Song: HOLO by LeeHi

You tried opening your heavy eyes, but you simply can’t.

“We can’t go on like this, Mr. Park. You know exactly where she needs to be,” you heard a familiar voice in the room.

“I know. But please let her be in the meantime.”

“This will repeat itself over and over if we don’t do something about it, you know that.”

“I’m begging you. Please let her be,” Chanyeol insisted. “You know I only have her best interests in mind.”

“I’ll give you one last chance, but after this, you know what’s going to happen next.”

You felt yourself passing out once more, that memory fading away in your mind.

---------------------------------------------

“Is this Miss Im Minna?” your caller said on the other line.

“Yes, this is she?”

You rushed to the hospital as soon as you heard all the details. You found out that your father is gravely sick and had been in and out of the hospital, doing check ups but avoiding to be confined so as not to make you worry. It was stage 4 lung cancer, that it was too late when he found out.

“Dad, dad!” you tapped on the glass window of the ICU where they kept him. He laid there, unconscious. They said that he only had 6 months to live.

And that statement was done by the doctors 6 months ago.

Your father never opened his eyes. He passed away a few hours after having that decline. You couldn’t blame the doctors for what happened as when they showed you his records, they had been warning him about this day, offering some medication, but he simply declined.

He said that his daughter will just worry about him, and he will take whatever oral medication there is to make him feel better.

Of course, that was not enough to extend his life for even a few months.

Time went by fast; and it never settled in because everything happened so suddenly. Chanyeol was there throughout as well as the few friends you have.

You were crying heavily at your father’s final resting place, Chanyeol giving you space in the meantime as he spoke with some of your guests. It was at this quiet hill where your father can see the peaceful view of the mountains, in case he will be watching.

You saw a child in white, all smiles running on one of the upper hills of the cemetery. It was then you felt the heaviness of the entire situation.

Tears finally fell down your face. It was the first time you cried because of his death and truthfully, you felt betrayed by your father.

“Why, why, dad???” you sobbed as you laid down the floor. “Why didn’t you tell me? I could have taken care of you, but you didn’t let me. You never gave me a chance,” you were slapping the dirt on the floor. “You took me in from the orphanage and you never let me return the favor. I hate you, dad…”

It had started to drizzle, and it broke your heart to bits.

“Seriously?! You’re going to do this to me?!” you shouted into nothingness. “You’ll take away my only family from me and you can’t even let me spend time with him like this? What did I do to you?! I’ve been a good person all throughout! I never did anything bad! Is it too much to ask for some quiet time with my father?! Is it…is it too much if I ask to go back in time so I can show my appreciation towards him? Why do I have to be in this linear path?! Why??!!”

You felt Chanyeol hugging you, probably hearing your shouting. He held an umbrella and kissed your forehead while trying to calm you down.

“Minna…Minna, hushhh. I’m here. I won’t leave you,” he was getting teary eyed of your heavy sobbing.

“Why, Chanyeol. Why…” you let him encage you in a tight embrace. There was nothing else that could be done that moment but to accept everything.

You saw the child who was running earlier, now standing below the tree not far from where you were.

“Minna? Where are you going?” Chanyeol asked.

You didn’t listen to him and went close to the child, who had been smiling, still. He held an old video camera and you couldn’t comprehend why he was there on his own.

“Hey, where’s your mother? Why are you alone?” you asked the child.

The child giggled and went behind the tree.

“Wait. It’s raining. Do you need an umbrella? I can lend you mine.”

You heard your name being called from afar by Chanyeol.

“Wait. Hey, wait!”

There was a ringing on your ears, a mix of some techno sounds and Chanyeol’s voice.

You sat up the bed as you opened your eyes. You were sweating profusely and panting heavily.

“…it was a dream…holy …” you wiped your forehead with the back of your hand.

Your eyes roamed around the room, and it didn’t look like your apartment at all.

“Where am I?” you murmured.

You were surprised when you saw Chanyeol, eyes wide as he studied you.

“Chanyeol?”

“You know who I am?” he asked.

“Yes. Y-you’re my boyfriend…my ex-boyfriend.”

He looked down the bed and sighed. “Right. At least she knows my name…” he went towards the door and opened it, with a couple of nurses appearing and approaching you.

“Where am I?” you asked again, but nobody would answer you. “Wait. Kibum?” you held one of the nurses through his arm.

“Yes, ma’am?”

“You’re a nurse now? What’s going on?”

“I’ve been a nurse since I graduated, ma’am.”

They were instructed to tell the truth whenever they are asked about their personal lives.

“Naeun?” you called the attention of the other nurse.

She bowed to you courteously. “It’s nice to see you once more, Ms. Im.”

The door opened and the nurses noticed your shooting blood pressure through the monitor connected to your body.

“D-dad???” you tried going down the bed, but your nurses stopped you.

He was wearing a white coat, a stethoscope hanging on his neck. “Good day, Ms. Im.”

“Y-you’re alive?”

“I am alive and well. Unfortunately, I am not your father. I am your doctor. I have been for the past year.”

You noticed Chanyeol standing up, his arms crossed on his chest as he looked out the window impassively.

“What the is going on?!”

The people in the room were startled of your shouting.

“You may leave us,” your father, who had been insisting he’s your doctor signaled the nurses.

“Yes, sir,” the 4 nurses bowed and smiled to you.

“Wait. Kibum, Naeun…”

Your doctor took the chair beside you. “Like I said, I am your doctor, Miss Kang.”

“Miss Kang? I go by Im Minna.”

The doctor smiled. “It’s your stage name, Miss Kang. You’re Kang Minna in real life.”

“Stage name? Kang Minna? What?”

“Yes. But isn’t it great? We share the same surname. No wonder you had mistaken me for your father in that dream you had just now,” he explained patiently. “I was your grandfather the last time. Good thing I got younger,” he tried joking.

“Why the hell would I have a stage name?”

“Mr. Park?” the doctor called him.

Chanyeol sat on the bed as he gathered all his thoughts. It was the usual line he says in situations like this. “You’re an actress, Minna. And you have been married to me for seven years now,” he touched his wedding ring out of habit.

“I don’t believe you. This is the arcade machine’s doing!” you exclaimed. “I’m taken back to time once more! Maybe this is another timeline!”

Chanyeol started getting teary eyed. He looked at the ceiling, not letting you see how he wiped his tears away. “Can she stand up and walk?” he asked the doctor.

“Let her take the wheelchair. She was asleep for a week. Her motor skills might still be in disarray.”

“A week? What happened, Yeol?”

He smiled, then assisted you to the wheelchair. “Come with me and I’ll explain everything to you. Have some water first.”

You hesitated, but you took the cup and drank from it.

“How are you feeling?” he first asked as he started to push the wheelchair.

“I’m…I’m good.”

“Great, that’s great.”

“Do you live here?” you looked around the vast house obviously owned by someone wealthy.

“We live here. This is our house,” he clarified.

“Since when?” you couldn’t recall.

“Since we got married seven years ago,” he said without hesitations.

He led you to one of the rooms, and you were surprised when he opened the door.

“What are these?” you looked around the trophies, plaques and frames displayed neatly around you.

“They’re ours,” he smiled. “I told you; you’re an actress. You won these awards out of pure ha