Somewhere in the depth of my consciousness, I knew I was in yet another dream again. I found myself facing a peculiar yet familiar place, a dark bamboo forest. I was standing at an area somewhere near the boundaries. Behind me, sunlight was shining through where I stood, but that was as far as light could reach. Further in, there was only dense bamboo coverage, shielding the forest into darkness.  A shuffling sound was heard from within, as if there was someone walking in the forest, towards me. I took a step in, trying to follow the sound. But a hand clutched my wrist, trying to pull me back. I turned around and looked at the mysterious man in astonishment.

“What are you doing here?” I asked him, while my mind whizzed the same question back to me.

His expected cheeky and laid-back demeanor was no longer present. Instead he was looking at me with the most solemn expression and shaking his head at my actions. I tried to tug my hand out of his grip but he continued shaking his head, the orbs in his eyes reflected pain and desperation.

“Don’t go….” He whispered, softly.

Hearing his words and watching his sorrowful gaze sent my strength away. I relaxed and stood still, staring back at him.

His serious expression gradually disappeared as his lips slowly revealed the slightest smile. Under the sunlight, his presence felt so brilliant yet gentle. He raised his other hand and with the gentlest force, he brushed my cheek with his fingertips, as if I was a very fragile treasure he feared to hurt.

My mind was whirling with numerous questions about his presence. But his gaze seemed to have made me into a mute girl. I could only stare into his eyes and be swept into the black abyss of his orbs.

“Seo-Yun….”

A soft voice broke my thoughts and I turned my head away from his touch and faced the shadowy forest again.

“Seo-Yun….”

The same voice repeated and my heart lurched forward. This voice….

A pale-faced man stepped out from the darkness, his hair was black and slightly wavy, his eyes dark and mysterious. I recognized that face immediately.

“Taemin?” I took a step towards him.

A pull tugged me back again and I found my wrist caught by his grip once again. I looked up and saw his smile disappeared.

“You can’t go.” He pleaded; his pained look sent a string of sadness to my heart.

I gently pried his hand away and looked at him gently.

“Don’t worry….I will just go over and bring him back here.”

I shook my head as he was about to open his lips to protest again. Before he could react, I had already taken one step further into the darkness…and away from the sunlight.

Taemin remained standing at the same dark spot watching me carefully, as if he was waiting for me to come over. My heart pounded harder and faster with each step. Darkness was fast swallowing up the bright spot behind me along with my bravery and confidence.

But Taemin continued smiling at me, his smile turned wider with each step I took.

I swallowed a lump in my throat, trying to shake off the chilling fear running through my body as the last speck of brightness disappeared behind me.

As soon as I was within his reach, he held out his hand to me.

“Seo-Yun….” He said.

By now, I was trembling from the cold. My hand reached out, eager to take hold of his, to obtain some of his warmth. But my leg stumbled and my hand missed his.

For the first time, I broke my gaze away from his smiling eyes.

It was then, that I realized why I was shivering.

There was a large red patch on the chest region of the white blouse I was wearing. The red patch was becoming bigger and bigger. My fingers reached out to touch it,only to stain  my tips with the warm sticky sensation....

....of blood.

Horrified, I looked up to Taemin, hoping to seek for some sort of help.

But he remained smiling as if nothing was out of place.

I shivered violently as the chilly sensation overtook me and I stumbled forward.

**********

My eyes snapped open and my head wrenched upright to stare at an expressionless Snoppy facing me.

I glanced, disorientated, at the soft toy with its arms out as if it was expecting a hug. I gave a soft punch to Snoopy, sending it tumble backwards and land on its back. With a goofy grin at the poor white dog and my silly actions, I stared at the alarm clock. It was six-thirty in the morning.

I sat up on my bed and grabbed Snoppy by the arms.

“Sorry….” I talked to it and pressed its black round nose. “I’m just punishing you because your owner gave me a nightmare. You’ll forgive me right?”

Snoopy just stared at me with his two black lines drawn as eyes.

I sighed and hugged him, recalling the event that happened two week ago....

“Here….I’m loaning him to you.” Taemin pushed Snoopy to me.

“What?” I pouted in mock-anger. “He's mine too!”

“I was the one to get him!”

“I was the one giving you the instructions to get him!”

“I was the one who didn’t give up!”

“I was the one who keep encouraging you not to!”

“…………….”

The banter kept going on and on till both of us were left with no words to counter back any longer. Instead, I smiled and hugged Snoopy as we continued walking on in silence.

“Seo-Yun.” He was the first to break the stillness. I turned to look at him while he looked forward. “I won’t be able to see y-….Snoopy for a while.”

I stopped in my tracks. “How long?”

He stopped as well and finally looked at me. “About a month….I’ll be travelling around with the company for SM Town Concert and plus, we are going to make a comeback with ‘Hello’ soon.”

My grip on Snoopy tightened as I forced a smile on my face.

“Is that why you’re asking me to take care of Snoopy?”

He smiled as well, but I could tell it wasn’t the natural ones he often thrown at me. “Yeah. But….” He grabbed onto Snoopy’s arm firmly. “let’s make a promise shall we?”

“A promise?”

A glint appeared in his eyes as he stared at me. “Kibum hyung’s birthday is coming in a month’s time. He said he wanted to have a private celebration somewhere near the date…just with friends and close relatives. So let’s meet again for Kibum’s hyung birthday!”

I smiled and grabbed hold of Snoopy’s other arm. “Okay! Let’s meet in a month’s time”

Holding onto Snoopy’s arms, it was as if we were making promises by hooking fingers. I looked up at him and we smiled at each other from the bottom of our hearts.

**********

The sound of the alarm snapped me out of my trance. I took another glance at the clock, now seven and slapped down the deactivated button. With another press on Snoopy’s nose, I got up to get ready.

“is that all you’re having Seo-Yun?” My father peered from his newspaper and took a look at my emptied bowl of cereal.

I set down my spoon lightly. “I’m already full, father.”

He frowned slightly. “You should eat more….you’ve just recovered.”

My mother laughed as she pushed a bowl of sliced apple to my father’s side. “Don’t force our daughter anymore dear. She’ll be a pig at this rate.”

My father grunted in embarrassment while I smiled and grabbed my bag. “I’m going off now!”

Uncle Lee who was sitting on the couch started getting up, but I shook my head. “It’s fine Uncle Lee. I wished to walk to school today.”

“Wait, Seo-Yun, there’s something I want to tell you about.” My father stopped me as I was putting on my shoes. I turned around and gave him an apologetic look before pointing to the clock.

“Sorry father, can you tell me later? I need to rush to school.”

Without waiting for his reply, I dashed out of the house and headed for school.

**********

 Early afternoon. Class time. Mathematics.

A class full of dazed faces was staring at our teacher, not taking in a single word that the older lady had rumbled on. It was as if education has become a foreign thing that we couldn’t absorb in readily. Instead, all eyes were on the clock hanging above the whiteboard; as if staring at it intently could make the time go faster. I lowered my eyes to a book on my table, half hidden by my textbook.

I scanned across the first line on the page.

Dream :

In the Greek and Roman eras, dreamswere believed to be direct messages from the gods or from the dead. People looked to their dreams for solutions on what to do or what course of action to take. They believed dreams forewarned and predicted the future……

I skipped some parts and continued reading.

In modern psychology, Sigmund Freud suggested that dreams were a representation of unconscious desires, thoughts and motivations. While these thoughts are not consciously expressed, they find their way into our dreams…..

I leaned against my seat anf frowned.

So what do all these mean?

What exactly are my dreams trying to tell me anyway?

There are so many questions that can’t be answered.

I sighed, trying to release the pent up emotion within me.

Yoo Ri, who sat beside me in class, threw me a questionable look. I simply shrugged and returned her book. Staring at the whiteboard doodled with mathematics; my cluttered thoughts slowly uncluttered themselves, removing blocks and blocks of uncertainty until it revealed one simple question in my mind.

Dreaming of Taemin….does that means he holds a special place in my heart?

My heart pounded and I pressed both hands on my cheeks, hoping no one noticed my reddened face.

But my mind flashed back to the most recent dream. What about THAT guy?

I sighed again, feeling as if piles and piles of rocks had stacked on top of my heart, creating this heavy sensation in my chest.

“What’s with you?” Yoo-Ri looked at me with a frown once the school bell rang. “If I know that you will keep sighing on and on, I wouldn’t have lent you that book about dreams in the first place.”

Her words caught me off-guard. Have I been sighing all day long? Was I feeling that troubled? My mind instantly answered a “Yes” to my questions.

A bitter laugh escaped out of my lips as I laughed at my out-of-sort state.  This definitely wasn’t the usual way of my behavior. I shook my head in defeat and looked up to my friend.

“Nothing. I was just over-thinking about something. Let’s go.”

But it seemed as if fate did not wish to let me off.

The moment I had decided not to fret over one problem, another one turned up......

#Author's Note =D

First thing first....SHINee is making a comeback!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! =D

Of course I'm a huge SHINee fan, that's why I'm writing a fan-fiction here! Kekekekeke....

Back to the reality, I've actually posted up this chapter last week. Unluckily, Asianfanfic crashed in the next hour. And Chapter 16 disappeared along with the crash. I understand its not really Asianfanfic's fault, but I was a bit apprehensive about uploading my stuffs soon. Anyway, in the upcoming weeks, I will be zombified by my workload so I won't have much time to sleep, let alnog write. But the good thing was, I spent the whole weekend absorbed in writing. So I have a decent length to keep the updates going at usual pace (meaning 1-2 times a week?)

Meanwhile, as thanks and apology to my readers for this late updates, here are some sneak peeks at my unedited spoilers....

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“Why can’t we? How about just a lift? It looks like it might really rain now….”

As if the sky listened to him, a large drop of rain hit my nose. I looked up, incredulously. Surely Heaven isn’t trying to play a trick on me now?

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“Do you know the story behind that wall?” He suddenly asked.

“What wall?” I pondered over his stranger question before added, “you mean that palace wall?”

He nodded his head slightly. “That day…I was thinking about that story and I got a little muddled.”

“what story?” I probed.

The corners of his lips turned up ever so slightly. 

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“Are you sure about this?” I mumbled as Unnie fussed over my hair.

“Of course!”

I looked at her hesitantly before getting up and walked to the full length mirror.

“This is a bit revealing….”

"“It’s fine the way it is."

I smiled as my eyes followed to a mirror image staring back at me. My smile faltered as my lips parted slightly in surprise. I could hardly believe that the person staring back at me….is me.

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The red carpet continued to a hallway that had large oaked doors at the end.

Upon nearing it, the door automatically swung open, revealing an impressive grand ballroom filled with hundreds of well-dressed gentlemen and ladies wearing Venetian masks of all kinds.

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The small group started laughing along with him.

“What nonsense.” I muttered to myself, trying hard not to roll my eyes at the ridiculous scene.

“Tell me about it.” A voice quipped next to me, almost causing me to drop my glass in surprise. I snapped my head to the right and looked up to see a tall man donned in a smart tuxedo suit, his smiling face half hidden by his black-golden mask. “Hi.”

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“Can I ask you something?” I spoke softly, still hesitant of my actions.

He nodded his head, all the while; his expression was wistful, pleading,

“Why…..” I stopped briefly to summon up my courage. “why did you call me Yeon Woo?”

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Standing there, looking straight at him with the most stunning smile ever.......he couldn’t utter a word.

He could feel his jaws dropped opened as he stared at the perfect goddess, wondering if the elegant beauty standing before him was an illusion.

But that illusion called out his name again.

His heart thumped hard at the sound of her voice. She's real. 

“Y-yes?” His voice was shaking slightly.

.

.

.

THAT'S ALL FOLKS! HAVE A NICE DAY! =D