An all-familiar white ceiling greets Chanyeol the moment he cracks open an eye, and in his confusion his sleep-addled mind tells him that you’re probably back in your room because Kyungsoo kissed you last night. Delight instantly washes over Chanyeol, and a sleepy yet content smile starts to form on his face. When he recalls what had happened after the kiss, Chanyeol’s other eye flies open and an utterly deep shade of crimson floods his cheeks, his face, and even creeps past his neck to colour his chest. The smile on his face widens, a prominent heart shape forming. Oh wow, Chanyeol thinks, with a hand absentmindedly scratching at where his heart is (because it’s inexplicably searing), I really did have se– s- with Soo, huh.

He mulls over that thought for a couple of seconds before bursting out into a fit of giggles which he tries to muffle by smothering his face into his pillow. Chanyeol giggles into it for a while before emerging for air with a loud inhalation. The sound sounds rather cutesy, and prompts yet another round of giggles from Chanyeol, after which he crosses his arms on the pillow before resting his chin in the crook of an elbow. Chanyeol stares at a spot of the wall above the bed, a bout of confusion seeping into him when a tiny thought swims into his head—strange, I don't recall not having a headboard—and out, with an oddly pleasant sense of contentment beginning to flood him instead. Chanyeol just stares at the same spot, not knowing that a small, silly smile has formed on his face.

He stays that way for an unknown period of time, content with just staring at the same spot, his chin unmoving and half-buried in the same crook of an elbow. Chanyeol only stirs from his position when his arms start to feel numb, the feeling of pins and needles slowly but surely creeping up his limbs. Shutting his eyes, he turns to lie on his back instead, hugging the pillow to his chest. A soft tune begins to fill the room as Chanyeol starts to hum, bopping his head in random directions which are totally out of sync with his man-made music. Still humming, Chanyeol opens his eyes, lifting his gaze to look up at the room’s white ceiling. As his eyes move, he catches sight of objects that he finds familiar—far too familiar—objects that supposedly do not exist in his room but, well, Chanyeol’s far too giddy, far too happy to let himself think about trivial stuff like that. The white ceiling fills his vision, and Chanyeol stares. A while later, he reaches for it with a hand. He doesn’t know why but he feels the urge to look at his hand, and so he flits his eyes to it.

A second later, Chanyeol screams.

---

When Chanyeol is well-fed with dumb he actually is. Mrs Zhang’s breakfast (porridge!) and on the way to school with Yixing sitting next to him on the bus, he finally realises just how

He vaguely recalls how he and Kyungsoo (or dream-he and dream-Kyungsoo) kissed and had in Kyungsoo’s own bedroom. And if the kiss had worked (or had been real in the first place), Chanyeol would have woken up in his own bedroom instead. He’d taken for granted that any white ceiling automatically equals the same white ceiling in his bedroom (apparently still not learning his lesson when it comes to white ceilings), and had truly believed that he had with Kyungsoo. Had smothered Kyungsoo with kisses that gradually became marks that Chanyeol unabashedly wanted to leave on his body to show that the happened.

Well, it didn’t ing happen.

Instead, what happened was when Chanyeol screamed, Yixing, expectedly, came running into the room with at least show your head so I know you’re still alive Soo; he can never find it in himself to disobey Yixing’s parents because they’re such genuinely amazing people. Seemingly content to see that Chanyeol—Kyungsoo—is alive, Mrs Zhang playfully tousled Chanyeol’s hair, leaving the room with a soft reminder that breakfast will be ready in a few! for him to Mrs Zhang in tow. At that instance, Chanyeol promptly shut up and dove beneath Kyungsoo’s (bunny-printed) comforter. He had refused to get out of it, holding on tight to it when he felt several hard tugs on it. Chanyeol only relented, popping his head out with a pout, when Mrs Zhang softly asked

The door to Kyungsoo’s bedroom remained open, so Chanyeol knew that there was no way he could scream again. Besides, there was another problem he had to face. There was Zhang Yixing, who was still in the room and apparently was looking down at him with a question blatantly written all over his facial expression: why did you scream?

. How was Chanyeol suppose to answer that? How was he had to because Yixing looked like he was one step away from cutting open Chanyeol’s—Kyungsoo’s—skull to retrieve his brain) without revealing his… dream? How could Chanyeol even think of the possibility of Yixing not harbouring murderous thoughts towards him while he recalls the —albeit a dream—he had with Kyungsoo? It’s impossible. Yixing loves Kyungsoo so, so much, and would go to all lengths to protect his best friend. Chanyeol had truly reckoned that he was going to die. suppose to answer Yixing (which he

“Did you have a nightmare?”

Yixing’s voice, gentle as always, brought Chanyeol out of his thoughts and he found that, while he was thinking, Yixing had moved to sit next to him. He’d felt the familiar touch of Yixing’s hand in his hair, fingers lightly scritching his scalp, and the ever-welcomed action calmed Chanyeol down a little, made him sigh in contentment with a small smile as he let his eyes flutter shut. Yixing chuckled. Chanyeol smiled a little wider.

“Did you have a nightmare, Yeol?” Yixing asked again. “Wa