Hongbin didn’t know what to do with himself after the dream he had. Usually his dreams would provide some sort of insight into his problems, thanks to his grandmother influencing his dreams when he had problems he couldn’t solve on his own. But nothing about this felt right. Not only had the dream made the situation more difficult, but what he felt in the dream was unfamiliar territory for him. Usually when he was visited in his dreams there was a haziness to his senses that helped him understand what he was feeling. But this dream felt too real. He felt like he was looking through the eyes of a living person. But that was impossible. He had never been able to see through the eyes of the living before. And that certainly wasn’t something his grandmother ever told him about. But maybe . . . it happened. But surely this was just a fluke. Unfortunately it wasn’t. For the rest of the week he had the exact same dream. And everyday the screams seemed to get louder and last longer. Taekwoon had told him that he was struggling to wake Hongbin up, sometimes he resorted to throwing cups of ice water at him to stop his screams. This was becoming dangerous, because Hongbin knew if this trend continued he might not wake up from one of these nightmares. So he decided to talk to Hakyeon as soon as he could. Hongbin had texted Hakyeon then, asking him to hang out that Saturday. Hakyeon had readily agreed.

Hongbin was sitting at work the Friday before he was supposed to meet Hakyeon. He had woken up with a red cheek from where Taekwoon had smacked him to wake him up. Apparently the cups of ice water didn’t do anything today. (Taekwoon had quickly apologized for smacking him and treated him to a breakfast feast to make sure he was forgiven.) Now that he was sitting at his desk at work he regretted not begging Taekwoon to let him stay home for the day. His energy felt like it was lower than rock bottom. He was so distracted by how tired he had suddenly become he didn’t notice Jaehwan approaching his desk. As a result he flinched when the other man rested his hand on his shoulder. “Hey, are you okay?” Hongbin turned to face Jaehwan, noting the worried expression on his face. “Yeah, I’m fine. Why?” He replied instantly, not wanting to worry his friend further. Jaehwan looked less than convinced. “I’m saying this in the nicest way I can, but you look like .” Hongbin scoffed. “I’m serious. You look like you just got run over by a bus or something. Are you sure you should be at work? I’m positive Taekwoon won’t say anything if you decide to head home early today.” Hongbin let out a sigh. “Look, I know you’re concerned, but I promise I’m fine. If it makes you feel any better I’ll go and ask Taekwoon if I can take a nap in his office. If I don’t feel better after that I’ll go home okay?” Jaehwan looked satisfied by the answer and even walked Hongbin all the way to Taekwoon’s office himself, he even went as far as to knock on the door for him. “Come in.” They heard from the other side of the door. Jaehwan walked in and herded Hongbin to the couch. “Your boyfriend is being stubborn about staying at work when he’s sick so he’s gonna take a nap here. When he wakes up send him right home if he is anything less than perfectly healthy.” Jaehwan didn’t leave any room for argument as he walked out of the office and closed the door behind him. “Do you really feel that bad?” Taekwoon asked, going over to the water bubbler in his office to make Hongbin some tea. Hongbin relaxed into the couch. “These nightmares have been taking a toll on me. I think I’ll be fine after the nap.” Hongbin said, accepting the tea that Taekwoon gave him. He drank it slowly, letting the warmth from the tea slowly relax his tense muscles. Hongbin set his mug down before completely laying on the couch. “Wake me up in an hour and if I feel better I’ll get right back to work. Okay?” Taekwoon was draping a throw blanket on Hongbin as he spoke. “I’ll be sure to. But if you don’t feel better I’m taking you home.” Hongbin chuckled before settling down for his nap.

Hongbin couldn’t describe what he was feeling. He was awake, and he could feel that he was laying down on something. But his eyes refused to open and his limbs felt like they were made of lead. He could hear voices, but they sounded like they were underwater with how muffled everything sounded. And then it felt like he was falling. He could feel the wind whipping past his ears. His body felt weightless as he seemed to soar through the air. What followed that sensation was pain. He felt his body crash into something solid. And the feeling of crashing repeated itself over and over again. Finally the crashing sensation stopped and he was left on his stomach on a solid surface. He had a splitting headache and every bone in his body felt sore. He could feel that his body was twisted into unnatural angles in some places. He also felt liquid running down his face. His eyelids popped open on their own accord. He saw nothing but the floor and a pair of shoes running past him. He couldn’t move. He tried with all of his might to move any tiny part of his body that he could, but it was like his body wasn’t listening to him. It was getting hard to breathe. His lungs felt like there were some sort of chains being squeezed around them. He felt himself being shifted and was greeted with a bright light.

Hongbin’s eyes opened and he sat up as fast as he could, taking deep breaths of air to soothe the ache in his lungs. His arms wrapped around his ribcage unconsciously, as if he was trying to protect his lungs from the phantom chains that had wrapped around them in his dream. Taekwoon came into the office at that time, carrying what looked to be a bag full of takeout containers. Taekwoon looked up with a smile, probably to tell Hongbin about what food he got, until he saw the state he was in. The smile faded into a worried stare as Taekwoon put the bag of food down on the coffee table.  He walked over to Hongbin and placed his hands on his shoulders. “Are you okay?” Instead of answering Hongbin wrapped his arms around Taekwoon’s neck, calming himself down with the bitter smell of coffee that always lingered on Taekwoon’s skin. After taking a few shaky breaths Hongbin told Taekwoon everything. Taekwoon took him home then and comforted him until it was time to go to sleep.

Hongbin was a little nervous for what the day would bring. Today he was going to figure out if Hakyeon was innocently collecting souls, or stealing the spirits for an evil purpose. He got ready for the day at the farmers market. Taekwoon was going with them, since he had some ingredients for dinner that he preferred buying at the farmer’s market, or so he told Hongbin. Hongbin didn’t feel like arguing. As they exited their house they saw Hakyeon leaving his. He looked a little off this afternoon. To an onlooker he may have looked like his usual cheerful self. But Hongbin could see that he was forcing it a bit. There was genuine happiness there, but there was a tiredness to his motions. Hongbin didn’t bring it up. They piled into Hakyeon’s car and drove to the market. They had a pretty good time there, filled with happy stories from Hakyeon. He even managed to get a chuckle out of Taekwoon every now and then. But in the back of Hongbin’s mind he couldn’t get over how many spirits were connected to Hakyeon, and how tired Hakyeon himself seemed when he thought no one was looking. So maybe he should have expected what came next. The ground beneath them was very uneven. Normally this probably wouldn’t have been a problem for Hakyeon. But considering how tired he seemed, and the fact that he was chatting with Hongbin, he didn’t see the little hole in the ground. Hakyeon tripped and landed stomach first onto the ground below. Luckily he caught his upper body before it could smack the grass underneath him. Hongbin and Taekwoon rushed to his side. “Hakyeon are you okay? Did you hurt yourself?” Hongbin asked as he helped Hakyeon up, Taekwoon assisting from the other side.

“Yeah of course. Didn’t see the hole there.” Hakyeon said with a laugh. But when he put weight on his right leg he let out a hiss of pain. Taekwoon picked up on it. “Can you walk?” Hakyeon tried but every time he put weight on his leg he would let out sounds of pain. “Alright, looks like you may have sprained your ankle. We should get you to a hospital to get it looked at.” At the mention of the hospital Hakyeon froze. “No hospitals.” Hakyeon said looking at Taekwoon. “Hakyeon you need to go to the hospital or else you’ll hurt yourself more.” Hongbin tried to reason. “No. I don’t need to go to the hospital I feel fine. See?” Hakyeon tried once again to walk, but he let out a yowl of pain soon after. Hongbin sighed. “Come on, get on my back so you don’t hurt yourself more. Hakyeon shook his head. “I don’t need a hospital. I can take care of it myself. Please don’t make me go there.” He said as he began to tear up a bit. “Hakyeon, we’re going to the hospital no and, ifs, or buts.” Taekwoon said, lifting up Hakyeon before the shorter man could protest any further.

Hakyeon whimpered at the thought.