To Catch a Dream

Chapter Four

It's not bad to like you, right?

"There," Dahyun overheard the doctor remark as she repaired the oxygen tank beside her bed. "Are you feeling better?" the woman consulted once again. Dahyun barely nodded her head once in response since she was wearing an oxygen mask. "That's great news, sweetie. Now I'll go meet your mother outside; she's worried."

Dahyun closed her eyes since she had nothing else to say. She hopes to get more rest because her body is still restless. The doctor, on the other hand, observed the pale girl for a few more seconds before returning her eyes to the door.

She was about to reach for the doorknob when she heard a faint voice. It belonged to Dahyun. The girl had removed her mask for a moment only to ask this disheartening question.

"Am I allowed to fall in love?"

And it shouldn't be too difficult to respond. Nevertheless, it felt that way.

"Am I allowed to fall in love even when I'm this sick?" Dahyun asks once again. Her eyes were filled with hope, which eventually turned to tears.

The woman smiled and nodded her head without hesitation. "You are free to feel anything you choose to feel, and nothing should stop you," she said. "You know, I'd like to see you in love."

"How?"

"In whatever way you come across that feeling."

Dahyun was puzzled for a while. The doctor then looked around the room. And so, her eyes followed the woman's gaze, and she noticed her paintings, which were hung around. On one side of the room, there was a table with a miniature of a cottage she had created nearly a year before.

Those are the things she used to enjoy. Dahyun lost interest in them the instant she realized she wasn't making progress in her health.

The woman repeated, "In whatever way you come across that feeling. You should chase it."

∙ ∙ ∙

"Thank goodness!" Taehyung shouted as he entered Dahyun's room.

The sleeping girl gasped and opened her eyes as a consequence. She couldn't help but remove her oxygen mask just to hiss at her brother. "Why do you have to be so loud?!" If she could only stand up and kick the man in the kneecaps or something, she sure would have. "I was already at the entrance of my dream, and then you'll come in here and yell like it's not past midnight?"

"Hey, Kim Dahyun," Taehyung said as he drew an armchair to sit by his sister's bed. "Don't you know how frightened I was? No, we were all terrified! Even dad was planning to fly from America to here when he found out what had happened," he explained.

"Why are you freaking out? I'm not dying."

"I'll die first if this continues happening to you."

"Tch!"

Taehyung sighed and leaned back on the chair, completely at ease. He's feeling a lot better now. "But what happened? Why did you suddenly get a fever?" he wanted to know.

"I made a mistake," Dahyun said, a bit embarrassed. She had no idea this would happen. She hasn't had a fever as severe as this in a long time. "It must be really bad for me to do that," she speculated.