“So, what do you think?” the boy was fidgeting, clearly nervous about what the man in front of him was going to say. Did he really want to hear this?

 

“Well…” the man started and for a second Jisoo closed his eyes, he could already tell this wasn’t going to be good.

 

“It has potential. The plot could be great. But there’s one major problem... The main character. She’s just not interesting. She has no flaws, so there’s no way the readers will get invested in her.”

 

“But it’s not like she’s good at everything she does,” Jisoo complained.

 

“No. She’s not good at anything. Nor is she bad at anything. She’s completely, utterly average. Her and thus reactions are also average. There’s nothing special about her, and in turn, there’s nothing special about this book you were trying to write. You need a stronger character, and once you do, the plot can work. But right now, it just doesn’t.”

 

“But… She is easily relatable. She should become popular with girls…” he tried. His agent shook his head.

 

“No, Joshua. Girls these days want strong female role models. Cute, plain, average girls are a thing of the past. You need to either change her, or create a new main character. Find her a flaw. A strength. Give her some dept. I know you can do it.”

 

---

 

Hong Jisoo sighed. He had worked on his book for the longest of times. It had taken him over two years to finish. But now, according to his agent, he had to start over from the beginning. Change his main character. The character he had created, formed and loved so much, was apparently not good enough. He still remembered how much he had struggled creating a main character for his novel. All he had been able to come up with was a name ‘Seol Hana.’ It sounded cute and wasn’t an overused name, perfect to him. But what kind of girl was Seol Hana? How would he describe her? How would she move through this fairy tale world he had created? He couldn’t imagine it. Even picturing the girl proved quite difficult.

 

He had fallen asleep on top of his notes. And that was when he had first met her.

 

“Wooohooo~” he yelled out as the rollercoaster went down another hill, his hands in the air. He was still positioned like that when his dream suddenly changed. Now, he was staring into the brown eyes of a girl, who looked puzzled.

 

“Are you okay, sir? Why are you screaming? You’re not in pain are you?”

 

He instantly put his arms down.

 

“I’m… fine.” He tried to remember what he had just been doing, but like often happened in dreams, he had no idea.

 

“I’m glad to hear that, sir,” the girl smiled at him, an adorable sweet smile.

 

“Yes, yes, hurry up to class,” he told her and before he knew it he was in a classroom himself, taking attendance.

 

“Seol Hana?”

 

“Present,” she called out. Her voice not too loud, nor soft.

 

The familiarity of her name was what had woken him up. For a second he was disoriented, but a glance at the notes in front of him brought his dream back to him. Yes. Seol Hana. His main character. She had just been perfect.

 

Why did I dream I was her teacher? Makes no sense. I’m not even writing about a school.

 

He started scribbling down as much as he remembered from his dream. How cute her smile was. How her voice sounded. How her eyes had sparkled. The way she had sat in the classroom. Anything he could think off.

 

It wasn’t that much yet. Clearly not enough details for creating a main character. So he added to his notes, imagined what she would be like. Would she be sporty? No, she didn’t look sporty. But she wasn’t bad at sports… She just didn’t like them all that much. Yes. That made sense.

 

---

 

 

It was five days later that he dreamed of her again. This time, they weren’t in a school. He wasn’t her teacher. Now, they were at the beach.

 

“Thank you for taking me to the beach!” she said with a smile.

 

“Anytime,” he replied. It was incredibly relaxing to watch her.

 

“Let’s go for a swim!” he then suggested.

 

“Alright! Come catch me, Joshua!” She ran off towards the waves, and he was left stunned for a second before running after her. He caught up with her just as she tripped in the sand. He reached out to catch her, but was just a tad too late, and she ended up face down in the sand.

 

“Clumsy much?” he commented with a grin.

 

“You were just too slow. You should have caught me. That would have been so much better!” she complained with a pout. But her eyes were sparkling as she got back on her feet.

 

“I agree. I could have romantically saved you. I guess I’ll just make it up to you someday.”

 

She blushed and nodded with a smile.

 

No reply came and just like that, the dream was over again, and Jisoo woke up, feeling happy and slightly confused as to why she would call him by his author name. He never used it, except for on the books he wrote. There was no way he would introduce himself to anyone that way… Not even in a dream.

 

---

 

 

They were walking hand in hand through the snow. There were christmas lights all around town. It didn’t look like Korea. The street signs were in a language Jisoo couldn’t read. But he didn’t care. Because he was with Hana.

 

“So, am I making it up to you?” he asked her. They had only just met up, so he really hadn’t, but she was too kind to say that. Instead, she just blushed a little and he smiled.

 

“Of course I haven’t. We haven’t even done anything yet! We’re going to go to all the best places around here. There’s this really great park. I know what you are thinking, who goes to a park in winter, but it’s good, I promise you!”

 

“Looking forward to it,” she smiled. Her muffler covered but he could hear it in her voice. Her hand in his was cold, and he wondered why she would be wearing so many warm clothes and a muffler, yet forget her gloves.

 

“Hana, we’re here!” he exclaimed excitedly when they reached a large gate, leading to a park. The park itself wasn’t large, and it was almost empty. The snow had piled up over the trees, and the christmas lights gave it an almost magical atmosphere. But the most magical of all where the snow fairies. Not actual fairies, of course, there was no such thing as fairies. But snow sculptures resembling the little creatures, spread all around the park, on trees, on the bench in the middle of the park, near the gates, everywhere.

 

Seol Hana looked around in wonder, for a second almost forgetting Jisoo was there too.

 

“It’s beautiful,” she mumbled, as she stepped forward.

 

“Right?” he stated proudly and softly tugged on her hand. “Come, let’s walk around. The longer the look, the more little things you’ll notice.”

 

“Oh look! Look over there!” she pointed to the trunk of a tree. “Are those fairies dancing? That’s so cute!” Her excitement had turned her cheeks rosy, and the more she spotted, the happier she seemed.

“You know, there’s this rumour…” he started.

 

“The one where they say if you kiss in this park you’ll stay together forever?”

 

“You already knew?”

 

She turned a bright red, matching her coat perfectly.

 

“So, do you wanna stay together forever?” he said jokingly. He wasn’t joking. But what if she didn’t want any of this?

 

“So we’re together then?” She turned to him, the question clear in her eyes.

 

“Only if you want to be,” Jisoo said simply.

 

“I do…”

 

He moved closer to her, but just before he could kiss her, the girl already standing on her tippy toes to meet him halfway, he woke up.

 

---

 

 

The more he dreamed of her, the easier some parts were to write. Hana talking with her friends. Hana defending a victim of bullying. Hana standing in front of the little troll that was being stoned by a horde of angry humans, even though he was clearly still a baby.

 

That was how his story started. Hana being her cute self, helping a little troll-baby, saving it’s life and then going on a trip to bring it back to it’s parents.

 

His story wasn’t resembling his dreams in the slightest. But the girl, Hana, she was the girl from his dreams. Writing her calmed him down, made him miss her less. The more he started to care about her, the more often he dreamed of her. Always in different situation, yet always together.

 

---

 

 

 

“I can’t believe they are fighting with each other,” Hana mumbled as they ran through the corridors of an old castle. Spells were flying everywhere, easily spotted because of the bright lights they emitted.

 

“I can’t believe the whole school got dragged into this,” Jisoo answered.

 

“Just because that one red had to pick a fight with that green kid, and then the blues joined in with the green and everyone started picking sides…” Hana sighed.

 

“All because he tripped and made a big deal out of it…”

 

He quickly pulled Hana sideways, his arm around her waist, a spell flying where she had been just seconds before, and shattering one of the statues in front of them.

 

“How did this get so dangerous? It makes no sense! Be careful, okay, Hana? I don’t want you to get hurt.”

 

“Thanks for saving me, Joshua.”

 

“Always.”

 

She smiled, yet as soon as they started running it disappeared. Both of them were out of breath by the time they found a secluded, safe spot in the castle.

 

“We should be fine here,” Jisoo commented.

 

“I hope so. Our yellow robes kind of stand out though…”

 

“But they also signal we have nothing to do with this. And if anyone tries to attack you, I’ll protect you!”

 

“Thanks for keeping me safe, Joshua.”

 

This time, he did manage to kiss her before he woke up.

 

---

 

 

 

Somehow, the promise he had made to her in his dream was interfering with his writing too. When he wrote about bandits trying to kidnap Hana as she was travelling with the baby troll, he couldn’t make them actually get close to her. Instead they kept running into problems of themselves. Their horses getting sick, running into a hunter’s trap, and then finally losing track of the girl and her troll altogether.

 

He didn’t make the journey easy for her, though. He made it exactly right. At one time, they had to get across a river. The stream was quite harsh, but nothing Hana couldn’t take. The troll however, was unable to swim and carrying him while swimming was almost too much for Hana’s swimming skills. It didn’t help that the troll was afraid of the water, and struggling the whole time, either. She almost lost her grip on him halfway through, and when she finally reached the riverbed, she had to rest for hours just to get her strength back. But she did it. She was a lot stronger than she seemed.

 

 

---

 

 

 

Thinking back to the times he had changed his plans for the plot to keep Hana safe, he couldn’t help but think that maybe his agent had a point. If it wasn’t Hana, but someone else, those changes wouldn’t have happened. The story would have been different. But would it really have been better? No way. There was no way anyone could be better than Seol Hana. Even the readers must understand that, feel the appeal that she just radiated… They had to…

 

He looked at his work, trying to figure out if it really was as bad as his agent had pretended it was. It was a cute medieval fantasy story about a young girl and a baby troll and their journey to the troll valley. It wasn’t an easy journey, of course but they made it. But when they reached the troll valley, the trolls caught Hana, locking her up, ready to eat her, until her baby troll friend came to rescue her. It was the perfect fairy tale. At least to him. But his agent was right. Hana had no flaws. She was her perfect self. Kind, almost selfless. She wasn’t popular, but she had friends enough. She wasn’t super smart, but far from dumb. Jisoo couldn’t call her average, because to him she was far from. But slowly, he started to realize that maybe not everyone would feel the same about her, about how he had portrayed her. That was his fault. His mistake. She deserved better. He knew she was a great person. If his agent couldn’t see that, then that was his mistake.

 

“I’ll fix this. No problem. I’m a writer after all.”

 

 

---

 

 

“Joshua? Joshua?” Hana’s soft voice woke him up.

 

“Hmm?” he mumbled. It took him a while to figure out what was going on. But when he realised that he had fallen asleep on top of his novel and that the girl of his dreams, both literally and figuratively, was waking him up, he felt clear awake.

 

“How did you get here?”

 

“Did you already forget you gave me a key?” She held it up, looking almost hurt he would forget something so important to her.

 

“No, no, of course not,” Jisoo lied.

 

“You so did!” she pouted. “I bet you were so into your work you forgot it was valentine’s day as well.”

 

He just grinned sheepishly and Hana sighed.

 

“You’re lucky I love you this much, or I would have gotten tired of you always forgetting everything.” She held out a cutely wrapped present to him.

 

“I made you chocolates.”

 

“You made them?”

 

Hana turned slightly pink and nodded.

 

“I’m sorry if they don’t taste good.”

 

“Of course they will taste good! And even better now I know that you’ve made them.”

 

“I hope so,” was all she replied.

 

“I’m sure they will!”

 

“So… are you ready for our date?” she asked and he was quiet for a second.

 

“I’ll give you a hint, your pen was still open when you fell asleep on top of it…” she added with a giggle. The blue ink had left some interesting marks on his cheek.

 

“I’ll be done in five minutes!” he promised her and rushed of.

 

Hana smiled as she watched her boyfriend. It was going to be their first valentine’s day together, and she wanted it to go perfect. Or at least as perfect as was still possible.

 

“Done! And with a minute to spare,” Jisoo stated with a boyish grin. “Let’s go!”

 

They started of by going to a pancake restaurant, which Hana seemed to like as much as Jisoo had hoped she would.

 

“They look so cute!” she exclaimed as she went over the menu excitedly. “How am I going to chose one?”

 

“How about you choose two, then? Mine and yours?” he suggested and her face just lit up. It only lasted a few seconds before she turned back to the menu and sighed.

 

“Even that is going to be difficult!”

 

In the end she decided on one with fruits and a chocolate one. She had so much trouble deciding which one to eat herself that they split them both in two.

 

“It’s so good~!”

 

“I’m glad you liked them,” Jisoo smiled.

 

“It was perfect!” Hana exclaimed as they walked hand in hand to their next destination.

 

“We’re going to see a movie?” the girl asked when they neared DaeHan cinema.

 

“Not quite… But let’s do that too,” he replied.

 

“Then why are we going in there?”

 

“It’s a surprise. Just wait, and you’ll see,” Jisoo said with a grin as he let her inside. They picked what was definitely going to be a cheesy valentines movie, and once they had gotten themselves some snacks and drinks Jisoo led Hana to the elevator.

 

“It’s not going to start for another half an hour, you know,” she commented.

 

“I know,” was all he replied.

 

Instead of going to the 3rd floor, where their movie would be, he picked the 8th floor. She looked at him, clearly puzzled, but he just smiled mysteriously.

 

“We’ve arrived,” he stated as the elevator doors opened. “Welcome to Sky Rose Garden.”

 

Even though it was only february and still quite chilly, the flowers on this rooftop garden, all roses in different types and colours, were in bloom. And because Jisoo had timed their visit just right, it would only be another few minutes until they would be able to see the sunset, with Seoul in the background. Hana looked around in silence for a second, unable to take everything in at once.

 

“Don’t you… like it?” he asked nervously.

 

“Like it? I.. I love it! It’s beautiful!”

 

They walked around together, chatting softly, not wanting to disturb any of the other couples.

 

“Look, look! The sun is setting!”

 

“Let’s take a picture,” Jisoo suggested and Hana smiled happily as they posed for selfies.

 

The movie had been just as cheesy as they had expected, but they were just happy at having spend the evening together.

 

“I’ll walk you home,” he stated.

 

“You want to get back to your novel, don’t you?” she asked, and smiled. “I’ll just take a cab home. Don’t worry about me, okay? Just do whatever you need to do to make this novel the best ever. Don’t let me ruin this for you okay? I love you, Joshua.”

 

And just like that she was gone.

 

He woke up feeling happy somehow. He had new motivation to rewrite his novel. His date last night had really done him well, even if he had no idea how he had gotten home.

 

Wait… My date? With Seol Hana?

 

He checked his phone. He was sure they had taken pictures together. There were none. Of course there were none. She wasn’t real… It had been another dream. More real than any of the other ones, but still a dream. And just like that, his happiness was gone. He had found a flaw in Seol Hana. An incredibly heartbreaking flaw. Because even though he loved her, she wasn’t real. And that, to him, was the biggest flaw she could have.

Fin

 

---

---

Dear Sara,

I really hope you like this!

Love
Saranghae Oppa~