Chapter Text
A lot of situations can be summed up into: are you fucking kidding me.
When someone cuts you off in traffic, your first thought is often ‘are you fucking kidding me’. When a sibling steals the leftovers you put away even after you told them it was for you, your brain prompts you with this line. Life can be summarised as one ‘are you fucking kidding me’ after another - a series of non-stop fucks.
For Cale Henituse, he wakes up in this way.
He doesn’t wake up in his bed with the kids nestled next to him like he is used to, no. He wakes up alone, in a dark room, on an admittedly comfortable but much shittier bed than what he owns. It takes three seconds for Cale to take in his surroundings, brain foggy from sleep, and realize that the world, of course, must be fucking kidding him.
There is a modern lamp next to his bed, which he is ninety percent sure is in an apartment. Neither continents have this. The Castle of Light, in fact, does not have this. It’s covered in a cherry blossom design.
Much like Dorothy, Cale realizes he is no longer in the place he’s supposed to be.
He sighs.
What…. what even is he supposed to say? Seriously? His hands rub his face as he sinks into the pillows, feeling a sort of pit well up in his chest as a grotesque sense of deja vu washed over him. If he looked into a mirror, right now, he knew the odds of seeing a completely different face was high. His name probably wasn’t even Cale Henituse anymore, the same way he is no longer Kim Rok Soo. What would it be now? Bob?
Why is it, Cale wonders, the moment he gets to finally slack off - to finally laze around like the true bastard he is - that this happens. Is life really that unfair?
Of course it was.
He knows there are things he should do. He should be getting up and finding a mirror, finding any ID or clues that’d let him know where he was. He’s done this once before, hasn’t he? But the idea of getting up and facing reality hurts.
He needs to get up, and he will but… for right now he closes his eyes and lets himself mourn what should have been his slacker paradise. All that work, all that effort, for nothing . It hurts.
(Do they even know he’s gone, Cale wonders. Will a stranger wake up inhabiting his previous body, confused to see a dragon and two cat children cuddling up to them? Cale likes to think that they’d know but - if Ron didn’t even notice the charge he’s been looking after for 18 years became a new person, than Cale doesn’t know if he should hope those that only knew him for 2 would. Or will he just be gone, missing entirely, body and all? Leaving everyone to wonder where he went, if he was killed, if he abandoned them.
He’s gone and they won’t ever even know the truth to it.)
“Heh.”
It was a sound he didn’t expect to leave his lips, but it was just so easy to scoff at the situation. Did the Gods do this? Really? For what point?
After everything he did for them, was this how they repaid him? Had he not given enough, not done enough? Or did he do too much and now they expect him to go around fixing worlds like some human version of flex tape?
He won’t be doing that. He’s earned his relaxation time and the gods can learn to leave him alone.
He’s tired.
—
It takes him half an hour to get out of bed but… its actually not that bad of a situation, when he got past the initial realizations. He’s not happy to be here, but the bed was comfortable enough and part of him that missed modern day technology is rejoicing - it feels nostalgic. The weight off his shoulders is gone, because of one simple thing:
He’s not going to stay here.
It’s a vacation, in short.
Raon is going to notice him missing or personality changed. If Raon doesn’t notice then Eruhaben will. If not Eruhaben then certainly Alberu. The God of Death is so deep in Cale’s pocket that he wouldn’t dare to do this - not without consulting Cale first, at least.
It’s too much of a hassle for him to be stuck in another world permanently. Clopeh is insane, Raon is protective, and Eruhaben cares for Raon too much not to help him out - they would damage both continents just to get him back. The others wouldn’t like the idea of Gods just showing up and switching people out, or removing them altogether. It would be so much extra work.
It’s that sort of blessing, having powerful allies. They do your work for you.
Besides, if there is an entrance than there is an exit. You just need to find where to look. So he was stuck here, sure, but not permanently.
Therefore; vacation.
The apartment was actually pretty decent. The bedroom wasn’t too spacious, but also wasn’t small. It connected to a balcony that oversaw a street, and the street signs set a little ba thump in his heart. He was in Korea, but not his Korea. The amount of living people assured that.
It was a nice neighborhood, too. It might not actually be a bad vacation. It should take a week
He jiggled the drawers in the end tables at the side of his bed, frowning at the fact none of them were locked. Was this not where the important information would be kept? He opened them anyway, expecting to see sleep masks or something.
On the plus side, It turns out his name is still Cale Henituse.
On the down side, he’s going to have to go out and buy a safe. Seriously, who kept important legal documents next to their bed, in an unlocked drawer? Eying the phone that Cale left alone on the top of the end table, assuming it was also locked, he picked it up and turned it on. He gave it a swipe and felt his expectations shatter. It was also unlocked.
Oh god, what did he come into?
There’s probably a list of all his passwords posted somewhere in the apartment. Cyber security experts would be crying at this sight. People with basic common sense as well.
Whatever, problem for later.
It was fun to scroll through the phone though. It turned out this Cale Henituse didn’t really have an online social presence, but his camera roll was full of things like pictures of food. Combining the information he got from legal documents with the stuff on the phone, it painted a tidy little picture that Cale was able to digest fast.
He was Cale Henituse, and he was nineteen years old. He was originally born in France to parents Deruth Henituse and Jour Henituse (maiden name Heo). Because his mother was from South Korea, he had dual citizenship and moved here shortly after he graduated high school. When he was eight his mother passed, father remarried. Wealthy parents gave him enough to live comfortably, but the time difference meant contact between the family was rare.
It was nice to see that Lily and Bassen were here in this reality. It was also nice how similar Cale's background was with his own but… it was almost too similar. Like a copy and paste but adjusted to fit.
This Cale had no friends, no nearby family, no job - nothing that meant people would notice him start acting differently. His backstory was identical to the one he had before. It was a body switcher's dream. His appearance was the same too, although his shoulder length hair was styled in what Cale guessed was a modern trendy way. It was off putting, like all of this was handcrafted.
It didn’t make sense for it to be, though.
Fucking dammit, this was his vacation. In a week he’d investigate. For now though… he walked back to the balcony and opened it up again, gazing at the outside.
It felt odd to be looking at a Korea that wasn’t attacked. One that was able to continue without having to rebuild from the ground up. How many people were down there going about their lives, completely carefree?
It was nice.
To just be able to live in a normal Korea for a few days, getting to experience life again before the attacks. Kim Rok Soo was struggling so he didn’t have time to spend his small paycheck lavishly on entertainment, but Cale Henituse certainly can. There was some technology coming out - VR - it’d be cool to see if that was the same in this world, and to finally get a chance to check it out. See if he might be able to bring things back, the kids would certainly appreciate it, yeah?
Stretching, Cale left the balcony and shut the door behind him, footsteps muffled by the carpet as he made his way to the kitchen. His plan was to just check the rest of the place out, and then either head out or take a nap. Maybe eat if there was pre-made stuff already in the kitchen.
It was a nice place. It was a good apartment, the type that Kim Rok Soo would probably want to have. There wasn’t much to say about it, frankly. There were little to no personal items scattered around, leaving it looking unlived in. The walls were solid though, and he couldn’t feel any drafts so-
He stilled.
Cale raised his hand to his chest and gently placed it there, feeling his heart beat underneath his skin. It hurt. Why did it hurt?
God fucking dammit, of course it can’t be easy.
The skin where his hand was itched, like tiny ants biting onto it. He counted the beats and cringed when he felt his heart skip a few. Fuck . It would not be good for him to die now. The vitality of the heart should take care of it but-
Wait.
Cale closed his eyes and focused on summoning a light breeze around him, stomach turning to lead when not even a wisp of air went by. He tried to summon a flame but nothing happened. He tried again and again but - he was alone in every sense of the world. His ancient powers were gone.
…that shouldn’t be possible at the moment.
They were connected to his soul, supposedly. The only times they were gone was when - no . No. That was done and dealt with. Cale did not work his ass off just for that bastard to come back, he refused to even entertain the possibility for now. He could still enable Record, and that was all he needed for now. If there’s a way in, there’s a way out. He needed to remember that. And no one has contacted him yet asking him to do something so unless they’re playing a waiting game then whatever outside forces brought him here aren’t malicious.
The itching over his heart had faded to a faint burning sensation and Cale took a deep breath. This was fine. This was actually not that bad. His heart was no longer skipping, it just needed some cream for the unpleasant feeling. He was in a comfortable apartment with more than enough resources to provide for him. He was in a familiar place. He had no obligations to anything. Everything was fine.
His steps took him to the apartment's small bathroom. The medical cabinet was small and barren, adding another thing onto Cale’s shopping list, but there was aloe vera gel. Perfect. Everything is fine. Everything is great.
Taking off the sweatshirt (and it was odd to him, seeing his reflection. He never really thought about this appearance wearing modern clothing - it didn’t look bad, just… different) he applied a dollop of the gel onto his hand and then paused.
Everything was not fine.
There was weird writing over his heart, on the place his tattoos should have been. The text was small and reversed on the bathroom mirror, so he had to trek back to his room and grab his phone to take a picture. Zooming in, his brows creased.
[‘Debut or Die’]
If you don’t debut as an idol within the time limit, you will die.
Remaining period: D-365
… what the hell was an idol?
.
.
—
In another world, a group of three children woke up to find their guardian missing.