"Did you know that insomnia is hereditary? Maybe Park's parents experienced the same issue."

Hissing, Hongjoong set his steaming hot plate down on his desk and blew on his reddened fingertips. Not even his comfy sweater paws had been thick enough to keep the heat of the microwave at bay.

"Maybe. I doubt they had any great tips for him if he still struggles with it that much. I suppose in that job it also feels different," Hongjoong grumbled. His finger poked at the squishy crust of his heated pizza. Still too hot.

Whining, he stuck his finger in his mouth. Not any cooler, but he pretended it helped.

San typed speedily at his computer. As always, he was far more distracted with anything but work. Hongjoong had yet to ask why he had styled his hair so prettily today. It was slicked back for once, only a few pink strands falling into his forehead to tease a dishevelled look.

San even wore a suit. San never wore a suit. Luckily, Mingi came in big comfortable hoodies to work, so Hongjoong didn't feel too underdressed with his other two coworkers.

"I think every remedy the internet gives me is old nonsense. Nothing he wouldn't have tried before. Well, guess you have to remember that once you start making babies with him. They might sleep badly." Nonchalant, San rose from his chair to walk over to the printer. No response came from him as Hongjoong spluttered and yelped. Instead, he just stood classically at the old device with one hand in his pocket and his broad shoulders stretching his shirt taut.

"Hey!"

San threw a smirk over his shoulder. One brow had risen mischievously.

"What, am I wrong?"

Hongjoong glared him down witheringly. Then he went back to poking his pizza to punish San with silence. He already had seen too much. Things San didn't know about. Things that haunted Hongjoong's dreams.

"As if I respect the opinion of one who joined the Jongho team. I thought we made a pact! Never to listen to a thing he says!" Hongjoong threw his hands in the air. He wore black nail polish today that fit his nightly outfits. He had wanted to dress up for Seonghwa just a little.

"I didn't join his team. I just have a date later."

"A date?" Hongjoong perked up. "Who makes the mistake of dating you? Relay them my condolences."

San threw an eraser at him. Giggling, Hongjoong ducked under the offending item.

"It's Wooyoung," San said simply as he neatly stacked his papers once he sat down. In five minutes, they would be strewn all over their working station and the ground.

"Wooyoung?! Already? It's been what, a week?" Gaping, Hongjoong stared at him. He fought the impressed awe off his face as much as possible.

San grinned smugly as he pushed his hair back. From lidded eyes, he looked down at the papers in his lap, gloating.

"Well, if you use the hours of your day wisely, a week means a lot of flirting. And he's hot, I'm hot, nothing holds us back."

Hongjoong facepalmed. His only friend the pizza gave him a sympathetic peer.

"But hey, him going out with me means he isn't with Park. Win-win I'd say," San said more cheerfully. As if Hongjoong actually had a chance or would even dare to approach Seonghwa like that. Not only was he horribly awkward, but they also had literally no reason to get close. Neither Seonghwa nor he were as straightforward as Wooyoung and San.

Even weirder if Seonghwa found out that Hongjoong stalked him in his dreams.

"Just have fun on your date. And don't you dare mention me."

"Anything in particular that you want to know about Seonghwa? His skill with handcuffs, maybe?"

Hongjoong grabbed his bag and his pizza the second the plate had cooled down enough.

"You know what? Usually, I would have spent five more minutes chatting with you. But you don't deserve my company anymore. I will rather eat alone in the attic. Goodbye." With that, Hongjoong marched off. He held his nose high and only nodded at Mingi when the man passed him. In his noble way of dealing with the anger and disappointment in his coworker and best friend, Hongjoong didn't even detect the blush on Mingi's cheeks that matched his fiery hair colour.

Up on his by now preferred floor, Hongjoong quickly got comfortable. He wolfed down his pizza as an odd alternative to a nutritious breakfast. (Oh, if Jongho knew.)

He finished on time to jump right into his sleeping chamber, when Seonghwa fell asleep to his usual nightmares. This time, they would visit Seonghwa's home again. The issue seemed to be an intruder.

Equipped with his gun and a knife - for good measure - Hongjoong was ready to jump right into the action.

However, he miscalculated quite a bit where he would land. The last time they had been in Seonghwa's flat, he had narrowly dodged being caught by rolling behind the sofa. This time, however, he appeared in the same close vicinity as Seonghwa as always. Only that they were barricaded in the man's bedroom, and Hongjoong had nowhere to hide.

The second Seonghwa noticed the movement from the corner of his eye, he startled away from the door. He had leaned on it with one shoulder, his fingers tight around a lamp he had lifted in defence.

For a long moment, they stared at each other, one more puzzled than the next. Whatever fight Seonghwa had already picked with his enemy subsided for a while as he fixated on Hongjoong.

Normally, he was busy running in these scenarios. Hongjoong cursed himself for having been seen twice now, this time without his mask.

"You-You're that pirate," Seonghwa mumbled confusedly. Then he blinked, not remembering the nightmare well. "Do I know you?"

Panicking, Hongjoong dug around in his head for a fast reply. A salty breeze brushed past his nose, and he believed to feel the floor sway beneath his feet.

"Maybe we met in the bakery before?"

At that, Seonghwa hummed. He had no way of arguing against that.

When they turned to look at the door together, their surroundings weren't the same anymore. Seonghwa's room looked like a ship's cabin, but not the modern ones in which Hongjoong had solved murder mysteries before. This one was made of wood and had barrels and heavy furniture all around. When Hongjoong looked down on them, they were dressed in a similar pirate fashion as he had worn in the hospital with Seonghwa.

He distrusted Hongjoong. Very much so. Hongjoong had to keep his distance.

"Either way, I have my path to follow. See you around," Hongjoong mumbled, resorting to professionalism. Since Seonghwa had moved them to a ship, there was little space to avoid each other. But he was confident he could slip from the man's eyes.

With the full conviction of what he was doing, Hongjoong walked over to the window. He swung himself outside, his fingers grasping onto the wood. Seonghwa returned to his task of maintaining the door shut to keep out whatever evil was after him. As he focused more on his surroundings, they fleshed out. A calm ocean took shape in the blank space that had been there before. Within mere heartbeats, Seonghwa's mind constructed the entire ship and even a crew. Hongjoong spotted Wooyoung, and also Yunho. The latter wore his paramedic uniform again.

Hongjoong watched him with a scowl.

The crew moved like a swarm of busy ants over the ship. They hauled the sails, carried crates and clamoured with their boisterous voices. While an incredible mess, it also had a certain system to it. Every member had their own task to fulfil, and they only halted for brief chats on the way.

None of them had been ordered to look after their captain, however. While Hongjoong climbed along the railing undetected, the crew barely minded the single person hammering and shouting on the other side of the door.

Seonghwa imagined the man as a bulky dude with a machete in his hands. He intimidated even Hongjoong, who knew that he was no more but a sprout of imagination wrapped in a physical form.

While he sneakily crawled over the railing outside from anybody's view, Hongjoong pulled his gun. Since Seonghwa didn't know that he was out here, he also dreamt up no interactions of his other dream extras with Hongjoong. Not even a single gaze brushed past him when he rose the shiny golden metal at the offending man.

A shot rang through the air, loud and clear. Hongjoong's hand on the railing kept him from falling into the water because of the recoil.

The moment the man sank into a dark heap of lifeless flesh, Seonghwa ripped the door open. His wide eyes searched the deck, finding the source of his fear gone.

Hastily, Hongjoong mingled with the crew. He snatched a random barrel from the ground and busily carried it somewhere it didn't belong. He knew basically nothing about pirates, only what One Piece had told him. The ray of hope he had to disappear depended on Seonghwa's knowledge of pirates.

Which wasn't much. He just looked over the deck emptily. The fear of this nightmare still clung to him. The anticipation that it wasn't over yet.

And it wasn't.

Bullets rained from the sky. They came from every direction. Neither guns nor enemy ships approached them. At once, every pirate got hit simultaneously. Blood splattered over Hongjoong's cheek when a body stumbled against him, toppling him over onto the ground in the progress. With a groan, he hit the wooden boards and his barrel rolled off.

He recognised the mixture of black and blond locks in his lap as Wooyoung's recent hairstyle he had seen in his pictures. The man bled out over his lap, his gentle brown eyes wide open and empty.

Rendered immobile, Hongjoong twisted his head to look at Seonghwa. The man had stumbled back against the wall of the forecastle, his hands pressed to his lips. Tearful eyes stared at the gruesome scene, at the bodies of his slaughtered men.

For a moment, Hongjoong laid frozen. He shouldn't put any more emphasis on his presence. If Seonghwa noticed him in the crowd of incidental figures in his dream again, then he could get in trouble.

For now, he likely assumed Hongjoong was an unplanned stranger he had seen on TV or across the street. A dreaming human brain could not invent fresh faces at random. However, when the same stranger kept appearing to his eyes repeatedly, it would unnerve him.

Just when Hongjoong gnawed on the inside of his cheek as he pondered the best solution to this predicament, Seonghwa came down the stairs. He stumbled in his heavy boots and fell to his knees near the first body.

"No... I didn't want to- Don't die!"

Hongjoong blinked confusedly when the scene suddenly changed again. Night fell over them like the curtain on a theatre stage. The ground didn't sway anymore, and grass tickled in Hongjoong's nape. The blinding lights of two cars that had directed their headlights at the scene had his eyes tear up.

All the fallen ones, including Seonghwa and Hongjoong, wore police uniforms.

"Please... Anyone..." A wet sob fell from his lips, crushing Hongjoong's heart in his chest. He had to do something, had to avoid this pain.

When Seonghwa's hand suddenly fell onto his shoulder, Hongjoong flinched. The act had the man grab on tighter.

"You! You're alive, you're-"

"Wooyoung. I'm Wooyoung."

As Hongjoong turned, the appearance Seonghwa believed him to have glossed over his actual one. A dirty trick, but it was the only way.

With big eyes that shone endless relief, Seonghwa checked him for injuries. His fingers fluttered over Hongjoong's shoulders and arms, leaving tingling touches in their wake.

Black and blond hair fell into Hongjoong's face.

"Woo, I'm so glad!"

Hongjoong wasn't ready for the bone-crushing hug. The moment he landed halfway in Seonghwa's lap, he reeled back. Not only were the very inappropriate thoughts his mind had memorised of Seonghwa still fresh, but this also wasn't him. Every morale inside Hongjoong screamed against pretending to be another person, just to be close to Seonghwa.

For any other dreamer in pure professionalism, yes. But not with the person he liked. Not when his heart swooped at the tight hug he received.

Seonghwa didn't know who he was. That he wasn't Wooyoung. Hongjoong felt nasty for the lame trick.

When the alarm of his struggle set in, Seonghwa pulled back from Hongjoong. Again, he eyed him carefully.

"Are you okay?"

"Y-Yeah!" Hongjoong stammered. Wooyoung's voice filled the air between them sweetly and ever so soft-spoken. "How about you?"

"Me too." Unable to resist, Seonghwa pulled him in again. With a helpless blush, Hongjoong let him. Awkwardly, his fingers petted Seonghwa's sides.

He feared pulling off would cause another fit. So instead, he stayed perfectly still and kept his hands to himself. In this dream, Seonghwa smelled of a flowery cologne that Hongjoong would usually expect on a woman. It fit him oddly well and wrapped Hongjoong in a sweet cocoon.

The next time he opened his eyes, the corpses around them had disappeared. Seonghwa still cradled him close, unable to let go of Wooyoung.

"This is the first time you didn't hug me back," Seonghwa whispered in Hongjoong's ear. Jolting, Hongjoong hurried to put his arms around the man. He gritted his teeth, sending a thousand apologies to god, Seonghwa, and anyone involved.

He basically owed Wooyoung a cake now if Seonghwa would remember this dream and cling to him the next day to ease his heart.

"I was surprised. Everything is fine, now," Hongjoong replied just as quietly. Seonghwa's body was warm against his, his arms comforting despite them being strangers. For a mere moment, Hongjoong nearly let himself go. He nearly fell into it, nearly appreciated this affectionate hug for what it was. Like a healing balm on his tensed and haunted mind.

When he rapidly blinked his eyes open, he lost contact. Seonghwa disappeared and took his warmth with him.

Inside the room, Hongjoong awoke alone, feeling cold. He had left his jacket outside.

For a while, he didn't care. He curled up on the soft pillows to wrap his arms around himself and mimicked the tenderness of Seonghwa's hug.