Oneiric Tryst

3. Shoes

San rose his head when Hongjoong strutted into the room. He had a broad smile on his face after just returning from Jongho. The chef had congratulated him on his first consistent patient and reminded him not to mess it up. The amount of money he had mentioned as an extra delighted Hongjoong's bleak and stony heart.

"Consider me tied down," Hongjoong smirked at the other man as he collected his schedule from the table. San had printed it out for him earlier. Sipping from his lukewarm coffee, Hongjoong read through it.

Park Seonghwa had a night shift this week. His sleeping hours shifted to the time between 8 and 2 in the afternoon. Hence why Hongjoong was in at the same time as the rest of the team this morning. Usually, he didn't need to go to the office every day if nobody required him to.

Hongjoong glanced at his watch. Park was a punctual man, which made his job easy. Having designated sleeping times wasn't common among people at that age. Still, fifteen minutes to go.

He sipped his coffee faster.

"How was he? Nothing too creepy, I hope?"

"No Beksinski, no. I might not be qualified if that were the case. But some alarm bells rang. I'll figure it out with time. If Jongho gets hold of his medical records, he will tell me." Hongjoong put his cup down and stuffed a folder into his bag. He didn't care about crinkled edges. Nobody was around to criticise him.

"Did he wear his uniform?" Pretentiously nonchalant, San typed away at his computer. The printed version of his paint flower laid next to him on the desk. Maybe he would frame it, like his other artworks.

Hongjoong shouldered his bag and collected his shoes from the ground. No need to wear them just to scale a single staircase. No matter how cold it was, it wasn't worth the ten seconds of putting his shoes back on.

"He didn't. I'll report back once he does."

San giggled into his workload. After saying his goodbyes, Hongjoong strode off. Outside, he greeted Mingi at his table as he wrote away furiously. His study material fanned out around him like an ocean of paperwork. Impressed that he found his way around, Hongjoong left the office.

Up on the third floor, it wasn't just as cold. Jongho made it a point to keep the temperatures up here level so that whenever an emergency jump was needed, they wouldn't catch a cold during their sleep. Hongjoong appreciated the carpeted floor as he set down the bag next to the working station. They had two chambers and two monitors up here. For him and San to be able to dive right to work if needed. San currently had no person to watch over, so Hongjoong was alone. When visited alone, the top floor always smelled wonderfully like old books.

Hongjoong logged in to the computer and searched for Park's profile. The monitor pulled up with the info that there was no definite indication of his dream behaviour yet. Time to wait.

Hongjoong got out his breakfast and kicked his legs up on the table. While he munched on his sandwich, he watched the first records appear. A counter estimated Park's pulse and another one read the brain activity to record the sleep cycle.

It took him a while to fall asleep. His thoughts seemed busy, occupied with something that distracted him from sleeping. Hongjoong assumed he took some sleeping pills since it completely evened out about half an hour later. Huddled into his warm hoodie, he watched over the counter. Either he sat here all day long while Park had a pleasant dream, or he would jump from his chair soon to hurry to his aid.

It was version two.

As soon as the computer algorithm began to translate the impulses from Seonghwa's brain into pictures, Hongjoong sprung into action. He activated the right chamber, his preferred one. The information of what he needed got calculated.