・ s e v e n ・
Branded ・ As ・ y o u r sChapter Seven First Kindness
I screamed, sitting upright as quickly as I could. My hands shot to my stomach, looking for the embedded knife I knew would be there. Only... It wasn't. I patted the area in a panic, sure it had to be there...
"Hana?" Dara stepped in the room, her eyes lit up in worry as she rushed towards me.
"D... Dara?" I murmured, hand still on my stomach.
She smiled at me, the action not quite reaching her eyes like it normally did.
"You're okay." She assured me. "You just fainted on the way home from school."
"What?" I looked around at the unfamiliar room I was in. "Where am I?"
"My house." She grinned, the first genuine emotion she seemed to have displayed. "It's your first time in my room so I'm a little embarrassed."
Her room was exactly like its owner; unique. It reminded me of the bedroom I'd always wanted when I was younger; a complete princess room. I was surrounded by pinks, purples and glitter, yet it worked.
"Dara what the Hell happened to me?" I whispered, feeling my eyes sting with unshed tears. "I had this crazy dream that I was stabbed and it felt so real but..." I touched my stomach again, this time a little harder.
Not even a sting. There's no way I could have been stabbed.
"I told you, on your way home you fainted. I kept calling because your mum was getting worried but you wasn't answering, so I asked Myungsoo to go find you. He said he found you in some alleyway passed out."
"Why would I be in a-" I paused. "The kittens." I whispered.
Dara frowned. "What kittens?"
"He... He said there was kittens, so I went to look and..." I broke off with a choke of fear and hugged my stomach, drawing my knees up to my chin. "I'm sorry." I laughed shakily. "I just... The dream felt so real. I'm not even sure what was real or not right now. Everything seems to have merged to the point where I can't focus on where I must have passed out and my dreams began..."
"You must have dreamt of going into the alley where you fainted and had a nightmare about it." She offered. "Sometimes our minds do that as a coping mechanism. We don't like to think we just fainted, so our minds make up a different turn of events, you know?"
"You have no idea how vivid it was, though." She patted my hand comfortingly. "I blame you guys, anyway."
"What.. Why?" She asked, her face paling of colour.
"For telling me Tao was a bad guy. That's probably why I had such a weird dream about him."
"Oh." She laughed uneasily. "Yeah, I suppose so."
"What was your dream about?" I looked over to the door to see Myungsoo coming in, his dark eyes locked on mine.
I felt my chest tighten at the sight of him and my stomach tingle - in a good way. I rubbed the tingling spot and looked away, feeling flustered. Just the sight of him had me almost swooning and my reactions made me feel silly. Before all I had wanted to do was run away from him, hide somewhere and avoid him as much as possible... But right now I had a weird and terrifying urge to throw myself at him. To touch him, because somehow my mind seemed to think his touch would make everything better. Obviously I had hit my head when I had fallen because it was ridiculous. I forcefully squashed the feeling, mortified at myself for feeling so... Out of control. This wasn't like me, I didn't think like this. I wasn't that girl from k-dramas who fell fro the .
As he neared he offered me mug of hot tea, which I accepted gratefully and sipped, searching for a distraction. But the pair stared me, obviously wanting me to answer Myungsoo's question. Heaving a sigh I placed the tea down on the side table and bit my lip.
"I had a dream I got stabbed." I explained, feeling embarrassed.
"You should talk about it." He suggested, sitting down at the end of my bed right where my feet had been. "It might help you distinguish between what's real and not."
My heart leaped at his proximity and I shuffled, putting more distance between us, an action he seemed to notice since he raised a single brow in question.
"I suppose." I admitted at last, looking more at Dara. "I mean, it's silly really. I was walking home and then I bumped into Tao- Well, not bumped. He jumped out of the alleyway and scared me. He began telling me about some kittens in the alley and how they'd die if no-one saved them so I went to go look. I was calling for them when..." I swallowed and rubbed my cold arms. "Somebody seemed to appear next to me and they..." I made a stabbing motion.
"Then what?" Dara urged gently.
"That's it." I shrugged. "I think I might have called you, or you called me, I can't remember... That parts really hazy. The pain was awful, it hurt so bad..."
"What did you and Tao talk about exactly?" He demanded suddenly
"You mean about the kitten?" I frowned. "Just that they don't have animal protective services here like they do in America. I was worried, so I wondered if maybe I could ad
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