Genre: Angst, Drama, Mystery, Psychological

Summary: Yujin had a normal life, until she kept having weird dreams about a certain woman. Little did she know, all of this would play with her fate, causing her now not-so-normal life to change its trajectory.

Word Count: 5689

Hashtag: #JinjooFiestaS3_RealityBetweenDreams

Reality Between Dreams

ㅡ Colde - Dream ㅡ

When I open my eyes

Will it all disappear?

From the beginning,

Was it decided?

______________________________________________________________________________

It’s been a long day at work. Still the same old, same old. You’ve been spending your months, days, as a corporate slave, wondering when it will all end. Why not just now? There’s just nothing to look forward to anymore.

The sound of your footsteps fills the vicinity of your neighbourhood. So many thoughts, questions, yet all of them remain unanswered to this day. After minutes of walking, you finally arrive home, the clanking of your keys against each other fills your mind—why do you keep these many keys anyway? You should get your passcode-operated doorlock to be fixed.

Oh, couch, oh how you’ve missed your couch so much. After 12 hours of being apart, you finally reunite. You celebrate this reunion through something called.. affection? With that, you plop yourself onto your couch, and as soon as you know it, you’re already off to dreamland.

______________________________________________________________________________

“Yujin, I’m sorry.”

“I shouldn’t have treated you this way.”

“You deserve someone better.”

“I think we’re better off on our own.”

______________________________________________________________________________

You wake up to the sound of your alarm clock and boy, is it loud. Annoyed, you shut it off right away. Looking at your phone, you let out an exasperated sigh upon seeing the date; February 5th, 2021. A Friday. At least you’ll be getting that much-deserved sleep later after work.

Before you could make sense of everything happening around you, you’re surprised by the sight of your living room. Right, you fell asleep on your couch last night. Were you that tired? Damn.

You get up from your previous position, stretching your body as much as you can. You hear several bones crack but it’s nothing out of the norm. Your living room isn’t that grandiose as many would say, just the normal furniture you’d need when you live alone, thrown together.

Staring at the wall, you suddenly remember the dream you just had. Right. It was, let’s say, weird. Now, who would be apologizing to you like that? The woman didn’t have a face, no—you just can’t remember it. Neither her voice. But you don’t recall being in a relationship with another woman. Maybe it’s just another one of these days, you know? It’s probably not that deep, so you end up shaking it all off.

You wash up and get yourself ready for another dreading day at work. Just as you were about to leave, you receive a text message. It’s from a colleague, Jang Wonyoung. It wasn’t anything special, she was just asking you to go with her to work today. The reason being her car was getting washed.

You weren’t against the idea. After all, you’ve been friends for a long time already. You make your way to the nearest bus stop, waiting for Wonyoung’s bus. While waiting, you can’t help but think about the dream you had. For some reason, it keeps sticking to your mind. Perhaps it does mean something, and your friend Wonyoung might just have the exact answers for it. For topics like this specifically; dreams, your friend could become a real chatty-patty.

A bus approaches and the sound of its doors opening snaps you out of your thoughts. You look up, and there you see Wonyoung by the window, flashing a smile that’s as bright as the morning sun. It’s like you’re back to your high school days, oh, the nostalgia it brings. Your heart is warm, and you grin upon the sight of your smiley friend.

Luckily, this same bus stops at a bus stop right in front of your office building. You take a seat next to Wonyoung, “Good morning, Yujin!”, she greets. “Good morning.”, you reply. In a life like this, you can’t help but wonder why your friend keeps such a positive mood all the time. Your life has been pretty miserable so far, you’re not doing the things you love, but still, you’re more than thankful Wonyoung is here by your side to make every day a little more bearable.

Now, you bring up a topic regarding your dream. “Right, Wonyoung, I just had a super weird dream.”, Wonyoung’s ears perk upon hearing your remark. “Really? Tell me about it!”, she replies, with an extremely enthusiastic tone.

You explain to her how you haven’t been dreaming much lately, but for some reason, this part of your dream was so vivid. You insert a statement of maybe you’ve just been too tired, so that’s why. But no, you noticed how Wonyoung’s smile drops as you keep going with your story. You let it slide for now.

Until Wonyoung shows a blank expression and asks you about today’s date. You firmly tell her that it’s the 5th of February, 2021. As soon as she hears your reply, grim is highly evident on her face. Of course, you ask her why. Is the world going to end today, and you’re the only one who doesn’t know about it?

“Why? Is there something wrong?”, you ask. You’re starting to get genuinely concerned after you notice how she’s trying her best to contain her emotions. She simply replies, “Yeah, sorry about that. I think I just left my stove on”. You’ve known Wonyoung for years, and you would know whenever she’s lying or not. She doesn’t even cook so how would she leave it on?

Of course, you bring it up, “But you can’t cook.”

She side-eyes you, “Yeah. My sister came over today so I helped her.”

“She’ll probably notice and turn it off.”, she adds.

You grow extremely suspicious of her actions. But maybe you shouldn’t be overthinking this. Therefore, you carry on with your story. Right. Everything else in the dream was vague, apart from the last one. The woman apologizing to you. The woman’s lines were like different filmstrips taped over each other and it was on a loop. If you hadn’t heard your alarm, it most likely would’ve turned into a nightmare.

Wonyoung, the self-proclaimed dream expert, was left speechless. You can see how hard she’s thinking of possible meanings for your dream. A thinking Wonyoung is undeniably one of the cutest things in the world, in your own opinion of course.

“So, have you thought of anything yet?”, you ask, since the silence has been going on for too long than you can handle. “I have... But I’m not sure if it’s accurate to your current situation.”

“I’m still going to tell you nonetheless.”

You find yourself unconsciously getting too absorbed in Wonyoung’s statements. She tells you that your dream could mean that you’ve been wanting to accept an apology, but without the ability to do it anymore, because of underlying problems that are usually hard to solve. Like the loss of connection and such.

However, it’s still odd. ‘Did something happen while my alter ego was present?’, you think. But, no. Confused, “But no one’s apologized to me like the way the woman did.”, you clarify.

Wonyoung throws you a suspicious glance. Why would she do that when you’re the one who’s supposed to be confused here? So, you put on the same expression as she has, except, you’re mocking her...in some way.

She diverts her attention to the window beside her, observing life outside the bus albeit it doesn’t last for long. She stares at you dead in the eye, “Yujin, there’s just no way I can comprehend what your dream means this time,”, before resting her head on the back of her seat.

You roll your eyes, matched with a small pfft… “Aren’t you supposed to be “The Dream Expert?”, this one is simpler than my previous dreams,”, you pause to scoot away from her slowly. “Yet you can’t give me answers.” you continue.

She opens , no sounds coming out of it at all. It’s just… open.

“Awen’t wou suwwosed to we doh dweam exert, this won is simwer than my pwevwous dweams”, Wonyoung mocks you. A typical move of hers when she can’t come up with a rebuttal. Admittedly, it was kind of cute. But also, quite immature. You’re both grown women yet you’re arguing like this?

What perfect timing. Right after you snort at Wonyoung’s mockery, you hear the speaker on the bus say you’ve arrived at your stop.

You scurry through the bus’s aisle to get out before she does. It is indeed a childish act, but when do you get to act like this again, right?

As you enter your office’s building, Wonyoung catches up from behind. Though, both of you have to act professionally around here. You’ve gotten used to the sudden change of mood whenever you’d go to work with her.

You see her off through the elevator since she works in a different department than you. As soon as you’re left alone in the elevator, you let out the deep sigh you’ve been building up. Another day, another day of working as a corporate slave. Let’s do this.

______________________________________________________________________________

Unfortunately, you can’t go home with Wonyoung tonight. She’s working overtime, again… she says. But oh well, it’s not like you’re not used to this or anything.

You’re sitting down on the bench at the bus stop, staring lifelessly onto the road. Several cars passing here and there, you count the number of white cars you’ve seen, and the count ends at three.

Through your peripheral vision, you see a woman taking a seat next to you. Her seat is noticeably… close. Out of curiosity, you take a glance at her, only to be surprised when you recognize who she is.

It’s Yena, your extroverted colleague.

You’re too drained to be talking to anyone right now, especially to a person like her. So, you lean your head on the bus stop’s glass wall again, pretending you didn’t see anything.

Yena didn’t like how you acted. You hear her gathering her breath, which means she’s about to say something. With that, you groan and turn away from her.

“I haven’t even said anything yet!”, her defense.

You continue to ignore her. She mutters words under her breath, assuming you can’t comprehend what she’s saying. Well, you can, you just choose not to.

Finally, your bus arrives. You thank the gods for saving you. You hurriedly get out of your seat to get inside the bus.

______________________________________________________________________________

It’s been another long day. You throw your bag on the sofa, so when you plop yourself down, it would be too uncomfortable for you to fall asleep.

Usually, you would grab late-night snacks from the nearest convenience store on Fridays, but this week has been too much for you, and the only thing in your mind right now is falling into a deep slumber without having to worry about anything the next day.

With that, you dismiss the gurgling sound of your stomach. Too tired, too drained to do anything else. Your steps are rather slow, heavy, as you make your way to your bedroom. Eyes already half-closed, and you don’t bother to take a half-bath anymore.

______________________________________________________________________________

“Good morning, my love~”, A woman with mid-length hair approaches you. Though, there seems to be something covering your lover’s face. Countless pieces of mosaic paintings changing every second, as if they were a glitch in a game.

You still smile upon hearing her voice. With the unmatched feeling of comfort, she felt like... home. Something you’ve never felt for quite some time now.

She scoots herself closer to you, burying her face onto your chest.

It’s just the two of you, sharing each other’s warmth. Free from all judgment in the world, free from… everything.

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

The cover on the woman’s face slowly dissipates, revealing her face gradually. You aren’t able to perceive her face that clearly yet.

So close… yet, so far.

You feel the heat throughout your body, but most prominently on different parts of your face. Are you, perhaps...blushing? You try hiding it by burying your face on your pillow.

But the heat grows, and grows, and grows.

______________________________________________________________________________

The early morning sun kisses your face, which prompts you to get up. You head towards the curtain just in front of your bed, shutting them to prevent any more sunlight from getting in.

Now that was one way to ruin one’s good sleep, and dream, you think.

You’re more than sure that the woman cuddling with you was the same in your previous dream. No exact evidence, you’re just sure of it. Just the vibe of the woman alone was enough to send shivers through your back.

Again, you dismiss any more thoughts from entering your mind further. It is still pretty early in the morning, so you decide to sleep in for today.

Sitting down on the edge of your bed, you stare blankly onto the wall. The wall is white, and you think it’s boring, maybe you should try to repaint it to blue, to give it some life at least.

You shake your head lightly, before finally laying down once again. Maybe a tiny sliver of hope you’d get to dream of the woman one more time.

______________________________________________________________________________

“I think I want our room’s wall to be white.”, The woman squints her eyes, pouting, with her hand on her chin. You find it cute.

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