Believe Again: Dream Catcher

A/N: Is this the fastest update ever or is this the fastest update ever? ;)

Four days later, Saeyoung left early in the morning to meet with Vanderwood. He gave MC a long, goodbye kiss, and Saeran a tight hug before getting into his car and driving out of the garage.

For the rest of the day, Saeran and MC were extremely restless. It didn't help that MC wasn't feeling that well — she seemed to be feeling under the weather a lot lately — but was too worried to get proper rest. So she opted for doing some baking and more cleaning of the house, just to stay occupied.

Saeran, on the other hand, went out for a walk at the park when he got tired of pacing up and down the bunker. It was scorching hot out that day, and after just three minutes of walking outside, he could feel himself perspiring already. He walked on anyway, and before long he found himself at the park where there weren't as many people around as there were in the evenings. It was probably the weather.

As he walked, he found himself automatically scanning the surroundings to see if she was there.

Saeran didn't know what to expect. It was a Sunday. He doubted she would be at the park at this weird time, but despite saying this to himself over and over in his head, a part of him (that was bigger than he'd like to admit) hoped he would somehow be able to bump into her by some sort of coincidence. A coincidence like the ones that had led to them sharing those evenings together in the first place.

He headed over to their bench, but found that it was empty. There wasn't a sign of her at the place where they had stayed together the other night either.

It was hard to ignore the gaping hole of disappointment in his chest. The chances of bumping into her were slim, obviously. It was simple math. But still, he'd hoped that she would be there, like she always was.

With a wry smile, it dawned on him that maybe he had been taking her for granted, far more than he'd realised.

He thought of her face, her voice and her smile, which made the corners of his lips curl upwards. He missed her terribly. The last time they texted was two days ago, because he hadn't had the time to respond to her messages with all that was going on back at the bunker.

On a whim, he took out his phone and searched for her contact. Saeran didn't really know what he was doing when he did what he did next, but instead of typing a new message to add to their length conversation above, he tapped on her contact profile and pressed the call icon.

It was only when he saw that his call had gone through that he realized the gravity of what he had done and started to panic.

He could hear her soft voice through the speaker and her repeated "hello"s, each one growing more confused. Saeran felt his breath catch in his throat when he pressed his phone to his ear, and heard her loud and clear.

He would never tire of listening to her sweet, honeyed voice. He could probably get drunk on her laughter too. It was beautiful. She was beautiful.

"H-Hello." His greeting was stiff, but he hoped she couldn't detect that.

"Hey," she breathed, sounding almost relieved. "I thought I lost you there. You didn't speak for a while. Is everything alright?"

"Sorry about that, my finger slipped and I ended up... calling you..." Great. His brain was short-circuiting and he couldn't even think up a decent excuse. This was going terribly. "Are you busy right now?"

"I'm fine, I was just in the middle of watching a drama. No biggie. Is... there something you wanted to talk about?"

"I... uh... it's... It's nothing really. I don't even know why I called you. I guess I just... wanted to hear your voice."

Internally, Saeran wanted to kick himself. Maybe add a couple of slaps and a body slam into the wall. What the heck was he talking about? He was his worst enemy at the moment; he was sputtering cheesy crap to her and she probably thought he was an idiot. He should have just stuck to texting. At least then he could think before he typed out intelligent and normal replies, instead of stammering away like an incoherent fool in front of her.

Good grief, he would never be able to look cool in front of her, would he?

His thoughts scattered when she chuckled, the proximity of her voice in his ear sending a small shiver down his spine.

"Glad to know I'm not the only one. I've missed hearing your voice too."

It was probably the sun making his face burn like flames were consuming him. It sure was hot out.

But the sun didn't explain why he was grinning like he'd just been dropped on his head.

"So what are you doing right now?" she asked him, sounding cheerier and more excited than before. He could hear the grin in her slightly higher voice.

"I'm at the park, actually," he replied, releasing a short breath of laughter when he heard her make a confused noise in response to that.

"But it's so hot outside right now!" she pointed out.

"I know, I just had to get my mind off things," he said, recalling Saeyoung and Vanderwood's mission. He'd momentarily forgotten thanks to her, but now the worry was creeping back in.

"Is everything alright? You don't sound too good."

"I'm hoping everything will turn out fine," he replied vaguely, "I'm just waiting right now."

"Me too," she said then. "I'm also waiting right now. For everything to be alright."

"Are you okay?" It was his turn to worry about her. "Is there anything I can do?"

"I'm fine, don't worry," she answered with a chuckle. "I'm just waiting, like you are. Is it... okay if I wait with you? We don't have to keep talking on the phone if you don't want to, but we could text or even watch a movie together online or something. Maybe that will take your mind off things."

"I'd like that," he said with a smile, feeling the uneasiness begin to melt away in the warmth of her voice and laugh. Since they were both waiting anyway, they may as well do it together.

It was already 4:00pm, and Saeran couldn't continue watching the movie that she had suggested watching together on bunn.y because something came up on her end. He was disappointed when she left, but this was the longest time they'd spent talking and interacting with each other with no breaks in between. The only thing was that he wished she were here, in the bunker with him. He had imagined it too countless times now: them watching a movie together on the couch with her at his side, baking together and making her mad when he swiped too much cookie batter—though he couldn't exactly picture her angry—and many more things. Things that he wasn't sure they would be able to do, at least not until this whole mess with Mint Eye was settled.

It just didn't feel like things could ever truly end. His life had been a struggle from the very beginning. The same went for Saeyoung. Even now, they couldn't live the safe and carefree life that they had dreamed of ever since they learned to walk. And Saeran didn't know whether they ever could. Not while the Mint Eye issues continued to unravel and reveal newer and bigger problems to deal with.

He checked his computer and phone for any updates, but there were none. Saeyoung had mentioned that he would send the files over once he downloaded them safely, but there was still nothing. Saeran could feel anxiety seeping back into him.

What was he doing? Saeyoung had promised he wouldn't take long. And nothing should have happened since he hadn't received an SOS.

Unnerved by the many vicious scenarios that were starting to play in his mind, Saeran stood up and began to pace around the room, trying to steer his mind elsewhere. Not working. Maybe he should go get MC, but she was worried enough about Saeyoung as well, and was currently coping by stress-baking in the kitchen. She had banned him from her territory earlier, but he could care less about that, to be honest. He needed to take his mind off things for a bit, and there was no better comfort food than some sugar.

Before he could leave the room and go get yelled at by MC though, he felt a small buzz on his phone, and the screen revealed that it was a new message from Saeyoung. Immediately, he swiped to view it.

Saeyoung: Got the files, sending them over to you now.

Thank God.

Saeran: Good work. Come home quickly.

After sending his reply, Saeran headed out to the kitchen to share the news. As expected, MC was quick to notice him and jump in front of the bowl of chocolate batter she was in the middle of mixing, like a human shield.

He ignored her protests and stepped closer to show her Saeyoung's message. Her breath caught and it took a good two seconds for her to remember to exhale in relief.

"You should check your phone. Knowing Saeyoung, he probably sent you something disgustingly cheesy to report back home."

MC laughed at the obvious distaste on his face, but made no effort to rebut his words, and she gleefully stepped away to wash her hands in the sink.

Heh. Success.

Smirking to himself, Saeran easily swiped a good lump of batter from the bowl with his finger and stuffed it in his mouth for a quick taste.

"MC, did you add less sugar to this? It's not as sweet as before."

"No, I added the same amount as usual," she replied in a neutral tone, until she looked over her shoulder and realised what he had done.

He made a quick escape before she could yell at him, though from the silly grin spreading across her face, it was clear that she was too happy knowing that Saeyoung would be coming back safe to actually be mad at him for stealing just a teeny bit of her cookie batter.

Saeyoung returned to the bunker almost two hours later, and the first thing he did was run to MC with his arms wide open and his lips puckered up for a greeting kiss that quickly escalated into a passionate makeout.

With a disgusted groan, Saeran shut the door to the work room and put his headphones on, determined to block out the obnoxious kissing sounds coming from the couple outside. They always conveniently forgot that they weren't the only ones living in the darn bunker.

He decided to get to work first and get a headstart on looking through the files that had been downloaded from Park Ha Yoon's computer. From the looks of things, it would take them a couple of days with little to no sleep to finish again, and Saeyoung was already tired enough as it was from the day's field trip with Vanderwood. Might as well finish as much as he could for now so his brother would have less need for more Phd. Pepper and destroy his body even more than he already had.

So Saeran began scrolling through all the folders to pick out those that may be of help to them. Several folders and documents involving research work for some kind of "Elixir" caught his eye, and he briefly scanned through those documents, eyes latching onto the names of some drugs that sounded uncomfortably familiar to him. A bad feeling stirred in his gut, making his stomach feel kind of queasy.

Saeran was so absorbed in the preliminary work of sorting out the documents that he failed to notice the door opening, or his brother entering the room. Which was why he ended up reflexively punching his presumed attacker when he threw his arms around Saeran's neck in a surprise hug.

"Ouch..." Saeyoung grimaced from where he lay sprawled out on the floor, rubbing his sore bum with one hand and clutching his reddening jaw with the other. "Man, you really pack a punch."

"You should know better than to sneak up on me like that," Saeran snapped, rather ticked off for getting taken off guard like that. He hated surprises; they always gave him mini heart attacks, and Saeyoung should have known that by now.

"But I couldn't resist!" his brother argued. "I missed my little brother so much!"

"It's only been a day."

"Details," Saeyoung scoffed as he leaped to his feet again, attempting to hide his wince as he continued to gently massage his sore jaw. It made Saeran feel a pang of guilt for reacting so impulsively, but Saeyoung still deserved it.

"I'm back! Welcome me back!"

"Yeah, yeah. Good work," Saeran muttered with an eye roll. He returned his attention to the computer after giving his brother a once-over to make sure there weren't any injuries. He ignored the smudge of pink lip gloss on the corner of Saeyoung's mouth, trying to erase the mental image of the both of them attacking each other with their mouths the moment Saeyoung had returned. "You didn't get hurt, right?"

"Nah. It was an easy job." The older redhead grinned confidently. He then paused to glance at the computer screen. "You're looking through the files now? Did you find anything yet?"

"Yeah," Saeran replied. "This guy's definitely related to Mint Eye." By way of elaboration, the younger man shifted the screen towards Saeyoung. It was displaying blueprints and a detailed floor plan of a building that appeared identical to the Mint Eye building.

"Yikes," was all Saeyoung could offer in response.

"Go get some rest," Saeran said, turning the computer back around. "I'll look through the other files to see what else we can find. We still need to know how this guy is involved with Mint Eye and Rika exactly."

"You sure? I'm not that tired, I can help out," Saeyoung protested. The yawn that followed betrayed his words however, and he gave a rueful smile in response to Saeran's pointed stare.

"Okay, okay, I'll take a break," he relented, easily crumbling beneath his brother's glare. "Just save me some of the work to do later."

"I will."

For the rest of that evening, Saeran stayed cooped up in the work room to continue reading through the documents that had been retrieved. It was difficult to decipher several medical and technical terms, but Saeran could recognise a couple of them. Those were the names of the drugs he had apparently been regularly ingesting back in Mint Eye. The mere thought of that deadly, mint-coloured liquid was enough to make him feel sick to the core. It brought back memories of when he would be clutching his head so tightly from the excruciating waves of pain each dosage brought on, that he would often find blood on his fingernails, along with multiple scratches on his neck, scalp and temples.

Saeran lost track of time the deeper he dug into Park Ha Yoon's research files. The ingredients and formula for creating the new liquid drug that Park Ha Yoon was in the middle of researching sounded strangely familiar to Saeran, and it took him a moment to recall that the steps recorded in these files were identical to the way he had been instructed to prepare the Elixir back then. It seemed that the Elixir was a new medicinal drug in the works that Park Ha Yoon was trying to create.

Before long, Saeran found multiple encrypted spreadsheets containing compiled information of experiments and test subjects in detail based on the use of the Elixir. What struck him was that the descriptions of the test subjects indicated that they weren't mere lab rats; they were humans.

It didn't take long for it to dawn on him what all this had been for. The Elixir, the regular dosage given to the followers, the cruel brainwashing process, the reason for keeping Mint Eye under tight wraps, the reason why they had been able to receive so much funding to create such an elaborate institution... Mint Eye and its cult had been nothing more than a façade. It had been a prison, a place designed to keep its test subjects isolated from the rest of the world, so that Park Ha Yoon and whoever was collaborating with him to conduct experiments on the people locked in there.

So that was it. Everything had started here. It had all begun with this sick man and his repulsive desires to pursue his research beyond ethical boundaries, all at the cost of people who were nothing more than lost boats drifting at sea, struggling to find a place where they could belong, a home where they could feel, for once, like they weren't worthless.

And Saeran had been one of the fools who had been roped into this. Spent years of his life believing in the empty promise of "Paradise" that the crazy woman had planted in their minds, practically losing his sanity from all the drugs he had been forced to take, desperately working for hours on end in that same chair with little to no food, fuelled only by his desire to take revenge against his brother. His own flesh and blood, who ironically, had always been the only person who ever truly loved him ever since they were born.

Momentarily overwhelmed, Saeran stood from his desk, and he grimaced at the wave of nausea that seized him. He felt giddy, and before he could find his bearings, the room was spinning as he fell backwards. He managed to cushion his fall by grabbing on to the edge of his chair, but the pain that shot through his bottom when he landed on it did nothing to soothe the bitter taste of bile that was rising in his throat.

A pained groan ripped through his lips and he curled up on the ground, squeezing his moist eyes shut in his attempt to keep himself from throwing up. He hated the smell of vomit, and the feeling of retching over the toilet bowl. He had dealt with that far too many times in the past, when he had been recovering and had to force his malnourished body to eat even a spoonful of porridge.

"Sae... young..." He hated how weak he was. He thought he had gotten better by now. It had already been over a year since he was brought to the bunker, but he was still as pathetic as ever, still the same burden that he had always been.

How could he have been so stupid? How could he have believed every syllable that fell from that woman's lips, as if each one was a gift from Heaven itself? How could he have so easily fell for her lies, did as he was told all those years, and clung on so tightly to a "Paradise" that never existed in the first place?

She must have thought him a fool. A complete good-for-nothing moron. Just like his own mother had always told him.

"Saeran? S-Saeran! Are you okay? What's wrong?"

The sound of Saeyoung's loud voice grated on his ears and nerves, and he curled into a tighter ball, determined not to be seen like this. How did he even know? "Go... away..."

"Saeran, breathe. Breathe. You're okay. I'm here. Just breathe. Inhale... Exhale..."

With his eyes still screwed shut and the darkness surrounding him, Saeran did his best to focus on Saeyoung's voice, and to force himself to breathe. The base of his throat felt too constricted and his chest too tight. It hurt to breathe.

"You'll be okay. You'll be okay, Saeran, I'm here," Saeyoung continued like a broken recorder. Normally, it would annoy the heck out of him, but for now, Saeran was grateful. He was clinging on to every word as he tried to get himself to calm down and relax.

Slowly but surely, his body began to listen and it gradually became easier for him to breathe. The suffocating feeling in his chest diminished and he felt his heart rate decrease slowly. It was good enough for him to try and sit up, and Saeyoung rushed forward to help him up and help him into the chair.

"I'm... I'm so— fuck!" Saeran hissed, feeling tears collect in his eyes, and it wasn't because of the nausea now. His fists were clenched and he dropped his head, trying to avoid Saeyoung's worried eyes. He hated it when his brother looked at him that way, with his lips parted but no words coming out because he didn't know what to do, and his fragile eyes filled with so much pain and sadness.

"You're okay, Saeran," he said.

"Stop saying that," Saeran bit out. "Look at me. I'm pathetic." The younger man scoffed bitterly with a jerk of his head towards the computer. "Do you want to know why Mint Eye came into existence? Why all of us had to go through that brainwashing? Why we had to take those drugs? Why that fucking crazy witch lied to us and isolated us in that place?" He violently pushed his laptop in Saeyoug's direction. It would have tipped over the edge of the table, except his brother caught it in time.

"It was for science! For fucking science!" Saeran exclaimed, an incredulous laugh escaping him. He probably sounded crazy. And he was crazy. He had been royally fucked for years without knowing; it would be strange if he didn't go downright insane after all that. "Can you believe it? The whole lot of us. Idiots. Like pigs in a barn waiting to get slaughtered but having no fucking idea."

"Saeran—"

"What was I even living for all this time?" Saeran asked, tears finally spilling down his cheeks. He felt empty. So horribly empty. He just wanted to disappear for good.

"Saeran, that's all in the past now. No matter how much you think about it now, you won't be able to change anything about it. The past is what it is." Saeyoung wheeled one of the chairs over to sit down next to him.

"I've killed men before on my missions. I've killed men who had families and loved ones waiting for them back home, I've done so many horrible things back when I was working as Luciel, the infamous hacker. And I can't change any of that. I can't change the fact that V lied to me. I can't change the fact that I left you behind and made you go through all that shit in Mint Eye. I can't change any of the stupid decisions I've made in my life, nor can I change the fact that I've hurt you far too much to ever be forgiven. The past is what it is," he said with a sad smile, looking at his hands, marred with scars that he had earned over the years.

Saeran had heard this before. More than once, in fact. But he didn't have the energy to cut Saeyoung off, so he quietly allowed the man to continue.

"I know it sucks when you think back and realize how stupid you were back then. But look at where you are now. We found each other again, you have a family, a home, and you're living for no one but yourself now. You're living to do what makes you happy, aren't you? You eat as much ice cream and cookies as you want, game for hours on end with Yoosung and then help him out with his assignments when he can't finish them on time, you help MC out with party planning, take online courses to study and also do freelance coding work. Isn't this a good life?"

Saeran could make no good rebuttal to that, but the bitterness remained. And of course it would; words wouldn't make things all better just like that. But they helped, albeit by a tiny margin.

"You've gotten stronger, Saeran, despite what you think," Saeyoung smiled, patting his brother on the shoulder. "We'll probably find out even more shocking things about Mint Eye, but MC and I will always be here to support you when you need it. For now, you should take a break and continue tomorrow. It's already 1am."

It was 1am already? Saeran picked up his phone and the time stamp on it showed 01:23. He also had multiple notifications — mainly text messages from her that had been sent a couple hours ago.

Oh, shit. He would just reply her tomorrow. He felt far too drained to do anything, and all he wanted was to curl up in bed and sleep for a few days.

"Can you walk?" Saeyoung asked when Saeran attempted to get off his chair.

"Yeah..." the younger twin replied with a weary sigh. "Night."

"Goodnight," Saeyoung said. After a moment of consideration, he piped up again with, "Wanna sleep together? We could cuddle—"

"No way in hell."

"Meanie." Saeyoung pretended to wipe away a tear and pouted after his brother who had already made it to the door.

But before he could leave, Saeran called his name, and Saeyoung spun around, staring at him like a little puppy.

"You can sleep on the floor."

Saeyoung looked like he'd just won the lottery. With a high-pitched, excited yelp and a hard fist pump into the air, he bolted out of the room to grab a futon from the storeroom. In the meantime, Saeran closed his computer and crawled into bed.

Saeyoung returned barely three minutes later, panting as he threw the futon onto the floor next to Saeran's bed and dove under the covers.

"Reminds me of how we used to sleep together when we were kids," Saeyoung said with a grin. "I've missed this."

"Just shut up and go to sleep," Saeran muttered grumpily under his breath, before pressing on the switch next to his bed to turn off the lights. His eyelids felt ten times heavier now that the room was dark and quiet. He just hoped he wouldn't get nightmares.

"Good night, Saeran," Saeyoung said then, as if he had heard Saeran's thoughts. "Sweet dreams."

Saeran's lips quirked up into a smile. Nostalgia filled him when he thought back to the times he used to wake up in the middle of the night crying because of a nightmare. Saeyoung would wake up and to console his little brother, he would pretend to "catch" Saeran's nightmares and throw them to the other corner of the room.

"Remember when you used to catch my nightmares for me?" Saeran asked.

"Oh? Yeah, of course. I didn't think you'd remember," Saeyoung chuckled in response. "Why?"

"Do your job tonight." It was more a plea than a demand. Saeran just didn't want to say 'please'.

Despite not hearing the magic word, Saeyoung agreed without hesitation. "You can count on me, little brother."

Saeran then felt a hand on his forehead, and with his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he could make out Saeyoung's fist hovering over his head before it threw something imaginary to the far end of the room.

"Sleep easy now. I'm right here."

"Thanks," Saeran said, listening to the shuffling of the futon covers as Saeyoung settled back in. "Good night."

Then he closed his eyes and quickly drifted off into a peaceful sleep, with his handy dream catcher snoring next to him.

A/N: I'm really blown away by the number of people who came back to read this and left such sweet comments on the previous chapter. Thank you so much, I didn't expect anyone to read it tbh HAHA since it's been so long and all. :'))) You guys really want to make me cry, huh? Then again I suppose that's fair considering how many tears I've caused throughout this story. XD

Already working on the next chapter, so see you at the next update! :)