Illegal Dreams [ateez; ot8]
after a very very long time i’m finally back (hopefully for good) please enjoy this story!
this was my entry for the ateez writing competition. i used all the prompts that were published by ateez.
4.7k words
no ships nor ateez x reader this time sorry :(
Member One
Big hands reach towards a black fedora and secure it on a man’s head. His face is covered with an equally as black mask, leaving only his sharp eyes on display. A long, dark coat swishes after him when he makes his way to the door, necklaces clinking against each other, making clear sounds echo through the empty, abandoned building. He lifts his hands up again and gestures towards the door. These gestures seem a bit foreign to him, fingers hesitating, arms getting tired quickly.
The effort pays off as a bright, golden light shines where the door was before, as if it was painted over. Suppressing the delight that he is feeling, the man quickly makes his way towards the dazzling light, stepping through, because he knows he does not have much time left before his amateur portal closes.
An unusual feeling spreads through his body. It is not uncomfortable, just very foreign. Before he even has the time to get his eyes used to the brightness, it subsides and the masked man can make out the faint outline of a man lying on a couch. He knows this man; he has been searching for this man for quite a long time. Not specifically him, but someone who could bring hope to the hopeless. And this man sleeping on the couch had the potential.
Hongjoong may seem like an ordinary man, but behind that facade hides a determined man, ready to take on the whole world at once just to fulfill the dreams that he is not allowed to have.
Dreams may be expensive in this world, but that never stopped Hongjoong. Even as a little boy, growing up less fortunate than his peers, he allowed himself a few sneak peeks into the world of the others. The others were not his peers; no, they treasured their expensive dreams too much; the others were the multiple versions of himself. The small boy did not know how he was able to breach the wall that the higher ups put up around dreams, but he never stopped climbing that wall over and over again, never telling anyone of his discovery.
They always say a child’s mind is the most creative; untainted and innocent. Hongjoong was one of the very few in this universe that was able to keep this child alive and turn into a creative adult. He kept this spirit alive, even though it came with many consequences.
Pens and several ripped pieces of paper are strewn on the coffee table in front of the sleeping man; cursed to never see the light of day, locked in the four walls of Hongjoong’s small apartment. If the government ever found out that he was being creative and conjuring up an illusion without buying any dreams, they would have his head. It is illegal and forbidden.
Just like the visit by the tall man cloaked in his dark suit. Forbidden in all the worlds. Slipping into a dimension you have no permission to visit. Mendling with time and space is dangerous and could lead to devastating situations. But the shadowed figure did not care. He has endured this hopeless torture for too long and he wants, no, he needs Hongjoong to bring light to the world again. To stop this exploitation of the desperate. To stop the selling of dreams, something that should be free to all in every universe.
His world has already progressed past the possibility of any hope. Hongjoong’s world, set in a time behind his own, still has a tiny glimmer of hope; or rather, eight glimmers of hope.
Picking up his hands again, he tries to remember what he has to do now. He learned everything he could before coming on to this important mission.
Drawing shapes and mumbling incantations, a light erupts again from the tips and the man seems to become almost transparent. There is no change of surroundings this time. The only thing that changes is the now stirring man on the couch, Hongjoong. The darkly dressed figure has done it, he has entered Hongjoong’s illegal dream.
Hongjoong does not notice the strange man looming over him, nor does he notice that he is still in his dream as he swipes his vibrant blue hair away from his eyes sleepily. Sitting up, he stretches his arms as far and as wide as he can.
“Kim Hongjoong,” the deep voice startles him, makes him draw in a shocked breath to repress the scream crawling up his throat, arms drawn in front of him. He cannot get caught directly after a dream, if the neighbours decide to call the police to investigate.
Before Hongjoong can come to his senses and question him, the man continues, “I don’t have much time, so you have to listen carefully.” The voice suits the tall man, dark and deep.
“There are countless dimensions in the world. You are just one of many. Hope remains for you that is why i need your help. Seven men, all from different backgrounds, are forlorn, waiting for your call. Help them see the illusion and you can change the world together, forever.”
Hongjoong has no time to ask, to even observe the man as the near transparency fades more and more.
“Remember, it’s not the reality that makes you lose your dream. It is your decision,” his voice is getting more muffled with every word he utters, “So I advise you to make the right one.” And he is gone.
Hongjoong startles awake, suddenly realizing that he had been asleep the whole time the masked man talked to him. Before he can doubt the words that were relied to him, he sees it. Next to him he sees an hourglass for the first time, and the sand begins to flow from the bottom up.
His mission has begun.
Tender hands carefully picks up the glowing hourglass. Gingerly Hongjoong tilts the hourglass from side to side, slightly, curiously watching as the sand keeps flowing up, up, up. Corn by corn the sand floats against gravitation, breaking the laws of physics.
Tilting the hourglass more steeply, Hongjoong suddenly realizes that the sandcorns all point towards one direction, no matter how he turns the figure in his hands. A compass, Hongjoong deducts.
To the next member.
Member Two
When he was younger his parents told him to stop. Stop dreaming, stop talking about his friend, stop trying to dress like him, stop trying to get into the large black fedora of his grandfather, stop dragging the long dark coat onto his small young shoulders.
Eventually he did stop. He stopped dreaming and even suppressed the visits of his friend, turned away from accidental daydreams and lost sleep at night, violently waking himself up whenever he saw the dark silhouette of his older lookalike.
Now Jongho has grown up from a boy to a man; from a happy, hopeful boy to a forlorn young man.
He made new friends, real friends that do not look like an older replica of himself. Friends that can show their hair and their faces.
Year after year Jongho tries to forget his friend; and with him the happiness he felt back then. If he does not know that feeling he would not miss it, right? With no luck.
Every day he asks himself the same two questions.
“Where am I now?”
“Where should I go?”
Without any hope Jongho just wanders through life, trying to distract himself by playing basketball with his friends on the weekends.
“Jongho! Do you want to walk back home together?” one of his friends asks him after a basketball game, ready to go back home.
“No, man, you can go ahead without me, I want to chill some more,” Jongho smiles up at him from his seat on the side bench.
After all his friends are gone, the basketball court turns quiet and empty, people passing by occasionally. The sun starts setting, but Jongho cannot bring himself to look up, his arms resting on his thighs and his head bowed down.
Hopelessness is starting to spread once again.
Jongho’s murmur breaks the silence, “Where am I now?” A heavy sigh follows. He does not know. Physically he is at the court, but where is he really? At what point of his life is he? What has he achieved and what does he want to achieve? It is not like he has the luxury to buy himself some dreams from the shop and he is forbidden from ever accessing the part of himself that can dream naturally. Showing signs of an illusion can be dangerous in this world, if it is not registered and controlled by the government.
Not being able to imagine where he is in his mind, Jongho is also unable to allow himself to imagine where he wants to go next.
Exhaustion engulfs Jongho, mentally and physically, making him close his eyes for a second. Or more. He drifts off for a short while, bodyweight slightly slumping more onto his thighs.
The only thing Jongho can hear is his own breathing and even is in his focus less in less. His breathing slows down and he allows himself to calm his heartbeat even more after just running around for the past hour or two.
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
“Kim Hongjoong.”
Jongho instinctively jumps up, immediately standing pin straight after hearing that whisper echo dangerously close to his ear.
“Find Kim Hongjoong and end your sorrow,” the whisper sounds again.
Frantically Jongho looks around the court, trying to find a figure that could have said these words, but he sees no one, not even outside the gate.
“It is not reality that makes you lose your dream, Jongho.” His heart is beating in his throat and his hands are sweating profusely. He still cannot see anyone, but the voice is ringing a bell in his mind.
“It is not reality, but your decision, Jongho.”
It can not be. There is no way. He is awake, and not dreaming.
“Find Kim Hongjoong. Make the right decision.”
It is his own voice. Jongho recognizes his own whisper echoing to him on the court.
“Dream again,” his own voice whispers to him and then silence returns to the court and Jongho wakes up with a startle.
So he was asleep without even realizing it. Jongho dreamt again after a long time.
He heard from his friend, his dear friend that he so desperately tries to forget. But there is no doubt that it was him, even after more than a decade of avoiding him, Jongho is sure that it was his lookalike from another universe. A universe a little more advanced in time than Jongho’s is, the other told him when they were younger.
Tales of multiple universes each a little bit different than the other, each unique in their own way but yet so similar. These tales always fascinated the little Jongho when he was growing up. What he did not realize back then was that not everyone could see what he could. No other friend of his could see his older friend from another universe, nor could they dream like him without taking the expensive potion from the shop. Jongho became an outcast, doing illegal things at the young age of five, maybe even younger he cannot remember. Thankfully no one ever told on him. His innocent, hopeful mind filling the empty hearts of many discouraged adults, who just wanted to give a little boy a piece of happiness.
“Kim Hongjoong,” Jongho repeats the name he learned out loud, “who are you, Kim Hongjoong?”
Taking fast steps Jongho makes his way home the second he shakes himself out of his shock. He does not doubt that what he experienced was not real. A dream can be more than just an illusion and he has to find the reason why his friend came back over a decade later, just to tell him these few words and vanish immediately after. The internet can help him on his search. The name is an unusual one so he should be able to find an answer.
Jongho’s fingers fly over the keyboard as he types.
“Kim Hongjoong, Kim Hongjoong, Kim Hongjoong,” he repeatedly mumbles under his breath as he skims the first page of Google. Nothing. His hands glide the cursor to the second page and he clicks through that one.
“No, no, not that one either.” The silence in the room is filled with the clicking of the mouse and Jongho’s grumbling.
“Who are you, Kim Hong-” He stops dead in his tracks. There it is.
“Kim Hongjoong,” Jongho starts reading out loud, feeling like he has already uttered that man’s name for the nth time, “looking for another individual, who saw a dark concealed man in a black fedora and black mask, wearing a long black coat.”
His contact number is posted under his post and without giving himself a second to reconsider, Jongho has already picked up the phone and pressed the numbers in.
He has made his decision.
Member Three
At one point in life you have to make a decision that can change your entire world. Wooyoung realized that after the man with the black fedora visited him in an unexpected dream.
As someone who has never before experienced a thing such as a dream, Wooyoung has to say it was a little bit disappointing. It was nothing like his richer classmates had told him it would be. No crazy things he could never imagine, no, instead he got the same place where he fell asleep, on his desk at school, just with the not so mind blowing addition of a man in black. It felt like a joke to him. Wooyoung had not even realized that he was in a dream until after he woke up.
But even if it was underwhelming, two things significantly stood out to Wooyoung, leaving him with questions.
What did the man with the exact same voice as him mean with “making a decision”? How is he supposed to lose a dream if he never even bought one?
He thinks back to the decision a good friend of his made a long time ago.
San, Choi San. His lost friend, who vanished from one day to the other with no warning whatsoever. He had made his decision.
But could Wooyoung make one?
He gave up on the easy way out to find his friend. He searched and searched all he could, but after months of waiting for San to come back to school Wooyoung gave up. Evidently he did not want to be found.
But maybe he is wrong. Maybe he should not have given up and taken the easy way out of his problem. Maybe that is what the masked man meant.
“Look for your friend and do not stop until you have found him.”
Maybe then they can find a way together to finally dream their first dream.
Wooyoung is not going to give up this time. He stands up, determined, and rushes out of the classroom, away from the startled teacher.
He is only going to think about one thing now.
Member Four
Living without dreaming is a normal thing for a guy like Mingi. Dreams are too lavish for the poor. Mingi’s innocence was lost at a young age as he had to start working early due to extreme poverty. There was no time, much less money, for Mingi to stop and dream. In a world where dreams, a way to escape reality, are highly valuable, legalized drugs, Mingi has to work hard to get by. There is no time for him to be hopeful, to think about a world where he has everything he could ever want. Even if everything he wants is just a permanent home, not an old furnished warehouse where the social worker, Hongjoong, would drop by every once in awhile to check on him.
Speaking of the devil, Hongjoong barges into his temporary home very uncharacteristically. In his delicate hands he holds an hourglass. There is something off about it, but Mingi cannot pinpoint what it is.
“The sand kept flowing faster the closer I got,” Hongjoong pants the second he enters through the doorway, “and it pointed towards your direction and, Mingi,” he takes another deep breath, “I think you may be the next one to the puzzle,” he points his shaky finger at Mingi, who just stands there, perplex, “ and I can’t believe it’s actually someone I know! I can’t comprehend it! This thing is just so strange, one day I’m dreaming illegally and now I’m supposed to bring together seven more people and spread hope?” Hongjoong gestures around wildly, talking with his hands, now that he has regulated his breathing.
Before he can get even more animated, Mingi grabs Hongjoong’s shoulders and looks him deep in the eyes, “Hongjoong, calm down.” He shakes him lightly, just enough to make it clear that he is present. “Now tell me what you are talking about, I have no idea what you’re even saying.”
“I need to find more people for my team! The man with the black fedora told me,” Hongjoong says while looking up into the confused eyes of his friend, Mingi.
“What man with a fedora?”
“He visited me in my dream and gave me this compass, I’m supposed to help you dream.”
“Hongjoong,” Mingi’s shoulders are slumped forward, head hanging low, “you know that I can’t dream. Why would you try?”
“Why would I try?” Hongjoong’s loud outburst echoes through the empty warehouse. “The government steals our hope! Don’t you see it, Mingi? We’ve been given the opportunity to change that! Just imagine it!” This time Hongjoong is the one gripping Mingi’s shoulders tightly. “Just imagine a world full of dreams! And hope!” Excitedly, Hongjoong shakes Mingi, while Mingi just looks down at the other and endures it, indulges in this ridiculous idea of free dreams for a few seconds before reality will come crashing down on Hongjoong.
“It’s not possible, Hongjoong. At least not for many people. You may be an exception, but you don’t even know anyone else that is like you. Stop getting your head up to the clouds and return to reality.” Mingi is starting to get a little angry the more he thinks about it. As if he does not suffer enough from hopelessness. Hongjoong does not have to rub it in that he can dream naturally.
“That’s the thing!” Hongjoong paces back and forth and raises his voice again. “It’s not reality that makes you lose your dream, it’s your decision! Your decision of listening like a good little marionette or actually do something against the stolen desires!” He stops in his tracks and abruptly turns towards Mingi again. One finger pointing at his tall figure and the other hand on his hips, he continues his rant, “and I did find someone else that can dream freely. His name is Choi Jongho, he contacted me just an hour ago and has agreed to meet up with us in two hours at the city center, so get ready, because you’re coming with me.”
Member Five
Moving, moving, moving and, once again, moving. San is sick of his life. The life of a nomad.
He had wished that they would stay in this town a little bit longer. He had found friends here and was happier than he had ever been. But of course his happiness was crushed when he was told that they had to move again. Over night, he had to pack his bags and leave the city abruptly, as if he is a criminal on the run from the police. Which he technically was, dabbling in the very illegal art of recreating the dream potion.
He throws his two bags onto the moving car. After years upon years of moving he only has two bags full of valuables left now. One for his clothes, the other one for his little amateur chemist lab.
San is so sick of his life. Every day he wishes he could just escape. Just leave and never come back.
“Why can’t I?” he mumbles to himself, swinging his legs on the side of the moving truck, “what is holding me back from leaving?”
The car stops at a light, San grabs his bags and jumps out of the car.
Nothing is holding him back from leaving.
Member Six
Adults always tell Yeosang “look up at the stars in the night sky. That should be enough dreaming for you. Buying dreams is useless.”
But whenever Yeosang looks up at the sky, he sees darkness. Not a light shines through the thick blanket of hopelessness, no rip, no gleam of change.
The stars are not enough of a replacement for dreams. They are not meant for that. And Yeosang realizes that, which is why he walks around, not with his head in the clouds but with his eyes on the ground.
Just like he is doing it now, head down he walks around in the crisp night. His bleached hair falls into his eyes, but Yeosang does not bother pushing the strands back. There is no use. Like everything in life.
He is ripped out of his thoughts when he suddenly feels a sharp pain in his shoulder and falls on his back.
“I’m so sorry,” a voice gasps. As Yeosang looks up he can see a young boy reaching out to him on the floor, unsure if he can touch him and help him up or not. Yeosang makes the decision easy for him and takes the offered hand, heaving himself up.
“It’s alright,” Yeosang mumbles in a monotone voice. He does not have the energy to actually reassure the other guy right now.
“No, no! It’s not! I can tell that you’re in pain,” the other points at the sagging left shoulder that Yeosang is still rubbing, “I’m meeting up with someone in half an hour, but I can buy you ice cream as an apology if you want!”
Yeosang looks around. He must have walked all the way to the city center while he was lost in his thoughts.
“Alright,” he accepts. What is the harm? He does not have anything to do anyways.
With that they now walk side by side, looking for the next ice cream shop.
“I really am sorry.”
“Stop apologizing, you’re buying me ice cream already.”
“Alright, alright. My name is Jongho,” he introduces himself, as if he is trying to make a new friend.
“I’m Yeosang.” And they are back to silence.
“You know,” Jongho carefully starts, “I saw that you were a bit dejected and I just want to tell you to not give up.” A kind smile stretches his full lips, but Yeosang can only scoff as he takes the ice cream that Jongho is holding out to him.
“Dreams are useless,” is all Yeosang says to Jongho before he walks away.
Jongho does not relent and comes back, jogging to the position next to Yeosang again.
“It’s not the reality that makes you lose your dream, it’s your decision.”
“But what decision can I make that makes me dream?”
“You can come with me and I can show you.”
Member Seven
Running. Running until his legs cannot carry him anymore. Cars beep at him, cursing him out as he rushes past red lights and green light alike.
His whole life he has been dreaming with Seonghwa. Showing up in each other’s dreams, playing around, having fun, but now he is just gone. Seonghwa disappeared and never came back to Yunho’s dreams again.
Night after night he takes his dream potion and waits for Seonghwa’s return, but no luck. Even less luck now, because Yunho ran out of potions and he only realized when he wanted to go to bed.
Now he is sprinting towards the dream shop before it closes for the night. He has to get at least one potion. What if tonight is the night Seonghwa comes back and Yunho is not there to greet him?
But luck has left him. The shop is closed. He is too late.
A group of four men are standing in front of the shop too, so he asks them for help.
Maybe he is addicted, but he cannot think straight, he has to find his friend and if that is only by dreaming every single night, then so be it.
“Do you guys maybe have a potion that I could buy off of you?” Yunho pants, “I really need one just for tonight, I’m willing to pay extra, my friend, I need to find my friend.”
The four men just look at him in confusion before the smallest of the group speaks up, “I'm sorry, but we don’t have any potions.”
He says this loud enough for another man, standing a few steps away to hear.
“You’re looking for potions? I have some, if you want?” his whole face is sharp and the smile pulling at his lips, make Yunho question the man's intentions, but he does not care for now.
There is no need to be extra cautious as the man immediately clears why he is so suspicious, “I made them myself and tested them. They work just as well as the one’s sold by the government.”
This seems to make the quartett perk up as well.
“How much are you selling them for?” the tallest one, as tall as Yunho, asks.
And with that the six of them come to an agreement to form a little group. Hopeless achievers that just want to reach an illusion.
“I may know someone else that would agree to do this with us,” San, the an with the sharp face, says and pulls out his phone. Yunho catches a glance of him unblocking a number belonging to a “Woo”.
Member Eight
Everyone left, but only her scent remains. No name or address to be known. As if Seonghwa was dreaming within his own dream, it all faded away.
She only left behind the ocean waves that used to crash against her walls. Her woody smell does not leave Seonghwa’s mind. And Yunho, too. He, too, never came back. No friend to accompany him on his adventure within a dream.
Seonghwa cannot fathom what happened. It is as if he is having a nightmare within his dream.
Where is everyone?
That is what the newly formed group of seven wonder as well. What happened to Seonghwa and where is the hourglass pointing towards?
With no clue as to where to go next, they go to sleep in the warehouse.
“Open your eyes.”
It is the masked man again, except there are eight of him.
Hongjoong rubs his eyes and notices that, no, that is not the same man eight time, but rather a group of men.
“Open your eyes,” Hongjoong’s voice echoes through the warehouse again, but his own mouth is closed.
“Find Seonghwa and fulfill dreams. Find him and you will find your treasure. Follow the hourglass.”
And with that the seven jump awake all at once. Looking around San tries to find the eight men that just visited their dreams.
“Those were,” Yeosang starts, eyes wide, “those were us?”
“Yes, us from another dimension,” Jongho answers him.
“And the eighth was Seonghwa!” Yunho excitedly tells them.
Quickly they pack up their things and follow any direction the sand corns point at. The sand flowing faster and faster the closer they get to Seonghwa. Until they find him at the seashore, sitting on the sand, head in his hands.
From another universe, the masked people watch as the last corn floats up, leaving the bottom empty.
But not for long. Now that they are together, the mission has just begun.
Eight Makes One Team
And just like that eight men came together as one team.
As adventurers, pirates, criminals, delinquents or whatever you want to call them.
They call themselves
ATEEZ
And they have a mission.
Spread hope and happiness and make people dream again freely. No matter at what cost.
Will you join them?
