Tisha stirs up from her slumber. The sun has gone home, and the sky has welcomed the stars as their guest for the night. 

She sat up on her bed and checked the surrounding. Her room was empty as usual and dark since Sowon was not there to switch the lights on. Sowon has classes today. 

'It was a good dream, stars. For once, I found hope. But, dreams always end, and reality kills me.'

She had many thoughts and was talking to the stars through the lonely hospital room window. 

She felt inconsolable. Her room door cracked open, revealing Mark with a box of cake. She looked away. 

"Hye, when did you wake up?" she didn’t reply to him. 

"Tisha, you okay? Do you feel pain anywhere? I can call the doctors if you want?" he questioned as he gently held her hands. 

"Why are you doing this? If you are here for…,"

"Stop saying that. We already talked about this afternoon, to be exact. I apologized, and you also accepted. You even cried yourself in my arms," explained Mark calmly. He didn't want to trigger her headache again.

"What???" asked Tisha, perplexed. She couldn't believe it. 

"You’re not having any amnesia, are you?" questioned Mark with a bewildered look.

"No….! That was not a dream…." she mumbled to herself. 

"What??? No..!" replied Mark, shocked as well. 

For a moment, she believed that she was still hallucinating if not for Mark to hold her hands.

"It couldn't be true. I am still dreaming. I got to wake up," Tisha closed her eyes and kept chanting it like a mantra. 

Mark was surprised and also sad that she thought everything was a dream. 

Just how painful were her days to feel this way? 

He embraced her in his arms tightly as he said sweet nothing.

"I’m here. I’m never going to leave you. It was not a dream. Trust me, Tisha," he said those words softly in her ears.

She didn’t cry or say a word. She just stayed in Mark's arms without making any move. 

"You know what? Let’s have your favourite cake to light up the mood," Mark said as he broke the hug to get the cake.

"A red velvet cake. How do you know my favourite cake?" Tisha asked as she looked into his eyes.

"You think you were the only one stalking? I did some, too," she hung her head low with the answer.

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