Crossed Dreams

Destiny

"Yes?" Jun-hae grumbled, eyes still closed.

"Jun-hae, what is this! I wake up to find posts of Tae-joon and some girl! I told you no scandals while you're overseas! As the leader and eldest member, you were supposed to keep an eye on the others! What is going on over there!"

Jun-hae sighed. He was in no mood to be reprimanded when he was still half asleep. "Do you know what time it is." He bit back the rhetorical question. His tone sarcastic. "Everything is under control." He tried again in a calmer manner.

"It better be. I already had the posts taken down from my end." Mr. Park informed him bitterly. Jun-hae didn't blame him, scandals could easily break a band. "I'll ask one more time, who is the girl?"

Jun-hae sighed as the events from earlier came to mind.

Tae-joon rushed up the steps holding the hand of the girl that he had brought to their hotel suite. He was beaming from ear to ear and she was looking at the ground with a blush covering her face and neck.

"She's his girlfriend." The other end of the line became deathly quiet. Jun-hae held the phone away from his ear expecting a blow-up. Mr. Park had the habit of reacting badly to unexpected news. Much to his astonishment, Mr. Park didn't freak out and start screaming. Instead, he took in a large breath, the exhale audible even with the phone inches from his ear.

"Okay. This could work. We work it into good publicity with her being a non-Korean. An international relationship that could spark hope and interest in fans and maybe even attract new fans. I'll have a background check done on her first, of course." Mr. Park absentmindedly listed his plans as they spun in his mind.

Jun-hae really did not want to listen to this. They had an interview in the morning and right now, all he wanted was a good night’s sleep. "Goodbye, Sir."

"Hold on, I'm not done with you." Jun-hae didn't even bother to try to suppress his groan. "One question, that's it. Did you know? Did you know that Tae-joon was in a relationship?"

Hell no, he didn't know! "Yes." s**t. Hopefully, Mr. Park couldn't tell that he was lying.

"Okay, last question. How long have they been in a relationship?” s**t, he should have told the truth. That's what he gets for lying.

He racked his brain for information. The redhead, Emily answered some of his questions while the other two were in the bedroom doing God knows what. If he remembered correctly, she said something about them knowing each other for a couple of months. She had sounded wistful and smug at the same time like she knew some grand secret and was in on it. She was so calm and normal acting around them that was until Chan-woo and In-jae showed up. The smile that he was unaware that he was wearing disappeared.

"Jun-hae? You didn't fall asleep did you?"

He had already forgotten about the phone call. He cleared his throat. "A couple of months." Okay, so a small lie. He prayed, hoping that Mr. Park believed him. The fact that Tae-joon hinted at a secret relationship during the Dream Idol interview helped to make his lie more believable.

He thought it would be easier and smoother for Tae-joon's relationship if the CEO believed that they had known each other longer and had been in a relationship for a while. If Mr. Park found out that this relationship was spontaneous and had a small survival chance, he would blow up, and Jun-hae would have to listen to it. Mr. Park grumbled on the other line before hanging up. Tae-joon so owed him one for this.

. . .

Melissa found herself floating in a dark void. There was no light. No sound. A light tug on her body pulled her downward. It was a slow descent that didn’t last long. After a few seconds, Melissa felt the pull on her body disappear. Her feet felt like they were planted on solid ground.

“Melissa Wolfe!” That ominous yet familiar voice boomed. Melissa groaned. There was no way that she wanted to go through this again not after she already found Tae-joon.

“What do you want?” She yelled into the black void.

Small, spherical orbs of light appeared. They floated around before converging into a larger sphere in front of her. The sphere grew until it reached the shape of an oval the size of a full grown adult.

The intensity of the light increased. It increased to the point that Melissa wanted to shield her eyes. But she didn’t. She kept on staring at the light not wanting to miss whatever was happening.

The light began to dim. It dimmed into a faded yellow before disappearing. Standing in the lights’ place was a girl.

Melissa rubbed her eyes. When the image of the girl didn’t change, she settled for blinking her eyes real fast a couple of times. There was no way that she was seeing what she was seeing. The girl in front of her was none other than herself.

The girl that looked like her laughed. “It’s all right to doubt what you are seeing. I know I did when I stood in your place.”

“How?” How was she having a conversation with herself? She couldn’t deny that the girl standing in front of her was herself.

“I’m not really sure how this was possible. I don’t think we will ever know. But that’s not the important point.” Melissa couldn’t understand how this wasn’t important. How could something be more important than what was happening now. “First, I’ll start by saying that I am you from the future.”

The future?

Melissa looked at the supposedly future version of herself. Her long black hair went past her shoulders. So the hair was longer than what it was now. Her pale skin was darker too. So her future self had gotten a tan. Nothing else seemed to be different. Then Melissa’s eyes trailed downward. “Is that a wedding ring?”

The future version of herself lifted up her left hand and looked lovingly at the ring. “It is. Which brings me to the second thing that I want to tell you. It’s the most important thing.” Melissa waited, wanting to hear what it was. “I want to congratulate you on finding our soulmate. He becomes a very important person to us.”

Melissa’s eyes wandered back to the wedding ring. “I can see that.”

Her futureself chuckled. “Yes, I suppose so. I also wanted to let you know that it was me playing the omunious, familiar voice from the beginning.” Melissa figured that much. “I also wanted to say sorry for causing you...us...all that pain. In-jae was never our soulmate. It has always been Tae-joon.”

Wait. if he had been her original soulmate since the beginning then what was the point of the dreams. Because of them she had felt heartache and confusion. And because of that she tried to throw herself out into the world. God, she even joined 'Tinder'.

'Tinder'…

Joining 'Tinder' led to her date with Connor. If she hadn’t had that date with him then they would have never become friends. Sure, she had classes with him before, but they never talked. They would have never realized how much they had in common and how much they liked each other as friends if it hadn’t been for that date. “The siblings.” Melissa concluded out loud.

The future version of herself nodded her head. “That’s correct. Or at least that was the conclusion that I came to when I was in your shoes. They become very important to us, even more so in the future.”

“How could they become more important than what they already are?”

Her futureself brought her hands together. Glee showed through her expression. “Let’s just say that they’ll become important to both you and Tae-joon. Starting soon, they’ll go through hard times that will make them question themselves.” Melissa didn’t like the sound of that. She didn’t want any harm to come to either one of them. “Don’t worry. With some help, they’ll find themselves. The one that will face the most difficult future will be Emily and it will be starting very shortly. Just remember that all hope is not lost for her. There will be someone for her just as there was for us.”

What did that mean? What was going to happen to Emily?

She never got the chance to ask. Her futureself faded out and the dream turned black. She lost all awareness as she fell into a dreamless sleep.