I was woken up by the birds singing. I opened my eyes and stared the the blue ceiling above me blankly as I tried to recall where I was. I wrecked my brains, and thought really hard, but nothing nothing seemed to come back to me . For a moment, I had totally forgotten who I was. Suddenly, I had a sharp and painful headache that caused my head to throb. I felt a wave of pain move through me and I fell back on the bed. After that few seconds of excruciating pain, the pain died down and I regained my composure.

 

Driving... Fog... Dark... My memory slowly came back to me. I had been driving to work on a Friday night when i suddenly out. I broke out in cold sweat as the scene replayed in my mind. The situation was so bizarre and nothing made sense to me. What exactly had happened?

 

I sat up and took a closer look at the environment around me. I was shocked to find myself in an unfamiliar room. I was frightened and it the same time, curious. Where was I? What happened? Why am I here? Questions kept popping up in my mind. "It must be a hospital......" I thought to myself. I scrutinised my surroundings once again.

 

Rays of warm sunlight shone through the window. The walls were painted a bright and pleasant window with matching curtains to it. The room was ordorned with expensive-looking furniture which gave the room a luxurious feel. The room was quite big and everything was organised neatly.

 

"Wow... What kind of hospital is this?" I thought as I sat up to wait for some kind of nurse to attend to me. I waited... And waited, just stoning there and replaying what happened earlier in my head. Soon, I began to feel restless and tried to walk around the room. As I looked around, I noticed a small slip of paper on the bedside table. When I took a closer look, I realised that everything on it was written in hangul. However, strange enough, I managed to read and understand it, as though I had always known how to read korean. I frowned as I read through the paper on once again.

 

"I came over, but you were fast asleep. Will try to come over later... XX" I read it aloud in a new and foreign language. Who was he and did I even know him? How did I even manage to read that message? Was this all a dream or did I gain some supernatural power from my accident?

 

"Aish... Stop thinking so much! You must have watched too many dramas...This is just a dream, you have to wake up!" I muttered to myself, not believing that any of these things were really happening. I flopped back on the queen sized bed and tried to fall asleep again, thinking that when I wake up, I would find myself back where I belonged. After taking a short nap, I woke up to find myself back in that unfamiliar room. Frustrated, I decided to explore the area further to understand why I was here. I was desperate to find someone I knew to confide my feelings.

 

As I moved around, a bookcase at the corner of the room caught my eye. It contained rows and rows of thick books. However, what surprised me most was that the books were also written in hangul. I had never seen such a vast collection of korean books any where ever in my life. Strangely, just like how I read the letter, I could also read every character on the books.

 

"삼국지 (samgugji /romance of the three kingdoms)" I read out the first title I saw. That was easy, I thought. Surprisingly,  I had somehow managed to interpret the words and its meaning. I picked out that book, and flipped through the contents. I was greeted by rows and rows of korean characters. I started reading and found myself intrigued my its content. I never knew that I could even read, let alone understand the korean language, which I had always considered a very difficult language to learn. I had always wanted to learn korean because that way, I did not have to wait for subs before being able to watch korean TV programs.  I read through the first chapter of the story and immediately become immersed in the plot. I placed a bookmark in the book and made a mental note to continue reading the book when I had time. 

 

Honestly, I couldn't believe what was happening. I chided myself for being so attached to this foreign place. To me, all that was happening was like a dream- a dream that was become more and more exciting as time passed by. I was filled with mix emotions. While I was excited and thrilled to have the sudden ability to read korean, I was scared and frightened of the fact that I was in an unfamiliar setting, with no one I could turn to. To make sure that all that had happened was not a dream, I pinched myself and felt a surge of pain immediately.

 

As I continued looking around, I found myself walking into a toilet. I stared in awe, admiring the sight before me.  It was spacious and well ventilated with modern features. Never in my life had I seen such a sophisticated toilet. Oh well, you might think I'm crazy but seriously, that was one nice toilet. Going gaga over a toilet isn't normal but still .... never mind.

 

Anyways, I walked in and did a twirl in the middle of the toilet.  I was enjoying this new experience very much and wished this dream would never end. As I turned around and around, I caught a glimpse of the full length mirror on the wall and halted immediately. Was I seeing things? I walked closer towards the mirror, staring at the reflection which was supposed to be me. 

 

"This can't be..." I murmured as I continued to walk closer. I squinted my eyes and felt my body getting lighter. My head started to spin and the next moment, I fainted.