“Who the hell took the last water bottle?” Jiyoon exclaimed first thing opening their mini fridge.

Soeun candidly walked away behind her, sipping dramatically to piss Jiyoon off even more.

The shorter girl turned to look at her with pure hatred. “I hope you choke and die.”

All Soeun could do was laugh if that was the best insult she had. “ it up you whiny . Go buy one from the vending machine if you're so thirsty.” And she left the room, the door closing loudly after her.
 

Jiyoon grunted indignated. Would it be too much if she asked that she fell down the stairs and broke her neck?

The two had been coming to the same summer camp since middle school days. Now in their last year of high school–and also their last year of camp–they couldn’t wait to get out of each other’s faces and never have to cross paths ever again. They’d known each other for six years now. Six torturous years of spiteful insults and endless bickering. The two just never got along. Something ticked each other off constantly and they couldn't get past it. Probably because they were like oil and water, never to mix.

It was their first week back at summer camp and they had the misfortune to be paired together in the same room for sleeping arrangements, along with two other younger girls. As the oldest and more experienced campers, they were in charge of leading the younger ones and teach them the ropes for when they moved on but Soeun and Jiyoon together was just a recipe for disaster.

They were now going to sleep and everything about their sleeping arrangements was ticking Jiyoon off. Soeun was in the bunk above hers and she kicked it to make her stop moving.

“Can you ing stop?”

Soeun immediately stopped moving but then she only made the bed shake harder than before. It felt like an earthquake and all Jiyoon wanted to do was just sleep so she wouldn’t have to tolerate Soeun anymore.

“I hope I fall on you and you get squished to death,” Soeun attacked.

“I hope you stop breathing in your sleep and I never have to deal with your again,” Jiyoon retaliated.

The two younger girls also rooming with them were too scared and intimidated to say anything. All they could do was just ignore them and hope for the best. It wasn’t until one of the camp leaders that was out patrolling heard the commotion and barbed into their cabin telling them to knock it off or they would be sent to the isolation cabin. They had no choice but to let up and finally go to sleep.

It was around midnight, both girls in dreamland that something strange happened. They were dreaming like any other night until they weren’t. The scenarios felt too real. Jiyoon was dreaming something about a stage and bright lights while Soeun dreamed of a practice room and seeing herself dancing arduously on the wall mirrors. Both heard familiar voices but blurred faces. Jiyoon saw long brunette hair and Soeun was talking to someone with a black bob cut.

When they woke up they thought nothing of it and their morning was ruined as they saw each other first thing the sun rose.

The specific summer camp they attended was not for leisure. It was a study camp, where you took extra courses to prepare you for college and helped boost your application to the dream university of your choice. Soeun and Jiyoon were in the same school year but thankfully they attended different schools so they had different tutoring classes at camp intertwining with the specific things their school focused on. They’d never stay focused if they were in the same classroom and would probably end up in a physical altercation.

After lessons, it was self-study and homework and Jiyoon made a lot of progress until it was time to go eat. She walked to the cafeteria and took a tray for herself until she saw Soeun from across the room. She was smiling, laughing with some girls Jiyoon didn’t know until her eyes landed on her. Her eyes went from crescents to piercing daggers and Jiyoon flipped her the bird while she wasn’t looking.

The line moved quickly and as soon as she had her food, she found an empty table to occupy. She had her book bag over her shoulders and hoped to get some more studying done. She wanted to finish the assigned reading so she could solely focus on studying for English and work on a new assignment tomorrow. This had been her life for the past six years.

Apparently being left in peace was too much to ask for Soeun, as the girl walked past her and accidentally bumped into her chair. Making her spill the bite of food she had picked up with her spoon and some of it also landing on her book, staining it with sauce.

“Oops. My bad,” she mocked apologized and walked on. Some of the girls she was with giving her apologetic looks. The problems Jiyoon and Soeun had with each other remained among themselves.

Jiyoon wanted to kill her with every fiber of her being. She would get her revenge in their dorm. Tonight when she knew Soeun had an extra tutoring lesson and Jiyoon just happened to have a clear schedule if she got all of this work done. Perfect.

“What the hell!” Soeun screeched from the bathroom.

She was in the shower but when she came out her hair had turned an ugly yellow. So maybe Jiyoon tampered with her shampoo a little.

Soeun immediately zeroed in on her and grabbed her by the collar of her shirt. “I’m going to kick your .”

Jiyoon was too busy feeling smug to be scared of her threat. “There’s some hair dye under the sink if you don’t want to get in trouble with the camp leaders.”

Soeun grit her teeth and just shoved her roughly. The force made her hit her arm on the bunk bed but other than that, she was fine. It wouldn’t be the first time they got physical with each other. Nothing to ever be expelled over or be seriously hurt thankfully. Things wouldn’t suddenly change because it would put Soeun in jeopardy too and she knew it.

Since their camp was educational, they had strict rules, one of them being no crazy hair colors. Only black and brown were allowed. Soeun’s hair had been black until Jiyoon threw in bleach and toner in her shampoo bottle and her hair was now a dead grass yellow. For some weird reason, she got her a brown dye to fix it. Totally not because of the weird dream she had last night.

When Soeun came back out an hour later, Jiyoon almost gaped. The color looked eerily like the one in her dream.

“You better sleep with one eye open tonight,” Soeun threatened.

Jiyoon couldn’t help it. “Your hair doesn’t look dead anymore. You’re welcome.”

“On God, you’re gonna pay for this.”

Jiyoon hadn't taken her threat seriously of course, because what was she going to do while she slept? It was her fault for underestimating her. When Jiyoon woke up, something was off. She felt something hairy in her bed creeping along her body.

Slipping off the covers, she screamed seeing strands of her hair cut off. She reached to touch her hair and her long style was no more. She jumped from her bunk and locked herself in the bathroom. Her hair, which had been chest-length, was now barely past her shoulders. That was at least ten centimeters off!

It was choppy and uneven and Jiyoon wanted to cry, but she wouldn’t give Soeun the satisfaction. Taking the cutting sheers from the bathroom cabinet, she reached up to the ends to fix it. It wouldn’t be the first time she cut her own hair. She had been growing it for over a year though, all her efforts gone to the trash just like that.

Just to spite Soeun, she would make the haircut work for her. Soeun had left it at her shoulders but to make it even Jiyoon had to make it even shorter. It was now fully shoulder length and she hated to admit she didn’t look bad. Since she took such extreme transformation, she might as well give herself cute bangs to go along. Once Jiyoon was satisfied with everything, she walked out.

Soeun our ready to laugh at her but her grin momentarily slipped. For some reason, recognition graced the back of her brain. Seeing her like that almost felt like a trigger to a distant memory. Déjà vu?

Jiyoon looked at her weirdly, ignorant about her recognition. “I didn’t chop off your hair, it’s still long you .”

Soeun snapped herself out of it and became angry again. “Be thankful I didn’t shave it all.”

“ off,” Jiyoon shoved her with her shoulder while Soeun went in the bathroom to get ready herself.

That night, both had weird dreams again. But while the first time the faces had been blurry, this time they both cleared up. Soeun dreamed with Jiyoon, both in some sort of study room? Private office? Soeun didn’t know what it was, but Jiyoon was playing the guitar while she sang with her, a song Soeun didn’t recognize. The two of them leaned into each other and laughed. They looked friendly with one other. They were happy together.

Meanwhile, Jiyoon was in the same boat. She could see Soeun clearly now, but while before the setting had been a stage with bright lights, now the two were in front of tall mic stands, various staff with cameras, filming them as they recorded something. Stylists came over whenever the director said cut to touch up their makeup and fix their hair. Soeun looked really nervous saying something about this being her first time and that she wanted to do well, while Jiyoon reached over and held her hand to calm her.

That morning they woke up, they bickered just a little less. And the following days that came, as the number of weird dreams went up their hostility towards each other went down. It was now two weeks later and the dreams were pretty much an everyday occurrence, sometimes them even getting “flashbacks” in the middle of the day if something served as a trigger.

The two hadn’t talked to each other about it but they could put two and two together. They were close friends in the dreams (for a lack of a better word). The two seemed to be in some sort of band together but it wasn’t just the two of them. Sometimes they saw other girls, five more they had never met before. Everything felt too intricate and detailed to be just dreams, so what were they? An alternate reality?

And then Soeun found herself humming sometimes. She wasn’t particular about music but she didn't hate it. She listened to it here and there but she wouldn’t call herself passionate about it. Not like she was in her dreams. She found herself tapping her pencil to a random beat, drumming her fingers to a nonexistent melody.

She was humming as she was getting ready to go to her lessons when Jiyoon spoke to her after weeks of not acknowledging her presence. Or tried to.

“What song are you singing?”

Soeun hadn’t even realized she was actively humming a tune and then the question made her stop because what was she humming? She truly had no idea.

“Something I heard on a podcast the other day. I don’t know the name,” Soeun lied.

And Jiyoon forced herself to believe her, even though that melody had been in one of her dreams. It was something she saw herself–the one in her dreams–come up with. Letting it go was better than trying to acknowledge whatever weird thing was going on.

They had two weeks left of camp, only running for five weeks and three had already gone by. Jiyoon was eating alone, open notebook in front of her. But contrary to before how she’d be trying to get some extra study time in, she was scribbling random song lyrics. Songs that didn’t exist to melodies that weren’t real.

Jiyoon was mindlessly munching on her lunch, focused on what could rhyme with “Dumb Dumb” when she put something in that made her flinch. She didn’t spit it out but she chewed and swallowed the bite, and then tried again to make sure she had tasted it right. The side of salad they had been served with their food was paired with an apple vinaigrette and mixed together. Apples that Soeun couldn’t eat. Apples Soeun was allergic to.

In a haste, she snapped her head back and forth searching, and when she found the girl, she jumped out of her chair and raced towards her. Everyone gave her weird looks for the sudden co