WHEN I OPENED my eyes, I was laying on my bed. I gasped and sat up, wiping the sweat bubbles off as I rubbed my neck. After taking a sip out of the glass of water that was on the night table, I checked the time from the phone. 3:15 am. I closed my eyes and let out a sigh. I knew it was too good to be true.

    I should have known. I’ve had way too many dreams that were similar to that. But this one felt so real. I felt everything. But now, it was a dream. I ran my fingers through my lips. They felt swollen. I must have bit them in my sleep. Then I ran my hand through my hair. I need a haircut again. That way, I won’t need hairpins to hold them back. I patted my heart - Ah, I’m still wearing this dress. I must have fallen asleep after coming home. I got off the bed and changed my clothes. Slipping back onto my bed, I let out a sigh and closed my eyes again, praying for no more dreams. Because dreams only gave me false hopes. He will never come back to me. Seeing how he walked away from me-

“He won’t come back.” I spoke to myself before squeezing my eyes shut.

    Next morning, I woke up to the smell of food. I sat up and sniffed to make sure that it was coming from my kitchen. My eyes widened when I realized that someone might have broken into my apartment. And my first instinct was, Grab the gun!

    I took quiet steps and opened up the bedroom door. With the gun pointing forward, I walked on. The sound of something dropping left a small echo, and I pointed my gun towards where the sound came from. Well duh, the kitchen. I bent down and crawled right up to the small kitchen island and leaned my back against it. Taking a deep breath, I turned-

“What are you doing?”

    My world stood still.

    He stood up after picking up the spoon that he dropped, and pulled up the sleeves of his white shirt that were rolling back down. The first couple of the buttons on his shirt were undone, and I caught a glimpse of his chest muscles before he got up. The hair that was combed very neatly yesterday was now wavy and down. I looked around and found the blazer he was wearing yesterday now resting on my couch.

“I think you’ve been working in the training camps for too long.” He said as he washed the dropped spoon. “Seeing how-” He stopped and looked down at me. “Aren’t you gonna get up?” He asked. “And please put the gun away.” He said, and I stood up and put the gun on top of the island.

“You had an untouched container of kimchi so I made kimchi jjigae.” He continued as I stared at him.

Please tell me this is not a dream. I thought to myself. If this was a dream, my dreams are way too advanced. This seems too real.

“You should buy real rice instead of the instant ones… I understand that you rarely come here, but, they don’t expire that easily.” He went on as he continued to stir the stew.

“Iseul-ah, say something.” He said after putting down the wooden spoon and turning around. “You fell asleep and woke up hour after hour and kept saying weird things… I really wandered if I should take you to the hospital or not. I even called Hwayoung and she said - she said you’d be fine - and that you’ve been sleep-talking ever since you left Urk and I was just worried-”

“I haven’t seen you talk this much in… ever.” I told him and he stopped and smiled. Jung Taekwoon smiled!  

    Without saying a thing, he took a step and pulled me into a hug. My eyes closed naturally as I enjoyed the warmth of his embrace. I wanted to cry, but I fought the urge.

“I missed you.” He said, and I nodded in reply. I missed you too, I wanted to say, but the words didn’t come out. This was real; that’s all I could think of. “I already called Jeong Daewi. She said to take the day off. I’m sorry for yesterday.” He kept going.

“The l-letter,” I said, and he moved away, giving me a confused expression. “The one you gave me before I left Urk. What is the meaning of that?” I asked, and he shook his head in reply.

“Let’s not talk about it-”

“I remember.” I said, and he paused halfway as he was about to turn to the stove to stir the stew.

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