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Time passed quickly for Seungho and he watched Nakyum’s porcelain skin begin to wrinkle and his muscles begin to ache, causing a need for a cane. Yet Seungho’s features did not change. It caused a fearful curiosity to rise in Nakyum and he wasn’t sure how, at the age of 42, was Seungho still able to appear as a 25 yr old. It was then that Seungho revealed one of many reasons for his father’s fears and hatred towards him.
When Seungho was 13, he was attacked by a boar during a hunting trip with his father. With his short stature, it was fairly easy for the boar’s tusk to dig deep into him, breaking skin and puncturing his lung. He should have died on the spot. He did die on the spot.
His father, then still a gentle soul, had cried over his eldest’s lifeless body. Only for the Gods to heal those fatal wounds and bring Seungho back to him as if the attack had never happened. It would have been seen as a miracle if it weren’t for the oddness of it all. Not wanting to believe the world had taken his child away from him, Seungho’s father had done everything to confirm that Seungho had been dead. He detected no beating heart, no faint breath, no attempted movement. Seungho was dead. So when the boy rose from the ground and met his eyes, Elder Yoon was anything but happy. His shock caused him to search high and low to figure out what exactly is going on with his son, but he didn’t, he couldn’t, reveal that his son was practically the living dead. Who knows what that would’ve done to the family’s reputation?
So he was discrete, testing the limits of his son’s mortality while also attempting to find a cure. He let everyone believe that his son’s issue was purely his sexuality: his preference for other men. How far from the truth that was.
Seungho would never die. He can never die. It is his curse to stay fit, young, and boy-ish as Nakyum grows older and older.
Nakyum, being content with life as an elderly man, had already accepted that one day he will die. With a melancholy smile, he promised Seungho that, in his next life, he’ll look for him and reignite the love they have.
When Nakyum finally reached the end of his time, Seungho made sure he passed away happy so that, instead of being cursed to roam this land as a ghost, he would be reincarnated and return to Seungho’s arms time and time again. It was all the immortal could hope for with this cruel gift given to him by some god.
It took a while for the first reincarnation to find Seungho. Seungho had moved to a far away land in Korea to avoid the suspicion that comes with him being the only living and youthful Yoon. His new home was more rural and his life as a noble was gone. He roamed the forest for food, food that gets eaten by the community rather than his household, when a rabbit came up to him. Its button eyes peered into Seungho’s with a fearful curiosity, yet curiosity all the same. Some unknown force had drawn the creature to Seungho and it feared it, that is, until Seungho decided to lean into this force. He picked up the rabbit and gave an innocent peak to its nose. A shock of electricity sent through each of their bodies and it was at that moment, the rabbit remembered.
It used to be Nakyum, Seungho’s lover from nearly a decade ago.
The rabbit nuzzles against Seungho’s face in familiarity and Seungho returns the affection with small kisses to the animal's face.
“You are not in a physical state that I can love you as I once did, but…” Seungho holds the rabbit close to his beating heart, “I can still feel the joy of having you near again.”
The world continued to move with each reincarnation, and Seungho found it harder and harder to locate Nakyum as more and more lives were created every day. Seunghoo still felt that force that drew him to Nakyum, it was like a compass in his body and he found himself living as a nomad, choosing Nakyum over starting a new life. The vast majority of Nakyum’s reincarnations were not human, and the ones that were nearly got Seungho in legal trouble. Who wouldn’t call the cops when a grown man comes up to you and claims your newborn baby is their reincarnated lover?
But Nakyum knew the truth too after making contact with Seungho. The memories of his past lives jumble together so that he knows what Seungho knows about their times together. Nakyum began to make the effort to remember the knowledge from his previous lives, hoping that, one day, he’ll seek out Seungho on his own so that he can enjoy the entirety of his life with Seungho. This changed Nakyum, making him wiser, much wiser than his first life. Soon, the creatures Nakyum reincarnated as began to show it. He went from simple-minded rabbits to city rats to newborn human babies who were never destined to live long. Once, Nakyum had even been an elephant.
It is only a matter of time before Nakyum reincarnates as a human who is destined for a long-healthy life once again.
And, Seungho believes, it has already happened. It had been nearly 80 years since Seungho had found Nakyum. In this grand year of 2022, the force had drawn him to America, specifically Washington D.C. The force had been so much harder to locate as America was not kind to the homeless and the travelers, especially those who lacked citizenship. Despite being immortal, Seungho believed it to be more of a hassle to get legal papers. With everything being on the internet and on the news, it was safer to hide in the shadows. Plus, Seungho did not have the curiosity to find out what’s in Area 51, so no use in trying to get sent there. So he lived tent-to-tent surviving through the constant bullshit America has.
Each day, he’d travel out of his tent and try to find Nakyum and, nearly each day, it brought him to the white house.
Sure, Seungho had felt the force draw him to tv screens and radios whenever current president Joe Biden was speaking, but, surely, Nakyum’s intelligence would not give him political power, right? He was probably a security guard that stood next to the president each day.
And it’s not like he can check anyhow, when would a homeless man get the chance to get so close to a politician?
Seungho places his hands on the white fence around the white house and places his sweat-covered forehead on the cold metal. He just had to wait. Wait for that one moment that President Biden is feeling generous and talks with the less-fortunate face-to-face.
And it seems like that moment was sooner than expected. Right before Seungho’s eyes, Current President Joe Biden walks down the path from the front doors of the white house, surrounded by security guards.
“Greeting, great citizens of America,” Biden starts, standing right outside of the open gate, Guard close to his sides, “I’ve felt a great force that told me to go up to the gates and shake the hands of those standing here. I will take my urge a step further and take this time to listen to individual voices. If you may, please form an orderly line and I may see you one at a time.”
Seungho was quick to get in line but he took ages for him to finally, finally get face-to-face with Biden. The familiar feeling of the force being too close caused Seungho’s heart to pound painfully. Biden looked into Seungho’s eyes with confusion, not knowing why this man was the reason he left the White House today. Not until their hands touched.
Seungho’s calloused hands wrapped around a wrinkled one and both jolted as if an electric current shot through them. The guard gets ready to push Seungho away but Biden waves them off.
“...Hey Nakyum.” Seungho says, giving a small smile, which Biden returns with glee.
“Hey Seungho.”
Security was perplexed when Biden let a homeless man step into the white house, but there isn’t much they could do to question it, especially since former presidents have had odder guests.
Seungho was provided with a shower and a warm meal. Clean and fed, he looked similar to the Seungho Nakyum knew from the Joseon era but with scars from harsh people and climates and hair and acne from poor hygiene.
But he was still Nakyum’s Seungho.
“Now that you’re human again, Kyum-”
“Please,” Biden-kyum puts his hand up, “Just call me Joe.”
“Joe? But Naky-”
“That was my name from a past life. One that barely means anything to me. But this life, this life Seungho!” Joe-kyum stands up and pounds his chest to show his strength, “Im more powerful than ever.”
“I will attempt, this is a feat I did not expect you to achieve, but you just can’t forget the past lives you lived.”
“I can. Those forms meant more to you than to me. Through my life, I’ve gained great knowledge and I’m finally putting it to use. I can make changes, Seungho.”
Seungho scuffs in reply and Joe-kyum sits back down, looking at Seungho in hurt.
“Do you not think I can make changes?”
“I mean… sure. But you’ve barely done a damn thing. Took you forever to get the student debt forgiveness you promised and your plan drastically changed from what you intentionally said.”
“But I still got something done, didn’t I?”
“Naky-”
“WILL YOU STOP CALLING ME THAT?!” Joe-kyum screams, his pale face turning red with anger, “You’ve always laughed at me, calling me empty-headed. And when I finally prove to you that I can learn, that I can achieve greatness, you still find a way to make fun of my intelligence.” Joe walks towards the window and leans on the shill, looking out onto the perfectly cut lawn where his Dog, Major, ran freely.
“I'm sorry…. It’s just hard, getting used to these new lives you are born into while I only remember you as the sweet lad I first fell in love with.” Seungho gets up from his seat to hug Joe-kyum from behind, feeling the waist of the elderly man in his arms, “I don’t mean to undermine you, you know I still love you.”
Seungho turns Joe-kyum around to face him and cups his face until Joe-kyum meets his eyes. With their eyes locked Seungho moves in for a kiss. It was the first time he had kissed one of Nakyum’s reincarnations on the lips in decades. He ignored the feeling of chapped lips and that odd stench that seemed to linger on every elderly person’s breath. Joe-kyum returned the kiss, wrapping his arms around Seungho in a short attempt to bring them closer.
But, as soon as mouths parted and tongues touched, Joe-kyum pulled away.
“No…No I can’t do this…” Joe-kyum said, moving out of Seungho’s arms to sit on the couch.
“What is it that you can’t do, Joe?” Seungho knelt in front of Joe-kyum, hoping to meet his gaze once again, but Joe-kyum turned away.
“I’m nearly 80 years old, Seungho. I’ve already created a life here, with a wife, with kids. In this life Seungho, I can’t be with you.”
“W-what!?” Seungho has a look of horror, “You know that we don’t have to be romantic right? Time and time again, I’ve put up with just being near you, I can do it again.”
Joe-kyum shakes his head, “Well, I don’t want to do it again. It’s too much of a stress, to have all these memories of past lives in my head. I can’t do this now, not while I need my mind to be clear. I have to put America before you. I have to put Jill and my children before you. I'm an empath Seungho, so I know my words hurt but… it’s the truth.”
Seungho is at a loss for words. Is this truly his Nakyum that is speaking? At what point had he given up?
“Besides…” Joe-kyum continues, “you have only been in this life of mine for only a few minutes and we’ve already fought. I’m not the same person you feel in love with anymore. I need to move on, Seungho.”
Seungho holds back a sob, “Nakyum…”
“Please… stop calling me that… I barely remember the life I had with that name so please…”
“....okay… okay, Joe.” Seungho rises as tears stain his eyes, “I guess this has been going on too long… I’ll take my leave and I hope… I hope you forget me quickly.”
And he did. As Joe Biden watched Seungho walk out the White House and fade into the crowd, the force that drew them together faded. It faded and faded until President Biden could not remember why he was standing there, looking into the crowd of people, in the first place.
And Seungho, our poor and now loveless, purposeless immortal, had nothing to fight for. There was nothing for him to fight for.
So he sat.
Sat until his body deteriorated as rats and insects nibbled on his still body, and he soon became nothing. And, as if a blessing from the cruel God’s, Seungho was finally able to move on. Hopeful to meet Nakyum, the first one he fell in love with, in the after-life.