It was the third day since Chanyeol arrived from New York.  He had spent the other day unpacking and arranging his stuff.  If Kris had not called to check on him that day, he would have forgotten to take his lunch.

After fixing his stuff, he finally called his mom and asked to meet her the following day.

"Chanyeol-ah, please stay at our house, will you?" She insisted, digging into her cake.   They were seated opposite from each other, having a lunch at a restaurant. 

Chanyeol was drinking a mug of a hot chocolate drink.  His mother eyeing him all this time, waiting for him to agree.

"Mom, have you tried asking for a second opinion from another hospital?"

"Don't change the topic now and yes I have done so and it had the same result.  So, are you moving in our house? This mother of yours might be dying soon and I just—"

"Nobody is dying." Chanyeol said firmly, his eyes fiery with anger.  He felt so agitated by the statement that he unconsciously held on to this breath for a few seconds. 

"Nobody is dying.  Nobody." he repeated the phrase, without looking into his mother's eyes.  It seemed like he was trying to repeat the phrase for himself to convince. 

"Nobody." he said one last time, staring at the floor.  His vision became blurry as tears formed in his eyes.

"I'm sorry, I won't speak of that again.  Yes, nobody is dying, alright?" his mom said, hoping she could take her words back.

"Alright?" she asked one more time, now wanting an eye contact. 

Chanyeol blinked and tears fell.  He immediately wipe away his tears.  He started to giggle to himself, trying to get rid of the sad atmosphere, and then smiling to his mother.  "Alright. This is no time to be sad."

"Why don't we go to an exhibition later?  It's from your favorite painter."  She suggested with a knowing smile.  
Chanyeol lit up, showing his dimples in his smile. 

  - --

Their arms were intertwined as they walked around the exhibition room.  They stopped by at different paintings, discussing which one is better. 

"Chanyeol-ah," his mom called for his attention, arms still intertwined.  "How is your relationship with Stacey?"

Chanyeol felt uncomfortable with the question.  "Mm, we're fine." He managed to answer naturally. 

"Is she upset that I had to ask you to come back to Korea for the meantime?"

"No, not really."

Upon hearing his reply, she let out a heavy sigh.   "Ah, that's a relief."  she said as she leaned on her son's shoulder who was far more taller than her.  If not for the heels she was wearing, no way can she lean on his shoulder. 

"Chanyeol-ah, will I ever be able to have a glimpse of my grandchildren?"

"Mom, didn't we talk about this already? Nobody is dying."

"No, that's not what I meant.  The doctors said I might become blind.  I might survive but what if I become blind by the time you get married?" She expressed her worry. 

Chanyeol couldn't answer.  He wasn't even sure anymore if he will be able to marry Stacey.   If it was really right to marry Stacey, the girl he had been dating and been loving for years. The girl who loved him back very much.  The girl who was the only reason to make him feel that his birthday every year was a blessing.  A blessing that he was alive and together with Stacey. 

And here he was, doubting.  

"Don't worry about those things okay." he managed to speak despite his brain being in a mess. 

"We will find a way to avoid you getting permanently blind.  That is why I am here, right?" Chanyeol leaned on his mother's head.  She caressed his arms and said, "And I am very blessed to have you here."

"That is why, you should get well very soon." he lifted his head and pulled his mother closer.  They continued to walk on around the exhibition room, only to talk about their plans and not the paintings on the wall.

"When will you be admitted into the hospital?" he asked.

"Next week.  You should visit me often okay?"

"I'll be there everyday."

"That's better." she smiled.

"Mom, does dad know about this?" he began to ask.  
"He knows I'm sick.  He asked me to be admitted soon before it's too late.  He wanted to take a leave in his office but I stopped him."

Chanyeol remained silent.

"Your dad is being good to me.  You should forgive him.  It wasn't his fault about what happened to your sister."  

He continued to remain silent.

"Consider it." his mom metioned.  
"In time, I will, but not now." he replied in a flat tone.

In time, he will. That time seems to be longer than it might take him. 

----

He gets out of the car and there he was again, standing on the steep road of the street.  He was now in front of Minseok's house. 

His mom was waving goodbye to him from the car window.  As soon as the car left, he made his way into the house.  The lights were turned off, he assumed that Minseok had not arrived yet.

He decided to take a quick shower when he gets in. 

Finally done showering, he changed into his sleeping clothes.  A towel hung on his neck while he checked on his android phone.  Thankfully, Minseok had internet in the house.

He sat on the side of his bed, right hand busy browsing while the other was drying his hair with the towel.  
There was a notice that he had 1 new unread email. 

It was an email from a mentor in his school back in New York.  He reminded him of his composition.  He did not bother to reply but instead, he checked his spam folder.  There was about 300 emails in his spam.  He decided to delete them all but then he noticed one email that had no Subject. 

It made him curious so he unselected it to prevent it from being deleted together with the other emails. 

The emails were finally deleted except for one that he kept.  He opens it and it read,

Lucid Dreaming. (Sleep Paralysis)
It is a kind of a dream wherein you are aware that you are dreaming.  You can control what you do in your dream.  You can do anything.  Travel different places or be able to summon power. 

Steps: 
1.) Lie on your bed, facing the ceiling and your hands at your sides. 
2.) Close your eyes and do not sleep.  Listen to everything around you.  You will come to a stage wherein you would want to to roll over or move your eyes; ignore it. 
3.) Once you are in a lucid dream, you may verify if you really are.  One, turn on/off a light switch.  In a Lucid Dream, it will never show any effect.  Another way is to look at the mirror. You will never be able to see your own reflection. 
4.) Once you are certain that you are in a Lucid Dream, do whatever you want to do. 
5.) How do you wake up? Simply lie down on a bed in your dream and then open your eyes.  If you wake up and realize you are still in a dream, try to sit down on the bed first and then lie on it. Open your eyes and you should be able to wake up in reality. 

He wanted to know if such thing really existed, after all, it was from a Spam Email.  Within seconds, the search engine gave him a bunch of informations about how it was done.  He typed, "Is Lucid Dreaming real?" and waited for the results. 

The first result was from yahoo answers.  An answer says that it was real and nothing was supernatural about it.  It added that it was just a self awareness in a dream. 

"Cool." he said.  After a while of research, he felt sleepy and tired.  He closed his browser and placed his phone under his pillow. 

He felt for his hair and it was dry enough.  He took the towel from his shoulder and rolled it into a ball.  He set his eyes on an empty basket opposite him, just beside his wardrobe.  It took him a good 5 seconds to set his aim and threw the roll of towel into the basket.  Sad to say, it didn't get in. Chanyeol forcefully stood from his bed and placed the towel in the basket properly. 

As soon as he did so, he plunged into his bed for no apparent reason.  He just liked the feeling it gives him. 

He was now facing the ceiling, his legs sprawled in his bed.  The longer he stared at the lights, random thoughts came into his mind. 

Should I try it? he thought. 

He did not have to answer himself.  He exhaled and inhaled, preparing himself for what he was about to do.

He then shut his eyes. But then he realized that he had forgotten something.

"Ah, the lights!" he jumped out from his bed and turned off the lights.

At long last, he was sure he had not forgotten anything. He positioned himself in his bed comfortably.  Remembering all the steps that was listed in the email, Chanyeol started with meditation. 

For the first five minutes, his thoughts were filled with random things.  His mother, Stacey, his father, the cat's neighbor and the steep road of the street.  He forced himself to ignore all these. This is harder than I thought. He deemed.

When he finally did so, his thoughts were now aware of the beating of his heart.  His breathing, the crickets outside, the cars.  He became aware of all sorts of sound. 

And then, he started to dream.