Oneiric Tryst

6. Basement

Mild smut in the middle of the chapter
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Seonghwa didn't have a bad dream on Friday. The day after, Hongjoong came to work alone. Grumbling and shivering, he stomped right up to the third floor. Today, the building was quiet and conversed only through its creaking and groaning with Hongjoong. The familiar sounds were calming in the company they provided to Hongjoong.

In high spirits, since Seonghwa had slept through an entire night peacefully, Hongjoong arrived at his desk. Jongho had left him a chocolate bar with a sticky note on it not to eat all of it today. Chuckling, Hongjoong chucked the note into the bin and began snacking. The chocolate would be gone by the evening.

While the server warmed up, Hongjoong pulled his jacket off and placed it on the back of his chair. San had sent him a message on Instagram. When Hongjoong clicked on it, he was greeted by an old post from Wooyoung two years prior. A picture where he had sensually led a jacket slip down over one naked shoulder, clearly not wearing anything underneath as he stared at the camera with hooded eyes. San had added a gif of an anime girl with a nosebleed to the picture.

Hongjoong left him on read.

Tonight Park fell asleep early for his standards. Either he had popped the sleeping pills in early or he had suffered an exhausting day at the station. Yesterday, as things got boring after a few hours, Hongjoong had found his mind straying to mishaps he could trigger in that station's neighbourhood at night hoping to see a certain police officer pop up. Was vandalism worth getting arrested and questioned by him? Maybe. Hongjoong could relate to the comments under his posts.

But no, Hongjoong was no wild stalker fan. He was better than that. Rather, he rose to invade Seonghwa's deepest and darkest soul in the upcoming nightmare.

Yes, Hongjoong had decided to call him Seonghwa. Purely in the privacy of his own thoughts, though.

Cellar, predator, cat.

Hongjoong double-checked the warning words before he left. Was the cat the predator? Usually, it would only read cat in those cases. Unsure, he threw himself onto the soft ground of the psycho room. He packed cat treats, his favoured gun, and wire clippers. Before he left, he fixed his hair just a little bit more and added cool black eyeshadow to his eyes. Then he slipped over into Seonghwa's dream.

Limbo was where Hongjoong's realm was. He could dream up whatever he needed and use his lucid skills to distort events to his liking. The dream itself, however, belonged only to Seonghwa. Hongjoong had no other influence in it apart from acting on his own free will.

Hongjoong appeared in front of a long staircase. With no light overhead, it just led down into a corridor so black it seemed to swallow everything. Spiders crawled over the ceiling above his head, big and unsightly with their many legs.

Not that Hongjoong could object. He liked a certain pair of legs too much for their length that he could judge spiders. Maybe spiders considered shorter legs sexy. He would never know.

Careful and slow, Hongjoong descended into the cold basement. The naked walls and stairs around him exuded a stony coldness. He shivered when he approached the end. Stepping into the thick void had his nerves on edge.

Voices travelled through him, muffled through the door.

"Please... I just want-"

"No, sweetheart. Aunt Alice told me how you speak behind my back about me. Didn't you like the cakes I baked you?"

A hoarse yell echoed through the basement. Hongjoong's steps quickened when he identified Seonghwa's voice.

"I expected you to be better. Does that hurt?"