Minjeong jolted up awake from her sleep. Despite the cold temperature, droplets of sweat were visible running slowly from her forehead to her temples. Her breathing was hasty. Her vision was a bit blurry. She shook her head once to get it cleared, but only to receive a hammering pain on the head. While holding her head to suppress the pain, she reminisced back the dream that occurred just now, she couldn't help but throw her gaze to the figure who's sleeping soundly on the other bed across from her.

Jimin.

'What does it all mean?' Minjeong's mind traveled widely anywhere to find the possible answer.

--

Winter was sleeping, or you can say she's pretending to sleep – ignoring her classmates murmuring about her behind her back. It's always been that way. Every day is not avoidable with people either talking or gossiping about her or worse, ruining her days with some pranks or bad treatments.

To the never absent questions she always had in mind, "when will this stop? Could they stop it? Or should I be the one to stop it?".

But her 'Stopping it' would only mean she ran away from it. No matter how many times she tried to fight back to get it stopped, it had always ended up as a boomerang with her getting hurt even more.

Sometimes her wild mind would bring her to such crazy thoughts of ways to end it, that some of them had persuaded her a little to do it. No lies.

With an exhausted mind, she wished people would understand her feelings through her physical signs. 

It was a moment where suddenly Jimin– yes Yoo Jimin, or now it's Karina where people were more familiar with, showed up in front of her out of nowhere, and poke her shoulder to wake her up.

As her eyes were ready for some pranks being unveiled in front of her, they were slowly opened. But received nothing, she mustered up the courage to raise her head, to meet the culprit's eyes. Instead of receiving some harsh treatments, she got a gentle sweet smile instead.

While extending her hand, the taller girl also threw an assuring smile, silently conveying her words that she would be fine to go with her.

"Come with me.."

Telling herself that this would probably be the last time trusting people, she took the risk and accepted the hand.

xx

They were happily running around the school area, with their hands still intertwined from the moment Minjeong accepted it. 

She felt secure. It's like the first time she was back alive to feel the positivity about life.

"Minjeong, do you want to try something out?" Jimin suddenly stopped in her tracks, causing Winter to look at her puzzled. They were now in the garden at the back of the school building.

Taking a sign of Minjeong's confusion as a yes, she grinned before releasing their intertwined hands – which brought a frown to the younger one. But in a split second, her frown was immediately replaced by a shy smile when Jimin decided to hold onto her wrist for more safety.

"Jimin, what are you up to?"

Not answering the smaller girl, her grin spread across her face as she slowly pulled Minjeong with her to slowly float in the air.

"J-Ji-Jimin!!–how?!" But the said girl only grinned wider.

"Stop it! Put me down! I'm scared!" Tears were already threatening to fall.

Seeing this, Jimin immediately let them back to step on the ground. Her happy spirit was immediately replaced by a worried one.

"S-sorry.." she muttered feeling guilty. Her hands were now draped on Minjeong's small figure, pulling her closer.

She did think this would bring happiness and freedom for Winter.

But to think of it, Jimin mentally scolded herself.

'It's her first time and this one is a crazy one Jimin. What were you thinking..'

Pushing the younger one gently, Jimin stared at her with a gentle smile, "sorry I didn't tell you in the first place." Now she held onto both of Minjeong's wrists for more assurance. "But trust me, you'll be safe with me, Minjeong."

With so many doubts and questions mixing together in her mind and possible what-ifs, she looked up only to get them dismissed when her eyes met the older one's.

"C-can you… hug me instead? I'm scared of falling.." Minjeong spoke hesitantly averting her gaze, breaking their staring competition.

With that being said, Jimin grinned and showed her eye-smile, "of course! I'll hug you to keep you safe."

And they were back to be floating slowly with Minjeong's shaky hands clinging onto Jimin's neck – eyes were tightly closed. And as promised, Jimin securely wrapped both of her arms around the smaller girl’s waist.

"J-Jimin.." her voice was muffled as Minjeong was still cowardly hiding in the crook of Jimin's neck.

Glancing to her left shoulder, she smiled, "hey you can try to open your eyes now."

Still feeling shaky, she dared herself to move her head away and peeked over Jimin's shoulder to look straight over her sight only to be greeted by the second floor of the school building.

They were indeed flying– okay maybe floating as they were still not moving anywhere.

"Are you feeling okay now?"

Still not answering the older girl, Minjeong slowly averted her gaze to the land below her, it still felt scarily high. But she's getting used to the height, thanks to Jimin's assurance.

Not having the energy to speak, Minjeong nodded her head weakly.

"Great. Don't worry, we are not going higher unless you're ready."

And slowly Jimin began to pull their bodies anywhere where her heart led them to.

There were times they were back landing on the ground and flew back anywhere around the school buildings. As they were technically ditching classes, the field and the areas around the school buildings were still empty for students to pass by. They happily spent their time together walking around.

Not until a student who's having a PE class noticed them and shouted to get their teacher's attention.

"Oh no.." Jimin looked hesitant, but in a few seconds, she tightened her hold around the younger girl and brought her with her to fly away from the school building. "Close your eyes if you're scared, Minjeong."

The previous student didn't see their faces clearly due to the far distance but he saw it clear that the two of them were now floating and flying away from his sight.

It's getting more serious with his classmates noticed their flying figures. But Jimin could careless.

xx

They spent a good amount of time traveling anywhere they felt comfortable until the blue sky had transformed into good shades of bright orange color.

Jimin safely landed both of them on the ground in the school field where most of the students were already dismissed and probably were already at home.

"We're here Minjeong.."

Jimin spoke to let her know if perhaps the girl in her embrace were closing her eyes all this time not noticing their touchdown or worse she fell asleep while enjoying the breeze when they were flying.

Reluctantly Minjeong freed the taller girl from her tight hug, with a visible pout on her lips.

Although Jimin enjoyed the hug so much, she let the girl go for now. A cute giggle escaped from her lips with eyes starting to form a crescent moon shape as she witnessed the younger girl heaved out a sigh. A sign of disappointment.

There were a lot of things running in her mind at once that need some explanations. But she's not sure from where, to begin with.

"Hey.." Jimin poked the smaller girl, once again bringing her back from her busy mind.

Minjeong was snapped out of it. She looked around to see the school areas were almost empty. She looked up and smiled sheepishly, "sorry.."

Now they had landed back on the ground. It's like the reality was telling her to wake up, which meant facing back all the hard times she got before meeting the taller girl – before she brought her to a temporary escape.

Minjeong opened to say something, but arranging her words was hard for her to convey her true feelings, convey whatever she was feeling at the moment. She closed and buried her plan.

Jimin on the other hand could only smile in return. She understood well how the younger was feeling. It must be complicated to pour them into words. More to add with the new experience she gave that still felt unreal.

"That's okay."

xx

It happened quite often. Whenever Minjeong needed some time to escape her current hard life, Jimin would be there to bring her anywhere to get her mind refreshed. Running away from her problems in the meantime, felt good. She was able to feel the comfort that she had been longing for all this time. Despite this, at the end of the day, the harsh reality would still wake her up from it. Minjeong was aware, she was starting to get addicted to it. She felt too dependent on the older girl. Her will to fight her hard life slowly vanished. Because even after she was crushed down with the harsh reality, she would find herself looking forward to their next escapes. She had no idea what would happen if the older girl suddenly went gone missing, not coming back during her hard times.

Would she survive her life?

xx 

And the scariest 'what if' scene was finally being unveiled in front of her eyes.

"I'm sorry Minjeong, but I won't be able to fly with you anymore. This was our last adventure." Jimin spoke with sadness visible in her cracked voice.

"What do you mean? You're kidding right?" Minjeong with a sarcastic laugh asked. 

"I'm not."

"Jimin this is not funny. What happened to your promises?!" Tears began striking down on her face.

Jimin could only look down, not minding the punches thrown to her by the younger girl.

But trying hard to be positive – fighting against the possible negative scenarios in her mind, she let herself hope for the last chance from her last question, "...but we're still meeting each other right?" With both hands gripping tightly on Jimin's shoulders, Minjeong looked up to the older girl with so much hope visible in her eyes.

"...I'm sorry."

There her grips loosened and she fell down crying.

"Why Jimin?!"

--

Although it's not an entirely sad dream, she would still categorize it as an angst story. She would always have a heavy feeling whenever the scene was unrolled in her mind. And to tell you guys what, this recurring dream (or nightmare?) had occurred three times already. With the same scenarios and the same main character, that was Jimin herself.

xx

Not realizing it sooner, tears began flowing freely again silently, wetting back the dried tears on her cheeks. She found herself tossing aside the blanket and got up to cross over to Jimin's bed.

Jimin was sleeping soundly, with her breathing was in a rhythm. She had always been a light sleeper, but not this time when she didn't hear or notice Minjeong's crying because of her 'dream'. But when she felt the bed dipped down, she groggily opened her eyes only to see Minjeong bending over to find some space to sleep next to her.

Confusion made her furrowed her eyebrows, "...Minjeong?"

She waited and let the younger girl adjusted for the meantime until she found her comfortable position.

With now Minjeong was safely hugging the taller girl for comfort, she was once again reminded of the tight hug she gave to the older girl in her dream. She was sad and scared once again, thinking it might happen for real in reality. She didn't answer her and instead just tightened her hold and buried her face deeper in the crook of the older girl's neck to silence her cries.

But Jimin knew so well something was up to with the younger girl.

"Hey.." she called as she shifted her body to face her.

That's the same way how the older girl called her in the dream! She felt another deja vu. She was suddenly thinking, if she got too much deja vu from her dream, it might happen for real. She didn't want that.

"Please don't let me go unnie.. and don't leave me.. I'm scared.."

Jimin still had no idea what she was mumbling about but it must be the younger having a nightmare?

Giving comforts first to the younger girl, Jimin pulled her closer into her embrace, even tangling one of her legs around the younger's, and brushed her silky hair as an assurance.

"I'm here, I'm here.. I'm not going anywhere."

xx

Minjeong never shared this 'dream' before with anyone moreover to the older girl. She's not sure why, but she's just scared. When it happened for the second time, she was still trying to ignore it and positively thinking it must be a normal deja vu or her brain was just making some familiar scenarios before sleeping that as a result, it could happen again in her dream. But this time when it happened again for the third time, for the same scenario, it was unrolling longer with new scenes where it ended up with a sad ending. The dream had always left her hanging all this time. She totally didn't expect that. It's like her 'dream' this time was to reveal the continuation of the last dream she had. Thus she was scared for real this time. What if it happened again? Although there were still many things she's curious about.

Her train of thoughts was disrupted as her ears caught the older girl began humming to random tunes. It’s like she wanted her to fall asleep to calm her down. 

“Unnie..” after she was able to control her breath, she called the older girl after heaved out a deep sigh.

"Are you feeling okay now?" Jimin asked gently, her hand now moved to the younger’s cheeks to wipe the remaining tears.

She’s not sure if her ears and mind were playing tricks on her on this so ungodly hour, but it’s another same sentence Jimin said in her dream.

She shook her head.

This gave her a headache. The feeling was unreasonable. She wished this dream wouldn’t come back again and will be forever forgotten.