Chapter Text
It all started when he was 8 years old.
They were visiting his aunt and uncle house for a kind of annual family gathering. As the younger sibling, Taehyun often found himself with all the attention on him. His family members were always asking 'how is school going? ', 'have you made many new friends? ', and obviously there was the uncomfortable 'were there any girls you found pretty? ', always asked by that one uncle that probably didn't understand the concept of privacy. He, however, preferred to step aside and lend all that attention to his sister, Sakura, who clearly basked in it.
"And you Sakura, any boy caught your attention?" The same uncle asked his sister when he realized Taehyun wasn’t going to respond any time soon.
"Well… there's this one person who is very pretty but I’m not telling anything about them!" Sakura smiled shyly, a slight blush starting to make way to her cheeks.
"Sakura you can tell me everything about them, I promise I won’t be telling anyone," his uncle tried to reassure. Sakura might fall for the old man’s words, but Taehyun isn't easily fooled, even at the young age of 8 he knew that was a lie. Still, Sakura liked the attention, so even if she knew it was a lie, she would always tell about her most recent love interest.
When she started to talk about the person she fancied, Taehyun took the opportunity to go play outside. Their uncle’s house was in a relatively private neighbourhood, so it was pretty safe to just roam around. Taehyun's parents always let him explore the world on his own, deeming it good for the young boy to make his own takes about things. Of course, this often led Taehyun to having seemingly unending questions to his parents. He was always curious about his surroundings, always eager to learn and discoverer more of what was unknown.
This time, Taehyun was inspecting this particularly pretty flower on his aunt front garden. It was similar to a purple bindweed, but it was emanating this weird — but certainly enchanting — purplish gold glow on its petals. Taehyun had already inspected or at least looked at almost every flower that existed on that small garden, but never in his life had he seen one quite like this one.
Just when he was about to touch one of the petals, he heard a very loud and slightly panicked 'hey ' coming from above. When he looked up, he saw a boy he had never seen in his aunt's neighbourhood. He looked around his age and had a really pure, innocent face despite the alarm that was currently adorning his features.
"You shouldn’t touch that!" the boy yelled.
Taehyun looked at the flower and then at the boy again, "Why not? It’s pretty."
The boy sighed almost exasperatedly, "Seriously, haven't they taught you at school that the prettiest things in nature are the most dangerous ones? You shouldn’t touch it!"
"Okay, okay! I won’t touch it. Do you know what flower it is at least?"
The boy hesitated, like he was arguing with himself if he should or not tell him about this flower. Taehyun found that a bit weird, it was just a flower, right? But he decided to not comment on it and wait for a response.
As if suddenly making his mind, the boy sat next to him, "I’ll tell you, but you have to promise me that you won’t talk about this to anyone!" the boy extended his pinky to Taehyun. He looked very serious, even unconsciously pouting a bit, so Taehyun simply nodded his head and completed the pinky promise with the other boy, waiting for him to tell him about the flower.
The boy came closer to Taehyun’s face, "This is a magic flower," he whispered.
"What? What do you mean? This is just a flower, how can it be magical?"
"Oh come on, don’t be so skeptic, don’t you see its shine?" Taehyun most definitely saw that flower glowing, but the idea of a magical flower wasn’t making any sense to his very logical brain.
"If you say it's magical then you must know what happens if you touch it right?" Taehyun didn’t really believe in the boy in front of him, but he was interested in what he was going to say about flower he was inspecting.
"My mom says that it gives you a random blessing or curse. You could either gain the ability to fly or be transformed into a penguin. Things like that,"
There was an awkward moment of silence between them.
"…Suuure,"
"Don't look at me like that, I’m serious!" Now the boy was full on pouting to Taehyun.
"Okay fine, I believe it," Taehyun did not, "How come your mom knows about this… magic?"
"She says her ancestors used to study this flower a lot to try and come up with powers and stuff. The people in her stories always got in trouble in some way, that’s why I’m warning you about it," the boy smiled widely to Taehyun, a stark contrast to the pout that was on his face just mere seconds ago.
"Well… Thank you, I guess?" Taehyun was still unsure about everything this boy said to him, and the boy himself. He seemed like a total wildcard, if the minutes they interacted were anything to go by.
"You're welcome!" the boy said brightly, suddenly jumping to his feet and brushing the dirt off of his pants, "Oh, I'm Hueningkai, by the way, but you can call me just Kai if you want,"
Then he started to walk away from Taehyun. When he was a few meters away he turned and waved wildly.
"Don't tell me I didn't warn you later. See you around Taehyun!"
Taehyun watched as Hueningkai figure got smaller and smaller. He was a little bewildered — scratch that, he was very bewildered because really, what a weird encounter that was.
When he was walking to go back inside to his family, he stopped on his tracks.
How did he know my name?
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Later that day Taehyun escaped yet again, this time not from questions, but from the dreadful board games. There was nothing wrong with them, Taehyun actually liked them a lot. Except monopoly, and he had his reasons — it’s a never-ending game that his family played every year. When he was old enough to understand and play it, they always accused him of cheating because he was just too good at it and they can't accept that an 8 year old child has better game strategies than them.
After roaming around the house for a while, he eventually found himself in the front garden again, more specifically, right in front of the so called "magic flower".
Obviously Taehyun didn't believe in anything Hueningkai said, thinking it was probably some story his mom told him to keep him from messing with their own garden and flowers. There was just no way a flower could give such powers and curses to whoever touched it, right?
With that in mind, Taehyun decided he was feeling a little bold and, even if he thought nothing would really happen, there was still that seed of curiosity that was always planted in his mind.
So Taehyun touched the flower.
He remained frozen for a few seconds, wondering if it could be true, if he would be thrown into a curse right at that moment. But alas, nothing happened. He scoffed lightly, feeling silly for actually believing in Hueningkai’s nonsense.
That night was the first time he entered someone's dream.
Granted, he didn’t know that at the time, thinking it was simply another one of his normal dreams that he had once in a while.
He also didn’t question when he started having very regular dreams. Not even when he dreamed about things he didn’t understand or even knew that existed. He just thought that his mind must have caught that information somewhere subconsciously and applied it in a dream because it didn’t have anything better to do with it.
He only realized something fishy was happening when his dream involved his older sister, Sakura.
In his dream, Sakura was commenting how she wanted to change her appearance for the new school year but didn’t know how yet. So Taehyun offered to dye her hair pink. After some hours of bleaching and complaining, Sakura had a beautiful light pink coloured hair, making justice to the flower she is named after.
The dream in itself wasn’t the problem. The fishy part of all this was that when he saw Sakura eating a toast at their kitchen table the next morning…
She had pink hair.
Actually, it was the same exact shade that it was in is dream.
"What? Do I have something on my face?" Sakura was staring right back at him, a confused look on her face and light pink hair up on a bun.
"Have you seen yourself in the mirror?"
"Ouch, I just woke up okay. And for your information no, I didn’t, I was hungry so I came here right after waking up. Why? Do I look that bad?"
"No it’s just…" His gaze moved to the bun of messy pink hair, "Uhm… your hair is pink…?"
"… I’m sorry what?
"What do you mean 'what', your hair is pink! When did you have the time to do that?" He knew his sister could be rather impulsive at times, but dyeing a full head of hair on one night was crazy! And light pink isn’t exactly easy to get, her hair being dark brown just the night before. Taehyun was actually impressed.
"Are you hallucinating or something? I don’t have pink hair Tae," she was looking at him as if he just said he believes the earth is flat, which coming from Taehyun, would mean something is very wrong.
Taehyun quickly grabbed his phone, fumbling to open the camera app and turn it to his sister.
"What do mean you don’t have pink hair? You do! Are you crazy?! Did you even tell mom or dad about this?!"
"What the fuck…" he was half expecting his sister to start laughing at him or shush him from all the questions but to his surprise (and unfortunately), she remained quiet, silently examining the now free from the bun hair. Suddenly she puts the phone camera down, "What the fuck Taehyun… I… I didn’t do this."
"You have to have done this Kkura, it didn’t get pink by itself," he tried to ease the tension that was slowly making itself know in the room, but Sakura remained serious, an incredulous look on her face, "You're not joking?"
"I’m not joking. Taehyun, I just had a dream last night where you dyed my hair this colour,"
If you looked at the siblings right now, you wouldn’t be able to distinguish them, for their expressions were identical at that moment.
Slowly, Taehyun responded.
"Last night I had a dream where I dyed your hair that colour."
That was the first time he realized he could manipulate people lives through their dreams.
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Several years have passed since the day Taehyun touched that magic version of a bindweed. He was now 19, one year into his neuroscience degree and, be it fate or a strange coincidence, Hueningkai was his dorm roommate.
To his surprise, when they first met on his freshman year, he remembered him. Admittedly, Hueningkai hadn't change much; he still had the same innocent baby face, and was just blond and very tall now. Very, very tall.
They actually got along really well fairly quickly, considering all the weird things that had happened to the brunette since he decided to doubt Kai’s words that day and touch that goddamn flower.
Taehyun found out that the blond was very bright and was always — and he means always — radiating with energy. The guy was basically the personification of an energy drink. He also discovered in the first few days of living together that Hueningkai has a lot of plushies (molangs, to be exact) to the point that Kai's side of the bedroom could be a plushie museum. Not that he minded it thought, it was actually pretty cute if he stopped to think about. He just didn’t particularly appreciate it when he was randomly walking somewhere in the dorm and found a pair of big, black eyes watching his every move. Yeah, he definitely passes on that.
Being some weeks into the second semester, Taehyun was reviewing some notes of his genetics lecture when Hueningkai burst through his bedroom door.
"You know, you could've at least knocked before bursting in like you own the whole place," Taehyun spun in his chair to grin at Kai, who was still in the doorstep.
"I would but I don't need to because you like me too much to ever be mad at me," he threw his best gummy smile at Taehyun.
It was true, the brunette quickly got used to Kai's dolphin laugh and bubbly personality, and the boy was a good friend. Taehyun would never admit that to him, though.
He rolled his eyes and watched as the blond fully entered his room with a light skip in his step, "Anyways, I have a question for you."
Taehyun quirked an eyebrow and turned once again to his studies. "What is it?"
You never knew what could come out of Hueningkai’s mouth, it could be the smartest thing ever or the dumbest, there’s no in between.
"How are your dreams going? You know, with the whole changing reality thing,"
Taehyun froze in the spot, unable to take his gaze away from the notebook to look at Kai, who just asked that question like he was asking how his day went.
In the whole one year they've got to know each other better, Hueningkai had never touched that topic, not even alluded to it.
Taehyun never told about that to anybody. Even his sister, who was directly involved in discovering his new ability, didn't know about it, for he claimed it was all a prank some days later so that she wouldn't get paranoid. He doesn’t know how he got away with it because honestly speaking, that didn’t make any sense. How could he dye her hair with her sleeping? And in one night?! It’s just unfeasible. But Sakura believed it, though Taehyun thought it was just because that possibility was much less alarming than if it were a random person breaking into their house and doing that.
It’s safe to say Taehyun was completely baffled. Was it anyone else but Hueningkai asking this question and he would already have done a run for the door, because how the fuck does he know that?
Slowly, Taehyun turns to look at Kai, still not uttering a word.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" When Taehyun didn’t respond, Hueningkai began explaining, "Look, long story short, my family may or may not come from a line of sorcerers, and I may or may not be able to guess the future,"
When Taehyun still didn’t move, clearly doubting what Hueningkai said, he started whining, "Taehyun, come on why are you so skeptical, I’m telling you I’m clairvoyant!"
Yeah, because that was totally normal.
If Taehyun thought about it, Kai always seemed to know what was going to happen one way or another, but he always brushed it off, impressed at how good the blond’s intuition was.
This new piece of information brought him back to when he was 8 years old, making him question again something he never had the answer to.
"Is that why you knew my name that day? In the garden?"
"Oh, I didn’t know you remembered that. But yes, it’s also the reason why I tried to warn you, because I knew that you would touch that flower if I didn't intervene, but even after that I could still see you touching it. You were stubborn even at that age," he chuckled, certainly thinking of the traits little Taehyun and current Taehyun have in common.
"… I’ve always thought you were weird, now you're even weirder," Taehyun dodged the molang thrown his way after that, laughing at Hueningkai’s indignant (and quite loud) yahh! .
Hueningkai stopped his mini tantrum, "Does that mean you believe me?"
"I mean, when you come in talking about something I’m certain I've never talked about to anyone, I don’t really have how to doubt it. Plus, having the dreams I have, I've learned not to doubt the existence of… powers? If I can even call it that,"
Suddenly Kai started making a little dance. Taehyun would say he was fairly coordinated, but right now he was just a bunch of gangly limbs being thrown everywhere.
"Taehyunnie is finally believing me, I’m so happy! It only took me like, 10 years to get there," he deadpanned, stopping whatever dance he was doing.
Taehyun just laughed at his friend's antics. "Hey you can’t really blame me, what you were saying was something out of a fantasy book, not our real world,"
"I guess so, but anyway, I invaded our dorm for a reason,"
"You live here, how are you invading the dorm?" Taehyun furrowed his eyebrows. He couldn't help commenting on the not-so-logical phrases that came out of his friend’s mouth, knowing it was certain to get a reaction out of the other.
As he imagined, Hueningkai pouted almost immediately, the reaction just wasn’t quicker because he was so ready to start talking about whatever brought him there.
"Really Taehyunnie that was not necessary," He was now sulking. Pretend sulking, because as quickly as the pout came, it also went away. Taehyun would seriously get whiplash someday.
"Anyway, I came here because I have a question for you," Taehyun just opened his mouth, "Another question, that is," he quickly tacked on the last part, already predicting what Taehyun would choose to comment on.
"Ask away," Taehyun replied, not really being able to decipher yet if it was going to be related to what they were talking or if it was going to be something like 'what molang should I buy next? '.
"I was going to ask if you knew the rules that come with your magic since, you know, you can’t just do whatever to people’s lives,"
Taehyun was intrigued. He never explored a lot when he entered someone's dream, often preferring to just be a bystander in their sleep fantasies — a background character, if you will. So even if he would probably still opt not to act in other people's dreams and risk changing their lives, which could obviously be very disconcerting for them, it would be nice to know what was considered forbidden.
He was always curious; after all, it was what got him in this situation in the first place.
Seeing Taehyun’s interested face, Kai started by telling him that there were three main rules that were the most important ones:
- You can’t bring someone back to life
- You can’t harm people
- Avoid mirrors and especially static
The last one kind of confused Taehyun. What could static do? Were televisions dangerous? It was weird.
So he inquired Kai about it, naturally.
“What’s with the static? I get the mirror, weird visions and the like. But like, are televisions a danger too or…?”
“Oh it’s just a sign of nightmare incoming. This is not my area of expertise so I can’t really tell you what to do about it,” he gave an apologetic smile.
"About these rules," Hueningkai commenced, "Is not that you strictly can’t do these things. I don’t think anyone has ever tried, so it’s strongly recommended against it since no one knows what kind of impact that can have on the other person’s life. Besides, who knows if the first one can’t change timelines or… I don’t know, throw you into a parallel universe and all that, it’s better to not even risk it."
"Now we're talking about a parallel universe?" he asked, exaggerating the tilt in his voice at the end.
"Taehyun open your mind! I thought you believed me already," Kai whined frustratedly.
Taehyun just playfully tsked at his friend. He wasn’t really doubting him, he just liked to tease Hueningkai from time to time.
The rest of the rules were more preventive measures and things to look out for to ensure a good dream (and safety) for both the person who accessed the dream as well as the person who dreamed.
"Now that you know what you can and cannot do, what do you say to some ice cream? Maybe some mint chocolate chip? Hmmm~," Hueningkai knew very well Taehyun didn’t like that flavour, so he didn’t hesitate in using his cuteness to persuade him into agreeing.
Unfortunately for Taehyun, he was weak for his friends, so he really had no choice but to go buy that cursed ice cream. The things he did for his friend.