008 | Dream
Warnings: Experiencing this dream causes addiction of Korean drama variety.
Dream Effect: Characters will feel highly emotionally charged throughout the dream.
★ ☆ ★
It happened when you were five. Ga-In was always there to give you a band-aid whenever you fell. Her shadow would loom over you and you would look up and barely see her outline through your teary eyes. Ga-In always bent down and stuck the band-aid right where it hurt the most before you could cry about how much it hurt.
Ga-In, Ga-In! She would smile innocently, the one you loved the most. It was just a little bit crooked and she smiled too widely so that her dimples were obvious. "It doesn't hurt so much, does it?"
It didn't quite hurt as much whenever Ga-In was around. The warm tingles in your cheeks left you feeling even better than before you fell.
When you were ten, your parents enrolled you in cram school. Ga-In didn't enroll. Her family owned the flower shop next door and she spent her afternoons helping around the family business. You still carried her on the front of your bicycle on your way to school in the mornings; still ate lunch together on the roof; still spent more time daydreaming while staring at the blue sky outside the window than listening to the teacher, and more time staring at the back of Ga-In's head than daydreaming.
Everyday you went straight from school to cram school and back home. She would be closing shop, moving in the flowers on display from outside. As you rang for your parents to let you in, she'd flash that smile in the dark and suddenly it felt like you had spent the afternoon together.
But really, you hadn't. And one time after the school day was over, you longed for just one of those old days where you could spend the afternoon together doing nothing. "I don't wanna go today!"
Ga-In didn't smile with her dimples anymore but she pulled a band-aid from her pocket and stuck it on your forehead.
You asked Ga-In to be your girlfriend when you were fifteen. Her face was blank and her eyes were wide. There was no shock, no love, no hate. Biting your lip, you instantly regretted it. You shouldn't have confessed that your feelings had changed from friendship to love.
Ga-In blinked and said, "joke!" She flashed that smile you thought she forgot and leaned up to brush her lips against yours. You grabbed her hand and hid it in your pocket. You said it was because it was cold and you didn't want her catching anything but that was a lie. Her dimples were showing.
By the time you were twenty, you had moved to Seoul and didn't see Ga-In very often anymore. But today was special. You skipped university just to come see her on her birthday. You bought her a tin of band-aids; flowers wouldn't impress her, after all. Today you would ask her to move to Seoul with you.
Her mother picked you up from the train station and drove you to the hospital. You didn't bother asking because you didn't want to know. Entering the room, her mother said she was hit by a car while making a delivery two weeks ago.
Something warm was trailing down your cheek as you placed a band-aid on her heart.
★ ☆ ★
Korea wakes up with a quivering smile. "It was beautiful..."