Chanyeol Park has weird friends.

That’s usually okay, because he’s equally weird too. But one of his friends is a Film Major, and another one is a Lit Major, and that ends up with copious discussions about Disney films, and although Chanyeol loves Disney, it is kind of weird.

After their argument over which is better, film or book, and which Disney film is the best (Pocahontas, The Lion King or Beauty and the Beast? But what about Mulan?), their conversation ends up, over a plate of dubious-tasting brownies, being about what character each friend and classmate would be in a Disney film.

They’ve decided that Minseok, that quiet and somewhat frosty-seeming guy from Baekhyun Byun’s Film class, would probably be Elsa, though they can’t decide who would make a good Ana. Jongdae Kim decides that Baekhyun would make an excellent Ariel, so Baekhyun counters with Aurora from Sleeping Beauty.

“You’re better when you’re asleep,” Baekhyun says, and Jongdae tries to hit him, though Baekhyun gets out of the way too quickly for his hand to connect.

Some kid called Jongin who Jongdae knows is volunteered for some character from Treasure Planet, which Chanyeol is just confused by. And then they delve into animals.

“Lu Han for Bambi,” Baekhyun says.

“That’s cruel but so very perfect,” Jongdae agrees.

Chanyeol ignores who they pick for the kittens in The Aristocats, because it’s just a load of people he’s never met before. Who is Huang Zitao?

Finally, the discussion ends with Alice in Wonderland.

“Chanyeol would make a great Mad Hatter from the 2010 film,” Jongdae says.

“That’s cheating,” Baekhyun says. “Anyway, that film is terrible.”

Chanyeol pouts. They ignore him.

“Well, who would be Alice?” Jongdae asks.

“Kyungsoo is cute enough,” Baekhyun says.

Kyungsoo Do, who has been mostly ignoring them and the brownies this whole evening, looks up from his book and gives Baekhyun a glare that sends shivers down Chanyeol’s spine.

“Off with your head,” Kyungsoo mutters.

Chanyeol bites his lip to keep from laughing and helps himself to another brownie. They are strangely addictive and he isn’t entirely sure what’s in them.

It can’t be anything good, because the world starts spinning, and Chanyeol is pretty sure he passes out to the soundtrack of evil cackling.
 

Chanyeol wakes up on a dirt track in the woods. Jongdae is leaning over him, wearing a stripy pink and purple ensemble, down to the strange face paint. He has cat ears and whiskers. Chanyeol doesn’t remember Jongdae owning cat ears, and he can’t explain the whiskers.

“Where am I?” Chanyeol asks. He frowns when Jongdae doesn’t reply. “Where’s Baekhyun?”

“There is no such person as Baekhyun here,” Jongdae says. He doesn’t say it in his usual jokey way where he’s pretending that Baekhyun doesn’t exist. He genuinely sounds sincere. It scares Chanyeol.

“Jongdae, don’t joke,” Chanyeol says, frowning some more in annoyance at his friend’s weird behaviour. “Baekhyun, our friend who lives with us and Kyungsoo?”

“Those people don’t exist here either,” Jongdae says. “In case the ears didn’t give it away, I’m a cat.” He grins. “You must be new. We don’t usually get new people.”

“Um,” Chanyeol says. “Okay, Cat. Where are we?”

“Why, this is Wonderland, of course,” Jongdae-Cat says. “And you must be lost.”

“Er,” Chanyeol says. “I guess?” What a strange dream to be having, he thinks. They were literally just talking about Disney, but Jongdae had been Aurora and not the Cheshire Cat, so he doesn’t know where that came from. His mind is weird.

“You should go that way,” Jongdae-Cat says, pointing away into the trees. “Maybe you’ll find someone to help. I don’t know. I’m only a Cat.”

And then he vanishes like he was never there in the first place.

“Oh,” Chanyeol says aloud. “Now I get what was in those brownies.”

He heads off in the direction Jongdae pointed him in anyway. It’s not like it’ll do any harm.
 

He’s been walking through woods that look the same, not entirely sure if he’s even going in the right direction, for over five minutes when he realises that a path has appeared under his feet. He takes the path, diverging from the direction that Jongdae had pointed him in.

The path doesn’t lead him far, only a few metres, to where a short boy is standing. He’s dressed in a blue short-sleeved shirt and a pair of white trousers, and he looks extremely confused. He’s pouting and Chanyeol feels the strangest urge to pet him.

“Oh, brilliant,” the boy says when he sees Chanyeol. He sighs. “Have you seen a boy in bunny ears anywhere? I think I’m supposed to follow him. Or at least that’s what Yixing said, after he finished telling me about his life and how his mouse babies got kidnapped by the Dormouse’s wife, or something like that. Or at least he looked like Yixing, only with whiskers and a tail, and an inch tall.”

“Uh,” Chanyeol says. “No, but there’s one with cat ears somewhere.” Then it filters through. “Are you supposed to be Alice?”

The boy looks down at himself. “Well, I didn’t put myself in these clothes, so…” He sighs again. “Why did I dream myself to be Alice?”

“I don’t think this is your dream,” Chanyeol says. “I’m pretty sure it’s mine.”

“No,” the boy says. “Anyway, not that it matters, because it is my dream, but what’s your name?”

“I’m Chanyeol,” Chanyeol says. “It really isn’t your dream.”

The boy nods in a way that shows he doesn’t believe Chanyeol one bit. “I’m Joonmyun,” he says. “I could lie to you, but you already know that, because you’re me. And this is my dream. I’m Alice. It’s Alice’s dream.”

Chanyeol rolls his eyes, but he can’t argue with that logic. “What does this boy with rabbit ears look like?” When Joonmyun gives him a funny look, he says, “Humour me.”

Joonmyun sighs a third time. “He looks like Jongin,” he says.

“Oh thank God,” Chanyeol says. “I was worried that if you’re Alice, I’m the White Rabbit. But I’m not.” He pauses. “Jongin. I recognise that name.”

“I knew you knew him,” Joonmyun says. “Tall, white-blond hair. Dressed all in white with bunny ears. Anyway, you’re wearing a hat.” The switch in topic has Chanyeol blinking, before he remembers his friends’ verdict.

“Mad…Hatter…” he breathes aloud, and smacks his forehead, because he can’t believe he didn’t realise sooner. “Wonderful. I hate my friends.”

Joonmyun gives him a strange look but Chanyeol doesn’t pay him any mind. This is all a dream in his head, even Joonmyun. He’s actually glad that his brain didn’t put him in a dress and a wig. It even offered Joonmyun the same courtesy, which is pretty charitable.

Chanyeol looks around him, at the tall trees. “I think we should start moving,” he says, and Joonmyun shrugs.

“Okay,” he says. “Where to?”

The path has long gone, when Chanyeol turns to look behind him. “I think we should pick our way through the trees,” he says. “The Jongdae-Cat pointed me in this direction.” He nods to his right. “He told me to go this way. Though,” he adds as an afterthought, “maybe he was just telling me where you were.”

“I don’t know Jongdae,” Joonmyun says with a frown.

“He knows Jongin,” Chanyeol says, like that means everything, and begins picking his way through the trees, pushing branches aside so he can step beneath them. “Come on, then. Any way is better than none.”

Joonmyun remains still without moving for a moment before hurrying after him before he lets the branches drop.
 

They pick their way through the trees until they reach a clearing.

Chanyeol wonders as they walk. He doesn’t know if this dream is following the plot of Alice or not, so he doesn’t know who they’ll meet—or if they’re people they know in real life. It’s possible.

Once in the clearing, they settle down on the grass.

“How do we get out of here?” Joonmyun asks.

“I think we play the story out,” Chanyeol replies.

“I don’t want my head to be chopped off,” Joonmyun says, wrapping his arms protectively around it, and he pouts. He looks adorable. Chanyeol thinks he would make an excellent addition to his circle of short friends. All of his friends are short.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Chanyeol says. “You won’t die. You’re Alice.”

Joonmyun smiles a little shyly at him. “Okay,” he says. “We just have to get out first.”

“Where are you going?” a tiny voice asks, and Chanyeol looks around, trying to find where the voice came from. “I’m down here, you giant.”

And sure enough, when Chanyeol looks down, there’s a small being, no bigger than the span of his hand. Carefully he lifts him up so that he and Joonmyun can hear him better.

“Wait,” he says, once the figure is close enough to be recognisable, “Baekhyun?”

“Who is Baekhyun?” Baekhyun asks. He looks suspiciously taller than he usually is. Chanyeol does his best not to comment.

“You’re as bad as the Jongdae-Cat,” he says instead.

“Where are you going?” Baekhyun repeats. “No. Stop. You’re too big. I refuse to talk to you until you grow smaller.”

Chanyeol blinks. “Uh,” he says, because how does one become smaller?

“Oh,” Joonmyun says, and he rummages in the pockets of his trousers. “I have these biscuits. I finished the tonic they gave me to get through the doors, but I kept some of these.”

Chanyeol doesn’t think too hard about the fact that apparently you can change size in this world. It’s not worth it.

“The biscuits make you bigger,” Chanyeol and Not-Baekhyun chorus.

“No, there’s one,” Joonmyun says, and he picks through the biscuits in his hand until he finds a pink one. It’s already missing a bit, teeth marks at the edge. He stuffs the rest of the biscuits in his pocket. “They don’t shrink otherwise,” he explains, and then snaps the biscuit in two, dropping half into Chanyeol’s hand. “Don’t eat the whole thing.”

After putting Not-Baekhyun back down, Chanyeol gnaws at the edge of the biscuit, and the effects are instantaneous. He feels himself grow smaller and smaller, and his surroundings become larger. It’s disorienting, watching the world flash by, but utterly painless.

When it finishes, he is about twenty centimetres tall, and Joonmyun a good five or so less. Joonmyun pouts again. Not-Baekhyun is taller than he is.

At this height, Chanyeol can tell that the figure isn’t Baekhyun. He holds himself differently and he’s wearing clothes that Chanyeol knows he would never wear. He’s holding what appears to be a hookah in his hand.

“Excellent,” Not-Baekhyun says, and then he inhales the substance from the hookah deeply. “Where are you going?” he asks, “are” and “you” coming out as their letter counterparts.

Joonmyun chokes on the smoke letters. Chanyeol, thankfully, had seen them coming and ducked, waving through the smoke.

As he coughs, Chanyeol says, “We’re just a bit lost.”

“Who are you?” Baekhyun asks. The first U tangles itself around Joonmyun’s wrist, and he can’t seem to shake it off.

“I’m Joonmyun and that’s Chanyeol,” Joonmyun says. “And can you please stop puffing that stuff all over me?” As he speaks, he must have inhaled some of the smoke, because a small U comes out of his mouth. It collides with Not-Baekhyun’s face and Chanyeol laughs. Not-Baekhyun frowns. The real Baekhyun would have laughed too.

“Joonmyun and Chanyeol, where are you going?” Not-Baekhyun repeats, and Chanyeol sighs.

“He’s following a White Rabbit,” he says. “And I’m escorting him.”

Joonmyun raises his eyebrows. “Are you?” he asks.

“It’ll be fun,” Chanyeol says. “We may as well embrace it while we’re here.”

Joonmyun shrugs. “Have you seen the White Rabbit?” He pauses. “Do you think he’s going to the Queen?”

“Oh, you’re looking for the Queen?” Not-Baekhyun asks, letters this time floating around Chanyeol. “Why didn’t you say so? You should go that way.” He points to the right. “You can take a shortcut through the house. The Dormice won’t mind.” Then he frowns. “Leave me be, I feel a change come upon me.”

Chanyeol scurries away towards the right, heading for a little wooden cottage built into the side of a tree, Joonmyun hastening after him on shorter legs. When they reach the house, Chanyeol turns to see Not-Baekhyun explode up into the sky. “What just happened?” he asks.

“I think that was the Caterpillar,” Joonmyun says. “Though he wasn’t very wise, and thankfully not very grumpy.”

“He wasn’t very much like Baekhyun,” Chanyeol says. “But Jongdae wasn’t very much like Jongdae either.”

“I really have no idea who those people are,” Joonmyun says, and then he walks to the door of the little cottage and knocks.

It’s a moment before the door opens, revealing a chubby-cheeked boy holding an equally chubby-cheeked baby. He has whiskers, furry ears, and a tail.

“…Minseok?” Joonmyun asks, eyes wide, and Chanyeol scurries over.

“Baekhyun’s Minseok?” Chanyeol asks. “Film class? You don’t look frosty at all.”

Joonmyun turns to blink at him. “Wait, what?”

“Baekhyun nominated him for Elsa,” Chanyeol tries to explain, somewhat awkwardly. “I’ve never met the guy before so I can’t comment.”

Joonmyun bites his lip to stop from laughing.

“What do you want?” Minseok-Mouse asks.

“The Caterpillar said we could take a shortcut through your house? We’re going to the Queen,” Joonmyun explains.

“Ah, yes,” Minseok-Mouse says, and he takes one hand from his baby mouse to point. “That way,” he says. “You should probably have some of the cake from the kitchen, but don’t eat it until you’re out of the house. Those biscuits will only do so much. Say hello to the Queen for me.”

They do as he says, making their way through to the kitchen, as the baby mouse begins to sing, ”Twinkle twinkle little bat…”.

There is a being in the kitchen pulling out cakes from the oven, sliding them into a floor-to-ceiling rack to the side. He doesn’t look like a dormouse. He doesn’t look like a mouse at all. He looks entirely human, if only twenty or so centimetres tall.

“Lu Han!” Joonmyun squeaks.

Presumably Not-Lu Han, who also looks nothing like Bambi, doesn’t seem to notice the name. “Take some cake,” he says, waving to the rack. “The top ones are cold.”

There must be ten or more cakes in the rack. Chanyeol dutifully lifts the top cake down and obligingly cuts two slices, handing Joonmyun one. It oozes with jam and cream, spilling onto his hands and Chanyeol brings it to his mouth.

“No!” Presumably Not-Lu Han shouts. “Out! Out! Before you destroy our house!”

Chanyeol’s tongue has just touched the cream and he shoots up another five centimetres, head brushing the ceiling, but thankfully no further. Joonmyun steers him out of the house, helping him to duck out through the door as he apologises frantically for Chanyeol’s rudeness. Chanyeol feels put out at this. “I wasn’t being rude,” he whines.

“He told you not to eat it!” Joonmyun says, and then brings his own cake to his mouth. “I hope we won’t have to grow smaller again.”

Chanyeol doesn’t reply, as his own mouth is full of cake.
 

Both of them grossly underestimated how much taller the cake would make them.

Thankfully there are no birds in the treetops to attack them. They take a moment to look around them.

“There!” Joonmyun says, his voice so loud it makes the nearby trees vibrate.

Chanyeol looks where he’s pointing and sees it, where the woods end. It’s a boy with a white head anc bunny ears popping along the ground. He’s not running, he physically disappears and reappears further down the path.

“That’s Jongin,” Joonmyun says. “How do we get to him?”

They’re still a great distance, although considering their current sizes, it might not take them too long to get there.

“Going somewhere?” comes a familiar drawl, and Chanyeol turns to see Jongdae-Cat, rolling over onto his back as he balances at the top of a nearby tree. His tail swishes and Chanyeol wonders how he hadn’t noticed that Not-Jongdae had had a tail.

“We’re following that rabbit,” Joonmyun says, pointing into the distance.

“Well you can’t possibly go this size,” Jongdae-Cat says. “You’ll kill everyone in the woods.”

“Oh,” Joonmyun says. “I wouldn’t want to do that.”

“Well,” Jongdae-Cat says. “If you shrink down to a sensible height, I may be able to show you a shortcut. Or you can just keep going, of course.”

“But which direction?” Chanyeol asks.

“All directions,” Jongdae-Cat says. “I’d send you to the Mad Hatter, but you are the Mad Hatter. Don’t know how I didn’t see it the first time. Wrong one of course.”

“How can I be the wrong one?” Chanyeol asks.

“You’re not mad enough,” Jongdae-Cat replies, and then he disappears. His whiskers and tail are the last things to go. Chanyeol frowns.

“You heard him,” Joonmyun says, and there’s a rustle and a brush of trees as he brings his hand to his mouth. The biscuit is tiny in his gigantic hand as he leans in to it. Instantly, he shoots down below the level of the trees.

Chanyeol shrugs and brings his own to his mouth. A second later he’s hurtling towards the ground, feeling like he’s on a drop tower. He does his best not to scream, because Joonmyun hadn’t and he doesn’t want to seem like he’s as terrified as he is if Joonmyun wasn’t.

When they’re both on solid ground, Chanyeol feels unsteady. Joonmyun clutches onto him, and Chanyeol brings him into a hug that both relaxes and steadies him, and Joonmyun doesn’t seem to mind, sinking into his hold.

He lets go of him as he hears laughter, and he turns to face Jongdae-Cat and two figures he doesn’t recognise. They’re like red and yellow striped beach balls with legs and faces, though at least their faces are distinct. They’re both blond, one with platinum blond hair and the other a darker golden shade. The platinum blond one has an H on his shirt, and the darker blond one a T.

“These are Tweedle-Hun and Tweedle-Tao,” Jongdae-Cat says, pointing at each in turn.

“Wait,” Joonmyun says. “Sehun and Zitao? What happened to them?”

Jongdae-Cat rolls his eyes but otherwise ignores Joonmyun’s last sentence. “You creatures are so very annoying with your strange names,” Jongdae-Cat says. “Anyway, they will show you a shortcut to the White Rabbit and the Queen.”

“Brilliant!” Joonmyun says.

“But only if you declaim Jabberwocky first,” Jongdae-Cat adds. “Make sure to make it as expressive as possible. You have an audience.”

“I don’t know the poem,” Chanyeol says.

“That’s what the scroll is for,” Jongdae-Cat says, and he sighs. “Humans. So stupid.”

“Where’s the scroll?” Joonmyun asks, and the cat rolls his eyes.

“With the Tweedles,” he says. “Of course.”

“Oh,” Joonmyun says.

“If that’s all, I have a game of croquet to not play and an unbirthday to celebrate,” Jongdae-Cat says, and then he vanishes. The last thing are to go are his somewhat crooked teeth, bent into a gruesome smile.

Chanyeol turns to Tweedle-Hun and Tweedle-Tao.

“Guess which one of us has it!” the one with the T on his shirt says.

“You’ll never guess!” the one with the H says.

“There’s a fifty per cent chance,” Joonmyun says. “I pick Sehun and he picks Zitao.” He pauses. “Tweedle-Hun,” he corrects himself.

“Tweedle-Tao,” Chanyeol says.

“Right!” Tweedle-Tao says, at the same that Tweedle-Hun says, “Wrong!”

Tweedle-Tao pulls out a scroll of paper seemingly from the air behind him and tosses it into Chanyeol’s hands. Chanyeol barely catches it, and he does his best to unroll it carefully.

The first line is,

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Chanyeol blinks. “What do these words mean?” he asks Joonmyun, feeling stupid.

“It’s a nonsense poem,” Joonmyun says, taking the scroll from Chanyeol. “So what we think it means may not be what the author meant. It’s all nonsense.”

“It’s about the Jabberwock,” Tweedle-Hun says. “He—”

“—Is the most fearsome beast in Wonderland,” Tweedle-Tao finishes.

“Has he not been killed yet?” Joonmyun asks absently, running over the words. Chanyeol watches him for a moment before turning to the words on the page and trying to commit them to memory.

The Tweedles shrug. “Not our job to kill the Jabberwock,” Tweedle-Tao says.

“Just not get eaten by it,” Tweedle-Hun says.

Chanyeol sighs. “I guess we should start this then.”

Joonmyun reads the first stanza as grandly as he can.

“Not loud enough!” Tweedle-Tao protests.

“More emotion!” Tweedle-Hun adds.

It takes another three run-throughs before they’re satisfied, and then it’s Chanyeol’s turn to read a stanza, the first introduction of the Jabberwock.

They’re not happy with his read of it either, correcting his enunciation until he’s perfect.

Together Joonmyun and Chanyeol read the entire seven-stanza poem, and when they’re finished Tweedle-Hun and Tweedle-Tao applaud.

“Excellent!” they chorus.

“A bit too excellent,” Tweedle-Hun says.

“We forgot to mention that reciting the poem calls the Jabberwock,” Tweedle-Tao adds.

“Sorry,” they chorus.

Chanyeol freezes, quaking in his shoes at the idea that he and Joonmyun unwittingly summoned the most dangerous beast in all of Wonderland. He’s too young and too pretty to die. He hasn’t done nearly enough. Or kissed enough people.

Tweedle-Tao pulls a lever in a tree, a lever that definitely wasn’t there a minute ago. The lever causes a door in the tree to swing open. “Hurry!” he says. “Run!”

Chanyeol and Joonmyun waste no time in wondering if they should. They both scramble into the hole in the tree, and the door shuts behind them ominously, trapping them in darkness.

“Great,” Joonmyun whispers, and then a light flashes, illuminating the tree for a second to reveal steps heading down into the ground.

Carefully, due to the lack of light, they make their way down the steps, and then along the corridor they lead to. They don’t talk as they go, and they don’t meet anybody else on the way. After a few metres of darkness, Chanyeol’s hand finds Joonmyun’s, anchoring them together, and their hands remain connected for the duration of the journey. Chanyeol doesn’t particularly want to do this alone, especially not now there’s a Jabberwock after them.

Part of him laughs at this perceived threat, however. It’s just a dream, after all. It’s not like they’re going to be injured or killed by the creature.

It’s as he thinks this that Joonmyun, walking behind him, trips and falls, hand pulling out of Chanyeol’s so quickly that Chanyeol’s close around nothing. “Ow,” Joonmyun hisses.

“Are you okay?” Chanyeol whispers, turning to face him. His eyes have adjusted to the dark and he can see the shadowy outline of Joonmyun. He can’t see what happened, though.

“Yeah,” Joonmyun says. “But that—it hurt. Chanyeol, it hurt.”

Dreams don’t hurt. Nothing hurts in a dream.

“Chanyeol, if it hurt, that means that—” He stops mid-sentence.

“This might not be a dream,” Chanyeol finishes for him.

“But if it’s not a dream, what is it, and how will we leave?” Joonmyun asks.

Chanyeol has no idea.
 

It takes them quite some more time, walking the seemingly endless corridor, before it does end. There’s a flash like at the start, illuminating a flight of stairs leading up to a door in the trunk of another tree, a lever next to it.

Carefully they climb the steps and Chanyeol feels around for the lever.

The tree opens up into a garden next to some rose bushes. Chanyeol and Joonmyun scramble out and the door closes behind them, sealing so well they would never have known there was a passage there if they hadn’t just walked through it themselves.

The roses nearby are red, but as they walk further along the garden, they can see roses dripping onto the ground.

“We’re in the Queen’s garden,” Joonmyun says. “Those were painted.”

“Recently,” Chanyeol agrees. “That means there must be people around.”

Not a moment later, a boy runs across their path. “Oh, I’m late!” he cries out. “I’m so late!” He has white-blond hair and white rabbit ears nestled in the tufts. He’s wearing a waistcoat covered in red hearts.

“Jongin!” Joonmyun cries out, and when Jongin-Rabbit doesn’t answer, he adds, “Mr Rabbit!”

“Can’t stay, must go, I’m late!” Jongin-Rabbit replies. “I’m really very late!”

“But what are you late for?” Joonmyun shouts after him as he runs off down the path by the roses.

“Croquet!” Jongin-Rabbit calls over his shoulder.

“Have you ever seen croquet before?” Chanyeol asks Joonmyun.

“No,” Joonmyun replies. “Want to?”

“Definitely,” Chanyeol says, and they follow the rabbit down the path.
 

It takes a few moments for Chanyeol to realise who the Queen is, and when he does he wonders why he hadn’t seen it coming a mile away.

The croquet game is being held on a large grassy field. The participants appear to be Jongin-Rabbit, who is being scolded, presumably for being late, and a large figure wearing a golden crown and what appears to be a black dress covered in red hearts. But when the being turns towards them, revealing the flamingo in his hands, Chanyeol realises that it’s not a dress but a long-skirted coat. It stops at waist-height, revealing his black trousers and knee-high red boots.

“That’s my roommate,” Chanyeol says.

“The Queen is your roommate?” Joonmyun asks, and Chanyeol nods.

“His name is Kyungsoo and he’s going to have both our heads if we’re not extremely nice to him.”

“Okay,” Joonmyun says. “I’ll bear that in mind.”

They make their way along the side of the observers, trying to reach Jongdae-Cat, who is hovering behind the Tweedles, when they’re spotted by Queen Kyungsoo.

“You there. Boys. Who are you?” he asks. He sounds different from Kyungsoo, his voice higher-pitched, and Chanyeol finds it disconcerting coming from Kyungsoo’s mouth.

“We’re Chanyeol and Joonmyun, Your Majesty,” Chanyeol says, leaning into a bow and thinking that somewhere Kyungsoo is probably laughing at him. “We came to watch you play.”

This Kyungsoo doesn’t laugh. “Very well, then,” he says. “Watch your Queen win.” He turns to Jongin-Rabbit. “You had better do your best, or it’s off with your head.”

Jongin-Rabbit quakes, the flamingo in his hands falling limp.

Queen Kyungsoo manages to beat Jongin-Rabbit at every point, which is hardly surprising, due to the fact the ferret-like creature he is using for a ball obediently veers off-course whenever Jongin-Rabbit hits it, and the card soldiers, because of course there are card soldiers, pretend it isn’t even there. He waves Jongin-Rabbit away once the game is over.

“It was too boring to lose you your head,” he says. “I will think of a suitable punishment.” He spins to face Chanyeol and Joonmyun. “You, boy,” he says, pointing at Chanyeol’s companion. “Do you play croquet?”

“No, Majesty,” Joonmyun says, bowing. “I play golf?”

Queen Kyungsoo studies him for a moment. “That’s close enough,” he says. “Come and join me.”

Joonmyun gives Chanyeol a panicked look, but scurries over to Kyungsoo when he says, “You wouldn’t want to lose anything, now, would you?”

Croquet is not at all like golf, but Joonmyun seems determined to create some kind of pseudo-golquet game meshed out of the two, only using the end of the card soldier tunnels as the hole. It is endlessly amusing for Chanyeol, even with a slight looming fear that just by playing this game, Joonmyun is likely to be punished, and Chanyeol can’t and won’t let that happen, especially not now that they’re not sure if it’s a dream or not.

Part of him still prays it’s a dream. He thinks he’s got an idea of how to get him to wake up—and hopefully if he does, Chanyeol will get out of there as well. He has to hope.

Joonmyun loses, which is hardly surprising, but he’s momentarily spared a sentence when the Jongdae-Cat happily says that the beautiful red roses are as pretty as the paint tin they came out of.

“Off with their heads!” Queen Kyungsoo demands. “All the gardeners! All their heads!”

Apparently the card soldiers on the croquet field were also the gardeners.

Joonmyun uses this distraction to hurry over to Chanyeol. “This is getting scary,” Joonmyun says. “I don’t want to die in here.”

“Your punishment!” Queen Kyungsoo shouts, once all the soldiers have been taken away. “Your punishment is to face the Jabberwock!”

“This seems like an unnecessarily harsh punishment,” Chanyeol says.

“Oh no, oh no,” Joonmyun squeaks, clearly flustered. “What if it’s huge and scary and like a dragon and—?”

It’s not.

The Jabberwock, when the field of observers parts for him like the Red Sea, is a boy who could be mistaken, at this height, for a mouse. Admittedly he is wearing a full set of armour and a sword, but still a mouse. There’s even a tail coming out from the back of the armour. He’s probably not even twenty centimetres tall.

“Face me!” the mouse shouts up at them.

“Oh no,” Joonmyun says. “Yixing?”

“I talked to you before!” Yixing-Mouse says. “But His Majesty wishes me to fight you, so I will. I fight in the name of the Queen.”

“He’s tiny,” Chanyeol says. “What’s the problem?”

He’s quick though. Yixing-Mouse runs across the ground and a moment later there’s pain in his ankle. Chanyeol lifts his trouser leg and realises that there’s a bleeding cut, where the now-bloody sword cut him. He pouts.

“On second thoughts,” he says. “Ow, that really hurt.”

“Fight me!” Yixing-Mouse demands.

And then, “Mouse-friend, no!” comes another quiet voice, and Chanyeol turns to see Minseok-Mouse running along the ground, not-Lu Han behind him, holding three baby mice in his strange and tiny human arms.

“You are no friend of mine!” Yixing-Mouse shouts. “You stole my wife and my babies!”

“These pups are not yours!” not-Lu Han shouts. “Your pups were killed by the last Sage Butterfly before our current one. These are ours!”

“But you left me!” Yixing-Mouse cries out.

“I am not your wife!” not-Lu Han says. “I have never been your wife! There is one of us for all mice!”

As if by magic, suddenly they are surrounded by tiny Lu Hans.

“I’m going to pass out,” Joonmyun says. Chanyeol carefully leads him a few metres away by the elbow. “I just want to go home now. This is too much,” Joonmyun continues.

“I have an idea,” Chanyeol says. “It might make you wake up.”

“Oh, Chanyeol, is this even a dream anymore?” Joonmyun asks.

“We’ve got to hope,” Chanyeol says. “I don’t know how to get us home otherwise.”

“Will you come and see me, if you are real?” Joonmyun asks quietly. “I think I might need to talk to someone about this crazy dream.”

“I’ll do my best,” Chanyeol says.

And then he kisses Joonmyun.

Chanyeol has always thought that surprises work best for waking people up. Joonmyun’s eyes widen the moment Chanyeol’s lips hit his, the fear leaving his eyes instantly.

A moment later he’s gone, leaving Chanyeol standing there alone.

“Oh,” Chanyeol says.

“There he is!” a tiny mouse voice calls, and then suddenly tiny Lu Hans are swarming him, crawling up Chanyeol’s clothes and skin, and Chanyeol feels like he can’t breathe, and—
 

Chanyeol wakes up in his bed, at home. Kyungsoo’s bed, opposite his own, is empty, which suggests it’s after ten in the morning. He scrambles to his feet and gets dressed, relishing the feeling of his favourite t-shirt and shorts. It feels like far too long since he was properly comfortable.

Along his ankle is a scar that wasn’t there yesterday, a thin line like a sword cut him open. A really tiny sword.

The dream is hazy, but just vaguely there on the edge of his sub-consciousness. Alice. Joonmyun. The Jabberwock who was a mouse called Yixing. Baekhyun who wasn’t Baekhyun, and Jongdae in cat ears.

When he leaves his bedroom, his flatmates are sitting on the couch, the plate of brownies still where they were before.

“Good morning, sleepyhead,” Baekhyun says, with a grin. “You have got to tell us about this weird dream you were having. You passed out and started rambling about Alice and mice and butterflies.”

“You were the caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland, Kyungsoo was the Queen, and Jongdae was the Cheshire Cat,” Chanyeol says, and he grabs the plate of brownies and throws them straight into the bin.

Kyungsoo laughs. “That sounds about right,” he says, and then. “Hey. I made those.”

“What a waste of breakfast,” Jongdae says. He pouts.

“There was nothing wrong with those,” Baekhyun agrees. “You’re buying us lunch to make up for it,” he demands.

“Sure,” Chanyeol says, and then something strikes him, and he turns to face Jongdae. “Does Jongin have a friend called Joonmyun?”

Jongdae shrugs. “I can find out.”
 

It turns out that Jongin does have a friend called Joonmyun.

Chanyeol finds himself outside Joonmyun’s house later that same day, after he’s bought everyone lunch. He knocks on the door and waits impatiently. What if Joonmyun doesn’t remember? What if it was all just a strange dream?

But when Joonmyun opens the door, all tiny in a jumper that’s too long for him, glasses perched on his nose, and utterly adorable, the first thing he says is, “Chanyeol?” Then, panicking, he adds, “Wait…Really? Am I still—?” He pinches himself. From the wince, clearly it hurt.

Chanyeol just laughs. “Hi,” he says, holding out a hand and grinning at Joonmyun. “I’m Chanyeol Park and I think we just had the weirdest shared dream ever.”