PHOTO CREDIT: @MINHYUNTAIWAN Do not edit/remove logo (LOΛEs understand this right :>)

 

***

 

Dreams are people’s escape from reality.

 

They say that you can pick a dream of your choice. You can choose where you want it to happen. You can choose who you want to be in it. You can choose what you want to happen in there. But is it always like that?

 

There are different kinds of dreams. The first one is the dream you have every night in your sleep. Then there are also dreams that you have every time you are wide awake but not really aware. There are more in the list but do they differ that much?

 

It depends.

 

And Ren thinks that they are just the same.

 

Whether he’s dreaming in his sleep or he’s daydreaming, it’s always the same. It always starts on a happy mood and ends with something Ren never likes. Every time it happens he wants it not to end or not to happen at all. He is tired but he knows that it is impossible to put an end to it.

 

And now that something has bothered him again, he has done what he always does as soon as he wakes up.

 

“A dream will always be a dream until you wake up and make it happen, that is if you want it to happen. If not, then just be thankful that it’s just a dream.” Minhyun says as he drinks the iced tea Ren has readied for his arrival.

 

“But it looks like it’s real! Like really Minhyun, I don’t know, should I call for a professional help now? This is bothering me so much!” Ren cries.

 

“And what is it this time, Rennie? About that psychology exam you ditched and you failed the course and—“

 

“It has you.”

 

“What?”

 

“You’re there! And you left me. Like, like a ghost. You’re suddenly gone and I don’t know what to do.”

 

“And, Ren, am I gone? Don’t you see me now? Here, I am sitting in front of you, drinking this tasteless iced tea you’ve prepared, do I look like an apparition or something?”

 

Ren shakes his head. It is always like that, too. Minhyun will always prove that Ren is on the real side of life now, wide awake and breathing. It makes him think, why is it always hard for him to differentiate dreams from reality? Inasmuch as he remembers everything in his dreams, it is still vague. And he knows that he is wasting his time bothering about something that has been made by his subconscious, so maybe, maybe he will just let this pass. Let it slip away like the air he has been holding in for quite some time now. With a heavy sigh, he nods and stands up, grabbing the iced tea Minhyun shamelessly called tasteless.

 

“Hey, I’m still drinking!”

 

“Ungrateful .”

 

***

 

Cleaning Ren’s room sure isn’t an easy task, a conclusion Minhyun has derived after helping Ren a million of times, and will probably be helping until they get tired of each other.

 

You see, they have been best friends for so long that Ren’s sudden calls don’t bother him anymore. At first it does, thinking that Ren is just overreacting over his real-like dreams but as time pass by and he becomes attached, he notices that Ren’s dreams affect the boy’s life so much. It also scares him when Ren insists that his dreams are real. Sometimes, the dreams are not that disturbing, failing an exam or losing his wallet, and when it is really scary, Ren chooses not to give Minhyun the details, in which Minhyun finds weird. He just tells him who are in the dream and that’s it. Clueless of what to do, he just tries his best to cheer his friend up.

 

This is actually the first time he becomes the main character and of course, he won’t deny that it bothers him too. Why is Ren so frantic and scared about the dream and Ren is telling him that he left the boy. He can’t do that, not after he vowed not to leave Ren until Ren gets tired of him. Well, the normal best friends vow, but still, it came straight from his heart and that what makes it special. That’s what makes Ren special.

 

So this afternoon he will try real hard so that Ren will forget his dream. And first stop, of course, is ice cream because Ren loves sweets. So much that love is still an understatement.

 

When they reach the ice cream store, Ren immediately flies to the counter, choosing the flavor that will surely pleasure his tastebuds and torture his teeth. Well, Ren believes that no pain, no gain, so what’s the one night toothache if there’s heavenly ice cream.

 

After paying for the sweets, they go straight to the arcade. Both of them aren’t really that fond of arcading but Ren really likes the dancing machine and so he immediately swipes the card and pushed the younger to the center. “Go Ren, I know you want that. I’ll choose the song?”

 

“Nah! You pushed me and you got to choose the song? Are you kidding me?” Ren says, pushing Minhyun to the side as he clicked the song of his choice.

 

“Are you sure? On Saturday Night? Ren, re—“

 

“Shut up!” Ren exclaims as the song starts. Ren is gorgeous, everyone visually capable would be able to notice that. Minhyun enjoys how it doesn’t even look a bit weird as Ren dances to a song originally danced by a y idol. He notices that a crowd is forming behind the dancing blonde and it doesn’t even distract the dancing boy. After two minutes, Ren finishes with a graceful bow and drags Minhyun to the karaoke booth.

 

“Why run Ren?” Minhyun asks and sees his friend peeking from the small glass window of the booth.

 

“Tss. You didn’t tell me that there were many people watching and... and, it’s too embarrassing I wanna dig a hole here and—“

 

“You’re great, though. And you did enjoy dancing, right? Here, here, let me calm you down.” Minhyun says and throws the song list to Ren. Ren gives him a confused look in which he replies, “Choose a song, I’ll sing for you.”

 

After singing several songs, they go straight to the burger shop to eat calories, oh well, that’s how Minhyun describes it. While he’s really willing to cheer his friend up, eating calories is against his will but what can he do, when the beauty that is his friend live eating sweets and a lot of calories. So he ends up ordering Caesar salad, the smallest size of burger and iced tea while his friend has this big burger, a lot of fries and cola. Even though they’ve been friends for so long he still envies Ren’s metabolism. He just accepts that this is life and there’s nothing he can do about it.

 

The bonding time does make them very hungry that he shares with Ren’s fries after finishing his own food. His friend is eating slowly, very not like him, so it makes him a bit worried. After hesitating he asks his friend, “What’s wrong? Did I fail?”

 

Ren confusingly looks at him and asks back, “Fail where? In what?”

 

“In making you happy. Tell me Ren, what was your dream last night?”

 

Ren shakes his head and gives a forced smile. Minhyun doesn’t need words to understand that Ren will never tell him more. So the dream is this bad, he asks himself. Seeing that Ren is still obviously down, he holds his friend’s hand and raises it a little bit. When Ren looks up, Minhyun tries his best to give his most assuring and real smile.

 

“Can you feel the warmth from my hand, Ren? Can you see our shadows? How about the smell of these oily burgers? Can you hear my voice? You’ve tasted the 3 scoops of ice cream you’ve eaten a while ago, right?”

 

Ren nods.

 

“How about your heart? Is it still beating? Ren, I don’t know how to differentiate dreams from reality, too. But, but, in reality, I will always hold your hands like this. If pain is the only thing that can make you believe that I’m real, then, I will always to this.” Minhyun says as he pinches Ren’s hand hard, making sure that he’ll leave marks of his fingernails there.

 

***

 

Minhyun’s cheek is red, well that’s because he’s so stupid for letting Ren’s hand go, so Ren makes sure that Minhyun’s cheek would be red until the next week. The two of them are still bickering while walking towards their own homes, attracting passers-by. Neither of them mind, though.

 

“You really didn’t need to do that! I mean, you see, right? I’m real because you’re in pain!”

 

“And it hurts Minhyun! It looks like a tick bite! I need to put band-aids on this!”

 

“You’re always overreacting! My cheeks aren’t the same color now, what to do?”

 

“Want me to slap the other one, too?” Ren offers as he smiles sheepishly. Minhyun glares but Ren is not even a bit scared. Well, this is how they show their love to one another.

 

As if on cue, they start laughing on the same time.

 

When Ren calms down, he looks to Minhyun through teary-eyes and says, “But you were too serious to be kidding, Minhyun-ah. I thought you’re sincere then you pinched me, how dare you!”

 

Minhyun stops laughing too, patting his stomach as he looks back to Ren, “I am though, I am serious.”

 

Ren nods. Of course, Minhyun has always been serious. And he is more than glad that the tall boy is still there, coping up on whatever Ren’s life has in store for the both of them. But Ren is still afraid, the dream still engraved in his mind, that he doesn’t want to part ways to Minhyun, even just this night, so he asks, “Sleepover at my place tonight?”

 

“Why? We have school tomorrow.”

 

“I’ll call your Mom. And you still have a spare uniform at my room, so yea, please?”

 

“Okay.” Minhyun says as he grabs Ren’s hand, running towards the younger’s dorm.

 

When they arrive, Minhyun rushes towards the bathroom to shower bringing nothing with him so Ren has no choice but to look for some comfortable clothes, both for himself and Minhyun. He has some of Minhyun’s clothes because they have had a lot of sleepovers before. Getting the clothes ready, he places them on the drawer near the bathroom door. He goes towards his bed and calls for Minhyun’s mother. After the conversation, he lies down the bed and stares at the ceiling. Minhyun takes forever to shower.

 

Ren doesn’t remember sleeping but he wakes up feeling somebody shaking him. He sits up and looks at Minhyun, remembering that he’s invited his friend to stay for the night.

 

“Why are you still wearing that? I prepared some clothes for you to wear.” Ren asks noticing that Minhyun is still wearing the blue t-shirt and jeans he has worn a while ago.

 

“Oh, Ren, I need to go.” Minhyun calmly says.

 

“I called your Mom already and it’s an okay. Why do you need to go, it’s... 11:58 already, oh gosh you showered for 3 hours, you’re unbelievable.” He teases and stands up to get the clothes he has prepared. “Wear this and go to sleep, I’ll be out in a while.”

 

“No, Ren, you don’t understand!” Minhyun exclaims and grabs Ren’s hand to stop him from going to the bathroom.

 

“What is it Minhyun? I’m tired, and stop holding me because it hurts!”

 

“Does it?” Minhyun asks.

 

And Ren wonders. He looks at his arm held tight by Minhyun’s but it feels weird, “I don’t feel anything.”

 

“That’s because I am not real. I need to go now, Ren. I have 40 seconds left.” Minhyun says as he looks at Ren with sad eyes.

 

“You’re lying! Of course you’re lying!” Ren shouts, completely terrified that he’s dreaming of it again, where Minhyun disappears as the clock strikes 12. He frantically looks for the clock and it’s 11:59:47. “You can’t leave! You promised not to!” he desperately screams while holding Minhyun’s hands tightly.

 

10

 

9

 

8

 

“You need to wake up Ren!” Minhyun says while trying to break Ren’s firm grip on his hands.

 

7

 

6

 

5

 

“This can’t be happening, no Minhyun, you can’t!” Ren screams as Minhyun slowly turns into dust.

 

“You need to wake up.”

 

4

 

“No!” Ren cries.

 

3

 

“Ren! Wake up goddamnit!”

 

2

 

“You’re still swearing how dare you! You can’t leave!”

 

1

 

“Wake up! I said wake up!”

 

And nothing except a slapping sound and loud gasps can be heard. For a moment Ren really thinks that Minhyun’s gone, not until he is pressed on a wall of chest and is trapped by firm hands. “I am really scared Ren, what the freak happened to you?”

 

Ren looks up and sees a teary-eyed Minhyun. He cries and covers his face with his own shaking hands. “You’re not real, I am imagining things, you’re not real.”

 

“What the... what do I need to do to make you believe that I’m real?” Minhyun calmly asks.

 

“I don’t know.” Ren answers as he continues to cry.

 

“Then let us make a canvas out of your face.” Minhyun suggests.

 

On a blink of an eye, Ren feels a stinging pain on his right cheek. “What the—“ he stops as soon as he feels the pain on his left cheek too. Strange, Minhyun only slapped him on the right, “Why does my face hurt?”

 

“It hurts? See! Because I slapped you a while ago to wake you up! And I slapped you again, but on the other side, for you to believe that I’m real. What the actual kimchi happened, Minki, you better tell me or—“

 

Before Minhyun even finishes whatever it is that he wants to say, Ren has thrown his own body on the tall boy, making the both of them fall on the bed. Ren continues to cry on Minhyun’s shoulder while hitting the said boy on the shoulders. He is just too happy that Minhyun disappearing is, yet, just another dream.

 

“D-did I hurt you that much? Ren, I’m sorry, okay. I was just afraid and—“

 

“It’s okay! I’m glad you’re here. I really wouldn’t know what to do if you’re gone for real. Like, it’s the first time you gradually disappeared and it’s scary. So scary!”

 

“But I really won’t leave.”

 

“Then let this be.”

 

“What?”

 

“Hug me tight, don’t let go. Let’s sleep like this, please. Please.” Ren asks while drying his face with his hands.

 

“You, you don’t want to shower?”

 

“That can wait until tomorrow! I’m just tired and—“

 

“Okay princess, go to sleep.” Minhyun chuckles.

 

And it’s music to Ren’s ears.

 

Even though he is really afraid to go back to sleep but he’s just so tired so he eventually falls asleep.

 

And when he wakes up, he finds Minhyun looking straight into his eyes. He smiles as he feels Minhyun tightening his hold on Ren’s waist. For the first time after so long, he has woken up peacefully, not bothering about whatever he has dreamt the last night.

 

“Good morning.” Ren greets with a smile.

 

“Good morning, you should shower now because you seriously stink, princess.”

 

And Ren immediately stands up, of course, making sure that a part of Minhyun’s pale skin will be mapped with red.

 

“Damn you!” Ren shouts.

 

“You’re welcome!” Minhyun replies.

 

At least, without Ren telling, Minhyun knows that he’s thankful. And Ren really is, in fact, he doesn’t really mind Minhyun bringing him back to reality. Not at all.

 

 

 

--

Idk what happened but here it is. Hehehe. It's raining and it's too cold. Brrrrr.

 

EDIT: This fic has been translated to Vietnamese by nice_puppet. Here's the link to the translation :D

 

nowplaying Standing in the Rain - NELL