Urghh. He was here again. It had been a while since he last came here, two months since he met Minwoo isn’t it? How funny he almost forgotten about this.

            He wanted to lie down a bit more but though lazily, he get up anyway. Dongwan looked around, he was in a completely blank space, which was not actually blank but filled with white nothingness. He gave up wondering if the space has its boundaries, he was not even sure the floor existed or not other than he was standing on something solid.

            Like before, he began to walk, searching for a clue on how to get out from this lonely nothingness. Only that he knew now what he should be looking for, because this dream had been looping for the umpteenth times. He just need to keep walking until he encountered those shadowy figures.

            See, there they were. The difference this time was the figures are not shadowy anymore. The five figures now closely resembled the people he knew, they were showing only their backs to him from a distance. He could not see the faces but he could correctly guess who they were, now. And the figure on the most left would turn around to look at him. It was Eric.

            In the version before this, Dongwan would extend his hand towards them to ask for help, but always, always, he could not reach them. He would try to walk toward them but the more he stepped, the further those figures moved with Eric watching his pathetic being, doing nothing, and his body would felt heavier by the second until he fell. He would fell into the depth of infinity and a white bright light would woke him up from the empty dreams, into the heartache of lonesome wakefulness.

            That was before. This time, Dongwan just stood there aloof. He looked at Eric who was looking back at him, like always. Both were waiting for one or the other to do something, the scene was deafening with undisturbing silence. Then, Eric opened his mouth. He was speaking, but Dongwan could not make out what he was saying, the only thing he could hear was silence. No. Eric was actually shouting at him, his faces wrinkled with exertion. Eric then stretch out his hand towards Dongwan, as if trying to catch him. With that, Dongwan started to run toward them as hard as he never run before, holding out his own hand to catch the one stretched in his direction.

            He thought he almost made it, but some kind of force pulled him backwards forcefully. He could see Eric was shouting at him as he fell and fell into the white nothingness. Ahh, this is the end, he thought. The white light would wake him up and all of this would be over again. Just as he finished his thought, his surrounding suddenly changed into horrifying dark red, gradually engulfing his body. He screamed.

            And then Dongwan woke up, drenched in cold sweat, on his bed in the dark silent room. He held his head in both hands, trying to stop the vertigo sensation. Something felt heavy in the pit of his stomach and he felt nauseated that he could vomit. Dongwan staggered to the bathroom and crouched in front of the toilet bowl. He waited, but nothing came out so he gave up and went to the sink to wash his sweating face.

            Dongwan groaned tiredly and looked at his horrible reflection. He had been dreaming this dream quite often since about a year ago, but he never feel as bad as this. He wanted to process the new information he got from this dream but he was too tired he could not think straight.

            Eric... why Eric?? A year ago he asked the same question. He wondered from where he saw that princely man, most probably because Eric was the actor in a drama which Dongwan had the chance to watch. But why so sudden? Dongwan was sure he was straight as hell, so there would be no way he would be attracted to a MAN on the TELEVISION until it invaded his dreams.

            Being as superstitious as he was, he went to a fortune-teller who told him, ‘If you follow your dream, you will find the love that you lost. But whatever you choose to gain will come with a price…’ He had no idea what that meant though.

            Dongwan could easily searched about Eric on the internet. But he did not. Because he was afraid. Finally, he left his unanswered question to the hand of fate.

            And fate did him brilliantly alright. The first moment he saw the real, breathing Eric in front of his eyes, he thought he was dreaming. But the pain from choking his water.. it was definitely real. Eric was far more handsome than he remembered from his dream.

            His expectation was that the man could provide him some answer anyhow. Or maybe a clue to explain the uneasiness that was bothering him. But how to approach Eric? The stranger would freak out and called him crazy if he tell him those. Everyone would though.

            Then, Dongwan recalled his hostile encounter with Eric the day before. It must be Eric who turned his dream bizzare this way. Thinking about Eric made him annoyed and he just had the urged to seek revenge on his disturbed sleep.

……

                Dongwan visited the company that morning just to piss Eric off. He even brought a tray of takeout coffees to the recording studio, where all the members were perplexed to see him standing by the door.

            Minwoo was especially happy because it was the first time Dongwan made an effort to see him FIRST, without him the one initiating it, which was a good sign of progress for their relationship. Hyesung in the other hand could not look at Dongwan squarely in the face, as he was still embarrassed from the last encounter. Meanwhile, Junjin was curious to see the strange man while Eric.. he was not particularly amused by the guest.

“It’s been a long time guys,” Dongwan greeted with a smile. “I bring coffee~ but there are only four.. wait where is Andy?”

Minwoo answered a little too cheery, “Yah Dongwan, you came! Andy has something up with his company so he’s not coming today.”

“Ah really? Gooood so there’s enough coffee for everyone,” Dongwan was disappointed that his plan did not work out like he intended.

            Everyone moved noisily towards Dongwan to claimed their coffee. “Wait,” Eric interrupted sternly, halting everyone and attracted all eyes on him. He took one and sniffed the drink provocatively, then pointed the cup towards Dongwan. “You drink it first.”

Everyone was weirded by Eric’s behaviour. “Yah! Don’t be rude!” Hyesung scolded Eric, who was not moving his eyes and hand from the guest.

            Without hesitation, Dongwan took the cup and carefully drank it as the coffee was still hot, all the while having staring battle with Eric. Having made a point, he firmly returned the cup to Eric.

‘Great. Now I have to drink his saliva,’ Eric grunted in his mind.

            Dongwan broke the awkward silence, “Do I need to drink the rest too?”

            Minwoo quickly responded, “It’s ok Dongwan-ah. I’m sorry for this. I don’t know what’s wrong with this kid.” Minwoo glared at Eric crossly. “While you are here, why not you watch us recording? Now is Jinnie’s turn and he’s going to rap,” Minwoo suggested while looking hopefully at Dongwan.

Dongwan gave a regretful look. “Ahh sorry Minwoo, need to go to work now. I just thought I should come by while I was in the area. Thank you though.”

Minwoo was disappointed but he chuckled good-humouredly, “That’s too bad. Anyway, thanks for the coffee!”

            Dongwan smiled friendly to everyone and when Eric’s turn, a corner of his lip lifted up in a triumph smirk. Then, he waved everyone goodbye cheerfully and walked out from the room. Everyone else waving back at him, absolutely joyous with the free delicious hot beverages in the sleepy morning. To that, Eric rolled his eyes and scoffed at how childish was Dongwan’s plan to irritate him. Absent-mindedly, he drank his cup of coffee before realising he was drinking from the enemy’s saliva.

p/s: teehee this is so simple. hmm..