Chapter Twelve - As The Sleeper Awakes

Yoona rolled over and realized nothing was underneath to support her before she stumbled over and fell onto the floor. She winced and rubbed her cheek that had taken the hit before opening her eyes and sitting up. Underneath her was a carpet next to a glass coffee table and a couch. As she observed the room closer she realized where she was; it was Seohyun’s apartment’s living room.

She got up quickly looking around in more detail. It was afternoon and on her right through the living room window the cityscape glowed in the sun’s heat, the traffic dragging at its usual excruciatingly slow pace.

“Seohyun! Are you here?” Yoona began making her way around the apartment.

“Seohyun, where are you?” She checked each room, the whole apartment and found that she was alone.

Leaning against the wall she tried to recall the last thing she could remember. She had been inside a dream. Or had being inside a dream been a dream in itself? Why was she in Seohyun’s apartment? Had she woken up?

A knock on the door interrupted her thought process. Startled, her eyes darted towards the front door. It was followed by a couple more knocks and then a shout.

“Yoona, are you in there?”

Yoona couldn’t recognize the voice immediately. It didn’t sound like Seohyun but…

“Yoona open up!”

Was it Hyoyeon?

She walked over to the door and looked through the eyehole. Nobody was beyond the door and the corridor looked empty.

“Who is it?” She shouted to see if the voices were real, if someone was really beyond the door.

“It’s me Hyoyeon, we have to get going.”

Once again Yoona looked through the eyehole but couldn’t see anything on the other side. She put the chain lock on the door just in case it was someone she didn’t know and then proceeded to open the door. As she opened it a bright, overbearing sunlight burst through the crack partially blinding her and a wave of heat rolled over her. She carefully peeped through the door crack minding the glare from the sun and saw both Hyoyeon and Sooyoung standing outside the door in a desert.

“Wha- where is this?”

Yoona took the chain off the door and opened it wide; taking careful steps out into the open desert that surrounded the entirety of the area around her apartment.

“This is The Desert. Through this you can pretty much connect to any dream or space that you want, that is if you can find them in this desert. So we are back in the dream world again,” Sooyoung told her as she began to walk away from the apartment.

“Why is Seohyun’s apartment here? And why can I see the city from the window inside there?” Yoona glanced back inside the apartment and looked through the living room window at the far corner. She could still see the cityscape spread in view, minding its own business.

“This apartment seems to be the place that you always want to automatically go back to, a safe and comfortable place, your home base if you will. For you it seems to be Seohyun’s apartment,” Hyoyeon smirked at Yoona who was still at a loss for words. “Now come on, we need to get going. We’re going to go find Sunny.”

Yoona stepped outside and felt the hot sand seep into her slip-on shoes. She was truly standing in a desert.

“How are we going to find Sunny?”

“Easily,” Sooyoung turned around and grabbed hold of both Hyoyeon’s and Yoona’s hand, “I know the location of her oasis; hence I can go there whenever I want now.”

Yoona blinked once before she felt the whole world shift around her. She felt herself stretch, her body being torn to different directions. Her vision becoming a blur, she could only see lines of different colour and temperature changing each millisecond. Her body was having a difficult time to register all she was feeling, even the smell of the area changed in an instant and as she blinked a second time they had stopped, standing in front of an oasis in the middle of the desert.

“Sunny!” Sooyoung shouted and Hyoyeon quickly picked up on this and joined the chorus.

“Sunny where are you?! It’s me, Hyoyeon! SUNNY?!”

Just as Sunny peeked from the far side of the oasis pond into view so did something else appear right next to her. It grabbed hold of her shoulder and in the same instance paralyzed Sunny so she couldn’t move.

“Saebyuk! Let her go!” Sooyoung took a step forward. She could see that Saebyuk was surprised to see her.

“How did you-” Saebyuk started to ask before she noticed Yoona standing just behind Hyoyeon. “I see you have brought me what I wanted. So are we going to exchange, Sunny for Yoona?”

Hyoyeon was boiling inside. She had finally found Sunny who was being held by the vile copy of Yoona. Doing an exchange sounded good to her ears as the fury within her built up. The black aura that Yoona had witnessed earlier around Hyoyeon was getting darker and larger, the smoke more prominent and the ground under Hyoyeon was beginning to change.

Hyoyeon, with her blood tainted boiling eyes turned to look back at Yoona.

“It’s your fault she is here. You are the solution.”

Hyoyeon was slowly losing her temper and she reached out to grab hold of Yoona who stumbled back tangling her feet and fell down on the hot sand, terrified of Hyoyeon. She tried to scramble backwards along the sand as Hyoyeon tried to grab her.

“Hyoyeon, no!”

Sooyoung grabbed hold of Hyoyeon’s hand and pulled her around, forcing her to look into her eyes.

“We can’t give her to Saebyuk.”

Sooyoung’s stare and touch seemed to calm Hyoyeon down, her fury dissipating slightly.

“So what is it going to be?” Saebyuk called out again. “Do we have a deal? Yoona for Sunny.”

“No deal.”

“Too bad, I guess I’ll have to leave with Sunny until you come to your senses.”

Saebyuk once again touched Sunny’s shoulder. Something broke in Hyoyeon.

Hyoyeon had been trying to keep her rage, keep her senses sharp and control her feelings. It was in the dream world where she had to be very careful of her feelings as it was through this, her strong volatile emotions, that the being she shared her body with was fueled. It was in the dream world where she was the most vulnerable to her suggestions.

It revelled in the emotions, bathed in them and tempted Hyoyeon to give into them more. It wanted Hyoyeon to get angry, to let her rage loose because it was through this it could have control. This way it got the upper hand. And it was then that it would tempt Hyoyeon to let go.

Hyoyeon? Hyoyeon? I know you can hear me.

Hyoyeon shook her head. She shouldn’t listen. She should try and calm down and not let it take control of her. But the smirk on Saebyuk’s face just fueled the fires even more.

Just let go Hyoyeon. You know you need me or else you won’t see your precious Sunny again. Don’t worry, I won’t hurt her. I promise. All you need to do is say my name and all your worries and problems will be solved.

The words in her head slithered through wrapping around her senses, clouding her judgment, and blocking her mind from thinking straight. It wrapped Hyoyeon’s mind in a tight grip, a snake that slowly choked its prey, wrapping tighter and tighter around the victim. It didn’t allow Hyoyeon to reason but instead used the rage in Hyoyeon’s heart to fuel her desires and control her mind, to let her emotions take over.

Hyoyeon needed to willingly release it while saying its name to let it take over and only an emotionally strained and wrecked Hyoyeon ever did so. It had been a long time since it had last seen daylight, but it was finally time for it to take charge.

Just whisper my name. You know what you have to do. Say it.

Hyoyeon convulsed, her eyes rolling back in her sockets, frothed and it seemed like her muscles were bursting through her skin as she was changing into something else. Her veins bulged as if to pop through her skin that was turning multiple shades darker and her beautiful blonde hair was changing into an awful shade of dark, as if it was slowly rusting. The hellish aura deepened in its black empty colour and the sand around her had already burned up to clear glass.

Hyoyeon’s now dry and cracked lips whispered quietly.

“Save Sunny… Minyoung.”

Everything that followed happened in an instant, too fast for Yoona to understand and almost too fast for Sooyoung to react to.

Hyoyeon’s body burst in its black decimating aura like a void swallowing everything whole. Sooyoung had just enough time to flash and grab Yoona out of the way creating distance between them and Hyoyeon. Saebyuk on the other hand was almost taken over by Hyoyeon who in that instant, possessed by her creature, had dashed to maim Saebyuk indefinitely. She had felt Hyoyeon’s hot hand glance just past her neck and seen the devilish, crazed eyes of Hyoyeon burning a deeper red than anything she had ever seen, her eye’s crying blood. Hyoyeon’s mouth turned into a wicked smile that seemed to stretch the sides of unnaturally, before Saebyuk managed to vanish out of sight dragging Sunny along with her.

Sooyoung and Yoona sat at a far off edge of a dune staring at the destruction caused in a fraction of a second. The oasis no longer existed, only a black hole that seemed like an endless void had replaced it. Dark matter was pouring out of its edges and in its midst floated a creature, a twisted version of Hyoyeon.

“It’s time for us all to wake up,” Sooyoung said as she stood up letting go of Yoona’s hand.

Hyoyeon turned to look towards the two; the wicked smile plastered on her face like it was glued on.

“Soooooyoooooung! It’s your turn next…” She shouted beginning to slowly float towards the two.

“Go back to sleep, Minyoung,” Sooyoung closed her eyes, took a deep breath and clenched her knuckles white. Her eyes shut tight her nose scrunched up and wiggled in her concentration.

Once again within a blink of an eye, Yoona’s world flashed white; contrasting with the deepest dark of the aura around Hyoyeon, before everything vanished into nothingness.

Something warm and soft was holding her and Yoona snuggled in closer, trying to dig herself more into the comforting feeling that enveloped her. As consciousness lazily made itself present, Yoona realized that she was leaning in somebody’s arms. She carefully opened her eyes to a magnificent view.

It was late evening and dark outside. The stars were out already and the moon was carefully lighting the porch that she was laying in. The yard while otherwise dark was faintly lit with yellow paper lanterns that were hanging from the branches of the few trees spread along the yard. Over the dark expanse that had been a bright green forest during the day, Yoona could see the city lights that illuminated the otherwise dark landscape. The city glistened in its light, like a nest of fireflies in the night.

Yoona felt the grip around her tighten slightly so she turned her head to see who was holding her. To her shock it was Hyoyeon and her immediate instinct, the fear from the dream world returning, was to run away and hide so she tried to yank herself free. But her body felt overwhelmed with fatigue and she could barely move.

Hyoyeon was leaning against the doorframe that lead to the porch, Sunny’s body in her embrace with Yoona still trapped inside. Hyoyeon was gazing somewhere to the distance, lost in her own world not really present in the now, not really present anywhere. She felt the trembling of Yoona in her arms and looked down into her eyes.

“Don’t worry, I’m okay now.”

Hyoyeon turned back to look out at the scenery. Yoona kept her gaze on the girls face and realized that she indeed was back to a perfectly normal human. No red eyes, no black aura emanating from her, only a beautiful human face. A sad face.

“Are we all back at the shrine?”

“Mhmm.”

Yoona refocused to look at the yard and the landscape that spread in front of them. The worst fear of Hyoyeon had disappeared when she realized that she was back to normal, but something in her still made her feel slight discomfort at being so close to her. Particularly the knowledge of the thing inside of her.

“I’m sorry for holding you like this. I just miss Sunny…”

Hyoyeon’s grip around Yoona tightened; the tiny frame of Sunny’s fitting snugly in Hyoyeon’s arms. Yoona looked back at Hyoyeon and her heart sank as she saw the girl struggling with herself, stress and worry evident in her features and on the verge of crying. Yoona carefully moved her hands with the little strength she had and locked them with Hyoyeon’s. She leaned in on Hyoyeon more who embraced her tighter, the tears she had been holding back starting to fall down her cheeks.

“I... I really miss her so much…”

While the two people sat by the front porch continued to stare into the yard, Jessica was watching the two cuddling, standing behind them by the kitchen entrance. Her eyes were specifically focused on the locked hands.

“You miss her too, don’t you?”

Startled out of her staring, Jessica turned around to see Sooyoung who was still in her long white silky pyjamas, ones that you could almost see through. Her long brown hair was loosely scattered on her shoulders, a prime example of tussled bed hair, and a sly smile spread on her lips.

“Are you sure you should be walking around already? You’ve been asleep for a month.”

“Exactly why I would rather walk with my own two feet than stay lying in bed.”

Jessica refocused her attention on the two sat by the porch both of who were silently staring into the night sky. Hyoyeon was still crying a little, her tears and the streams left on her cheek reflecting the moonlight.

“She’s missed you as well,” Sooyoung continued stopping next to Jessica by the kitchen door. “She’s missed you and she needs you right now.”

Jessica couldn’t look at Sooyoung. She knew that the other girl was right and that she should be there comforting Hyoyeon, working things out between them. She knew that they both had missed each other and if they just worked things out everything could be better and like it used to be. Like they used to be… No, it could never go to the way it was before. Hyoyeon had moved out and was best friends with Sunny and…

“Minyoung came out.”

Jessica’s lip started to tremble slightly, the thought of Minyoung sending shocks down her spine, the stinging reaching every part of her body, like small needles being pricked on her. She gave up and looked at Sooyoung.

“You know it’s partially your fault she came out. You didn’t check up on her for six months and then sent her in that unstable state straight into the dream world, of all the wonderful places you could make her go to. Meeting you today caused her lots of emotional stress as well as losing Sunny, again.”

Sooyoung was right. She was right but what could she do? Besides, Hyoyeon seemed completely content in hugging Sunny by the porch. Sunny who was Yoona, not even the real deal.

Partially hoping that Sooyoung wouldn’t hear her Jessica whispered with a frown, “She’s happily hugging Sunny there…”

“Jessica! Sica! Idiot!” With her knuckles Sooyoung bumped Jessica gently on her head but it was hard enough for her to wince, her eyes round she refocused her mind back to the present.

Sooyoung’s shout had caught the attention of the two by the porch and they were both now staring at the two. Hyoyeon had stopped crying and Yoona slowly shifted herself away from Hyoyeon, eventually standing up completely. With the tension between Jessica and Hyoyeon that she had witnessed before their venture into the dream world, Yoona didn’t want to cause any more problems between them.

In that moment Seohyun walked into the room, a cute pink apron tied around her waist and a radiant smile gracing her lips. Unaware of the tension in the room she chimed happily for everyone to hear.

“Food is served!”


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Tiffany and Yuri arrived back at the apartment to find Taeyeon cooking dinner. She was almost done and after Tiffany had placed her things away in her room they ate together and talked about what had happened at the apartment. Tiffany told Taeyeon more about the equipment she had taken with her. Taeyeon listened and stored all of the information away in the back of her mind.

They finished eating and Tiffany went back into her room to start building her device right away. She didn’t want to waste this opportunity and let anyone else finish her invention before herself. Yuri stayed in the kitchen to help Taeyeon with clearing the table and washing the dishes.

“Taeyeon, there was something more I need to tell you that happened at the apartment.”

Yuri leaned in closer to Taeyeon, rinsing another plate that Taeyeon handed her.

“When the guys arrived at the apartment, they were talking about their boss regretting his decision. I figured that the decision he regretted was putting Tiffany into eternal sleep.”

Taeyeon glanced over her shoulder out to the living room as a precaution. Returning her focus on the washing she side eyed Yuri.

“Now why would the boss regret that decision?”

“Maybe Tiffany is that good that they could use her or…”

Taeyeon’s mouth spread into a slight smile when she saw Yuri’s eyes gleam as realization hit her. She loved it when Yuri figured things out. It made her feel like a proud elder sister helping her kid sister finish homework. She loved that look Yuri had.

“Or she is someone close to them, maybe even worked for them.”

Yuri stopped rinsing the plate she had in hand as the conclusion she had just reached hit home. Was it really possible that Tiffany was not all that innocent that she seemed to be? That maybe she was at fault as well for ending up in the situation and in that device? Were Taeyeon and her now in a lot of danger?

“So, how do we know she isn’t bad?”

“We don’t, not yet at least.”

Taeyeon nudged Yuri and waved another plate prompting her to continue rinsing.

“I found out something about her too. I’ll read more into what I got and tell you what I know. So far nothing incriminating about her, but her father…”

Yuri stopped rinsing once again and stared at Taeyeon.

“Nothing concrete yet, I’ll let you know once I find something out.”

“You’re such a tease,” Yuri flung her rear at Taeyeon making her lose grip on the plate she was scrubbing. It fell back into the tub dish water splashing onto Taeyeon, the table tops, and the floor.

“Yah!” Taeyeon picked some foam from the tub and flung it at Yuri. “Look what you did…”

Yuri picked up a larger pile of foam and tried to put it on Taeyeon who quickly dodged and prevented her from flinging it at her.

“Hey, what- stop! Stop! Stop! It’s slipper-”

Taeyeon stepped on the big puddle of soap on the floor losing her balance in an instant. To avoid a horrible crash to the floor she grabbed Yuri by the collar. Unfortunately Yuri was standing in the exact same puddle of soap water and both of them fell hard, Taeyeon on the floor and Yuri on top of her.

The fall was rather soft for Yuri and she realized her head was resting on the bare skin of Taeyeon’s now soapy chest, the top buttons of Taeyeon’s white collared shirt were open. Yuri swallowed hard, unable to move as her whole face lit up red from embarrassment at the fall and her current situation. She didn’t want Taeyeon to see this and so decided to stay there.

Taeyeon kept her eyes shut. She didn’t want to open them and find Yuri staring into her eyes. Yuri’s soft form, her cheeks pressed against her chest made her shiver. This was the same embarrassing moment that they had the other morning in bed and it was her fault again. Partially. So she decided to wait until she felt Yuri get up before she would open her eyes.

Both stayed still for a minute, hoping the other to make the first move but as time passed they realized that neither of them was going to make the first move and the longer they stayed in this incriminating position, the worse the situation would get.

“Are you ok?” Taeyeon finally spoke, releasing a big breathe which Yuri felt as Taeyeon’s chest rose and fell under her cheek.

“I’m good. You?” Taeyeon could feel the vibrations of Yuri’s voice as she spoke, tingling her collarbones. It caught her off guard and her breathe hitched slightly.

“I… don’t seem to be hurt.”

“Good.”

Silence ensued and both were once again too embarrassed to say anything related to their situation or to move. When they heard the door to Taeyeon’s room open and footsteps approaching, both of them were up in a split second.

“Hey Taeyeon do you have some…” Tiffany stopped as she looked at the two who had just barely scrambled off the kitchen floor before she arrived. Taeyeon’s shirt was soaked with soap water, the top buttons of her shirt were open revealing quite a bit of skin, and half of Yuri’s hair had bathed in the soap water as well.

“I’m not interrupting anything am I?” Tiffany asked with a smirk on her face. Yuri blushed intensively and hastily looked away.

“Not at all, we were washing the dishes, that’s all.”

“And each other it seems,” Tiffany continued teasing finally causing Taeyeon to lose her cool slightly. She looked dumbfounded with sagging a little before looking away in embarrassment.

“I was just wondering if you had some D-batteries, I would need a couple of them for testing.”

“Yes I should have some,” Taeyeon sped out of the kitchen while buttoning her shirt. Tiffany followed her leaving Yuri behind to take care of the dishes once she recovered from the rush of blood to her head.

“Here you go,” Taeyeon handed over an unopened four-pack of D-batteries that were hidden away in the depths of her electronics cupboard.

“Thank you.”

“Oh Tiffany, is it alright if we talk about something later on in the evening?” Tiffany was already on her way out but turned back around to look at Taeyeon.

“Sure, what about?” She smiled disarmingly.

“Your father.”

Tiffany’s smile immediately faded and a shadow covered her face as her expression changed into a pained and cold one. She had put her emotionless mask on. Her voice took on a hostile, matter of fact tone and any notion of the bubbly and kind Tiffany was gone.

“If you must.”

She quickly turned around and made her way to her room, passing Yuri without a word and closed the door after her.

“What… was that?” Yuri questioned still looking at the closed door of Taeyeon’s room.

“I told her we needed to talk about her father.”

“Oh…” Yuri’s expression changed as well. Although she didn’t know all the details that Taeyeon and Tiffany knew about the father, from what Tiffany had told her, the father was gone and that alone would make it a painful subject to talk about. “That would explain it.”


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The kitchen was filled with silence as the five people sitting around the table shifted in their seats awkwardly, slowly taking bites off the food on their plates. Seohyun still had no clue what was going on. The lack of enthusiasm towards her hard work to create a delicious meal made her feel unsatisfied and slightly hurt. Does it not taste good? To her it seemed to taste just fine. If they didn’t like it they should just say it!

“Is… something wrong with the food?” Seohyun finally asked.

“No, it’s great.”

“Tasty!”

“Delicious!”

Seohyun looked at the people wide eyed, the sudden loud chorus of praise for her cooking taking her by surprise. So it was not her cooking that made them all look so sick and depressed.

“Tha-thanks…”

The uncomfortable silence once again filled the room and everyone stared at their food. Yoona was unable to look at Hyoyeon due to her fear of her or look at Jessica since she knew about the tension between her and Hyoyeon. Sooyoung was annoyed at Jessica for being so dim-witted and Hyoyeon had fallen back into her own shell, unable to look at anyone in the room.

She felt that everything that happened so far, their failure to rescue Sunny and scaring Yoona, her argument and hurting Jessica’s feelings, was her fault. It felt overwhelming and the longer she thought about it in silence the stronger that sensation grew, slowly eating her. She needed to talk. She wanted to talk. But she was afraid of voicing her thoughts, so she stayed quiet hoping someone would talk to her.

Seohyun leaned over to Yoona and whispered as quietly as possible.

“Did something happen?”

Yoona once again shifted uncomfortably in her seat too afraid to say anything. They were unable to get Sunny back and she was still in her body. Hyoyeon missed Sunny and Jessica in return missed Hyoyeon and was jealous of the friendship between Sunny and Hyoyeon. She was the unpleasant guest, the salt to a sore eye. The elephant in the room that nobody wanted to acknowledge.

Seohyun couldn’t take the silence anymore. If nobody was going to tell her what was going on she would force everyone to engage in conversation with her whether they liked it or not.

“So, Jessica do you have any ideas why I couldn’t enter the dream world?”

Jessica stopped playing with her food almost dropping her fork from her hand. Someone was addressing her. She quickly swallowed what food was in and put her fork down.

“Ahh, well… it could be just a one off thing. As in if you were extremely disbelieving into whatever we were doing your mind didn’t allow you to dream. Since it is your mind that goes off into the dream world, if you restrict it strong enough it could prevent it. Maybe.”

“It could also be that she is wired differently… in the brain that is,” Sooyoung, not a person to hold a grudge and she hated awkward silences joined in on the conversation. “I can call someone I know, she is good with brains.”

“You want her to examine me?”

“If you want, she might be able to tell something.”

Jessica shifted in her seat. She didn’t like the science techy people at all. Almost every single one of them regarded what she did as hocus pocus, nonsense and looked down on her in a very degrading manner. Most regular people had a hard time believing in her skills but scientists were the worst. Not that she needed them to prove that what she did was real, but it annoyed her to no end how high and mighty they acted.

“Some people are different in a way that they can never enter the dream world. I guess we could invite her to take a look at you here, if you want.”

Seohyun hadn’t thought of getting herself examined before since she had no reason. Her whole life she had been a perfect example of a healthy human being with a balanced diet, regular exercise and all around good readings from all examinations. But she did prefer having some kind of solid proof about the matter so that her mind could rest at ease. Even after all the stories and things she seen, she was still unconvinced about some of the things they were trying to make her believe.

She looked over at Yoona who raised her shoulders, not sure what to think about it but nodded carefully. Maybe it really was good for her to get checked.

“Alright, if you don’t mind asking her to come over and examine me it would be great.”

“Sure thing, I’ll call her to see that you don’t have someone or something hiding in your brain,” Sooyoung joked, smiling brightly eliciting a laugh from Seohyun and Jessica.

“But Hyoyeon does…”

The room fell silent once again. Everyone turned to look at Yoona. Sooyoung was slightly surprised to hear Yoona say that, Seohyun didn’t know what she was talking about and Jessica shifted her eyes between Yoona and Hyoyeon, worrying about the latter.

Hyoyeon sat silently in her chair with her legs lifted up onto the seat. She had her head dipped into the valley created by her bent knees and she was staring at the food on her table. Yoona’s words had brought her back to reality and the creature in her woke up as well, knowing that she was being talked about.

“What is it?” Yoona once again spoke up, now looking at Hyoyeon. “Because honestly… I’m scared of you.”

Hyoyeon looked up with her eyes round at Yoona. Yoona was scared of her, rightfully so. But she never wanted to hurt or scare anyone and it made her feel like trash to know that someone found her so horrifying, a monster.

She caught Jessica’s and Sooyoung’s worried expressions before looking back at her food and leaning her head on her knees.

“I’m sorry,” Hyoyeon’s eyes were beginning to gather tears as she thought about the being in her and the horror it held. She thought back to when it all started, the emotions welling up in her and the first tear finally escaping her already red eyes.

“Her name is Lee Minyoung. We met a long time ago. Our first meeting goes all the way back to my childhood just before I met Jessica for the first time…”