Namjoon had sat in their first planning meeting for the new movie nervously twirling his pen through is fingers. This project was turning out to be exactly as nightmarish as they had anticipated, but at least it would be easy to hype up. They had just been told their newbie main actor was a singer, which was 'just typical', as the team had pointed out in various degrees of discontent. Interestingly, this meant said actor had signed the contract under a clause stating he would be able to partake in most creative aspects of the musical tracks. Min Yoongi had groaned from the corner of the long table.

"It's not like we would be considered lazy by making things just a tiny bit easier," Namjoon complained later, though it wasn't normally in his character; the fact that he couldn't shake one seemingly unexceptional story from his mind didn't help with his mood. "But this project literally ticks just about every difficult box in the house!"

His companion peered at him evenly over his beer. They were sat in a bar a little ways down from their flat, nursing two drinks between them. They would have gone to the one at the foot of their building, but Hoseok had been banned from entering a long time ago for being too loud; "Too screamy" was the phrasing the owner had used.

"At least it's exciting though, right? I know how you would get bored otherwise."

His cheeky grin alleviated a small portion of Namjoon's grieving feelings, so that he could smile back at the man, albeit weekly.

"Yeah, you're right Hoseok. How was your day?"

"Actually, I have news!" the dark-haired man threw his hands up in the air, his voice increasing in volume and causing Namjoon to shrug apologetically at their neighbors. "I'm going to be in charge of a project!"

Namjoon raised his eyebrows, surprised. His next-door neighbor worked in BigHit's stunt division. Their work spanned all the way from hiring extras, to jumping off buildings, to break dancing. Hoseok was relatively new to the game, and this first project could make or break his career. But he deserved it; he was currently their brightest star. In fact, he'd earned himself the nickname 'Eternal Sunshine' somewhere along the past year.

"Congratulations!"

"Thanks," Hoseok grinned back. "Actually, it's going to be your nightmarish movie."

"My condolences."

"Oi! Don't write me off just yet!" the stunt man laughed back, drawing attention to their table once more. "I'm excited, and I'm going to start training the main actor from tomorrow onwards."

Namjoon raised his eyes in concern, surprised once more.

"He's doing his own stunts?"

"Apparently," Hoseok shrugged. "But if he half-asses it, you know I'll bring in the stunt team to do the job. I won't go easy on him just because he has a pretty face, and he might as well learn it early. In fact, I'll probably test him tomorrow and go from there."

"It can be a bit of a lottery ticket can't it, actors doing their own stunts?"

"Yeah. Remember Minyoon? My boss trained him for the romantic series they're filming. Apparently the other day he broke his arm even though we taught him to fall safely."

Namjoon smirked into his beer at his friend's sudden annoyed tone. Hoseok rarely got serious, but his work was his world and in his arena he wielded an iron fist.

"He. Just. Had. To. Climb. Up. A. Tiny. Ladder..." the stunt man carried on, groaning and looking just about ready to pull all his hair out.

"Oh speaking of broken bones," Namjoon said in an attempt to steer the conversation towards more friendly waters. "I hear two guys broke their arms whilst sitting on each others' shoulders."

He proceeded to recount the story he had heard several days earlier, rewarded by the guffaws of his best friend, a stern look from the bar's matron and the strange pressure escaping his head.

They headed home together, as always. Neither had much of a social life; Namjoon preferred the company of books and Hoseok was too invested in his job, though the latter would oftentimes be the one to drag his silver-haired friend out into the real world.

That night, Namjoon fell asleep easily, safe in the knowledge that his mind no longer looped the same story about two children in a park over and over again. His neighbor, however, would think about the two strangers for a long time before sleep finally took him.

***

~*~ Jungkook was floating. Actually floating! He had woken up drifting through the night sky, stars stretching above him in a magical crepuscular azure canvas. He extended his arms and performed a series of tumbles through the firmament, feeling freedom more intensely than he ever had before. Ebullient cries escaped his lips as invisible strings pulled him towards his destination over the streets and spires of Seoul. Below him the sleeping world held its breath, silent but for a few cars speeding down dark and untold paths. Above it all, the invisible gods looked on with fleeting merriment and growing concern.

"So now he can not only move and speak, but he also wakes before the Dreamscape has brought him to his destination?" Mother Fate frowned, worrying her bottom lip with her perfect snowy teeth.

Fate was not normally one to worry. It was in her nature; she stood for the passage of time and the inevitability of one's destiny, thus she had never seemed to fear much of what may come to fruition. She knew what was to come would come, and what was to pass would fade away as it should. For her to question the hidden laws of the Universe with such beautifully creased eyebrows was a rarity, and that in itself worried her two companions.

"It is possible the fabric of the Dreamscape has been fading recently, Verse?" Brother Future asked in his ever smooth and anodyne voice.

The most powerful and elusive deity of the three shook his head, bemused. He was connected to the lattice of existence itself; time and space were merely his playthings, so how could he be unaware of whatever this snag in the arabesque of existence it seemed they had stumbled upon?

"The Dreamscape has sustained no damage that I am aware of. It has not changed."

"So what has?" Fate whispered, and below them Jungkook giggled as her breath caressed the back of his bare neck.

His speed increased slightly, the ark of his flight tilting back towards the Earth. His momentum kept building until the smile was wiped clean off his face and he tumbled towards the ground. A scream escaped his lips, swept away in the rushing wind and into the stars, fear rushed through his veins alike lava. In a desperate biological call for safety he crossed his arms over his face as he hurtled into a solid wall. Braced himself for pain. His body went through the bricks as if they were never in existence. He came to a sudden, jolting stop, causing the scream to strangle itself in his throat. There he hovered, his plummet ending as if the Universe had pressed pause on a falling star. He dared himself to bring his arms down, noting once more that his burnt hand seemed unhurt in the dream world. He saw he was safe, somehow, and a sudden nervous giggle wracked his chest.

"Oh my GOD," he exhaled dramatically. "I WANT TO DO THAT AGAIN!"

The three gods above him face palmed, one of them muttering "Humans." under his breath. From the room came a sound that made them all freeze.

"You're back!"

Jungkook blinked in surprise, his eyes slowly weeping the area to rest on a figure sat on a plush bed. The man sat there exuding light, his soul as ever uncontained and intent on spreading itself into the world. But Jungkook could see the face he abruptly remembered, and he wondered how he could have ever forgotten such a wondrous sight. Dark, captivating eyes combed the room, looking for him, but never crossing his own.

"You can hear me?" Jungkook barely whispered, but it was enough.

The gaze zeroed in on his position, searching. Although the stranger was unable to look him in the eye, Jungkook felt a tingle of anticipation crawl up his spine.

"I can," he answered, and the ghost in his room gasped at how deep his voice could dive.

It was like being in the most Neptunian, abyssal part of the Ocean; like opaque water rushing around you, endless horizons everywhere you look, dark unknown depths staring up at you yet knowing all of it was still made of the same boundless cosmic matter.

"I waited up to see if you would come," the stranger added. An innocent grin spread on his face, and it made Jungkook feel incredibly warm and tangible again; made his feet alight on the ground.

"You could tell I was here?"

The other nodded enthusiastically and hummed in assent.

"Since when?" Jungkook asked.

"Well... since the campfire I think? I don't know... it's vague, like I'll get all these weird feelings that don't feel like mine, and then I know you're here!" A bashful smile spread across his angelic features. "Since when have you been following me?"

"Just a few nights before the campfire, so maybe... three weeks?" Jungkook answered, still shy but bringing himself nearer.

The ground was covered in invisible pastel pink petals which moved out of his way as he walked. Each step he took cleared a footprint through the shimmering corolla, and they closed up again as soon as his bare toes left the ground for his next stride. He brought himself right up to the man on the bed, lowering himself to sit cross-legged in front of him on the floor. The other spoke again.

"Why are you following me?"

"I don't know..." Jungkook started softly, playing absentmindedly with his bandaged hand. This new habit had been helping him keep his blue wounds hidden during the daytime, as it caused him to keep checking the bandage.

The man on the bed seemed startled as he realised the disembodied voice was much nearer now, and his gaze shifted to the floor in front of him, unknowingly delving his gaze straight into the others' eyes. Jungkook hiccupped in surprise.

"Why do you follow me though?"

"I don't! I just... I go to bed and then wake up in whatever room you're in."

"So you're not dead?!" the other sighed in relief.

"Well I sure hope not!" Jungkook joked, and he was rewarded with the most beautiful giggle he had ever heard.

It was made of bells, falling stars and water ripples. With a voice as deep as the ocean, it shouldn't have been possible. This man was impossible.

"So what's your name?"

"Jeon Jungkook," he murmured; the silence of the room enveloped them so that speaking loud seemed almost like a crime, yet no sound came from his mouth. He, along with the gods above him, frowned discontentedly. "JEON JUNGKOOK!" he screamed, but the words never left the barrier of his lips.

"Are you still there?" the model across from him asked, eyes searching for his invisible visitor.

"It won't let me say it!" Jungkook whined.

"What's 'it'?"

"I don't know... whatever brings me here I guess."

"Okay," the other shrugged kindly, brushing it aside with ease to make the ghost happy once more. He could read his emotions like an open book; they resonated inside him, ripples echoing against his ribs and being picked up by the sonar lodged somewhere in his soul.

"What about a nickname then?" he continued.

"Umm... you could call me... Kookie... I guess..." the words left his body and his face immediately bloomed in a beautiful blushing display. To cover up his awkwardness, Jungkook returned the question.

"What's your name?"

A look of surprise washed over the others' features, but it was so swiftly replaced by the calm glimmer of a smile that Jungkook assumed he had imagined it.

"Kim Taehyung, at your service."

Taehyung proceeded to dive into a dramatic bow and the younger laughed quietly.

"So why can't I see you, Kookie?"

Another surprised hiccup echoed through the hush of the room, causing Taehyung's lips to twitch in mischief.

"Do you mind if you call you that?" he sounded out.

Jungkook was too busy blushing to realise that his answering shrug would not make a conceivable answer, as he was still invisible. So he swallowed soundlessly and tried to ignore his own burning face.

"I don't mind..." he was so tongue-tied the words barely made it through his lips. "And I don't know why you can't see me. Actually I can't even remember your face when I wake up."

Taehyung's eyebrows knitted together.

"Oh. I wonder if you'll remember my name in the morning."

There was a strange lilt to his words, something about the way he was expressing himself so offhandedly, yet remained perfectly serious.

"We'll see I guess..." Jungkook spoke just as his eyes landed on the notebook laying open on the bed covers.

Words were scribbled across the lines, intersected with stria of notes written in charcoal pencil. He jumped up and onto the bed, and although he landed softly no creases appeared on the colourful fabric. It was if he weighed nothing; as if he didn't even exist. When he spoke, his tone was suddenly vibrant and excited; the flavour of a blossoming bud in spring.

"What are you writing?!"

Taehyung turned towards the voice as it shifted positions, barely surprised this time as he picked up on the excited nature of his invisible friend. The first of many fond smiles etched itself in starlight on the elder's lips, and above them Mother Fate sighed gleefully, recognising the birth of a beautiful habit.

The two men lost themselves in a conversation that stretched their pocket of universe, their words crafting a cerulean bubble around them where fairies danced and shadows curtsied. They spoke of music and dreams; they discussed landscapes, photography and beaches. The campfire canvas raised itself up around them, reflecting their every word and giggle, yet neither of them noticed it, too immersed in their connection as they were.

The gods watching them were silent for a long time, their fears for the two humans pushed aside by the beauty of Creation at its purest, until Brother Future spoke.

"They would have spoken eventually," he said, unintentionally setting the subject on all their minds out bare for them to see. "That much I could see in their Hereafter. Does it really matter it if happened so quickly?"

"Perhaps not," Universe answered, his tone as serious as ever. "They may simply be lucky to meet so quickly."

Mother Fate sighed in relief, turning to unknowingly thank him. However, he interrupted her.

"Or it may be wishful thinking on our part for us to presume this fabric glitch will amount to nothing. The fact they they were both supposed to start talking later and should have stopped meeting doesn't make sense, you should both be able to see a clearer future for them. So as you both cannot, they may be doomed still. Or I could be fading; who knows."

It was with an ominous feeling that they watched the Dreamscape couple below them forget the hours, until the petals collected on the floor grew to be so numerous that their ocean spilled over the bed and wrapped Jungkook up in a whorl of colour and whisked him off into the night sky. His parting words rang in Taehyungs ears like musical raindrops as he realised he was finally alone in his room.

Jungkook would be back tomorrow; he had promised. ~*~

On the other side of the city, the DreamSoul fell back into his sleeping body, causing his real eyelids to slide open, taking in the ceiling of his own home. His lips stretched into the most blinding, beaming grin he had borne in a long time.

He still remembered nothing of the stranger, not his face nor his name, yet tonight he was too happy to care.

***

:] --> that's a box grin btw hehe