DEAR DREAM | nct dream ✓

jeno's story

after graduation, jeno found himself spiraling into a deep and dark pit of loneliness, an alcoholic who can't seem to run away from his misery.

jeno began to completely ghost his friends in sheer fear of never seeing a single one of them again. he continued to hide behind the walls of his house until he was consumed by the loneliness that ate him up and spit him out.

he was a person who rolled with the flow and was carefree about just everything. jeno didn't have a plan or goal in mind after he graduated, not even a life of steps that he had set out in front of him.

one night, jeno was inside a bar, his first time ever inside a bar. he met this lady, this woman who offered to give jeno anything he had ever wanted if he followed her to her car. jeno was a man who could carry no regrets over his shoulder so he walked after her and fair enough, he was great enough to keep her satisfied and hand him extra for tips.

slowly, little by little, jeno worked here and there, making enough money to satisfy his new addiction. it started with maybe a glass of whiskey and somehow it had gotten out of hand without him realizing it.

but on an empty and lonely saturday night, jeno would switch on his tv and there would be a show playing, a runway show where the filming team would interview some of the models and maybe just maybe in the background somewhere he had heard that oh, so familiar laugh before a hundred times.

then the camera was rotated and in the corner was a shirtless jaemin who was slipping on a blazer and jeno begins to wonder if the staff had shown him on purpose but what did he know? jeno was an alcoholic who didn't know how to trust himself at times.

and with that bottle of liquor in his hand, he thinks about how he hadn't gone to the tree house for a few months. he made it his plan to go the next morning and spend the whole day up there in silence.

jeno pulls out a bottle of his substance and takes a light sip, leaning against the wall of the tree house. in his head are many, many thoughts and guilt that runs over his shoulders. he hadn't seen the boys in the longest time and he knew he wouldn't ever see them again unless he turned on the tv every saturday night and hoped the camera crew would film him.

jeno met jaemin at summer camp and the two were inseparable since, already becoming the greatest of friends. then on a breezy, autumn day, they were riding bikes past a house and jaemin had stopped because he was thirsty so the pair decided to park on the sidewalk.

jaemin was quite bold so he walked up the pathway and knocked on the door, oblivious to how dangerous it was to knock on a stranger's door. then mark opened the door and jaemin told him he needed water before he died and mark being the kind soul he is, let them both in.

they all went into mark's backyard and jeno had never seen such a large tree house. jaemin climbed up first, then jeno, then mark after them. when jaemin opened the door, he saw three other kids there whose names were donghyuck, jisung, and chenle.

on that day, jaemin had hurt himself by jumping off the top of the ladder, he had bet with donghyuck that he would be able to land on his feet, but he lost. mark said that they could leave their bikes there and jeno carried jaemin home that day, on his back.

he wonders how jaemin is now along with the others. but until then, he lays low, keeps his information to himself because in a city like seoul where there were many successful lives, there were lives of people like jeno who take advantage of the good things.

he continues to think to himself, almost sobbing when he bursts out the words, "i wish i could go back and keep in touch with them" and almost every time he cried out loud, he would hear mark whisper to him "it's okay, jeno".

then he thinks, cries, sip all until the sun begins to fall down, bring the moon out to replace it's light. but each and every time jeno climbed down the ladder that leads to the tree house, he says one thing and one thing only, "i'll be back".