Hyoyeon’s point of view

I woke up to the sweet sound of birds chirping, the aromatic smell of flowers… and to the clear blue sky?!

“Where am I” I anxiously asked as I pulled myself up and scanned the surroundings.

“No! Not again.” I cried. I’m in the park again. Somehow strangely for the 5^th time during these 2 weeks, I’ve been sleepwalking to this park that’s right next to my house. The thought of roaming about while I’m unconscious frightens me. Some people walk around in the house when they sleepwalk and some even commit homicide… luckily all I do is sleep walk to the park and end up sleeping on one of the benches there but isn’t that terrifying, waking up in a place besides your home when you were pretty sure that you slept in your room the night before? Fortunately however, when I sleepwalk I take the path in the back of my house to a secluded part of the park and sometimes my dad realizes that I’m sleepwalking so he follows me.

“Oh there he is,” I sighed in relief. He was also sleeping on a bench right beside my bench. I felt sorry for having to involve my dad into this and mad at myself for having this illness (is it even an illness?) especially right after what happened to my mom and how we struggled to endure it…

‘This can’t be happening to me. I don’t even know if it’s curable’ I thought, recalling the dialogue between my dad and my doctor a couple of days ago when we visited his office after I sleepwalked for the 3^rd time.

Flashback

“I’m afraid we can’t give her medication especially sleep pills,” Mr. Lee, my doctor replied to my dad’s question. “Her sleepwalking will get worse with those sleeping pills because in a way they induce sleep walking… Now her sleepwalking is the result of sleep loss, stress, environmental problems, medications, or hereditary genes.”

“Hereditary genes?” my dad half uttered and half asked. “My wife sleepwalked when she was a kid but she eventually grew out of it and my other daughter doesn’t seem to have it. Just Jin Ae, but it’s only been recently too”

“It’s really common in kids and they do grow out of it but it may also be an inherited disorder on a gene passed down only to your daughter. Since she’s beginning to mature, it starts to kick in but that’s really rare so I think it’s more of a combo of sleep deprivation, stress, and environmental factors. Do you know if she was stressed out about anything?”

“That’s more likely because after my wife…”

I couldn’t bear to listen anymore. I gently walked away from the door where I was eavesdropping on them and took a stroll outside. I felt extremely guilty for making my dad worry and have to deal with another person’s illness after we’d just lost my mother due to bladder cancer.

End of flashback

“Appa.” I had gotten up from the bench and started to poke him.

“Hmm?” He began to stir.

“We’re in the park again.”

“Oh yea, that’s right,” he said as he got up. “I followed you here yesterday night after you stepped over that string of bells that I put out to wake me up in case you start sleep walking again and you did.”

“I’m sorry appa. I made you worry again and stayed here with me instead of going home because you’re afraid to disturb me.”

“Silly dear, it’s not your fault. Now let’s get home before Seohyun wakes up and discovers we’re missing.”

“Arasso.”

We walked home and as I opened the back door,

“You sleepwalked again?” Seohyun, my younger sister, asked.

I nodded slowly.

“Gwenchana?”

“Yea, I’m just tired of always doing this and bothering you guys.”

“What are you saying?!” they both said in unison.

“We’re family, aloha remember?” Seohyun said.

A smile formed on my face at that remark.

“Okay, let’s get into the house now. Clean yourselves up & wait in the living room for me. I have something to tell both of you.”

“Yes sir.” We both replied. I felt something bad coming but I didn’t say anything.

 After we both brushed our teeth and washed our faces, we waited anxiously for our dad in the living room. We had both sensed the serious tone in his voice before and it made us both uneasy. He calmly walked out of the first floor’s bathroom with a grin on his face towards the living room.

“Girls” he started. “Pack your stuff because we’re moving to Incheon!”

“Moving?!” Seohyun and I shout in unison.

“That’s awesome! I want to go to Incheon!” Seohyun proclaimed.

“But we’re about to start school in 2 weeks dad and it’s my last year at high school. Why are we moving?” I questioned.

“I thought about it last night while at the park and I decided that a change of environment would help your sleepwalking problem, besides it would ease you from everything that’s happen here in Chuncheon.”

“But what about you appa, your work is here and all of Seohyun's friends and my friends are here. Besides we don’t have money to move, we spent most of it on mom’s medication and surgical procedures.”

“Don’t worry about the money, we still have some from your mom’s insurance and we’re going to sell this house too. The architecture firm that I work for is opening a chain company in Incheon and they were asking me to relocate so I thought it was the right opportunity since we need to change environments for you too. About friends, you can always make new friends. Both of you are bright and sweet, you’ll make new friends in no time.”

“But what about… mom?” I questioned something I shouldn’t. “She’s buried here.”

My dad sighed, then he calmly said, “Your mom would want you to forget about everything unfortunate and move on. This will be like an extended family vacation and we could come back after you graduate from high school and after we help you stop sleepwalking too.”

“You’re right. None of you are going to regret right? Ok, let’s do this!”

“What’s there to regret at Incheon? It’s amazing there; my friend said it’s the best place ever.” Seohyun added.

“Arasso, now start packing. I’ll go get tickets to leave in 10 days, in the meantime, empty this house and take care of all your goodbyes.” 

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Note: It might be a little boring at first but I needed to include the introduction to make the story flow and make sense. 

& Thanks for reading :)