timeshaker; 1/2
12,200w > qmi
correct me if I’m wrong but i think cho mi is zhou mi’s hanguel name~ for all my little mitang friends ミ★ we are shooting stars ミ★
also, i invented some words /shrugs
edit > seems like joo myuk is correct too, its a literal translation while cho/jo mi is transliteration. i'll use cho mi then. and pretend he's mrs cho
editedit > ok, guys, it's jo mi. i'm a little sad (special thanks to you)
★
If Jo Mi were to be entirely honest with himself (he rarely is), he would have conceded most reluctantly that Molly really isn’t much of a looker. There are scratches criss-crossing their way rampantly across her face and her hands are mere twitching thins of silver. The only handsome feature on it is probably the gold button. There’s an emblem carved on it. It depicts an open hand with numbers dancing in mid-air above it. Jo Mi moves his thumb across one of her scars and futilely attempts to correct it. Then he gives a wry smile of resignation and pockets her. He looks up and catches the eye of the girl across the street.
“Jo Mi! Donuts for you today?” the girl shouts, much too cheery for the general Monday mood. The grumpy working crowd swirls around her as she tidies the front of the bakery. One man in a navy suit tuts at her and deciding the middle finger is perhaps a tad too heavy, she sticks her tongue out at him instead. He blinks twice in surprise before continuing his swim upstream to the metro station.
“I’m savoring my breakfast of Monday blues, go away,” he drawls lazily, just the right amount of regular carelessness in his greeting. Jo Mi waves his hand dismissively at her and continues his daily stroll down the street. He doesn’t know the girl’s name but then again, he doesn’t know the name of the shop a few steps further down too, neither does he care what fashion the little boutique right in front flaunts. Maybe ‘stroll’ is too fancy a word to describe what he’s doing. To be precise, Jo Mi is patrolling.
His walk is a practiced amble, relaxed and confident but Jo Mi knows that’s achieved only after three years of experience. Thirty more steps to the end of this street, a right turn at the corner and an exact forty-three steps at his accustomed pace will bring him to the cross junction. The end comes in the form of a popular hotteok stand. Then, loop. Just like playing his favorite album on repeat, there shouldn’t be any surprises. This is his designated town.
There isn’t any time for names, just faces, episodes; the memorization of History like a written script. Ryeowook calls himself a dignified watchdog. After excessive soju and in moments of rare escapism, Jo Mi thinks of them as guardians. He flicks a casual glance to the left and brakes sharply, causing his leather shoes to scrape on the cobbled path. A man has fallen over in the alley he is about to walk past. He didn’t read about this in Tomorrow’s History last night. To make sure, Jo Mi removes his printed copy of Tomorrow’s History from his backpack and double checks. A street away, a suicide will take place at precisely 9:35am. Under the column heading ‘Consequences’, it says that the casualty is a seventy-year-old man called Park Kangeun. Two blocks down the road, a fire will break out in an apartment at 2:47pm due to a wiring fault, there will be no casualties.
He scans through the downloaded report twice before he puts it back. Slowly, he reaches into his pocket for Molly. But then he hesitates. Only Notable Incidents are included in Tomorrow’s History. A fall is unlikely to be classified as one and the possibility of it being categorized as a Catastrophe is even smaller. He re-pockets Molly, gingerly sidesteps broken glass and strewn trash in the alley and makes his way over to the man to investigate. When Jo Mi reaches him, the man is already picking himself up slowly from the ground. He starts walking in an awkward fashion and stumbles into Jo Mi’s arms.
Jo Mi hastily takes a step back and tries to eject the man from his embrace but he is clearly too weak to stand. “Hey! I, erm,” Jo Mi exclaims before he realizes there’s really nothing to say. He shifts the man so that he is leaning against the wall of the alley instead. While the man steadies himself, Jo Mi shifts his feet and contemplates walking away. He is about to convert his plans into action when the man speaks.
“Kyuhyun…my name is Kyuhyun….” His speech is saturated with fatigue but he manages to peel open his eyes and look at Jo Mi.
Rather than the stranger’s words, it is the momentary flash of recognition that has Jo Mi pinned down where he stands.
“Kyuhyun…” His tongue savors the name.
“Have we met before?”
★
When Jo Mi arrives at his town the next morning, the stranger is already waiting there for him, looking much more human in a clean blue shirt and beige pants. Jo Mi feigns ignorance and starts his patrol. The donut girl shouts out her customary offer of donuts at him. Jo Mi notices a man outside the bakery, his slow stroll a stark contrast to the train hungry morning crowd. The donut girl notices too, she side eyes the man before turning her nose up at him and marching back into the bakery. Scratching his head bemusedly, the man picks up his pace and joins the upstream surge.
Jo Mi takes back his gaze and directs it ahead. He stares determinedly at the monotone color of the buildings ahead and changes his gait from a casual amble to an almost angry strut. After ten minutes of this, he swings around and lashes out at Kyuhyun, “Stop following me!”
Kyuhyun stops dead in his tracks. He looks momentarily at a loss for what to do, eyes flickering in alarm from left to right. Then he picks up his pace again, takes a few rushed step past Jo Mi before he pauses. Kyuhyun has his body tilted just slightly towards Jo Mi so the latter can see his downcast eyes and the teeth marks on his lower lip.
Jo Mi sighs aloud (it’s more than a small scream of frustration but Jo Mi is never one for details). He wants to shove Kyuhyun out and away; instead, he starts his patrol again and goes back to pretending there isn’t anyone dogging his steps around town.
The stalking started yesterday after Jo Mi had let slipped that question Kyuhyun never got around to answering. His stare was a little unnerving so Jo Mi said something to the gist of ‘OK, grandaunt, visit, gotta go’ and fled from the alley. He had just started to breathe a sigh of relief when he saw from the reflection of the shop’s windows that Kyuhyun was trailing him from five meters away. Jo Mi walked on hurriedly in hopes of ditching him. The gap between them widened as Kyuhyun lost energy and began to stagger. He stopped only when he finally collapsed a few feet away from the hotteok stand. Jo Mi had turned a blind eye to it, allowing the concerned crowd to cater to Kyuhyun instead. That night, he digested his guilt along with half a prawn sandwich, washed down with a swig of beer. Before going to bed, he had somehow convinced himself that the guilt was unnecessary because he was already being benevolent; stalkers belong behind bars, even those fainting ones. Besides, it’s Heaven’s fault for blessing him with such flagrant good looks; stalkers are inevitable side products, he guesses.
Kyuhyun appears to be in better condition today and hence, is capable of tailing him all the way to the cross junction. Jo Mi is finding it hard to concentrate on his work. Kyuhyun’s heels are making loud clicks against the walkway. “Can you stalk me quietly.” Jo Mi growls as he revises Tomorrow’s History. The clicking ceases, Jo Mi grunts his thanks.
He surveys the report. Three minutes later, just a few meters ahead, a flowerpot will drop down from the balcony of an apartment, courtesy of a rusty hinge. Someone will end up bleeding, no one dies. But Jo Mi doesn’t care. He’s on the lookout for Catastrophes, not things that are already written in History.
Predictably, there are screams and shouts of warning. Jo Mi ignores them all, he saunters ahead, his whole mind on the important and pressing issue of lunch. It’s a little too early for galbi but heck, he has half a day’s worth of hard work to reward himself for. Or maybe he should go for kimchi jjigae-
Jo Mi’s thoughts are severed by a rough hand on his forearm. He’s jerked back until he’s facing Kyuhyun, who mirrors his shocked expression.
“What are you-“
“Why aren’t you surprised.” It’s a ragged whisper, stirred in with a dash of accusation.
“What,” Jo Mi says, bewilderment overtaking his shock.
“You knew that was going to happen.” It’s hard mistaking this for anything other than an accusation now. Jo Mi looks past Kyuhyun to the little boy lying on the pavement, his mum too busy nursing his bleeding forehead to cry. A smashed flowerpot lies a few feet away, decorating the walkway with grainy debris. Some pedestrians gawk, some traded nothing more than a murmur of surprise before they continue with rushed footsteps, most never noticed.
Unimpressed, Jo Mi attempts to resume his patrol but he is dragged back by the collar. His struggles die when he catches the expression on Kyuhyun’s face. There is disbelief and what can only be comprehended as wild panic. The denial he has been formulating is aborted.
“Are you a Timeshaker?”
★
As Jo Mi wolfs down his teriyaki salmon sandwich, his thought is that the worst part of today (as at 2:17pm) is not that he has just gotten busted, but that he has had sandwiches for two consecutive meals. Some cow is going to pay for that later.
“I’m not a Timeshaker, what the hell is that anyway? The only shakers I know are these,” he says with a burst of carnivorous irritation and knocks the salt shaker over with a vicious flick of his index finger. Kyuhyun’s stare sharpens into a frown. “Are you going to eat that or are you going to just-OK, never mind, it was great speaking to you, Napkin.” With that, Jo Mi reaches over and snatches up Kyuhyun’s untouched turkey sandwich. He takes a disgruntled bite and spits out half of it. “What the.” Jo Mi peels the sandwich open to reveal the fillings. “Crap, there’s a whole garden in here.” He picks out the arrant brussel sprouts that have offended him so before cramming the now pathetically thin sandwich into this mouth.
“You are a Timeshaker,” Kyuhyun says with more conviction than suspicion.
Jo Mi lets out a guffaw at this. “How did you know.” It’s a nothing but a jest. Nevertheless, Kyuhyun hangs onto the joke like it’s a confession. “What exactly does a Timeshaker do?” he presses on.
Jo Mi leans forward and props his forearms onto the table. Technically, he won’t be breaking any rules. He has sworn to protect his identity but there’s no term on his employment contract that forbids him talking about his job. He is definitely curious, however, as to how this kid comes to know about this. The lunch hour crowd is thin at the cafe they are in, thus, there really isn’t a need to mumble but still, Jo Mi’s voice mellows into a soft murmur. “How did you know?” The question is genuine this time.
Kyuhyun senses the shift in mood and freezes. At first, he’s stunned by the verdict and Jo Mi is taken aback by his obvious dismal. He thought Kyuhyun has wanted his admission. “I-I’m working as an associate professor in the university. Currently, I’m writing a thesis on t-time, time travel,” Kyuhyun explains shakily when he realizes Jo Mi is waiting for his response. He takes more than a sip of his coffee and doesn’t seem to notice the drink spilling from the cup when he sets it down too fast. The waitress makes her way over with a smile and a dishtowel. Kyuhyun collects himself while she clears up the mess, even managing to utter his thanks. Jo Mi quirks a brow at his antics. “There is a book in the restriction section. In one of the chapters, it talks about…you,” Kyuhyun finishes hesitatingly, as if that word is now a taboo.
“We don’t do Time Travel,” Jo Mi clarifies.
“There are more of you?” Kyuhyun’s face has taken on a pearly sheen. As far as deadly pale faces go, it is strangely flattering.
“OK, now you’re making me sound like someone from X-Men,” Jo Mi twists his lips. Then he grins mischievously. “There’s someone I want you to meet.” He reaches into the pocket of his blazer, relishing the half-terrified look on Kyuhyun’s face. As if demonstrating the very epitome of an anticlimax, Jo Mi retrieves an old broken wristwatch from his pocket and dangles it by its well rusted chain in Kyuhyun’s face. Kyuhyun’s petrified eyes follow its lazy swing from side to side until they finally cross.
“Meet Molly.”
★
“Theoretically, it is possible to travel through time,” Kyuhyun insists as Jo Mi purchases a hotteok from the hawker. All great things have to end at some point. Sadly, lunchtime is one of those awesome things with amazingly short life spans. Jo Mi is going to resume his patrol right back to the bakery before he can call it a day. Till then, Kyuhyun is going to persist with his elaborate explanation that is filled with impossible phrases and words like, chronology projection conjecture, microquasar, active galactic nuclei, wormholes-“I know that!” Jo Mi shouts excitedly, like a new expatriate who has just met someone from his hometown.
Kyuhyun is relieved that they finally found something they agree on. “Yes, wormholes.”
“Yeah, I have-“
“You have wormholes?” Kyuhyun is absolutely flabbergasted. A school girl on the street giggles at the look on his face.
Jo Mi smirks. “I have so played pinball before, please.” His teeth tears off half of the pancake. Honey dribbles messily onto his chin and he licks it clean.
Kyuhyun’s shoulders sag in disappointment, then he flushes. He can’t believe he has taken in Jo Mi’s words so easily. Although for a second, he didn’t think it would seem so weird for a Timeshaker to have wormholes. “Wormholes are tunnels connecting two coordinates in time,” Kyuhyun mutters to his shoes.
“Hmmmm,” Jo Mi says without real interest. His attention is focused on a woman walking past them. “Ten minutes later, she’s going to get robbed,” he declares. Kyuhyun looks up sharply at him. Jo Mi gives a small shrug of his shoulders as if to say ‘yeah man, life sucks’, but he quickly pulls Kyuhyun back when he makes to approach the woman. “Hey!”
“I have to warn her!”
But Jo Mi slams him forcefully against the brick wall. The hotteok falls to the ground, honey and cinnamon oozes out and darkens the spot where it lays. He moves before Kyuhyun could and pins him down with his bigger self. “Pull something like that again and I’m telling you nothing. You got that?” he spits the words out against Kyuhyun’s left ear. Kyuhyun is shocked at the sudden malevolence in Jo Mi’s voice. “Do you understand or not.” he hisses, breath scooting across Kyuhyun’s face. Their eyes lock together. Kyuhyun backs away and ends up gritting his back into the wall. Realizing he’s trapped, he wobbles his head forward to exhibit his submission. Jo Mi’s expression softens immediately. He smiles and strokes Kyuhyun’s right cheek before releasing him.
“Now if you’ll be good, I’ll tell you whatever you want to know,” Jo Mi says and starts whistling a strange tune as he meanders down the street in a zigzag fashion.
Kyuhyun’s gaze drills holes into Jo Mi’s back. When he comes out of his trance, he hastily swipes a hand across his cheek as if to wipe away the lingering warmth of Jo Mi’s caress.
It’s warmer than sunshine.
★
The next day, Kyuhyun becomes a part of the patrol team. He looks a lot more disheveled than when he was lying face down in the dirty alley. The bright morning light plays up the shadows and hollows on his face and hints at sleepless nights. Kyuhyun ignores Jo Mi’s question of ‘Are you alright?’ and requests him to tell him everything.
“What I’m-“ Jo Mi breaks off to return the donut girl’s greeting. In truth, his impatient wave is more like a shoo. The girl pouts. Kyuhyun is too preoccupied to notice her. She waves her hand enthusiastically at the newcomer anyway and Kyuhyun notices the single stalk of red rose she’s holding. Jo Mi pulls him back with his words. “What I’m doing is more than taking a walk. I’m patrolling.”
“Patrolling?”
“Do you know what a Timeshaker does, Kyuhyun?” Jo Mi’s scalp tingles a little at the use of his name. “Kyuhyun,” he tests again. Tingle, tingle, goes his scalp. A hint of a frown finds its way onto his face.
“I’m listening,” Kyuhyun replies quietly. “You…shake time?”
“Huh?” Jo Mi looks nonplussed . “No, I shake time.”
Kyuhyun scowls.
Jo Mi ignores him. “Do you know why I have to shake time?”
Kyuhyun’s fingers stroke his own chin and Jo Mi can feel him sinking into academic thoughts again so he rushes to speak before Kyuhyun starts one of his astoundingly unastounding microquasar speeches again. “This is today’s History.” Kyuhyun finds a piece of paper stuffed into his hands. He unfolds it and smoothes it over with his palms.
“The title says ‘Tomorrow’s History’,” Kyuhyun contradicts Jo Mi.
“That’s because it’s always downloaded from SAP and read the night before tomorrow.”
Kyuhyun nods in comprehension and reads the report. “What are ‘Notable Incidents’?”
“Notable Incidents are major events of the day and are always accompanied by Consequences. They have already been casted in stone in History and will happen no matter what, which is why they are the least of my concerns. I’m on the lookout for Catastrophes.”
“Catastrophes?”
“Exactly,” Jo Mi nods gravely like they have just agreed on something important. He skips over a puddle lying in their path; Kyuhyun chooses to tiptoe around it. “Like Notable Incidents, Catastrophes come with Consequences but they are not meant to happen, they are not recorded in our system. Catastrophes are the real freak accidents and have no place in History. For example, you warning the woman would be a Catastrophe.”
“How can that be a catastrophe?”
Jo Mi smiles. He has asked the exact same question to his superior before. Most indignantly too. Heechul’s reply has stung like a new tattoo which must be why he still carries them to this day. “History is in fact a series of chain reactions. There is no good and bad in it. The only thing you need to know is that it is irreversible and what isn’t in it needs to stay out of it.”
“We’re not here to save the world, we’re just here to set History right.”
He stops recounting Heechul’s words. “A Catastrophe is not termed as such due to its implications. It’s referred to as one because it rewrites History and that in itself is a catastrophe. Besides by saving one, you could be killing another. What if the robber is using the spoils to pay for his kid’s medical fees? You shouldn’t be meddling with Fate,” Jo Mi chuckles knowingly.
Kyuhyun admits that all Jo Mi has said thus far is logical and he finds his explanation highly justifiable but this is beyond his realm of understanding. “Fate?” he repeats, utterly perplexed.
“Yeah, why do you think we met? Besides Catastrophes, there are no accidents,” Jo Mi winks. “Everything happens for a reason.”
“By the way, Time Travel is illegal. Don’t even think about it.”
★
They have steak for lunch because as Jo Mi puts it so succinctly, “Nothing is going to stop me from having beef.”
“So you correct Catastrophes by shaking time? How does that work?” Jo Mi can tell this question is very important to Kyuhyun. He doesn’t even notice Jo Mi stealing his bacon bits.
“Molly does the job,” he says mid-bite. “I shake her and time goes back a little, not more than twenty four hours though. Timeshakers don’t have that much power.” Jo Mi sounds almost pensive as he spears a cube of steak and pops it into his mouth.
Kyuhyun very nearly drops his fork in excitement. “But isn’t that Time Travel?”
Jo Mi tuts in disagreement. “We don’t move masses through the space of time, we merely shift time backwards. Some high ranking dude from the department of Time Management once calculated the possibility of Catastrophes (he was later arrested for manipulating time, which is why he had so much free time to sit on his fat ass and calculate possibilities no one cares about. If I were him, I’ll just spend the time sitting on my fat ass). It appears that the number of zeros in the percentage can line up from Earth to the Capricornus constellation. So by moving time backwards, it is almost certain that the Catastrophe will be avoided. However, what is destined to happen will still happen. Maybe we’re making people work a little harder by repeating work but it’s OK, most people like to be considered hardworking.” He pauses to ask the waiter to add more bacon bits to his baked potato, throwing a small fit when the waiter miscomprehends him and adds sour cream instead.
“But it is dangerous to send masses through time. Especially humans,” he narrows his eyes at Kyuhyun and scrapes obscene sour cream off his potato. “It’s more than likely that humans will alter History. The same free dude who couldn’t just sit on his fat ass calculated the possibility of it too. It is,” Jo Mi grabs the napkin and starts to doodle on it.
Possibility of Man altering History = 1 - Possibility of Man not altering History
Now, Possibility of Man not altering History = 1 - Greed
Since, Greed = +∞, Possibility of Man not altering History = -∞
Therefore, Possibility of Man altering History = 1 - (-∞) = ∞
“That’s why Time Travel is illegal,” Jo Mi concludes. “Anyway, I failed math in high school so I violently hope you understand, ‘cos I sure as hell don’t.”
He misinterprets Kyuhyun’s crestfallen expression for confusion. “Maybe you need a demonstration.”
★
They are standing at the hotteok stand. Jo Mi takes Molly out from his pocket and with a “Well, I guess this will affect my performance bonus more than a fair bit”, he presses a queer looking gold button on the wristwatch. Then he gives Molly a hearty shake.
Nothing happens, except Kyuhyun notices that the numbers on Molly are not in sequence. When Kyuhyun highlights this fact to Jo Mi, he is rewarded with a jab in his ribs. “Look again,” Jo Mi points to Molly. Kyuhyun does exactly that and is unable to stop himself from gasping aloud.
While Molly’s hands remain still, the numbers on her face are rearranging themselves. ‘5’ has just sat on ‘9’, so the number jostles ‘8’ until she shifts over to an irate ‘3’(who shoves ‘8’ and refuses to budge). They finally settle when ‘1’ places himself next to ‘6’.
“And the time is now 4:17pm, 25 March 2012,” Jo Mi smugly reads the time and date off Molly.
Kyuhyun checks his watch. It says the same. He fishes out his cellphone, dropping it in his haste. 16:17 25/03/2012. ‘But that was yesterday,’ Kyuhyun wants to say. Coherent Speech has just ditched him in favor of high tea, however. Jo Mi’s brows are doing a peculiar squiggly dance. He is enjoying this too much.
Kyuhyun looks around him while he attempts to locate his tongue. No one seems to have noticed. “Doesn’t anyone give a damn? Time has just skipped back more than twelve hours!” he sputters, completely astonished.
Surveying his surroundings, Jo Mi says, “Maybe they are too preoccupied with work, play, life to notice that they're repeating what they’ve already done before. But it appears that they do register a particular dull feeling of recognition which is why they invented a term for it.”
Kyuhyun stares expectedly at Jo Mi. The answer slips from his curved lips like a spell.
“Déjà vu.”
★
“The senior management call this period of time, Gained Time.”
“Gained Time?”
“Yeah, in Timeshaker terms, this means Free-to-do-Whatever-Cool-Shit-I-Want time.”
So they go to Jo Mi’s house.
★
“It’s a bit of a mess,” Jo Mi chimes out a warning before opening the door. It is a lie. The two room apartment is sparse but impeccable. The walls are white and clean except for a single photograph which depicts the back view of a man. There’s a cabinet in the living room that’s stacked full of CDs and books. White curtains hang off opened windows. Outside, a car is beeping insistently at whatever it is that is standing in its way. The only flaw is perhaps the single mug sitting on the small blue coffee table.
Kyuhyun is quiet. Not that he ever talks much. He ignores everything and sits on the cream-colored two- seater couch in the living room. Jo Mi shrugs to himself. Kyuhyun is eccentric, he just got to know him two days - no, a day - ago, but that’s not exactly news anymore.
“Want anything to drink?” Kyuhyun gives a small shake of his head. But Jo Mi hardly ever cares about the opinions of others. A series of tinkling and knocking sounds could be heard as he busies himself in the kitchen and starts a monologue.
“I just moved in not too long ago. So there’s not much. There are a couple of CDs in the cabinet though. You can help yourself to them. The player is on top of the TV,” he says aloud. The water begins to boil as he wrestles the lid off a tin and adds heapfuls of cocoa powder into a yellow mug. To his surprise, music wafts into the kitchen just as he’s adding cream. Jo Mi grins. His grin slides off when he opens the cabinet and discovers the lack of marshmallows. Hot chocolate without marshmallows is one of life’s greatest tragedies. He stares at the box of Lucky Charms for a long time before shutting the door firmly in its face.
When Jo Mi enters the living room, he sees Kyuhyun scrutinizing the CD cover. He looks up when Jo Mi sets the mug on the coffee table with more force than necessary.
“What song is this?” he asks.
“This is the loneliest song in the world.”
“Says that on the cover?”
“Says the shopkeeper at the CD shop in Taipei,” Jo Mi watches as the frown on Kyuhyun’s face fades until he’s expressionless again. “I don’t like it,” he decides.
“Keep it.” Jo Mi says and watches the frown works its way back. He plops down on the couch beside him. It is too small for two full grown men. Their shoulders touch. Jo Mi can tell Kyuhyun is aware from the way his gaze wavers. He feels the warmth from Kyuhyun leaches into the sleeves of his shirt. Or maybe Kyuhyun’s warmth is just pure imagination and it’s really just the twilight sun and the heat it has etched into the couch for the better part of the day. He relaxes.
There’s happiness so rich, you want to do nothing but submerge in sheer joy; let it burrows into your pores and drenches your soul. Then there’s happiness in simple contentment, where you look at the other person and find home wherever he is; where you feel so right all of a sudden because there’s just no other way. Thoughts slow, breathing eases, eyes shut at half mast.
They sit in silence until the song ends. Jo Mi sets it on repeat.
“Do you want anything to eat?” he asks after the song runs across a couple of times. But Kyuhyun has resumed his untalking self. Jo Mi takes the moment to sigh inwardly. This isn’t going so well.
“Is that all?” Kyuhyun suddenly speaks up.
“What?” Jo Mi is under the impression that they’re trapped in a conversationless situation although he can tell he’s the only one troubled by it.
“Have you told me everything?”
“Ahhh.” Jo Mi ponders for a while before he gives an honest reply. “No.”
Kyuhyun moved so fast, Jo Mi never had a chance. Something like a second flashes by and he finds himself pinned down on the couch with Kyuhyun’s hands pressed down on his shoulders. They now move to grab his collar. “Tell me everything,” he says almost threateningly.
Based on his friendly cooperation thus far, Jo Mi feels that threatening is wholly unnecessary. The shock in his system has yet to lapse entirely into puzzlement. Kyuhyun has been an enigma since the day they met. Jo Mi belatedly realizes that he has asked too few questions of his own. He lifts his eyes to Kyuhyun’s overly bright ones.
“Well, I did a check last night and it seems like you’re a part of my history.”
This is obviously not something Kyuhyun has anticipated. He moves slowly off Jo Mi. “We’ve never met before,” he says cautiously. Then he pauses and shakes his head a little as if to clear his thoughts.
“I don’t mean history at this point in time,” Jo Mi corrects him. “But my entire history.” Deciding that this isn’t very good explanation, he adds, “Kyuhyun, you exist in my future.”
Kyuhyun looks stupefied by this announcement, so Jo Mi is taken back by his sudden shout. “No!”
“Kyuhyun!” Jo Mi lunges for him when he makes a dash for the door. “Wait! Calm down!” He holds Kyuhyun in his arms and quenches his struggles, runs his hand over his back and tells him it’s OK. “Am I really so repulsive?” Jo Mi jokes dryly.
“No, Jo Mi,” Kyuhyun refutes him, “I can’t possibly be a part of yours, or anyone’s future.”
Besides the obvious, there’s something wrong with this statement. It takes Jo Mi a minute to grasp it. He hasn’t had the chance to tell Kyuhyun his name yet. However, Kyuhyun’s next words effectively silenced his question. In a clear and oddly high voice, as distinct as the scrape of metal on glass, Kyuhyun states, “On the 2nd of April, in Samcheongdong, at precisely 2:15pm, I will kill someone.”
★
The donut girl is too busy flirting with the man in the navy suit to call out to Jo Mi the next morning. He hardly notices. Kyuhyun isn’t around today. His ominous prediction rings like a hollow echo in Jo Mi’s head. There are too many doubts; the way Kyuhyun has hurled himself into his life, Kyuhyun’s perpetual bizarre behavior, a future without Kyuhyun…
Jo Mi whips out his mobile and presses the speed dial. Heechul’s voice sounds somewhere between the fourth and fifth ring.
“Hmph.”
“Boss, I’m taking the day off,” Jo Mi says in a rush, cutting off any protests that Heechul might have. “Tomorrow too. Ryeowook will take my place.” He hangs up on Heechul’s howl about some Time Travel Convention and makes a beeline for the only university in this town.
★
“Who are you!” Jo Mi demands the moment Kyuhyun opens the door. He barges in, corners Kyuhyun and rains questions on him like gunfire. “You don’t belong in my town, you quitted your job at the university a month ago, how? How did you know my name.” Kyuhyun doesn’t resist when Jo Mi shakes him. He flops like a rag doll instead. But that doesn’t stopper the accusations that flow like spilled water and slip them up. “We didn’t meet by coincidence, did we? You sought me out. Who sent you?” He releases Kyuhyun and the latter collapses onto the floor.
To be honest, Jo Mi comes with the sole purpose of confrontation. He feels he should at least have the satisfaction of that after probing blindly around town for the past two days on what little clues he possesses. Cold comfort arrives in the form of an address, scribbled messily on the back of a used envelope. Nevertheless, he still finds himself waiting with abated breath.
“I received an email about a month ago,” Kyuhyun voice is less than the susurrus of leaves. “It contains…” he struggles to find a word that fits, “a prophecy and your name. It says that you’re a Timeshaker and that you’ll be able to help me.” Kyuhyun’s carefully constructed restraint cracks. “I just need to say my name.”
Jo Mi swallows audibly. The memory of their first encounter unravels in his mind like a film; it seems like a century ago. He recollects how his interest has been piqued by the curious sensation Kyuhyun’s name caused. Static is suddenly loud and engulfing in his ears.
Kyuhyun stifles a sob and trudges on. “It was absurd. I’m familiar with the theory of time travel but those are theories, mere writing on paper. Now I’m being told that there are guardians of time and that it’s already a well established concept. I started doing research, I dug deeper than I ever did in the course of work. The more information I unearthed, the more I realized this might be true. I had to quit my job to focus on the study. There was no other way, I was obsessed with the truth. I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t concentrate on anything else.” Clutching his head as if he’s nursing a particularly bad headache, Kyuhyun says, “And I was searching for you. I remembered wanting you to be made up, just a terrible tale I’ll soon forget.” Kyuhyun suddenly gasps for air. He shudders as another sob rocks his body.
“Finally, I found you,” Kyuhyun’s eyes become wild. “You make it real,” he accuses. The cry sends a tremor coursing through Jo Mi. “Who sent you the email?” he rasps out instead.
“I-I don’t know b-but it was dated 3rd April,” Kyuhyun is beginning to pant from his crying.
A day after the accident, Jo Mi is stunned. There isn’t any other possibility, there’s a spy in his agency. His scalp goes numb. “Who sent you the email?” he asks again.
“I don’t know!”
“You noticed the date it was sent but not the sender’s name?” Jo Mi asks incredulously.
“I-I only noticed because the, the system prompted me due to the erroneous date, it just wasn’t possible. The email vanished after I read it, I r-really don’t know.”
“I’m not a murderer.” A tear hangs on the brink of Kyuhyun’s lashes. He reaches out to clutch at the hem of Jo Mi’s shirt. “Please,” he begs, tears seeping into and darkening the front of his top.
Jo Mi stares at Kyuhyun, broken as the remnants of denial empty out from within him. On their own accord, his fingers catch the tears gathered at the jut of Kyuhyun’s chin. He lifts Kyuhyun’s face to his, conjures up some pretentious romantic premise in his mind and brushes their lips together.
Understanding slashes across Kyuhyun’s face and Jo Mi releases him immediately. He is suddenly scared.
“Will, will you help me?” Kyuhyun bites his lower lip. “I’ll do anything.” His gaze plummets, eyelashes trembling with the tremendous effort of holding tears behind lids.
In that moment, Jo Mi feels he could refuse Kyuhyun nothing. But he shakes his head.
★
As reluctant as he is to let Jo Mi stay, Kyuhyun is unable to back down from the consolation he finds in Jo Mi’s touch. Within him, he is also aware that Jo Mi is the only one who can help him so he mustn’t push him away. In fact…
He squeezes his eyes shut as he recalls that episode three nights ago. He had climbed onto the sofa where Jo Mi was sleeping. His jaw was starting to ache from all that clenching. It was unusually warm. Cotton stuck to his skin, sweat beaded on his hairline. There was a hitch in someone’s breath and Kyuhyun lowered his head to meet Jo Mi’s eyes. It was now or never. His hands moved to the buttons on his flannel PJs. They were deliberately being difficult and a sob escaped from him before he could repress it. His hands started pulling on the buttons in a desperate attempt to open his top but then Jo Mi stopped him by resting a hand on the side of his face. His thumb drew moisture from Kyuhyun’s eyes, smeared it across his temple and cooled his burst of lunacy.
“No, not like this,” Jo Mi had whispered.
Kyuhyun lost his nerve then. He batted Jo Mi’s hand away and scampered back to his room. The shame was, is, excruciating. The next two days, Jo Mi didn’t go to work. He stayed yesterday too, taking only a couple of hours to grab a change of clothes and settle some administrative stuff at the office. Or so he claimed. There’s only a day left. Kyuhyun is too scared to demand anything so Jo Mi offers no explanation. It’s as if this is an elaborate set up as a result of some greater emotion, instead of a temporary predicament until-
His eyes snap open. Jo Mi is watching him from where he stands at the entrance of the kitchen. How long has he been standing there?
“Breakfast is almost done.” He is nervous. He really shouldn’t be. Jo Mi has done nothing to make him feel uneasy, except, well.
Jo Mi’s brows meet in a frown and Kyuhyun mistakes it for impatience. “I’m sorry, I,” he stutters and stops abruptly when Jo Mi’s lips curve into a smile.
“I won’t be eating. I have to make a trip to the office.”
To his surprise, Kyuhyun’s eyes are suddenly shiny and a little too wide. “Are you coming back?” Jo Mi feels his heart constricts for a beat or two. Disgruntled, he ruffles Kyuhyun’s hair and deciding one hand is not enough, he sinks another hand into his hair and runs them over his head like he’s shampooing a big dog. Finally happy with the mess he caused, Jo Mi smirks and turns to leave. He has taken just half a step before he’s pulled back.
It’s Kyuhyun. He has a hand on his shirt, eyes focused determinedly on the dishwasher, hair sticking up in all directions like an angry porcupine.
Jo Mi sighs and takes Kyuhyun’s hand in his for a moment. “Wait for me.”
Kyuhyun steals some of his heat and that’s all Jo Mi leaves behind.
★
“I thought you were on leave,” Ryeowook says when he spots Jo Mi in the office.
“I thought you were covering me,” Jo Mi retorts.
“Well, I have a rookie to push around, so,” Ryeowook explains. “What are you doing here?”
“Yeah, thought I’d send in my official leave application,” Jo Mi replies distractedly. “Hey, remember that time I asked you to help me check on something with the Future department?”
Ryeowook helps himself to the jar of raspberry and cream cookies on Jo Mi’s desk as he attempts to recall. “Regarding you and that Kyu person? Yeah?”
“Think you can help me again?”
A small dollop of cream gets smudged on Ryeowook’s nose he licks it off one half of the cookie. “What do you want to know?” He shoves the whole cookie into his mouth.
Somehow, Jo Mi manages not to fidget. “Just want to check on the Notable Incidents for tomorrow in advance,” he says with as much indifference as he can muster.
Intrigued, Ryeowook straightens in his seat. “You tried to do that yesterday too. I heard from Donghae. What’s so important?”
Jo Mi exhales slowly and forces his heart rate to slow. “Nothing, I just want to get Tomorrow’s History early so I won’t have to wait in the office until it’s available for download at six. It’s my last day of leave, you know,” he laments.
“Well, just stay until the report is downloadable from SAP. You know it’s against the rule to know History in advance. You name still stinks from that bad decision to Timeshake and Heechul is still upset (OK, I lied, he promised to make his office chair a permanent addition to your head) that you took a whole week of impromptu leave too.” Ryeowook relaxes in his chair again.
Jo Mi re-strategizes. “You know Yesung from I.T., don’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you think he’ll know anything about sending emails to the past?”
There’s a pencil on the table. Not a mechanical pencil, but one of those yellow and black wooden pencils. Taking a shot at nonchalance, Jo Mi picks it up and starts twirling it. He misjudges its weight. The pencil spins out of his fingers and falls to the floor, the sound shatters the silence that has descended on the two of them.
Ryeowook leans forward slowly.
“Did you listen to anything at all during orientation, Jo Mi?” he sighs.
★
The I.T. Department
Patting the computer, Ryeowook says, “This is Molly.”
“No, this is Molly,” Jo Mi points to his jeans pocket.
“No, that is Molly II,” Ryeowook corrects him. “She’s made out of parts from Molly I.”
Before Jo Mi could protest, Ryeowook moves on with his explanation. “Molly is our point of connection with the past and future. When something needs to be rectified, we use her to communicate with our past and future selves. All emails sent from her are achieved regardless if they’re sent from the past or present. In the space of time, that Molly may be the only constant. The same protocol applies, no rewriting of History, not for personal use (no one wants to know your favorite kind of porn), no crumbs on the keyboard, you know the drill.”
“Is Molly the only computer capable of this?”
“Of course. Do you even know how much she cost? We can pay for some A5 wagyu steak with her diodes.” Ryeowook looks at his watch. “Speaking of which, want to go grab a bite?”
Jo Mi puts on a show of reluctance. After Ryeowook left, Jo Mi settles into the computer chair and logs into Molly I with his username. He clicks open the email and heads straight for the ‘Sent Email’ folder.
The I.T. folks are milling around him as they go about with their work. Hopefully, he is as inconspicuous as air. When the folder opens, a prompt box pops up signaling a new email. Startled, Jo Mi knocks the mouse off the desk. A female worker picks it up for him with a warm smile. He tries to return the smile but ends up grimacing instead.
Returning to the screen, he closes the prompt and starts to sort the emails out by reverse chronological order, from 2098 to 1904. His focus goes into overdrive when he finally encounters year 2012 and his fingers tremble with excitement. He is about to find out who the spy is. Excited, he over-scrolls by too long a shot and arrives at 2010. He scrolls back up and reaches 3rd April 2012. The email opens after a click and Jo Mi stares wide eyed at the screen. Under ‘Sender’, in bold size 12 Arial font, is his name.
★
correct me if I’m wrong but i think cho mi is zhou mi’s hanguel name~ for all my little mitang friends ミ★ we are shooting stars ミ★
also, i invented some words /shrugs
edit > seems like joo myuk is correct too, its a literal translation while cho/jo mi is transliteration. i'll use cho mi then. and pretend he's mrs cho
editedit > ok, guys, it's jo mi. i'm a little sad (special thanks to you)
★
If Jo Mi were to be entirely honest with himself (he rarely is), he would have conceded most reluctantly that Molly really isn’t much of a looker. There are scratches criss-crossing their way rampantly across her face and her hands are mere twitching thins of silver. The only handsome feature on it is probably the gold button. There’s an emblem carved on it. It depicts an open hand with numbers dancing in mid-air above it. Jo Mi moves his thumb across one of her scars and futilely attempts to correct it. Then he gives a wry smile of resignation and pockets her. He looks up and catches the eye of the girl across the street.
“Jo Mi! Donuts for you today?” the girl shouts, much too cheery for the general Monday mood. The grumpy working crowd swirls around her as she tidies the front of the bakery. One man in a navy suit tuts at her and deciding the middle finger is perhaps a tad too heavy, she sticks her tongue out at him instead. He blinks twice in surprise before continuing his swim upstream to the metro station.
“I’m savoring my breakfast of Monday blues, go away,” he drawls lazily, just the right amount of regular carelessness in his greeting. Jo Mi waves his hand dismissively at her and continues his daily stroll down the street. He doesn’t know the girl’s name but then again, he doesn’t know the name of the shop a few steps further down too, neither does he care what fashion the little boutique right in front flaunts. Maybe ‘stroll’ is too fancy a word to describe what he’s doing. To be precise, Jo Mi is patrolling.
His walk is a practiced amble, relaxed and confident but Jo Mi knows that’s achieved only after three years of experience. Thirty more steps to the end of this street, a right turn at the corner and an exact forty-three steps at his accustomed pace will bring him to the cross junction. The end comes in the form of a popular hotteok stand. Then, loop. Just like playing his favorite album on repeat, there shouldn’t be any surprises. This is his designated town.
There isn’t any time for names, just faces, episodes; the memorization of History like a written script. Ryeowook calls himself a dignified watchdog. After excessive soju and in moments of rare escapism, Jo Mi thinks of them as guardians. He flicks a casual glance to the left and brakes sharply, causing his leather shoes to scrape on the cobbled path. A man has fallen over in the alley he is about to walk past. He didn’t read about this in Tomorrow’s History last night. To make sure, Jo Mi removes his printed copy of Tomorrow’s History from his backpack and double checks. A street away, a suicide will take place at precisely 9:35am. Under the column heading ‘Consequences’, it says that the casualty is a seventy-year-old man called Park Kangeun. Two blocks down the road, a fire will break out in an apartment at 2:47pm due to a wiring fault, there will be no casualties.
He scans through the downloaded report twice before he puts it back. Slowly, he reaches into his pocket for Molly. But then he hesitates. Only Notable Incidents are included in Tomorrow’s History. A fall is unlikely to be classified as one and the possibility of it being categorized as a Catastrophe is even smaller. He re-pockets Molly, gingerly sidesteps broken glass and strewn trash in the alley and makes his way over to the man to investigate. When Jo Mi reaches him, the man is already picking himself up slowly from the ground. He starts walking in an awkward fashion and stumbles into Jo Mi’s arms.
Jo Mi hastily takes a step back and tries to eject the man from his embrace but he is clearly too weak to stand. “Hey! I, erm,” Jo Mi exclaims before he realizes there’s really nothing to say. He shifts the man so that he is leaning against the wall of the alley instead. While the man steadies himself, Jo Mi shifts his feet and contemplates walking away. He is about to convert his plans into action when the man speaks.
“Kyuhyun…my name is Kyuhyun….” His speech is saturated with fatigue but he manages to peel open his eyes and look at Jo Mi.
Rather than the stranger’s words, it is the momentary flash of recognition that has Jo Mi pinned down where he stands.
“Kyuhyun…” His tongue savors the name.
“Have we met before?”
★
When Jo Mi arrives at his town the next morning, the stranger is already waiting there for him, looking much more human in a clean blue shirt and beige pants. Jo Mi feigns ignorance and starts his patrol. The donut girl shouts out her customary offer of donuts at him. Jo Mi notices a man outside the bakery, his slow stroll a stark contrast to the train hungry morning crowd. The donut girl notices too, she side eyes the man before turning her nose up at him and marching back into the bakery. Scratching his head bemusedly, the man picks up his pace and joins the upstream surge.
Jo Mi takes back his gaze and directs it ahead. He stares determinedly at the monotone color of the buildings ahead and changes his gait from a casual amble to an almost angry strut. After ten minutes of this, he swings around and lashes out at Kyuhyun, “Stop following me!”
Kyuhyun stops dead in his tracks. He looks momentarily at a loss for what to do, eyes flickering in alarm from left to right. Then he picks up his pace again, takes a few rushed step past Jo Mi before he pauses. Kyuhyun has his body tilted just slightly towards Jo Mi so the latter can see his downcast eyes and the teeth marks on his lower lip.
Jo Mi sighs aloud (it’s more than a small scream of frustration but Jo Mi is never one for details). He wants to shove Kyuhyun out and away; instead, he starts his patrol again and goes back to pretending there isn’t anyone dogging his steps around town.
The stalking started yesterday after Jo Mi had let slipped that question Kyuhyun never got around to answering. His stare was a little unnerving so Jo Mi said something to the gist of ‘OK, grandaunt, visit, gotta go’ and fled from the alley. He had just started to breathe a sigh of relief when he saw from the reflection of the shop’s windows that Kyuhyun was trailing him from five meters away. Jo Mi walked on hurriedly in hopes of ditching him. The gap between them widened as Kyuhyun lost energy and began to stagger. He stopped only when he finally collapsed a few feet away from the hotteok stand. Jo Mi had turned a blind eye to it, allowing the concerned crowd to cater to Kyuhyun instead. That night, he digested his guilt along with half a prawn sandwich, washed down with a swig of beer. Before going to bed, he had somehow convinced himself that the guilt was unnecessary because he was already being benevolent; stalkers belong behind bars, even those fainting ones. Besides, it’s Heaven’s fault for blessing him with such flagrant good looks; stalkers are inevitable side products, he guesses.
Kyuhyun appears to be in better condition today and hence, is capable of tailing him all the way to the cross junction. Jo Mi is finding it hard to concentrate on his work. Kyuhyun’s heels are making loud clicks against the walkway. “Can you stalk me quietly.” Jo Mi growls as he revises Tomorrow’s History. The clicking ceases, Jo Mi grunts his thanks.
He surveys the report. Three minutes later, just a few meters ahead, a flowerpot will drop down from the balcony of an apartment, courtesy of a rusty hinge. Someone will end up bleeding, no one dies. But Jo Mi doesn’t care. He’s on the lookout for Catastrophes, not things that are already written in History.
Predictably, there are screams and shouts of warning. Jo Mi ignores them all, he saunters ahead, his whole mind on the important and pressing issue of lunch. It’s a little too early for galbi but heck, he has half a day’s worth of hard work to reward himself for. Or maybe he should go for kimchi jjigae-
Jo Mi’s thoughts are severed by a rough hand on his forearm. He’s jerked back until he’s facing Kyuhyun, who mirrors his shocked expression.
“What are you-“
“Why aren’t you surprised.” It’s a ragged whisper, stirred in with a dash of accusation.
“What,” Jo Mi says, bewilderment overtaking his shock.
“You knew that was going to happen.” It’s hard mistaking this for anything other than an accusation now. Jo Mi looks past Kyuhyun to the little boy lying on the pavement, his mum too busy nursing his bleeding forehead to cry. A smashed flowerpot lies a few feet away, decorating the walkway with grainy debris. Some pedestrians gawk, some traded nothing more than a murmur of surprise before they continue with rushed footsteps, most never noticed.
Unimpressed, Jo Mi attempts to resume his patrol but he is dragged back by the collar. His struggles die when he catches the expression on Kyuhyun’s face. There is disbelief and what can only be comprehended as wild panic. The denial he has been formulating is aborted.
“Are you a Timeshaker?”
★
As Jo Mi wolfs down his teriyaki salmon sandwich, his thought is that the worst part of today (as at 2:17pm) is not that he has just gotten busted, but that he has had sandwiches for two consecutive meals. Some cow is going to pay for that later.
“I’m not a Timeshaker, what the hell is that anyway? The only shakers I know are these,” he says with a burst of carnivorous irritation and knocks the salt shaker over with a vicious flick of his index finger. Kyuhyun’s stare sharpens into a frown. “Are you going to eat that or are you going to just-OK, never mind, it was great speaking to you, Napkin.” With that, Jo Mi reaches over and snatches up Kyuhyun’s untouched turkey sandwich. He takes a disgruntled bite and spits out half of it. “What the.” Jo Mi peels the sandwich open to reveal the fillings. “Crap, there’s a whole garden in here.” He picks out the arrant brussel sprouts that have offended him so before cramming the now pathetically thin sandwich into this mouth.
“You are a Timeshaker,” Kyuhyun says with more conviction than suspicion.
Jo Mi lets out a guffaw at this. “How did you know.” It’s a nothing but a jest. Nevertheless, Kyuhyun hangs onto the joke like it’s a confession. “What exactly does a Timeshaker do?” he presses on.
Jo Mi leans forward and props his forearms onto the table. Technically, he won’t be breaking any rules. He has sworn to protect his identity but there’s no term on his employment contract that forbids him talking about his job. He is definitely curious, however, as to how this kid comes to know about this. The lunch hour crowd is thin at the cafe they are in, thus, there really isn’t a need to mumble but still, Jo Mi’s voice mellows into a soft murmur. “How did you know?” The question is genuine this time.
Kyuhyun senses the shift in mood and freezes. At first, he’s stunned by the verdict and Jo Mi is taken aback by his obvious dismal. He thought Kyuhyun has wanted his admission. “I-I’m working as an associate professor in the university. Currently, I’m writing a thesis on t-time, time travel,” Kyuhyun explains shakily when he realizes Jo Mi is waiting for his response. He takes more than a sip of his coffee and doesn’t seem to notice the drink spilling from the cup when he sets it down too fast. The waitress makes her way over with a smile and a dishtowel. Kyuhyun collects himself while she clears up the mess, even managing to utter his thanks. Jo Mi quirks a brow at his antics. “There is a book in the restriction section. In one of the chapters, it talks about…you,” Kyuhyun finishes hesitatingly, as if that word is now a taboo.
“We don’t do Time Travel,” Jo Mi clarifies.
“There are more of you?” Kyuhyun’s face has taken on a pearly sheen. As far as deadly pale faces go, it is strangely flattering.
“OK, now you’re making me sound like someone from X-Men,” Jo Mi twists his lips. Then he grins mischievously. “There’s someone I want you to meet.” He reaches into the pocket of his blazer, relishing the half-terrified look on Kyuhyun’s face. As if demonstrating the very epitome of an anticlimax, Jo Mi retrieves an old broken wristwatch from his pocket and dangles it by its well rusted chain in Kyuhyun’s face. Kyuhyun’s petrified eyes follow its lazy swing from side to side until they finally cross.
“Meet Molly.”
★
“Theoretically, it is possible to travel through time,” Kyuhyun insists as Jo Mi purchases a hotteok from the hawker. All great things have to end at some point. Sadly, lunchtime is one of those awesome things with amazingly short life spans. Jo Mi is going to resume his patrol right back to the bakery before he can call it a day. Till then, Kyuhyun is going to persist with his elaborate explanation that is filled with impossible phrases and words like, chronology projection conjecture, microquasar, active galactic nuclei, wormholes-“I know that!” Jo Mi shouts excitedly, like a new expatriate who has just met someone from his hometown.
Kyuhyun is relieved that they finally found something they agree on. “Yes, wormholes.”
“Yeah, I have-“
“You have wormholes?” Kyuhyun is absolutely flabbergasted. A school girl on the street giggles at the look on his face.
Jo Mi smirks. “I have so played pinball before, please.” His teeth tears off half of the pancake. Honey dribbles messily onto his chin and he licks it clean.
Kyuhyun’s shoulders sag in disappointment, then he flushes. He can’t believe he has taken in Jo Mi’s words so easily. Although for a second, he didn’t think it would seem so weird for a Timeshaker to have wormholes. “Wormholes are tunnels connecting two coordinates in time,” Kyuhyun mutters to his shoes.
“Hmmmm,” Jo Mi says without real interest. His attention is focused on a woman walking past them. “Ten minutes later, she’s going to get robbed,” he declares. Kyuhyun looks up sharply at him. Jo Mi gives a small shrug of his shoulders as if to say ‘yeah man, life sucks’, but he quickly pulls Kyuhyun back when he makes to approach the woman. “Hey!”
“I have to warn her!”
But Jo Mi slams him forcefully against the brick wall. The hotteok falls to the ground, honey and cinnamon oozes out and darkens the spot where it lays. He moves before Kyuhyun could and pins him down with his bigger self. “Pull something like that again and I’m telling you nothing. You got that?” he spits the words out against Kyuhyun’s left ear. Kyuhyun is shocked at the sudden malevolence in Jo Mi’s voice. “Do you understand or not.” he hisses, breath scooting across Kyuhyun’s face. Their eyes lock together. Kyuhyun backs away and ends up gritting his back into the wall. Realizing he’s trapped, he wobbles his head forward to exhibit his submission. Jo Mi’s expression softens immediately. He smiles and strokes Kyuhyun’s right cheek before releasing him.
“Now if you’ll be good, I’ll tell you whatever you want to know,” Jo Mi says and starts whistling a strange tune as he meanders down the street in a zigzag fashion.
Kyuhyun’s gaze drills holes into Jo Mi’s back. When he comes out of his trance, he hastily swipes a hand across his cheek as if to wipe away the lingering warmth of Jo Mi’s caress.
It’s warmer than sunshine.
★
The next day, Kyuhyun becomes a part of the patrol team. He looks a lot more disheveled than when he was lying face down in the dirty alley. The bright morning light plays up the shadows and hollows on his face and hints at sleepless nights. Kyuhyun ignores Jo Mi’s question of ‘Are you alright?’ and requests him to tell him everything.
“What I’m-“ Jo Mi breaks off to return the donut girl’s greeting. In truth, his impatient wave is more like a shoo. The girl pouts. Kyuhyun is too preoccupied to notice her. She waves her hand enthusiastically at the newcomer anyway and Kyuhyun notices the single stalk of red rose she’s holding. Jo Mi pulls him back with his words. “What I’m doing is more than taking a walk. I’m patrolling.”
“Patrolling?”
“Do you know what a Timeshaker does, Kyuhyun?” Jo Mi’s scalp tingles a little at the use of his name. “Kyuhyun,” he tests again. Tingle, tingle, goes his scalp. A hint of a frown finds its way onto his face.
“I’m listening,” Kyuhyun replies quietly. “You…shake time?”
“Huh?” Jo Mi looks nonplussed . “No, I shake time.”
Kyuhyun scowls.
Jo Mi ignores him. “Do you know why I have to shake time?”
Kyuhyun’s fingers stroke his own chin and Jo Mi can feel him sinking into academic thoughts again so he rushes to speak before Kyuhyun starts one of his astoundingly unastounding microquasar speeches again. “This is today’s History.” Kyuhyun finds a piece of paper stuffed into his hands. He unfolds it and smoothes it over with his palms.
“The title says ‘Tomorrow’s History’,” Kyuhyun contradicts Jo Mi.
“That’s because it’s always downloaded from SAP and read the night before tomorrow.”
Kyuhyun nods in comprehension and reads the report. “What are ‘Notable Incidents’?”
“Notable Incidents are major events of the day and are always accompanied by Consequences. They have already been casted in stone in History and will happen no matter what, which is why they are the least of my concerns. I’m on the lookout for Catastrophes.”
“Catastrophes?”
“Exactly,” Jo Mi nods gravely like they have just agreed on something important. He skips over a puddle lying in their path; Kyuhyun chooses to tiptoe around it. “Like Notable Incidents, Catastrophes come with Consequences but they are not meant to happen, they are not recorded in our system. Catastrophes are the real freak accidents and have no place in History. For example, you warning the woman would be a Catastrophe.”
“How can that be a catastrophe?”
Jo Mi smiles. He has asked the exact same question to his superior before. Most indignantly too. Heechul’s reply has stung like a new tattoo which must be why he still carries them to this day. “History is in fact a series of chain reactions. There is no good and bad in it. The only thing you need to know is that it is irreversible and what isn’t in it needs to stay out of it.”
“We’re not here to save the world, we’re just here to set History right.”
He stops recounting Heechul’s words. “A Catastrophe is not termed as such due to its implications. It’s referred to as one because it rewrites History and that in itself is a catastrophe. Besides by saving one, you could be killing another. What if the robber is using the spoils to pay for his kid’s medical fees? You shouldn’t be meddling with Fate,” Jo Mi chuckles knowingly.
Kyuhyun admits that all Jo Mi has said thus far is logical and he finds his explanation highly justifiable but this is beyond his realm of understanding. “Fate?” he repeats, utterly perplexed.
“Yeah, why do you think we met? Besides Catastrophes, there are no accidents,” Jo Mi winks. “Everything happens for a reason.”
“By the way, Time Travel is illegal. Don’t even think about it.”
★
They have steak for lunch because as Jo Mi puts it so succinctly, “Nothing is going to stop me from having beef.”
“So you correct Catastrophes by shaking time? How does that work?” Jo Mi can tell this question is very important to Kyuhyun. He doesn’t even notice Jo Mi stealing his bacon bits.
“Molly does the job,” he says mid-bite. “I shake her and time goes back a little, not more than twenty four hours though. Timeshakers don’t have that much power.” Jo Mi sounds almost pensive as he spears a cube of steak and pops it into his mouth.
Kyuhyun very nearly drops his fork in excitement. “But isn’t that Time Travel?”
Jo Mi tuts in disagreement. “We don’t move masses through the space of time, we merely shift time backwards. Some high ranking dude from the department of Time Management once calculated the possibility of Catastrophes (he was later arrested for manipulating time, which is why he had so much free time to sit on his fat ass and calculate possibilities no one cares about. If I were him, I’ll just spend the time sitting on my fat ass). It appears that the number of zeros in the percentage can line up from Earth to the Capricornus constellation. So by moving time backwards, it is almost certain that the Catastrophe will be avoided. However, what is destined to happen will still happen. Maybe we’re making people work a little harder by repeating work but it’s OK, most people like to be considered hardworking.” He pauses to ask the waiter to add more bacon bits to his baked potato, throwing a small fit when the waiter miscomprehends him and adds sour cream instead.
“But it is dangerous to send masses through time. Especially humans,” he narrows his eyes at Kyuhyun and scrapes obscene sour cream off his potato. “It’s more than likely that humans will alter History. The same free dude who couldn’t just sit on his fat ass calculated the possibility of it too. It is,” Jo Mi grabs the napkin and starts to doodle on it.
Possibility of Man altering History = 1 - Possibility of Man not altering History
Now, Possibility of Man not altering History = 1 - Greed
Since, Greed = +∞, Possibility of Man not altering History = -∞
Therefore, Possibility of Man altering History = 1 - (-∞) = ∞
“That’s why Time Travel is illegal,” Jo Mi concludes. “Anyway, I failed math in high school so I violently hope you understand, ‘cos I sure as hell don’t.”
He misinterprets Kyuhyun’s crestfallen expression for confusion. “Maybe you need a demonstration.”
★
They are standing at the hotteok stand. Jo Mi takes Molly out from his pocket and with a “Well, I guess this will affect my performance bonus more than a fair bit”, he presses a queer looking gold button on the wristwatch. Then he gives Molly a hearty shake.
Nothing happens, except Kyuhyun notices that the numbers on Molly are not in sequence. When Kyuhyun highlights this fact to Jo Mi, he is rewarded with a jab in his ribs. “Look again,” Jo Mi points to Molly. Kyuhyun does exactly that and is unable to stop himself from gasping aloud.
While Molly’s hands remain still, the numbers on her face are rearranging themselves. ‘5’ has just sat on ‘9’, so the number jostles ‘8’ until she shifts over to an irate ‘3’(who shoves ‘8’ and refuses to budge). They finally settle when ‘1’ places himself next to ‘6’.
“And the time is now 4:17pm, 25 March 2012,” Jo Mi smugly reads the time and date off Molly.
Kyuhyun checks his watch. It says the same. He fishes out his cellphone, dropping it in his haste. 16:17 25/03/2012. ‘But that was yesterday,’ Kyuhyun wants to say. Coherent Speech has just ditched him in favor of high tea, however. Jo Mi’s brows are doing a peculiar squiggly dance. He is enjoying this too much.
Kyuhyun looks around him while he attempts to locate his tongue. No one seems to have noticed. “Doesn’t anyone give a damn? Time has just skipped back more than twelve hours!” he sputters, completely astonished.
Surveying his surroundings, Jo Mi says, “Maybe they are too preoccupied with work, play, life to notice that they're repeating what they’ve already done before. But it appears that they do register a particular dull feeling of recognition which is why they invented a term for it.”
Kyuhyun stares expectedly at Jo Mi. The answer slips from his curved lips like a spell.
“Déjà vu.”
★
“The senior management call this period of time, Gained Time.”
“Gained Time?”
“Yeah, in Timeshaker terms, this means Free-to-do-Whatever-Cool-Shit-I-Want time.”
So they go to Jo Mi’s house.
★
“It’s a bit of a mess,” Jo Mi chimes out a warning before opening the door. It is a lie. The two room apartment is sparse but impeccable. The walls are white and clean except for a single photograph which depicts the back view of a man. There’s a cabinet in the living room that’s stacked full of CDs and books. White curtains hang off opened windows. Outside, a car is beeping insistently at whatever it is that is standing in its way. The only flaw is perhaps the single mug sitting on the small blue coffee table.
Kyuhyun is quiet. Not that he ever talks much. He ignores everything and sits on the cream-colored two- seater couch in the living room. Jo Mi shrugs to himself. Kyuhyun is eccentric, he just got to know him two days - no, a day - ago, but that’s not exactly news anymore.
“Want anything to drink?” Kyuhyun gives a small shake of his head. But Jo Mi hardly ever cares about the opinions of others. A series of tinkling and knocking sounds could be heard as he busies himself in the kitchen and starts a monologue.
“I just moved in not too long ago. So there’s not much. There are a couple of CDs in the cabinet though. You can help yourself to them. The player is on top of the TV,” he says aloud. The water begins to boil as he wrestles the lid off a tin and adds heapfuls of cocoa powder into a yellow mug. To his surprise, music wafts into the kitchen just as he’s adding cream. Jo Mi grins. His grin slides off when he opens the cabinet and discovers the lack of marshmallows. Hot chocolate without marshmallows is one of life’s greatest tragedies. He stares at the box of Lucky Charms for a long time before shutting the door firmly in its face.
When Jo Mi enters the living room, he sees Kyuhyun scrutinizing the CD cover. He looks up when Jo Mi sets the mug on the coffee table with more force than necessary.
“What song is this?” he asks.
“This is the loneliest song in the world.”
“Says that on the cover?”
“Says the shopkeeper at the CD shop in Taipei,” Jo Mi watches as the frown on Kyuhyun’s face fades until he’s expressionless again. “I don’t like it,” he decides.
“Keep it.” Jo Mi says and watches the frown works its way back. He plops down on the couch beside him. It is too small for two full grown men. Their shoulders touch. Jo Mi can tell Kyuhyun is aware from the way his gaze wavers. He feels the warmth from Kyuhyun leaches into the sleeves of his shirt. Or maybe Kyuhyun’s warmth is just pure imagination and it’s really just the twilight sun and the heat it has etched into the couch for the better part of the day. He relaxes.
There’s happiness so rich, you want to do nothing but submerge in sheer joy; let it burrows into your pores and drenches your soul. Then there’s happiness in simple contentment, where you look at the other person and find home wherever he is; where you feel so right all of a sudden because there’s just no other way. Thoughts slow, breathing eases, eyes shut at half mast.
They sit in silence until the song ends. Jo Mi sets it on repeat.
“Do you want anything to eat?” he asks after the song runs across a couple of times. But Kyuhyun has resumed his untalking self. Jo Mi takes the moment to sigh inwardly. This isn’t going so well.
“Is that all?” Kyuhyun suddenly speaks up.
“What?” Jo Mi is under the impression that they’re trapped in a conversationless situation although he can tell he’s the only one troubled by it.
“Have you told me everything?”
“Ahhh.” Jo Mi ponders for a while before he gives an honest reply. “No.”
Kyuhyun moved so fast, Jo Mi never had a chance. Something like a second flashes by and he finds himself pinned down on the couch with Kyuhyun’s hands pressed down on his shoulders. They now move to grab his collar. “Tell me everything,” he says almost threateningly.
Based on his friendly cooperation thus far, Jo Mi feels that threatening is wholly unnecessary. The shock in his system has yet to lapse entirely into puzzlement. Kyuhyun has been an enigma since the day they met. Jo Mi belatedly realizes that he has asked too few questions of his own. He lifts his eyes to Kyuhyun’s overly bright ones.
“Well, I did a check last night and it seems like you’re a part of my history.”
This is obviously not something Kyuhyun has anticipated. He moves slowly off Jo Mi. “We’ve never met before,” he says cautiously. Then he pauses and shakes his head a little as if to clear his thoughts.
“I don’t mean history at this point in time,” Jo Mi corrects him. “But my entire history.” Deciding that this isn’t very good explanation, he adds, “Kyuhyun, you exist in my future.”
Kyuhyun looks stupefied by this announcement, so Jo Mi is taken back by his sudden shout. “No!”
“Kyuhyun!” Jo Mi lunges for him when he makes a dash for the door. “Wait! Calm down!” He holds Kyuhyun in his arms and quenches his struggles, runs his hand over his back and tells him it’s OK. “Am I really so repulsive?” Jo Mi jokes dryly.
“No, Jo Mi,” Kyuhyun refutes him, “I can’t possibly be a part of yours, or anyone’s future.”
Besides the obvious, there’s something wrong with this statement. It takes Jo Mi a minute to grasp it. He hasn’t had the chance to tell Kyuhyun his name yet. However, Kyuhyun’s next words effectively silenced his question. In a clear and oddly high voice, as distinct as the scrape of metal on glass, Kyuhyun states, “On the 2nd of April, in Samcheongdong, at precisely 2:15pm, I will kill someone.”
★
The donut girl is too busy flirting with the man in the navy suit to call out to Jo Mi the next morning. He hardly notices. Kyuhyun isn’t around today. His ominous prediction rings like a hollow echo in Jo Mi’s head. There are too many doubts; the way Kyuhyun has hurled himself into his life, Kyuhyun’s perpetual bizarre behavior, a future without Kyuhyun…
Jo Mi whips out his mobile and presses the speed dial. Heechul’s voice sounds somewhere between the fourth and fifth ring.
“Hmph.”
“Boss, I’m taking the day off,” Jo Mi says in a rush, cutting off any protests that Heechul might have. “Tomorrow too. Ryeowook will take my place.” He hangs up on Heechul’s howl about some Time Travel Convention and makes a beeline for the only university in this town.
★
“Who are you!” Jo Mi demands the moment Kyuhyun opens the door. He barges in, corners Kyuhyun and rains questions on him like gunfire. “You don’t belong in my town, you quitted your job at the university a month ago, how? How did you know my name.” Kyuhyun doesn’t resist when Jo Mi shakes him. He flops like a rag doll instead. But that doesn’t stopper the accusations that flow like spilled water and slip them up. “We didn’t meet by coincidence, did we? You sought me out. Who sent you?” He releases Kyuhyun and the latter collapses onto the floor.
To be honest, Jo Mi comes with the sole purpose of confrontation. He feels he should at least have the satisfaction of that after probing blindly around town for the past two days on what little clues he possesses. Cold comfort arrives in the form of an address, scribbled messily on the back of a used envelope. Nevertheless, he still finds himself waiting with abated breath.
“I received an email about a month ago,” Kyuhyun voice is less than the susurrus of leaves. “It contains…” he struggles to find a word that fits, “a prophecy and your name. It says that you’re a Timeshaker and that you’ll be able to help me.” Kyuhyun’s carefully constructed restraint cracks. “I just need to say my name.”
Jo Mi swallows audibly. The memory of their first encounter unravels in his mind like a film; it seems like a century ago. He recollects how his interest has been piqued by the curious sensation Kyuhyun’s name caused. Static is suddenly loud and engulfing in his ears.
Kyuhyun stifles a sob and trudges on. “It was absurd. I’m familiar with the theory of time travel but those are theories, mere writing on paper. Now I’m being told that there are guardians of time and that it’s already a well established concept. I started doing research, I dug deeper than I ever did in the course of work. The more information I unearthed, the more I realized this might be true. I had to quit my job to focus on the study. There was no other way, I was obsessed with the truth. I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t concentrate on anything else.” Clutching his head as if he’s nursing a particularly bad headache, Kyuhyun says, “And I was searching for you. I remembered wanting you to be made up, just a terrible tale I’ll soon forget.” Kyuhyun suddenly gasps for air. He shudders as another sob rocks his body.
“Finally, I found you,” Kyuhyun’s eyes become wild. “You make it real,” he accuses. The cry sends a tremor coursing through Jo Mi. “Who sent you the email?” he rasps out instead.
“I-I don’t know b-but it was dated 3rd April,” Kyuhyun is beginning to pant from his crying.
A day after the accident, Jo Mi is stunned. There isn’t any other possibility, there’s a spy in his agency. His scalp goes numb. “Who sent you the email?” he asks again.
“I don’t know!”
“You noticed the date it was sent but not the sender’s name?” Jo Mi asks incredulously.
“I-I only noticed because the, the system prompted me due to the erroneous date, it just wasn’t possible. The email vanished after I read it, I r-really don’t know.”
“I’m not a murderer.” A tear hangs on the brink of Kyuhyun’s lashes. He reaches out to clutch at the hem of Jo Mi’s shirt. “Please,” he begs, tears seeping into and darkening the front of his top.
Jo Mi stares at Kyuhyun, broken as the remnants of denial empty out from within him. On their own accord, his fingers catch the tears gathered at the jut of Kyuhyun’s chin. He lifts Kyuhyun’s face to his, conjures up some pretentious romantic premise in his mind and brushes their lips together.
Understanding slashes across Kyuhyun’s face and Jo Mi releases him immediately. He is suddenly scared.
“Will, will you help me?” Kyuhyun bites his lower lip. “I’ll do anything.” His gaze plummets, eyelashes trembling with the tremendous effort of holding tears behind lids.
In that moment, Jo Mi feels he could refuse Kyuhyun nothing. But he shakes his head.
★
As reluctant as he is to let Jo Mi stay, Kyuhyun is unable to back down from the consolation he finds in Jo Mi’s touch. Within him, he is also aware that Jo Mi is the only one who can help him so he mustn’t push him away. In fact…
He squeezes his eyes shut as he recalls that episode three nights ago. He had climbed onto the sofa where Jo Mi was sleeping. His jaw was starting to ache from all that clenching. It was unusually warm. Cotton stuck to his skin, sweat beaded on his hairline. There was a hitch in someone’s breath and Kyuhyun lowered his head to meet Jo Mi’s eyes. It was now or never. His hands moved to the buttons on his flannel PJs. They were deliberately being difficult and a sob escaped from him before he could repress it. His hands started pulling on the buttons in a desperate attempt to open his top but then Jo Mi stopped him by resting a hand on the side of his face. His thumb drew moisture from Kyuhyun’s eyes, smeared it across his temple and cooled his burst of lunacy.
“No, not like this,” Jo Mi had whispered.
Kyuhyun lost his nerve then. He batted Jo Mi’s hand away and scampered back to his room. The shame was, is, excruciating. The next two days, Jo Mi didn’t go to work. He stayed yesterday too, taking only a couple of hours to grab a change of clothes and settle some administrative stuff at the office. Or so he claimed. There’s only a day left. Kyuhyun is too scared to demand anything so Jo Mi offers no explanation. It’s as if this is an elaborate set up as a result of some greater emotion, instead of a temporary predicament until-
His eyes snap open. Jo Mi is watching him from where he stands at the entrance of the kitchen. How long has he been standing there?
“Breakfast is almost done.” He is nervous. He really shouldn’t be. Jo Mi has done nothing to make him feel uneasy, except, well.
Jo Mi’s brows meet in a frown and Kyuhyun mistakes it for impatience. “I’m sorry, I,” he stutters and stops abruptly when Jo Mi’s lips curve into a smile.
“I won’t be eating. I have to make a trip to the office.”
To his surprise, Kyuhyun’s eyes are suddenly shiny and a little too wide. “Are you coming back?” Jo Mi feels his heart constricts for a beat or two. Disgruntled, he ruffles Kyuhyun’s hair and deciding one hand is not enough, he sinks another hand into his hair and runs them over his head like he’s shampooing a big dog. Finally happy with the mess he caused, Jo Mi smirks and turns to leave. He has taken just half a step before he’s pulled back.
It’s Kyuhyun. He has a hand on his shirt, eyes focused determinedly on the dishwasher, hair sticking up in all directions like an angry porcupine.
Jo Mi sighs and takes Kyuhyun’s hand in his for a moment. “Wait for me.”
Kyuhyun steals some of his heat and that’s all Jo Mi leaves behind.
★
“I thought you were on leave,” Ryeowook says when he spots Jo Mi in the office.
“I thought you were covering me,” Jo Mi retorts.
“Well, I have a rookie to push around, so,” Ryeowook explains. “What are you doing here?”
“Yeah, thought I’d send in my official leave application,” Jo Mi replies distractedly. “Hey, remember that time I asked you to help me check on something with the Future department?”
Ryeowook helps himself to the jar of raspberry and cream cookies on Jo Mi’s desk as he attempts to recall. “Regarding you and that Kyu person? Yeah?”
“Think you can help me again?”
A small dollop of cream gets smudged on Ryeowook’s nose he licks it off one half of the cookie. “What do you want to know?” He shoves the whole cookie into his mouth.
Somehow, Jo Mi manages not to fidget. “Just want to check on the Notable Incidents for tomorrow in advance,” he says with as much indifference as he can muster.
Intrigued, Ryeowook straightens in his seat. “You tried to do that yesterday too. I heard from Donghae. What’s so important?”
Jo Mi exhales slowly and forces his heart rate to slow. “Nothing, I just want to get Tomorrow’s History early so I won’t have to wait in the office until it’s available for download at six. It’s my last day of leave, you know,” he laments.
“Well, just stay until the report is downloadable from SAP. You know it’s against the rule to know History in advance. You name still stinks from that bad decision to Timeshake and Heechul is still upset (OK, I lied, he promised to make his office chair a permanent addition to your head) that you took a whole week of impromptu leave too.” Ryeowook relaxes in his chair again.
Jo Mi re-strategizes. “You know Yesung from I.T., don’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you think he’ll know anything about sending emails to the past?”
There’s a pencil on the table. Not a mechanical pencil, but one of those yellow and black wooden pencils. Taking a shot at nonchalance, Jo Mi picks it up and starts twirling it. He misjudges its weight. The pencil spins out of his fingers and falls to the floor, the sound shatters the silence that has descended on the two of them.
Ryeowook leans forward slowly.
“Did you listen to anything at all during orientation, Jo Mi?” he sighs.
★
The I.T. Department
Patting the computer, Ryeowook says, “This is Molly.”
“No, this is Molly,” Jo Mi points to his jeans pocket.
“No, that is Molly II,” Ryeowook corrects him. “She’s made out of parts from Molly I.”
Before Jo Mi could protest, Ryeowook moves on with his explanation. “Molly is our point of connection with the past and future. When something needs to be rectified, we use her to communicate with our past and future selves. All emails sent from her are achieved regardless if they’re sent from the past or present. In the space of time, that Molly may be the only constant. The same protocol applies, no rewriting of History, not for personal use (no one wants to know your favorite kind of porn), no crumbs on the keyboard, you know the drill.”
“Is Molly the only computer capable of this?”
“Of course. Do you even know how much she cost? We can pay for some A5 wagyu steak with her diodes.” Ryeowook looks at his watch. “Speaking of which, want to go grab a bite?”
Jo Mi puts on a show of reluctance. After Ryeowook left, Jo Mi settles into the computer chair and logs into Molly I with his username. He clicks open the email and heads straight for the ‘Sent Email’ folder.
The I.T. folks are milling around him as they go about with their work. Hopefully, he is as inconspicuous as air. When the folder opens, a prompt box pops up signaling a new email. Startled, Jo Mi knocks the mouse off the desk. A female worker picks it up for him with a warm smile. He tries to return the smile but ends up grimacing instead.
Returning to the screen, he closes the prompt and starts to sort the emails out by reverse chronological order, from 2098 to 1904. His focus goes into overdrive when he finally encounters year 2012 and his fingers tremble with excitement. He is about to find out who the spy is. Excited, he over-scrolls by too long a shot and arrives at 2010. He scrolls back up and reaches 3rd April 2012. The email opens after a click and Jo Mi stares wide eyed at the screen. Under ‘Sender’, in bold size 12 Arial font, is his name.
★