“Tae isn’t it about time you stopped with your imaginary friends?”  a young woman giggled, her hand lightly patting the wad of hair clinging onto her leg. The little boy looked up, his eyes fierce with determination as he realized she wasn’t taking him seriously.

    “Eomma! Pinku and Teokki are real though!” he whined, stomping his tiny foot, tears b on the edge of his bottom eyelid.

    “I’m sure they did… Ah, Tae, would you mind playing with appa? I’m busy right now.” she brushed him off, flashing him a quick smile before turning back to the stove top. Taehyung took a side glance at his mother, before running off into his bedroom. He climbed atop his bed, two fuzzy lights following close behind. 

    ‘Tae, didn’t we tell you she couldn’t see us?’ a high pitch voice chirped, coming from the lighter blue hued orb, Teokki.

    ‘You should know better, no one can.’ another added, this time coming from the second purple-grey ball, Pinku. Taehyung looked at the two of them, his eyebrows knitted together in frustration, unable to understand why in the world no one could hear or see the two before him. Really, they were always there, and they weren’t quiet about their existence either. He sniffed, wiping the backside of his hand over his nose to prevent it from dripping and laid down. 

    ‘Tae don’t you want to play?’ Teokki asked, it’s voice growing more distant as Taehyung covered his ears. He didn’t want to play with them anymore. Not when other kids kept making fun of him for it. Why couldn’t they just leave him alone? 

    “Go away.” he demanded, shutting his eyes and covering himself in his blankets. No, this was enough. He wouldn’t be scared of saying no anymore, they didn’t even exist! If he just told them to go, they would go…  He was tired of them, so it was understandable right?

    ‘But Tae, we want to play!’ Pinku yelled, it’s voice akin to that of nails on a chalkboard. 

    “No, go away.” Taehyung repeated, his voice sounding small in the bigness of the empty bedroom, “Go away!”

    ‘Never.’ they snarled back, the high pitched voices distorting into that of a low feral growling, ‘You’re ours Taehyung, ours, ours, ours, ours ours—“

    “I SAID GO AWAY!” Taehyung yelled, shooting up straight, causing him to bump heads with Hoseok. He had been watching Taehyung, trying to get him to wake up for a while now, but nothing prepared him to his sudden awakening. Hoseok looked at the younger, hurt and confusion in his eyes as he reached out to touch his face, now damp with tears and sweat. 

    “T-Tae…? Are you alright?” he asked, hesitantly, as he watched his best friend stare at him in shock. 

    “Hobi, I’m so sorry.. I.. That, I didn’t mean to say that to you.” he explained, pulling away from Hoseok’s touch and resting his head in his hands. What the hell was going on?

    “I figured, but you didn’t answer my question,” Hoseok replied, lifting Taehyung’s head to face him, eying him carefully, “Are you alright?”

    “I’m…” Taehyung thought for a moment. How was he supposed to explain the dream? Was it even a dream, or was it a memory? It felt so real, Taehyung was unsure, “I’m fine.”

    Hoseok merely looked at him in disbelief, but decided not to press any further. After all, Taehyung was stubborn, incredibly so. If he didn’t want to talk about it, Hoseok wouldn’t force him to. However he was concerned about his bandmate, this had been the third night this week that Taehyung had awoken in such a way. 

    “Alright, well, we have a busy day today so get ready okay? Everyone’s already done.” Taehyung noticed how Hoseok was no longer in his sleeping clothes, but fully dressed in a black sequinned suit, his hair styled so that his fringe was up. Taehyung simply nodded and grinned at his hyung, trying to convince him that he was alright. Once Hoseok left the room, Taehyung immediately flopped back onto the bed. What’s happening to me?

    He was quite used to having nightmares. He had them all the time. But it was only recently that they began to follow him into the real world, where he would wake up panting or screaming and one of the other members would have to check up on him if Hoseok wasn’t already there. It was infuriating. He had gotten used to staying up late every night just to ward off the nightmares, but then he noticed that those same visions started haunting his reality as well. After continuous days and nights of staying awake, regular things like coffee looked like black sludge to him, and even food he enjoyed the most looked grotesque. So there wasn’t a point in just not sleeping. Taehyung was okay with having nightmares, really; just so long as no one else had to know about it. He had thought a lot about telling his dorm mates, but the ending result that he came up with just didn’t seem worth it. It seemed pointless to try and talk to anyone. 

    Taehyung rubbed his eyes with his palms, pushing his eyes into their sockets as if to make sure they would stay in place today, and got up. They were performing at an awards show today, in which they were being presented the honor of Most Improved Rookie Group. The thought made him scoff, as if he really thought they deserved that. No, he was sure that Bangtan was more than that, and he wanted to do everything he could to make a place for Bangtan amongst the top 100 Music billboards that all of his idol sunbae’s had already reached. Which was just another reason he couldn’t tell anyone about his condition. Just how badly would that make Bangtan look, if one of them had such an illness? 

Fast Forward- 

    “Good job everyone, now let’s head home. It’s been a long day for all of us.” the manager said, herding the members towards their bus. Namjoon tapped Taehyung on the shoulder, motioning him to come over, his eyes questioning but not angry. 

    “Taehyung, have you been sleeping okay?” he asked, putting a hand on the younger’s shoulder, making him flinch. 

    “Y-Yeah, why do you ask hyung?” he chuckled nervously, trying to calm himself down. The performance had gone well, and despite Taehyung misstepping once during his solo because of something catching his eye, he thought he did well enough not to arise suspicion from any of his fellow members. Namjoon simply pointed at his own eyes, specifically at the area beneath them. 

    “Your eyebags have gotten worse. I know we run a pretty busy schedule, but the others seem to be okay. Besides, you’ve been pretty… Weird lately.” he explained, running his free hand through his platinum blond hair.

    “Hyung, aren’t you and the others always calling me weird anyways?” Taehyung chirped, trying his best not to let his smile falter. Namjoon as the leader already had a lot of stresses, he had to make sure that his own performance wasn’t another. Namjoon cocked his head head to the side, “Don’t worry about me, hyung! I will guide us to V, Victory!” Taehyung added, sticking his hand out with his index and middle finger spread apart to form the ‘V’ shape. That’s right. As long as he could keep this up, no one would be the wiser. No one had to know. Taehyung let out another hearty laugh before he bounced away, catching up to Jungkook and leaving the leader behind, of whom was still not convinced. 

    “Aish… that kid.”

Here's chapter 2 everyone~ Thank you for all of your feedback/subs! This is my first story on AFF, so I hope to impress you all haha.. Please be patient while I write the next chapter <3