Chapter Text
“◯◯! Don’t swim too far away from the shore, okay?”
“Got it mom!” he hears himself say, but who is he if he won’t break a rule or two, right?
The adults are pre-occupied with preparations for lunch, and the sun is overhead, placed in the center of a clear blue sky. He’s just floating with his back against the water, but it’s as if he’s the one being seared on his father’s grill; cold and salty seawater takes him back to the real world.
So he swims a bit more, looks back and he thinks his family look like ants at this distance. It’s really funny to see them waving in panic like he isn’t the best swimmer in their region right now. He faintly hears his mom shout at him to swim back, but he wants to stay in the water for longer. He can almost see the safety net. Will he be able to reach it before his mom loses her patience?
It’s a challenge, he thinks. He takes a deep breath and braces himself for a planned energy spurt to reach it and swim back to shore in record time, even though nobody’s holding a stopwatch.
He swims and swims, and the fairly tame waves crash on him while he does. Being in water is the best. The resistance makes him feel like there’s something to win at the end of the line, so he strives for it.
Until he feels a jolt of inner pain in his left leg, and he loses his balance in the water despite being carried by it. Alarm bells are blaring in his head, but there’s no need to panic, really. Cramps are normal because he really loves the water— it’s the best, but the love of his life is engulfing him deeper and he thinks maybe it would have been better if there were more clouds to make pictures of in the sky today.
Yushi wakes up abruptly, what the hell was that? He doesn’t even swim, his life revolves around the track, but the feeling of drowning felt so real. He grabs his phone that’s been blaring the worst alarm tone for longer than he’d like it to have been.
Shit. He’s about to be late for an important exam. He splashes water on his face and briefly gags at the feeling of it, tasting a bit of salt at the back of his mind.
He rummages through his closet for something nice to wear but settles with a hoodie instead, laces his shoes, and sprints.
The stoplight at the intersection blinks a flashing green, running 8-bit legs picking up its pace mirroring his own, and he’s so so close. A mop of black hair and cycling legs in his peripheral vision, a loud voice saying “CAREFUL!!”, a sharp pang slamming at his sides, and he’s falling down to his feet.
Ans then he’s losing his balance again from his seat? What? When he blinks his eyes open he sees himself from another point of view, darker fringe dimming his vision a little more. Yushi’s? his body’s hands grasping his own waist. “Are.. you okay?” he hears his own voice mumble from his body on the ground, looking like a joke because his face is wincing in pain.
HUH?? I was the one who got ran into by a fucking bicycle!
Yushi-on-the-ground opens his eyes to look at the perpetrator, which is himself— he should be the one who’s vengeful at this inconvenience, yet guilt is consuming his heart instead. Yushi-on-the-ground’s mouth just gapes as he’s processing the whole thing. Yushi wasn’t even aware his own mouth could open that wide.
People are crowding now to look at their accident, nondescript chatter surrounding them. He looks around and sees a police officer slowly walking to them.
“What happened here, young lads?”
What the hell is he supposed to say? He’s not the one all knowing of this cyclist’s motivation and negligence driving them into this freak accident. He looks at the eyes he’s known his whole life, conveying a whirlpool of unspoken emotions, but presently above all: he’s asking for help.
And it’s good that this person can take a hint, because Yushi’s body speaks, using a more casual vocabulary than his own.
“It’s all good, officer. I’m fine. We’ll settle this ourselves. He wasn’t too quick when it happened, and I tried to beat the spotlight because I’m running late.”
“Okay, just be careful next time, boys. Move aside now.”
“Thank you officer, apologies again for this.”
He helps knocked-down-Yushi pick up the effects, haphazardly grabbing his items. His own items. Yushi-mpostor checks his bicycle and hurriedly stows it to the nearest sidewalk. It looks like a comic, really. If he watched this from a third person’s point of view he’d be laughing his ass off, but alas, he’s one of the main characters in this farce.
“Speak.” He demands from himself.
“Maeda Riku. A junior at NCTU. I’m so sorry, I was running late for class..” his own body, his own voice speaks to him, sporting facial expressions he never knew he could wear. He knows curiosity when he sees it.
“Tokuno Yushi, sophomore. Look. I know this whole thing is freaky and I’m honestly scared as hell but here’s the thing, Maeda Riku-san. I have an important calculus exam at 8:00AM. And I can’t fail it if I want to keep my scholarship.”
He fishes for the phone in his coat pocket, and moves to fish for his own in Yushi-mpostor’s pant pocket to unlock it and cringes when he sees the screen cracked up at the sides. He gives his unlocked phone to Maeda-Yushi and it’s really godsent that Riku moves without him asking for it because he’s already typing his number on his phone. He does the same on Riku’s phone.
“Contact details. You know where the neo building is, right? Room 415, that’s where my exam is. Please try to at least get a passing mark, I’ll consider you forgiven if you do.”
“Alright Tokuno-san, consider it done. My class is at the west building at room 302. It’s a major course so please take notes if you can..”
“Take your bike for me, Maeda-san. The exam has already started.” Yushi says nonchalantly, fixing his bag on his shoulders, and Riku watches him as he sprints off again, fixating on his own body slowly getting smaller and smaller as the distance between them expands.
/
Yushi feels like shit. He hates math. Now he has to sit through a Complex Analysis class in the middle of the semester when he hasn’t even tackled these integral formulae in his year level yet.
But if there’s anything Yushi’s good at, it’s at powering through the things he hates with sheer will, so he grits his teeth and tries to make sense of the jumble of functions, listens intently and takes notes. Maeda Riku’s notebook is well kept, he’ll give that to him, so he tries to make it as perfect as possible.
Big problem, though. The professor is discussing something that’ll inevitably lead to a question, and his gut is screaming at him to bolt out of this room.
“Anybody care to show how this can be done to the class?” aaand there it is.. please PLEASE please no, NOT Maeda.. Anybody but— “Maeda?” fuck.
“Hasegawa-sensei, I haven’t made sense of it yet.”
“Ahh our Maeda-kun, ever so humble. I’m sure you can answer it the best out of everyone, come here now.”
He feels his legs turn into jelly while he’s trudging down the steps, but his coursemates look at him like it’s the second coming of Christ. He can’t let them down like this.
He lets them down like That. Yushi in Kami-sa-Maeda Riku’s body fails to answer the example on the board even if there were residual memories of how it could have been done. But the answer isn’t far off from what the correct one is, so he considers it a win, anyway. At the very least, he’s extremely relieved that Riku on behalf of him, is going to pass his intermediate calculus exam with flying colors.
He has to apologize to Riku, though. This looks like a blunder on his otherwise perfect class record. It may not be a big deal to Riku himself, but Yushi feels like his mistake is enough to absolve him of what happened in the morning.
The bell rings and he immediately grabs his phone, the exam should have been done by now, too.
to MAEDA RIKU [10:22]
We’re done.
from MAEDA RIKU [10:22]
Tokuno-san, are you breaking up with me? (´༎ຶོρ༎ຶོ`)
to MAEDA RIKU [10:24]
Maeda-san…
Please this isn’t the time for jokes. Where can we meet?
from MAEDA RIKU [10:26]
Cafe7dream, down the block. Already walking.
You know it, right?
What do you like? (´∀｀)
to MAEDA RIKU [10:27]
?
Ah.. just a latte please..
He spots Riku’s bike parked without a lock in the lot. They weren’t able to exchange their bags before going to class, so of course he has Riku’s items. Ah, another thing to apologize for. He rummages through Riku’s bag to at least place a safety lock on his bike before setting off to walk to the café.
Yushi arrives at Cafe7DREAM, and it’s still weird seeing his own mop of rose gold blonde hair through someone else’s eyes.
Riku beams at him, gesturing at him to sit at the table he saved, and he’s aware he has a charming smile, but he hasn’t ever looked that bright. Maybe it’s just the way the sunlight hits him from the window, though.
“I’m sorry..” Yushi says immediately after sitting down, and Riku looks at him in confusion
“What for..? I’m supposed to be the one saying sorry, Tokuno-san. For bumping into you this morning.” Yushi still hasn’t lifted his head up from the guilt of whatever he’s apologizing for.
“I got called during your class.. and I wasn’t able to answer it correctly..” Riku just laughs at his dilemma and maybe Yushi should be offended, but the way he laughs in a manner that’s probably Riku’s usual, in Yushi’s own tone honestly lifts the weight off his chest. He hasn’t seen himself laugh that hard, too.
“Eh, it’s whatever! You don’t have to worry too much about it, Tokuno-san. Here, your vanilla latte.” Riku slides the tray closer to him, and there’s a plate of french macarons, “Wasn’t sure about what you wanted to snack on, but figured macarons would be safe.”
Yushi immediately gets his bag from Riku’s side to look for his wallet, but as he opens it, the other already placed a hand to stop him
“No, it’s my treat, Tokuno-san. It’s the least I could do for what happened this morning. Please, I insist.”
“Okay... but let’s share it… And here, I’m sorry again Maeda-san.” Yushi drops Riku’s bike lock keys on the table, which elicits another laugh from Riku.
“It’s fine, it’s fine! We were both on auto-pilot that time. You already secured it for me, I presume? Thank you so much.” Riku asks, eyes still smiling. It’s really so so weird to see his own face making these expressions. And maybe it’s even weirder for his heart to skip a beat over his own face, but Riku is so damn good at being charming.
Yushi takes a bite of the macarons, a sip of the latte, and he doesn’t remember it being this sweet. He keeps on munching on them confused about the recipe, and in silence, Riku thinks he’s like a cat that’s just been tamed with treats.
He only had the same orders a few days ago. How Riku knew what to get for him down to the exact type of latte, he doesn’t know. If Renjun-ge was on the counter, he’d have suggested his usual just by seeing the rose gold blonde, but it’s a new intern manning the counter right now.
Maybe it’s from what Riku’s tongue senses? It’s really too sweet though, he can’t enjoy it like this if it feels like a spoonful of sugar every time he takes a bite.
“Maeda-san.. are you perhaps.. not good with sweets?”
Yushi notices Riku sipping on his iced oolong tea, and his eyes flit to the piece of salt bread on his side of the table, so Yushi got his answer before Riku even spoke.
“Yeah.. but I should have gotten more sugar for my drink. It tastes really bland now for some reason?”
They both laugh when realize it at the same time, looking into each other’s eyes.
“You want to switch? Our bodies obviously miss our usual orders.” Riku suggests earnestly
“I think that’s the best course of action, Maeda-san. Let’s discuss what we need to do to switch our bodies back, too.”
“Just Riku is fine if you’re good with that. We’ve already gone into third base by swapping souls”
“Don’t say weird things with my mouth please… but fine, Riku-san.” Yushi finds that Riku’s name rolls off his tongue comfortably. And the oolong tea tastes just right sitting on it, too.
“Okay this is the dumbest but also simultaneously the most logical solution I can think of. Hit me with my bike again” Yushi looks at him like he sprouted a second head.
“Riku-san… that’s.. how about we hit your body instead?” Riku laughs at the ballsiness that he didn’t know Yushi had, but it’s fitting when it’s coming from his own face. “It’s unfair I’ll get hit twice, and I have track practice later, can you even manage?”
“Your leg is fine, Yushi-kun. I patched it up while waiting for you to finish, and I might not look like it but I think I can run.” Riku answers, follows with “It’s you I’m worried about. I have volleyball after class, I’m a setter.”
“I’ll manage, I promise.” Yushi probably wouldn’t, he’s much more used to utilizing his legs instead of his arms, but he does have a quick reaction time, he’ll just have to remember how to play from his middle school activities.
“Be careful with my body, Riku-san…” Riku places a hand over his shit-eating grin, eyes with mischief, one eyebrow raised “Oh..? Oh..? Yushi-san.. I’ll be so, so gentle with your body”
“I DIDN’T MEAN IN THAT WAY.. RIKU-SAN!!!”
“Of course I’m kidding!! I’ll take care of you. I’m an athlete too, I’m acquainted with the know-hows.”
Yushi hums, and drinks from his tea while thinking of other non-violent ways to reverse the curse, but getting hit with a bike really is the most logical one if it’s what got them into this situation in the first place.
“Still thinking?.. Well.. what if.. what if we need to kiss?”
Yushi chokes on his drink, punches his chest while coughing strenuously “Ri.. Riku-san.. what the hell..”
“Think about it, it’s what usually works in fiction, maybe it’ll work for us, too” Yushi actually considers it, but it’s too outrageous to kiss someone you just met.
He does feel comfortable around Riku, though he doesn’t warm up that easily around new people. Maybe it’s the way Riku just radiates energy without it being too overwhelming, and he thinks that even though he’s cursed, at least the other receiving end is someone who’s actually pleasant.
“I think it’ll take a long time for us to actually get out of this curse, so in the meantime let’s discuss your usual schedule, who your friends are, how do you usually act?” Riku says while pulling out loose paper and a pen from Yushi’s bag.
“Okay, so.. My schedule, I’ll send it to you over text.” Yushi taps on his screen and Riku hears his phone ring, but the younger just continues “Sion-hyung from track, he’s my best friend. There’s also Daeyoung from track, he’s younger than us. From class, my close friends are Naoi Rei, Lee Chanyoung who usually goes by Anton, and Ezaki Hikaru. I think that’s about it.”
“How about your family?” to this, Yushi stills for a moment, but he answers
“I don’t live with them currently, you don’t have to worry about it. What about you, Riku-san?”
“I do live with mine. I have two older sisters but they’re usually not home, the eldest one is Ritsu-neesan and the middle child is Airi-neesan. My mom checks up on me a lot when I’m home, but just try to be as warm as possible”
“I’ve sent you my schedule as well, my friends from volleyball are Seunghan and Sunoo. In class there’s Nakamura Kazuha, Lee Sohee, and An Yujin. They’re a bit perceptive and I’m always in high spirits so I fear you’d lose your social battery quickly, but just don’t let honorifics slip and you’ll be fine”
Yushi nods at the information, and Riku rips the half of the paper where he jot down information about his life, even down to the food he usually eats.
If he’s being honest, Yushi feels like this is a blind date albeit too formal, but he brushes off the thought before reading through Riku’s notes, head in his hands, exasperated at the realization that the situation they're in is even larger than life.