"He said what?"

"That he fell in love with a dream."

"Yeah I heard you the first time, I just didn't believe you." Jin snorted back into the receiver, holding the phone up to his ear as he paced around the lobby. "Is he okay though? That sounds a bit like a mental breakdown to me you know."

He heard his roommate sigh on the other end of the line.

"I mean, you'd think it could be a breakdown. Especially with how busy the whole company is right now... everyone reacts to stress differently I guess. But Jungkook sounds so... I don't know, sane?"

"Sane? Min Yoongi, the man just told you he fell in love, legitimately, with a dream. Does that sound like sane to you?"

Silence answered, and Jin rubbed a tired hand over his forehead as Yoongi gruffly picked up the conversation again.

"Where are you anyways? Sounds echoey, I hate it."

"Your building lobby, actually," Jin answered offhandedly, as the receptionist finally came back and handed him a thick manila envelope. "Just picking up new contract outlines for Tae- Thank you dearest."

"You did not just call me dearest," Yoongi said, pretending to vomit from the other end of the phone, causing Jin to snort once more as he pushed the front door open and left the building.

"No, I was talking to the receptionist, you attention whore. Anyways, where was I?..."

The receptionist sighed happily after Jin left, perhaps staring a second too long at his strutting silhouette, before she noticed with a jump that someone else was there with her.

"Um... can I help Sir?"

The man in question was stood against a wall, flattened against it so as to be the least visible possible. One of the two potted plants in the entrance was luckily placed right there, and as he hid behind it. Being caught in that situation though... it only made his bright red face that more obvious as his eyes grew wide and he speed walked back into the building.

***

Jung Hoseok threw his head back and cackled. The boisterous laugh echoed around the huge CGI hall, mainly ignored by most of the crew who were used to his sunshine manners, but drawing the attention of one stretching actor who watched from afar, curious.

"You hid behind WHAT?!"

Namjoon rubbed his face aggressively, as if it would rid him of the shame.

"A potted plant. I hid behind a goddamn plant, happy?"

"Oh this is just rich! THE Kim Namjoon, getting so flustered he had to hide... I can't..."

"You don't understand how ridiculously handsome he is!"

Hoseok actually collapsed onto the padded mat and started rolling around in hysterics. Namjoon sighed and glanced up at the heavens with a face which clearly spelt out 'Why me?!', before softly kicking his neighbour with the tip of his foot.

"Hey but I have a question for you... uuuh completely unrelated."

Hoseok stopped laughing, albeit with difficulty, and straightened himself up, peering up at his friends with one eyebrow raised.

"Sure, unrelated. Sounds legit. Do go on."

"Do you think people can fall in love with a dream?"

***

Taehyung had been watching curiously from the other side of the room as someone he vaguely recognised as involved in the movie caused his teacher to dissolve into a laughing fit. He'd finished his warm-ups and, having nothing better to do, he inched towards the duo, meaning to introduce himself properly.

"Do you think people can fall in love with a dream?"

And then froze.

"Come again?" Hoseok said, before he noticed the actor hovering behind the silver-haired man, a strange look on his face. "Oh, Taehyung-ah come and meet Kim Namjoon, he's in charge of editing for the movie."

"Oh, h-hello," Taehyung stuttered, stumbling forward to bow to the elder, but unable to let the words churning in his head go. "What... what did you say?"

"About what?" Hoseok asked, tilting his head curiously.

And Taehyung's mind screeched to a halt. Now that he thought about it, this didn't necessarily have anything to do with him and Kookie. Sure, they met in dreams and they got along more than he'd ever connected with anyone before, but that was probably it... right? He'd never called it love before, never thought about that particular word before, never said or thought 'I love you' before.

And yet, as he stood there and the world tilted on its axis ever so slightly, a warmth spread across his chest and his mind replayed it again and again. Love, love... Love.

"Taehyung?"

He came back to reality, blinking at Hoseok who was waving a hand in front of his eyes.

"Huh?"

"You zoned out... what were you wondering about?"

Taehyung bit his lip, mind reeling. He had overstepped his boundaries, listening in on a conversation like that and just assuming... or had he been hoping? It's just every time he heard the word 'dream', the ghost boy was all he could think of, and somewhere not so deep down, he'd been searching for a while.

Unconsciously, his eyes had grown used to combing the crowd, watching people in the streets, searching for a sign that his Kookie was out there and somehow expecting that the second their eyes met, they would immediately know.

And now he had been in this building, could even be linked to whatever Namjoon had been talking about! But Tae couldn't ask, just couldn't, already had his image hanging by a thread after coming out, couldn't deal with being believed to be crazy too. He swore he would ask later, about the person who fell in love with a dream.

"Ah, sorry... Nothing hyung!" he backtracked with a forced grin. "I was wondering if you wanted me to start on any specific warm-up routine?"

The two older men had the grace to ignore the strange turn the conversation had taken for a moment, and Hoseok pointed him towards his next task.

Namjoon bid his goodbyes, stating he had work to finish up as he made his way back to the main building. When he walked back into the editing department, he glanced at his young protégé, who was frowning at some work on his desk, small sighs leaving his lips.

The elder man was worried about Jungkook, of course he was: he'd seen him lose his cute giggles, challenging grins and cheeky words over the last few weeks, and he had no idea why, or how to help. And then there was that hand which he always had bandaged up...

But Namjoon had never been particularly close to anyone he worked with, and although for the first time he wanted to connect with someone, he wasn't entirely sure how to go about it yet. So he grabbed the folder waiting on his desk and headed out.

Left alone, Jungkook stared down at his desk, exhausted and emotionally drained, still forcing himself to work but struggling to focus. The silence around him was deafening, and he found that for once, he couldn't stand it. So he put his earphones in and played the song that was still rushing through his veins.

It took one single afternoon for him to be addicted to 'Free To Be Me', one afternoon of finally getting solid work in as the tune played on an infinite loop. The other song 'Stigma' was beautiful, life-changing even, but something about the white-thumbnailed MV dragged him into his own heart and let him dance to the rhythm of his own breathing.

It made him forget for a short time, made him able to ignore his tiredness, numbed the void slowly growing inside of him. But it would all come back to him the second he stopped to think about it, so he filled his hours with the song, trying to forget.

He'd tried everything to keep himself busy, late at night when he couldn't sleep and his thoughts turned to V. But it wasn't enough, he felt so empty, like he'd left a piece of himself in his dreams. So he played the song over and over again as he walked home through the rain. Slowly, ever so slightly, his mood lifted. His sadness fell from 100% to 99%... 98%... settled at 97%.

And that night, as Jungkook sat at home and scrolled through the endless posts about how Taehyung had inspired people to bravely be themselves, V showed up.