It was winter's first snow.

If Shuhua were sitting down in their balcony, she would've watched the snow in awe. But right here, in the middle of the street with her newly bought cloths, she was already doubting her love for winter. 

She hugged the cloths tighter and ran towards home. As she passed by some shops, she heard some owner telling her not to run because the cobblestone pavements were getting slippery but she was freezing. The thought of sitting down in front of their fireplace encourages her to zoom past everything just to get home.

Fortunately, she came home safely. She dropped the cloths on their sofa and ran towards the already lit fireplace. The comforting warmth made her sigh in relief.

"You have a lot of snow on your hair, sweetie."

Shuhua felt her mother dusting off the snow from her hair. She did not turn around and just continued holding out her hands near the fire. "You're home early today."

Shuhua's mother works as a doctor in the largest treatment facility in the kingdom. She usually goes to work at 9 in the morning and goes home hours past sunset, depending on the number of patients.

Her mother helped her out of her coat. "We have new people helping out in the facility so I got off work early."

Shuhua finally turned to her mother and grinned when she saw her scanning her for wounds and bruises. Although her mother was wearing the apron she sew, it seems to her that a doctor is in front of her, not a mother who just finished cooking dinner.

"Mother, I'm fine."

Her mother just laughed and kissed her cheek. "I'm sorry. I can't help it."

When her father came home, they started to eat dinner. Laughter filled their tables as her father shared some of the things he experienced while roaming around the borders. He was one of the most respected royal guards. Shuhua knew how hardworking he was. And although his perseverance gave him the bigger responsibility of leading the other guards in the border, he was still her goofy father who pales at the sight of any insect.

"Shuhua, don't forget to take your things from the living room," her mother reminded her while washing the dishes. 

Shuhua immediately obeyed and took her cloths upstairs, in her room. When she opened the lights, she cringed at how messy her room is. Although there weren't much furniture in it, used cloths and unfinished works were scattered all over the place. A few scraps were on her bed, some balls of yarn were on the floor, and most of the mess were on her table and around it. 

She sighed and spent more than an hour fixing her room. After that, she sat down the table with a pen and a paper. On the paper was an unfinished drawing of a dress. Later this week, there would be a festival on the plaza. She and her friend Soojin, whose parents work at the same facility as her mother, go there yearly. There would be all kinds of art in that festival and she also wanted to timidly showcase hers.

She took the pen and continued drawing her design. She wanted it to fit into a winter theme so she designed it to be warm. Tomorrow, she could probably start sewing it.

Shuhua did not remember when she had fallen asleep until she recognized the dream she had been dreaming for over two months now. She was used to repetitive dreams ever since she was a child. The repetition would last for a week or a month but never this long. 

Regardless, in her dream, Shuhua looked around her. The familiar streets in front of her home were empty and dark. No street lamps were on and the moonlight was very faint. She looked up the sky and saw the crescent moon thinner than how it is in reality.

She could hear some faint sounds of footsteps somewhere and there were also whispers near her ears. The footsteps were calm and steady but the voices were rushing. She could not understand any of the words but it all sounded panicked.

She ran, as usual, without knowing where to go. Her heart beat faster, knowing that the worse part of the dream is coming.

All the lights disappeared.

No matter how many times she saw this, panic still clawed within her heart. She could see nothing but she knew she was lying down on some grassy field. Then, one by one, torches around her lit up. 

The faint light was able to let her see some marks on where she was lying down. She could not see it fully but she knew she was in the middle of everything. She wanted to sit up to see more but she could not move. The only thing she could do was to slowly raise her right hand.

And stare at the blood covering it.

"Shuhua..."

A soft tap woke her from her sleep. She immediately sat up and fell from her seat. She hissed from pain but checked her hands first. As expected, there wasn't any trace of blood in it. She let out a breath she did not realize she was holding and put her hands down. 

"Hey, are you alright?" Her father was crouching in front of her, holding her arms. 

Still a bit disoriented, she searched for the clock and saw that it was just a quarter after 12 am. She looked back at her father's worried face. "Just... surprised..."

He sighed and helped her up. "Falling asleep on your worktable is not a nice habit."

He walked her to bed. She took the bottle of medicine on the desk beside her bed. Her mother prescribed it to her to stop her nightmares. It used to be effective before but it seemed to stop working.

"You're still having a bad dream?" Her father asked.

She nodded and took the medicine.

"For how long now?" His voice suddenly sounded worried.

"Two months, I think," she replied while settling down the bed.

She watched her father stared at her with an unfamiliar seriousness. Just as she was about to ask what's wrong, he kissed her forehead and bid goodbye. "Don't allow yourself to get hurt, Shuhua."

He went out of the room. She then went back to sleep and had a dreamless one.