Yeonjun sat on the couch with a baby blue blanket wrapped about his shoulders. His eyes kept flicking around looking at the various framed pictures on the wall as Soobin could be heard clinking about in the kitchen as he made them each a cup of hot chocolate. Yeonjun found himself getting lost in the imprisoned smiles in the pictures. Even though he knew that he physically wasn't there, he still remembered what happened in some of them.

'But that can't be,' thought Yeonjun. 'Then that would have to mean that those vivid dreams were real...'

"I wasn't sure if you liked marshmallows or not, so I just brought in the bag," said Soobin as he suddenly appeared in the living room, setting the marshmallows down on the coffee table. He was about to return to the kitchen to get the mugs of hot chocolate when he paused, seeing Yeonjun staring at the pictures on the walls. "What's going on?"

"That picture," said Yeonjun as he pointed out a picture of him and Soobin chasing Hueningkai through a field of running sprinklers. "Did Taehyun take it?"

"Yes, he did...Do you remember anything else about it?"

"We were supposed to play a friendly soccer match together, but Kai turned on the sprinklers on us. Beomgyu went to go try to turn them off while you and I chased Kai down and Taehyun took a picture of it all..." said Yeonjun. "Well, I suppose it wasn't me in that picture, but instead your Yeonjun."

"But yet you remember it?"

"Yes. I had a dream about it," said Yeonjun.

Soobin turned from Yeonjun to look at the kitchen where he had left their hot chocolate mugs.

"Hold that thought for a moment," he said as he quickly disappeared to go get them and then shortly reappeared with them in his hands.

"Okay," said Soobin as he settled down next to Yeonjun on the couch after putting the mugs down in front of them. "Are there any other pictures that you think you know the backstory to?"

Yeonjun nodded, pointing at one a little further away.

"Be as detailed as possible," Soobin instructed as Yeonjun's gaze stayed focused on the picture.

"In that picture, we went on a mini vacation to the countryside. The car we rented broke down, but we made the best of it by hiking to the cabin. That's a picture we took when we reached the top. Afterwards we all laid down on the grass and stared at the sky, pretending that we had fainted."

"Who eventually called for the tow?" asked Soobin.

"You."

"How many beds did the cabin have?"

"Four. Two of us slept on cots instead."

"Breakfast duty order?"

"Hueningkai, you, Taehyun, me, and then Beomgyu."

"Tell me what else we did that week."

Soobin listened carefully as Yeonjun told him as many details as possible about what happened during their vacation. When he was done, Soobin couldn't help but to sit there in shock for a moment. Everything Yeonjun just said mirrored his own memories of that week away because they were all true.

"How is that possible?" muttered Soobin; his hot chocolate now as frozen as him by this sudden revelation.

"I dreamt about it all," said Yeonjun. "It was all so clear to me. I never used to have such clear dreams that felt so real..."

"It was because they were real," said Soobin as he locked eyes with that hauntingly familiar face. "When do those realistic dreams start?"

"Right after this," said Yeonjun as he showed him the blue-green shard imbedded in the palm of his hand.

Soobin put the notepad aside to take the hand that Yeonjun was showing him into his to examine it more closely. It looked like a part of some sort of gem. He brushed his thumb gently over it.

"Does it hurt?"

"No," said Yeonjun as he watched Soobin, "but when the rest of the guys and I all got this imbedded into our hands after an explosion I caused trying to touch it, I started to have those dreams that apparently are things your Yeonjun lived through."

"Do you still have them?"

Yeonjun shook his head as he withdrew his hand.

"No. They stopped four months ago."

"Four months ago was when my Yeonjun died..." said Soobin. "Maybe that gem...maybe it was a tether between you and my Yeonjun?"

"Like some sort of connection between parallel worlds?" asked Yeonjun as Soobin nodded.

It was hard to think about, but Yeonjun supposed it made sense. Those dreams he were memories that this Yeonjun had and they had stopped when this Yeonjun had died.

"Do you think it works both ways?" asked Yeonjun. "Like do you ever have any really vivid dreams?"

"Not really. I mean ever since Yeonjun's death, I've suffered from insomnia. When my body does eventually crash, I just get odd dreams."

"Like how odd?"

"Well for instance yesterday I fell asleep at work and dreamt I was being interrogated into giving your location away. I thought it was my guilty conscience making me feel bad for failing you, but are we saying..."

"...That, that means my Soobin is alive?" asked Yeonjun as his eyes widened.

"So we think the dream connection works both ways?"

"Maybe?" said Yeonjun. "None of this makes sense anyway, but that...that seems to line up with what's going on. It lines up with why I can clearly remember things I didn't live through, but that your Yeonjun did. It would also explain why those dreams stopped when..."

Yeonjun stopped, already seeing the sad look in Soobin's eyes. Standing up from where he was seated, he let the blanket drop off his shoulders. Yeonjun wasn't the only one that needed a shoulder to lean on.

"Let me go re-heat our hot chocolate," said Yeonjun as he bent to grab both of the mugs that had grown cold during their talk. "Then we'll figure out what we need to do together."

Soobin fixed Yeonjun with a thin grin, nodding his head. Yeonjun walked the mugs into the kitchen without another word after as Soobin swiveled in his spot on the couch to watch him. Even though he knew this wasn't the Yeonjun he lost, he couldn't help but to be comforted by his presence as it made him feel slightly like he had risen from the dead.

- - -

"It's like rising the dead at this point," said the man with a dark chuckle, looking at the battered person in front of him that had once resembled a healthy man. "Why don't you just give him up already?"

A trickle of a smirk appeared and then vanished off the battered man's lips as he shook his head.

"I'll die before I tell you where he is..."

After all, he already thought he had seen Yeonjun die in front of him once. He would do everything in his power to keep that from happening again. It was his turn to play the hero.

"You might just get your wish, Choi Soobin," said the man with a slight growl as he moved to grab Soobin's bloody face in his hands, yanking him off the ground and causing his chains to rattle. "Your value is slowly running out. I'll have my men comb through all the watchtowers if I have to. That final gem shard will be mine."

The man used his hold on Soobin's face to thrust him backwards, causing him in his weakened state to stumble on the wet concrete floor and into the cold brick wall behind him. Sinking back to the ground as the man locked the cell door and walked away, Soobin brought up his hand to look at the only part of his body that currently remained unmarred; the blue green gem shining within the palm of it.