My Favorite Things

Midnight Summer Dream

Winter finds herself enveloped in darkness. She tries moving her arms, her legs, and her eyes. She sees nothing but pitch black. The silence is ringing in her ears. Winter tries to figure out what is happening. 

 

Opening and closing her eyes make no difference. Winter once again tries to move. In a flick of a second, she hears a low vibration – a rumbling. The sound is similar to a grumbling stomach. Winter flinches and tries to move slowly, however that may be. The low vibration slowly turns into a rhythmic hum. The hairs on her nape automatically stand up. Trouble. She knows it.

 

Winter tries her best to move and flinches when the hum is now coupled with low rumbling. She is stuck. Winter realizes that she is, indeed, stuck. She waits, standing – or lying down, she is not entirely sure – breaths calculated. 

 

Slowly, two giant yellow orbs appear. Its sight focuses on Winter. She does not how the facial structure of the creature works. However, Winter is sure that it got its eyes on her.

 

Winter… 

 

Winter…

 

She hears someone calling her name again. Unlike her last dream, she knows who this voice belongs to. Wonyoung. The hum continues as the creature moves its eyes in the direction of the voice. A slow creak can be heard as the entity turns. Winter thinks that this is the right opportunity to sneak out. Slowly, she feels that weight is slowly being lifted off her body. The creature has been sitting on top of her all this time.

 

Winter moves slowly but surely. She finds it painful to breathe. She moves. 

 

She almost screams when she feels a tight grip on her right arm. The environment changes as Wonyoung pulls Winter onto herself. The specter easily catches her as she stumbles into the weird environment. 

 

“It’s nice to meet you again, Winter,” Wonyoung says. Something has changed, Winter can feel it but can’t quite put a finger to it. “It’s hard to talk to you after our first meeting,” the specter continues. “You are always occupied.” She finishes, emphasizing the last word.

 

Winter feels a burning sensation on her arm, right where Wonyoung is holding her. At first, it was merely a prick. Wonyoung continues to smile at her but Winter feels that something is going haywire. 

 

“Here is what you need to do, Winter,” Wonyoung instructs, grip tightening. Winter slowly feels the scalding pain in her arm. She tries to free herself from the specter’s grip but her body feels too weak. 

“We are running out of time, Winter,” Wonyoung smiles as she says this. “See that creature? It will both devour us if you don’t do this.” She says, laughing a little. Winter is starting to get pissed and the pain in her arm is worsening. However, just like her physical strength, her voice is nowhere.

“Five things, Winter,” Wonyoung says. “You need to do five things for me. After that, you are all free.”

 

Winter continues to struggle, the burn in her arms worsening in every moment that she stays in this dimension – wherever this is. “Remember this correctly, Winter. Our future depends on this.

“Karina needs me. Karina needs to remember me. Do these 5 things and she will never forget me.” Wonyoung says.

“The first thing you have to do is give her Lori. She will know who Lori is.

“Second, take her to the beach – it’s our favorite place.

“Third, give her sunflowers.” Wonyoung smiles a little sincerely at this. Winter thinks it’s over but she remembers there are five items on the list. “The fourth thing you need to do, Winter, is to burn the wooden box.

“And lastly, always say my name.”

 

Winter gasps as she awakens. Geonhak and Youngjo are looking at her with obvious concern in their eyes. Geonhak’s arms are gripping Winter’s shoulders in an obvious effort to wake her up.

“What’s happening, Minjeong? Are you alright?” Youngjo asks.

“You were having a nightmare?” Geonhak asks as well. Winter yawns and tries to shake off the ugly feeling in her chest. She tries to get up to face her cousins. But she feels a little weak. She suddenly feels nauseous and runs towards the toilet to vomit.

“I’m alright,” She says. “Sorry for worrying you. I tend to have vivid dreams when I sleep late.” She excused. The two boys did not buy her excuse but decided to let her be for now. Frustration marks the faces of Winter’s cousins.

 

She is about to ask what they want for breakfast but her phone buzzes. Winter looks at the message icon and sees Ireh’s message to the group chat. Hey, nerds. Grandmother Cookie says that we should not leave Winter alone. So, @coldseason, you better come here once you wake up! The message reads.

Why should I? Winter responds. She wonders if Ireh has been talking about her to her eccentric boss. I don’t know, Ireh responds. She just called me earlier, told me to stick by you, and no other explanations.

Fine by me, Yizhuo responds. See you in a few, @coldseason, @geniusproducer @squirreh @bunhee @dong1, @dong2. Don’t even think of ditching us, Winter.

 

Winter sighs and stands up. She finds Geonhak cooking breakfast by the kitchen. Youngjo ruffles her hair and gives her a cup of hot chocolate. “What are your plans today, Minjeong? You have no classes, right?” Youngjo asks. Winter nods and takes a sip of her chocolate. “Can you drop me off Ireh’s and Chaein’s place? We planned to stay there all day.

“Sure,” Geonhak says. “Just stay out of trouble. Keonhee has a knack of finding one.” Winter smiles at that. Her moment of peace, however, is cut short when her right arm starts throbbing. Winter excuses herself and says that she needs to shower.

 

She grabs her towel and rushes to the bathroom. As soon as Winter removes her pajama top, she sees a big burn scar right at the spot where Wonyoung held her. The burn mark continues to throb and Winter quickly gets into the shower. The water gives a temporary comfort to the burn area but the throbbing returns after a few minutes.

 

Geonhak offers Winter’s breakfast plate as soon as she was done showering. She excuses herself for a moment to get dressed before eating breakfast. The boys don’t have to know about the mark. Winter decides to wear a long-sleeved shirt. Luckily, it is one of those shirts that are made with cotton so it will be comfortable despite the warm temperature.

 

Winter tries to maintain normalcy throughout breakfast even though her arm is throbbing. It is exactly 10 in the morning when Youngjo finishes washing the dishes and the three of them decide to head out.

 

The cousins decide to walk just like last night even though Ireh’s and Chaein’s apartment requires a 15-minute walk. Winter strikes conversations with her two older cousins to deviate the topic from ghosts and for her to temporarily forget her throbbing hand.

 

 

Karina sits at the lounge of her department reading Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book. She sighs. She is not in the correct mindset to enjoy the book. Nevertheless, there are words that resonate with her: “the dead should have charity”. Karina is not sure why those words spoke to her. She closes her eyes and tries to remember her life before entering this slump. The beach. The wind caressed her face through the balcony. City nights. Wonyoung.

 

Karina opens her eyes as she sighs. She thinks that maybe she is strong enough to revisit the memories of her dead girlfriend. Four years. They have been together for four years. Karina remembers the ups and downs. She closes her eyes to prevent tears from falling.

 

She feels a poke on her nose moments later. Karina opens her eyes to find Giselle in front of her with a concerned expression masked in indifference. Karina smiles at her best friend. She knows Giselle like the back of her hand. She knows that the girl knows what she’s thinking.

 

Giselle sat beside her on the couch in the middle of the lounge. “Thinking about her?” She asks. Karina knows who her best friend is talking about. She also knows that Giselle wasn’t too fond of her girlfriend back when she was still alive. She has this toxicity in her that drags you. She says before. Still, Karina is thankful that during the times that she and Wonyoung would have their fights, Giselle is there to listen.

“It has been more than a year, Aeri,” Karina starts. “It should be easy by now, isn’t it?” Giselle looks at her best friend with a soft expression. “It never gets easy, I guess. You just get stronger.” She responds.

“Mom called earlier,” Karina explains. “She said Wonyoung’s mom delivered some stuff that Wonyoung owns. She said I may be interested.” Giselle’s eyebrows raise.

“Are you going home this weekend for that?”

“Yes,” Karina says firmly. “I am curious to see what’s inside. Maybe it will help me move on.”

 

In an effort to pull Karina out of her grief, Giselle gets her phone out. “So, I have been stalking some people,” She says. Karina lets out a small laugh.

“I bet you’re stalking Ryujin’s friend.”

“Yizhuo? You got that right.” Giselle responds and that makes Karina laugh. Giselle rarely shows romantic interest -- what more a crush -- to people but when she does, she takes it upon herself to do some research.

“Also,” Giselle says. “I saw some interesting photos of Winter on her Instagram. I thought you might be interested.” Giselle never misses the way Karina’s interest piqued at the mention of the name.

“Winter is an interesting person, isn’t she?” Giselle says. “All that mysterious aura and sweet smile.” Karina smiles a wide smile and nods her head in agreement. Giselle chuckles at her best friend.

“She’s cute and cuddly, don’t you think?” Karina says. Giselle laughs out loud at this. She then proceeds to show Karina photos of Winter she found on Yizhuo’s Instagram account.

 

The two girls laugh at the wacky photos of Yizhuo and her friends, especially the ones where Winter was obviously being made fun of because of her funny expressions. Karina and Giselle continue to laugh at the photo where Winter was on the brink of crying but her friends decided to pose behind her.

 

However, there is one photo of Winter that captured Karina’s attention fully. It was a candid shot of Winter basking in the glow of the early morning sun. There was nothing special in the photograph -- it was obviously taken at the park inside the campus, during a picnic with her friends.

 

What stands out for Karina is Winter’s smile that transcends through her eyes. She feels warm, secure, and hopeful. “Pretty, isn’t she?” Giselle says, aware that her friend is currently enamored at the photograph in front of them. She knows Karina loves photographs taken with natural light. She also knows when her best friend is starting to get interested in a person. Giselle smiles when Karina’s eyes widen as if she was caught breaking the rules.

“She is… cute.” Karina agrees softly. A turmoil is starting to brew in her stomach. Karina is aware that she is becoming too fond of Winter who is practically still a stranger to her.

“You know,” Giselle starts. “It’s nice that you are starting to welcome people outside of our friend group into your life. Karina, ice queen no more.” Karina rolls her eyes at this. She elbows Giselle and packs her book. “Come, let’s have some brunch. My treat.” She says. Giselle smiles starts to walk, her arms linked with her best friend’s.

 

 

Winter bids Geonhak and Youngjo goodbye as the trio arrives at Ireh’s and Chaein’s apartment. The building is a traditional house that was left abandoned. According to Ireh and Chaein, they were homeless after they were kicked out of university housing. The duo accidentally set fire to their room because of an experiment with phosphorus and this accident “marked them for life” and got banned at other university housing facilities.

 

The duo found this old, abandoned traditional house and felt a calling. The two of them decided that this will be their sanctuary. They planned on squatting in the house but, luckily, the caretaker took pity and convinced the owners to let them stay in exchange for making the facade of the house clean.

 

Long story short, Ireh and Chaein were able to build their home in this abandoned home. Winter thinks their story is nothing short of poetic justice. Two hungry souls found their safe place in a forgotten structure and created a new life together. Winter enters the gate and sees all the plants that Ireh planted from seeds in full bloom. It’s a good place. Until you go inside.

 

Winter is greeted by A Perfect Circle’s Judith blasting on a wall speaker. Wow, they managed to make the place soundproof. Winter thinks. She stumbles upon books and documents on the floor. There are shelves of action figures and gunplas on one side of the living room, a shelf of books, and house plants on the other. The corridor leading to the dining area is lined with books on the floor and preserved insects on the wall (which Winter recognizes as Yizhuo’s collection).

 

The house is huge and spacious and… chaotic. Winter is amazed at the organized chaos this house is in. It feels…lived in. The house gave the girls the opportunity to pursue their academic interests: Chaein with true crime, Ireh with evolutionary biology. Winter checks another spacious room which serves as Ireh’s and Chaein’s workspace. Winter sees a giant corkboard pinned with various articles about theft. Ireh’s easels are also in the area near Chaein’s musical instruments. Sketches of anatomy and plants are posted on the wall. Anyone who doesn’t know Ireh and Chaein will definitely be weirded out by this place. But not Winter. Her friends are amazing and have an amazing house.

 

“Hi, Winter!” Ireh greets loudly. Winter flinches and glares at her friend. “I see you found your way in.”

“It’s not my first time here, twit.” She says which makes Ireh laugh.

“Come to the dining room. Chaein and I made some cupcakes. Yizhuo and the boys are there, too.” Winter brightens up at the prospect of cupcakes. Ireh and Chaein know how to cook and bake, that’s for sure.

 

“So what is this? Why are we here?” Keonhee asks as he devours his fifth vanilla cupcake.

“I told you, I don’t know. Grandmother Cookie randomly called me and said that.”

“Did you tell her about my… my predicament?” Winter asks slowly. Ireh violently shakes her head. “Why would I?” She answers and Winter smiles at that.

“Maybe she feels that Winter will be in danger,” Chaein suggests. “You know, motherly instincts? Kinda like how Yeji would be worried about Winter?”

“She doesn’t know Winter personally, though. I didn’t even tell her I have a friend named Winter?”

“Yikes, that’s creepy,” Dongmyeong says.

“But really interesting,” Dongju adds.

 

“What the hell?” Yizhuo exclaims holding as she re-enters the dining area from the toilet and stumbles upon a stack of adult magazines. “I seriously wonder how you two keep this house spotless while still having clutter around. And seriously? Adult magazines?

“Sorry, sorry,” Ireh says laughing with Chaein snickering at the back. “That’s mine. I was doing research.”

“Your research involves… women?” Winter asks.

“Didn’t I tell you she’s dating someone? A girl from work! She needs to know how works!” Chaein interjects.

“I can’t help it! Seungeun is so cute and y.” Ireh defends herself. Everyone laughs at that. Winter sees Yizhuo pinch Ireh’s arm. Winter’s laughter abruptly stops when she suddenly feels a sharp pain from the same area in her arm.

 

Winter did not realize that she yelped loudly, getting the attention of her friends. “What’s wrong, Minjeong?” Yizhuo asks, concern obvious in her voice.

“Oh, it’s nothing,” Winter says, rubbing her arm. An act that did not go past by Dongju. “Something’s wrong with her arm!” The boy exclaims.

 

Yizhuo quickly grabs Winter’s right arm and lifts the sleeve of her shirt, revealing the mark. Everyone gasps.

“What is this, Winter?” Yizhuo asks.

“Damn, that looks like a scab from a third-degree burn,” Ireh says.

“And you know this, because?” Dongmyeong asks.

“Duh, I work at the morgue.”

Winter sees Yizhuo eyeing her carefully. She knows that her best friend understands that the mark is from a supernatural entity. Winter begins to explain her most recent dream -- or nightmare, sometimes there is no difference. She concludes the story after five minutes.

“This is so unfair,” Winter says. “I never said yes to any of this.”

“Good thing you’re starting to gain some sense,” Yizhuo interjects.

“What if you don’t do what she says?” Chaein asks.

“Then the entity will come after me,” Winter explains. She yelps once again as the burn mark starts to throb.

“We need to do something about that arm first,” Yizhuo says. Everyone agrees. “I think we need to pay Grandmother Cookie a visit.” Yizhuo continues. “Ireh, is she available today?”

“Well, she rarely goes out, so, yes.”

“How are we going there?” Dongmyeong asks.

“No worries, we can borrow the bicycles at work,” Keonhee suggests. “I have a new part-time job, too, at a bicycle shop.” He explains. “It’s near here and we can have the bikes for the whole day.”

“So, what are we waiting for?” Yizhuo says. The group all stands up, pack their bags with cupcakes and some water, and headed out. Winter sighs. She thanks the universe that she is not alone.

 

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Happy 300 subscribers to this story! Thank you for being so patient.

Comments

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shiro11 #1
Chapter 17: I'm so invested in this 🥺🥺🥺 and I saw this story is from last year, and only updated just this day. I really hope you'll continue writing the story. 🙏🙏🙏 I'm excited what will happen next and I think, that ghost girl is really a bad news.
Purposefish
#2
Chapter 17: This is so much potential 🤯🤯
cleofierayne 35 streak #3
Chapter 17: Woww I read this in one sitting!! This is so much interesting and mysterious I can't get enough 🥺😭 Glad I read this.

Those 5 rules is so sus. Winter already thought that she's not really the target, its Wonyoung. It feels like she was lured to something more than what she agreed upon. If we search Lori's meaning, there's too much hahahaha and surprisingly its associated with death too.

And yieee picnic date hahaahah so exciteddd for thatt ahhh and their convos hihihi
TheEmeraldGirl23
#4
Chapter 17: The way Minjeong is insisting this is not a date, lol. It totally is, stop denying it. I wonder how Jimin is going to react to all of the ghost stuff if and when Minjeong tells her. I hope it'll be a good outcome.
MochiWolf
#5
Chapter 16: I found this fic today and wow, the plot of this story is incredibly interesting and i adore the relationships btwn all the characters! i really enjoy your writing, it’s been a while since i’ve been this invested in a fic!
jetimylove #6
Chapter 16: Hey I have some ideas for you
Louise1507 #7
Chapter 16: incredibly interesting, I like, there are so many mysteries it and keep reading, keep it up author-nim
Purposefish
#8
Interesting
TheEmeraldGirl23
#9
Chapter 16: Ahh, a date? Or at least I think it is. A picnic under the stars sounds pretty romantic to me. I really love seeing Winter and Karina interact with each other! And the way Aeri and Yizhou bet on them being friends by the end of the summer too. That was just too funny! I think they're going to be way more than just that.
TheEmeraldGirl23
#10
Chapter 15: Huh, that letter and box seems too suspicious to just be a gift for Karina. Like she herself said, Wonyoung's family was only really tolerant of their relationship, and not exactly supportive. This thought too, "Wonyoung is good with secrets." So it seems that even during their relationship, Wonyoung kept a lot of things hidden from Karina. It makes me think that this box might be connected to Wonyoung's ghost in some way. She's always causing trouble for Winter, so maybe this is a way to stop Karina from moving on as well. I don't know, it's just a random thought.