"So would you care to share what you saw Min?"

Curling up on herself in her seat, her dream flashes before her eyes. It was always the same. It had always been, for the past ten months. Ever since that... incident happened. It always starts with that party. That party by the beach.

The fire was crackling and you could smell the booze on people. It was a warm night, it always was, and Min had been invited to go. She snapped back into attention as she felt Yongguk’s hot breath on her neck. She felt his wet kisses slowly trail down her neck from her ear, and she pushes him away when his hands roam by her upper thighs. With a glare, she says, “I’m outta here.” She ignore Yongguk’s cry of apologies and she ignores the person who had invited her, asking her where she was going, with a red plastic cup in her hand.

Going into the forest which leads to her home, Min huffs. She had said before to Yongguk that she didn’t want to do it yet.  She said she wanted to be pure until after her wedding, no matter how awkward and humiliating that conversation was. She was driven out of her thoughts when she heard something behind her. It was dark, but she practically knew every inch of this forest from how long she’d been going back and forth from their home to the beach.

She whips her head to where she heard the sound behind her, and she shrugs it off, thinking it was probably a squirrel or something. So she continues to walk on, leaves and twigs crunching and snapping beneath her feet. She hastens her steps as her fear intensifies. The dark wasn’t helping at all, and the feeling that she was being watched was heavy on her shoulders.

She gasps as she hears a crunch to her right, and her; being the curious person she was, walks towards the noise. She finds three trash bags, eerily sitting side by side. She hears something within one of the bags and she slowly walks towards it. She could feel the sweat slowly trickling down from her temple, as she inhales before slowly untying the knot.

A lump falls out, and she takes a step back in surprise. She cautiously takes a step forward, wondering what it could be. She blanches when she finds a blob of blond hair and a pale foot by it. She could immediately conclude that the girl’s body was deformed forcefully, from the bruises on her right leg which was resting on the crown of the little girl’s head.

The head snaps to Min and she could only stare at the dead girl’s eyes as the girl hisses, “Don’t go home.” Min sprints off into a run and before she knew it, she was at their porch. She gasps for breath from the run she took. She was about to enter through the back door by their kitchen, when she hears her mom calling for her by using her bell.

Ever since Min’s mother got sick from leukemia and was given the permission to go home, a bell was tied to her wrist so that she could ring for whenever she needed something or someone. They had moved her to the boat house, along with the machines and tubes still connected to her. Min slowly opens the door to the boat house, and she sees her mom on the bed, as usual. But what surprised her was that she was alone. They never left her alone. It was her, her sister, her father or the caretaker they hired who was always with her mother. She wasn’t supposed to be alone.

Walking slowly towards her mother, she could practically feel the confusion slowly taking over her face as Min saw her mother trying to ring the bell in her weakened state, gasping for air and tears colleting in her eyes. It was as if she was trying to tell her something. Min runs up to their main house, looking for her father or her sister in panic, thinking that there was something wrong with her mother. She passes by their dining table in a hurry, she sees sheets draped over the chairs; candles strewn about randomly, and some even tipped over, giving the house an eerie feeling, it being the only source of light aside from the moon and stars. And when she feels the thick fog of uneasiness within the house; Min knew there was something wrong. Their usual cheery house didn’t feel safe.

She heads to her father’s study, and she could feel something inside. And her suspicions were correct when she sees red, coppery goo, slowly dripping in a steady flow from the key hole. Then the scenery changes and she sees a lantern slowly falling, the glass breaking as the lit candle within it slowly rolling away, along with the flames which were spread even more as it reached a steady flow of gasoline, which were from a slightly leaking gas tank. Then it flashes to a watering can falling, its contents spilling. And then it was her mother, her eyes wide, practically gasping for air, and then Min finally sees it. She sees the boat house exploding into flames before her eyes.

Min snaps out of her daydream as she hears the psychologist’s pen scratching on paper, she glances at him as he adjusts his eyeglasses and says with a gentle voice, “It seems that every dream you’ve had since then, had always been about the incident.” Min nods her head in agreement and adds, “And every time… every time I get there, it’s as if mom was trying to tell me something. But I can’t understand what it was she was saying. I- I can’t remember.”

The psychologist leans back on his seat and says, “Well Min, we’ve talked about the little blonde girl you’ve seen. But it seems that there’s a new element in your dream, the watering can. Why do you think it was there?” Min slowly shakes her head after a moment of silence and says, “Maybe I was… I- I don’t know. I- I can’t remember. Why?” The psychologist smiles comfortingly at her before suggesting, “Maybe you were trying to put out the fire. Maybe you were trying to help.”

Silence, like a blanket, covers them. Until Min says, “When mom first got the news that she got leukemia, she immediately gathered us and said that if she were ever to... leave us, she’d still always be there, to comfort us, or to protect us. She said she’d be the wind, caressing our hair. Or the sun rays, which would hug us and give us kisses as it passed through our curtains in the morning to wake us up. But… on the night of the fire, I couldn’t protect her.” The psychologist nods as a smile passes over his lips. The little girl in front of him had finally said out loud why she was feeling the way she was. And it was the final step they had to take for the completion of the girl’s therapy at their facility.

“You’re a smart girl.”

A small smile passes through Min’s lips as she says, “If I’m so damn smart, then why can’t I remember?” The psychologist slowly closes the notebook he was writing on and puts it, his pen with it, on the small table in between him and Min as he says, “Well Min, a human’s brain is a… peculiar thing. Sometimes, it copes by remembering, but other times, it copes by forgetting. You lost your mother in that tragic incident, the fire. And your life has changed ever since. Sometimes… it’s not such a bad thing to forget.”

“What about my dreams?”

The psychologist thinks for a moment before saying, “You will figure it out. Only this time, on your own. That’s how it all works. That’s how life works. It’s a process. What’s it been, ten months, since the fire? You’re almost finished. But you aren’t going to pass that finish line here.”

Min’s eyes snapped up to the psychologist’s as she says, “You, you think that I’m ready to leave?” The psychologist shrugs and says, “I’ve done everything I can, and you’ve also done a wonderful job. What else do you want from me?” Min takes a breath of air before a huge smile passes over her lips. The psychologist smiles as he sees Min in joy and says “Go home. Kiss a boy, wear short skirts, go to parties, and make mistakes. Finish what you started.”

Min practically beams at the psychologist before bidding him goodbye and sprinting to her assigned room. I’m going home! She practically slams the door open to her room, before removing all her things in her room and putting it in the duffel bag she came with on the first day here. She hears the familiar honk of their car outside and she smiles before looking out the window. She sees her dad waiting for her outside, and when he catches sight of her, she mouths for him to wait. When she receives the thumbs up, she turns to grab her bag to finally go home, but she gasps in surprise as she sees her “next door neighbor” standing behind her.

The older woman caresses her hair and says in a soft voice, “My my. Is little Minnie going away? Towards home sweet home I guess?” The woman’s expression then changes as she says, “I’ll be lonely.” Min tries to step around her and she gasps as the woman grabs her forearms, turning them, making the scars on her wrists visible. The woman smiles ferally as she says, “There was so much blood wasn’t there Min?” Min glances at her own scars before the woman continues, “Do you really think they fixed you?”

A personnel passes by and when she sees the older woman inside Min’s room, she gently grabs the older woman’s forearms as she says, “Come on. Let’s let Min go shall we? We already told you not to wander into her room all the time.” The elder patient slowly lets go of Min as she lets herself be dragged to her own room. Min sighs in relief as the pressure on her forearms disappear, and she immediately grabs her duffel bag. But the woman continued to stare at Min as she says, “They couldn’t fix me.”

Min shakes her head and passes through the doorway, out into the halls. She was about to turn a corner when she hears the woman shout out to her in a calm voice with a hint of curiosity, “Who will I tell my stories to then?” She pays no heed to her as she remembers her father waiting outside.

A smile makes its way onto her lips again and she rushes to the front door. She pushes open the door separating her from outside and she beams as she sees her father running up the stairs towards her. Min meets him halfway and hugs him, letting her duffel bag fall onto the concrete; there wasn’t anything worth stealing in it anyway.

She smiles into her father’s hug, feeling nostalgic, thinking that he smelled exactly like home. Her father slowly pulls her away and says, “Ready to go home squirt?” Min smiles and nods her head as she follows her father to the car.

Home.