Prologue

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Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.

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Hwang Yeji is so thankful for the knock on the door that wakes her up. The first thing she does is to fill her lungs with greedy ravenous amounts of oxygen- this was the air that was deprived in her dream. When she exhales, it is with gratitude; when she inhales, it is with patience.

Her hand flies to . God, are dreams really supposed to feel this vivid?

Yeji glances at the clock hanging on the wall. In the dimness, she vaguely sees the hour hand reading exactly at five on the dot. This means that she has slept for three hours straight which is a pleasant surprise because her napping duration is usually two hours and has never fallen short by a minute.

When the door creaks open, she gasps under her breath and grabs the first thing within her reach (her batman toy from her collection of DC superheroes that she shares with her older brother, Hyun). “Yeji,” It is her mother; she exhales in relief. “We are leaving soon. Will you still be joining us for grocery shopping?” Her gentle voice echoes with the accompaniment of the jangling sounds of keys from downstairs.

“I’ll be down shortly!” Yeji gets up on her bare feet and makes her way in cautious but hasty steps to the study table where her spectacles are. She is still in a semi-groggy state as she is still fighting off the pure adrenaline that had rushed in through her veins. As she brushes the smooth curve of her neck, she starts to recollect the specifics of the dream’s last moments: the pair of gloved hands that circled around her neck, the way she struggled against his grip, the way she gasped from shortage of oxygen...

The way her parents blankly watched on next to the crashed car.

5:05pm, the minute hand of the clock has moved from 0 the 1. Time seems to creep by faster and due the stillness of things ar