Sitting on the windowsill, he watched the rain snake patterns down the glass. The red cushioned seat that he sat on did nothing to comfort him. Nothing did. Even the weather outside was upset. Tucking his arms about his legs as he put his knees under his chin, he watched the rain continue to fall in the gray landscape beyond the window. Clutched tightly in one of his hands was an old red MP3 music player.

"STOP CALLNG ME ABOUT THE DIVORCE! I TOLD YOU I'D SIGN THE PAPERS! CAN'T YOU STOP NAGGING ME?"

He turned his head to face the shut bedroom door. Even though he was upstairs, he could still hear his mother's upset voice as if she were right next to him. He knew that his parents were getting divorced, but it was turning uglier by the second. They had had such a beautiful relationship before that it was hard for him to truly figure out the reason why it had gone south. With his father never coming home now and staying away, he wondered if it was him. Maybe it was his fault that his parents were getting separated.

He just wished the two of them could work it out. He didn't like the thought of his parents hating each other or bouncing from home to home since he was only fourteen.

His dark brown eyes turned to look at the music player in his hand as he turned from the door, turning it over and over in his palm. The music player had been given to him by his mother when he was seven when he had been going away on an overnight field trip for the first time. She had explained that she always brought her music with her everywhere and that it always made her calm down. Music healed a person, she had told him.

It had also been music that had brought his parents together, but now their lovely melody seemed to be ending on the sourest of notes.

He took a deep breath as he moved to unwrap the white earbuds from about the music player. The earbuds and player still worked after all these years because he had taken good care of them just like his mother had. He placed the earbuds in his ear as he flicked the player on. Once on, he scrolled his finger along the dial until it landed on a song, letting the past drown out the cacophony of the present downstairs. The drums and bass drowned out the screams of his mother and the abrupt slamming down of her phone. He began to lose himself to the tune, closing his eyes and humming softly. He didn't even realize his mother had entered his bedroom until a gentle hand touched his shoulder.

Opening his eyes, he turned his head to look up at the tear-stained face of his mother; her eyes red and puffy from crying. Reaching up, he removed the earbuds from his ears and shut the music off, setting the player aside.

"You heard that, didn't you?" she asked barely above a whisper.

"Do you want the truth or a white lie?" he asked to which she gave the faintest of smirks.

"I'm sorry," she said softly as he moved to untangle himself off the seat and stand. They weren't that much different in height now ever since his growth spurt last summer.

"Don't be," he said as he hugged her tightly. "Are you okay though?"

"I'm fine," she said. "I just...this is never what I wanted to happen to our family."

"I didn't want it to happen either," he whispered. "Does it have to be this way?"

His mother's hand drifted down to his hair. He let her hand drift through his black locks slowly, knowing that it relaxed her.

"Unfortunately yes. Your father and I are just too different."

"You can't work it out?"

"No."

He could tell there was more behind that 'no'; more dreams and hopes that were being shattered by the cold reality they found themselves in. He hugged his mother tighter, trying to provide her with the comfort that he knew she needed at that moment. Eventually - when she made sure he was okay - she moved to leave. Watching the door shut behind his mother, he turned to pick up his discarded music player before going over to his desk.

His desk was just as much a mess as his brain. His father said that was a sign of a true artist in the making. He had been told that creative geniuses were never neat. Pulling out the chair, he took a seat before re-nestling the earbuds in his ears. As music started to play through the player again, he tucked it in his pocket before flicking on the desk lamp. It immediately illuminated the chaos. He reached out fingers, shifting homework aside that still needed to be finished. Settled in the shadows of the back of the desk was one of his father's old wristwatches. He picked it up, holding tightly to the golden band as he looked at the clock face. It had stopped working a long time ago. It had stopped running the same day his parents had gotten into that first fight on the way to divorce. It was as if the watch ran out of time just like his parent's relationship.

Ever since that first fight, he had been fiddling with the watch and experimenting with it in various ways. The concept of traveling through time had always fascinated him. It was like the ultimate ability to fix your mistakes. Everyone seemed to want to be able to do it, but no one had ever been able to accomplish it, so he began to research in secret. Even though he was only fourteen, his mind had a way of figuring things out that was far more superior than other adults he had met in his life. However, all his attempts so far hadn't worked out. He had worked with even more of a vigor when his parents told him they were getting a divorce. He felt that he owed it to them for existing to fix the love that had broken between them.

"If only you were smart enough to get this to work," he muttered out loud to himself.

He began to tinker with it again as the thunder rumbled outside the window. Sighing, he stopped with his tinkering and got up from his chair, moving to stand near the window again.  He kept the watch he had been tinkering with in one hand. The storm outside had picked up. The patterns on the window had been splattered to bits, and the glass seemed to vibrate a bit in the wind as if it would break.

"Just let me go back," he whispered as his finger idly traced over one of the buttons on the watch. "Let me help my parents forget whatever fight they had. Let me help them fix their relationship."

"JEON SEOL! Are you coming to supper?"

He was about to turn to answer his mother when his finger hit the button on the watch that he had been running his finger over. Before he realized it, his bedroom began to fade about him; becoming washed away like the patterns of the rain on the window glass. The ground beneath him swerved and Seol tried to catch his balance to prevent himself from falling. However, there was nothing for him to grab to keep his balance. He tried to reach out his free hand, but with nothing there he stumbled into what felt like empty space.

Seol couldn't see anything as he felt his whole body fall through the darkness surrounding him. The only things that he could register were the sound of the playlist still playing through the earbuds in his ears and the feel of the watch gripped tightly in one hand. The watch threatened to slip from his grip the longer he fell. He had to strain to keep his fingers tightly around it as his mind tried to process everything. Seol closed his eyes, hoping the darkness he had fallen into would vanish when he opened them.

As he opened his eyes, Seol realized he had gotten his wish. He was standing in his bedroom; the storm outside having dispersed. His eyes went to the window. It looked like there hadn't been any rain to begin with. The sky was blue and the sun was shining brightly. Seol turned his head to look about the room and noticed that the room may have been his bedroom, but it didn't look like it anymore. There was no furniture to be seen. No posters on the wall. Nothing. It was completely empty.

'I have to be dreaming,' Seol thought.

He would have continued to think that if it wasn't for the feeling of the cold watch still gripped in his hands. His eyes turned to look at it. Had his tinkering with the watch actually led to time travel finally? No. It couldn't be possible. He was just imagining things. He tucked the watch into his pocket as he made his way towards the bedroom door. Seol tugged the door open and saw that the hall was just as bare as his bedroom. He raced down the stairs as the music track changed; the earbuds falling out of his ears as he did. He grabbed them, tucking them hastily in his jean pocket as he reached the foot of the stairs to see that every room in the house was the same. They were all empty.

"MOM!" he screamed out as he raced from bare room to bare room. "DAD! Anyone?!"

Seol thought that he was completely by himself until he turned around quickly to race for the back room and ended up running headlong into someone wearing a suit. The man looked at him in a confused manner, quirking a brow.

"What are you doing here?" asked the man.

"Who are you?" Seol asked, "And where are my parents?"

"Well, I don't know, kid, but they aren't here. If they are coming to take a house tour, that doesn't start for another hour. I'm just here to finish setting things up."

"House tour?" he asked in confusion, "But my parents own this place! It's not for sale!"

The man looked at Seol with concern, digging out his phone.

"Maybe I should call an ambulance. You seem a bit confused..."

As the man entered his password into the phone and made the screen come to life, Seol happened to catch a glimpse of the time and date.

No. Freaking. Way.

Without explaining himself to the man, Seol raced outside the house and out the front door, standing on the lawn. He noticed the 'house tour' sign with the balloons tethered to it at the end of the walkway, racing to stand directly beside it. He looked up and down the street. Seol wasn't entirely sure what he was looking for. He supposed more than anything he was trying to let this new reality that he found himself in sink in properly.

2022. It was 2022. That was the year his parents first met. Maybe he could fix things after all.

"Hey kid!"

Seol turned to look back towards the doorway of the house he had known his whole life, looking at the realtor that stood there. He soon turned back around though, jogging off down the sidewalk. He didn't have time to try to explain things to the realtor. He had to find his parents. There still might be a way to fix his future. He at least had to try.

- - -

AN: I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter! There will be more to come!

If you were curious what Jeon Seol looks like, I'm basing him off young Jungkook. I mean, it's a Fanfiction anyway so why not. Below are two pictures so you can get an idea of what Jeon Seol looks like.

I do not own either picture.