Water.

Water everywhere.

His eyes are clouded, the liquid seeping into his lung like second nature. Luhan couldn’t find the sense to breathe, his limbs moving like he was floating -no, he was drowning. He was falling deeper, and he allowed his swaying body to move down the depths of a bottomless pit. His hands reach out, as if asking for saving and before he knew it, a pair of larger hands clasps his, providing him that needed security.

Luhan could feel the lack of oxygen now, he was turning blue and in cue, a pair of lips touches his and Luhan never felt he was alive, never felt like he needed those touches compare to air.

There are good dreams and bad dreams.

And Luhan isn’t sure where his dream stands. Because now, he wasn’t living with the help of oxygen. The stranger’s lips is coaxing every corner of his fears and it was as if he asks Luhan to only be scared of him. Scared that he wouldn’t have to privilege to kiss and touch and feel him again. In panic, Luhan shudder by the idea and was ready to grasp the man in his hands, when suddenly, he felt a cold ceramic hitting his head.

He had slept in the bathtub far more frequently now.

Luhan walks out of the bathroom with a white robe covering his body, eyes lost and steps slow with confusion. Jongdae had told him that his assignment had kicked him hard in the and decided to get wasted at the nearby bar, to which Luhan cringed when he invited the blonde. Now that he thought about it, he should’ve gone out with his roommate given that his mind was drifting to something other than his abandoned work. Luhan had brought his work into the campus and was regretting the presence of it.

He stared at the pile of papers and huffed, sitting by the edge of his bed and threw his robe away, letting the cold seep into the surface of his skin and straight into his heated core. He wasn’t sure what causes his distress, until he looked down between his legs and , he was hard as a rock.

How could he’d be in this situation? He knew what he had was a bad dream, but then again, the kisses felt so real. Luhan ponders while grazing his lips with the tip of his index finger, feeling the creases and dips. Strange enough, his heart beats mysteriously faster as he recalled the taste of the flesh. No clear image was plastered on the back of his mind, but he knew, truly and surely that the shadow man was both saving and killing him.

Maybe he’s right. All this time Luhan was trying to avoid the man like a plague. Avoiding sleep with cups and cups of coffee, pinching his skin harshly whenever he was almost asleep. Now that he had the negative effect of that, he was sleeping at odd hours and places —including the bath tub, in most occasions.

He stared down at his skin, to which several amount of pink and red dots can be seen around his arms and thighs. Jongdae had asked him about the marks, whether he was having a buddy or a bad one night stand. Luhan dismissed him back then, but now, he wished it were visible by the action of his dream lover rather than the work of his fingers to keep himself awake.

He remembered the usual black surrounding and broken mirrors, the blood and voices eerily making its way into his dreaming head. Just when he was limp and curling on the floor, the shadow had come and touch the way he usually did. There is nothing extraordinary to recall that the move are explicit, but Luhan would either wake up with sweat and flushed body or a hard on. And now, drowning in his dreams is happening like a repeated scene, and Luhan is again saved by the same gesture. Kisses and hands tangled with his.

It has come to the conclusion that, although denial at first, he could be developing weird ual kinks out of nightmares. Why does it feel good though?

Seeing that the silence of the room made him think more than he wanted to, Luhan was quick to throw on a hoodie and pants and within seconds, he was already out and into the street with nothing in his head. Clear and blank. He blinked the thoughts of sweet pair of lips away and stroll aimlessly without a plan.

Except that he was directed towards the place that he first found out about the man, one that have the ability to sketch one’s fated love. It was out of instinct that whenever he dreams, the side income would be standing at the front steps of the door and waited. Waited for what, exactly, he asked mentally. What is it with this place and Oh Sehun and his clairvoyant powers?

Hearing a faint noise coming from the other side of the door, Luhan jolt in his place when he was face to face with Kim Jongin. The man was shocked to find him and Luhan, too, was clearly confused why he was here in the first place. Jongin threw him a friendly smile and pushed him aside gently. Luhan was still rooted in his place, turning only when Jongin started to walk down the small steps.

“Hey, Kai.” He rasped.

“Hmm?”

“Why am I here?” it was stupid to ask, but Jongin only shrugged and start to walk again. Luhan was quick to wrap his fingers around the man’s arm and said, “You were here for the… sketch too?”

Jongin sighed. “No, I was here to help Sehun. Apparently, a drunk person had scared the guy and I was right in the area to accompany his sorry ,” the brunette turned and this time, Luhan was staring at him with uncertainty, “Why do you ask?”

“N-Nothing.”

“Hey, you okay?” Jongin lean close to check for any sign, anything to tell him that Luhan was certainly not okay. The blonde had turned pale by the seconds and it happens so fast, the way Luhan had lunged forward and collapse in Jongin’s embrace. “, Sehun open up!”

Luhan was awaken with white as a ceiling and a warm jacket as a duvet. Then a voice was heard saying, “Are you sure he’s not dead?” and it was clearly coming from the brat Oh Sehun. Luhan blinked once, trying to suppress the growing headache when he heard Jongin whispered, “I don’t want to scare you, but he does look dead.”

“Should we bury him, then?”

The blonde shot up, sitting groggily, and glaring at the two younger males, but it was more to Oh Sehun, actually. “Excuse you, I can hear you from here!”

Both of them were seated on the floor, leaning heavily against the foot of the couch beside Luhan. Jongin look bored while Sehun was being Sehun, face void of emotion and Luhan finds himself staring at him for far too long, noticing a slight familiarity. What is it about Sehun and his lips?

“Hey, fetus,” Luhan called out. Sehun raises his eyes and met his, and Luhan can’t help but feel the skip of his heartbeat. “Come over here.”

Sehun tilt his head in question, but went over to Luhan nonetheless. It took a couple more glances exchanged between the two before Jongin interrupt with: “If you’re going to stare at each other like a couple of curious cats, I’d better be going now.”

Sehun dismissed his friend, not even bothering to notice Jongin's retreating figure and out of the house. Luhan was gazing at him with serenity, lips slightly parted as if fumbling for empty words. It was this moment, in complete silence without anything in between and nasty remarks that Sehun finds himself blushing. He tried to break away from Luhan’s intense eyes, staring at him like he has all the answer of the world. Gulping, the younger joked, “Do you always have the habit to stare at people like they have three eyes or something?”

The blonde smirked, the corner of his lips tilting menacingly. “No,” he quickly answered, trying his will to distinguish the contact, yet it wasn’t enough because damn why does his lips look like—

“I am not surprised if you find me enticing.” Sehun said nonchalantly.

Luhan still in his tranquil state, eyes following the movement of Sehun’s lips as the male now spouting nonsense. Somewhere along the line of ‘having few crushes’ and ‘I was mistaken as an angel’, Luhan snapped and blinked, dazed and weirded out.

“Sehun. Shut up,” his voice came out raspy. Sehun rolled his eyes and grumbled, trying to distance himself before Luhan reaches out and circled his wrist with a firm grip. The younger tried to pull away, but that didn’t stop Luhan. Instead, he pulled Sehun close enough until their face was inches apart. “Let me try something, will you?”

“What –no!”

Sehun struggled again. The brat has no boundaries. “–“ Luhan hissed, and he loses it. “Can you stop moving? – why do you look ing familiar?”

The blonde released his grip, replacing his grasp on Sehun’s face and immediately, it felt right. He didn’t know what it is, that feeling of uncertainty in his guts and his emotions was on a roller coaster now —the image of his blissful nightmare came back like flashing movies. What he knew is, Sehun’s lips were pink and plump, and if it wasn’t for incoherent words escaping the lips of the younger, Luhan would’ve thought that he’d make a fine young man. His palms started to warm by this idea, the mere fact that Sehun was a representation of something that kept haunting him. He remembered the way his hands would hold the face of the stranger, his fingers splayed on the defined jaw and thumbs langu