The days seemed to be passing more slowly than they had before. Maybe it was because you were so tired. Every day you stared at Namjoon’s empty seat in class, and after school you went to his house. His mother remained pleased to see you, but you could tell she was getting more depressed every day. You felt more trapped in Namjoon’s house but couldn’t stop yourself from going there. You wanted to find him, and it didn’t seem like the police was doing anything.

Eventually his mother led you to his room. For some reason you had wanted to go there. It felt like you were closer to him there. His mother was just happy that someone missed her son, you thought as you stepped into his room. It was organized. There was a bed, a desk, a desk chair and a wardrobe with a mirror next to it. There were no clothes on the floor and all of his books were neatly stacked in a row on his desk.

“They couldn’t find anything in his room.” His mother said, her voice sounded broken, “they don’t understand why he’s gone.. They say.. He probably didn’t run away.. So that means..” Someone kidnapped him. You didn’t say it out loud but nodded a little, sitting down on Namjoon’s bed. Who could possibly want to do that to Namjoon? You bit your tongue. His mother excused herself from the room. Clearly it upset her too much. You didn’t answer her, fatigue was wearing you down.

For some reason, even though it was his bed, you lay down on your side and tried to fight the sleep. Your fingers brushed over the clean fabric of his pillowcase. Then you felt it. Something hard underneath the pillow. Suddenly more awake you reached and pulled a small notebook away from underneath his pillow. It was a dark blue notebook with a hard cover. For a second you stopped. Reading it could be invading his privacy. If it was a journal then you really shouldn’t read it. Then you opened it.

It was a dream journal. On page one Namjoon had started writing about dreams becoming more and more frequent. Your heart stopped. It felt like you had found something. Of course this wouldn’t be helpful to police officers, but to you this was a huge revelation.

‘I keep dreaming about a strange kingdom. The people there tell me it’s called “Home”, which honestly really frustrates and confuses me. I keep meeting the same people all over again. Every night is the same. Since I keep forgetting my dreams, I want to write them down. If I keep dreaming about it, it must have a meaning, right?

In my dreams, I meet Jungkook again. Maybe I really miss him. For some reason, though, he has cat ears. I suppose dreams are just like that, aren’t they?’ At this point you stopped reading. Jungkook. Of course it could just be a coincidence that Namjoon was dreaming of a boy with the same name, but a boy that looked the same? A Jungkook with cat ears. You tucked the dream journal under your vest. It couldn’t be left here. No one else could use it anyway, and you needed it.

Suga had thrown yet another one of his tea parties. Of course, every day was a tea party to him, but today was a special occasion. Or at least so you had been told. For this special occasion JHope had invited you to his mansion. No one was shy to say that JHope’s house was a lot smaller than the King’s castle, but JHope boasted about his house as if it was the largest, prettiest building in the world.

“You’ve seen my ballroom. You must agree that it’s the nicest ballroom you’ve ever been in, right?” He asked you. As for usual the duke’s voice rang loud and clear. You suspected it was magic, but you could always hear his voice when you were in his house. JHope spread his arms open dramatically and in front of you a wall spit out a door. JHope motioned for you to go over to it.

The door that lay still on the floor, had somehow sunken into the marble floor. Cautiously you walked over to it. Then you turned the doorknob. You had been certain that there was no opening there before, but now there was an opening that lead to a grandiose ballroom. You glanced over at JHope, who was smiling proudly.

“Go on! You can’t see very much from here!” He shouted. You glanced at the room. Yes, you could step through the door, but wouldn’t you fall? With a sigh, and much unnecessary flailing of his arms, JHope stepped over and took your hand. Then he gracefully stepped into the ballroom. You felt slightly seasick and glanced back through the door. You could see the ceiling of JHope’s house.

“No, you’re not looking!” He let out a whine and kicked the door closed. It dissolved into the fancy wall that was covered in golden carvings and mirrors. You turned your head and glanced through the ballroom. It was the nicest ballroom you had ever seen, but it was also the only ballroom you had ever seen. It was a large room. The floor was made of varnished oak wood and reflected the light that fell in through the large glass windows to your right. The ceiling was painted to look like a blue sky with a couple of white clouds. They seemed to be drifting along slowly. The golden rays of the sun that entered through the window made the room look even more beautiful.

“It’s stunning.” You answered honestly. JHope grinned, nodding as if he already knew this. Of course he already knew this, he suffered from an overload of self-confidence. JHope swung his hands with great flair and a closet that hadn’t been there before suddenly opened, revealing a large amount of dresses. Then the duke led you to the closet.

“Pick one. Any one. All clothes in my house are beautiful.” He grinned, gesturing for you to enter the closet that was much larger than it had appeared from the outside. You didn’t doubt its ability to hold over fifty dressed and stepped inside, inspecting the dresses. In front of a blue dress you stopped and glanced back at the opening of the door. JHope was admiring himself in a mirror.

“Can I wear this one?” You asked, picking up the blue dress. He flicked his hand, gesturing to something on your right. Apparently there was a fitting room in this increasingly large closet.

“Areum? Can you hear me?” Somewhere you knew it was your mother’s voice calling out to you. Disappointed that she’d interrupted your dream you opened your eyes and rubbed them. Your mother sighed. She was sitting next to your bed, looking worried. You sat up and glanced around you. Why was she in your room?

“Yeah.. Why? What’s going on?” You tried your best to repress a yawn and rubbed your eyes once more, trying to find out what was happening. You couldn’t be late for school, today was a Saturday..

“It’s almost two in the afternoon.. I couldn’t wake you up, and you looked really pale.” Your mother sounded very distressed. You tried to recall what Namjoon had written in his dream journal. He said that he had been sleeping more, apparently, but that he still felt tired. Over the months that he had written in his journal it kept getting worse. Was it happening to you, too? How many people had these kinds of dreams?

“I’ll go take a shower..” You promised your mother half-heartedly and left your room mostly to avoid her scared eyes. They reminded you of Namjoon’s mother. You couldn’t tell her about Namjoon, of course. Namjoon had the same sleeping trouble as you did, and then he disappeared. It would only make your mother more worried. And you didn’t want to think about disappearing.

The hot water of the shower was barely enough to keep you awake, but after taking the shower you felt less sleepy and dizzy. After allowing your mother to cook you breakfast, you didn’t feel very hungry, you sat down on the couch and flipped through Namjoon’s sleep journal. His dream logs got more and more detailed the more you read through them. As you did, you found yourself remembering dreams of your own. They weren’t identical, but you recognized the places he talked about and the people he met in his dreams.

‘Today I dreamed about visiting JHope again. He’s the duke. I don’t really get how it works. Home is a kingdom, so why is there a duke? He seems to be the only duke in the country, too. His house is very big. Jungkook wanted to play hide and seek in it, of course. We had a big hide and seek party in there with Jin, Suga and Jimin. V didn’t want to play with us, he’s very sleepy recently. Jin said that it’s time for him to start hibernating. Jimin won hide and seek. I think it’s because he’s a rabbit.’

Underneath his writing Namjoon had made a small doodle of one of the rooms in JHope’s house. It wasn’t a room you recognized. Maybe that was a good sign. Then again, you didn’t remember all of your dreams. What if you had seen this room? Frustrated you flipped the page. Namjoon was now writing about Suga’s tea parties. Your eyes fell on underlined words. Honey Juice. Had you ever drank any of that? Sure, Suga had given it to you often but you’d brushed it off most of the time, right?

‘It doesn’t taste like honey at all. It’s so strange. It made me feel a lot more happy, but when I woke up I felt really tired. It keeps coming to my mind even though I’m awake now. What kind of taste could it have been? I hope I can dream of it again.’ You’d have to remember not to drink the Honey Juice, then. It didn’t seem to be doing Namjoon any good. You flipped the page to read more of Namjoon’s dreams.

He talked about Jimin, a boy with rabbit ears. You were no longer surprised to see him writing about people you’d met in your dreams, but still shivered at the way he described it. It was exactly the way you would have described Jimin. Always moving, fidgeting, wanting to dance. Jimin, Namjoon said, had started talking about his dreams. Jimin had said that while Namjoon was sleeping, he was visiting their world. He’d also said that Namjoon might like to stay with them a little longer, but Namjoon hadn’t been sure what that meant. That was all the page mentioned.

The next page Namjoon said he’d been invited to another party. JHope was throwing one, and there was supposed to be another guest whom he knew. But the guest was late. Namjoon continued to say he only caught a glimpse of the guest, but that he didn’t understand what this meant. He assumed that seeing Jungkook just meant that he missed him, but why..-

‘Why is Areum in my dreams now?’

You stared at the sentence. Underneath it Namjoon had written more in a different colour. He must have added this later on. ‘Areum talked to me today. I wonder if it’s coincidence but she looks the same as me. I think I should talk to her, but how can I bring up something like this? She might think I’m crazy.’

The next page was his last entry. Jin, the King, was planning a big party for the next night. Jungkook had been mysterious about it but smiled a lot at the mention of the party. Namjoon was worried about this, because Jungkook had shown himself to be mischievous. Then, he said, Jungkook had told him Areum was invited as well, but that she probably wouldn’t be there. Suddenly you heard Jungkook’s voice ringing loudly in your head.

“Areum’s mom is very strict and she doesn’t want Areum to have fun!”

It felt like he’d been right beside you. Worried you closed the notebook and glanced around you to see if you had fallen asleep again. You were still in the same spot on the couch. With a sigh of relief you glanced at the book, almost not daring to open it again. But you had to. This notebook held the answer to where Namjoon was.

‘I saw Areum again today. She was tired and she fell asleep. I’m sure now that she has the same dreams that I do. I’m going to try and talk to her in my dream tonight. Then, tomorrow, if I mention it to her, I will know for certain! Maybe Areum can help me figure out what’s going on.’ That was the end of Namjoon’s writing. You bit your tongue and flipped through the rest of the pages, but there was nothing there.

If Namjoon had seen you in his dreams, maybe you could see him in your dreams. Maybe you could find him in your dreams, then. Maybe that’s where he was? You glanced at the notebook. Through his writings Namjoon had expressed enjoying being there a lot. You had no choice but to go back to sleep. You couldn’t leave him behind there, no matter how much he liked it. You missed him.

“Areum!” You blinked, noticing your mother standing in front of you. “You’re not falling asleep are you? That’s it! I’m taking you to see a doctor!” She reached out and grabbed your hand, starting to drag you towards the door. You barely had time to place Namjoon’s notebook on top of your schoolbag before your mother could take you outside. Needless to say the doctor couldn’t find anything wrong with you.

“Hey, are you awake?” You opened an eye and noticed you were lying in a grassy field. Jungkook was crouched in front of you and kept poking at your shoulder. You nodded vaguely and sat up. Jungkook had vanished and by now you knew him well enough to tell he was behind you before he started speaking. “You sure took a long time to get here today! You should stay here with me for a long time and play with me, because you made me wait so long!” You got up, not bothering to turn around since Jungkook would no longer be behind you when you turned around. Indeed he appeared in front of you again, grinning widely as he often did.

“How do you know where to find me anyway?” You asked him, lightly nudging his chest to get some more distance between the two of you. Jungkook tilted his head to the side so far it just rested on his shoulder. After a few silent seconds he shrugged and grabbed your hand, starting to drag you with him towards the forest. You knew that Suga was inside there somewhere, having a tea party.

“You show up in front of me, you know? I think it’s you who’s always finding me. So annoying~” Jungkook half sang. As a punishment for his teasing you didn’t reply to him and twisted your hand out of his hold, just walking beside him. He looked at you, his eyes large in shock.

“Hey.. Areum! Areum, hold my hand!” He ordered you, jumping in front of you. You raised an eyebrow and crossed your arms over your chest. Jungkook frowned and turned around, suddenly vanishing again. He’d be back though, you didn’t think he would ever really leave. And you knew the way to Suga’s table pretty well.

As you predicted he didn’t really leave. Once you were only a few meters removed from the open place where Suga’s table was, a pair of arms wrapped around you and pulled you back. Something was tickling your neck, and when you glanced down you could see the black tail swishing next to your legs.

“You have to stay with me.” The cat whispered into your shoulder, tightening his hold a little. You reached back and ruffled his hair, accidently brushing your fingers over his ears. One of those had been tickling your neck, you now realized. They were very soft and fuzzy. “You have to say I’m your favorite over Rap Monster, okay?” Rap Monster? You didn’t remember that name, but only one face came to mind.

Without missing a second, that same face appeared from behind a tree. Namjoon was grinning brightly, jumping out to meet you. Jungkook, who you could swear had been purring just a few moments earlier, hissed and darted out in front of you. Namjoon brushed him aside easily and held his hand out to you.

“We were just about to organize a search party Areum. Thank you for bringing our furrball, I think.” He gave the hissing Jungkook a glance and grinned once more.