**BAEKYEON AU** 

Baekhyun looked out on the window on his side, peeling his gaze away from the book that he was reading when he heard the sound of the heavy rain hitting the cement ground outside. "." Apparently, it was one of those days wherein he left and probably misplaced his umbrella in his apartment. "Why does it have to be now?" He asked to no one as he hurriedly pack his stuff inside his bag. There's only about less than an our left before his next class starts so he might as well head back to the campus before the rain could even get stronger.

Once packed, he finished the remains of his drink that he ordered earlier and stood up from the seat, heading towards the door of the café. Pulling the hood of his jacket up to cover his head, he pushed the glass door open, leaving behind a sound as the bell above the door rang. With his head hung low, he rapidly walked away from the shop and to the campus entrance which is less than half a mile away. The sidewalk was luckily empty, probably due to the sudden rainfall and he managed to walk and enter the campus premises in just ten minutes. 

The campus was relatively empty as well from students unlike how it was earlier when he left after his morning classes. There are a few students walking around with their umbrellas, and Baekhyun thought it would be nice if it is always like that. But the campus is awfully too crowded. The rain has calmed down eventually, which he gladly thanked for. But since it was still drizzling, he kept his head a bit low as he walked to his destination.

Feeling the sudden vibration of his phone from his pocket, Baekhyun momentarily stopped on his tracks and picked his phone up. Oh no. "What do you want now?" 

"Calm down your nose, I ain't here to annoy you." Jongdae, his friend, answered on the other line. "We're at the library and Minseok hyung just wanted to know if you're done with your paper already."

Baekhyun furrowed his brows. "Paper?" 

"Yeah. The one Lee gave about West—oh no... don't tell me..." 

"I didn't do any paper last night!" 

"Yah! Get your in here now with us or else you'll get into another trouble with Lee!" 

"Ugh! Dammit!" He ended the call and ran towards the library over the other side of the campus, not even caring enough anymore since there weren't any people on his way or around him. 

Or so he thought. 

With how quite fast he was running, he accidentally bumped into someone walking on the way opposite of him and as soon as they bumped, a loud scream echoed around them. Everything happened too fast for him and he didn't even know how it happened in the first place, how there was suddenly someone on the way and how they bumped to each other. But still, he was quick to get his mind into the situation and grabbed the person in the arm and the back just so they could both keep their balance and no one could fall. 

"Woah there!" 

"Oh my god!" The woman, as he took notice rather too quickly, exclaimed as soon as they both found their balance while looking down on their feet with her jet black untied hair delicately flowed down on her shoulders, covering her face. 

"Are you alright? I'm really sorry." The woman was still looking down and he still couldn't get a glimpse of her face. He lowered his head as well in an attempt to get a look of her and see whether she's fine or not. But with her beautiful hair covering her face, he wasn't able to see anything. She's unbelievably... light. He eventually realized upon noticing his hands that were holding her.

"Yeah, I think I'm fine. I'm sorry as well." She responded back with her soft and melodic voice. Why... I think I've heard her voice somewhere else already. He randomly thought. 

"No, I'm sorry. I was running too fast and wasn't looking where I'm going and—" he suddenly stopped as soon as the woman raised her head and looked at him. 

No way.

He felt his mouth slightly opening and his eyes circling in shock as soon as he got a clear view of her face. 

Those eyes... and that face...

"It's fine. I wasn't looking on my way either while I was walking. I'm at fault too." She let out an apologetic chuckle after. 

He had seen it somewhere. He was certain of it. Really. He couldn't be wrong about it. How could I? He had seen it. Several times. Rather too many times that he already lost count of it. He saw her already. In his dreams. No wonder her voice sounded... familiar. 

And he couldn't actually believe it. How could this be... possible? It never ever crossed his mind that this would actually happen. That he would eventually meet her after countless times of seeing her in his dreams. He thought it was just a mere dream. But turns out, it's not. 

"Uh... Hello?" The woman, probably after noticing the intent staring that he was doing, waved a hand in front of his face. 

He blinked his eyes and slightly shook his head. "Uh, I'm sorry. What?" 

She chuckled. "I said I'm sorry and also, you can now let go of me." 

Baekhyun glanced down on their rather close proximity and how his hands were holding her and immediately stepped back and let go of her, rubbing the nape of his neck after, feeling a bit embarrassed. "Uh, um, I'm sorry."

The woman chuckled. "It's okay, no worries. Thank you by the way." 

"I'm terribly sorry about what happened." 

"No, it's all good. It was my fault too so don't fret too much about it." The woman uttered, fixing her bag placed on her shoulder and offering him the sweetest and warmest smile after. 

God, I couldn't be wrong with this. She really is the one in my dreams.

He wanted to stay longer, ask questions, talk to her, and figure everyting out because his mind would probably explode already in any moment with how confused, astonished, shock he was all at the same time, but his phone rang from his pocket and he knew it was Jongdae or Minseok, which he confirmed when he took his phone out and saw the former's name flashed across the wide screen. "Um, I, uh, I actually really need to go now, I'm in a hurry. But my apologies again for what happened." 

"Oh okay, no worries. And apology accepted." She smiled once again.

Dammit!

"Um, yeah, um, bye and careful on your way!" He hesitantly sprinted away from her and ran to his destination, hearing her shouting from his back as he run, "You too! Be careful not to bump anyone again!" which unconsciosuly made his smile as he distanced away from her. 

"Oh, there's our boy!" Jongdae commented as soon as Baekhyun appeared on their table in the library.

"I swear to god, you need to shout your mouth now before the librarian kicks us out soon." Minseok muttered beside him.

"What took you so long?" Jongdae asked as Baekhyun sat down on the seat in front of him while Minseok offered him his bottle of water with how he was panting hard from running. 

I bumped into a woman because I was running madly fast and I didn't see her and this woman turned out to be the one appearing on my dreams for quite some time now and I didn't know what to do since everything doesn't seem real for me and I wanted to stay a bit longer to ask her questions but my phone was noisily buzzing and I knew it was you so yeah. 

But of course, he wouldn't dare say that especially to Jongdae. This friend of his just asks so much and he knew it would just annoy him so bad. "The campus isn't that small for your information. I was at the north gate. The library is on the opposite side."

"Do you have your laptop with you?" Minseok asked, totally ignoring their conversation. 

Baekhyun nodded and immediately took out his laptop from his backpack. "What is this paper even about? Why didn't I know about this?" 

"He gave this online." 

"Online?!" Baekhyun exclaimed and Minseok immediately threw him his highlighter. 

"Yah, lower down your voice!"

"I knew it, you didn't check the site didn't you?" Jongdae asked. 

"Why would I? He didn't tell us to check it."

"Aish! I'm seriously going nuts because of you two—"

"Me?! Why me?! Baekhyun is just the one who wasn't able to do the paper, why me?!" 

"Aish, shut up! And you," he pointed at Baekhyun. "Start doing the paper now because we only have less than an hour before we pass this." 

Aish, what did I even get myself into?! 

+++

With the little time left for him to do the paper, Baekhyun, luckily, was able to finish and pass the paper just in time before their class with Mr. Lee started. But he knew it wasn't the best of what he could have done, but still, he was relieved that he was able to pass it. As the class proper started and his professor started discussing in front of them, his mind traveled elsewhere. The scene earlier played on his mind, and how he finally saw her face and recognized it. 

How... could be?

Surely, Baekhyun was bothered when the woman appeared on his dreams for consecutive times. Like a usual human being, he couldn't help but to be curious whether or not it meant something. He could say that he is not the type of person who really believes in such things like it, but he thought there won't be any harm if he would do so. But she continued to appear, in different scenarios, events, and he just couldn't find any answer to that that he eventually stopped thinking and just let her appear in his dreams without minding it and bothering himself too much. But with all of his dreams, though he couldn't possibly remember every single one of it, there was something similar to each and everyone of it despite being distinctly different from one another. They were always meeting for the first time in each dream, and he wouldn't be able to ask and get her name. Always. Just like what happened earlier, he wasn't able to get her name just like how it happened in all of his dream of her.

What sorcery is this?

He glanced up around him and saw that everyone was listening—or just blankly staring in front while their professor continued with his lecture. He carefully took out his phone from his pocket after and his internet.

what does it mean when someone keeps apperering on your dreams and you eventually met this person in real life? 

He felt totally dumb and ridiculous for typing and searching that but he thought it was probably the only way he could get answers. He knew his friends won't be much of a help if he asked.  And I want to save my energy for some other things instead of dealing with them. 

He scrolled through the searches that appeared and clicked on the one near the end of the page.

Soul Mates in Dreams: Can You Dream of Someone Before Meeting Them?

Why did I even click this one? He strangely asked himself yet nonetheless, continued to scroll through the web page to read further. 

"Often when we dream we have other people there with us. Sometimes their faces are blurred or they are vague people who we believe we only know in our dreamtime. Sometimes they're people we already know in real life - a family member, a friend, a neighbor, etc. So how do we know these vague dream people are people we've yet to meet and not just another figment of our imaginations?" *

What, she can't be just an imagination of mine right? I literally saw her with my two eyes.

"...It's quite possible this vague person in your dream is one of your soul mates' astral doubles (dream selves) meeting you in the dreamworld. Very often our astral doubles will go ahead of us to meet people we're supposed to meet in reality." *

And as he read that, his curiosity in the matter that he was reading grew even more. He furrowed his brows and continued to scroll down the page to read more of what it says. 

"...Also note if they have any specific messages for you and where they show up. These could be premonitions as to when and where you'll meet your soul mate in real life."

He momentarily stopped reading, lifted his head and tried to recall some of the dreams that he could still remember whether there was some kind of a message or anything. But his mind failed him so. He slightly shook his head and looked back down on his phone to continue reading. 

"When you actually meet your soul mate in real life, you'll know it immediately. It's that feeling of deja vu. A strong urge inside that tells you you've met the person before, and that your soul already intimately knows them. It's very hard to explain the feeling to someone, but once you've had it you'll know. It's very likely that one of you will even say, "I feel like we've met before". Or "I feel like I know you from somewhere"." *

Did I felt something similar to that? He asked himself. He wasn't certain, because the shock in him probably took over all of the other emotions or feelings that were present at that moment earlier. Except confusion and astonishment. That were all of the feelings he could recall from earlier. And besides, what he experienced was different. He clearly remembered