Long-Fiction | Space Age Love Song (TayNew AU Fic) Part Two

PART TWO: Don’t Wake Me, I’m Sleeping In

I woke up to see Hin watching me. He smiled and I got embarrassed. We’d been together for so many years, but him watching me sleep still made me feel more naked than I actually was. “Stop looking at me,” I said as I shielded my face from him. He suddenly signalled me to wait and gestured to his right ear.

Oh, right. He’s not Hin.

He rolled over to his other side and grabbed the chip from the bedside drawer. He shifted to look at me again as he pushed the metal square to the slot at the back of his ear. He tapped it once and it blinked green. 

“What were you saying, Tay?” he asked. He had been here for almost a month. He had practiced how to speak the foreign language of this universe and had learned how to fluently converse with it. I remembered when we first met, he talked slowly because he had to listen to the voice from the chip before he could speak through imitation. I learned a lot about him from that night.

His name was also New, just like his doppelganger in this universe. They’re basically the same person, except for the chip. He said that on their planet, he didn’t have to wear that. He was given that before he was sent to this world, saying that it would help him to communicate to the Earthlings. He had the same anatomy as a human being. I should know because I had seen it...multiple times. What’s different was the organs inside; it’s all placed in reverse. I learned about this when one time, we were lying on bed, and I had my head against his chest. I was on his right side and I was startled when I heard beats from it. I asked him what it was and he said matter-of-factly that it was his heart. “No,” I exclaimed. “The heart is in the left!” He reached to the left side of my chest and then to my right. After, he touched his own. He seemed more curious than confused. And then he shrugged. I made the assumption that the organs of the citizens from the parallel universe were reversely placed. It was a good thing, however, that the limbs and other appendages were in the same places as mine.

That night in McDonald’s, I asked him to stay in my apartment. This triggered a fight between Off and me. He called me gullible and desperate and weird for doing this. And I told him to mind his own fucking business and to leave me the fuck alone. And he did. We hadn’t talked since. But Gun still sent me messages, asking me to lunch, asking how I’d been. In some cases, he even acknowledged the existence of Parallel New and asked how he’d been. Despite this, Gun and I only remained civil and promised to go out sometime, but never did.

New said that his world was called Gaia, but that’s only the translated name. The actual name was too complicated for me to understand. Earth and Gaia were almost identical, he said. The only difference was in theirs, the place was more advanced and technological compared to ours that’s more polluted and dilapidated. I commented that it’s because our President was an irresponsible bully. New said that in Gaia, there was a monarchy, one King that ruled the entire world. I commented, that sounded horrific, to have only one person rule Gaia. He didn’t say anything to that. 

Because they were more advanced, they already knew the existence of parallel universes ever since and citizens from Gaia had been travelling to this side to observe, to collect data, or to escape. Some came back, some stayed. New said that he had a childhood friend that went here a couple of years before, but had never come back. I asked for his name, telling him that I might know him. But he just remained silent, a sad smile on his lips. I asked him what was his reason, among the three, for being on Earth. He said that it was none of the above. He was here because he won the lottery.

He said that the Monarchy had decided to do a lottery for the citizens of Gaia and he was the lucky first winner. For two weeks, after he won, he was enrolled in a crash course on Earth and Earthlings 101. While the human anatomy was almost the same, the two worlds had different cultures and he had to learn about it to avoid attracting attention to himself. After all that, he was sent here. I asked him, “Why here, specifically?” I added that he could be in BGC or Makati or hell, even in Baguio or somewhere nicer. Why here in Laguna? He said that he was not given an itinerary or a place to be. The A.I. of the space pod he was in simply sent him here.

“When I...saw you earlier...Tay...I know...you’re the reason...why I’m here,” he said.

I asked him what he meant by that, and he said that he was getting tired. Apparently, parallel citizens also could also get jet lagged. I wanted to ask more about what he said, but I could see that he was really exhausted. I asked if he wanted to take a shower before going to sleep, to which he said yes.

New was inside the bathroom for a solid five minutes when he suddenly called me. I was Googling about parallel universes and didn’t hear. So he opened the door and called me “Te.” I was surprised. I looked at him, his head peeking from the door and asked, “How did you know that?” He was confused. “Know...what?” I could feel the heat rise to my face. “Te! How did you know it was my nickname?” He didn’t answer. We just stared at each other. Until he said, “Tay...could you help me...with the water?”

I went inside and saw that he was only wearing a towel around his waist. I saw his fair-complexioned torso, the chiseled abdomen, and the bulging biceps. I looked away. Even his body looked like New, I remembered thinking. So apparently, for the whole five minutes he was inside, he was trying to figure out how to start the water running. I rotated the shower knob and told him to rotate it the other way around to stop. I quickly got out of the bathroom.

I was pacing around my apartment when he came out, all wet and still with the towel around his waist. I paced harder when I saw him and I could feel my face all hot and red. Without looking at him, I pointed out that there were clothes above the drawer that he could wear. After a while, I looked up and saw that he was already in bed, reading his book. I grabbed the towel that he draped on the chair near the bed and went to the shower. I let the cold water rain on me, but it didn’t stop the rising desire so I did my thing, came, and had a quick bath.

When I got out, he was already asleep, the book lying facedown on his chest. Seeing him there on my bed reminded me of New. I felt a stone drop on my stomach and I felt a sting on my chest. Fuck, Hin, I thought. I went to the other side of the bed carefully, so as not to wake him up. I watched him breathe. I watched how his chest rise and fall. I stared at his slightly open lips, the same way Hin’s lips were every time he’s asleep. I had the sudden urge to kiss him. But I stopped myself and said that this guy was not Hin. This was parallel New. And despite their similarities, he would never be Hin.

I turned off the lights, ready to sleep, when he spoke. It was a bit more fluent. He probably practiced what he was going to say in his head.

“Tay, for the longest time, I had dreamed about you. You were a nameless face I’d wanted to meet. I haven’t met you in Gaia, so I thought you’re merely a product of my imagination. I tried forgetting you because it seemed pointless to think about someone fictional. When I won the lottery, it got me thinking about you again. I thought that maybe you’re in that parallel universe, light-years away. When I finally got here, I was confused. They told me that the A.I. would send me to a place I could truly enjoy. But then I saw you and I knew why the pod sent me here. I think I was destined to meet you, Tay, the man of my dreams, the one person I love.”

He probably thought I was already asleep because I didn’t answer or move after he said that. I felt him settle down on the bed. I laid awake for a long time after, silently crying the same tears I’d shed for his doppelganger. Hin’s voice echoed in my head the whole night, telling me, “No matter what universe we’re in, I know I’d love you the same.” I didn’t know how long I cried or for how long I was awake. But amidst the long night, the endless crying, the repeated promise playing in my head, I fell in a deep, deep sleep.

That night I dreamed about Hin. We were in my apartment, the night before he left for Italy. It’s the same old memory. I begged him to stay, to give me another chance, to make everything right. I asked him to choose me again, to take me with him in Italy. In my dream, however, he stayed. I wished I hadn’t woken up from that dream. I did wish he stayed. 

New was still looking at me, prompting me to speak. I could feel the tears coming up, so I brushed him away and said that it’s nothing. I knew he could tell that I was lying. Even without the chip, he could hear me just right, but there was the language barrier. He suddenly kissed me and smiled. I pulled him and kissed him deeply. In my head, he was Hin. For a whole month he was with me, I was pretending he was Hin and I was slowly believing it.

Read Part Three here.