“Hey do you know any good anniversary gifts?” Jinyoung asked, staring down at his phone with narrowed eyes.

 

I glanced at him after swallowing some rice. “It’s your anniversary soon?”

 

“Yeah. Tomorrow.”

 

“Wow, congrats! How long have you two been going out?”

 

“Two years.”

 

“That’s a long time. Are you having trouble thinking about something to do?”

 

“A little…we’ve haven’t done that much dating because of our schedules, but she doesn’t seem to want to break up.”

 

“How about an anniversary dinner or something?” I shrugged a little.

 

Jinyoung shook his head. “I’ll figure it out later.” He put his phone down and picked up his chopsticks. “So you had another weird dream this morning?” He looked at me while taking a bite of meat on his plate.

 

I nodded. “Yeah I did.”

 

“What happened?”

 

I looked down at my plate of food. “…it’s so weird…I remember it so clearly.” I looked back at Jinyoung. “I remember running through the city. It was near sunset so the lighting was a little dim. Then I stopped at a dead end above a highway. When I turned around, I saw a bunch of armed men pointing guns at me. I don’t know why, but my dad was standing in the middle of them. He didn’t even look like my dad but my subconscious was telling me he was. He looked really ashamed and broken up. He held a strange device in his hand that had a glowing red button on it. Then…he pressed a button close to it and the glowing red button faded. I woke up after that but…I felt really weird.” I slowly looked back down at my plate.

 

“Sounds like you died in your dream.” Jinyoung said.

 

“Isn’t that a bad thing? Am I going to die in real life too?” I asked nervously.

 

Jinyoung shook his head. “I don’t think so. I read somewhere that if you die in your dreams, it means you’re going to become a new person in your real life.”

 

“Oh…” That made me feel a little better, but I couldn’t shake off an uneasy feeling running through me.

 

“Didn’t you say you had two similar dreams in the last few mornings?” Jinyoung asked.

 

I looked at him again and nodded. “Yeah.”

 

“Can you remember them well?”

 

“Yeah…as clear as the one I had this morning.” I nodded slowly.

 

“Wow.”

 

“But the other two were a little different. I remember seeing another person who I felt was my brother, but we had the same face. He had a different personality from me; he was rambunctious and rebellious and I was calm and well-rounded. Now that I think about it…I don’t think he liked me.”

 

“Why not?”

 

I hesitated. “…I’m not too sure. I feel like he never asked for my existence.”

 

“Like an actual brother.” Jinyoung chuckled a little.

 

I sighed and chuckled softly. “I never had those kinds of dreams before. Honestly… they’re scaring me a little.”

 

“I’m sure you’re just feeling stressed because of the history final and your subconscious is going crazy.” Jinyoung finished his plate and took a sip of water.

 

I slowly nodded. “Yeah…that makes sense.”

 

At that moment, our friends Junghwan and Chanshik walked into the cafeteria and up to our table. Junghwan was one year younger than me and was close to finishing his third semester at our college. Chanshik was our youngest friend and he was finishing his second semester.

 

“Hey guys!” Junghwan waved at us, his short brown hair slightly messy from walking in from the wind blowing outside.

 

Jinyoung and I waved back.

 

The two sat down at our table.

 

“What were you talking about?” Chansik asked me.

 

I waved my hand dismissively. “Oh, nothing important. How was class?”

 

“Boring.” Chansik laughed lightly. “But it was the last class before my final. It’s next week on Wednesday.”

 

“Are you prepared?”

 

“I will be after the weekend.”

 

Junghwan sighed and shook his head. “Our professors always tell us the final is a big part of our final grade, but even if you got all A’s on all of your other assignments, one less-than-stellar grade isn’t going to ruin your final grade all that much, right?” He shrugged.

 

“Still, it’s better to get a good grade.” I put in. “Especially if you want it to look good on your transcript.”

 

“Do you even know what you want to do after you graduate?” Jinyoung looked at me.

 

I paused. “…no, I’m not sure yet.”

 

“Isn’t your major History?”

 

“Yeah, but I don’t know what kind of work I want to do.” I admitted quietly.

 

“That’s okay!” Junghwan replied. “It’s not abnormal to not know something like that.”

 

“Yeah, well I feel like I should figure it out soon. I’m graduating in a couple weeks and even though my parents were kind enough to offer me key money toward my apartment, I don’t want to keep using their money.”

 

“Then it should be easy for you to get job.” Chansik said.

 

I sighed. “I want to find a job that my parents can be happy about.”

 

“I’m sure you’ll find one soon.” Jinyoung said.

 

Junghwan and Chansik agreed.

 

I thanked them and slowly stood up. “Well, I should go start studying. My history final is on Monday.”

 

“But it’s Friday!” Junghwan stared at me wide-eyed.

 

“I know.” I nodded and pulled my backpack over my shoulder.

 

“Come on Shinwoo, it’s boolgeum*! Have some fun with us!”

 

“Yeah, we were gonna go out and get ice cream.” Chanshik said.

 

“Aw man, that sounds fun, but I need to go shopping.” Jinyoung sighed a little.

 

“Oh come on, you too?” Junghwan groaned.

 

“I have to buy an anniversary gift for my girlfriend.”

 

“Aww.” Chansik smiled.

 

“You’ve been dating for a long time, haven’t you?” Junghwan asked.

 

As the three talked with each other, my gaze ended up focusing on the glass window to our right. Despite what Jinyoung said about my dreams being the effect of college stress, I couldn’t help but feel like that wasn’t the reason. I could see those dreams so clearly even now and I feel like I was speaking and moving in the body of a completely different person. I pictured the concentrated face of my dream brother and focused on his expression toward me.

 

I shifted uncomfortable in my chair.

 

It looked like he wanted me dead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

*boolgeum (불금); a Korean slang word short for boolgeumyoil (불금요일), “Fire Friday” or “Exciting Friday”