One night, as the whole household had fallen asleep, ten delicate fingers were pressing on the keys of ivory white and smaller keys of charcoal black gently, causing the notes to collide together in perfect harmony. The magical sound caressed the player’s ears with their pure beauty and she felt like she was almost in heaven, completely in awe of the indescribable bliss of the piano.

The enchanting and somewhat mesmerizing tune rang through the house, as the player kept trying to figure out the correct noteS one after another. In front of her there was an almost finished manuscript with a pencil that she had tucked behind her right ear. As she continued playing, she would stop once in a while to write down the notes on the music piece.

It was way past midnight and she didn’t realize at all that she had been sitting there for four hours, trying to complete the song. The Sun was almost rising and dawn will come in matter of hours but she was determined to finish the piece in order to put her mind at rest. She didn’t care how long it was going to take as long as she managed to finish that song.

Even so, she herself didn’t know why she was so drawn towards the song. It wasn’t like she had heard it many times before. She had only listened to it once, coincidentally, and the song was stuck in her head every single day. She had never seen the composition herself, but she was sure that she can translate the notes from the piano onto the manuscript book. She somehow had memorized the melody and all that was left to do was to locate each and every sound on the black and white keys.

Since it was past her bedtime and the rest of the house were in deep slumber, she tried to keep the noise level low as to not wake her parents and brothers. If they found out that she was still awake, she will have a lot to answer to.

Glancing at the clock, she decided to give herself another half an hour before she herself will go to bed. Taking a deep breath and straightening her back, she began playing from the very beginning and kept on pressing the keys and let the beauty of the sound seeped into her body slowly and spread throughout her veins.

The melancholy melody sung out like a lone wolf crying out to the moon as the girl wasn't just playing music, but it was almost like she was pouring her soul into the song. Tendrils of warmth and familiarity began to coil her heart and she couldn’t fathom the reason why. Each time she played the song she will be sensing the same feeling over and over again and in the end she will be left confused as to why she was feeling that way.

Right after she had reached the end of the song, which was the last note that she could find, she took a deep breath and did a little stretching, as she had been sitting on the stool for four solid hours without moving.

Looking at the clock again, she realized that she had about five hours before the Sun began to rise. Grabbing her composition and switching of the light, the girl made her way to her own bedroom quietly while hoping that none of her family members realized that she had been awake all night.

Dropping herself on her bed and pulling the covers up to her neck, her eyes immediately closed and that moment itself she began to realize how tired she had felt. With a soft snore, she began to drift into sleep and enter her dream.

She didn’t know whether it was due to her tiredness or what, but her dream that night was very weird. Well, dreams had always been weird but in her case, it was somewhat different. The vision was clear and there was an overwhelming sense of familiarity. All the things that she had seen, smelled, and heard were very well-known to her. Her eyebrows knitted close and her eyes were still shut as she got deeper and deeper in her confusing dream.

The girl found herself to be in a living room of a very small house, ten times smaller than the house she lived in back then when she was still awake. She knew it was a dream though. But she didn't know how to wake up.

She wasn’t actually sure whether she was in the living room, as she was certain that she had never been to the house before. Looking around the place, she took in the sight of a small tea table, a rugged couch and a small sized television which had just validated her suspicions.

Oh yeah, it was a living room. But whose living room was it ?

Realizing that she was still sitting cross-legged on the floor, she began to stand up slowly before it dawned on her that she had been sitting in the middle of a pool of blood. A small shriek escaped as she took in the sight of blood all around the floor and on her pajamas.

Tears were glistering in her eyes as tendrils of fear began to coil her heart. Whose blood was this ? Was it hers ?

“Omma ! Omma !” she heard a girl screaming not far from where she was standing. She turned to her left and caught the sight of a very small girl crying helplessly beside a woman who was unconscious. Blood can be seen pouring from the poor woman’s stomach and the young girl kept on crying and begging the woman to open her eyes, not minding the blood that was covering her as well. A part of her told her that the young girl's mother was already dead.

A young boy came afterwards and crouched beside the little girl before he himself started bawling as well, crying over the woman’s death who could somehow be their mother.

Watching both of the children crying their hearts out, her heart immediately went out to them as she somehow felt their pain, though she didn’t know any of them at all. She began to step closer to them, wanting to sooth and give them comfort.

The two little children somehow didn’t notice her presence at all, as she was hovering over them from behind. Tears were still running down her face as she took in the sight of the dead woman’s face. From her face she could sense so much love and care that must’ve been given to the two children. Though she was dead, her face looked calm as if she was only sleeping.

As she gazed at the woman’s face unwaveringly, she couldn’t push away the feeling that she herself had once loved this woman too. The feeling of tenderness and attachment lingered inside her heart and she no longer cried for the children’s’ lost,  but she was crying over the woman’s death too. As if her death was taking a part of her as well. The childrens' tears were hers too.

She tried to tell herself that she had never met this woman before but her heart kept betraying her, coercing herself to believe that this dead woman mattered to her so much, though she had no idea who the woman was. No memories of her came to mind but the girl knew that they had something.

Her knees sagged into the ground beside the two bawling children, who were still completely clueless of her presence. She let out a heartfelt sigh before she heard a soft and loving voice whispered in her mind,

“Don’t cry.”

The girl quickly turned and looked around her vicinity, trying to find the source of the voice but there was none. She blanched. The voice was so damn familiar and felt very close to her heart but she couldn’t find the answer as to whose voice did it belong to.

She looked around for the sight of the crying children again but they were gone, together with the dead woman. It took her less than a second to realize that she was at a different place too, no longer in the living room floored with blood.

The girl, looking perplexed, closed her eyes as sorrow for a long moment, silenced everything inside her. She opened her eyes again only to find herself at a cemetery, standing right beside a tomb of someone that she didn’t know.

She shot up straight in bed, covered in sweat and was breathing heavily. She looked all around her, trying to get a sense of where she was. A sigh of relief escaped from as she took in the sight of her bedroom, wiping the sweat beads of her forehead at the same time.

Images flashed through her head all at once and her heart was still pounding very rapidly and she tried to take deep breaths to calm herself down. She felt tears stained on her face and her brow creased deeper as she recalled the dream.

What did it all mean ? She asked herself, though she knew she won’t be getting any answers. She remembered the dream perfectly well, and it was like a dejavu to her. It was a very confusing dream and she had a million and one questions racing in her mind. She clutched on her blanket as she was trembling and tried to fight the feeling of sadness away as she recalled the sight of the dead woman.

Knowing that she wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep again, she got down her bed and grabbed her sweater and her skateboard. Looking at the clock on the wall, she realized that she had only been sleeping for three hours, and that the Sun will rise in one or two hours more. She decided to go out for a walk for a while to calm her mind and hopefully to make her forget about the dreadful dream. She was scared to go back to bed as she might be having the same dream again.

Quietly, she walked out of her bedroom and headed towards the main door. Feeling satisfied that the rest of her family members were still asleep, she slowly opened the front door after putting on her shoes. However, right before she could make a step out of the house, a voice called her from behind.

“Lee SungMi.”

The girl halted almost immediately before slowly turned around, only to see her brother staring down at her from the stairs, looking confused. “Oh, HyunSik oppa.” SungMi said, while grinning sheepishly.

Still looking perplexed, HyunSik asked softly, “Where on earth do you think you’re going at this hour, young lady ? Are you sleep-walking ?”

SungMi quickly shook her head but made no attempt of getting back inside the house. Instead she just whispered, “I want to go out for a walk, oppa. Just for a while, I promise.”

“A walk ? At a time like this ? Why ? Are you meeting someone ? Aren’t you supposed to be in bed ? And wer