Reverie (A romantic crime novel)

Chapter One

Hoseok discovered his gift on a Monday morning while watching the news.
It was December, which meant the snow was piled up outside. His mother would often wake up early to cook a warm breakfast before sending him to school. That day she told him to wear a scarf, the wind was strong and she couldn't take off any days from work to stay and care for him if he got sick.
"Soon you'll have to learn to make your own breakfast and remember your own scarf," she said, sliding a cooked egg onto a white plate, "You'll be seven in two days and before you know it you'll be twenty... and in love."
"I'll be eight," Hoseok corrected, "and... I love you, so you can make me breakfast."
His mother laughed softly. Her voice was fragile and tired. She had been working all night and felt too uneasy to sleep.
Hoseok ate his slice of toast, then sat in front of the living room TV on a yellow rug. His mother always watched the news before school, she liked to make sure the weather was safe for Hoseok to walk.
Today however, the news wasn't about the weather. A blue banner with big white letters moved rapidly across the bottom of the TV screen as Hoseok hurried to read it.
"Eco serial killer caught in victim's apartment early this morning. Suspected killer of 12 women and men."
The seven year old froze, eyes glued forward as if the TV were the only thing that mattered in the room. Shortly after, a new picture appeared on the screen. As Hoseok took in the face of a man in his mid 30's with sunken eyes and dark hair, the boy's ears were drowned with an awful ring. The pitch became so high, Hanjae had cupped his hands against them and his eyes watered.
His mother had ran over, shaking and holding Hanjae in various attempts of grabbing his attention back, but the boy's eyes kept staring at the culprit being displayed in front of him.
"Hoseok! Snap out of it, what's the matter with you? Let's go to the hospital, quick!" His mother panicked.
After another moment, Hoseok let his eyes finally move to meet his mother's. He could feel his hands shaking and he struggled to catch enough air to speak. When he finally had, his words left his mother only able return a shocked and horrified expression.
"You what?" She asked. Her hand moved to cover her mouth as she looked back at the TV. Hoseok took another unsteady breath and this time he was able to speak without stumbling.
"It's the one I told you about," he started. Hoseok looked down at his hands, unable to tell if he was still a part of reality. His mother shook her head, standing to grab his hand as she tried to understand.
"That was a dream. You told me about a dream," she said.
"His name is Choi Duk Soo. I saw it. Everything. The picture, the news, the breakfast this morning..." he grabbed his coat, following his mother as she hurried out of the house. He noticed every detail about the world. The ice on the trees, the broken street lamp in front of their home, the clothes his mother had on, even the way the wind blew dead leaves around the road.
Hanjae had witnessed every sound and object in the same time and space he was experiencing it now. He knew that Choi Duk Soo would be put on trial, but his arrest would be proven unlawful and his release would cause chaos across the country. Two more women would die, one wearing a school uniform and the other a business suit with long dark brown hair pulled into a ponytail. Duk Soo would then disappear, but he would be behind bars before he was old.
  Hoseok had dreamt about the whole thing twice the week before. He had never seen the man's face but now it was plastered on every phone and poster to spread the horrible news and it confirmed what Hoseok understood as visual premonitions. Hoseok tried hard to forget what he dreamt about after that day. He kept the details from his mother but it did not stop them from happening.
After six months, the eight year old was met with another blue banner across the news channel during his morning routine. This time it summarized the investigation of two bodies found underneath a bridge, both were women and one was a local high schooler. The eight year old boy had begun to hate sleeping. His denial only grew until he began to drink unruly amounts of caffeine to keep awake. The rest of his childhood was snatched and replaced by dreams of other's who he had never met before and by twelve Hoseok had seen both good and bad things happen to seven other people. Not all of his dreams were bad. He had even recalled a woman meeting her husband after an accident and a child being saved by a man. However, Hoseok wanted no part of anyone's future and he fought to block as many dreams as he could. But the dreams had no calendar and no pattern, so he couldn't know he was going to have one until he was thrashing awake in a cold sweat with tears soaking his shirt and cheeks.
    His mother had started to believe he was a profit or psychic, but Hoseok was certain that he had been cursed. The only way his mother could help was to give him a little black book where he would write every detail of his dreams and the date he had them. When his mother handed him the book, Hoseok had turned with exhausted eyes. He examined it briefly and then shook his head, "I can't write them."
His mother placed the book beside him, her hands rested on Hoseok's lap as she took a moment, "If you write them all down you may be able to... find a difference in the real world. What if you're missing something? What if you can find a way to change what happens?"
Hoseok took a long sigh. His thumb moved across the book's cover and he nodded.
    After that, Hoseok would write every morning in as many details as he could. The process was far from perfect, but Hoseok took comfort in having a place to release the images invading his sleep. He had learned to piece time together to better predict how long he had until a dream came true and although he could never be exact, he had discovered that the longest time it had been was one month.
     "You'll be able to understand it one day," his mother always assured, and for a while the discoveries seemed to entertain that. However once he was a senior, Hoseok's dreams became longer and further away in time. His dreams now occurred as early as two months before they happened and Hoseok was hopeful that it meant he was losing his ability. But his mother was skeptical and the dreams took a turn for the worst a late fall evening in September.