THE SUN AND HIS STARS ✓

DREAM. (extra)

Since the curse had been broken, Hoseok stopped getting nightmares. Specifically, the nightmares where the sun didn't rise and the world ended, all because Hoseok couldn't get enough happiness.

So, for a while, Hoseok forgot about those dreams. Hell, he even almost forgot about the entire curse itself, because it was behind him now. It was his past. All that mattered was the present.

Until the dreams came back.

Though they were different this time. They were of his lonely life; his life without Taehyung, his life with the curse, everything that he'd tried leaving behind.

Hoseok woke up one morning from a particularly bad dream. He must have accidentally woken Taehyung, because Taehyung was blinking his eyes open slowly.

"Hyung?" he mumbled, voice deeper than usual because of sleep. "What's wrong?"

Hoseok swallowed, studying Taehyung's sleepy, confused face, before saying, "Nothing. Go back to sleep, Tae."

"Mm. Okay."

Taehyung fell back asleep immediately, a hand clutching loosely onto Hoseok's shirt.

Hoseok bit his lip, staring at the sleeping boy next to him. In his dreams, Taehyung wasn't there. It was a painful reminder of his life before he had befriended him.

Hoseok pushed the thoughts aside. They were just dreams. Taehyung was right next to him.

But still, Hoseok couldn't get back to sleep.

-

"Taehyung, you've got sauce on your face," said Hoseok one day at dinner.

Taehyung wiped his cheek. "Is it gone?"

"No."

Taehyung wiped his mouth. "Now?"

"No."

Taehyung sighed. "Just do it for me, hyung, I dunno where it is."

Hoseok swallowed. He stood up, bending down and inspecting Taehyung's face, wiping off the sauce with the pad of his thumb.

He held Taehyung's face in his hands, just to make sure Taehyung was real and not a dream.

But dreams can be very convincing, can't they?

"Hyung?" Taehyung asked, taking Hoseok's hands off his face and holding them instead. "You good?"

Hoseok nodded, reluctantly letting go and sitting back in his chair.

"Everything's fine, Tae."

-

Taehyung could tell that everything was not fine. Though he wasn't sure how to approach the situation. If anything, Taehyung was hoping that Hoseok was just having a bad day or something, and he'd get over it in a few hours.

Taehyung was wrong.

"Hyung," he said, opening Hoseok's door the next night, and making his way to the bed. "I can't sleep."

Taehyung made to get on the bed, but Hoseok shook his head.

"Just go back to bed, Taehyung. Sleep will come eventually."

Taehyung pouted. "But hyungie, you know I always sleep better with you."

"I'm not in the mood, Taehyung. Just go back to bed."

Clearly, there was something wrong with Hoseok. He never said no to cuddling Taehyung. Taehyung bit his lip. "Fine. Goodnight, hyung."

"Night."