“I finally got it,” Jungyeon says as she scribbles down on a piece of paper with a black pen. Chaeyoung watches her with interest over coffee cups.

 

“You figured it out?”

 

“I did.”

 

Chaeyoung hums.

 

“Okay so,” Jungyeon starts by turning the paper around, displaying her discovery to Chaeyoung.

 

“Remember how I started not liking my lifestyle?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“The dreams started at this point.”

 

Chaeyoung tilts her head. “I can’t read your writing,”

 

“That’s beside the point!” Jungyeon growls. “So basically the dreams have a correlation with my state of mind.”

 

“Ooh.”

 

“Yeah. And the ocean stands for emotions or something, so when it’s turbulent, it means that it’s overwhelming in some ways. Now, in my dreams, I often had my hands dripping of some dark liquid, right?”

 

Chaeyoung raises her head. “Right,”

 

“So when it drops in the ocean, it means that it affects it because the water turns all dark.” Jungyeon blinks in concentration, trying hard not to lose the thread.

 

“Yeah but, what about the girl?”

 

“Wait.” She instructs. Chaeyoung pouts. “So when the water turns black, it means my emotions are affected by the darkness of the liquid from my hands.”

 

“I think I’m lost--”

 

“And basically, darkness stands from something negative. Something negative like…”

 

“Jungyeon I’m--.”

 

“Like,” Jungyeon her lips. “Promiscuity.”

 

Chaeyoung looks on, silent. Acknowledgment drips from her round eyes.

 

“What about the girl?” Chaeyoung asks as she puts her elbows on the table. “I’m getting curious.”

 

“I can see that,” Jungyeon snorts and Chaeyoung sends her a playful glare. “Well, the girl looks pure.”

 

“Wow. Like I didn’t guess that before,”

 

Jungyeon shoves her arm. “I found that women stand for care and peace and- basically, she’s helping me open my eyes.”

 

Chaeyoung crinkles her nose. “That sounds cheesy.”

 

“And very weird,” Jungyeon sighs. “I don’t know what to do with that Chaeng.”

 

Chaeyoung raises her cup to her lips, momentarily sipping on her drink. Jungyeon looks outside for a second.

 

“It’s weird but, I kind of believe you.”

 

“You do? Jihyo thinks I’ve gone crazy.”

 

“Well I have to admit, you kind of look crazy.” Chaeyoung raises apologizing eyebrows. “I mean, eyebags and all.”

 

“That’s because I can’t sleep properly.”

 

“Which is why I believe you.”

 

Jungyeon snorts. “So me looking like is a valid explanation?”

 

Chaeyoung hesitates before nodding. Jungyeon laughs.

 

“Fine. But I haven’t dreamt of that for a while now,” She says while turning the paper to her.

 

Chaeyoung shrugs, eyeing the customers that stepped in the coffee shop. “Don’t know. Maybe that’s because you don’t need help anymore.”

___________________________________________________________________________

 

One night. Two nights. Three night. It goes on, to a week. Jungyeon hasn’t been having the dreams at all.

She goes to work, hangs out with Jihyo, refrains from her promiscuous habits and finishes the day (early morning, past midnight) in her appartment.

 

But she sleeps. Actual sleep.

 

She wakes up with a weird form of disappointment seizing her heart, when she washes her face in the morning, doesn’t need to apply much foundation under her eyes. There’s not much to hide.

 

Another week. Another series of normal dreams, voir no dreams at all. No Nayeon in sight.

She slips in her bed one night, after so many nights of sleep, questioning her choices.

 

Is Nayeon really real? As real as she was convinced she were?

 

Jungyeon falls asleep, doesn’t dream of her; wakes up and goes to work.

___________________________________________________________________________

 

She stares in the mirror, watching every tiny reaction of her face in the glass. Why am I not dreaming of her anymore? She watches herself frowning, wrinkles on her forehead.

 

“What the am I doing.” She sighs and stands back straight, running a hand on her face.

 

The bathroom door creaks open and a worker’s head pops past the ajar door.

 

“Miss Yoo, sorry to interrupt, Miss Park is looking for you.”

 

Jungyeon blinks, puts on her default CEO face, sends a tight lipped smile.

 

“I’ll be right there. Thank you Jaehyun.”

___________________________________________________________________________

 

Jungyeon digs her nose into her palms, elbows propped on her thighs. She’s sitting, cross legged, on her bed, sheets messy and hair propelled in the sky.

 

She can’t sleep.

 

Her hands roam on her face before she painfully blinks the drowsiness away. Her eyes skim to the digital clock hung on her wall, a quarter past three in the morning.

Nice. Right when I have a meeting in the morning.

 

Jungyeon stretches to fetch the remote on her night table, turning her television on. She hesitates between Netflix and regular cable tv, but decides with the latter.

 

She tries not to think about how ed up she’ll look tomorrow at work, about Jihyo’s mocking smirk. Jihyo.

Jihyo’s probably busy right now.

 

“What’s that…” She whispers when she falls upon the poster of a tv series. “Sense8,”

 

She reads the synopsis through half-lidded eyes. A click, a purchase, the first episode is on and Jungyeon lays back into her bed.

 

There’s this gnawing idea forming in her mind, despite her will of focusing onto the show. There’s even a South-Korean character.

 

What if Jihyo was right? She caves in. What if the dreams are anything but solid?

 

Jungyeon her dry lips. Did she change for nothing? Did she really build Nayeon’s image according to her own hidden desires?

 

Are those just meaningless dreams?

 

Jungyeon bites her lips, distress coming over at the worst time. She runs a hand on her face, the episode becomes hectic when the character has a vision of some woman, and she flicks the remote to the ground after shutting the tv off.

 

“I’ve gone crazy.” She mutters to herself. “Fussing over a ing dream.”

 

Jungyeon throws the sheets away; her whole body is burning in a mix of anger, disappointment and pure loss.

___________________________________________________________________________

 

A month went by. A whole month. And no sign of the girl in the white room.

By now, Jungyeon is almost sure that she’s just ed up in the brain.

 

“Okay, what’s the problem?” Jihyo ponders once they arrive to their respective cars in the parking lot of the building. Jungyeon was about to open her door, but Jihyo called her out from her side before she could.

 

“What do you mean?”

 

Jihyo sends her a you-don’t-play-with-me look. “I know you. There’s something bothering you.”

 

Jungyeon defeatedly sighs, “I’m just- I think you were right.”

 

“About what?”

 

“About the dreams. I probably went crazy.”

 

Jihyo looks are her questioningly. “What makes you say that so suddenly?”

 

Jungyeon shrugs. She probably looks as smart as bait. “Not having them anymore.”

 

Jihyo’s mouth form an ‘o’. They stay silent for a second, Jungyeon watches the patters of her car key in shame.

 

“How about you come with me?”

 

Jungyeon raises her head. “Where?”

 

She watches as Jihyo twirls her keys around her finger, an airy look in her eyes. “One of Sana’s parties.”

 

Jungyeon grunts the annoyance away. “Jihyo I--”

“Hey, nothing bad in just passing by, right? I yet have to introduce you to her.”

 

Jungyeon looks back to her keys. To Jihyo’s subtle hint of a smirk.

 

“It’ll lift your mood.” Jihyo overbids but Jungyeon doesn’t need it to agree.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Notes: a poorly crafted cliffhanger haha... ha. here's the double update, thank you for reading and don't forget to leave a comment or upvote sweethearts ;)