RULE #1:

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Past can be a dream.

Your dreams could be the present.

A dream will never be about the future…

Unless the fates would play a game of torture…

Regardless of what you dream, things will never change.

The fates had already decided everything and you are only a glitch, a tiny speck of dust in the rule of time and space.

Whatever is written cannot be unwritten…

If it is bound to happen, it will happen.

Destiny, can never be altered. 

Chapter 1

A golden mirror is hanging in the air, in the middle of this beautiful garden. It looks like it doesn’t belong here as everything is colourful and lively but it actually is the centrepiece of the whole place.

I walk towards it, wondering if it will break or melt if I touch it. Instead, I saw my reflection smiling back to the curious version of myself.

“Have you ever wondered why anyone would dream of something?” I asked myself through the mirror.

My reflection just stared at me with so much sympathy like what lies ahead of my destiny was sorrow and grief.  “Have you ever wondered if this is a dream or is it real?” my reflection asked me.

Then the mirror dissolved into the shadow. Oblivion conquered every space surrounding me and I can’t find a way to escape the blinding darkness.

I woke up with a jolt. I can’t decide whether it was a bad dream or a good dream. All I know is that I am glad that to be awake now. Sadly, I have no idea that in the following days, waking up from a dream will not be as wonderful as how I felt at this moment.

My life is just normal, me giving up on some things that I love because life won’t give me everything I want. So I decided to focus on one dream and I choose the culinary life as that sole dream that can fulfil my life. I am content with where I am now and I met some good friends in this place.

“Deep thoughts again, Jaeseok?” Nam Woohyun said.

“What deep thoughts? I am just spacing out.” I replied. Nam Woohyun is older than me but we get to understand each other so much so I guess that made us closer. That and also the fact that we are one of the few Koreans studying here in Tokyo.

“Hmm. Okay, if you say so. Anyways, I dreamed of a girl last night. The same girl. I really want to meet her someday.” He said. He is always like this talking about some mystery girl. I don’t even know if he is making this thing up or if he really dreams of someone. I just let him be because his stories are fun and that I really enjoying spending time with a friend like him.

The two of us went to our own classes and as the day was near to its end, we go and meet up at the library to get help him finish his requirements. Woohyun will graduate soon and he thought it will be best if he could share his knowledge to me before he leaves. When the library is about to close he suggested that he will cook for me as a token of gratitude for all the help today.

“You know that we live in the same apartment right? And it will be either you or me who cooks dinner for the two of us?” I said trying to be funny even just this once.

“Hey, don’t say that. I will cook your favorite so don’t say anything that will change my mind, okay?” We both laugh and everything seems perfect at that moment. I wanted this to last as I am scared what my life when Woohyun leaves and I will be alone facing the real world.

The two of us enjoyed dinner, got ready to sleep and I never realized how tired I am for today. As soon as I closed my eyes, my thoughts drifted to dreamland.

There I am again, in front of the golden mirror. Then a voice suddenly spoke, “Are you ready to live the life of your reflection?” It sounded like Woohyun’s voice but there is something different about it. Like it comes from above, from something powerful and divine.

Then this time, I dissolve into the shadows together with the golden mirror.

The dream started like any other dream. I am in a place and there are people around me. What’s different is that I felt something that isn’t supposed to be there. Everything felt realistic. Even the wind around me felt cold against my warm skin. The sun even blazed with warmth that felt different from what I remember from the real world. It was hard to process all of these sensations so I tried to focus on a small detail in my dream. I realized im in front of a building named N Coffee shop? Where is this place? And it seems like I am holding a camera? Am I filming myself? That would be weird.

I wanted to stop whatever I am doing but I feel like I am just watching it all happen through my eyes. I am like an outsider in my own body.

“Are you ready to make some coffee?” Some blonde hair guy suddenly talked to me.

“Of course. Ajae prince will be the new coffee prince.” I said. Well, the dream version of me said. I have no idea what Ajae prince is but I felt happy hearing my voice say those two words. It felt like something made up, something that holds too much meaning to me even if I don’t know where it came from.

“We arrived at the coffee shop.” I said. Showing the building to the camera.

The blonde hair guy talked to the manager of the coffee shop about our goal to film ourselves working there. We got the permission and started right away. I never tried making coffee like this and I wonder where my brain would get all this knowledge for me to dream something like this.

After a few moments, I am suddenly holding a pepper grinder. Finally, something I really know how to do. And the smell of the meat. “You need to tap the meat so it gets the smoke fragrance.” I said to the blonde guy. After cooking the meat, the guy named Sungyoon talked to the camera (I have no idea how I know that, I swear I never met him before. Or have I?).

“Because Jaeseok cooked the meat…” Then he went a feed me some meat. It tastes delicious, as expected because I grilled it myself.

Everything went perfect in my dream, and the two of us went home feeling proud of what we’ve accomplished. As soon as I closed my eyes to sleep in my dream, I opened mine in the real world.

“That was some dream, huh.” I said to myself. This continued for days. Then weeks. Sometimes I will be in a dormitory doing nothing with a whole bunch of people. My favorite  so far are those dreams where  we go and do some dance practice. I love dancing but I gave up on that dream when I pursued culinary studies. It felt good to dance again and to teach these 10 people about dancing makes me happy so much that I almost didn’t want to wake up anymore. I wanted to stay in that dream with them. With the ten people that made me feel like I can do something great and special when I’m with them.

The past few days, I got so absorbed studying at the library and it was frustrating to see few books about dreams and what would each dream could actually mean. There was nothing on dreaming about the same people for a long period of time. I even tried searching using the internet but all I got were weird explanation about how they dreamed of their past life and all. Maybe that was my past life, but how come my dream consists of technologies that are only present today? How recent was this past life of mine to be this updated? Hmm, I wonder. And then it hit me, could it be that I’m experiencing my life from a parallel universe?

“Yah, Jaeseok. What are you doing here? And you don’t help me with my library works anymore.” Nam Woohyun asked. Damn, whenever I see this guy I start to be reminded of how I miss South Korea.

“Just researching something about my dreams.” I said.

“What kind of dreams?” Woohyun replied.

I thought of all the times Woohyun would tell me about his dreams and the girl he keeps on dreaming about. I wanted to ask him about what is happening to me but I thought maybe he won’t believe me. I always found his stories unbelievable at some point and now that it is happening to me, I felt bad for doubting him.

“Hmm, lately, I’ve been dreaming about 10 people. Well, I only talked to a few of them but there are mostly there in my dreams. It’s the 3rd week now and I feel like I’ve known some of them for years now.” I explained. And then it hit me. They are Koreans. We are talking in Korean and the places we went to are from Korea. I just didn’t realize it because it felt normal to me whenever I am in my dream. But weirdly, I never heard of Woollim. I have no idea what Golden Child is.

“Ohhhh. That’s weird. Maybe you are dreaming about your past life or something? Hmm. I mean it is weird because at least in my dream I don’t actually see the face of the girl I dream about. And I don’t dream about Woollim or whatever new words you are saying.” Woohyun said. Now he took one of the books and started reading. He has no much passion with books but I never saw him so interested with something as technical as this.

“No. The dreams are set at the present day. Like the social media stuffs we are using right now are the same. So it can’t be from the past? Though I checked my phone from the dream and noticed that the time was from months ago? Sometimes, it will be April. Then September. And one time it was the 20th August and we were practicing so much something about a debut or I don’t know.” I said.

“Woah. Debut? Are you an idol there? WOW. That is really amazing. Were you dancing?” He asked. I talked about my dream of becoming a dancer to Nam Woohyun the same as how he talked about how he wanted to be a singer and a composer. We share the love for cooking but we got the same idea of giving up some of our dreams just to pursue the other.

“I think so.” We discussed about my dreams more then decided to go home when the librarian told us that the library would close soon.

“Okay. So, hmm. Tell me about the next time you dreamed about them okay? Or maybe try talking to them in your dreams?” He said.

“I told you already, I can’t act out in my dreams. It is like I’m rewatching my own memories and that I can’t do anything about it anymore. But I saw that it is really me when I looked at the mirror that one time. Though I look different, thinner and let’s say I look handsome?” I laughed at the last thing I said. I never saw myself as handsome. I don’t even bother to dress up and style my hair.

“Okay. Whatever. Just, tell me about it okay? I’m curious about it.”

“Okay. I will. Goodbye.” I waved my goodbye as we part ways.