Note: Story theme was inspired by A Dream of Trees by Samantha Sotto.

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Still half asleep, Jennie blinked her eyes multiple times but the image above her remained there.

She stood from her lying. The woman stood aside. "Who are you?" Jennie murmured waking from her slumber.

She should be panicking by now seeing a stranger in her room but she didn't sense any danger. The tall blonde lady was smiling giving a pleasant feeling. Jennie moved her body to the side to get on her feet, she felt a body next to her. Her body froze looking at the woman on her bed realizing it was her. The woman was wearing the same blue nightdress she remembered wearing before bed.

"Am I dreaming?" She asked herself. Jennie took her time observing herself peacefully sleeping. She didn't realize how wrinkled her skin was until now. Her hair used to be dark and long, now all she was seeing was a withered woman with grey and thinning hair. She reached for the cheek of the woman beside her, running her fingers ran through her skin. It felt real for her, almost believing she was not dreaming.

"This isn't a dream." A voice called her attention. Jennie almost forgot the existence of the young lady in her room.

"Who are you?" Jennie asked her again.

"Hi Jennie, My name is Rosé. I am here to accompany you to your room." Rose replied to her.

She was sure it was a dream, and there's no way it wasn't. Jennie turned her shoulder to Rosé's direction to have a better look at her. Rosé was wearing a white sundress that reaches just above her knee.

"What room are you talking about?" Jennie asked. Rosé smiled at her.

"It is the last place you should go before leaving this world." Rosé said.

"Leaving this world? What are you talking about? Am I dead?" Jennie felt agitated wanting to wake up from now a bad dream.

"You're not, but you're dying. That's why I'm here." Rosé said.

Jennie stood fast from her bed and faced the young lady. "Are you an angel?" She asked again. Rosé shook her head.

"I am not. I am not even anything. I am only here to accompany you before you die."

Jennie didn't speak, still trying to grasp the situation. She turned her back to Rosé to take a glance at her body on the bed.

If Rosé was telling the truth, Jennie was glad to die this way. Not feeling pain in her sleep.

She lifted her head when she caught a reflection of another young woman at the corner of her eye. It took her a moment to realize it was her, a fifty years younger version of her.

Jennie touched her face and the reflection in the mirror did the same.

"Why am I young?" Jennie asked Rosé through the mirror.

"The soul might have a different image from the body, it's not necessary to have the same image of the body you have now. I accompanied some younger soul with a much older body before." Rosé answered.

"How many times you have done this before?" Jennie turned to Rosé again.

"I stopped counting after a hundred."

"When you mean my room, does it mean the purgatory or heaven?" Jennie asked Rosé as she was raised in a catholic household.

"Even I have no idea what is waiting in your room, but I am sure it is not the purgatory or heaven nor hell. Your room will help you leave this world. I cannot assure you that you will like whatever is in your room but it is essential for you to visit it." Rosé told her and as she raised her hand for Jennie to hold.

"I understand." Jennie reached for Rosé's hand. She led her to a door that she said was her room.

"But that door is going outside this room," Jennie said.

"It is not now, It will lead us to a time or place you must be at."

Rosé nodded at Jennie as a signal to turn the knob.

A bright light crept out coming behind the door.

A field of greens welcomed them.

Jennie wandered her gaze at the place making sure it was the same place she knew and always remembered.

The wind was blowing fast the same as she remembered it.

"Do you recognize the place, Jennie?" Rosé asked her. Jennie felt a lump in as she nods.

How could she not recognize it? She knew this place like the back of her hand.

A screech from a distance caught their attention. They saw two girls coming off a bicycle and carefully going down the hill.

Jennie recognized them.

"Is that you Jennie?" Rosé asked.

"Yes, I am about to watch the sunrise with my best friend... Lisa."

The sound of Lisa's name coming from her lips left a bitter taste in and a throb on her chest.

"Do you want to go near them?" Rosé asked.

"But they might see us." Rosé shook her head. "They won't. We are just here to watch. We don't exist in this world." Rosé said.

As they walk nearer, Jennie's vision of Lisa got clearer, her eyes fixated on her.

The sun was almost up, and the field was getting brighter and so was Lisa's image. Jennie saw how Lisa looked at her, she felt the love from those brown eyes.

Jennie didn't want this scene to end. If the room intends for her to remember Lisa as she was now, she would gladly do so.

Rosé stood silently beside Jennie who was almost tearing up watching the teenagers closely.

Lisa stood from her sitting to picked up her bicycle. Jennie had the urge to pause the scene but she didn't know how.

"Jennie." Lisa said and the teenage Jennie turned to her.

"I like you... very much," Jennie knew how she felt after. Her heart almost burst of excitement and nervousness.

"I like you from the very first time I saw you." Lisa continued while gripping the handle of her bike.

Jennie couldn't hold her tears anymore, she sobbed with her head down. She felt Rosé caressed her back.

Jennie never knew how badly she wanted to hear those words again from Lisa until now. It was one of the happiest days of her life and yet the day she always regrets.

"I like you too, Lisa." The teenage Jennie answered back.

Jennie raised her head to watch them again. She saw how Lisa flustered. "I like you. That's why you're my best friend." She heard herself said.

Jennie shut close her eyes.

They've gone to the part she didn't want to remember.

"I lied to her," Jennie said to Rosé.

"I like Lisa more than just a friend, I loved her. The kind of love I never felt for someone else." Jennie continued.

"But why didn't you say so?" Rosé asked.

"I was a coward. I didn't know I was ready to face what I truly felt for Lisa. I was afraid of what will happen after. That's why regret this day, I never got the chance again to tell Lisa how I feel for her. If only I knew this was the only chance I get I shouldn't have wasted it." Jennie's voice cracked.

"Perhaps that's why the door brought you here, to make peace of yourself and to leave any regrets you have in your lifetime."

"But how? I couldn't change a thing. It all felt like yesterday." Jennie said in between her sobs.

"It doesn't matter how long it will take you until you forgive yourself. You can re-watch this a million times, time is irrelevant inside every room. It doesn't work the same way as in the living world."

And that's what Jennie did, she had lost count of how many times she watched the scene all over again. She watched it a thousand times until it finally hit her.

"...That's why you're my best friend." Pain was all over Lisa's face but she was still able to smile. The teenage Jennie sat at the back of Lisa's bike. She wrapped her arms around Lisa's waist.

"You are my greatest friend, Lisa. I'll never find another friend like you in this lifetime." She said to Lisa.

That's when Jennie took notice of Lisa's expression, she saw the softest in her eyes. Lisa turned her head to take a glimpse of Jennie at her back.

"Thank you, Jennie, I will also never find a friend like you in my lifetime."

Jennie saw it now. Lisa knew what she meant, Lisa knew her feelings all along, she felt it in her heart.

That's all that Jennie needed to know, that Lisa didn't leave this world not knowing how she felt for her.

"I think I'm ready to go now," Jennie said to Rosé.

--

Jennie turned the knob once again.

Both of them didn't know where the door would lead them next.

The place was crowded, children were running at every corner.

It was night time but the carnival was well lit and as colorful as Jennie remembers it.

They stepped out the doorway and Jennie noticed she was wearing different clothes now to the same dress she's wearing that actual night. She looked at Rosé that was still on the same white sundress.

"Do you remember this place?" Jennie nodded. If her room earlier was the day she always regrets, this time was the day heart was shattered. It was the night she was ready to tell Lisa that she loves her.

The same night Lisa died.

Jennie started to walk finding herself among the crowd. Rosé was behind following her.

"What are you looking for?" Rosé asked after some time.

"I'm looking for myself, of course," Jennie said as she stretched her neck looking at every corner.

"I was supposed to meet up with Lisa, but she never came," Jennie told Rosé.

"She was hit by a pick up on the way here." Her voice cracked again.

"It was supposed the same night I'll admit my feeling for her." She continued.

"That's why you said you never had another chance to tell her you love her after that morning?" Rosé asked and Jennie nodded.

"I don't know why the door leads us here. I don't understand what I should see from here." Jennie said.

"Jennie?" Jennie froze at her place. She still could remember that voice well.

She turned around and saw Lisa.

Her heart started to beat rapidly fast. For someone dying she felt so alive. Lisa started to walk towards her and yet she couldn't able to move a finger from where she's standing.

"You can see me?" Jennie asked Lisa who was standing now in front of her beaming with a bright smile.

"But how? Why are you here? I thought..."

"I don't know, I walked through a door and the next thing I know I am here."

Jennie realized that this was Lisa's room when she was dying. But Jennie couldn't understand why she was there.

"I don't know why I'm here but Jisoo told me it would help me find closure before I die." Lisa said.

Jennie looked at Rosé with confusion then she noticed a smaller lady beside Rosé. She was beautiful with dark hair like hers. Jisoo smiled at her before turning to Rosé, bowing their heads at the same time.

Even though still confused Jennie lets herself be at the moment.

"Is this the first room you've been to?" Jennie asked, Lisa's brows kneaded.

"Yes, how about you? You've been inside other rooms?" Jennie nodded.

"Does that mean you're..." Lisa wasn't able to finish what she had to say.

"Yes Lisa, I'm dying." Jennie said to Lisa.

"How did this happen?" Jennie asked Rosé.

"I told you, time doesn't work the same way inside the room. It doesn't run in just one direction." Rosé told her.

"How old were you?" Lisa asked Jennie.

"Old, like wrinkly old." Jennie said and they both laughed.

"I hope you had a good life." Lisa said.

"I did, but it wasn't the same without you." She answered.

Both of them went quite. They felt they were the people in the world.

"Tell me what I need to know to move on." Lisa said to Jennie.

She took a deep breath.

"I like you, Lisa."

"I already know that."

"More than just a friend. No, I am in love with you, even after you're gone. I stayed in love with you." Jennie said with all the courage she mustered.

Death had changed her. She wasn't afraid anymore. She wouldn't commit the same mistake again when she was living.

"I love you too, Jennie. I'm glad to finally hear it from you." Lisa said with the same soft expression Jennie had seen from the other room.

Jennie saw how Lisa's tears damped her cheeks. Jennie dried it up for her.

"So where do we go from here?" Lisa asked. They both turned to Rosé and Jisoo.

"We don't know what happens to any soul after they visit their rooms. But it seems like there is just one door waiting for both of you." Jisoo pointed passed Lisa and Jennie.

They saw a white wooden door behind them.

Jennie held Lisa's had, she's been wanting to do it for a long time.

"Go on, we will be behind you." Rosé said.

They walked towards the door holding each other's hand.

Both ready where the door will take them.

-End-

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Writing is hard. You'll find yourself wiping your own tears while writing a story then one thing led to another, your cursing yourself because you as a writer. Haha

Thank you so much for allotting time reading this story.