BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

CHAPTER 1: The Dream

THAT DREAM CAME AGAIN, just before the rain, but Mina did not hear the heavy downpour. In her sleep the dream owned her completely...

It was the same clearing, somewhere that is dreadfully familiar to her, but she doesn't know if it really exists or if it's just one of those places in her dream wonderland. She came out from the forest and paced towards the center of the space. She sat on a log there. Her bare foot had long before memorized the steps to take to reach the clearing; the moist of the grass, the crunch of the dried leaves, the sticky mud and the feel of the coarse earth beneath her soles.

Midst of September; the coldness from the gust of wind stroking her skin told her that. Her thin clothing, a white sleeveless silk dress hanging above her knees, did not protect her enough against that chill. She looked up as she playfully swung her feet which are lightly touching the ground. It's getting dark already but she did not feel any kind of fear. She looked down and waited, waited for something, for someone.

And from somewhere not so far she saw a tiny, faint light. She smiled. Not long after, from the other side of the clearing a woman emerged, with long brown hair being blown by the wind, average height, wearing a long white dress, holding a lamp with her right hand. She stared at her with her dark down-turned eyes, winked, and gave her a familiar smirk. It was a bright toothy grin. Mina grinned back. Her heart instantly filled with excitement and joy. They both started to stroll the twenty feet distance between them. Then it happened.

Mina saw a flicker of red light from the right side of the clearing, from the side the other girl came from.

She screamed "Get down!" in terror but the girl did not hear, or panicked or tried to come near her. She stood stiffly and extended her arms, the lamp falling down from her hand in slow motion. She was trying to protect Mina. She knew it was coming. Eyes wide in terror, Mina hurled herself across the distance between them. She almost made it. She could see her there, just beyond her fingertips, inches beyond the right hand that would drag her down to the safety in the long grass; she could see the calmness in her eyes, the white teeth in her smiling mouth... and then the bright crimson rose that bloomed on the front of her thin cotton dress. She took a tiny step forward and reached for Mina's shoulder who looked at her unruffled face with panic. The girl went down then as if punched in the back, and Mina recalled her lying over her, still covering her with her body until the firing stopped.

Mina pushed the injured girl with all her strength, smelling gun powder and misery in midair, her soft black eyes are open, staring past her, she could feel her heavy in her arms, so heavy, her pale skin torn apart, red everywhere. But nothing mattered to her. Again, for the countless time, she lost her. And all she could do is cry "No, no, no. No please, oh God... Nayeon, not again... Jebal. (Please.)"

---

"Mina-yah. Gwenchanha? (Are you okay?)" Mina felt a light tapping on her shoulder. She opened her eyes slowly, staring at the ceiling until the image became vivid. Glancing to her right, a pair of anxious hooded-eyes stared at her.

Yoo Jeongyeon, her fiancée.

She carefully sat up, with Jeongyeon's hand supporting her back.

Mina nodded. "Nan gwenchanha. (I'm fine)"

"No, you're not." Jeongyeon's hand brushed against her cheek, it was just then that Mina noticed the tears streaming down her face. She let out a light sob.

And without warning, Mina felt it again, the familiar pang in her chest. The pain that is slowly ripping her heart to pieces. She clutched her nightgown and gripped it tightly. Her shoulders starting to heave as her sobs turned to an uncontrollable weeping.

Jeongyeon felt powerless, she doesn't know what to do to make her fiancée feel better. She tugged Mina's arm and wrapped her arms around her, with her left hand stroking her hair. The heavy rain drowning the sound of Mina's painful cries.