Chapter Text
“Everyone thinks we’re up to some weird shit now, thanks to you,” Luka huffed the moment the rooftop door slammed shut behind them. The afternoon sun hit his pale blonde hair and long lashes, making them catch the light like polished gems.
Ivan let go of his arm, leaning back against the metal railing. He had practically half-dragged the older student up the stairs like a lazy cat that had decided to flop onto the grass mid-walk. “Why would they think that?” Ivan asked, entirely amused.
Luka rolled his eyes dramatically, letting out a long yawn. “So what now? Why are we up here?”
Ivan’s smile faded, his expression turning sharp and serious. “Do you think we should tell them?”
Luka blinked, staring at Ivan for a long, silent moment before turning his head to look at the edge of the roof. “If you wanted to tell them, why didn’t you say so downstairs?”
“Because I don’t even know how to explain it without sounding like a lunatic,” Ivan snapped, his jaw tightening. “At least I’m trying to find a way to do something about it.”
Luka turned back around, his gaze flicking down the length of the concrete roof before settling on Ivan. A terrifyingly confident grin touched his lips. “Here. Jump down.”
Ivan deadpanned, entirely unimpressed. “Say what?”
Luka shrugged, stepping closer. “Break your leg or something. Get a life-changing injury. Surely that never happened to you in any of the previous timelines, right?”
Ivan lifted his eyebrows, letting out a short, sarcastic breath. “Oh, wow. Should I climb a mountain without a rope next? Or maybe rob a bank and call it breaking the cycle?”
“Well, we definitely haven't done that before, duh!” Luka’s grin widened, his smaller frame stepping directly into Ivan’s personal space until Ivan could feel the strange, intense heat of his presence. It felt borderline threatening despite the height difference. Luka looked up at him, his eyes sparkling with a charming, manipulative light. “I’ll even give you a push if you need help.”
“Are you actually psychotic, or are the memories making you completely delusional?” Ivan asked, his voice dropping.
“Huh?” Luka’s face instantly deflated into a pout. He pointed toward a sturdy tree branches extending near the roof line. “Come on. At worst, you’ll just lay in a hospital bed for a month. It changes the variables.”
“I am not giving myself a grave injury and ruining my modeling career over your half-baked theory.”
Luka huffed, crossing his arms. “Weren’t you always the one ready for great, grand sacrifices?”
“For Till,” Ivan corrected instantly, his tone chillingly sharp. “If you want to try the injury theory so badly, why don’t you jump out of the tree?”
Luka gasps dramatically, pressing a hand to his chest. “My bones are fragile, unlike some people’s! And I am a dancer, Ivan. I cannot break anything. You’re just a model. You just stand there.”
“Fine. By that logic...” Ivan’s lips twisted into a dark, mocking grin. "We might as well just kill ourselves right now. Maybe that’s the real reason we’re the only ones seeing the flashbacks. We’re supposed to be gone.”
Luka’s eyes locked onto his, the playful energy vanishing instantly. “Let’s do it.”
Ivan blinked, his grin faltering. “Really?”
Luka let out a sharp, ironic laugh, the sunlight catching the edges of his pale frame as he leaned against the ledge. “Yeah. You are so insufferably annoying I literally cannot take your presence anymore. It’s that serious. Let’s jump.”
“I'm hurt, hyung,” Ivan murmured, though his eyes remained completely cold. “I was merely trying to help.”
The silence stretched between them, the casual banter dropping away as the reality of their situation settled back down. Luka’s expression turned unusually heavy, the sweet idol facade cracking completely.
“I already ruined everything before I even had a chance to fix it,” Luka said quietly, his voice dropping into a register Ivan hadn’t heard before. “If the other lifetimes are true... I’m already unforgivable here.” He looked away, staring toward the campus gates. “Hyuna’s brother is in a coma because of me. In every universe, she can’t forgive me. Even if some part of her cares... I’m the lock that keeps her trapped.”
Ivan blinked, the missing pieces of the puzzle finally falling into place. A quiet nod escaped him. “Oh. That’s why you can’t look her in the eye.”
Luka gave a small, stiff nod.
Ivan turned back to the campus view, his mind brainstorming with a cold, analytical precision. “Maybe this world can have a happy ending,” he mused out loud, “but only without us. If Hyuna needs her peace with you gone... and Till needs his freedom with me gone..." Ivan raised his hands, gesturing between the two of them. “Wait. Do we need to kill Mizi or Sua then?”
Luka’s bored, nihilistic expression completely broke, his eyes widening in genuine shock. “Woah— what? And you called me psychotic, Ivan...”
“I’m just trying to logic it out,” Ivan said sincerely, his face deadpan as he kept brainstorming. “Think about it. In the loops, someone always has to go for the others to move on. If we are the problems…”
“I am not wasting my time playing a serial killer, Ivan,” Luka cut in, his voice returning to a sharp hiss.
“But you did that before. Kinda. On the alien stage, you—”
“Don’t.” Luka jabbed a finger toward him. “It was a survival competition. I wasn’t about to let myself die. Completely different.”
Ivan stared at him for a second.
Then he burst into a genuine laugh.
Yeah,” he grinned. “Keep telling yourself that, hyung.”
“I am not killing Sua, Ivan. Sincerely,” Luka sighed, running a hand through his blonde hair. “I don't care if they’re happy or not, that's their problem. They can deal with their own romance drama.”
Ivan looked down at the concrete edge of the roof. “So... how do we do it then? Just jump?”
Luka looked at him, his gaze sharpening with deep suspicion. “Wait. I don’t trust you. What if I jump and you just stay up here watching?”
Ivan matched his sharp look. “I don’t trust you either. You’d definitely let me fall alone.”
Suddenly, Ivan made a sharp, sudden noise, his eyes lighting up as if a massive revelation had just hit him. “Wait! What if for this to work, all of the ‘glitches’ need to be resolved? What if the problem is that we aren’t changing our internal patterns?”
Luka looked up at the sky, letting out a long, silent scream of pure exhaustion as if asking the universe for strength. “Fine. Let’s do step one of changing the variables. Let’s hook up.”
Ivan didn’t even blink. “No.”
“Let’s kiss.”
“Nope,” Ivan said flatly.
Luka’s mouth curved into an evil, triumphant grin. “Go kiss Till then.”
Ivan sputtered internally, his stoic composure fracturing for a split second before he forced his voice to sound confident. “That’s not something we haven’t done anyway. I’ve kissed him before.”
Luka lifted a skeptical eyebrow, leaning back. “But have you really kissed him? Don’t count that self-sacrificial act that got you shot on stage, or some mindless zombie biting incident. Have you ever actually confessed your feelings to him while he was conscious and alive?”
Ivan went entirely silent. A dark, stormy cloud of emotion swept across his features, his chest rising and falling heavily.
Luka smirked, tapping his own temple. “See? I’m smart.”
“You’re not,” Ivan muttered, turning his face away as a profound ache settled in his chest. “It wasn’t perfect. Even in the last iteration... Till still wasn't over her. But it was mutual. I thought it was, at least. Right before the fucking virus spread and everything went to hell.” He took a sharp breath, pulling his walls back up. “I don’t want to repeat that, okay? And what if… what if he doesn’t feel the same this time?”
Luka completely bypassed Ivan’s emotional spiral, zeroing in on the most scandalous detail with a look of pure glee. “Hold on.” He leaned forward. “So you’re telling me that, in this universe, with everyone alive and no zombies involved, you’ve never actually kissed anyone?”
Ivan’s face flushed a deep, brilliant red, entirely ruining the stoic, quiet persona he usually maintained. “I mean... in the dreams I did—“
“Those nightmares don’t count, you pathetic virgin,” Luka snickered loudly, pointing at him.
“Okay, fine! I haven’t!” he snapped, glaring at him. “Not in this life. Happy now, hyung?”
“Aww, you’re just scared Till won’t like it,” Luka teased, his voice dropping into that melodic, sing-song register.
“I don’t like you, Luka,” Ivan shot back, his jaw tight. “If you have some weird intentions here…”
Luka rolled his eyes, waving his hand dismissively. “Relax. I only have eyes for Hyuna.”
Ivan let out a heavy huff, crossing his arms. “Likewise. I only care about Till. Great. We understand each other.”
A sudden, reckless spark lit up Ivan’s dark eyes as he stared at the heavy rooftop door. The weight of the loops, the stress of the nightmares, and Luka’s insufferable teasing all combined into a desperate need for chaos.
”You know what?” Ivan declared, a sharp, unhinged grin breaking across his face. “Let’s steal a car and speed down the highway until the cops catch us. Let’s see if the matrix fixes itself after that!”