stranger ‣ y.jw

028

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                 Jungwon didn't know where he was.

All he saw was a bunch of destroyed building towering over him and up above, the bright blue sky that he has gotten used to now had turned to the ugliest shade of gray. The weirdest thing about everything is that the place was engulfed with silence that was rather deafening. Not even crickets could be heard in this awful dystopian reality.

He began walking to who knows where, searching for any sort of evidence that there were still a remnant of life. But nothing.

Then he heard something. A rustling of leaves perhaps.

Turning his head to the trees that had wilted, he began walking towards to where the slight noise came from. He tried opening his mouth to attempt calling whoever lied deep inside the trees, yet no noise came from him. He held unto his neck and attempted to once again produce a sound but he terribly failed, as though he has forgotten the act of speaking.

So instead he kept walking until he found what he was looking for.

There was a huge space in the middle of the forest and at the very center sat a girl, sobbing ever so quietly that gradually got louder. And as if she was a tornado herself, the wind was blowing around her in a circular direction but it wasn't strong enough to destroy the whole forest or drag him. The louder she sobbed, the stronger the winds blew.

He felt his heart shatter as he was forced to watch the poor girl. Then when she raised her head, that's when he fully recognized who the mysterious person was.

Jihee.

He wanted to run to her but the wind only blew stronger, stopping him from walking any more closer than where he already stood. If everything he was seeing was a dream, he wanted to wake up as soon as possible. He wanted it to end immediately.

He clenched his eyes closed, waiting for everything to end. And in no less than a second, the sound of her sobs and the harsh assault of wind came to a halt.

He opened his eyes and that's when he came to realize he was back to where he first was. Then a woman stood in front of him, her long black hair fell to her waist and she was wearing a long white dress. For some reason, he knew her.

"How little you must know about the stranger." Her cold voice sent chills to his spine.

And before he could say anything, he woke up.

The game was today and Jungwon had never been so distracted.

His dream felt so vivid, as if he was actually in that very moment with the woman. She felt so familiar, like he had met her back then but he was sure that if he had met anyone as illuminating as her, he would've known.

Noticing the sudden change in behavior with the latter, Jihee flicked him in the forehead as they sat at the very back of the bus. He looked at her, wincing in pain because of how hard she flicked him. There was a slight concern plastered all over her face but at the same time, she stifled a laugh.

"S-Sorry I didn't mean for it to be hard." She said, covering her mouth with her palm, trying her very best not to laugh. "Why are you so out of it today? Did you not get a good night's sleep?"

No, it was the vivid memory of his dream that kept replaying in his head and what the mysterious woman said to him.

How little you must know about the stranger.

He knew he didn't know her very well, that was a fact he never thought of denying but that didn't mean it never bothered him how little he knew about her. But he knew well enough than to overwhelm her by asking her of the past she never seem to want to reminisce.