Dream Garden
Group: Xdinary Heroes Word Count: 3.3k Warnings: None About: Seungmin gets a little bit over-involved in the book he's reading.
Cast
Seungmin sipped a fresh black coffee and settled into his seat. He finally had enough free time to sit down and read a book. A book he’d found under his Christmas tree, Dream Garden. He wasn’t sure where it had come from, as he’d thanked all of his family members for the gift, yet they all denied buying it for him. Seungmin had put the book away in his room hoping its rightful owner would come and fix the mix up soon, but curiosity got the better of him and he had come to a quiet little cafe so that he could read it. This spot was his favourite to come to when he needed some alone time. This cafe was fairly unknown in the area, meaning that it was almost always empty, welcoming some much needed deep relaxation.
Fueled with caffeine, Seungmin turned the first page. The book told a tale of a whimsical land called the Dream Garden, full of mischief and wonder. It was clear from the beginning that this was no ordinary novel, with the main characters being a purple cat, a pair of air-headed twins referred to as the Nuggets, and an unusual character merely named the Host.
Seungmin reached for his coffee cup, wanting to take another sip. He was hooked on Dream Garden, and almost couldn’t tear his eyes from the pages, but as he pulled his beverage closer, he spotted something moving in the liquid. Upon closer inspection, Seungmin found a goldfish inside his drink. He was certain that it hadn’t been there before, and began poking at the animal, just to make sure it wasn’t an apparition. Seungmin jumped back, startled as his finger met the swimming creature in the coffee, his eyes following its every move. Confused, but curious, Seungmin leaned in towards the cup, watching. He leaned in closer and closer, and closer yet until he lost his balance and fell face first into what should’ve been scalding liquid.
Seungmin found himself falling through the coffee. The scent filled his nose and swirled all around him. Multi-coloured goldfish swam past, yellow, green, blue, orange. The black abyss looked endless and Seungmin was falling for what he thought was forever. Seungmin felt his eyes beginning to close, the sound of the fish bubbling and the aroma of the tunnel lulling him to sleep. He tried to fight it, to keep his eyes open, to remain aware of his surroundings, but his efforts went to waste.
Seungmin awakened, laying flat on his back. He rested in a bed of flowers that cushioned his fall. He couldn’t get up, however, as an animal had settled on his torso. From the angle he was looking at, it appeared to be a furry purple blob, but it was heavy and Seungmin wanted it off. He poked the blob, hoping to awaken the sleeping creature. On contact, the animal’s ears pricked up, and it began to uncurl itself, turning its face towards Seungmin. It was a cat! A purple cat. Seungmin recognised the animal straight away, “The cat from…” he whispered to himself.
The animal yawned and stretched out its body from its paws right down to its tail. Seungmin smiled softly and reached up to stroke the cat’s head, feeling honoured that it chose him as its resting place. The purple cat welcomed petting, and began to purr, kneading Seungmin gently with its paws. “You’re a very cute cat but unfortunately, I have to get up now,” Seungmin said aloud to himself, as he tried to lift the cat off of his body. The cat didn’t seem to like this and hopped off by itself with a small yowl, freeing Seungmin and letting him sit up. Seungmin brushed down his shirt and the back of his hair, looking around at the area.
Seungmin was sitting in the middle of a lovely meadow with colourful flowers all around him. But none of them looked like what they were supposed to. The roses were blue and the daisies were red, and the grass wasn’t green but a vibrant plum colour and the sky a pastel pink.
“Are you ready to go now?” Asked an unfamiliar voice. The voice almost made Seungmin jump out of his skin. He was sure he had been out there alone, just him and the cat. As Seungmin turned back in the direction of the sudden voice, his gaze was met with another young man, who looked about the same age as him, the cat nowhere to be seen. “G-go where?” Seungmin stumbled over his words, surely his mind was playing tricks on him. How could someone have approached so quickly without him knowing about it? Seungmin examined the boy in front of him. He looked familiar, though Seungmin was sure he’d never seen him before. Seungmin didn’t want to let himself think that this boy could be the cat that was asleep on him just minutes ago.
“To the tea party, of course.” The boy laughed and reached out his hand, an offer to help Seungmin up, “Did you hit your head too hard or something?” Seungmin hesitantly took the boy’s hand and stood up beside him. Seungmin had so many questions. Where was he? What tea party? Where was the cat? And who was this boy in front of him? Deep down inside himself, Seungmin knew the answer to those questions, he just didn’t want to believe that he was right.
“I’m sorry but, who are you?” Seungmin managed out, hoping the boy wouldn’t say what he didn’t want to hear. “Ah, that’s right! You haven’t seen me like this yet.” The boy laughed, and grabbed Seungmin’s wrist, “Let’s walk and talk.”
The boy introduced himself as Jungsu and, much to Seungmin’s dismay, also as the cat from before. As if his purple hair and cat-like features didn’t already give it away. Jungsu believed that it would be rude to attend a party in the form of an animal, though he would much prefer to be in his natural body.
The cat-boy led Seungmin through the meadow, and through a nearby stretch of trees. As the pair progressed through the small forest, they began to hear a commotion that got louder with each step. Jungsu brought Seungmin to a clearing, where a long, rectangular table was laid out with six seats, two occupied and four empty, three on one side, two on the other, and one at the head. Each seat at the table had a name embroidered into the back of it.
The head seat was occupied by a young man who at this time wasn’t saying much. He had been watching when Seungmin had arrived with Jungsu, and began smiling when Seungmin’s eyes met his. His eyes were full of kindness and his smile was pure and warm. This was the nature of he that they called the Host. The seat to the Host’s right was occupied by a boy with long black and red hair that was sprawled out across the table as he leaned, hunched over in his labelled seat, “Joo”. Joo was asleep, mumbling words whilst dreaming, “Red, orange, yellow…”. The seat to the Host’s left was labelled “Gaon”, but it was empty. The seat belonged to the other black and red haired boy, who was not at the table, but on it. Gaon was sitting, cross-legged on the table, filling two teapots, talking nonsenses loudly to himself, “Bananas are long, long, long…”
It seemed that the noise was solely the result of the two matching haired attendees, as the Host sat in complete silence, overseeing all. “Wild geese are still wild geese…” Gaon continued, “Green, blue, navy…” Mumbled Joo at the same time, “Even if you flip them over!” “Purple… Rainbow…” The two continued like this, simultaneously uttering their meaningless words, one sleeping and one working. Seungmin quickly deduced that these two were the dummy Nugget twins introduced in his book.
Jungsu hastily made way to his reserved seat beside Gaon’s and sat down, motioning for Seungmin to do the same. Seungmin, however, did not have a seat with his name on it. He stood floundering, eyes looking to Jungsu and then to the Host for assistance. The Host gestured towards a seat at the end of the table on the right side, labelled “Ode”. As soon as Seungmin took Ode’s seat, the Host called for the tea party to officially begin. At the order, Gaon stood up, a teapot in either hand, and began to serve the partygoers. Gaon first crouched down and poured his own cup, but what came out of the spout didn’t look like tea. The water was clear and seemed to be frothy, like it was full of soap bubbles.
Lacking any sense of spatial awareness, squashing cakes and snacks, and smashing cups and saucers as he went, Gaon walked down the length of the table to serve Jungsu. “Tea or coffee?” Gaon asked with a smile, and crouched down once again to pour from the teacup in his left hand. Jungsu seemed pleased at his choice of drink, which looked like pond water full of goldfish. Goldfish! The same ones from Seungmin’s coffee back at the cafe.
Gaon’s next stop was to Seungmin, who was seated directly across the table from Jungsu. Seungmin chose his drink, left — the same side as Jungsu — but Gaon didn’t care. Asking was just a formality, and Gaon chose to pour from whichever pot he deemed suitable for the guest. Thus, Seungmin was served a nice teacup full of bubbly water. Gaon continued past the empty seat beside Seungmin and up towards Joo.
Seungmin glanced at the seat beside him, between his and Joo’s. At first, the seat appeared empty as there was no one in it, but it wasn’t actually empty. The seat, labelled “Jun Han”, was occupied with a stack of books and atop the books was a handheld mirror, propped up as though it was a guest. Seungmin leaned over to peek in the mirror, startled to find a red-haired boy inside, huddled into himself, looking rather sad. “Who’s that, inside the mirror?” Seungmin asked, curious as to why no one was paying the mirror boy, Jun Han, any attention.
Jungsu looked up from the fish in his cup, a confused look on his face, “You mean the rabbit?” Seungmin made a face back, and picked up the mirror, showing Jungsu the boy inside. Jungsu laughed and asked if Seungmin had his head screwed on right, how could he not see that the mirror just showed the image of a red rabbit? Jungsu looked back down at his tea, or more so, at the fish, poking and playing with them, as a cat would do.
Seungmin looked at the mirror once again, he was sure he wasn’t crazy, it wasn’t a rabbit. Seungmin absent mindedly tapped at the glass, feeling sorry for the ignored guest inside it. But his eyes widened as Jun Han responded to the tapping, coming closer to the glass, his mouth moving as though he was trying to speak.
Getting out of his seat, Seungmin walked around the table, first to the Nuggets, to show them the mirror and ask for some help. Joo raised his head to listen to Seungmin’s query. The Nuggets looked first at each other, then back to Seungmin, then back to each other before bursting into hysterical laughter. Joo suggested that Seungmin was going insane, or that he was just stupid for thinking there could be someone trying to talk to him through a mirror, let alone someone living inside it. Gaon, through laughter, informed Seungmin that what he was seeing in the mirror was a mere rabbit with red fur, who could not speak.
Seungmin, a little bit defeated after being called an idiot by the resident dummies, continued around the table to the Host, hoping that if someone was going to be even a little bit normal, it would be him. But unfortunately, he was met with the same answer everyone else gave, that inside the mirror was just a rabbit. Seungmin did start to feel as though he was going crazy as he stared into the glass, Jun Han on the other side frantically tapping and trying to speak. As Seungmin passed Joo once again, he was knocked into by the second Nugget jumping out of his seat. Gaon had broken Joo’s teacup, standing on it while Joo had been asleep, and with nowhere to serve his drink, Gaon poured the fish-filled water directly into Joo’s lap.
Joo ran back and forth around the edge of the table in a poor attempt to catch Gaon for drenching him. The first Nugget, safely up on the furniture, avoided his twin by running up and down, destroying almost everything in his path. Jungsu and the Host simply lifted their teacups out of the way as Gaon passed, completely unbothered and entirely familiar with this type of situation.
The commotion and sudden chaos made Seungmin accidentally drop the mirror face down onto the ground. Apologising out loud to Jun Han inside, Seungmin quickly bent down to pick it back up. The impact with the ground caused a crack to appear right across the centre of the mirror. “I am so sorry, I’ll put you down now,” Seungmin said, upon seeing the now slightly distorted image of Jun Han in the glass. He hurried to prop the mirror back up on the books, but stopped when he heard a small voice, “Don’t put me down! Get me out of here, please!” It was Jun Han! The crack in the mirror had broken part of the seal and his voice could be heard.
Jun Han explained that he’d stayed late alone out in the forest one night and had gotten himself stuck in the mirror after everybody else had left the party, and nobody would pay any attention to him to help get him back out. “If I break it completely, will you be free?” Seungmin asked. He certainly could have guessed the answer to that question by himself, but it felt rude to start destroying a mirror that someone had been residing in without permission. Jun Han nodded eagerly, desperate to be released from his prison. Seungmin did as permitted, and hit the edge of the mirror against the frame of Jun Han’s seat, smashing it instantly. The glass shattered and shards and dust rained onto the grass surrounding the chair.
Jun Han climbed out as quickly as he could, just happy to be free. At first it was nice inside the mirror, allowing him a much needed break from the anarchy unravelling outside, the unorganised tea parties, the disarray, the noise, the mess. But the longer Jun Han watched, captive, separated, the more he wanted to be reunited with his friends, the chaotic but loveable Nuggets, the odd but gentle cat, the abnormal but kind-hearted Host. Jun Han shook Seungmin’s hand vigorously, thanking him for helping him escape the mirror, and took his seat at the table.
“Late!” Exclaimed Gaon, halting in his tracks. “Late!” Repeated Joo, also coming to a standstill, arm, hand and finger extended, pointing right at the red haired Jun Han. It appeared that no one had realised that Jun Han had just climbed out of the mirror, they treated his arrival as delayed despite him having been present the entirety of the party. Jun Han reached for one of the few intact teacups on the table and silently held it out for a serving of Gaon’s special “tea”.
The Host watched, as he had been the entire time, his eyes full of affection, but he began to stir in his place once all of the seats at the table were full. It was a rare occurrence that all six seats were occupied so the Host grabbed this opportunity to say what he had been holding in. He tapped his cup with a teaspoon, calling for everyone’s attention. As disorderly as the group was, not a single one of them dared disobey the Host. At the tap of his cup the table fell silent. The Nuggets sat up straight, Jun Han placed his cup neatly on the table and turned in his seat towards the head of the table, and Jungsu spat out the innocent goldfish he had been taunting. Nobody said a word. The Host had everyone’s undivided attention.
“I would like to thank Ode for honouring our invite,” the Host raised his teacup above his head, smiling. His eyes explored his messy table and his attendees, before settling on Seungmin in the seat belonging to the still absent guest, Ode. The partygoers began to clap and cheer, raising their teacups in what seemed to be Seungmin’s honour. Seungmin’s eyes darted between Jungsu, the Nuggets, Jun Han, and the Host. He opened his mouth to speak, but the Host continued. “Ode, if you would be so kind as to share with us, a piece of your hair,” The Host smiled again, ever so politely. Seungmin looked around, all eyes were on him. He was Ode. “I’m sorry but my name is Seungmin, I’m not who you’re looking for.”
Seungmin noticed Gaon climbing up out of his seat and onto the table once again, something in his hand glinting in the sun. Something that looked like a very large pair of scissors. The Host spoke once again, his tone different to last time, “We are so thankful that you honoured our invitation, Ode. Now if you would be so kind as to share your hair with us.” The once soft and gentle demeanour of the Host had completely vanished. His voice was stern and his eyes strict. How dare Seungmin oppose him? The entire table stared daggers into Seungmin, shocked, appalled, disgusted. How dare Seungmin oppose the Host? Gaon took a step forward along the table, scissors ready in his hand.
Seungmin thought about his hair that he’d recently had treated and dyed a pretty shade of baby pink. Sure, they had been nice to him, but there was no way he’d let these lunatics start hacking away at his hair with a pair of shears. Who knows what they would do with it! “I’m sorry, I can’t give you my hair,” Seungmin protested, as politely as he could. Of course, he didn’t mean to offend the Host, as he’d been so nice as to welcome him to their party at such short notice. Gaon snipped his large scissors a few times, a signal of warning, whether Seungmin liked it or not, Gaon was going to get that hair.
Nobody at the table spoke a word. Seungmin daren’t move. He trembled in his seat, afraid of what would happen next. Seungmin watched, shaking as the Host placed his teacup gently on the mess of a table. As soon as the cup touched its saucer, Gaon sprang into action. He leaped forward, scissors outstretched, snipping, cutting.
Seungmin fell backwards in his seat, shocked and afraid, terrified for his life. He scrambled to get up but was pinned down by Gaon, who flew from the table and landed on top of the Seungmin sprawled across the floor. Gaon grabbed a chunk of Seungmin’s hair and swiftly snipped it off. Tightly clutching his prize, Gaon retreated back up and across the table towards the Host, where he would present the soft tuft of pink.
Seungmin lay, panting and shaking on the floor, watching helplessly as his lock of hair was tucked away neatly into one of many pockets on the inside of the Host’s jacket. As the Host closed his garment, his sweet smile returned. And he raised his teacup once more, “Welcome, Ode. We hope you’ll be happy here.”
Ode sat up from the floor to the sound of cheering and applause. He no longer felt fearful or trembled. He smiled warmly, picking up his chair as his eyes met his friends around the table.
All of the partygoers raised their teacups in a toast to the successful initiation of their new friend to the Dream Garden.