Sunday brunch with Hoseok was always dedicated to all kinds of gossip. He was obsessed with talking about all kinds of rumors going around campus. His favorite being what he had heard from eavesdropping on the people around him, whether it was in class or at work. But today, he had insisted that you explain to him what happened that day after lab, when it had poured outside and you left before he could even drive you home from the hospital.

You were reluctant to tell him about all the events that happened that day, but you knew Hoseok wouldn’t drop it so easily, so you explain most of it (skipping most of the minor details) leading up to you finding out that Patient Dr. Jeon is indeed MD-PhD Dr. Jeon “That man is a work of art, but I guess being human, he’s got to have a flaw here and there.”

“I knew it!”

“What are you talking about? You were the one who was all ‘there could be a lot of doctors named Jeon’”

“Yeah, yeah” Hoseok waves it off and changes the topic. “So…” Hoseok gives you a knowing grin. “…how was spending the day at his apartment?”

He puts down the fork and knife that he was previously using to eat his stack of banana walnut pancakes, places his elbows on the table, cupping his face with his hands, and smiles innocently at you while fluttering his eyelids.

“You know, almost my pants, but as expected right?”

“I still can’t believe he invited you in.”

“Right? I just hope seeing him in lab won’t be awkward or-“ You were about to continue talking but a certain little red mark on Hoseok’s neck catches your attention. “Is that a hickey?!”

Hoseok jumps a little and quickly moves his hand towards the spot you were pointing at. He rubs the red patch of skin, noticing it feels a bit raw.

“Damn, I told him not to mark me up so soon” Hoseok mutters almost inaudibly. He looks up at you and smiles nervously.

“You guys are sure moving along quickly” You eye him with a grin.

“Yeah, well we were just having movie night over at his place, and things kind of just got heated”

“Oh, heated…”

“It’s not what you think!” Hoseok abruptly adds, attempting to do damage control, but you were already convinced that things had went down. “He’s completely different from what I thought. You know how you meet a person and you think they’re just normal and chill, but then you get to know them and their real crazy side comes out? Well I’m telling you, this guy is everything I could’ve asked for. He’s funny, kind, caring, down to earth…and we even have the same musical tastes!” There was a dreamy look in Hoseok’s eyes as he continues to go on and on about this guy, like he was all the wonderful things a person could be and more.

“Are you ever going to introduce me to this guy?”

“Yeah, after you work things out with Dr. Jeon” He winks.

“Jung Hoseok! We’ve been through this. I’m not starting this conversation with you again. ”

A look of disappointment washes over his face. “What about…Dr. Kim?!” Hoseok says, face lighting up again. “Judging by the way you described him, he sounds like a hottie himself.”

You almost spit out the coffee that was in your mouth.

“Hobi, he has Dr. Park.”

“Park and Kim are a couple?!” Hoseok’s eyes widen and he covers his mouth with his hands.

“Yeah, so you need to stop trying to pair me up with everyone I come in contact with. It’s suffocating.” You stuff a big bit of waffle into your mouth.

“Man, I always thought they would make a good couple.” Hoseok sighs and looks out the window.

...

Days in lab were consuming most of your summer. Graduate classes would start in early fall, but that wasn’t until September. You had finally completed a successful attempt of the experiment Jungkook had assigned you, and were feeling much better about wasting so much material (aka convincing yourself it wasn’t all in vain).

Jungkook was always busy, and seeing him after that “visit to his apartment” was surprisingly not as awkward as you had originally prepared for. Granted you barely saw him around anyways, but when you did, the neurosurgeon had just acted like nothing out of the ordinary had happened and continued treating you the way he had before, but you were somehow less intimidated by his status.

It's not until now, that you find yourself sitting in his office once again, discussing more theories and the next steps of the project.

“I’ve made some alterations to the project” Jungkook says, as he pulls up another PowerPoint on his computer.

Damn, how does this guy have enough time on his hands to put together this stuff. It’s not like we’re having a lab meeting…

“Recently I’ve gotten a new surgical procedure approved, and it changes up the game.”

You look at him, waiting for him to continue because it’s not like you knew how important any of this was or what kind of vital role this so called procedure plays in the overall project. And you didn’t understand why he always just assumed you knew what he was talking about 100% of the time.

“It may redefine consciousness”

He pauses, perhaps waiting for an awestruck response from you, but you continue to look at him, wondering if consciousness was ever defined in the first place.

“We’ve always associated consciousness with being awake, leading us to believe that our dreams are part of our subconscious.”

You listen to him explain, trying to follow along as best you can so you won’t have to ask any dumb questions later.

“It’s a simple, minimally invasive procedure where the connections between neurons in the lower cortical layers are strengthened. You know, the area where our perceptions are bound into a cohesive whole, and this procedure could potentially change the sleep-awake dynamic, making dreams more clear and understandable.” Jungkook pauses and looks at you with that pair of memorizing doe eyes, and you almost forget what he was talking about. Good thing the eye contact only lasted for a fraction of a second because you were practically getting lost in them. “It’s like putting on glasses for the first time, there’s a certain element to that breathtaking experience of depth and clarity that we haven’t had the ability to explain properly, and now this might be the answer.”

“Is it possible that dreams and memories are one in the same?” You ask, not knowing how or why that thought suddenly popped into you head and came out of your mouth without any warning.

Jungkook slowly raises his eyes to look at you again. There was an unspoken glint in them that you had never seen before, like your question had sparked something in his own head that he wasn’t expecting.

“Memories….” He’s looking at you for an unnaturally long amount of time, before he clears his throat and averts his eyes. “We won’t know until experimentation on humans. So far, the brains of non-human primates are the closest match, and those monkeys can’t really voice anything to us.”

Another thought pops into your head.

“Do you need volunteers?”

…

“Y/N, I’m a biochemistry major. You’re going to need to do more explaining than that.” Hoseok says as you’re telling him about consciousness and the re-defining nature of Jungkook’s new procedure.

“Well, if we’re talking about consciousness, the simplest scenario is you looking in a mirror. Let’s say you didn’t know the mirror was placed in front of you, and you just saw a being that was exactly the same as you, down to the last subatomic particle. So how is your brain just able to know, that the supposed you that you are looking at is not you, and that the you looking at it, is you?”

“Ok, you lost me at ‘the simplest scenario’” Hoseok slumps down in his chair.

“Whatever, the point is, Dr. Jeon is going to help me clear up my dreams.”

“Y/N, you can’t just let this guy just use you as a lab rat. I mean, as hot and intelligent and skilled as he is, your not obligated to donate your body to him… ” Hoseok says before realizing he phrased that in the worst way possible. “Ok, that came out wrong, but you know what I mean.”

“But I want to, Hobi. Besides it’s a simple procedure and experimentation on humans has already been approved by the medical association.”

“But…but…”

“Just think of me as a volunteer.”

“What about the risks involved?”

“Temporary amnesia, but it’s very unlikely. Especially with someone as skilled as Dr. Jeon.”

“He’s that good?”

“He’s that good.”

Hoseok doesn’t look convinced, but you had already made your decision.

...

After you had revealed to Jungkook that you happen to take therapy sessions at the same clinic he goes to, Jungkook thought it was probably a good idea to pay a visit to Dr. Kim Taehyung before the actual procedure (out of respect and maybe to also apologize to his partner Jimin for being rude in the past). It was embarrassing to say the least, especially seeing the dorky smile spread across the pink-haired psychologists face as he accepted the apology in a flash.

Taehyung, however, had not been as easily forgiving, and he was far from happy about the whole “experimental procedure”.

“As her psychologist, I’ll need to take more factors into account.” Taehyung says as Jimin stands behind the couch he was sitting on.

Jungkook was sitting on the other couch across from Taehyung. It was like having a therapy session; only there were two faces across from him, Taehyung and Jimin, which made Jungkook feel even more uneasy because of the antagonistic terms they had been on before. The three of them were in Taehyung’s office, and Jungkook thinks this is about as friendly as he’s ever been (or is ever going to be) with the two psychologists. He’s also starting to think that maybe this was a bad idea, but he it up like always and explains the actual procedure.

“She’s agreed to go through with it, and there are virtually no risks involved”

“Dr. Jeon, you do realize that most professors don’t consider doing experiments on their students, right?” Taehyung voices, only to have Jimin whisper “Taehyung!” and nudge his shoulder, reminding him that Jungkook has no ill intentions.

“I wouldn’t if I wasn’t confident that this procedure is harmless,” Jungkook says. He looks down, as if trying to summon more words of reassurance; more ways to convince Taehyung that he knows what he’s doing and he’s worked his whole life for this.

“This might even help her condition” Jimin says to Taehyung after realizing the latter hasn’t responded.

Taehyung sighs after a long drawn out silence where him and Jungkook were basically just staring each other down. “Very well, I’m going to trust you, as a doctor, to make sure she comes out of this unharmed.”

Taehyung was recalling the last session he had with you, thinking about how much you struggled to remember the last event that happened in your dream, after they the man that had consistently been present, suddenly disappeared. But the thing that really caught Taehyung’s attention and came as a shocking revelation was the fact that Jeon Jungkook was the very professor you were doing research under. All of this lead Taehyung to feel weirdly attacked in way because Jungkook had been showing up everywhere ever since Jimin brought him into the clinic and started treating him. Not only was he the central topic him and Jimin would talk about most of the time, he recently shifted to also becoming the main focus of his therapy sessions with you. And just when Taehyung thought it couldn’t get any more “intimate” with Jungkook, here he was again, directly dealing with this admittedly “hot” neurosurgeon whose life kept getting intertwined with his and Jimin’s.

“Thank you, Dr. Kim” Jungkook says, feeling his face flush a little for the first time in years. The office room suddenly felt uncomfortably warm, making Jungkook tug at the collar of his dress shirt.

Taehyung swallows, not knowing if he preferred this side of Jungkook to his previous commanding alter ego, but one thing’s for sure, it’s certainly going to take some getting used to.

“Well, that’s that then” Jimin says, clapping his hands together. He was clearly unaware of the awkwardness looming in the atmosphere, but at least he saved both Jungkook and Taehyung from another moment of drawn out awkward silence.

...

“Dr. Jeon, where are we going?” You ask as Jungkook tells you to take a walk with him after lab.

It was the day before the procedure, and Jungkook had told you to take a break from doing experiments, which somehow entailed doing something outside of lab with him for a second time. He was probably just trying to get you to relax so you could be in a physically optimum condition for the procedure, so you don’t question him on the matter and just decide to go along.

It was early afternoon and the weather was mild, sunny with a cool breeze. The scenery was very green, different shades ranging from bright chartreuse to dark pine, splattered across your visual field; a perfect contrast to the light blue sky, the patches of yellow dandelions in the grass, and the dark maroon colored shrubs lining the side of the path.

“About what you said the other day….” Jungkook begins to say as the two of you are walking along a cobblestone trail behind the hospital. He was wearing a navy blue, knitted sweater, with a white-collar, and his black slacks and dress shoes were on point as always.

“About dreams and memories…” He looks at you, almost hesitating to continue.

“Oh, that was just my mind running off to places.” It surprises you that he’s still thinking about what you said. You didn’t actually think it through before it just came out of your mouth, and you certainly didn’t expect Dr. Jeon to actually take that comment so seriously.

“It’s something I’ve also thought about. In the past and up until now.”

You find yourself confused again, but you had long gotten used to feeling this way whenever you had conversations with Jungkook. His mind always seems too far ahead of yours, and you’re never able to catch what he’s trying to get at. But this time, his words really grab your attention.

“Those paintings. They’re places I feel like I’ve been. The dreams I used to have, although it sounds crazy, but they feel too real to just merely be dreams.”

At this point there’s a thought in the back of your mind, that you don’t have the courage to voice or even think about. It’s always been there, like some crazy idea that was a manifestation of your mind playing tricks on you, but you’ve always kept it buried because maybe you were insane to think that everything Jungkook was saying is eerily similar to your own feelings about your dreams, too similar. But saying that out loud might make it seem like you were trying too hard to resonate with his words and might strip them of profoundness, so you always chose to stay silent.

And the two of you continue walking for what feels like an eternity but is only probably no more than five minutes, until the second surprise of the day decides to hit you in the face.

Through the corner of you eye, you see whom is undoubtedly Hoseok chatting with someone in the distance. He hadn’t spotted you and Jungkook yet, so you decide to do something you didn’t think you had the guts to, which was push Jungkook back behind the nearest tree, because you were not about to go through a long explanation about why you were with him outside of lab, again. And Hoseok would be having a field day if he saw you walking together, side-by-side, chatting like you were close friends or even worse…

You heart was pounding, and you immediately regret what you just did because prior to today, you had never even come close to making physical contact with the guy. But by some unseen force that came over you two seconds ago, you were somehow given the audacity to just slammed him into a tree on a whim. At this point, you can’t even bring yourself to lift your head and look at the expression on his face because the physical distance between the two of you was too close to even breathe. He was basically cornering you against the tree.

“Wait, isn’t that the guy you came with on the first day” You hear Jungkook ask as he peaks at them from behind the tree you guys were hiding by. “And what’s he doing with Yoongi?”

“What?” You ask while simultaneously turning and taking a look for yourself, forgetting the nervous regret that was strangling you earlier. Low and behold, the guy Hoseok was chatting with was indeed Min Yoongi.

.......