NOTE: This is an alternate ending.

*Italics are Sica's thoughts.

I felt the mattress shift, then a poke in my left cheek, and another…. And another. Gosh, did Soojung wake up already? I groaned in displeasure at the

interruption of my afternoon nap. I turned my body sideways in an attempt to discourage her from poking me. It was all, but successful as I heard a

playful giggle, and the poking on my cheek continued.

I will not budge from my afternoon nap, no. “Soojung-ah, stop it. Go back to sleep,” I said sleepily, hugging the pillow as closest to me as possible.

I smiled when I felt the poking stop.

“Umma… who’s Soojung?” Eh? My Soojung’s voice sounded a bit different. Does she have a co– Nah… she and her Unnie might be playing a prank

on me again.

“You are,” I tried to sound as uninterested as I could. Keke~ Umma won’t fall for it again.

I was expecting them to make some noises, but all I heard was silence. Weird… they would usually be noisy. Oh well, more sleep for me, I guess. My

eyes instantly flew open when I heard a soft whimper. Did I say something wrong?

I turned my body around to comfort my crying Soojung, “Oh, sweetie, what’s wro–” My eyes widened in shock, my mouth gaped open. I shot up from

bed instantly and rubbed my eyes to confirm if I was hallucinating… but I wasn’t. Is my mind playing tricks on me? I looked at the weeping child in

front of me, bewildered and shocked. The one poking me, the little girl in front of me was my daughter…

“Yoona?” I asked her and reached out to hold her hand, wondering if what I was seeing was real. She’s real… I quickly wiped her tears away, hushing her

not to cry. I gently pulled her into my arms and wrapped her into a tight embrace. Am I dreaming?

“Umma, you made Yoona sad. How can you call me, Soojung? I am not Soojung! Don’t you love Yoona anymore?” My daughter cried out in a shaky voice,

looking up at me with teary eyes, her lower lip out in a pout.

I leaned in to give Yoona a kiss on her forehead. “That’ll never happen. Umma was just dreaming about a little girl named Soojung, who looks so much

like Yoona.”

“Really?” She asked, looking astonished. I simply smiled at her and nodded in reply.

“Then that means Soojung is as pretty and cute as Yoona. Right, Umma?” Yoona asked with a hopeful look on her face.

“Yes, Yoona.” My child grinned. She leaned her head on my shoulder and tightened her arms around me.

I looked around nervously, trying to find a calendar and a clock. I spotted a cell phone on the bedside table. I unwrapped one of my arms from my little

girl and reached for the phone.

I looked down at the phone in my hands, dumbfounded. This phone… This was my old phone that I’ve used 7 years ago… What’s going on? I quickly

the device to look for the calendar. And I saw…

The month was November 2013, and the day was the 15th. This date… It can’t be… so today was the darkest day in my life; today was the day my Yuri died.

I scanned the room and noticed that there were sunrays seeping through the curtains of my bedroom window. I felt hope beginning to surface in my

heart. Then… that means that Seobang is still… I felt my heart beating loudly against my chest. I looked at the time at the upper right corner of the screen.

It read, 4:34.

~O~

I was sitting on the couch in the living room and kept glancing at the clock, as I watched Yoona trying to color Mickey Mouse from her coloring book on the

carpet floor.

5:45, the clock read. I remembered this scene happening 7 years ago. The lone difference between the past and the present was that my focus was

not on my daughter, but instead, it was on the grandfather clock ticking. I was waiting for the call. 50 minutes left. My heart’s beginning to beat fast. Wait! 

I think I'll call her! I immediately fetched for my phone on the coffee table in front of me to contact Yuri and warn her about what might happen.

I tried to ring her, only to hear... "The caller cannot be reached." Are you ing kidding me?! Yuri, you fool! Why is your phone turned off, for goodness sake?! 

I huffed in frustration and had the impulse to hurl my phone away until I was reminded that I wasn't alone in the room.

“Umma, look!” An odd-looking Mickey Mouse was shoved into my face, snapping me back to reality. I almost scolded Yoona for startling me, but the

adorable sight of her made me bite my tongue.

“Isn’t Mickey pretty?” My daughter asked me with a toothy grin on her face, fully expecting the answer that she wanted. I instinctively smiled at her,

momentarily easing my anxious heart.

I chuckled at the ridiculous and bizarre new appearance of Mickey Mouse, “Yoong… Mickey is a man, and he’s supposed to be colored black. Why did