Chapter Text
Prologue
White collar jobs are one of the most hectic jobs out there. Stress and fatigue with making unending reports, presentations and planning deadlines are a must. Failure will result in delays and adjustments that will add to more stress and more work. As human beings we tend to neglect health when our work is at risk. Your bank account doesn’t just produce its own digits like magic. When we neglect our body it will crash and burn.
Office work as a Team manager in one of the biggest advertising companies in SoKor( Seoul ) is more than hectic. You have to work fast, correctly and efficiently. When we’re young, we just had our first job, we get too confident . Overcompensation which will cost our life outside work and our body’s health. Checking reports after reports, presentations, dealing with your boss and monitoring your own team first thing in the morning until late is not an easy job. Overtime, unending paperwork, bosses,collegues etc. were far too much to handle for a newbie like Seungmin.
Now going to work with a fever was kind of normal for him. He would thank whoever God or maybe, the coffee that he picked up on his way to work. He can still stand up and walk as straight as he possibly could. As the day went on like a blur to him, he was a mess to say the least. A couple of co-workers asked him typical questions and commentaries like; “Are you okay?” “Just go home and rest if you aren't feeling good” he was still insistent on working. It was deadlines week- hell week . It wasn’t his dream job but it makes ends meet and more so… Why not? Right? The day ended but work wasn’t. Overtime was working and he was in desperate need of a warm herb tea and a bed. Seungmin Just wanted to go home, rest and sleep through his fever. There’s nothing like sleep that can probably make him feel better. Sleep it off.
Dizzy, that was the first thing he felt when he stood up far too fast. He was kind of okay now and for that he deemed himself fit to drive himself home. Traffic wasn’t that heavy later in the night. Everything was okay, he still feels a little sick and tired but nothing like a good night’s sleep can’t fix. Until, a sudden flash of light came and blinded him for a second.
Next thing he knew there was another car heading towards his car and his car hit another car. He could only see the man’s terrified face and just like that Seungmin lost his consciousness. By the time he woke up, he was in a hospital ICU . Comatosed for two and a half weeks. He broke a couple of his ribs, his leg broke too and a head injury which was the main cause of his coma. The thing is that Seungmin could only remember a flash of light and a pair of eyes from someone he wasn’t familiar with.
When he was unconscious, he felt that he was hanging by the balance.It felt like he was only dreaming for a long time. He was standing on a string or a thread in the middle of it, his eyes closed. He could hear his mother and father talking, his sister talking about her day and some of his friends talking too. He wanted to say something or to open his eyes but something in his unconscious mind was holding him back. A pair of hands on his. They were cold like holding ice. The place was freezing cold. He was scared and cold to open his eyes to even look at who or what was holding him.
Sometimes it gets too cold and on instances, surprisingly he feels like it was warm. When it is warm he listens, he listens to his family and friends talking to him. The hand that also holds him sometimes squeezes hard. He was tempted to speak up but the grip suddenly and ever so slightly loosened. Maybe it was also what he was feeling. Warm when someone important is around. Cold when it’s alone. The longer they stayed there, it went from cold to warm. Warm until it was unbearably hot. His body felt like it was burning. Hot hands gripping for dear life. Seungmin felt like it was time to open his eyes and look. It was time to speak up. It was time to look at it. Whatever it was, Seungmin was ready to face it. He needs to know where he was, he needs to get out. Get out wherever he was.
Eyes were opened, it was pitched black. Seungmin couldn’t make up the other person's face. He could only feel they were still holding him. It was human. He knows Seungmin could feel them. Breathing, they were breathing and just as hot as he was. Gone were cold hands holding him, replaced by the warmest hands, almost hot but not burning.
“Do you-...” Just when he was about to ask them if they knew where they were. Everything went from pitch black to blindingly lit up. He was forced to close his eyes again, missing what the other looked like. When he opened his eyes again he was inside the hospital. Intensive care unit.
He was in a car accident. A drunk driver collided with Seungmin’s car and his car hit another car. The drunk driver as Seungmin came to know died and the other was sent to another hospital transferred to another hospital. Person was a VIP, some kind of celebrity. He never asks for more information, no one was really answering him. He focused on his own recovery. He needs to be up and about as soon as possible.
Recovery wasn’t as simple though. Trauma.
His body can be healed physically but the mind isn’t as easy to recover from. PTSD- Posttraumatic stress disorder. The first time he got inside his sister's car, it hit Seungmin right in the face. Everything that happened the night of his accident although it was a bit blurry it scared him so much he panicked. He had to be sedated so that his family could take him home.
Therapy helped, a lot. In more than a year he got over his fear of riding a car after a couple of months with the help of his best friend he got to drive again.
Work was another thing he thought of after recovery. His company was decent enough to help with his medical bills and other things but he needs a couple of weeks to recover. His company can’t have his position empty and so they decided to let him go. Just like they didn't slave him enough for almost 3 years. After getting over riding a car he made a decision not to work for someone anymore, not for a company that was slowly abusing their workers.
“Open a coffee shop”. One of Seungmin’s goal was to open a coffee place where people from walks of life can taste good coffee, food and relax.
Opening his own coffee shop was the biggest decision he could have ever made, in his 20’s. He used all his savings, the money his previous company gave after letting him go and also help from his family and friends. Seungmin’s life went on smoothly after recovering from his accident. It was as if it never happened. It was like a little life “reboot”.
Nightmares were a common occurrence. Blurry images from the accident, frightened eyes from someone he doesn’t know, the feeling of being too cold and hot or a room filled with darkness and a room too bright it will leave you blind. It was those things happening. One night it drastically changed. Seungmin was for once, dreamt of someone. A man, black curly hair, pale, not that tall but tall enough,dimples and his eyes. The dude's eyes were familiar but he couldn’t quite make out who it was. For weeks Seungmin would wake up disoriented, with cold sweat, mouth dry and his mind was restless. For weeks on out he dreamt about the man walking his dog around a park, walking carrying his backpack with another hand held bag for his laptop at one point he even dreamt of him while he was taking a shower. Now, that was something Seungmin would like to unsee but kind of not at the same time. The dude had a nice Calvin Klein like model body. The dude was packed in all the right places. Seungmin was jealous and at the same time his gay heart couldn’t take, he wakes up. It doesn’t leave the fact that Seungmin still wakes disoriented. Disoriented but in a different way.
This continued at present. Seungmin has different kinds of dreams but with the same man. At some point Seungmin was tempted to visit a shaman . His therapist only gave him more meds but it didn’t really help him. Until he only got used to it. First time he dreamt of him it was almost everyday, until it was 2-3 times a week, when he was stressed out at work for a couple of days, consecutively.
It was a wonder to Seungmin why he was dreaming of someone. The images were so vivid even though he was with the man. It was like Seungmin was walking alongside him. Once he tried touching the man it just went through. He looked it up from books to books and online. Some are informative but not enough for Seungmin to believe and some are just pure hoaxes, not even a five year old could believe it.
Just like anything that was happening on Seungmin’s life weird or normal he got rather used it. Nightmares and other shit that was on Seungmin’s life he got used to. People will adapt to whatever life throws at them. May it be broken coffee machines or having nightmares of a hot dude, Seungmin could take it. It wasn’t like he had a choice. /things happened for a reason. Seungmin is yet to know what are the reasons behind his dreams/nightmares whether it’s just his brain acting up because of his accident or something that is beyond him. He doesn’t really know. Life goes on and he was thankful that he was still alive after having a near death experience. Others aren’t as lucky as him.