It was the middle of the night and Jihoon felt exhausted.

After an intense marathon of performances and interviews they had started filming their new reality show just a few days ago and it grated on everyones' nerves. Therefore the mood was gloomy in the dormitory; even upbeat Seungkwan couldn't bring himself to make stupid jokes and Jeonghan looked like he would eat the face of everyone who dared to disturb his rest with even the slightest noise.

Jihoon was hungry. They hadn't had much time to relax during the last few days, falling into bed after practice at two in the morning and getting up at five thirty, so even the dream-eater had to catch up on much needed sleep. Before dozing off he had only managed to take a few bites out of whatever dream was already available - usually Chan's, since he fell asleep quickly.

But today had been a different matter: For the first time in over two weeks they had gotten an afternoon off. Jumping on this chance the boys were completely knocked out by ten pm - except for one little dream-eater, who fought hard against the waves of sleep that tried to overwhelm him.

At half past one he decided that it was safe enough to finally fill his rumbling stomach.

Creeping stealthily into the first bedroom he hid in the dark between the two bunk beds.

He had learned how to smoothly sneak into dreams years ago and close proximity definitely was a crucial factor. Thinking about his first attempt made him cringe even now, years later. Back then he had successfully infiltrated the dream of his former neighbor Kris (with a little help of his mother to be completely honest), but he had been so over-eager that he had fallen flat on his face right in front of the older student and that had hurt, even in a dream. Kris had woken up shortly after because he had been laughing too hard at Jihoon's misfortune.

Shaking off the sudden urge to rip his hair out, Jihoon concentrated on the people sleeping peacefully in their beds. It was the bedroom Seungkwan, Jisoo and Seokmin shared, making it the loudest as well as messiest.

Jihoon decided to start with Jisoo since his dreams were usually calm and filled with lyrics of random English ballads, the type of peace his sleep depraved mind craved. Taking a deep breath he reminded himself once again of his personal set of rules - stay out of sight as much as possible, only eat the small and unimportant parts, keep an eye out for lurking nightmares - and plunged right in.

Jihoon opened his eyes to the towering skyscrapers of a busy city. Colours and sounds were floating around the faceless mass of people that was crowding the streets. He followed the quiet sound of a guitar, knowing that it would eventually lead him to his host. On his way Jihoon picked up random small objects - a newspaper, an unclaimed hat, a dented sodacan - formed them into little orbs of pure white light and started snacking on them. Jisoo's dreams always tasted slightly sweet and fruity, reminding him of peaches.

After walking for a while the skyscrapers started to give way to a cloudless sky and large green fields filled with flowers. Hiding behind something that looked like a big oak tree growing blue leaves he watched Jisoo, who was sitting surrounded by what seemed to be at least a dozen baby-rabbits, playing his guitar. Jihoon smiled to himself and enjoyed the music.

While he contemplated whether to stay a bit longer and eat some of the fallen acorns or to jump to the next dream, he was interrupted by a shiver running down his spine. Looking around he saw a shadow slowly making its way towards the oblivious boy and his rabbits.

"Oh no you don't," he hissed, hastily getting up and nearly tumbling over his own feet, "we had one hell of a week, you're not going to ruin his only time to rest!"

The shapeless shadow started forming into something that resembled a rabid dog, long teeth gleaming dangerously and empty eyes focused on the rabbits.
Jihoon snuck a glance at Jisoo's back before he lunged at the shadow as quietly as he could. Hooking his arm around its neck they struggled for a few seconds, Jihoon shuddering at the alien feeling of the shadow beneath his fingers. Even though it looked like a dog it certainly didn't feel like one, instead it felt more like he was dipping his fingers into something cold and slimy. Finally he was able to overpower it, pushing it down and turning the dog into another orb by sheer willpower. This one was dark gray though, emitting only a very dim light. Wincing, Jihoon took a tentative bite, already mentally prepared for the terrible aftertaste of the nightmare - the things he did for his friends.

Leaving the successfully defended and still oblivious Jisoo behind Jihoon sank into the next dream.

This time he was part of an audience, watching the members - including himself - perform their newest song. Seokmin was standing in front of the others, singing the song pretty much by himself instead of only singing his designated parts. Jihoon snorted. He was already used to DK's antics in his dreams, which normally portrayed him either as some sort of superhero saving the world or a high-class celebrity. Today's theme seemed to be celebrity but it was nice that the rest of Seventeen was at least present (even though the outfit Seokmin had picked for Jihoon legitimated a punch in the face...).

Looking around for something to eat Jihoon saw some merchandise sellers not too far off, promoting terribly cringey stuff with Seokmin's name plastered all over it. Walking over, he examined a big teddybear (of course with DK's face) as well as a pink set of Property-of-Lee-Seokmin-. Jihoon decided that he would do the world a favour by getting rid of both of the goods.

After being chased around by the shopkeeper of the merchandise stand he found himself in the third and last dream of this bedroom. He groaned. As if eating a nightmare and Seokmin's little-bit-too-sour-for-his-taste dreams wasn't enough to cause slight nausea he now was in the loud and dizzying world of Boo Seungkwan.

Jihoon knew no one else whose dreams were as wild and disconnected as his. Bright colourful lights were flashing everywhere, loud music was playing and a child's voice was screaming "I hate tomatoes" in the distance. There was no floor, but the walls were endless, some of them seethrough, others made out of random material - was that cheese? - creating some sort of maze. He didn't even try to hide after finding Seungkwan floating around aimlessly and humming a tune to himself. As crazy as his dreams seemed, his friends were always around somewhere in the maze, so ultimately it didn't matter if he saw the real Jihoon. Of course Seungkwan spotted him and waved frantically, gliding towards him.

"Hyung! Have you seen the duck? It's ginormous! And the horse still tried to catch it."

"Uuuh yeah, sure. Seungkwan, do you mind if I eat some of your walls? I'm kinda hungry..."

"Go ahead but let me get the others too, eating is always more fun in a group!"

While Seungkwan was busy trying to find the members, Jihoon walked towards the cheese wall, breaking off a few chunks. Although Seungkwan's dreams were overwhelming and too loud most of the time, the actual taste wasn't bad. Slightly spicy but also mixed with a certain sweetness, like eating Ddeokbokki on a cold night. Jihoon had to physically stop himself from eating too much; after all he didn't want to leave a hole in the dream for the nightmares to crawl in.

Deciding that it was time to move on he closed his eyes.