took another breath to calm his nerves enough so he could actually speak with full sentences. “Ok well, I don’t remember too much of what happened before I blacked out. Like the last thing I remember clearly was going to bed the day before yesterday.”
“So you don’t remember at all what happened just prior?”
Seokjin nodded, then he stopped to think for a second, “Well kinda…it’s weird. I somehow just knew my Jungkook was with me. Beyond that, nothing!” He let out a mildly annoyed huff amidst a dejected sign, “It’s like my memories got erased. Again.”
“That happened to you before?” Jungkook exclaimed as his eyes widened with surprise, he had to do a mental double take and ask for clarification.
“Yes. It’s-that’s too complicated to explain right now I’m sorry,” Seokjin said with apologetic eyes. “Can I just jump to, um-”
“Go ahead.”
Seokjin took another breath. At this point, his Southern accent dissipated and gave way for a satoori Jungkook couldn’t quite place. Don’t get him wrong, he wasn’t an expert by any means, but he was damn sure he would be able to recognize the dialects of where he and the rest of BTS came from with a hundred percent certainty.
(Plus Seoul obviously with maybe a couple or so others thanks to extended family.)
Jungkook just found it fascinating. Maybe this version of Seokjin was from some small village in the mountains and lived there instead of going to Seoul. On that note, he must’ve not become a member of BTS.
Wait, was BTS a thing in his world? So many questions Jungkook wanted to ask. But alas, he should stay on topic and wait until there was a better time to naturally bring it up. Priorities, priorities, Jungkook felt that urge to ask those questions, but a little voice inside his head, that sounded too much like Namjoon, told him to get the basics first.
“Alright so I woke up and immediately saw Jungkook, err I mean my Jungkook….fuck that’s gonna get confusing fast.” Seokjin said, with slight awkwardness, as it just dawned on him. Truthfully that hadn’t really occurred to him just now but nobody can really blame him, he was feeling more panicky at the moment.
“Uhh Jay, call him Jay. Or JK.” Jungkook suggested.
From this point on, Seokjin fell easily into the short and sweet explanation. It all boiled down to waking up in an alleyway deep in the heart of Seoul. The time of unexpected arrival was barely two hours ago. They both woke up and they immediately got into a brief confrontation. The air was heated, words were exchanged and Jungkook’s doppelganger left without the endgame of being calmed down.
“I wasn’t even able to get too many words in edgewise!” Seokjin exclaimed, his voice increased in volume. Despite his best efforts to stay calm, the anxiety ridden panic seeped through like a leaky ceiling that was yet to be repaired.
Seokjin finished, “And the gist I got was that for some reason he has a problem with me and my friends. I don’t even have any earthly ideas why he has a problem.
“Did you see which direction he went?”
“No, I was too shocked to do anything at first. But by the time I got to running to the sidewalk he was nowhere to be seen.”
“Maybe because of whatever problem he has with you guys he wanted to be alone.” Jungkook reasonably pointed out. It seemed rational enough given what he was just told. An understandable reaction.
Seokjin mulled it over for a second before he leaned back on the couch, “That’s fair I suppose,” He agreed. “Would just feel better if it was our world. I mean we’re not in Kansas, Toto.”
Jungkook chuckled. “That’s also fair.”
To be completely honest, Jungkook got the feeling that this displaced man wanted nothing more than to go and fix whatever got his Jungkook so pissed off apparently. He can understand that, the desperation to make things right with someone you cared about and grew to see as a brother over the years.
If he was in his spot he would definitely be tempted to go and fix things. Especially if there was the added factor of being stuck in a world unlike their own.
But the Namjoon-like voice in his head told him this was the right move. Seokjin should just give his Jungkook, or JK rather to keep himself straight, some space before they could finally figure out how the fuck to get back to their universe.
There was just one little problem that put a worrisome size dent in that plan. BTS was a fucking thing in this world, the biggest boyband to date since One Direction came along. This meant Seokjin’s counterpart had the misfortune to land on a planet where this is more complicated than it would be under normal circumstances.
Oh how he wished at this moment that the whole band thing wasn’t the case. If only to make things more simple. But maybe he was overthinking stuff. If Jay was truly a counterpart of his then his initial theory would be that he went off to a gym or went on a run or whatnot to let off steam.
(There were also video games, but Jungkook reckoned his counterpart didn’t have his laptop with him. Thought he could just go to a computer cafe.)
“We might have to find him as soon as possible anyways.” Jungkook announced which made Seokjin suddenly look at him with a perplexed look in his eyes.
“What do you mean we have to find him now? I thought you just said-”
“I know, I know. But the thing is…wait hold on sorry, I should ask you a question first. Is BTS a thing in your world?” Jungkook asked straightforwardly. He very much hoped it was the case. Because if it was, then Seokjin would be more apt to understand where Jungkook came from with the apparent contradiction.
However, the Universe rolled the dice and it landed on a 3 because sadly, that wasn’t the case. Seokjin just stared at Jungkook with more confusion than before thus far.
“No, what's BTS? Oh did you mean BSB, like the Backstreet Boys!?” Seokjin asked as he pointed a finger in the maknae’s direction. His face lit up like he got the answer to a question that stumped him for a good while.
(Jungkook may or may have not fought the urge to roll his eyes.)
This, in conjecture with the name mentioned, told Jungkook that there was at least one boyband their worlds shared. Realistically there was probably a good amount more in the music department that his world shared with Seokjin’s but that was the first comparison he thought right away..
“No, BTS. I’m a member of a kpop group called Bangtan Sonyeondan or BTS for short.” Jungkook explained as he leaned in a little closer. “And we’re the biggest boyband in the world.”
“Oh.” A pause then, “The Backstreet Boys aren’t the biggest here? They are practically one of the two biggest in mine. The other is NSYNC, they have a friendly rivalry going on.”
“Western boybands?” Jungkook for some reason felt the need to clarify even though he was sure of the answer.
“Yeah.”
“I thought so. What’s the biggest kpop group in your world?”
“NCT 127. GOT7 is their friendly competition. They’re also the biggest boybands in the world. You got the two from the East and and the two from the West. And all four are vying for the top in the world.” Seokjin further explained.
“I see.”
“Yeah, a lot of hot young boys for everyone to swoon over.” Seokjin smiled with an easygoing laugh.
Jungkook paused, he felt a little thoroughly confused now. He was curious enough to go down this path instead of retracting to the main point. If his boyfriend Namjoon were here, he would definitely get distracted with the prospect of learning the major and minor differences between the two universes.
Hell Jungkook wouldn’t even put it past Namjoon to want to visit the other world via whatever mechanism that sent Seokjin over here in the first place.
“Wait, NSYNC and BSB didn’t debut in the 90s?”
Seokjin shook his head, “No, that was One Direction and the Jonas Brothers.”
Now it was Jungkook’s turn to take a pause, “I want to visit your world just to look up all of that.”
Seokjin barked out a laugh which faded into a casual sign, “Well I can’t tell you how to get there.”
“Right, yeah.” Jungkook laughed too, albeit a little quieter and slightly awkward.
A few seconds passed before Jungkook was able to recall what main track they were on. See this was the danger of changing topics midway, if two or more people became too focused on a path just off the main one then the chance of them completely forgetting the first path would’ve increased. To the point where one or any parties involved won’t remember until an inopportune time later
“Anyways sorry, back on track. So like I said we’re the biggest boyband in the world right now. Which means, since you told me I looked like Jay earlier, then depending on how he is then there is a potential chance I might get hit hard with a scandal.” Jungkook finished explaining with a reasonable amount of worry in his voice.
“I don’t think we have to worry about that,” Seokjin dismissed Jungkook’s concern with an expression meant to put the other at ease, “I doubt Jung-JK would do anything to earn you guys a scandal. The most is probably your fans recognizing him.”
“That still kinda worries me, we have crazy fans-” Jungkook pointed out before Seokjin cut him off.
“He’d probably be somewhere completely alone. Or…” Seokjin trailed off as he looked down aimlessly, deep in thought. It lasted for a brief moment before he lifted his head back up to eye level with Jungkook, “He probably figured it out by now that we’re in another world so I doubt he’d want to call attention to himself.”
“Hmm, well maybe we can wait a while to allow space then go search for him.” Jungkook suggested, a little unsure. He grabbed his phone from his hoodie pocket and glanced at the screen. “I could ask Namjoon for his opinion, he’s smart. He’d know what to do.”
“So is the Namjoon I know.” Seokjin said kindly.
Silence passed and the air was light around them despite the potential of tension underneath due to this whole issue. Both wanted to keep up an optimistic outlook that this whole problem will be solved as smoothly as it could. The best thing they could hope for was bringing the other Jungkook back to the dorm without little to no fuss. Then go from there.
(Of course Jungkook knew he would have to break the news about this otherworldly problem to the other members. That was a forgone conclusion.)
“You can call and ask, this is kind of a weird situation…unless world traveling is a thing here.” Seokjin ended it with the words coming out as both a statement and a question.
“It’s not.” Jungkook shook his head then looked at his phone. A second then he let out a slightly frustrated sigh, “Probably be too busy to answer right now. The rest are still shooting a game show.”
“Oh, and you came home early?”
“Yeah. Not because I’m sick or anything,” Jungkook was quick to clarify as he just realized how it all might’ve sounded, “But because that was one of the prizes. Getting home early for winning a round of the last competition.” Jungkook explained with a happy smile.
“That sounds like fun.”
“It was a blast! make me wish we can film more Run BTS episodes soon.”
“Is that another variety show?”
Jungkook nodded, “Yes, it's our own. It’s just on hiatus right now. The other groups have one too, like Enhypen and TXT.”
“Cool.”
Silence filled the living room once again as Jungkook decided to unlock his phone and head to Youtube. He wanted to show Seokjin’s counterpart an episode of Run BTS. Something that would make him laugh and there was lots to choose from. To the point where Jungkook couldn’t decide on a good first episode to show him.
The zombie episode would be a good choice, but then again any of the food related episodes or playing various little games for food and whatnot were good choices too. It was pretty difficult to pick just one.
Jungkook was about to type something in the search bar when his mind took a left turn and reminded him of his curiosity about Seokjin’s world. It suddenly amped up, the increased amount of desire to know gave him pause as he realized he was curious to know where in Korea this Seokjin was born. It was an interesting accent to be had.
(The American sounding accent from earlier also caught his attention. But, honestly, what sane person cared about that anyways at the end of the day.
There was more than one educated guess to how he could’ve gotten it.)
Curiosity unanimously won and therefore killed the cat. Jungkook looked over at Seokjin with an easygoing smile, “Hey, hope you don’t mind me asking but I’ve been kinda wondering, where are you from? I don’t think you’re from Seoul.” He lightly laughed with a fake accusatory tone.
Seokjin shared the same laughter as he casually shook his head, “I’m not, I’m from Songju.”
Jungkook nodded, “Oh cool, I've never been there.” He paused as he realized while that may be the case, a strange sense of familiarity washed over him. As if he came across the name of the city before.
(Despite the weird almost deja vu-like feeling, Jungkook was pretty sure he hadn’t been to a city or village called Songju.)
“I feel like I've heard of it before at least. I don’t know where though,” Jungkook admitted with a shrug. By now he leaned back on the couch and put his feet up against the edge of the table.
“Maybe you heard it in a kdrama.” Seokjin suggested as he gave a casual shrug.
“I don’t think so, more like a novel.”
Jungkook was going to look up where the place was. Maybe he’d gone through it years ago once. It would make obvious sense as to where the familiarity came from. But the gears turned as his brain wouldn’t let up on the weird feeling he still had. His mind gave him another shot of it and now he was oddly certain it was a novel.
And he would’ve dismissed it because lots of towns and cities the world over have been used as setting in books and other fictional media. But the thing was, there was a part of him that gave him the notion the town didn’t exist.
At least not in Korea.
(For all he knew there could be a small one horse town called Songju in another country.)
This is how Jungkook ended up going to his room like the living room was on fire. See, the name of the town sounded the same as the one Hybe used in their Bantan Universe stuff. From there, he realized there were at least two novels set in said universe. And he was pretty damn sure he had his own copies. In fact, all of them did.
And because Jungkook made a mad dash and disappeared into the hallway, he left a confused Seokjin in his wake.
When Jungkook came back almost as quickly as he left, it was all he could do to not start freaking out. Both books, Notes 1 and 2, were in his hand and, in it, held the strongest evidence that the man on the couch was the same fictional Seokjin in the book. As in he, and JK by proxy, came from a universe that was nothing more than words on paper to Jungkook.
This situation was getting weirder by the second. The shocked look on his face must be blatantly obvious, despite Jungkook’s desire to not set Seokjin on edge and make everything unneededly awkward for the both of them. He didn’t want that, beside there were already some awkwardness in play anyways just from the whole counterpart issue
He didn’t want to set Seokjin on edge then he probably already was, this was already a weird situation. For both of them really. Jungkook just wanted everyone involved to keep calm and level headed enough to think rationally.
(Although he felt like Namjoon would have better control over keeping himself composed.)
Jungkook opened his mouth as if he was about to say anything, but because he wasn’t even sure where the fuck to begin, he closed it. Instead he opted to quietly walk back to his spot on the couch after a few seconds passed. Seokjin’s gaze followed him all the while and he waited to see if Jungkook would say anything.
“Um, I’m gonna ask you some really weird questions so please don’t freak out!” Jungkook began as he held a hand out in front of him to placate him. Yeah that probably didn’t help contrary to what he just said but how else should Jungkook start this kind of conversation.
He didn’t want to come in with the reveal that Seokjin, this version anyhow, is in fact a fictional character right off the bat. He didn’t want him to immediately freak out. Seokjin gotta be eased into the information, go slowly so he can keep up with Jungkook at an easy, comfortable pace. At least according to the Namjoon voice in his head.
Jungkook may not confidently know how fast or slow this should be, or the correct way to say things. But he knew for sure that this had to be handled with utmost delicacy as to provide the least ample opportunity to go uncontrollable levels on the freak out scale within 60 seconds flat.
Nobody wanted that. Things needed to be calm here cause if Seokjin became too agitated, then it isn’t going to help Jungkook any better. The situation would get out of control at that point and it would take longer to calm down to manageable levels. Plus the maknae was already on edge as it is, some of his bandmates and fellow label mates were in obvious trouble.
Jungkook just thought he wasn’t doing too much of a bang up job already. There was no precedent for this, he had no prior experience in dealing directly with someone from a parallel universe. For one thing, he felt like his tone and word choice came off as more panicked than he meant too.
Times like these were when Jungkook wished he had his sexy brain of a boyfriend here.
(In the future Namjoon would tell Jungkook that he did the best he could in a unique situation like that.)
Seokjin rolled his eyes, “Thanks I feel less panicked now.”
The subtle sarcasm there was not lost on Jungkook but honestly what else would’ve been better? If he came outright asking the first question on his mind just out of the blue, wouldn’t that not be just as good?
To be fair to Jungkook, there was an extra surge of awkwardness at play here. Historically he never really felt like the most confident person alive, although that said he was better now then his debut era self. Plus anxiety in general would make anyone not think clearly on what to say if it's a situation they aren’t as experienced with.
“Do you have a scummy politician for a dad?” Jungkook reckoned straightforwardness was the way to go. Otherwise this would probably take longer then needed if he beat around the bush.
Seokjin visibly tensed up and that was all the confirmation for Jungkook. He indeed was looking at someone from the HYYH universe. Which was surreal in and itself.
“I do…wait how the hell did you know that?!” Seokjin exclaimed, seemingly calm but still full of shock and sudden bafflement. Going from the tension in his body and the sudden rigid posture,.
“Well, I’ll be honest and. there’s no other way to say this, but um-” Jungkook took a moment to take a breath in order to quell down the awkwardness of the present situation. He pointed to the book in question, “-You’re a fictional character. Your whole world is in fact both of these novels.”
(The only reason he didn’t mention the webtoons and the videos was because he felt bad and didn’t want to get Seokjin too overwhelmed.)
Jungkook held up both novels at this point and what followed was a few seconds where Seokjin just stared at him in complete disbelief. Honestly, Jungkook kinda expected this response, it was another big thing to take in after one woke up in another world and met their friend’s counterpart in the first place.
How would anyone react calmly to finding out they were nothing more than a fictional character in a book? Although to be fair if the roles were reversed, Jungkook would probably spend about five to ten minutes to let this surreal reality sink in before it made way to fascination. Point was, Jungkook didn’t blame him one bit for needing immediate time to process this newfound information.
It was a lot to take in for sure. Like a computer that lagged a bit more than usual while trying to download an extension to a program the user already had.
And on Seokjin’s part, there was credit to be due here. He didn’t react with too much of a dramatic flair which was helpful in the long run. Jungkook rather they handle this situation with as much calmness as, well the both of them actually, can muster. This situation called for a certain level of rationality in order to fix this with as minimal damage as possible.
What would Namjoon do? That was pretty much the mantra Jungkook strived to remember at this moment. Sure he might be freaking out inside of his own head, but outwardly he wanted to maintain a certain level of coolheadedness. In doing so, he won’t make Seokjin feel any more panicked than he already was and also they won’t end up in a loop of frantic due to being at a loss of what to do.
“That-that doesn’t make any sense!” Seokjin's eyes widened with incredulity, his voice rose up half an octave. Yes there was some awkwardness in the air, but it wasn’t enough to be unbearable. Honestly, Jungkook expected this kind of response. “I’m here right now aren’t I? Completely real.”
Jungkook was about to explain more before his phone vibrated. He immediately shifted his gaze to the screen, the current conversation now on paused as his gut suddenly gave him a sense of ominous dread. The caller ID told him it was Kai, which only served to confuse him because wasn’t he still at Hybe at this very moment filmin?
Maybe it was nothing and just sheer coincidence that the TXT member took this moment to call him. It was the most logical conclusion. For instance, maybe it was a lifeline thing in some trivia challenge and Kai chose him.
But the fact Jungkook’s counterpart was still missing raised some questions. After all, he and the rest of BTS do look similar enough to Bangtan Universe boys. Which duh yeah given the fact they played them in various music videos and whatnot. Therefore nobody, much less Seokjin, would blame him for reasonably questioning if his other self was somehow the reason that led to this call.
Hopefully it wasn’t the case, but Jungkook isn’t betting a million bucks on it.
Maybe half at the most. One still gotta have optimistic hope, even if he hung onto it by a mediocre thread.
“Jungkook hyung! You’re probably not gonna believe me but I have to tell you anyway, it’s bad.” Kai immediately declared in a loud whisper with an evident frenzy in his voice. It was enough to feel his gut beginning to get a head start towards a dive off the Grand Canyon.
(In the meantime, Seokjin grabbed one of the books to take a look for himself.)
“I probably will in this case, just tell me.” Jungkook plainly said, his heart beating like a drum with dread against his rib cage.
“There’s another you here, but without tattoos! He locked Niki and I in here with four of your group in a recording studio.”
This bit of news is what finally caused his gut to take that leap off the edge down to the very bottom of the abyss.
“What!?” Jungkook’s voice rose in volume and it greatly alarmed Seokjin in turn.
“Yeah, he had a pocket knife and he was talking about finally confronting them. He’s not making sense either hyung, said something about a car crash and called them complicit bastards for keeping it from him.” Kai explained and Jungkook shared a mutual look of horror with Seokjin’s counterpart, “And he looks like you! Just without tattoos, like I said earlier, and short hair.”
“Are you alright?!”
“Yeah for the most part. The rest of TXT and Enhypen are completely ok though. Right now we’re locked inside the vocal booth.” Kai explained. Despite Kai’s, and by proxy Niki’s, voice being more on the quieter side, Jungkook could denote the fearful tone.
After Jungkook reassured both boys that they would be ok and gave a quick summary of the whole situation, Jungkook hung up. Surprisingly, Kai took the news of the lookalike being his BU counterpart relatively well. Or maybe not too much truthfully given Kai and the others have done basic research into the BU before.
(Granted with all the chaos of everything, Kai’s brain might’ve just not parsed it quick enough. It was a lot of information in a very short amount of time to be fair.)
Still Jungkook couldn’t help but feel a noticeable amount of relief that nobody acted like he should be shipped off to the asylum.
By now Seokjin was up on his feet, a look of worry written all over his face even though it was obvious he was more or less confused. He can’t be blamed, he only got one side of the conversation after all.
Jungkook went straight to the point with a grave expression, “I know where your friend is.”