-      God
“I’m simply a Dream Eater, not a god or a demon.”






-    Sudden – before
It all started with dreams, bad dreams about faceless people, about his leaking eyes, about pain and fresh blood dripping from the skies.

-    Harm – before
In fact, the details varied every time; sometimes the dreams consisted of a knife, protruding the wall, spilling blood—a faceless body lying nearby, while other times the sky would be painted in plumes of fire and grey clouds as Baekhyun found himself standing in the middle of mass destruction, blood covering his hands and the insides of his nails.

-    Wash – before     
And sometimes Baekhyun would wake up, shivering, goose bumps travelling all across his body and feeling very not himself—staring at his reflection in the bathroom (how did he get there?) while he was continuously scrubbing his hands raw under the running tap.

-    Torn – before  
His dreams were so terrifying, he fought against sleep, downed many cups of coffee just to ward it off and stared at nothing with bloodshot eyes, fingers gripping the sheets until he could feel the blunt nails digging painfully into his palms; and yet despite his precautions, after going through three days without sleep, Baekhyun’s body simply shut down, crumbling to the ground in the middle of the sidewalk.

-    Eye – before
The reflection in the mirror was staring back at Baekhyun, dark bags visible underneath his eyes—he looked awful.

-    Stop – before
He couldn’t take this anymore; he wanted to sleep, wanted to enjoy the soft feathery pillow under his cheeks; he missed drifting off to dream about something innocent things like life, puppies, sunshine or even his family before he moved out of the house—this whole thing about bad dreams had to be stopped.

-    Fortune – before
A friend told him out of the blue about a fortune teller who could read people without using preconceived questions like “what’s your horoscope?”, “what’s your blood type?” or “how do you describe your childhood?”—and maybe visiting her might explain his situation.

-    One – before
The fortune teller studied him with hawk-like eyes, face blank, red painted lips curled into a small smile of sorts and then she raised a finger, saying in a soft but clear voice, “Your only option is to meet with a Dream Eater—yumekui.”

-    Ghost – before
The library and the internet were unhelpful during Baekhyun’s search about this “yumekui”—was he an animal spirit representation of divinity or simply a horror story main lead?—and to actually visit one in this time of age was actually absurd.

-    Drive – before     
Every step he took, every ground he covered, his feet brought him closer and closer to his place of destination—the place called the coffee Shop of Dreams.

-    Picture – before/meeting
The first thing Baekhyun noticed about the shop was that—aside from exuding gloominess—the shop was a picture perfect example of an actual, normal, average coffee shop down the street—small tables lined up neatly in the vicinity with three or four chairs to accommodate patrons, one large glass display case on the counter showing a lonely slices of cake tiramisu and opera, one coffee machine in the back of the counter, one large cooler housing four packs of milk and small black boards flashing the current breakfast menu in cutely fashion–well, except for the impossibly tall bartender eyeing him with dark, dark eyes.

-    Soul --meeting
Those eyes were searching him, dissecting every piece of his body and boring into his soul, demanding it to bare everything to the world.




-    Hunger—before
Chanyeol had not eaten a dream for weeks now—his stomach felt empty, shriveled up and too hollow to be called healthy.

-    Bother—before  
It was as if no one bothered coming for his assistance to cure them from bad dreams and sleepless nights; okay, so maybe the results were sometimes too horrifying to comprehend once Chanyeol consumed a nightmare—like that one time when a jilted lover came in to cure herself from forgetting her body parts in her dreams, which resulted to an attempted murder charge and an amnesia case at the same time.

-    Wait – before
Aside from the tragic endings, Chanyeol only cared about tasty nightmares and simply sat in the shop, dressed deceptively in a bartender uniform and waited for anyone to step forward to reveal their worst nightmare.


-    Child –meeting
Then one day, one gloomy slow business day, a child stepped in—well, not exactly a child, Chanyeol amended mentally, just an adult with a childish face or maybe it was the height that dwarfed out the possibility that this new customer was in fact older than Chanyeol in human years.

-    Change –meeting
“Welcome, sir, how may I help you?” Chanyeol smiled brightly and his dark, gloomy face immediately disappeared, his voice not matching the face and the effect made Baekhyun instantly confused.

-    Hold – meeting
Baekhyun’s fingers were long and slender as they reached out for a quick, business-like handshake, “Hi, I’m Baekhyun and I’m looking for the Dream Eater.”

-    Learn – meeting
“You’re looking at him—I’m Chanyeol,” Chanyeol smiled again,