Chapter Text
“Absolutely not,” Sunghoon firmly denied any and all proposals from his friends, Sunoo and Jungwon. “I’m not going on a blind date; I have a boyfriend!” He was borderline insulted, his friends knew about Heeseung, they knew about his feelings and still suggested such a thing.
“In your dreams!” Sunoo argued loudly. “Please, hyung, you can’t keep going like this…”
“You are starting to sound insane; you realise that, right?” Jungwon confronted him, though Sunghoon ignored him.
“I’m not insane,” Sunghoon defended himself. “Just because you don’t believe me—”
“We believe you,” Jungwon stopped him right away. “And we believe he’s an actual person.”
“But we don’t believe he’s actually in your dreams,” Sunoo finished Jungwon’s point. “You literally meet him in your dreams, and talk to him there, exclusively,” Sunoo pointed out. “You were a mermaid in one of my dreams, that doesn’t make it true.”
“It might be, you never know,” Sunghoon shrugged, rather willing to consider the possibility that he was a mythical creature than concede that Heeseung wasn’t real.
“Sunghoon-hyung, you are not a mermaid,” Jungwon was exasperated. “And that guy, you must have seen him somewhere, but that doesn’t mean the one in your dreams is for real him.”
“Now, that’s just stupid,” Sunghoon countered. “If I had seen him while awake, I wouldn’t just be talking to him in my dreams,” he said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“We are just saying,” Sunoo did not keep his cool, emphasising and punctuating every word with his hands. “We think you should go out with someone, while awake.” He seemed to be struggling against a primal instinct to just hit Sunghoon real hard until his brain started working properly.
“And all I’m saying is that I won’t cheat on Heeseung just because you think I have to,” Sunghoon ended the conversation there. Honestly, he tolerated it for way longer than he usually did.
Realistically, he knew their concerns were valid. He was not delusional enough not to realise he sounded a little insane, but he firmly believed it was real. He knew Heeseung was real and confidently believed they met in their dreams. He was aware it sounded absolutely crazy, yet the dreams with Heeseung felt so different to his usual ones, that there was no doubt left in his mind. Heeseung had to be a real person and they had to be meeting through some telepathic bond or something. He wasn’t sure about the logistics behind it, but it was happening, somehow.
His irritation towards Sunoo and Jungwon fizzled up quite fast, they weren’t to blame after all. They’d had the same conversation several times every week since he confessed to dating someone. It had taken a couple of months before he, accidentally, slipped and told them he had a boyfriend. The fact that he hadn’t wanted to tell them to begin with because he knew how it sounded, should excuse their behaviour to some extent. The first time he’d dreamt about Heeseung, he had not believed he was real. A month of continuous meetings, Sunghoon began to believe it. Either he was completely losing his mind or it was real, so he approached things cautiously.
They began dating four months after the first dream. It was unavoidable, Sunghoon thought, as Heeseung made it really hard not to fall for him. Honestly, Sunghoon only believed he was real because there was no way his mind could come up with someone like Heeseung. Then he’d spilled to Sunoo and Jungwon and his torture began. Heeseung found it hilarious, especially because his friends had known from the start. It seemed that Heeseung’s friends were quite more understanding of their relationship. Sunoo and Jungwon insisted this was because Heeseung and, therefore, his friends weren’t real.
“Jaeyun is the only one who is a little sceptical,” Heeseung explained. “He’ll come round, though.”
Sunghoon was jealous. From what Heeseung had told him, Ni-ki was supportive though he mostly didn’t care, while Jongseong was convinced they were soulmates. It sounded nice, but why couldn’t his friends be like that? Even if Jaeyun was sceptical, it didn’t sound like he believed Heeseung was insane, that’s all he wanted.
Due to Sunoo and Jungwon’s insistence that he needed to be checked into a mental institution, he’d been attempted to be set up on blind dates by them several times. Each and every time, he’d refused. At the same time, he’d rejected every single person who asked him out. He wasn’t a cheater, and no matter what they believed, Heeseung was his boyfriend. This absolute resolution trembled when Jungwon came to him asking for a favour.
“Absolutely not,” Sunghoon felt like he’d said that a million times the past month. “I’ve told you already—”
“I know, I know,” Jungwon interrupted him. “But this is for me, okay?”
“What do you mean? I’m serious Jungwon, you have to drop this—” Sunghoon sighed halfway through his sentence, and was once again stopped by Jungwon.
“Just listen, I’ve been talking to this guy for a while, yeah? And I really want to go on a date with him,” Jungwon began explaining.
“First, what does that have to do with me and second, since when are you talking to anyone?” Sunghoon was slightly more offended that Jungwon hadn’t told him about the guy than the blind date itself.
“I’m getting there, and you judge anyone who uses apps to find dates,” Jungwon pointed out, which was true.
“You can’t blame me, the guys in dating apps are creepy…” Sunghoon argued.
“Yes, exactly,” Jungwon agreed easily. “Which is why I need you to go with me to the date, as in a double date with his friend.” Before Sunghoon could object, Jungwon pulled out the puppy eyes and begged, “Please, I seriously think he’s good, but just in case… you can’t leave me alone.”
“I…” Sunghoon tried to refuse, but Jungwon wasn’t making it easy. “Let me think about it, when would the… date… be?” Sunghoon had, practically, conceded defeat.
Jungwon silently cheered and grinned mischievously, almost as if his plan had worked. Sunghoon hadn’t yet agreed, and he was honestly doubtful, but he knew he’d have a hard time saying no. There was, however, the cheating issue. That still stood true, he did not want to cheat on Heeseung, but he also wanted Jungwon to be happy. It seemed obvious that, while there was some scheming going on with him, Jungwon actually wanted to go on this date. He didn’t feel comfortable letting Jungwon meet with a guy from a dating app alone, it just wasn’t safe. The whole situation was conflicting, and Sunghoon could not figure out what he should do.
And so he talked to Heeseung. They sat next to each other on a bed that was comically too big.
“I think you should go,” Heeseung told him sincerely, which surprised Sunghoon. “Well… no, yeah, you should go.”
“But I don’t want to cheat?” Sunghoon argued, like it was obvious. It had to be, he mentioned that several times.
“And you wouldn’t be cheating,” Heeseung reasoned. “First, you already told me, so I don’t think it counts. Also, you can tell the other guy from the start that you aren’t interested and are just helping out your friend… I’d really like it if you did that, actually.”
“Or I could just tell Jungwon no, right?” Sunghoon fidgeted, lying his head on Heeseung’s shoulder.
“Do you want to say no?” Heeseung questioned, making Sunghoon think about what he actually wanted.
“I want to help him,” Sunghoon admitted. “But I don’t want to, like, betray you or something, it feels wrong,” Sunghoon expressed his point.
“I already said you wouldn't be,” Heeseung chuckled. “I can’t lie and say I feel no jealousy, but I trust you,” Heeseung explained and that was all Sunghoon really wanted to hear. That Heeseung didn’t want him to go on the date, but trusted him enough and cared for his friend enough to encourage him.
“Okay,” Sunghoon accepted. “I’ll go on the date and tell whoever this guy is that I’m there just for Jungwon and that I already have someone…” Sunghoon summarised what he’d do, Heeseung nodding along.
“Maybe make a friend; you need more of those,” Heeseung joked, but Sunghoon couldn’t really argue.
In the morning, Sunghoon wasn’t looking forward to his conversation with Jungwon. Having made his decision, he knew he wouldn’t hear the end of it, Jungwon and Sunoo would be insufferable. By midday and on his way to meet them, he tried to think of different ways to tell Jungwon that he agreed to the double date or whatever. Once he agreed, he was told he’d have three days to prepare. They’d have dinner at a very popular, and quite expensive, restaurant nearby. Sunghoon was worried about the price for less than a second before Jungwon informed him that Jay, Jungwon’s date, would be paying for all of them. This fact both impressed and made Sunghoon suspicious. He couldn’t believe someone would willingly pay for four people at such an expensive place, it made him wonder who the fuck Jungwon was getting himself involved with.
Instead of preparing himself, he completely ignored and forgot about the date until the night before. It wasn’t even him remembering, Heeseung had brought it up during their date in their dream. It had been more of a passing thought because, apparently, Heeseung’s friend was in a similar situation.
“Well, not the same, Jongseong asked us for help too,” he began describing the situation. “More for moral support than for safety reasons,” which Sunghoon thought was an important difference.
“Maybe I can back down…” Sunghoon had muttered, but Heeseung simply shook his head.
“When Jongseong was trying to get one of us to accompany him, I realised I wanted to help; even if I don’t want to go on a random date,” Heeseung told him. “Jongseong, he’s a mess right now, he’s been fretting for the past week about it, even before asking the guy out.” He laughed, Sunghoon tried to imagine how that would be, planning a date with Heeseung in the real world. “I swear he’s tried out every piece of clothing he owns, and he has a lot of clothes. If I hear him mention how cute his date is one more time, I’ll delete the pictures from his phone; he’s saved every single picture he’s received which I’ve said was kind of creepy.”
“What if I sent you pictures? You wouldn’t save them?” Sunghoon teased him. It was mostly a joke, but Heeseung pondered over it for a bit.
“You know what, I won’t judge him, but I’m still deleting the pictures if he dares compare him to a cat again,” Heeseung proclaimed.
“I can’t believe you,” Sunghoon huffed.
“What? It’s true! That’s the only thing I’ve heard about,” Heeseung complained, not acknowledging his implicit admission. “He’s worried he won’t like the restaurant, that he won’t like his clothes or his hair, that he will find him annoying or embarrassing.” Heeseung rolled his eyes. “He worries too much, they’ve been talking for like a month, if he found Jongseong annoying or embarrassing he wouldn’t have agreed to the date,” Heeseung reasoned.
“You are talking more than usual,” Sunghoon pointed out. “I don’t mind, but I just noticed…”
“I guess,” Heeseung shrugged. “I’m jealous, if I’m honest,” he mumbled.
“Of his date or my date?” Sunghoon inquired, if Heeseung was actually bothered by his date, he would absolutely back out.
“Both? I was just…” he lingered on his words for a bit. “Just I wished we could go on a date, meet for real,” Heeseung sighed.
“Why haven’t we?” Sunghoon wasn’t the brightest person out there, so he wasn’t surprised he hadn’t thought about it, but Heeseung had never brought it up either.
“Honestly? I was scared,” Heeseung admitted. “At first I was sure you weren’t real, then I was afraid you wouldn’t want to or that you wouldn’t like me, and then… too much time had passed and you hadn’t said anything either, so I thought maybe you didn’t want to.” Heeseung reconstructed his thought process. “Then I realised you hadn’t thought about it, but maybe you really were just avoiding it and I didn’t want to risk it.”
“No, I was just stupid,” Sunghoon had no issues admitting this. “After my ‘date’, we should have a date, one outside our dreams.”
“A date with you will always feel like a dream,” Heeseung said.
“Oh, shut up,” Sunghoon pushed him, though the bed was big enough for Heeseung to fall on his side and roll without falling off it.
For the whole day, Sunghoon could only think about Heeseung and the promise of a date with him. He almost forgot about the date he’d have first, and he would have if it weren’t for Sunoo and Jungwon blowing up their group chat. He groaned and begrudgingly got changed and ready for a date at a fancy restaurant. He did not want to put that much effort, but he also didn’t want to badly stand out. Jungwon would hang him if he did. He tried to mentally prepare himself and rehearse how he’d tell his date that he didn’t actually want anything out of it, without upsetting Jungwon.
They arrived at the restaurant together; Sunghoon was pretending not to be intimidated by the ambiance and how expensive everything looked. Jungwon said the reservation had been made by Jay, who was already waiting for them. However, when Jay introduced himself as Jongseong everything started clicking in Sunghoon’s mind. It took him until he was sitting down to piece everything together, his own date having yet to arrive, but it simply couldn’t be true, right?