She saw him in her dreams. He came in the middle of the night and sometimes, he would just watch her but sometimes he would talk to her. He had a soft voice. She liked to listen to him talk, but he didn’t always talk. Sometimes, he was just quiet.

            She didn’t really know why he would come all the time but she didn’t mind. She liked his presence. The first time he appeared, she was startled. She has never seen him before and she knew from experience that this was unnatural. Everyone who appeared in dreams was someone you had seen at least once.

            In her dream she asked him who he was. He only stared at her. She remembered that it was dark. She had been walking along a dark strip of sky, flying, when suddenly she was pulled back to earth. She felt a hand touch her shoulder, and she was convinced she had woken up. But then she saw him and she knew that she was still dreaming. He was too beautiful to be real.

            He stood there, holding her shoulder, keeping her an arm’s length away. He studied her and she stared at him. She took in his slightly red hair and his perfect bow-shaped lips. His face was sharp and his eyes were large but they were currently clouded, as if he had something on his mind.

            She wanted to hear him speak first so the first time they met, she didn’t say a word and neither did he. She only remembered the cold feeling of being pulled awake. His image burned in her mind. She went to bed every night, anticipating that he came but he didn’t. She counted the days, grew restless, until one night, she felt herself once more in the unfamiliar universe.

            He was dressed in all black, like last time. But this time, he smiled a little more. He held out a hand and she didn’t dare move. He moved the hand, as if inviting her to take it. She raised her hand slowly and he picked up her hand with his left and covered it with his right. She could feel the words coming. She could hear the unspoken thoughts whizzing around them and knew that he was going to speak.

            “Sungyeol,” he said quietly. His voice was lovely. She told him hers and he placed a finger on her lips afterwards, asking for silence again. She didn’t speak again. Instead, she focused her attention on their surroundings. It was clear they were somewhere she has never been.

            She could count the stars, twinkling like diamonds in the background, lighting him up. She knew they were standing on something that was both concrete and not. It felt like they were floating on air, but also at the same time, she felt grounded, as if this was a place she belonged.

            She woke up and was more satisfied. But she was slowly becoming restless. How could he just be a dream?

            The next time she saw Sungyeol, he had a rose for her. She accepted it with a blush. No one has ever gotten her anything of the sort before. She was flattered and he had smiled. She liked his smile. It was dazzling, just like the rest of him. It was funny how the more he wore his dark clothes, the brighter he shone.

            She talked to him and he seemed to listen. He never said much but the small words he said was enough. She told him about her problems and he never once seemed disinterested. He listened and he responded sometimes. But her favorite response was  when he would slowly curl both his hands on her arms.

            The first time it happened, she held her breath. He had faced her and held her. Then in one fluid motion, he had pulled her into him. She let out her breath then with a small oomph. He smelled like the moonlight and when she inhaled, her nose and mouth was filled with the after scent of what she imagined midnight to taste like.

            When she touched him, he was solid and he held her firmly. As her outside life spiraled more and more out of control, she held onto him. “Are you a dream?” she asked him.

            He had chuckled. His fingers were locked with hers and he rubbed a thumb soothingly over the top of her hand. “Do I seem like a dream to you?”

            “I don’t know. You’re pretty perfect. Nobody likes you exist in real life.”

            “And how exactly is real life?”

            She fell silent. Lately life has been getting darker and she was starting to lose hope in humanity. She had seen too much of its atrocities and she knew that was what he was talking about. “But I can’t forever dream.”

            He lured her in next to her and pressed his cheek against hers. He moved his head and she froze. His lips were next to hers and from the corner of , she heard him whisper, “Then join me.” His lips grazed her skin and she shivered.

            “How?”

            He pulled back slightly and she tilted her head back to stare at him. He was so tall and so handsome. She saw a diamond sparkle in his ear and for a second, she wondered why she had never noticed it. The loose scarf around his neck showed off his long neck and she found herself drowning. Drowning in his perfection.

            “Listen to your heart,” he said and pressed his lips against hers. He parted his mouth and used his tongue to gently coax hers open. She clung onto his neck because there was nothing else she knew to do. She held onto him and she closed her eyes, making her decision. When she opened her eyes, she was back in her room.

            She waited. She waited until the time was right, then threw open her windows. The moon was bright and for a moment, she felt as if she were with Sungyeol in their secret paradise. She threw her arms out and felt the wind caress her.

            Wind, until she heard the words in her ears, “Jump into my arms.”

            She stopped all thoughts and listened with her heart. Her heart was beating, thudding, pumping wildly and she saw him, handsome, outside her room, waiting. His arms were outstretched. She jumped and there was the sensation of falling. A free falling, a wild feeling, the idea of being free. She jumped and fell right into the arms of the Prince of the Night, letting him catch her and smelling once again the refreshing mint of the wind and tasting the burst of stars, exploding into what she had come to associate Sungyeol with; midnight. 

This was requested by JewelJang.

The plot has been nagging at me for a while, and it's a bit like alternate universe. Originally, it was supposed to be a suicide, but in light of what happened with Courtney on tumblr, I felt like it may be a bit inappropriate, so it's completely up to your interpretations.