Chapter Text
Dream lab 18
Objective: Transferral of items from Dreams to Awakeness
Head researcher: Dr. Lee Taeyong
[Awake]
“I mean,” Johnny looks down at the object in his hand- presumably an apple- albeit an entirely transparent one, with a few intact seeds floating inside as if suspended in liquid. “It’s a start?” Taeyong glances over from his workbench, one pen in his hand and a second tucked behind his ear, forgotten.
“Well that’s the closest we’ve got to pulling out a whole object,” Taeyong remarks, picking the apple out of Johnny’s grasp and holding it up to the fluorescent lights that line the lab’s ceiling. “So I’d say it’s more than just a start.” He smiles, pleased, and places the apple onto a tray, sliding it amongst the paperwork and copious sticky notes that line Doyoung’s workbench. “I’ll get Doyoung to put it under the microscope later so we can see if you’ve unwillingly discovered a new material again.”
It’s been seven months since the startup of Dream Lab 18’s primary research project: pulling objects out of dreams and into real life. About eight months since their funding had been approved, their Dream Machine had been checked, their lab had been kitted out with all the correct equipment- and exactly four weeks since anything had actually started to work. So, for their lab’s standards, a transparent apple is a drastic improvement.
“I’ll pay you if you eat it.” Ten inputs from his own workbench, arm-deep in a box of tapes.
“Don’t,” Taeyong cautions. “He’ll actually do it.”
“You both have such low opinions of me.” Johnny responds, indignant, unhooking himself from the Dream Machine and watching the vital readings on the screens fall blank. One of the lights in the corner of the room flickers on and off like a distracting heartbeat.
“He’s not wrong.” Doyoung enters the room with a smile that verges on becoming a smirk, lab coat sleeves rolled up to his elbows and his goggles pushed up on his forehead. He closes the lab door with his foot, arms preoccupied with a tray full of samples- three more pitiful attempts at pulling apples out of dreams. “I got good looks at the carrot shaped one and the green one, but the jelly-looking one couldn’t deal with being cut up into tiny slices, so I had to make do with the least powerful microscope we have.”
“I got one that actually looks like an apple this time.” Johnny points to the tray on Doyoung’s workbench, feeling somewhat proud of his achievement.
“It might look like an apple but I feel like eating it would probably kill you.” Doyoung looks it over, poking at the plastic-like material, expression skeptical.
“That’s why I suggested he ate it.” Ten speaks up again, somehow more buried in the tape box than he was before.
“No fighting in the lab, we have science to do.” Taeyong turns back to his spreadsheets, noting down the conditions of the dream Johnny just exited- date, time, length, vital signs. He still hasn’t noticed the pen behind his ear, nestled partially in his hair.
“I think next time we should alter the time spent in the Deep Dream stage- then maybe the passage into the Dream in a Dream will be more secure,” Emerging from the tape box, Ten leans over Taeyong’s shoulder, scanning over his handwriting quickly. “We’ll need to keep a closer eye on vital signs but I don’t think it should be too dangerous.”
“Finally a helpful suggestion,” The second hand on the clock on the wall is stuck, and Johnny makes a mental note to fix it as he speaks. “I’d be fine with spending more time in Deep Dreaming. Taeyong, what do you think?”
“We can do that tomorrow, yes.” Taeyong nods and the pen finally falls out from behind his ear, clattering onto the table and smudging ink on the workbench surface.
[Dreaming]
The Deep Dream is always surreal: staircases winding down into nothing as eyes open in the sky above and flower petals rain down. Doors in mid-air and on the ground- everywhere doors shouldn’t be- surrounded by lights that wheel around like fireflies with no wings. It’s dark and cold, the feeling of drifting apart and being shaken back together all at once, pieces of existence flying loose then cartwheeling back into place again.
Then there’s the Dream in a Dream, an alternate reality where crystals hang from the clouds and the stars feel close enough to touch, buildings climbing into the air and distorting half way up, gravity ceasing to work as water flows upwards and structures hang, suspended in midair.
People walk through the streets, between the floating buildings and fragments of light: dream scientists, faces passed throughout the day, family members and friends. Sometimes Johnny stops to talk, a quick conversation with a fellow dream scientist in the park amongst the crystal flowers, telling jokes under the burning stars to a stranger he passed in a cafe earlier in the day, teasing a dream-version of Ten that sits in a tree by the side of the road and won’t remember his words upon waking.
“It’s pretty, right?” Johnny is startled by a voice behind him as he examines one of the prisms suspended above a puddle, casting rainbow fragments of light across the water. He turns to find the voice belongs to another man, a good few inches shorter than him, drenched from head to toe by water from a rain cloud that hangs a few feet above his head. The rain flattens his hair against his forehead and clings to his eyelashes, and Johnny feels like lightning has jumped from the cloud and hit him directly in the chest.
“Yeah, I’ve-” He pauses, suddenly unsure of what to say, and the person under the rain cloud smiles, encouraging. The action does the opposite of its intended purpose. “I’ve always liked the prisms.” Johnny tries to look at the rain cloud, the ground, the buildings slowly changing shape in the background, anywhere but the person’s face.
“I seem to be stuck with it,” The person muses, glancing up at the cloud. “I’ve tried to get rid of it but nothing really works.” He pushes his wet hair out of his eyes, a mild expression of distaste crossing his face.
“Do you want to get some coffee with me?” The words jump out before Johnny can stop them, hanging in the air like a bad decision, and he considers signalling for Ten to wake him up. The person under the rain cloud laughs, covering his mouth with his hand as he does so.
“You’re pretty forward, aren’t you?” His voice is teasing, blinking up owlishly from under the rain cloud. More like impulsive, Johnny would argue, however he holds his tongue in favour of making a good impression. “I don’t know if you can actually get coffee in here, but if you can find somewhere, then by all means you can take me.” a droplet of rain rolls down his face and catches on the end of his nose.
“I’m Johnny, I’m one of the dream scientists.” They walk through the streets, a trail of water left on the pavement from the rain cloud above. Droplets fly off to the side and catch on Johnny’s face, clinging to his hair.
“I’m Taeil. I’m,” The person- Taeil - pauses. “I’m not really anyone.”
“I doubt that.” Johnny jumps to disagree, and Taeil smiles, a little sad, a little confused. The rain seems to fall heavier around him, flattening his hair into his eyes again.
There’s no coffee to be found, only buildings with upside-down staircases and streets filled up with fog and crystal flowers that sprout from people’s footsteps.
“Here,” They pass a grocery store, the fruit levitating out of its baskets and rotating slowly in the air. Taeil plucks an apple, mid-fall, and hands it to Johnny, a knowing smile opening up onto his face. “You should wake up now.”
[Awake]
“That looks a lot more like a normal apple,” Ten states when Johnny wakes and unhooks himself from the machine. “But did you really have to make us watch that disaster.” He frowns, disapproving. Doyoung is laughing from the other side of the lab, poking at the clock in an attempt to prompt the second hand into working again.
“I’m going to monitor my own dream next time.” If it wasn’t classed as a sample, Johnny would have thrown the apple- at least half of it coloured normally- at Ten.
“No fighting in the lab,” Taeyong doesn’t even look up from his laptop as he speaks. “I feel more like a babysitter than a scientist in here.”
[Dreaming]
Taeil is sitting on the steps leading up the hill to the park when Johnny enters the Dream in a Dream again, an umbrella held above his head to block out the raincloud that still floats in the air above him. Droplets slide down the sides of the umbrella and land on the flowers below, the petals flickering with static every time the water comes into contact with them.
“You could say it’s lovely weather, but I don’t think I’d be able to agree.” He glances up at his umbrella, past its edges and up into the metal spokes, catching on the sunlight that shines in through the rain. Johnny sits down next to him, far away enough that the rain doesn’t hit him- and far away enough that his heart doesn’t try to crawl out of his chest every time Taeil turns to talk to him.
“I would ask you to get coffee with me again but I don’t think anywhere does it around here.” Johnny taps his foot against the pavement and a flower blooms momentarily, building itself out of pixels then collapsing back into the ground. Off in the distance, one of the buildings twists itself into a new shape, tying its structure into knots. The crystals in the trees swing in time, as if they’re all individual parts of one being.
“You’d think that in dreams we’d be able to get the food we want,” Taeil responds, hitting the heel of his own shoe against the ground to watch the flowers that spring up in its wake. He shrugs. “Dreams don’t always do what we want them to, I guess.”
“That’s why we’re researching them,” The rhythm Johnny taps out with his foot is fast, and the flowers can’t quite keep up, falling apart and tangling together as they grow and disintegrate again. “So we can find a way to make them do what we want them to.”
Taeil hums, distracted, a flower blooming at his feet, up through the cracks in the pavement and getting itself caught in his shoelaces.
[Awake]
“You said you’d monitor your own dream.” Ten calls across the lab when Johnny wakes up and finds himself alone in the corner of the lab, accompanied only by the steady beeping of the heart monitor of the Machine. Ten is the only other person in the lab, crouched by one of the workbenches and dripping dye onto slices of one of the samples from a pipette.
“What if I’d died though.” Johnny unhooks himself from the machine, looking down at the apple in his hands. It’s slightly more complete, almost fully the correct colour, but with a consistency that’s a little too alike to jelly.
Ten grins. “Finally some peace and quiet.”
“New sample, I see?” Doyoung enters the room followed by Taeyong, bringing back a tray of samples that he’d evidently been observing under the microscope. “Taeyong and I decided to look over the results of the enzyme tests to give you and your dream boyfriend some space.” Ten laughs, almost knocking over his beaker of dye, and Johnny considers putting himself back under dream conditions. At least Dream Ten was mostly silent.
“Actually, I’m glad that this is happening,” Taeyong inputs, crossing ‘enzyme tests’ off the list of tasks on the whiteboard in the corner of the lab. “It seems that having an emotional connection to something in the Dream in a Dream as a variable is really improving the quality of the samples.”
“Yeah, see. I’m onto something.” Johnny shoots a pointed look in Ten’s direction.
The response earns an eye roll from Ten. “Sure, just keep telling yourself that.”
[Dreaming]
Taeil always seems to be waiting for Johnny in the Dream in a Dream- standing by the ever-changing buildings, sitting in trees in the park and sending the prisms around him swaying back and forth, waiting with an umbrella in hand on the swings, feet kicking up dust and glitter. The rain cloud always seems to follow him, soaking his clothes and forming puddles on the ground that jump and evaporate the moment he steps away.
He tells bad jokes that Johnny can’t help but laugh at, hums to himself and complains about the weather. Yet however much Johnny prompts him, tries to find out something about what he does outside of the Dreams, he’s always met with a shrug, an ‘I can’t remember’, an ‘I’m not sure’. He knows his name, that his party trick is a surprisingly accurate owl impression, that his rain cloud won’t leave him alone- and not much else.
“My lab’s tests are going well,” They sit in the playground of the park, the ladder leading up to the monkeybars occasionally flickering out of existence in Johnny’s peripheral vision. They’re both perched on the edge of the climbing frame as the sun hangs low in the sky, surrounded by stars thrown into the sky like paper aeroplanes. “They want me to move on from apples and to try and bring back something else.”
Taeil nods. “That’s great- I’m glad your research is going okay.”
“Perhaps one day I’ll figure out how to get the Dream in a Dream to give us coffee.” Johnny remarks, earning a laugh from Taeil. A star drops out of its position in the sky and crashes into the top of one of the buildings, sending a shiver of motion through its structure before it rights itself. “Is it really too much to be able to take someone cute out for a date.”
Taeil blinks and a burst of lightning jumps through his raincloud, striking the top of his umbrella. “Are you this forward when you’re awake too?” Not forward, just impulsive.
“I’m definitely more of a mess when I’m awake,” Johnny admits. “I may be able to bring apples back from the Dream in a Dream, but I can’t seem to be able to take my sudden ability to stay on my feet for longer than ten minutes back with me too.”
The statement prompts another laugh from Taeil, before the platform of the climbing frame they’re sitting on makes the decision to stop existing, and they both tumble, surprised onto the grass below.
[Awake]
“So we’re going for flowers now?” Johnny wakes up with a rose in his hand, the petals wilted- and a shocking shade of bright green, thorns and leaves sticking into his palm. Doyoung pulls on a pair of latex gloves.
“That thing looks almost radioactive,” He plucks it out of Johnny’s hands. “I’ll be taking that.” He waltzes out of the room, rose in hand and his goggles perched on top of his head.
“I think he’s going to marry one of those microscopes some day.” Ten comments as he helps Johnny unhook himself from the machine, untangling him from the wires that connect to his arms and forehead. Taeyong is quiet in the corner, monitoring a printout of dream statistics and typing on his laptop. Nobody has the heart to tell him that his hair is sticking up at the back- an undignified ducks-tail of tangles.
“Still working on his presentation?” Johnny frowns, trying to judge when it was that he last saw Taeyong move from his spot. “How long has he been there?”
“He hasn’t moved since he got here this morning,” Ten sighs. “The annual Dream Science Conference is in a month- you know how stressed he gets about it.”
Johnny recalls back to the previous year, when their lab had just been set up and their Machine was barely functional, able to record dreams but not to make proper observations or run any tests. With barely any findings to present, Taeyong had hardly left the lab, trying to scrape together enough information to make a valid case and get access to the Conference. It had taken Johnny and Ten’s combined willpower just to get him to eat meals at the correct times, nevermind to leave the lab and take a break.
Johnny shakes his head. “If he's still there in an hour I’ll stage an intervention.”
“So, enough about Taeyong,” The grin on Ten’s face unsettles Johnny. “How’s your dream boyfriend doing?”
Johnny should have known that it was coming, a loud sigh escaping him as he fixes Ten with a disappointed look. “He’s not my boyfriend.” He briefly considers the option of tattooing the words onto his forehead, based on how often he seems to say them. Saving his vocal cords the difficulty, he reasons.
“You wish he was though?” Ten’s grin grows impossibly more shark-like, and he leans over the edge of the sofa by the Dream Machine, blocking all of Johnny’s possible exit routes.
“Maybe I do,” Johnny admits, sinking into the back of the sofa, defeated. “It doesn’t make any difference though- I have no idea who he is.”
The expression on Ten’s face falls into something more mellow, filled slightly with pity. “He has to be out there somewhere,” He reasons. “His actions are too complex for him to just be someone that you passed by on the street and somehow ended up in your dreams.”
“If he was another dream scientist, then why wouldn’t he just tell me?”
Ten shrugs. “He must have his reasons,” There’s a pause, filled only by the sound of Taeyong typing away at his laptop, and the steady beeps and whirrs of the dream machine, throwing static shadows across the lab floor. “Okay, stop moping and help me pick out tapes to take to the Conference.” Ten breaks the silence, pulling a stray EEG sensor off Johnny’s forehead and beckoning for him to follow him across the lab.
[Dreaming]
“This is for you.” Taeil meets Johnny almost as soon as he’s out of the Deep Dream, walking up to him in the street with a rose in hand, the edges of the petals shimmering in and out of reality, disappearing and reappearing like a heartbeat. In his other hand, he has his umbrella, blocking out the rain cloud that still pours down onto him.
The petals steady themselves as Johnny accepts the rose, holding it as if afraid he’ll break it. “Let’s see if this one looks radioactive when I take it out of here.”
Taeil laughs in response. “Maybe you’ll discover a new species of glow-in-the-dark roses?” He suggests as they walk, stepping over the paving stones that detach themselves from the ground and around the glitter that falls from the tree branches. The pavement behind them is splattered by droplets from Taeil’s personal rainstorm, drying in the hazy light that soaks through the clouds above.
“I knew I should have become a Botanist rather than a Dream Scientist.” They continue to talk- just as they always do, Johnny’s line of sight fixated on Taeil as he talks about everything to do with the Dream in a Dream- the buildings and the endlessly changing trees, the stars that feel larger than life and the other people he passes on his way, Dream Scientists and pieces of the imagination of others alike. He tells jokes- which Johnny laughs at regardless of how funny they are- and laments about his rain cloud, holding a hand out from under his umbrella and jumping as a small jolt of lightning hits his fingertips.
When Johnny falls for Taeil, it’s in both a literal and figurative sense- tripping over a piece of pavement that didn’t exist seconds before and tumbling onto the ground, favouring protecting the rose instead of himself. When Taeil reaches out a hand to help him up off the ground, he instead falls too, umbrella whisking its way off down the street and the rain falling down on the two of them. It’s when they’re lying on the ground, laughing and soaked from head to toe by the rain- that Johnny’s heart does a backflip in its space behind his ribcage, and his laughter dies out. The dream seems to stop around them, leaving nothing but the two of them and the stars above.
“What’s wrong?” Taeil asks, curious, and Johnny can’t find the words to use, fumbling around to try and gather together a response. You’re a scientist. He tells himself. You’re supposed to know what to say.
What eventually comes out is- “You’re the man of my dreams.”
For a while, there’s silence. Then Taeil laughs once more, a grin spreading to his face as he turns to face Johnny. “You really are something else.” He presses a kiss, light against Johnny’s cheek, and the dream melts around them.
[Awake]
“It’s completely the same as any normal rose.” Doyoung seems almost amazed as he steps back into the lab, dropping the rose Johnny had pulled out of the Dream onto his workbench. “You actually managed to do it.”
Johnny looks up from where he’s helping Ten set up a series of dilutions, still testing samples of one of his apples from weeks before. “Seriously?” He remembers feeling skeptical upon waking up to find a rose- perfect aside from slightly wilted petals- sitting in his hand as he unhooked himself from the Machine. Ten also seems surprised, his look of amazement quickly fading into one of annoyance as he pipettes solution into the wrong container.
“What’s everyone looking so shocked about?” Taeyong enters the lab seconds later, the bag in hand containing their lunch, bought from the convenience store close to the lab. They had sent him out earlier, refusing to let him sit at his laptop for a second longer, fussing over the presentation for the Dream Conference in a few weeks.
“We’ve actually done it,” Doyoung is the first to speak, waving the rose in Taeyong’s direction. “It’s a perfect match to the real thing.” Taeyong is silent for a while, looking down at the rose, bag of convenience store food still in hand, before he drops the food on the desk and claps his hands together like a child that received an unexpected present. The smile on his face is brighter than it seemed to have been all week. The screen of the Dream Machine in the background flickers, as if detecting their excitement.
“This is amazing!” Taeyong looks down at the rose again, as if he can’t quite believe his eyes. “Johnny, you’re doing something right because this is brilliant.”
The mood in the lab switches to one of celebration, the four scientists gathering around the middle bench, previous work forgotten. “Just wait until the Dream Science Committee sees this!” Ten inputs. “We should announce it at the Conference- I can’t wait to see the looks on their faces.”
Taeyong nods vigorously in agreement. “Johnny, how would you feel about taking part in the announcement?” Johnny looks up in surprise. Normally only the head researcher for each lab would present findings at the Conference. “It’s starting to look like having a strong emotional connection within the Dream in a Dream has a positive influence on the way it relates to real life- and you’re the one that has the best experience with that out of all of us.”
Johnny considers the idea. While the thought of speaking in front of a crowd of people, all knowledgeable enough to pick out any mistakes, sounds terrifying, the idea of being able to present his findings to the world overrides his initial fear and misgivings. Fixing Taeyong with a grateful look, he agrees.
“I’d say this calls for drinks to celebrate!” Ten slaps his hands down against the workbench.
“It’s 1pm,” Doyoung deadpans in response. “On a Wednesday.”
“Maybe later- we still have work to do.” Taeyong, still smiling, ushers them back to their work, convenience store meals left forgotten in the lingering excitement that hangs about the Dream Lab like a string of lights on Christmas Day.
-
“Can’t sleep?” It’s somewhere close to 3am when Mark appears in the entrance to the kitchen, startling Johnny as he stares blankly into the lurid brightness of his laptop screen, the word document empty in front of him.
“I spend most of my day sleeping- I don’t think I could do any more if I tried.” Johnny laughs, trying to force humour into his voice. He turns back to his laptop as Mark busies himself with fetching himself some water, footsteps quiet as he roots around in the cupboard for a glass.
“What are you working on?” Mark sits down at the table in the chair opposite Johnny. He looks tired, as if he’d just woken up, hair sticking up at one side from being crushed against his pillow. Mark’s sudden interest surprises Johnny- the younger of the two normally maintained an adamant disinterest in the workings of the Dream Lab, refusing to even set foot near the building.
He keeps his voice quiet as he responds, so as not to wake Mark’s parents, asleep somewhere upstairs. “We discovered something pretty big today, and I’m going to have to speak about it at the Annual Dream Conference in LA in a few weeks time,” Johnny motions towards his laptop screen with a sigh. “As you can tell, my presentation-writing skills are a little lacking.”
“You’re usually a great speaker though,” Mark hums, curious. “What’s got you distracted?”
Of course Mark would be able to tell what’s on his mind right away. “There’s someone I’ve been meeting,” Johnny admits. He closes his laptop over so the glare dips downward, a vague halo against the table surface, sparsely illuminating the rest of the kitchen. “In the Dream in a Dream.”
“That’s the bit that you’re studying, right?” Mark questions, propping his chin up in his hands.
Nodding, Johnny continues. “People who I’ve walked past sometimes show up in there, but I know I’ve never seen him outside of my dreams before. He’s the reason we’ve made so many discoveries lately, but I don’t know anything about him other than his name.”
“Do you like him?” Mark seems curious, watching Johnny expectantly from across the table.
“I think I do.” The words feel simultaneously like a weight off Johnny’s shoulders, and plunging into dark, unfamiliar waters, unsure of what to do or where to go.
“Dreams are a strange place to find someone that you love.” There’s something almost knowing to Mark’s words, but before Johnny can question it, he’s taken his water and left, footsteps light on the stairs as he heads back to his room.
[Dreaming]
“I’m going to be leaving for the Dream Science Conference in a few days,” Johnny talks to Taeil as they walk under his umbrella, hand in hand. Nobody passing by pays them any attention, and Johnny begins to wonder if they can even see them at all. “I’m assuming that I’ll see you there?”
Taeil doesn’t respond immediately, the smile falling off his face. “I don’t know.” He sounds almost sad, and Johnny immediately regrets his words.
“Last time I was there I was so overwhelmed that I didn’t get to even talk to anyone- I think I clung to Taeyong like an oversized puppy the whole time,” Johnny quickly switches the topic, hoping to recover Taeil’s smile. “Maybe this time I’ll actually get to meet some other dream scientists rather than watching them in awe from across the room.”
To Johnny’s relief, Taeil laughs, poking Johnny’s shoulder good-humouredly. “I refuse to believe that you’d be awkward about talking to people,” His grin turns into something a little more teasing. “What with you being so forward about staring at me and immediately asking me out for coffee.” There’s more prisms hanging from the trees than usual, and Taeil takes the umbrella out of Johnny’s hand before walking over to inspect them, watching them swing and glitter in a nonexistent breeze.
“I’m not forward- just impulsive!” Johnny calls after him, walking in the same direction to catch up.
“Well you had me fooled.” Keeping his line of sight on the prisms, Taeil closes the umbrella, watching as the droplets of rain slide against the glassy surfaces in front of him, filled with refracted light and rainbows that only stay until the prism moves yet again.
When Johnny ducks under the tree, beside Taeil, the shorter of the two is soaked from head to toe, his hair flattened against his head and the raindrops clinging to his eyelashes. There, under the tree filled with rainbow light, Johnny finds himself unable to look away, gaze caught like a butterfly in a net and his heart beating as if he had taken a running start from the bottom of the hill all the way to the top.
“What are you thinking about?” Taeil’s voice is curious as he finally looks away from the tree, meeting Johnny’s eyes.
“Kissing you.” The words are out there before Johnny can stop them. Under the tree of prisms, the tiny rainstorm above continuing just for the two of them, Taeil laughs, the sound like music, echoing amongst leaves.
“Well why don’t you do it then?” The look that Taeil gives him is filled with expectation, waiting.
And Johnny can’t bring himself to argue with that.
[Awake]
“Here’s to making scientific discoveries through the art of bad flirting.” The four of them- Johnny, Taeyong, Ten and Doyoung- are sitting in a bar, two nights before they take a flight to LA for the Dream Science Conference. The atmosphere is warm, dull chatter and the sound of glasses barely reaching the booth they’ve claimed, the low lighting a welcome change to the harsh, artificial lights of the lab.
For the past week, none of them have found the time for a break- Doyoung spending hours locked away with his microscopes, taking images of samples and writing up data and Ten carrying out analytical tests until his hands hurt. Taeyong fusses over his presentation to the point that he could likely recite it in his sleep (as was the case, according to Doyoung), and Johnny dedicates his time to planning out his own speech, selecting tapes and working away at how to phrase his findings. Over Johnny’s head also hangs the thought of Taeil- speculations and worry about what he’d be like in person- or if he’d even be there.
“You’re thinking too hard over there.” Taeyong catches Johnny’s attention by waving a hand in front of his face.
“Stop the press, Johnny was actually thinking.” Doyoung jibes, prompting a loud bout of laughter from Ten, who is already a fair way through his third drink, well into the stage just before drunkenness, when everything seems disproportionately amusing. Johnny rolls his eyes to show distaste, and takes a drink of his lemonade, having volunteered as the designated driver for the night. He mentally prepares himself for a night of babysitting- and for the inevitable hangovers the following morning.
“I’ve heard that Dr. Qian is going to be at the Conference,” Taeyong mentions later on through the night, after finishing a handful of chilli crisps from the bowl in the middle of their table. “I wonder if he’d sign my lab coat.”
Ten laughs around his own mouthful of food. “You’re just saying that because you think he’s cute.”
“I want him to sign my lab coat because he basically invented the Dream Machines. Dream science wouldn’t even be a thing if it wasn’t for him.” Taeyong recovers, indignant.
Doyoung joins in with the teasing. “Yeah, and you think he’s cute.”
“Well,” Taeyong hesitates, evidently thinking hard. “who doesn’t think that?”
Ten opens his mouth as if to respond, then nods in agreement, going back to the bowl of crisps in the middle of the table. “You’re right.”
“Speaking of seeing people at the Conference,” Doyoung turns his attention to Johnny. “Do you think your dream boyfriend will be there?”
Johnny shrugs, a little half-hearted. “I guess I’m hoping so?” Taeyong clues into the hesitant tone to his voice, and pushes the bowl of crisps a little closer to Johnny’s end of the table.
“Just don’t be too upset if he’s not there, okay?” The head researcher cautions. “I don’t want something like that to ruin the experience of the Conference.”
“Don’t worry- I’m going to use it as a time to meet new people, and to enjoy being back in my home country too.” Johnny reassures, but he isn’t quite sure of his trust in his own words. The table falls silent for a while, the four dream scientists deep in thought of the days ahead, as the busy atmosphere of the bar brushes past them, not quite meeting their eyes and their ears.
Ten is the one to break the silence, dropping his wallet down on the tabletop with a flourish. “Who wants more crisps?”
[Dreaming]
Johnny sleeps on the flight to LA- sinking back in the uncomfortable plane seats and dragging a mask over his eyes, plugging in his earphones.
But here he doesn’t dream of prisms and roses and Taeil pressing quick kisses against his lips as they walk. Outside of the labs, his dreams don’t make sense- nothing but a tangle of abstract thoughts, far from the meaningful conversations of the Dream in a Dream that he’s so used to.
Johnny isn’t quite sure if he prefers it.
[Awake]
The Annual Dream Science Convention is a relatively new event- only three years in the running- held in a conference hall in central LA. It’s a gathering of scientists working in Dream Labs all across the world, meeting to find like-minded people and to share research. Johnny has been once before, in the year he first transferred from Chicago to his current Dream Lab, situated on the outskirts of Seoul.
This year it’s bigger- more people and more chatter, the crowds already beginning to fill the venue as Johnny arrives from the hotel. The short trip to the conference hall is filled with Ten forgetting things and Doyoung complaining about the weather, shielding his eyes from the sun above them.
They sign in- Dream lab no.18, Head Researcher: Dr. Lee- and enter the conference hall.
“There definitely weren’t this many people here last year,” Taeyong concludes as they look around, shuffling closer to Johnny to escape being trampled. “There weren’t this many people last time, right?”
Ten shakes his head. “Dream Science has really taken off recently- or course there’s going to be a lot of people,” He frowns. “I’m too short for this, I’m going to get squashed.”
“Giant over here is okay, he can just step over everyone.” Doyoung waves a hand in Johnny’s direction, startling him away from the poster on the function of time within dreams that he attempts to read.
“If you’re that worried about getting squashed, then we should attend some talks to get out of the crowds.” Johnny suggests. Their presentation on object retrieval isn’t scheduled till the following day- “plenty of time to scout out the competition.” Ten had joked earlier on the plane- so a whole day of attending talks and meeting other Dream Scientists formed their schedule for the first day of the conference.
“Does anyone have any things they really want to attend?” Taeyong asks, pulling out the conference itinerary from his bag.
“The food court,” Doyoung deadpans immediately, prompting a laugh from Ten. “Seriously though, I want to see Dr. Jung’s talk on how the Dream in a Dream mirrors waking life.”
Taeyong raises an eyebrow, curious, before penciling a circle around the presentation, taking place at 1pm. “What happened to not being too interested in most Dream Science stuff?”
“I went to university with Jaehyun- Dr. Jung, I mean,” Doyoung grins. “I want to see if his powerpoint making skills are still just as bad as they were in second year.”
“Put us down for Dr. Nakamoto’s talk on the passage of time within dreams,” Johnny reflects back on the poster he had read earlier, published by the Osaka-based Dream Lab 6. “I saw his research on the way in and it looked really interesting.”
Before he can elaborate, Johnny feels the presence of someone standing behind him, up on tiptoes to lean over his shoulder and peek at the itinerary in Taeyong’s hands. “Good choice in talks to visit- I must say.” Turning quickly, Johnny is met by the sight of a person with a wide, bright smile and heavily pierced ears, stumbling backwards at the sudden close proximity. The person laughs at Johnny’s surprise. “Sorry, I heard my name and couldn’t help myself.”
“Dr. Nakamoto?” Taeyong questions, giving the person a quick once-over in an attempt to find any sort of name badge or indicator of his name.
“The one and only- just Yuta from now though, I’ll start feeling old otherwise,” Yuta laughs, his smile apparently unrelenting. “You’re from the Seoul lab, right? Dr. Lee?”
Taeyong nods, holding out a hand for Yuta to shake. “Is the rest of your team here?”
Shaking his head, Yuta glances off to the side, as if looking out for someone. “They all ditched me and left me to come alone,” He sighs. “I’m supposed to be meeting Kun- Dr. Qian- but he ran off after his lab assistant somewhere and now I can’t find them.” At the mention of Dr. Qian, Ten elbows Taeyong in the ribs, grinning.
“He might be going to the welcome presentation, maybe?” Doyoung suggests. “You could try and intercept him by the doors.”
“I like that plan a lot,” Yuta motions in the direction of the largest lecture theatre in the conference hall. “I’m going to head over there and try to catch him- come and see me after my talk later or I’ll have to make a fool of myself looking for you!”
Once Yuta is gone, pushing his way through the crowds, Doyoung comments “Nice to know that every Dream Scientist out there is as weird as you three.”
-
Yuta’s talk is just as fascinating as Johnny expected- detailing research carried out over the course of multiple years into how altering the timeflow within dreams can have an influence on waking life. He knows how to deliver too, standing up on stage and speaking confidently, answering any questions fired his way without faltering once. Afterwards, Johnny makes sure to seek Yuta out, as requested earlier, making his way to the front of the hall. Ten takes it upon himself to catch the dream scientist’s attention by shouting across the stage as Yuta packs up his laptop, earning unfavourable glares from the people around them.
“So- did I meet your expectations?” Yuta steps down from the stage to meet them, throwing his bag over his shoulders- the zip of the front pocket decorated with a keyring that Johnny suspects is from an anime of some sort.
“Definitely,” Taeyong is grinning, his eyes lit up with excitement and a trail of pen ink smudged across his cheek from where he had been taking notes throughout the entire presentation. “The study where you used time in the dream to make people feel like they’d only been asleep for minutes, when it had actually been hours was amazing,” Taeyong’s smile falters a little. “I’m not sure how I’m going to top that if I’m honest.”
“Hey, I’ve heard plenty of great stuff about your lab’s research too,” Yuta reassures as they make their way out of the lecture theatre. “Plus I’ve heard some rumours about the revelation of some important new information?”
Taeyong nods. “You’ll have to attend our presentation to learn about it though,” He gestures towards Johnny. “Johnny is going to be delivering that piece of information, seeing as he was the one who discovered it.”
“I’m intrigued.” They step back out into the bustle of the conference hall, Yuta’s attention caught by an approaching figure, pushing his way through the crowds.
“Hey, Nakamoto!” The voice is familiar to Johnny- startlingly so. “Kun is looking for you.”
“My apologies, Dr. Moon,” Yuta’s voice is dripping with sarcasm as he turns to usher the person into place beside him. “I was kind of busy; giving a presentation and all.”
Standing beside Yuta- hair combed back out of his face and his bag slipping off his shoulder, shirt partially untucked from pushing his way through the crowd- is Taeil.
The world seems to cease moving around Johnny, frozen in time as all he can focus on is Taeil, Taeil, Taeil, standing just feet away from him. His heart feels like it has stopped, along with his ears and his limbs, as if tossed in the middle of the road before a speeding car- a deer frozen in the headlights. Taeyong takes one look at Johnny, one look at Taeil, then catches on, quickly tugging on Johnny’s wrist to get his attention again.
“Is that really you?” The phrase escapes Johnny, filled with something close to amazement. A confused expression makes its way onto Taeil’s face, and he moves a little, as if to physically duck out of Johnny’s line of sight.
“Sorry- do I know you?”
The world seems to collapse under Johnny’s feet.
It takes every piece of willpower he has to convince himself not to turn and walk away, to hide the fact that he’s likely to come close to tears under the distant, confused look that Taeil is sending in his direction. Taeyong looks more than a little panicked, preparing himself to intervene if necessary.
Johnny gathers the little composure he has left, voice shaky. “Sorry, I must have mistaken you for someone else.”
Taeil relaxes visibly after Johnny speaks, shoulders loosening and the smile on his face growing less tense. He laughs- painfully familiar. “Don’t worry about it, It’s an easy mistake to make,” he offers a hand for Johnny to shake in greeting. “I’m Dr. Moon from the Dream Lab in London- just call me Taeil though.”
He moves around, shaking the hands of Taeyong, Ten and Doyoung, then frowns in Yuta’s direction, reaching out to hit the other Dream Scientist in the arm. “When I say ‘Kun is looking for you’, your response should be to go and find him, not to stand there looking gormless.” Every single one of Taeil’s mannerisms feel so familiar to Johnny, and he feels his composure start to break, shedding itself like a paper-thin second skin.
Shooting a cautious glance in Johnny’s direction, Taeyong motions towards the exit of the conference hall. “We’re going outside to get some fresh air.” Then, grabbing Johnny by the wrist, he walks quickly away without waiting for a response, pulling Johnny in his wake.
“We’re not going to let this ruin the conference for us, okay?” Taeyong affirms once they’re outside, away from the crowds of the main conference, the only witness to their conversation being the sun above and the pigeons that scavenge for dropped food outside of the food court. He meets Johnny’s eyes, gaze steady, waiting for a response.
Out in the open and able to find room to breathe and room to think, Johnny finally allows himself to fully take in the situation, outside in the warmth and the sunlight. Taeil exists. He’s exactly the same as he is in his dreams. He’s a dream scientist. He has no recollection of ever having seen Johnny before. The realisation hits him like a kick to the chest, that Taeil, the person who he fell in love with through dreams and conversations filled with fog and crystal flowers, is only able to look at him like a stranger. The sky above seems to swim, too empty of stars, and the buildings opposite are too static, held in one place by gravity and the constraints of reality.
If he had the choice, Johnny would choose to fall asleep, sink into the Dream in a Dream, and never wake up again.
Impatient, Taeyong tugs on Johnny’s sleeve. “I want to hear you tell me that you’re going to be okay before we go back in there.” His expression is heavy with concern, refusing to shift his grip until he’s sure that things are settled.
“On the bright side, at least you know he exists.” Ten inputs from where he’s perched on the wall, feet dangling in the air. A plane flies by overhead, streaking vapour trails behind it, before disappearing into the clouds, gone from view. Johnny nods.
“I’m going to be fine,” He smiles, as genuinely as he can. “We’re going to be late for Dr. Qian’s talk, let’s go back inside.”