#and so many cosmic wires have been crossed between them that there’s too much interference | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

tuberc-leo-fics · 7 years

Text

Cosmic Music (Chapter 5/6)

Summary: Hongbin woke in his bed, choking on sea water. That was the moment that everything changed.

Rating: T

Words: 2.2k (this chapter)

Other chapters: Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4

Also on AO3

Chapter 5 - Planck Energy

The next few weeks were filled with the straining performances that came with a comeback, trying to divert attention away from Hongbin and Wonshik, and the soft timbre of Hyuk’s voice as he talked for hours on end in English on the phone to people he was keeping a secret from the rest of the members. They tried not to let it bother them too much, but seeing the way Hyuk flitted between agitation and elation while talking was difficult with no context.

“I need to leave for a few hours, hyung,” Hyuk whispered to Hakyeon when they returned to their apartment after an interview. It was already 9pm and unless it was Wonshik on his way to the studio, Hakyeon kept a tight leash on the members when it started to get late, especially with an early morning wake up time the next day.

Hakyeon sighed, rubbing at his temple, the stress of not only the day but the weeks since the revelation of his members’ troubles came out wearing down on him. “Can this not wait, Hyukie?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. He nodded slowly to himself when Hyuk shook his head, giving a quiet “no.”

“May I ask where you’re going?” Hakyeon asked, crossing his arms slightly, trying to look stern but not quite pulling it off.

Hyuk gave a small laugh as he reached a hand back to scratch slightly at his neck. “Um… I need to pick something up from the Brain Science Institute at KIST.”

Hakyeon paused for a second, trying to process the words. “What could you possibly be getting from the Korean Institute of Science and Technology? And for that matter, someone is letting you take something from their research lab?”

“Hyung,” Hyuk said, laying a hand on his arm, “it’s to help Hongbin-hyung. I talked to a contact there and it took me a week, but I finally convinced her to let me borrow an EEG to test the electrical activity of Hongbin-hyung’s brain while he is dreaming. Hopefully, looking at the results can help me determine how to help him.”

Hakyeon was silent for a moment, searching Hyuk’s eyes for something. “Are you sure you can help him?” he asked, trying not to get his hopes up, but starting to see that there was a possibility of him getting better.

Hyuk nodded, eyes strong and determined, shining with a passion he only seemed to get when working on something to do with science these days. “I can do it. I think… I really think we’ve stumbled onto something big here, hyung. It’s what scientists have only been theorizing about for one hundred years, with no way to test their theories. It’s… simultaneously exhilarating and mentally exhausting.”

Hakyeon gave him a sad smile and nodded, reaching out his hands to rub down Hyuk’s upper arms in a soothing matter.

“Let me get my coat,” Hakyeon said, glaring slightly when Hyuk started to open his mouth in protest. “I’ll help you carry.”

“This feels weird,” Hongbin said when the final electrodes were pressed to his scalp, the multiple wires coming from his head making him look like some kind of cyborg, as Jaehwan had gleefully pointed out.

“I kind of wish we had used this look during Error. It’s hot!”

Jaehwan earned himself several slaps with that remark, but he only gave them a large pout before grinning, pleased with himself.

“I really don’t like all of you just staring at me,” Hongbin remarked, looking uncomfortable. “Can everyone but Hyukie please leave? I’m not here for your entertainment.”

“Hongbin, please,” Hakyeon said, reaching over to hold his hand, only to be shook off with a glare. He sighed.

“No, he’s right,” Hyuk said, glancing at the hyungs surrounding Hongbin’s bed. “I need you out of here, especially Hakyeon, as manipulating emotions when I’m trying to read the electrical happenings of a brain is not going to give me accurate results.”

Hakyeon pouted but nodded, grabbing Jaehwan by the wrist and pulling him away. Wonshik got up from the desk chair he had been perched on and went over to Hongbin, giving him a hug, careful to avoid the wires and electrodes hooked up to the computer.

“Taekwoonie-hyung, you should stay,” Hyuk said before he could escape. “Having someone who can read emotions will actually be very helpful to go along with my readings. And you won’t be able to interfere, as long as you have no contact with Hongbin-hyung.”

Both Hongbin and Taekwoon were silent as they finished watching Hyuk set up the EEG until there was a scraggly line moving across the screen of the computer, measuring Hongbin’s brain activity.

“I’m honestly not sure if I’ll be able to sleep with you two in the room and this thing on my head,” Hongbin said, laying down on his bed, stretching out his legs, scratching at his stomach slightly. “I have enough trouble falling asleep as it is.”

“It’ll be fine,” Hyuk said, sharing a look with Taekwoon and rolling his eyes. There were too many drama queens among the members, and everyone but Wonshik had no trouble falling asleep at night. Hyuk was proved right when not even 5 minutes later, Hongbin’s EEG showed that he was no longer awake.

“He’s probably only in stage two of sleep right now,” Hyuk whispered to Taekwoon, who was just staring at Hongbin, trying to read his emotions. “The brain waves haven’t slowed down enough yet. You’ll definitely notice a difference when he reaches stage 3 and 4; the waves start to get big and slow. When he starts dreaming, it will go back to looking like he’s awake.”

They waited a while longer, neither one speaking as Hyuk just stared at the screen, looking for the moment the graph changed, and Taekwoon stared at Hongbin, trying to feel the same thing.

“Hey hyung, look at this,” Hyuk called softly, breaking the staring contest Taekwoon was having with Hongbin’s body. “The waves have finally… hold on, this shouldn’t be happening,” he interrupted himself, looking at the waves change after just a few seconds of slow, delta waves. “What is going on?”

Taekwoon glanced at the screen and saw the waves happening at a higher frequency, but also having a high amplitude. “What does that mean?”

Hyuk just stared for a minute, reading the line as it went by him, the amplitude increasing by the second.

“It’s… not something that should happen. See how the peaks keep getting higher and… well, disappearing now, I guess. It means that somehow, Hongbin-hyung is using a lot, and I mean a lot of energy, so much so that the EEG is not capable of reading how much. And it keeps climbing. I’m assuming he’s astrally projecting himself somewhere right now, and the energy required is astronomical.”

They both turned to look at Hongbin as he lay on the bed, not giving anything away.

“His mind feel tense, almost afraid,” Taekwoon said after a minute, catching Hyuk’s attention, who looked away from the chart.

“The EEG stopped working, it can’t read the energy in Hongbin-hyung’s brain right now.” There was a moment of silence as they observed Hongbin again, unsure of what would happen if they tried to wake him.

“Taekwoonie-hyung,” Hyuk started slowly, turning in his chair to try and catch his eye. “I have an absolutely crazy theory, and I can’t believe I’m even going to say this.” He waited for Taekwoon’s complete attention before continuing. “Among physicists and other scientists who study the theory of parallel universes, there is a thought that when enough planck energy is used, and when I say enough, I mean 10^19billion electron volts of planck energy, which is an extremely, extremely high number, then that is the moment when gravity itself starts to break down. And not even gravity, but space/time begins to fail and become unstable. With this amount of energy and the breakdown of space/time, it is possible that gateways to parallel universes can open.”

Hyuk said all of that in one breath, voice getting hysteric toward the end as he became excited about the idea. “Like hyung, I think Hongbin-hyung is actually utilizing planck energy, which is the energy of the big bang by the way, and is using it to travel through time and space. He was talking about floating in space and seeing stars go out, and with a breakdown of gravity and time/space, that is actually a possibility.”

Taekwoon nodded, feeling the hysteria in Hyuk being held back by excitement. He observed the younger boy for a few seconds before leaning over and hugging him, dragging a hand through his hair.

“You did good, Hyukie,” he said, hugging him just a bit tighter before letting go, noticing the slight tears in his eyes.

“It’s just, hyung,” Hyuk said, swallowing a few times to get rid of the lump in his throat. “I can figure these things out, know what is happening to Wonshik-hyung and Hongbin-hyung, but that’s where it stops. I can’t fix their problem. The only thing I have done is advance my own knowledge of the world and parallel universe theories.”

“But still,” Taekwoon said, “You’ve done so much to help them already. You’ve been working harder than anyone to find a solution to Hongbin and Wonshik’s problem, and they really are greatful.”

Hyuk nodded, his chin drooping to his chest as he stared down at the floor. He always worked hard to improve on everything he did, even if he was able to pick something up naturally. He felt a big responsibility in the team to get things right and work harder than the others, which put a lot of pressure on his shoulders. He tried to do too much, and when something didn’t work out, he blamed himself.

“You should get some sleep, Hyuk,” Taekwoon said, reaching for his shoulders to push him out of the room. “You’ve worked hard today. You can tell everyone what you found out in the morning.”

Taekwoon’s eyes followed Hyuk until he was in his room and the door had closed between them.

“What are you planning on doing?” Hongbin asked Hyuk as he sat at a table in their dorm, books and papers spread over the entire surface. They were done with promotions for their most recent comeback, which meant some of them were less busy than others. Hyuk took advantage of his “time off” by digging deeper into the theories of alternate universes. He also asked the company if he could take four days off in order to travel to the US, and while there he met with Dr. Kaku, one of the foremost experts in the field.

“I don’t honestly know,” Hyuk said, rubbing at his temple, brow furrowed in pain. “I just want to understand everything I can. I’ve read and re-read everything on the subject, and I still don’t know what to do with the information.”

Hongbin sat on the other side of the table, across from Hyuk and just observed him as the maknae tortured himself trying to find a solution to Hongbin and Wonshik’s problem. He had been stressed for weeks, and the dark circles under his eyes were starting to look like Hongbin’s.

“Are you trying to actually open a door to another universe?” Hongbin asked curiously. “What are you planning on doing with all of this research?”

Hyuk stopped rubbing at his head and looked up, eyes wide.

“I… didn’t even consider that a possibility,” he said, hand coming up to rub at his nose slightly. “But now that you say it…” he trailed off, then began mumbling to himself.

After a few minutes, during which Hongbin had started playing around on his phone, Hyuk started to speak again. “Hongbin-hyung… we might be able to pull this off. We literally have all the pieces of the puzzle, we just need to put them together. Through Wonshik-hyung we have the ability to measure and see cosmic music, see how the bubble of this universe vibrates through interactions with other universes. Through you, we have planck energy that can break through time/space. If we could combine these two, we might actually be able to open a gateway to another universe!”

Hongbin just looked at Hyuk who had stood up at some point during his speech, his mouth open in wonder. He looked so passionate, the fire in his eyes more intense than any performance on stage.

“Can you do it?” Taekwoon asked from the doorway, startling the two at the table as the whipped around to stare at him. He had been drawn by the intense emotions coming from the two, and went to discover what was happening, catching most of Hyuk’s speech. “Can you do it, Hyukie?” he asked again, starting to walk toward the table.

“I-” Hyuk said, cutting himself off. He crossed his arms over his chest, almost hugging himself. He looked lost, face almost reverting back to when Taekwoon had first met him, as a kid of 17. He just looked so young.

“He can,” Hongbin said, coming around the table to put an arm around his shoulders. “There’s no one smarter than our Hyukie. If anyone can do it, he can.”

Hyuk didn’t smile at the compliment, but he nodded to himself, determination rising.

“I can do it,” he said, staring Taekwoon, and then Hongbin in the eyes. “I’m going to open a gateway to another universe.”

Chapter 6

#vixx #vixxfic #vixx fanfiction #only one chapter left everyone #i can't believe it's almost over #i also can't believe i posted this on the wrong blog at first #why does tumblr not allow you to change which blog you posted something on :(?#it took my like 8 minutes both times

8 notes · View notes