I don't know what made me give Ryeowook my name. Maybe I thought he'd go away then, but he didn't. He just smiled at me, with such a gentle look in his eyes. It almost made me want to clutch his shirt and bury my face in his chest, but I didn't. I was sure he would push me away if I tried, so I continued to play with the hem of my sweater and waited to wake up or for him to go away. He didn't though. He just started talking. I didn't want to listen, but my feet refused to move and I couldn't help but hear.

  "Kim Boseog huh? I like it. Do you know we have the same surname?" I tried to start a conversation again, just something simple, but so far she was having none of it.

  "So what? It's South Korea. You can't turn around without tripping on a dozen Kims." I couldn't help but laugh at that, as true as it was. In my own group alone if you counted all fifteen of us, there had been Kim Heechul, Kim Kibum, Kim Jongwoon aka Yesung, Kim Youngwoon aka Kangin, and me.

  "What's so funny?" Boseog's eyes narrowed.

  "I'm sorry Dear One, but I couldn't help but think of how true that really is. In the idol group I was in, a third of us were Kims, out of a total of fifteen."

  "Dear One? You've got the wrong person, unless you're into and think I'll sleep with you if you give me a sweet nickname. I'm dear to no one. I'm also not a , even if this is only a dream. What do you mean idol group? You're trying to tell me dreams have idol groups? You must really think I'm gullible."

  Oops. I hadn't meant to say all that. Now she thought I was a ert, and how do I explain I used to be an ordinary human? Plus, the way she spat out idol group made me think I'd missed something major in the mortal world. Maybe I need to start paying more attention to details when dreams require my personal assistance.

  I stepped back and glared. Dear one? What the hell? I don't know what Ryeowook thought he was playing at, but what I said was true. I'm no one's dear one, especially not a y old product of my subconscious. Plus, idol group? I don't know what my brain what thinking when it dreamed that up. The last of the idol groups disbanded decades ago, when it was decided to ban manufactured music groups. Now, it was all garage bands and soloists who were born with talent and looked like real people. Unneccessary plastic surgery was also banned. Unless you had a correctable birth defect that interferred with living your life fully, were in an accident, or were attacked and damaged, you lived with the face and body you were given at birth. Around the same time those decisions were being made, overcrowding and hunger had become such a problem that the prisons were emptied out, with the violent criminals like rapists and murderers being immediately executed after trial. Less serious offenses had to do hard labor, such as converting the prisons and abandoned buildings into livable quarters, and live in improvised shacks, while the minor offenders were usually given a sentence of indentured servitude til they learned to appreciate things. There had been a lot of other changes too, many of them aimed at the entertainment industry. Crappy movie sequels and book adaptations were a thing of the past. Actors and professional sports players were no longer paid millions of dollars and treated as gods. They didn't make much more than fast food workers. Meanwhile, teachers, scientists, farmers, and the other people who actually contributed to humanity as a whole made real money. The world I lived in was far from a utopia, but people were trying to right the massive imbalances and bring about good changes. Granted, there were also people who felt there was too much control being exerted over everything. I shook my head at the runaway thoughts of my history lessons.

  "Explain yourself. You know there haven't been idol groups in decades, so talk. My brain has some weird ideas. Oh, and I'm still not your Dear One."

  Actually, I hadn't known that. Yeah, I really need to start paying attention to more than just dreams running smoothly. Now, how to I explain who she doesn't hate me even more?