Entry: September 12th, 11:10pm

Things just keep getting more interesting. I dozed off while reviewing my Japanese.

I fell asleep only to suddenly appear in that same corridor from yesterday. And the key that Seung-ho gave me was stringed around my neck. But the thin nightgown from yesterday was now gone and replaced with a hooded sweater, comfortable pants and warm boots. The cold wind, blowing cruelly through the windows, was of no threat to me anymore, and I headed toward the metal door with confidence, expecting to see Seung-ho. He was there. The same way I left him yesterday. He was sitting in his striped outfit, with the black-and-white hair, and handcuffs around his wrists. The candle was still on the ground. I could see his entire figure, leaning against the wall, his eyes closed.

"I'm back," I greeted him. He opened his eyes and the corner of his lips twisted in a tiny smile of relief.

"So you really did show up. Ready to face your new challenge?" he asked. I nodded.
"What do we do?"

"We dream. So that you can write a good story. First, shouldn't we leave this cell?"

"Sure. Where are we going?" I asked.

"That's up to you."

"How about somewhere healthier than here? Like... a forest?"

"The forest? What kind of a forest?"

"The kind that has mushrooms and birds and sunny meadows. And wolves."

"Sure. You do realize, that there's no backing out of this, right?"

"..."

"Your mind works in funny ways. Once you come up with an idea, it will become real. Real inside your dream, that is. You'll have to deal with the wolves."

"Fine," I said finally. "How do we get there?"
"That's also up to you," Seung-ho was clearly enjoying himself.

I looked around. How could I get out of this place? The corridor had windows but the only thing outside was an abyss of darkness. Not exactly the scenario I wanted. Alright, think clearly, I told myself. If there's no door to lead me out of here, I'll just have to make one... I grabbed the key and took it off my neck. Next, to the best of my abilities, I imagined a door right in front of me. It was wooden and smelled of pine trees. I could already imagine what was behind it. Seung-ho smiled in approval. He seemed to be able to see it as well, even though the door wasn't actually there. I stuck the key in the keyhole and turned it. As the key clicked, an actual door appeared around it!

When Seung-ho and I stepped through the door, we were standing in the middle of a forest. The trees were scarce and lots of sunlight passed through. Birds tweeted above, and a light, warm breeze blew through my hair. It was paradise. That is, until five seconds into the dream, when the wolves appeared.

They weren't big. They were huge. I had a hard time believing they were even wolves. How did creatures like that even creep into my mind?

The wolves took slow steps. Drool was coming out from in between their crooked teeth as they let out deep growls. We clearly weren't welcome. My mouth felt dry and my knees were shaking. The realization that I was in danger finally kicked in.

First of all, I ran. Not even looking back to check if Seung-ho was following, I dashed straight ahead. My head felt dizzy and I couldn't think straight. What can I possibly do? How can I survive this? Thoughts ran through my mind, but none of them useful. I glanced to the side and saw Seung-ho running right next to me, with a tiny smile on his face. He was enjoying this. I suddenly felt a wave of hatred towards him. This was all his fault.

"Focus," he said calmly. His hands were still chained together, and he was running barefoot. He was in a worse situation than I was. And yet, there was not a hint of worry in his voice. "What are you?"
"What?" I yelled back, panicking. "What am I?"
"Seol-hae, this is a dream, but its purpose is to lead you to a story. You need a character. What kind of a character are you?"

"I don't know, a coward? I can't think about this right now."

"You have to. No matter what situation you're in, you always have to come up with a solution. That's what makes you into a story-writer. Otherwise, you're nothing but a girl with clattered thoughts and no plot."

"Fine, uh..." I looked back. The wolves were running behind us, but wouldn't catch up. I had no doubt that they could. They were probably playing with us before attacking. Trying to make us tired. To make us give up. "How about a warrior? A warrior would be useful right now."

"What type of a warrior?" Seung-ho asked.

"Well, I'd rather not face all of those things at once. So no close-range battles. An archer."

"You're an archer?"
"Yeah..."

"That would explain the bow and the quiver full of arrows."

I blinked. I was still wearing my comfortable clothes from before, but now, swung behind my shoulder was a large, wooden bow and a set of twelve arrows. In a moment, I felt leather gloves forming around my hands, for protection. Now, all I needed was good aim.

I grabbed the bow and pulled out an arrow. I came to a sudden stop and pointed at one of the wolves. There were five of them, all coming straight at me. I took a deep breath and let go of the string. The arrow hit a tree right next to a passing wolf. I missed, but I was close. It gave me the courage to try again.

The biggest problem was, I couldn't keep stopping like this, unless I wanted to become supper. I needed to shoot from a safer location. Now that I look back at it, I wish I had a horse. But my brain wouldn't let the character's problem be solved so easily, so instead, we kept running.

My eyes were jumping from one tree to another, trying to find one that I could use. Finally, they landed on a tall, vertical tree with thinner branches - something I could climb, but the wolves definitely wouldn't be able to. Swinging my weapon back, I grabbed onto the branches and started climbing up. It was strangely easy. I felt light. Three meters up, I froze and looked down. Seung-ho was still on the ground, staring at the wolves, who suddenly sped up.

"Come on!" I yelled. He looked at me.

"Just keep climbing, Seol-hae. They might still reach you there."

"Grab my hand!"

"I said, keep climbing."

"I'm not moving up until you grab my hand!"

He sighed and took it. With his legs kicking against the trunk for support, I managed to pull him up. We sat on separate branches. I was a bit sweaty, shaking from the overflow of emotions, while Seung-ho relaxed next to me with a smirk on his face. His calmness was so annoying, for a moment I considered pushing him right out of the tree, but stopped myself in time.

I notched another arrow. The wolves were now directly below us, barking furiously and growling threats. I shot perfectly. One of them dissolved into thin air. Seung-ho cheered so loudly, I almost fell out of the tree myself.

"YEAH! GOOD JOB, SEOL-HAE! Just four more to go, ha ha!"

I have never seen him this noisy and bright before. He was smiling from ear to ear, and bouncing on his branch from excitement. The feeling that rushed into me at that point is really difficult to describe. It was the feeling of power and confidence that I always had while writing stories, but ten times stronger. It was probably because of the long gap between then and the last time I actually came up with something good to write about.

I got rid of the other wolves with only one miss. I had to say, my character was cool. I wouldn't mind being like this in my real life. The moment the last wolf disappeared, I dropped my bow and arrows to the ground. I was exhausted. Seung-ho cheered even louder.

"WHOOOOO! THAT WAS AWESOME! YOU ROCK! SEOL-HAE, YOU..."

His voice was cut by the loud snap of the branch beneath him and he fell. I screamed as his body hit the ground. I had tears in my eyes. I panicked. I slid down the tree, my hands rubbed against the trunk and turned bright red, but I didn't care. I ran up to him.

"Seung-ho! Are you alright?!" I coughed out. He stood up and scratched his head. Just like that.

"Yeah, sorry. I guess you didn't make those branches very stable in the dream, huh."

"What... you... you fell down like ten meters..." I mumbled, embarrassed. He was alright. He really was okay. No scratches, no bruises.

"Oh... were you scared?"

Was I scared? Was I scared?! I choked on my tears.

"You idiot! I thought you were going to die!"

"Seol-hae, calm down, you..."

Before he could answer, I slapped his face. His perfectly clean skin now was covered with my own blood. Seung-ho grabbed my wrists and looked at my hands.

"Goodness... you're bleeding."

"No kidding."

"Seol-hae, I'm sorry... uh... here, let me..."

"No," I interrupted. "You're not going to do anything. I came up with this problem and I will fix it. Let's go."

We walked in silence for a while. I wished Seung-ho wouldn't look at me. I stopped crying of course, but my face was still wet, my hair sweaty, and my hands were dripping with blood. Seung-ho was clearly worried, for he kept glancing at me with raised eyebrows. I wished he would stop. It felt really awkward and I was horribly embarrassed that I let myself freak out. So much for being the great hero.

I imagined hearing the sound of running water. I forced all other sounds to disappear, until all I could hear was the water, and after some time, I couldn't erase the sound from my head. The water became reality, in my dream.

We reached the creek in a minute and we washed ourselves there. My hands burned, but I remained in the water, scared to take them out. Seung-ho and I sat like that for a while, not daring to make a sound. I wanted to apologize for slapping him. He clearly wanted to apologize as well.

"You did a great job today," he finally said. It must have taken a lot of will, but he forced out a smile.

"Yeah, I could tell by your cheering," I answered.

"Seol-hae, you have a really peculiar mind, you know. It can do things bigger than you give it credit for. I mean, who else would have been able to dream up something like this and live it out like it's reality?"

"..."

"But don't forget. This is still only a dream. And I'm not really here. I'm not even a character in this story you're creating. So I can't die."

I couldn't answer. What could I say? Admitting that I was wrong to worry about him didn't sound too nice. Telling him that he was like a real friend to me seemed too honest. Saying that this seemed realistic enough to me made me seem crazy, but I stuck to that side.

"I wish this was reality," I mumbled. "Because, although it's crazy and difficult to live, it's fun and exciting, but not overwhelming. There's a perfect balance between adventure and peace," I told him, playing in the water.

"That's why it's your dream world," Seung-ho rolled his eyes. "It's made perfectly just for you. But think about reality instead. You control over this world is limited, Seol-hae, but not over reality. You should make the best out of your abilities to turn your reality into something you'd want to live every day. Escaping into your dreams isn't a crime, but don't let go of your reality just yet. Your imagination is good for more than just fantasy stories. You can surely use it to come up with a great way to balance out your everyday life."

I thought about it. How was I supposed to do that?

"I'm hoping to see you tomorrow," he concluded, getting up. He took the key from around my neck and turned it in the air. A new door appeared - a large, metal door with no knob. He pushed it open and passed through, into his cell. The moment the door closed behind him, I woke up.

Entry: September 13th, 9:15pm

Today was pretty good. Everything I dreamed yesterday seemed so real, I expected to be exhausted all day, but the wolf-chase had no effect on me. In fact, dreaming up the story made me more relaxed in school - I didn't feel as stressed, and I walked around with a smile, thinking of Seung-ho. He was one of my best characters yet, whether he admitted to being one or not.

And on my way home, I fell asleep on the bus again. It was even better than last night. Immediately upon falling asleep, I appeared in the corridor. I was wearing a normal blue T-shirt with a teddy bear on it, jeans, sneakers, and a bag over my shoulder. With a smile, I opened the door to Seung-ho's cell.

He was sitting by his table, grinning.

"Hey, Seol-hae! So how was your day?" he asked.

"Pretty good... I wrote down the story from last evening."

"How does it look?"

"Reading-worthy," I admitted. Although the cheesy moment with me crying over you could have been omitted, I added in my head.

"So, I was thinking that maybe for today, we could do something on a larger scale."

"How so?" he asked.

"Be the heroes for more than just us. Save a whole group of people. An entire school, maybe."

"That's great! But just so you know... your dreams don't always need to include fighting monsters and weird powers. You can be a hero in an everyday life situation too."

"Forget it. I deal with those in my real life. My dreams serve the purpose of giving me whatever I can never have in my real life."

"Alright," he patted me on the head. His hand was heavy and warm, and for a moment I forgot again that he wasn't real. How could someone so close and understanding not actually be standing right next to me?

"Let's go," I opened my imaginary glass door, and the two of us entered a school hallway.

It looked just like my old high school. I've only been in college for about a week, but I already felt a wave of nostalgia take over as I walked down the hall. I missed the place very much. It was here, where I made my best friends and did the most memorable things. Nobody around seemed to know me though, and I also didn't recognize any faces. It was my school, but it wasn't my school.

"This is weird..." I said. "I'm in a building I know, but in a life that doesn't belong to me."

"Well, make it yours, by placing yourself into another character's life," Seung-ho rolled his eyes. "When do you want to start?" he asked.

"Right away. Do you hear that?"

A loud rumbling came from the outside. The kids in the lunchroom all whined when it started pouring. They'll have to go home in the rain.

"A storm? Why would you want a storm in your story, if we're inside the building anyway?" Seung-ho asked. I ran up to the windows.

"It's not a storm," I smirked. "Look at the drops! They're worms!"

Seung-ho narrowed his eyes to see better, then suddenly widened them in disbelief.

"What... huh. That's interesting."

"They were dropped on us by a spaceship. Some kind of alien beings attacked us. Those things are dangerous! We have to keep everyone inside the building, so that nobody touches the worms!" I told him and he nodded.

"How do we keep everyone in?"

"First of all, we have to lock all the doors to the school, from the inside. And make sure that even the faculty and staff won't be able to open them."
"How do you do that?"

"We use this," I showed him the key he gave me two nights ago. So far, improvising worked just fine.

"I made that key so that you can enter dreams. It won't work as a normal key would. You can't just lock doors with it, Seol-hae."

"You want to bet?" I asked. I felt a rush of energy and excitement. I didn't know exactly what I was doing, but somehow this felt good. As a story-writer, I was in control, and there was nothing that could burst my confidence. It was the strangest feeling ever, and I missed it very much over the past weeks. I looked back at Seung-ho, who quickly followed. We ran downstairs and I began locking all doors from the inside. Now that I look back at it, my school's doors didn't even have keyholes on the inside of the building, but it seemed obvious that they should inside the dream, so I absolutely didn't find that strange.

"Don't you think the staff has spare keys?" Seung-ho asked. I nodded.

"They do, but they won't work."

"How come?"

"Because this key," I held up the string. "Is only good for creating dreams."

"That's what I told you..."

"So by turning it inside each of these doors, I transformed those doors into dream doors. And only you and I can enter my dreams. All other keys will be useless."

Seung-ho paused, a bit confused. He tried processing what I just said, then nodded, slowly catching up.
"So behind each of the school doors, that originally led to the outside, is now a dream of yours?"
"Yeah. And behind each, I imagined the exact same dream. The alien invasion."

"So nobody can exit the school?"

"Exactly. And they're safe as long as they stay inside the school."

"But Seol-hae. These are now doors to your dreams. Not only can nobody go through them, nobody can even see them. That means that everyone in the school will now be convinced that all the doors disappeared. They will panic. They will break the walls."

Darn. Didn't think it through that far.

But before anybody managed to go insane and smash holes in the walls, something else happened. There was a scratching noise to our side and the wall next to us broke. The entire pack of dirty little worms slid inside the building, one on top of another. In a moment, I wasn't looking at little worms anymore. They all formed one huge, blue-and-gray larvae-like thing with pointy yellow teeth. Its bulging eyes danced around before landing straight on me, and then it charged.

It felt disgusting when I jumped to the side and its greasy skin rubbed against me. It left some sort of white goo on my jeans, which began burning a hole straight through the material. I rubbed it off against the floor with a scream. It came off, but my knee was burning red.

The worm turned around, ready to come at me again, but I already had a plan. The soles of my sneakers stretched like gel, until they connected together and formed a board attached to the bottoms of my shoes. The hover-board floated up, and I flew through the hallway, barely keeping my balance. For a moment, I even managed to forget that I was being chased by a giant worm alien, and laughed. It was fun, is all I can say. But then a ball of white goo sped past me and hit the wall, bringing my thoughts back to the monster, and burning a decent-sized hole in the plaster.

I twisted my legs slightly, making the board turn in the air, and I faced the enemy. The alien didn't stop even for a second. It seemed even more blood-thirsty than the wolves, and much less likely to be stopped by an arrow going through its head. Any blade would probably just go straight through it. And if it can't be cut, it needs to be burned. I needed an explosion.

I flew right over the alien, and headed for the stairs. Seeing my sudden U-turn, Seung-ho rolled his eyes and turned as well, running after me. We went down into the basement, and the alien followed. I can't even express how lucky we were that no students ever hung out in this part of the school. We did run into a security guard though, and I seized the opportunity to grab his walkie-talkie. I called out the names of all the deans and the principal, and warned that the school shall be evacuated. The danger wasn't outside anymore. It was right here. Then I realized what a mistake I had done earlier. All the doors in the school were locked. Only Seung-ho and I could go through them.

"Grab anything heavy and sharp and crash through the walls," I ordered. "It's an emergency, hurry! There are already a couple of exit holes made on the south side of the building," I said, remembering the alien's attack. "Direct all closest students in that direction, and move them as far away from the school as possible within the next five minutes."

With that, Seung-ho, the alien, and I all headed for the kitchen. I don't know what happened to the guard, but I hoped he was smart enough to move out of the way. The hallway was long, but we didn't see anyone else on the way. Either they listened to my warning, or the basement just wasn't as well-protected as I thought. Just in case, I pulled the closest fire alarm and it blared noisily through the hall.

I flew into the kitchen on my hover-board and jumped off, running for the food. I grabbed as much meat as I could hold and threw it all at the monster. Clearly it liked fried chicken, because it automatically got distracted with the meat and gave me another half a minute to prepare the trap. I stuffed the huge furnace with any can and bottle I could get my hands on. Then, I turned the heat all the way up. In less than a minute, this place would no longer exist.

Now, a new problem: not only did we have to make it out of the building safely, we had to make sure that the worm thing stayed in the kitchen for the explosion. Knowing that at best it would delay the alien by a minute, I began grabbing random carts and tables and pushing them against the door. Seung-ho, seeing my crazed eyes, decided to help out. The alien quickly noticed that we were plotting something, and turned away from the meat. Hungry for some raw humans, it roared and slid after us. This was a really bad situation. I was feeling tired, my eyes got watery yet again, and my knee started hurting, as if suddenly remembering that it got burned earlier. And with that annoying thought, I got an idea.

"Get down on your knees!" I yelled out to Seung-ho. He didn't listen, and just kept staring at me in disbelief.
"What?"

"I have to get on your back!"

He frowned, but did as I told him. I climbed onto his back and held on to a lamp on the ceiling. I was so exhausted, I could barely hold my body up in the air. I told Seung-ho to move away. He did so, and I pulled myself up closer to the ceiling, with both my feet and head touching it. I had to hold on. Just a little longer.

The familiar whoosh came a second later, and I let go. Where I was hanging a moment ago, a white ball of plasma smashed into the ceiling. I fell down to the ground. Pain exploded in my back, but I forced myself to roll over. Some of the plasma dropped down to the floor, where my head was a second earlier, burning a hole in the tiled floor as well. The worm froze, confused. It clearly expected me to be dead, and while it glared at me in denial, I pulled Seung-ho over to the hole. Getting on his back again, I climbed up through the ceiling, from the basement, to the first floor. I accidentally rubbed my hand against some of the plasma. It burned, but I was so focused on escaping, that my mind blocked out the pain for some time. I held out my other hand to Seung-ho and pulled him up.

We climbed up just as the worm woke up. It roared and glared at us from below, unable to climb. It had to burst through the obstacles we set up, go slide down the entire hallway and up the stairs to catch up with us, but we didn't stick around to check if it succeeded. We dashed at full speed. I took out the key and unlocked a door. We ran outside.
"All the students and faculty are waiting two blocks down from the school," I pointed out. Just as we crossed the street, the explosion happened.

The sound was horrifying, even if it did happen deep in the heart of the school. The building shook slightly, but no damage was done from the outside. Just as I began relaxing, knowing that the worm was dead, the heat came in a wave and only got worse with each second, and I wondered if maybe I was on fire. I began shaking and my body ached and burned and for a moment I forgot about Seung-ho. It was definitely the scariest but also most realistic experience I've ever had in a dream so far. Without a doubt, I could never forget this, even if I didn't write it down in this journal.

"Seung-ho!" I finally croaked out. I couldn't see anything. My vision was blurry and tears poured out, as the burning pain of rubbing my limbs on the plasma kicked in. Every little move sent pain down my spine and through my legs and arms, so I decided not to move. I would just die there. Then maybe wake up in reality, and never be able to write a story again.

I gritted my teeth, trying not to yelp in pain, when a pair of hands grabbed my shoulders and picked me up. I opened my eyes slightly, and through the tears I saw stripes, black and white. I pressed my face against them, and waited for the pain to pass. But it didn't.

The sirens wailed, but I didn't get to see if the school was alright, or if anybody got injured. Seung-ho took me several blocks further, walking through the alleys, before stopping in someone's backyard. I didn't even have to worry about the owners of the yard catching us; most of the neighborhood was now crowding around the school, worried about the children, curious about the commotion.

"Thank you," I told Seung-ho when he placed my body on the cool grass. Everything still hurt, but emotionally, I felt better. No more crying. No more panic. We were safe.

"That was really dangerous..."

"Well, of course. We wouldn't be the main characters of this story if we weren't able to survive something a bit more risky, right?"

"'We?'"

"Seung-ho, no matter how you look at it, you're helping me. Whether you meant for this to happen or not, you're one of the characters in my dreams," I explained.

He was speechless.

"I... that..." he stammered.

"And now I need healing," I interrupted him. "Or I might actually die, unlike you. Does it look really bad?"

He hesitated, then nodded. It felt really bad, too. Every part of my body burned from the inside, and I could barely stand speaking.

"Then heal me."

"Should I have taken you to the ambulance?"

"No, no! I don't need doctors, Seung-ho. You have healing powers."

His eyes grew.
"No. Don't do this, Seol-hae. Don't give me powers. I can't be a character in this story. I'm only your mentor. Your imagination."

"I told you, not anymore. You're a part of the dream."

"I'm not your character! Do you understand? I don't exist!"

I sighed. I've never seen Seung-ho this scared before. Why was he being like this? He always smirked when I was in danger, always cheered when I'd do well, always rolled his eyes when I was confused. Until that moment, he seemed like someone who knew everything, someone relaxed, who didn't have to worry about the slightest things, because all things came to him easily. But there he was, revealing a weak spot to me. And he clearly didn't like it.

"If you're not a character, why did you bend down your knees to let me climb through the ceiling? Why did you bring me here, instead of letting me die in pain?" I snapped. He really did look frightened. His face seemed much younger now, like that of a little boy, who was about to admit to his parents that he broke something expensive they bought. He felt guilty, and scared out of his wits. He gulped. Then, he reached down, and hugged me. With his hands pressed against my back, I should have screamed out in pain, but truthfully, all the irritation subsided. He poured his powers into me, and my discomfort and agony disappeared in a minute. When he pulled away, I looked down at my knee. It was clean underneath the hole in my jeans. I stretched, and my back felt great. I could see clearly, and move freely. A smile spread across my face.

"Now it's official."

Seung-ho sighed.

"I can't believe I played along with your little idea. This is ridiculous."

"Oh, come on. What's bugging you?"

He thought about it.

"Now that you made me into your character... I'm just like you."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"Well... I can die. Any character in a crazy story like this might die."

The words took a moment to sink in.

"You can... die? But... what happens when you die? Since you're my imagination..."

"Let's just say you'd have some trouble writing your stories in the future."
I gulped.

"Alrighty then," Seung-ho interrupted, smiling optimistically. "I'll see you tomorrow."

I nodded and pulled out my key. I didn't really want to leave. Seung-ho was the most fascinating person to talk to. I knew many people interested in writing, in fantasy. But nobody took it any further than a sheet of paper and a pen. Nobody could make their dream worlds this realistic.

"I wish I didn't have to go..."

"But you do."

"But I'm so stressed in reality! I get along with people, but there's nobody else that understands everything I say, but you."

"Then hold it in for now, and you'll tell me everything you want to say tomorrow."
"Can't you come with me?"
Seung-ho's face turned from highly amused to serious.

"This isn't a joke, Seol-hae. Don't take this too far."

"What do you mean?"

"The only reason you're able to have this dreams is thanks to me. If I was human, there would be no one to play this role in my place. Don't take it too far. You might get too accustomed to me being realistic, you know. I don't want you to let go of reality, Seol-hae."

I almost dropped my key. Was he thinking that I would commit suicide to be able to stay in my dream world forever? Seeing my reaction, Seung-ho slapped his forehead.

"God, I shouldn't have said that..."

"No, no, it's alright. I won't do anything stupid, I promise," I told him. He frowned, and I walked through the door, back to reality.