The bright sun shining through the window woke Cheondung up from his sleep. He stretched out and rubbed his eyes open finding himself back inside the hospital room. Sitting up straight in his chair, he looked up at Haneul to see her looking back at him with a smile on her face.

It took him a moment before realizing that she had woken up, making his heart stop for a second before going back to its rapid pace.

“Y-you’re up! How a-are you feeling? Are you okay?”

“Mhmm.”

The next thing he knew, he found himself standing up and softly her hair as he placed a kiss on her forehead, glad to hear about her well being. “I’ll call the doctor, okay? I’ll be right back.”

He quickly walked out of the room and came back just seconds later with the doctor right behind him. He took his seat back at the chair while the older man looked back at his report before looking up at Haneul.

“Does your head still hurt?

“No, I don’t feel anything.”

“Hmm, okay; do you have any recollection of what happened in the last 24 hours?”

Not understanding the question, she turned her head to look at Cheondung; he quickly knew that she was confused and explained to her if she remembered what happened since they left the house yesterday morning.

“I do… we were in a house in the middle of a field… there was a farm and, and a tree not too far away, it was really beautiful-”

“Haneul… yesterday you spent the day with me, don’t you remember? I think you’re just describing your… dream maybe?” He mumbled his last words as he thought back to what he had dreamt just a few moments ago; placing himself back into the scenery she had just described.

He soon got pulled out of his daze with the doctor speaking once again, as he mentioned about running some other scans to make sure that she was healthy and that if everything was alright, she could leave today.

“Thank you doctor.”

Once the doctor left and they were alone again, he turned back to face Haneul and saw a bright smile on her face making him respond the same way as he gently patted her head.

“You scared me last night, I thought I was going to lose you.”

He sat at the edge of the bed as she took his hands, enjoying the warmth she had missed since the last time she held them. “I’m sorry… I don’t know what happened, I just had weird images in my head and they hurt.”

“Images? Like flashbacks? What did you see?”

“Hmm, a blue sky, feathers… clouds, and hmm, a bright light, like the sun…”

“Feathers?”

“Like from the wings of an angel.”

“A-angel?”

She nodded her head as he looked at her slightly confused about whatever had popped in her mind; whatever her obsession with angels was, he let it slide once again.

“Are you hungry? I can bring you something to eat before the check up.”

“No, I’m not hungry… I want you to stay here.” She pushed herself to the side, leaving a bigger space between her and Cheondung. “Can you hold me like you did before?”

“S-sure…” He got up and lie next to her with his arm around her shoulders, letting her lean against his chest. She scooted herself closer to him, not noticing the red cheeks that were appearing across his face but felt the fastness of his beating heart, making her smile; he could feel her heart beat the same way and it brought out some sense of connection between the two of them.

“Haneul… I just wanted to let you know… I meant what I said last night; about you staying with me.”

“Really?” She lifted her head up with hope appearing in her eyes. “You really want me?”

“Mhmm. Don’t worry about anything anymore, I’ll take care of you, okay?”

At that moment, the door opened with the doctor coming in to pick up Haneul for the check up. Cheondung helped her get out of the bed and once she was on her two feet, she quickly grabbed onto his hand. The gesture didn’t surprise him anymore; he looked down and felt a tingle coursing through his veins, which left him to think about the sudden familiar feeling he had in the bottom of his heart.

He lightly squeezed her hand as they followed the doctor towards the room in question.

They repeated the same procedure from last time and waited until the results were printed out. Once they were out, the doctor did his examination to which Haneul was declared fully recovered, finally getting her discharged from the hospital.

From there, they headed back to his apartment after the manager let Cheondung have the day off so he could properly take care of Haneul in case of a relapse. Left by themselves, Cheondung went to prepare something to eat while Haneul went to change back into her pj’s; she came out of the bedroom with Dadoong in her arms and went to sit at her same spot in the kitchen, watching the boy cook.

She was quietly petting the cat as she slowly lost herself in her thoughts, thinking back to the sweet dream she had; the field, the house, the baby, the husband. Everything looked so real and so right, she never wanted to wake up.

“Just like heaven…”

From those words, similar flashbacks were back in her mind but this time, there wasn’t any pain at all, only an itch that was coursing through her veins. She started to scratch the part where it was affecting her the most, which was the mark she had on her hand.

She was rubbing harder and a small whimper of discomfort escaped from her lips; this caught the boy’s attention as he turned around and stopped what he was doing. “Haneul? Are you okay?”

She shook her head and from the look on her face, he knew that something was wrong. He went by her side and took a hold of both her hands, making her halt her scratching. He looked down and quietly gasped at the red spot she created on the back of her hand.  “What happened? Why were you scratching like this?”

“It was itchy… I had those images again in my head and it was itchy here.” She lifted her hand with her mark and Cheondung looked back at it with a closer look. He squinted his eyes as he examined the little tanned spot, trying to figure out in what form it was. Giving up, he got up and walked out of the kitchen letting her know that he’ll be right back. “I’ll put some ointment on it, maybe it will help.”

Instead of staying put, she got up from her chair, which scared the cat as he jumped back on the floor with a discontented mewl. Ignoring him, she quickly ran to the bathroom and stood at the entrance while Cheondung was still looking through the cabinets. Once he found what he was looking for, he was about to come out when he saw her standing at the entrance.

She walked up to him, as he asked her too, and made her sit on the toilet seat while he opened the small tube and pressed enough to have a small liquid come out. He gently took her hand in his palm an applied the ointment over the red scratch, softly and carefully.

While he was focused on this part, she was staring at him, having this sudden urge to smile at the closeness but also from the way he was taking care of her; the itchiness from earlier had suddenly faded away making her think that he was the one that ‘healed’ her.

“Here you go! All done!” A satisfied grin stretched across his lips after he backed away to put the small tube back in its place. He went back to her and led her to the living room where she sat on the couch, waiting for what was next.

“Let’s just order food. I’m going to make a call, okay? It will take just a few seconds.”

She nodded her head and waited for him as she watched him walk away into the next room. She turned her head back around and looked at the light shining through the window. She got up from her seat and walked towards the spot light that was on the floor. She looked down and then lifted her head up to have the view in her sight, leaving her mesmerized at what she was seeing. She walked closer until her palms were against the window and turned her head up to look at the blue sky with the hints of clouds floating.

Right then, something strange filled her heart; as if something was out of place, as if she was meant to be somewhere else and by just looking up at the sky, she was drawn towards this direction. She looked back down, letting her thoughts take over as she fell into a daze while the warmth of the sun was heating her up.

As for Cheondung, he just walked back to the living room but he suddenly stopped in his tracks, his breath cut short as he stared at Haneul in shock. Just for a fraction of a second, he thought he saw something which resembled like wings on her back with the light of the sun hugging her figure.

She turned around and spotted Cheondung, making her softly smile; that strange feeling that was lingering soon faded away only to be replaced by that fuzzy feeling that she would get whenever she would look at the boy, which made her heart speed up. Whatever made her feel out of place was completely out of the way, with only Cheondung in her mind filling in that void perfectly.

And again, he could see those wings, almost transparent but present as they glowed through the sunlight. He was left in a daze as he stared at the girl while she took her steps to him; the further she walked, she was finally out of the light making the glow disappear with it. It brought him back to reality as he dropped his head to look at her, feeling like she was the angel and not him.

“H-hmm, the food will be h-here soon… We c-could watch a m-movie if you want…”

She didn’t understand what he meant by movie but simply agreed to it by nodding her head. She went back to comfortably sit on the couch while Cheondung went towards the TV, turning it on and looking for something to watch to pass the time.

Not knowing what type of movies she would like, he went with a romantic comedy thinking that she might enjoy it. Once everything was settled, he went back to sit by her side only to hear the doorbell ring; the food was here and after he had paid the delivery boy, he laid out what he had ordered across the coffee table between the TV and the couch, and finally settled in comfortably with Haneul patiently waiting.

Following him, she sat down on the floor with her back against the edge of the sofa while Cheondung poured her a plate before making one of his own. She spotted the dumpling and a little giggle escaped from her lips as she quickly picked it up; the sight made the boy quietly laugh, happy to see that she was enjoying herself.

“How about we start the movie then, hmm?”

The last scene of the movie came and it was, like every cliché romcom, the big final step between the two protagonists of the story as they officially become a couple.

Carefully watching that part, Haneul was putting all her focus into the dialogue going on between these two people; as they were confessing their love to each other, she couldn’t help but sit back and think about what had just been said.

She turned her head to look at Cheondung who was busy watching the movie. She glanced back at the movie when the big kiss finally happened and it brought her back to what had happened last night.

“Do you love me?”

He choked on his own saliva at her sudden question. He turned his head to look at a pair of doe eyes as he batted his, caught by surprise. “H-huh? Why are you asking me this?”

“Because you did this too.” She pointed back at the TV screen where that couple was still kissing. Frozen in his spot, he felt his cheeks heat up as his mind went back to what he thought was only a dream. “I kissed you? We actually kissed?”

She nodded her head and placed herself on her knees as she turned her body to face his side. “What the girl is saying… I feel it too, right here.” She placed her hands over her heart while gazing at Cheondung who was at a loss for words; he couldn’t comprehend that she was confessing her feelings to him.

“Feeling cold when you’re not around, the heart beating so fast it hurts… feeling sad when I thought you didn’t want me… I don’t understand what’s happening to me but… I don’t feel any pain when you're near. When you held me last night, I felt something strange in here but it made me… happy. And when you kissed me, I never wanted to let go… It felt good, like… we already did this before.”

Her last statement caught his attention, not quite understanding what she meant by that. “Like we did before? When?”

“When we were in the field, in our new house. Don’t you remember? I think that’s what I can remember… You, I knew you before…” As she kept talking, the dream she had when she was at the hospital was replaying in her head, making her think that it was actually something recent when it fact it was only a memory from a past life, something both of them didn’t know… just yet.

As for Cheondung, that same dream came back to him. The beautiful scenery, his wife, his child, their house; everything brought him to this realization that Haneul was the girl he dreamt about, that she was the one that he claimed to love in his dream. Though, in the back of his mind, he somehow knew that it was her, just hearing her actually speak these words out loud, it made him feel like this dream was real, like it was part of a reality that he never lived but wanted so badly.

She was looking down on her lap when she felt his fingers lift her head up by her chin making them lock eyes with each other.

She didn’t know what he had in mind, but looking down at his lips, she had this urge to kiss him again. She wanted to feel that emotion again, that powerful strike it gave her as it traveled throughout her body, giving her some kind of bliss she had longed for without even knowing it.

She leaned in closer and placed her lips above his, staying still. Without even a second thought, he replied to her gesture by slowly moving his lips against hers as he brought her closer to him with his palm cupping her cheek.

They fell into their own little bubble, completely ignoring the end credits of the movie as they had put more focus on their kiss, letting it grow deeper by the second.

Though he may have fallen in love before, what he felt at the moment was something completely new, but yet it made sense. It made him feel like he was doing the right thing, that by giving up his heart, he would finally be able to know how it actually felt to love someone and be loved in return. That feeling that he had found something, though he wasn’t aware that he was looking for it, came to him at the most unexpected time and in the most unexpected way.

As for Haneul, she felt like she had found what she was looking for; she felt as if she had found the thing she had lost and it sent a spark through her veins, leaving her contented. She slowly pulled away, breaking their kiss, as she gazed at him with a glimmer in her eyes drawing him back closer as he went in for another kiss, this time softer.

She scooted closer to him as she comfortably sat next to him while he wrapped his arm around her shoulders making her lean her head against him. She took his free hand in between hers as she started to play with him. A glowing smile on both their faces, his soon faded away when the mark on her hand came back to his view. Lifting her hand closer to him, he stared at the birthmark noticing the way it was resembling like two wings. Then he noticed the number ‘10.04’ right under it.

‘1004?’

He softly the birthmark as he felt a kiss on his cheek. He looked at her, erasing the worry out of his eyes just for her and gave her a quick kiss on her lips. Just then, the sunlight, reaching them as it went back to glow around them, let their joint hands feel its warmth.

From where he was, he could see the rays hovering above her head and it left him in awe at how beautiful she looked.

“You look just like an angel… So beautiful.” He cupped her cheek once again as he leaned in to kiss her once more, letting that bubble of emotion inside of him, burst completely. Right then, he felt something weird and pulled away. The wings he thought he had seen earlier were back but this time they were actually present; she could feel something on her back making her turn her head to see the white feathers spread, surprising both of them.

“H-Haneul? W-why do you have wings on your back?”

They suddenly disappeared when the light of the sun had shifted, the glow gone with it once again. He pushed himself away from her as he got back up on his feet with her following right behind him.

“What just happened? Why did you have wings?”

“I-I don’t know…”

His gaze fell back onto that number and repeating it once again, he realized that it also held another meaning.

“You’re not human, are you?”