Minhyuk’s sure he’s overslept, but no one’s called him yet so he mustn’t of have. It’s strange that he can feel the evening sunrays stretch like fingers over his back and dance over his skin all the while still wrapped in the comfort of his blanket. He stirs a bit more and feels something warm and solid beside him. He lets his fingers do the walking as it traces the small frame. His eyes widen and he turns around, body colliding with hers.

“Joohee…” he shrieks, covering his mouth.

It was a strange morning indeed.

“What is it? It’s still too early…” she rests her head in the crook of his neck, her lips grazing his neck like butterfly kisses gently on his skin.

“Alice” he calls out to her again “What are you doing here?” Minhyuk begins to freak out just a bit at his friend’s spaghetti strap singlet that he could see under his giant white shirt and her leg slightly overlapping his. Still her eyes are still shut and Minhyuk observes the serenity on her face as she breathes slowly, the sound of her breathing like a rhythmic pendulum. He’s entranced by the rhythm and it comforts him a bit “Alice” he calls out again

“Stop it…” Joohee says in a stern voice – eyes still closed “Or I’ll kick you out of bed”

“How did you get into my room?” he pulls away slowly and Joohee opens her eyes, slowly and steadily as they meet

“This is my room too Lee Minhyuk…” she grumbles and pulls away from his body, her back now facing him.

He gasps and takes a deep breath as he observes the room he’s in. A room, without the bunk beds crammed into one room and six other boys still snoring loudly despite it being close to twelve in the afternoon. It’s notably spacious and yet just as homely with the walls decorated with pictures of them. Especially the one with Alice dressed in a flowing wedding dress. He pauses and looks down at his hands, eyes widening as he finds it.

A gold band that sat on his left hand fourth finger

+

Minhyuk awakes for the second time with more familiarity. Eunkwang calls him softly as he does every morning because with Minhyuk, hostility is never the answer “If you don’t wake up Sungjae’s gonna eat all the bacon”. It’s evil, because Sungjae isn’t even awake, but it works and with the second oldest awake Eunkwang starts to call the other boys up.

As the leader goes through the criteria for the entire day, which involves a photoshoot, their music video filming, an event and late night practices which run till 3AM Minhyuk is too busy devouring down the bacon and eggs that Eunkwang had graciously made for them in the early mornings.

“Also Minhyuk, tell Alice to stop calling you… You should be preparing for your comeback” his manager intervenes.

“Alice…” he utters beneath his breath “Alice…” his fingers grazes his neck where Alice left her lip mark. It was a dream, he was sure of it. But everything about it felt so real. The way she smelt, the way she touched him and when she kissed him. But it wasn’t real, because Joohee would never do that.

“Sleep weird last night?” Ilhoon looks over at Minhyuk, neck tilted to the side

“No” he straightens himself out

“It’s her again” his manager tosses the phone to Eunkwang who barely catches it

“Minhyuk-ah” Eunkwang imitates Alice to the best of his ability whilst he surrenders the phone over.

There’s endless teasing and taunting as the boys fall over Minhyuk, grabbing onto his shirt and pants, nearly stripping the clothes off his body.

“Yeah” he starts the conversation like he does every other time - distant and seemingly uninterested. Then she begins to talk, something about how their comebacks are going to collide with each other so they can visit each other more often backstage and at other events.

“So I’ll see you at tonight’s event?”

She meant the concert they were both performing for.

“Yes”

Minhyuk smiles because he knows that Joohee is too.

“Are you excited?”

“Very.”

+

Minhyuk sits in the same spot he does in the car. He gets carsick easily so it’s best for everyone that he’s always beside a window. Meanwhile Hyunsik is busily munching away on the tomato sauce packets that they had just ordered from McDonalds, Changsub was talking to their manager about some musical he was auditioning for and all he could hear were the younger boys making a ruckus behind him. He wished he had their energy sometimes.

“So what did Alice want?” Eunkwang shouts from the front

“Nothing…” Minhyuk yawns. They’ve been up since five in the morning.

“So are you guys finally…” However somewhere between hearing Sungjae and Ilhoon tease Peniel about his Korean to Peniel making some snarky remark back in English and Eunkwang filling them in on their schedule Minhyuk falls asleep – unknowingly.

“Minhyuk-ah”

+

“You’re sleeping too much” she frowns and Minhyuk is back. This time he’s greeted by Joohee’s face, inches away from his. He feels the weight of the bed shift as his body springs a bit on the flat surface. Joohee crawls over him to get out of bed. “I wanted to do some grocery shopping before we leave…”

“W-where are we going?” Minhyuk scratches his head, still wrapped in the comfortable layers of his blanket. He’s hiding beneath all the sheets and he doesn’t want to get up.

“Our honeymoon?”

He wasn’t sure whether to be amazed that this was the second time he had dreamt about Joohee. That was a lie. He was amazed that it was the second time he had dreamt about Joohee in a row. “So are you coming or not?” Joohee looks down at him and slowly s his shirt, the one she had been wearing all morning. It had become a habit for her to wear his oversized shirts. Well oversized for her. There was something about the way his clothes always smelt like him despite being in the wash fifty times already.

Minhyuk yelps and covers his eyes much to Joohee’s amazement. “What are you doing Lee Minhyuk?” she stops and crosses her arms and Minhyuk shuffles out of bed

“I’ll leave the room so you can change” his eyes are still covered making him disorientated. His thigh hits the corner of the dressing table first and his toe the foot of the bed next.

“Why are you acting as if you’ve never seen me before?”

Minhyuk paused and shook his head, “I…” he stuttered. A list of scenarios begin to run through his head and Minhyuk isn’t sure, but out of all the ones he can come up with he’s hoping it’s a dream. Surely though, there was some taboo in regards to dreaming about your good friend . Minhyuk shuffles along because this was bound to make things awkward in real life.

Joohee pulls onto his shirt and his hands drop beside him as she brushes past him, the last thing he sees is his shirt dropping onto the floor as Joohee enters the bathroom

“Are you coming or what?” she calls out to him from inside the room

Minhyuk yelps

+

He’s wondering why he hasn’t awoken by now, but Minhyuk was sure that this wasn’t right. Still he had promised himself to not stand out like a sore thumb in a place where he obviously didn’t belong. At least he wouldn’t show it to this Joohee, not like he just did before, shuffling out of his room awkwardly and making a pile of ridiculous excuses.

He searches around the rest of the apartment whilst Joohee is occupied in the shower, opening draws to see if he could find some sort of clue as to what was going on.

Still he’s greeted with the same things, framed pictures of them together, smiling, hugging or holding hands and one of them kissing. He opens the fridge and the freezer, unsure of what he was going to find. The cupboards in the kitchen, the one near the TV and flips through the books on the bookshelf.

“Are you looking for something?”

He’s not sure when the shower had turned off

“No” he replies, a bit too quick but thankfully she doesn’t question.

He’s not used to this. Maybe it’s just the fact that he’s not used to seeing a girl in his apartment or the fact that Joohee to him at this time and place seemed so exposed.  Although everything about Joohee mimicked the one in real life they weren’t the same. Alice complains about how she doesn’t look beautiful in comparison to the younger girls, and her stamina isn’t as great as theirs either. She always has to wear make-up and clothes that make her uncomfortable with materials that binds her body and cuts into her skin because this is what makes her beautiful.

Joohee on the other hand comes out wrapped in a towel, steam warping around her tiny frame and body still dripping wet. Her skin is bare and fresh and still Minhyuk can’t find a singe blemish on her. She was more so, perfect than his conscious self would ever care to believe she was.

“Well go get changed, we can grab breakfast on the way”

She kisses him on the cheek gently as she walks past him like a breeze, the door behind him closing shut as she enters.

+

It’s the first time in a long time Minhyuk has experienced this feeling. This child like freedom he had lost when he debuted as a singer. There was no pressure to hide of conceal anything, and it was important especially with Joohee latched onto his arms as they walk through the aisles of the super market. No scandals or the need to maintain and image as he walks down the street to buy groceries, with his ‘wife’.

“Fruit Loops?” Minhyuk holds the colourful, sugary cereal in front of him and Joohee frowns

“That’s unhealthy” she reaches for a rather bland cereal and puts it into the trolley “I’m just saving you from yourself” she pokes his stomach and Minhyuk looks down.

His usual chiseled body was a bit softer than usual. It disappoints him a bit because Minhyuk knows better than to let himself go so easily. Yet the lack of pressure of maintain his body in this world meant he had let himself go. Like this was no longer a dream but a look into his future.

No.

It was a dream.

It was a dream where he was happy because the way Joohee loved him echoed how much he loved her. Where he had lived another life and if he were to never wake up again he wouldn’t mind. So what if it meant letting himself gain a few kilos.

“Minhyuk?”

He hears a voice call out to him and turns around.

He curses underneath his breath. He doesn’t recognise them because this isn’t his life. Minhyuk squints and buys himself time “How are you?”

Joohee turns around and grins “Dongwook!” she grins and wraps her arm around him

“I forgot you dyed your hair” Dongwook teases and turns back promptly to Minhyuk

“Are you taking good care of my girl?”

His girl?

Joohee frowns and wraps her arms around Minhyuk’s again “No – he’s not” she teases

“I have some documents I wanted you to check before you leave”

“D-documents?”

At this point Minhyuk’s realized that he’s probably ended up in some dead end office job. “The Lee trial” Dongwook looks over at him suspiciously

“Come on Dongwook, we’re leaving tomorrow morning, we’re just grabbing some last minute things” Joohee intervenes (thankfully) “Can’t they wait?”

Dongwook smiles and nods “Sorry” he apologises “You’re right, enjoy your honeymoon”. He pats him on the shoulders and waves to Joohee. This encounters Minhyuk leaving a bit disappointed. He had wanted to be a singer for as long as he could remember.

“You ok?”

“I’ll be back, I need to go outside for a bit” he pulls his arm out of her grip

“Well come back quickly ok”

Minhyuk’s feet bring him to the front of the market onto the busy streets of Seoul where he’s surrounded. In the real world at this point in time everyone would’ve recognized him, so he uses this time to himself. Joohee would probably find some way to contact him when she was finished.

Walking down the busy streets Minhyuk searches for the nearest music store. It wasn’t that hard to find his way around though, because the blueprint of his dream was the exact same as in real life. The posters hanging on the walls were of images of his seniors, Girls’ Generation, Kara, 2PM, B1A4 -

“…BTOB” Minhyuk bites his lips and stares at the album in amazement. They were here too, Eunkwang with his blonde hair, looking all so cool and charismatic. Minhyuk remembers the day this shoot happened, how awkward they all were, Eunkwang surprisingly and Peniel too, except their photos turned out best. How Changsub in the middle of posing ripped his pants and how he--

“…Not there”

Minhyuk stares at the familiar and yet unfamiliar face within the group photo. It was Minwoo. Minwoo who was supposed to debut with the boys, Minwoo who had it not been for him leaving, Peniel wouldn’t of have had been there. Except in this world BTOB existed and Minhyuk wasn’t a part of it.

+

Sungjae shakes his body violently and Minhyuk uncurls himself from his position. “We’re here” Sungjae says

The beachside view was definitely a site that Minhyuk hadn’t seen in a while.

“What are you thinking of?” Eunkwang walks over beside him and Minhyuk watches the waves as the crash onto the shore.

“We haven’t been to the beach in a while”

+

“Minhyuk-ah”

“You know just because you’re a few months older than me, I’m still your sunbae” Minhyuk rolls his eyes

“What’s wrong?” Alice hovers over his shoulder, peering onto the blank screen of the laptop in front of him and he pulls away slowly. He hates it when Alice gets this close, because it’s always hard to hide from Alice. It’s like she has some sixth sense where she knows, except she calls it a woman’s instinct Minhyuk thinks she’s probably a witch, or just really nosy.

“I’m just tired, that’s all” he lies, hoping she doesn’t catch onto the tension he’s created between them, at least with fatigue he can hide behind that excuse.

“I thought I told you to look after yourself” she pouts and presses her hand against his forehead as if she was measuring his temperature but she shudders and pulls away quickly, reacting a bit more obnoxiously than he had planned too.

“What’s wrong?” she moves in a bit closer and reaches for his forehead again. This time she’s practically on top of him and it makes him uncomfortable because she’s done this before, in his dream, and Minhyuk jolts up from his seat, knocking Alice onto the floor

“Ouch” she cries “Hey!” she screams and Minhyuk apologises profusely before running out of the waiting room.

+

Minhyuk wishes it was all a dream. That he didn’t just run out on her like he was mortified of her, he wishes that he didn’t just make a fool of himself or Alice, he wishes that he could wake up – right…no-

“Ouch!” he snarls viciously, there was a sharp pinching pain on his back side. Turning around to see the younger boy by his side Minhyuk slaps his hand away.

“Hyung, are you ok?” Ilhoon looks at him, inspecting his eyes silently

“I’m fine Ilhoon” he sighs dejectedly

“I thought you were meant to be BTOB’s actor?” Ilhoon teases much to the older boy’s dismay. He raises his fist playfully as if he were to hit the younger one, causing him to leap backwards playfully.

“I’m just tired, very, very tired”

“Hyung, but that was Joohee noona” Ilhoon leans in closer “You-like-her-remember?” he whispers into the shorter boy’s ear, double checking to see if anyone had heard him.

“I’m never ever telling you anything ever again” Minhyuk says begrudgingly

“Stop drinking alcohol then and making me take you home”

He wraps his arm around the younger, but taller boy’s shoulder and they both walk back towards the waiting room together “Where’s Alice?”

“You embarrassed her you idiot, you think she’d wait around for you?”

“Good job Lee Minhyuk” he curses beneath his breath

+

Minhyuk calls her for the fifth time that night. He’s left her, each time, minute long messages where he’s apologizing.

“Staring at that phone won’t make her call you anytime soon” Eunkwang catches him fiddling with the keypad nervously.

“I know, it’s just stupid…” he tosses his phone onto the floor “The least she could do is answer so I at least know she’s getting these messages”

“She’s busy, you know the girls are working hard for their next performance” the boys stare at each other for a second and laugh ironically. Alice works hard, sure, but if there was one thing she was never too busy to do was to have a nice lengthy phone call with Minhyuk.

“Just sleep it off, maybe she’ll reply tomorrow”

He listens to Eunkwang (for once) and turns off the lamp beside his bed, curling himself into a ball and resting himself.

“Oh and Minhyuk-ah…” he hears a voice he’s sure belongs to Eunkwang, but the older boy says nothing and so Minhyuk lets himself fall deeper into his slumber.

+

“Alice!” he shouts, running through the airport frantically, pushing through the sea of people giving him weird glances.

“Babo!” her voice calls out to him.

Feet carrying him as they can across the floor, he lets himself almost fly towards her - wrapping his arms around her shoulders, drawing her closer to his body.

“Alice, I’m so sorry…” he kisses the top of her head “I shouldn’t of have had done that”

“Are you cheating on me?”

“What? What would give you that idea?” he looks at her with that stupid guilty look on his face, but what this Joohee doesn’t know is that Minhyuk has every reason to be guilty. Just not for the reasons she thinks he’s guilty for.

“That name, that exact name, you called out to me this morning as well…” he’s hold onto her by her shoulders, eyes darting in every direction.

“No wait, Joohee!” he raises his voice “I’m not! Believe me!” he shakes her, gently enough for her to break away from his grip and swoop in for a kiss.

Their lips meet, and it almost feels so natural for him. The way she moves to let him in, and how there’s just enough for him to feel her close to him. She kisses him, bites him gently and pulls “I can’t believe you cheated on me” she scrunches up his t-shirt in her hands, leaning forward, as she whispers those words into his ears.

“I’m not, please believe me” he says, almost angrily, at the notion of him loving another woman, one as much as her.

Joohee’s eyes turn rather dull, and the grip on his shirt loosens, she picks up her bag, and keeps walking towards the terminal, and still as much as Minhyuk tries, he can’t move.

She’s gone; he’s lost her, twice.

+

He needs to put a lock on the door, he needs to find a different dorm so people would stop barging in on him as he slept. He needs to buy some ear plugs and eye masks; he wants to let himself be absorbed in the darkness. He isn’t ready for the day to begin, but he knows he needs to find Alice to apologise.

It’s one of those days where they’re just blessed with freedom. No schedules, just late night practices, and so Minhyuk swears to Eunkwang that he’ll be back, and he’ll work all night on the choreography. He argues that it’s pretty apparent how ‘this guilt on his conscience will stop him from working’. So Eunkwang agrees, but Minhyuk’s pretty sure that he touched that ‘romantic side’ of Seo Eunkwang too. That, and Alice had promised Eunkwang she’d introduce him to this older girl that she knew. In which case, Minhyuk and Alice fighting, is no good for anyone.

He’s not sure how to do it though. Arrive on her door step with a bouquet seems too much, appearing empty handed isn’t an option either. He’s been at the markets for an hour now, and between avoiding people who notice him, it only makes it more time consuming. On the road home, defeated by his futile attempt, Minhyuk is sure he spots a group of familiar people across the road. They’re awfully loud, and rather shameless, but their faces are covered, and it’s hard, but Minhyuk is almost certain, that standing 50 meters away from him was her.

“On your mark, get set…” he hears one voice, he’s sure it’s Ara.

“Go” he sees the one in the middle shout as they dash across the foot path, flying past the joggers beside him.

He digs into his pocket, and searches for his phone. He dials for her number and he can see with her own two eyes. She glances at it quickly and slips it back into her pocket.

[What are you doing?]

 He messages her

[Are you eating well?]

The messages continue

[I’m sorry – can we talk?]
 

.

.

.

[I’m busy all week with my schedule, please don’t bother me]

[Don’t overwork yourself from running]

He sees her eyes darting in every direction after his message.

[Pick up]

He messages her.

The phone rings again, and he’s just praying that maybe, just maybe, she’ll pick up.

She does. But there’s just background noise.

“Listen Joohee, I’m sorry” without fail, it’s the first words that come out of his mouth. “I was being stupid that day, it was wrong of me to do, what I did. You just need to know that I never meant to embarrass you, in anyway, I would never hurt you, on purpose. I just want to make it bett–”

“… You called me Joohee” she utters into the phone.

“I did”

Minhyuk doesn’t do that, call her Joohee – not at least – to her face. It was a line too intimate to cross; at least he had always though. He had always imagined the only time he’d call her Joohee was when he’d take her home, and introduce her to his mother.

‘Mum, meet my girlfriend, Song Joo-hee- I’m going to marry her.’

“Are you really sorry?” she spots him from the sea of people.

“More than anything” he replies promptly.

“Sing me for”

It’s a request that takes Minhyuk for a spin “Alright, let’s go karaoke then”

Minhyuk sees her smile “No silly, now”

“What?”

“I thought you were sorry…” she says, a bit resentful.

“Alright...” he sighs, hands covered over his mouth, allowing his voice to be projected into the phone, only for Joohee to hear. He begins to sing, the first line of his song, until she stops him.

“It’s too easy for you”

“What do you want then, m’lady?”

“You have to dance as well…” she’s resisting the urge to burst out laughing “To the tadpole song”

“If hoards of girls come after me, you’ll have yourself to blame…” he scoffs

There’s a moment of silence on the phone, only the sound of his breath and his voice in the distance. “Are you watching?” he whispers into the phone.

He counts to three and places his hands on his hip. It’s almost painfully embarrassing watching him dance to the tadpole song. There’s a small crowd forming around him, each with their cameras and phones pointed at him. The thing about Lee Minhyuk, Alice learns, is that he’s sometimes, shameless. Still, she can tell he’s smiling despite his mask, because she can see it in his eyes. She watches him stretch, and flail his arms about like a kid.

Only Lee Minhyuk had the ability to do this to her.

Make her hate him, only to forgive him.

And yes, possibly love him.

+

Minhyuk is afraid to sleep. He’s afraid that he’ll dream, and because of this dream, he’ll lose everything. Still he’s only human, and so when his eyes begin to bear the weight of his fatigue, he slowly, then suddenly, falls asleep.

It’s the first time in a while Minhyuk dreams a dreamless sleep. But it’s never been his dreams that have taunted him, no, it all starts when he opens his eyes.

Those two words that call out to him, each time, every time, without fail – he has never been so terrified to hear his own name.
 

Minhyuk is terrified to wake up.

He’s afraid of not knowing which world he’d wake up in, or which version of Joohee he’s going to meet. He’s afraid that he’ll ruin whatever he has in either worlds and the thought of not having Joohee at all scares him.

Still Minhyuk does what he’s been told to do, he breathes and there’s a part of him that prays he’d wake up in the right one.

But what is right?

Between the Joohee of his dreams and Alice in real life, there was one fact that Minhyuk came to realize. It was that they both had loved him.

Minhyuk breathes like he’s been taught how to and her soft voice calls out to him.

“Minhyuk-ah” she calls

Slowly, steadily, his eyes open.

Author's Notes: 

- This is another fic that took far too long to finish. I apologise. I had lost some direction, and a lot of motivation when I was writing to finish this. Although I love this ship, sometimes you just want to do things that does it justice. I don't believe I reached that goal I set with this story. But this completition can only mean I have more and hopefully better plots to work on.
- I thank you all for subscribing and I hope to see your comments down below :) I'd love to hear what you think. I also hope I didn't disappoint!