worlds apart ; l.fl

awakening of stars

✧.*

The blue haze of the sky split open. The dark and solitary hue gleaming with stars across its vast end blended with the light of sundown smearing across.

The incandescence looming from the other side of the world dawned at Haneul as she closed her eyes, consumed in the slow whisk of the night breeze enclosing her into a sphere built for herself by herself.

She always felt close to the sky, the stars—something about the fragility and vagueness of the universe pulled her into this curtain that keeps her locked out. The secrets of the cosmos seemed to whisper in her ear, a promise of return caged within her heart.

What all of this meant—she had no clue. But the whims of the late night always kept her up, and she wished for something, anything, to help her fill this odd void that lingers around like a shadow.

But alas, she could only do so much from her 6th floor balcony.

"Back to studying," Haneul sighs to herself
while opening the tinted glass door, back into her apartment room.

Haneul lived alone, an entire country away from her parents. Something about living in Korea supplemented her heart with content, as if she was destined to be here. Seoul was the city where she felt like she actually belonged. Her soul belonged in Seoul.

But it does get lonely. Solitude at home wasn't peculiar, considering her parents were both popular attorneys at a law firm back in the states. They always compiled their time at work, so living with just her own company in a city that cries out her name didn't feel too bad.

It was a big city, and she felt minuscule at the core of it all, just as she appreciated.

"Article 8," she mumbled, boredom crawling through her all the way to her throat. Her eyes were failing her as she struggled to stay awake. The civics and politics books in front of her were becoming a blur, and the blue pen in hand slides off her fingers. But she could not fall asleep yet, not without completing this module.

Despite how desperately she attempted to keep her eyes open, her head collapsed and the world she knew vanished into darkness.

~~

I don't want to open my eyes.

The familiar padding of the grass was beneath me, vines and flowers gathering around as the light haze of the sun gleamed down at my closed sockets. I wanted to lie down here, as long as I could, exposed to the sun and the unknowing world around me.

I was back here again, and it would be the same. Again.

His fingers caressed my strands gently, and my eyes flew open. The curve of his smile glistens in this dreary and whimsical manner, and my stomach crumbles.

"You're back," he cheers, voice soft yet deep.

"Not like I have a choice," I grunt while trying to sit up and face him. "Is this your doing? Why do you keep bringing me back here?" I ask, narrowing my eyes.

Sometimes when I fall asleep, I have extremely realistic visions, and he's always in them.

This unfamiliar figure with gold locks that remind me of a retriever, a clingy smile that almost reciprocates the sun, and freckles scattered around his face like amass of stars.
I know I'm dreaming, but was it normal to have conversations with someone you've never met within them?

I don't know him, but there's a discreet spark that lights aflame whenever I find him in my dreams. Is he real? Have I met him in the states? Did he pull me here?

"You still look the same," he smiles and places his palm on my cheek. I flinch, and he notices the gesture, dropping the smile.

"What are you talking about?" I never pleaded for answers, but I think I just might have to. Every time I end up in this dreamlike land with him, he says something as if he knows me and never elaborates any further.

It was frustrating. My entire connection with the universe feels unstable, and now I'm traveling in my dreams, ending up at the same destination with the same boy who seemingly knows me.

Perhaps this is all, but a peculiar dream and I am being nonsensical. My intuition says otherwise, but I don't have any rationale to prove anything.

So again, I remain here in the soothing breaths of nature, with a boy I do not know who implies to know me and wait until I wake.

"I don't know how much I could tell you," his sudden remark makes me jump. "I'm not sure what I could say, or where to begin. I'm still figuring it all out myself, Han."

The nickname makes me halt. "What did you just call me?"

But he doesn't offer me an explanation as I drift away from him, his smile blurring off and my eyes shutting down. Flash of light coruscates my vision and he's farther away and my heart sinks a little knowing I will perhaps never receive an answer.

Before losing him completely I hear him whisper, "Please come back to me again."

✧.*