A sharp flipping sound echoes throughout the room as Yoona sits bolt upright in her bed. Beads of sweat trickle down her now pale face – fear, shock, and somehow guilt stricken. Her eyes are wide with surprise, obviously confused and rattled. Her chest rises and falls rapidly, her breathing turning shallow and her heartbeat seemingly echoes loudly in the otherwise silent room.

The room is deafening. Silent screams echo as Yoona sits paralyzed on her bed. Her thoughts run wild inside her head as gapes open. She tries to speak but no words come out. She tries to move but her body won’t obey with her mind.

A thunder claps unexpectedly and Yoona quickly snaps out from her momentarily long shock. She stares out the window just as lightning strikes from the blackish-grey clouds.  The heavens are seemingly angry yet ambivalent as to which it will strike down that they decided to direct their lightning to another cloud – a cloud-to-cloud lightning.

Her face was illuminated with a fluorescent-ish color and revealed its ghastly turnabout. Yoona seems worse for wear. She’s completely taken aback.

What was that all about?!

She screams in her head and mentally throws a tantrum.

On the inside, she’s free and unrestricted yet externally, she’s like a jammed robot – her bodily functions are not working very well, like an automaton out of sync from its settings and have been completely wrecked in terms of its program.

Another round of silence wafts through the dark room. Silence screams out all of its voice, deafening Yoona’s ears.

She shrieks voicelessly and covers her ears, afraid her eardrums might burst out of her lobes due to the silent screams. She shuts her eyes tight, pain evident on her features. Her then frozen and paralyzed body has now come to action, though it is contorted into a hunched position, implying pain, hurt, anguish and devastation.

As her eyes are sealed shut, snippets of scenes come running back to her consciousness and she freezes over once again, her bed sheets lie in disarray and her hair beginning to be in a mess.

A lightning flashes once more in the skies above and turns the room aghast, a monotonous color and fluorescent-like light.

***

Yoona… Yoong…

The moon slips through the dark clouds as stars fill the huge void in the space overhead.

A whisper, a calling, a blurry figure stands overhead, lips moving iterating her name. A glittering substance begins to pool in the stranger’s eyes, threatening to fall down, to which it did seconds later. The liquid trickled down her face and dropped continuously.

She squints hard at the stranger’s features trying to identify her. But the blur stubbornly stays, for a reason she doesn’t know.

The stranger shakes her head then she recognizes the word ‘sorry’ come out from her lips.

The scene disappeared.

Another scene presents itself.

She’s smiling. Her eyes stare at the room before her. Her back is turned, but her point of view has become omnipotent, seeing all.

Her smile is sad, it doesn’t reach her eyes. Her lips move, but again, everything is a blur.

A sad smile graces her lips. A longing is depicted in her eyes, a feeling of going to miss something.

Then there’s a door, but everything is white on the other side. She steps through and engulfed herself in a luminous shade.

She sees herself walk through, her eyes following her own self as her body glides through what seemed like a hallway. Footsteps echo down, and with each step, she can hear a heavy pounding of a heart.

Weird, she thought as her eyes follow herself.

Is this beat coming from me?

She wonders as her eyes continue to train upon herself.

An elevator, she presses the button down. The doors open and she steps through. She looks ahead then up, almost seemingly her persona staring straight at her as if she knows she’s watching. She (her own persona she’s watching), stares directly at her but at the same time, also through and beyond her; as if she sees her yet unsees her both at the same time.

Her gaze is trained on her and she holds it, curiousity evident in her eyes. Then, her persona tears her gaze away from her and into the buttons. She presses one, most probably down, and then stares directly ahead once again.

Slowly, the elevator doors close and Yoona, hovering above the ground with everything still a clad of blur and shadows, race down to catch the elevator and go inside before they close. But, just as she’s inches away, the doors close and a flash of light blinds her, her hands automatically flying up her face to shield her precious doe-like eyes.

Then, the scene changed again.

Now, it was outside a building. She’s walking again, with a bag with her.

A continuation, maybe?

She thought to herself as she continues to watch her body tread through the pavement.

Suddenly, a hand reaches out and stops her. Her eyes go wide.

Everything has gone crystal clear this time. She holds her breath, tense but at the same time excited to finally know the identity of the mysterious stranger.

When it seems like she’ll finally know, everything went blurry and the scene changed.

She heard the word sorry. And that was it.

Then, another change.

She’s inside a car and a tear escapes her eyes, as she sees from herself whom she’s seated with beside.

A tear falls from her eyes and then a flash of white.

***

She gasps wildly for air, her chest heaving up and down fast, trying to inhale all the oxygen in the earth. She’s still at the same position but her eyes have now grown wide, as opposed to before being shut tight, and her hands have gone from her ears to her eyes, clasping them as if shocked, astonished, horrified, which, she is.

Outside, still, thunder growls in the heavens and lightning rampages, continuing to cast a ghastly shade over Yoona’s room and upon herself. Her bed is still in a state of disarray. She’s still frozen in frame.

Silence.

Both inside the room, and inside Yoona.

Silence.

Silence rings all around, trying to deafen everyone in its reach, with Yoona as its main target.

Unbeknownst to her, a tear falls from her eyes as her hands are clasped over them. She realizes this a bit too late, as she now wipes a barrage of tears from her face.

What was that about?

She states frustrated inside.

Just as I was about to discover, to know, and then it ends? It ends?!

She inhales a sharp breath and clenches her teeth, shuts her eyes tight, and forms her hands in fists as maddening frustration and agitation overwhelms her. The feeling of knowing, then almost-knowing, and unknowing all at the same time have taken her sanity away momentarily.

She screams a silent scream, no voice coming out from ; no words coming out from her otherwise coherently formed thoughts and ideas; no words, no voice, yet feelings adamant and transparent – the feeling of being lost, almost found yet going back full circle to the start, back to square one.

Yoona holds her position for a while. The clock ticks infinitely, its hands going on and on and on with time, not even bothering to freeze a while. But after some moments, she gives in to her frustration and lies in her bed facing the ceiling still with eyes closed.

Her figure has relaxed a bit, though there’s still a bit of annoyance at everything being a question mark. But other than that, she seems to be calm.

Her brows have now slightly relaxed, no longer a full-fledged frown; her eyes have loosened a bit, no longer shut tight as if trying to remember a dream or forget a horrible nightmare; her lips and face muscles in general have relaxed and loosened up, no longer hardened into a firm hold and have showcased her angelic features.

Outside she’s all calm a bit, but inside, a storm of questions, of wonder, have started whirring and forming and is continuing on growing.

Slowly, she opens her eyes and stares blankly into space, her eyes pleading for answers to seemingly unending and infinite questions inside her head.

But, why, though? Why?

A liquid substance begins pooling in her eyes.

Why show me that when it’s all still a mystery?

The pool begins to intensify in both her eyes, threatening to fall any given moment in time.

Why?

She thinks as tears began escaping her eyes and she’s slowly lulled into sleep due to exhaustion, to overthinking and searching for possible answers.

She relaxes over all, her problems now seemingly light years away. Her once troubled and bothered figure have now become her usual angelic and composed image, her troubles gone with the wind and away into the night sky for now.

Silence once again rings throughout the room, threatening to eat away the four-cornered enclosure and envelope it in its arms for the rest of eternity.

Outside, however, thunder continues to rumble on the heavens above and lightning continues to flash away, chaos and havoc spreading in its wings.

Outside Yoona’s room where silence lies dominant and strong, a storm stirs and brews, becoming stronger and stronger each passing second, each passing minute. However, through the passage of infinitesimal time, it slowly dissipates into nothingness as dawn gradually makes its way ending the realm of night.

Morning has arrived and sunlight streams down Yoona’s room. The rays hit Yoona’s face engulfing her face, her features, in a heavenly light making her seem angelic and at peace.

Though, no sooner than the speed of light, sleep has lost its power over her and the doe-eyed girl is hit awake by the rays of the sun. She immediately shields her eyes from the painful-to-the-eyes and disturbing light.

She rolls off to the side of her bed and…

…

…

…

…

…

… automatically falls unto the floor below.

“Ughhh…” she grunts sleepily, her eyes squinted trying to make sense in the world.

She realizes where she’s at but just continued on to lie there comfortably on the floor instead of going back up on her bed.

Suddenly her phone vibrates on her bedside table waking her from her almost-going-to-sleep moment.

This has to be real important or else the disturber will really get it.

She thinks grumpily to herself as she pushes herself up.

She picks up her phone and looks at the caller id with eyes squinted, brows scrunched into a frown, her hair looking like a bird’s nest yet still coming out pretty and angelic in a sense.

Her phone keeps on vibrating and she squints harder at her phone, at the caller id displayed on the screen, trying to figure things out.

Seconds pass by until she jerks herself into action, her eyes almost popping out of their sockets. She hastily swiped the answer button upon realizing who the caller is. Yoona quickly went to her closet, grabbed some clothes and went straight to the bathroom, phone still in hand.

The door to the bathroom clicked locked and everything became isolated from then on. But a few moments before the door closed shut, some words escaped into the room.

“Okay, I’ll be there. See ya,” Yoona said hurriedly yet in an unhurried way possible.

Everything once again became silent in Yoona’s room while commotion is stirred inside the bathroom where things have gone haywire disrupting the otherwise calm and gentle morning in Yoona’s daily life.

Yoona’s POV

“Okay, I’ll be there. See ya.”

Some mumbling on the other end.

“Got it. Bye ~~ ”

I said as sweetly and charmingly as I could then quickly ended the call.

“That… was close,” I mumble to myself. “SO Close.”

Alright. Time to work.

A quick and rush bath, some spill here and there, a little (alright, a lot) of commotion while bathing myself, but no pressure. Everything’s well and fine. Nothing could be better. Not.

With the pressure and fear and all the stress, how can I exactly calm down and take this easily? I will be so dead if I don’t make it in time.

I shudder at the thought. Just imagining how things could turn out, I would just want to kill myself voluntarily than suffer a horrendous, slow, and painful death at the hands of another.

I glance once more at my phone, looking at what time it is already.

My eyes widen at how much time has passed. 15 minutes. 15 FREAKING MINUTES!

Double work rate time.

But, I’m already brushing my teeth, completely clothed and done with the bath; just missing the fixing myself stage.

Ok. Time to do this the express way.

Ugh… why did I forget? It was thanks to that stupid dream anyway. Got me enjoying my sleep real good. Tsk.

Wait. Did I just speak to myself as I fixed moi up in the mirror?

Oh… and so now, I’m holding a talk-to-yourself segment while fixing my image in front of the mirror. Real genius and time stopper Yoona, real genius. I commend you. Must have been her who got me into this talking into self business.

Aiggo that kid!

Anyway, in no less than 3 minutes, I’m done and out of the confines of the bathroom.

Finally. Time to go!

Im Yoona, you can do this!

I quickly grab my stuff (set out the night before), check the things inside the house, double check things, make sure nothing is out of place, switch on the alarm system, step out, and then look for a cab.

Seconds, then some minutes pass and I’m still at the same spot waiting for a cab. My feet are already convulsing with my continuous tapping.

Wow. Convulsing. Strange, big word. Ha-ha.

If it were alive, it would’ve already kicked me in the shin. Fortunately, it’s mine to control so no problem there.

I quickly glance at my watch. Five minutes have already passed and hardly a cab has gone this way without a passenger on board. Beads of sweat now start forming in my head as the clock continues to tick, as time continues to pass by.

I’m going to be soooo DEAD!!!!

I begin to walk back and forth and back and forth in nervousness at what’s about to happen to me if I don’t make it in time.

She’s going to kill me. Big time. Stupid meeting. Why do I have to be there? How come I’m involved anyway?

Finally, after a million years of waiting, a cab was on the way with the sign “for hire” in light.

This is my chance.

I took the cab, went inside, gave the driver the directions given to me, and prayed that I would not be murdered by the time I arrive there.

Finally. Everything is sailing smooth. I’m in a cab, am finally on the way, and by some miracle, some time is still left.

Okay. I was overthinking earlier about getting late and all and dying a horrendous, slow, and painful death.

What’s there to worry?

One word.

Traffic.

Why is the traffic so heavy? God.

I’m just trying to hold my tears back because I really don’t wanna blow this. I have no plans of dying yet and throwing this entire deal down the drain. The driver must be looking at me weird and thinking of me weird but whether or not he indeed is, he never showed. He just kept a poker face.

Poker face.

Tug.

A tug.

Something tugged in my brain. What’s with the term poker face, anyway?

This is all giving me a headache.

I just shake my head to dismiss the thought. I’d rather not think of any other else that may bother me and kill my brain cells whatsoever. I still need to prepare myself for repercussions if ever I do get late today which is a huge possibility.

Stuck in the middle of the road, I have no choice. I sigh in disappointment.

Guess I’ll just have to listen to music to make the passing of time much less frustrating. At least I could enjoy my being stuck in traffic. Nothing ever soothes like music.

I smile to myself contentedly as music began blaring through my earphones.

Then a car passed by and overtook the cab I’m in and that’s when a feeling came rushing in God knows where its origin is. I just sat there at the back gaping at the car already some distance away from us.

If the cab driver had thought of me extremely weird and had something to say, he didn’t made an attempt to voice it out. He just kept driving and driving and driving.

I was on the verge of killing my brain cells to remember something I might have forgot, something I might have missed, when the cab driver chose the moment to intercept and finally say something.

“We’re here, Miss.”

Great.

I pay the driver, thank him for the service, step out of the cab, and pause right in front of the entrance to the meeting place.

With a huge sigh, all the tense emotions held in one breath released out into the open, I push the handle and step into the premises of the café. 

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Here it is everyone! Sorry for the VERY long wait. I thought this chapter through a lot and contemplated which parts to cut and which ones to include. 

So far, this is the longest I've written for this fic. I hope you enjoy this one ~

If anything, you can comment any time. :)

Thanks for your lovely comments and your unending support!

Love y'all ~ :*

Sincerely,

Author

P.S.

The next update might take a while again guys. Please forgive your update-incompetent author.

And, my other stories might take a while to update as well, especially Time since I'm balancing it with Merry-Go-Round, and because I'm still busy with school stuff now. But, in the later weeks, I'll catch up for lost time once the semester ends.

Again, thank you for the support everyone! :*