The next few days forced me to reconsider the priorities in my life.

I had always thought I had it all figured out and knew what was important to me, what I had to achieve in order to satisfy myself in the future. That’s why I’d moved to Seoul to study accountancy, found my own apartment, started a relationship with Luhan – everything had seemed to be going well, according to my dreams and plans. But apparently, I was completely wrong. My friendship was a lie. My love was a lie. And I had turned out to be the most selfish person on the planet.

But was it really only my fault?

I’d loved Luhan and had always tried to show him how much he meant to me. But according to Mina, my love had been suffocating him to the extent that he had decided to leave me behind and face his life alone, although he had said he loved me. Even Mina had said he loved me. Damn, my stupid heart as well kept assuring me that Luhan still felt something towards me.

But why the hell did he leave then? Why did he go so far as to leave the city and run to Ulsan, sending me only a stupid short message to take care of everything? This is what I couldn’t understand no matter how much I thought about it.

“So you’ve changed your mind and decided to see me again?”

Still sitting on the floor, I turned around to see my companion for the night. The lady in her perfect two-piece dress and make up had appeared from out of nowhere, making the whole room colder with her presence. But this time I didn’t even flinch. Funny how I had gotten used to her, not scared anymore.

I raised my brows in confusion, still unwilling to stand up from the floor. I shrugged half-heartedly. “It’s not like I have a choice, right?” I stated, a bit irritated, mostly because of the message Luhan had sent me a few hours ago. “I mean, you would’ve bothered me anyway, even if I didn’t want to meet you again.”

My older self scoffed, taking her place next to me, sitting now on the cold floor alongside me. Pulling her knees to her chest, she embraced them and turned her head to face me. “Wrong,” she said softly, with a faint smile pulling up the corners of her lips. “We’re meeting again because you wanted to. I can’t force you to do the things I want; it doesn’t work like that.”

“Then how does it work?” I asked, mimicking her pose and grabbing my ankles, placing my right cheek on knees while still maintaining eye contact with my future self. When she looked at me I continued, trying to get the important information out of her. “How is it possible to see you in my dreams? What do you do to travel between future and past and why? Why did you actually decide to pay me a visit?”

I threw every question popping up in my head at her, but she didn’t say anything. Each passing second convinced me more and more of how much she didn’t want to tell me anything. I couldn’t say if I was more scared of the silence or the truth I might at any minute hear coming from . Maybe that’s why my heart skipped a beat when I heard her heaving a sigh before speaking again.

“Didn’t I already tell you why I’m here?” she said calmly, looking straight ahead. I couldn’t help but scoff.

“Well to be honest, you didn’t tell me much, you know? It would be nice to know what’s going to happen and avoid mistakes, instead of making assumptions and wondering what the hell is going on. Or at least try to convince me it’s true, because right now I’m sure it’s a horrible nightmare and I just need to wake up.”

“But it is a nightmare. The future I know isn’t that bright, Su Jin,” she said with a hint of pain in her voice. Then she sighed again, closing her eyes for a short moment. “I will answer all your questions, but first you need to understand. Believe before it’s too late. I’m giving you a chance to fix your life; it’s like a one million dollar prize, Su Jin. I can go away if you want me to. I can also stay and help you if you want me to. But I won’t make the choice for you. You’re the one who has to choose – everything is in your hands now.”

I don’t know whether she did it on purpose or not, but her words were like a heavy burden on my shoulders, and I felt like I wouldn’t be able to stand up with this weight dragging me down. As she had said, the game was on. The ball was on my side of the court; I just needed to gather my courage and return it with one quick hit before everything was over. But right now, I felt too hopeless and disoriented to make a move. I didn’t know what game we were actually playing. No one had explained the rules, no one had bothered to tell me what the prize was and what consequences were awaiting me should I mess up. I didn’t even know who my opponent was.

But one thing was clear: it was a game of life or death, and we were running out of time.

I took a shaky breath and ruffled my hair with annoyance, whining loudly. Even if I was simply going insane and the things happening around me weren’t true, I couldn’t let someone die. Especially not if that person was Luhan. I fixed my eyes on my shoes and buried the rest of my sanity in the back of my head. “Isn’t my presence here enough proof? I made up my mind already, so tell me what’s going to happen and how I can change the future.”

She sent me a quick glance, as if she needed a confirmation of my words, and then returned to staring into the darkness in front of us. “There are a few things you need to know before everything starts.”

“Like what?”

“Like why I’m here in the first place,” she said in a low voice.

I furrowed my brows in confusion. “Isn’t that obvious? You already told me that I need to save my friend from dying.”

“Exactly.” She nodded and looked at me with an indifferent expression on her face. For a moment she looked like someone deprived of any emotion, unable to feel, and it scared me more than having these nightmares. She silently studied my face for a moment before opening again. “But do you actually know who is going to die?”

That question caught me off guard, and an unpleasant feeling of panic twisted my gut, making me feel sick. Something was strange with her.

“I-I don’t,” I stuttered like a fearful kid, although I felt more confused than scared. I had my assumptions and was almost one hundred percent sure it was Luhan, but it would be nicer to hear a proper confirmation. I raised the tone of my voice to sound braver. “But aren’t you the one who will tell me? I mean, you came here to change the future with me – to help me... right?”

I saw her nervously biting her lower lip. “I wish I could give you the help you need, Su Jin.”

“Wait.” I turned my whole body to her, squinting my eyes as though doing so would help me understand the whole situation. I didn’t like the sound of her voice – it was resigned and troubled, too hopeless to make me feel at ease. “What do you mean by that? You’re not going to help me?”

“I will,” she assured, quickly glancing at me before dropping her gaze to the floor. “I’ll do my best, don’t worry.”

And as I watched her in silence, my brain finally joined all the pieces together. I in a breath, covering my mouth with a hand as I discovered the new revelation. This actually explained the vague description at the beginning. I stood up rapidly and looked up at the ceiling – as black as the rest of the room – to calm myself down. I couldn’t even explain why I felt so betrayed right now. I put my hands on hips and took a deep, calming breath. “This has to be a joke.”

“I’m not here to joke around.” My old self mimicked my movements, standing in front of me now with her arms folded across her chest. “The whole traveling thing between future and past is really dangerous and unpredictable. Who would’ve known that I’d lose part of my memory?”

I laughed bitterly. “Then how the hell am I going to save a person if I don’t even know who to save in the first place? It could be anyone!”

“No.” She cut me off with a stern voice, looking at me like my mother used to when I’d been acting up. “It’s someone you know. Someone from your environment – someone who’s close to you.”

“That’s still not much,” I scoffed.

“I also said he was blonde, right?” She frowned, and I felt like we were going to jump at ourselves and pull out each other’s hair in a fight any second. “Besides, I remember less and less every time I connect with you, so we wouldn’t be in trouble if you’d listened to me the first time I visited you!”

“Okay, okay...” I held my hand in the air, announcing my surre