King of hearts • d.sc

5

☁️
———

The boy was there again, but this time he hadn't said a word, he just sat there, staring at Haneul, unmoving. Haneul inched closer to him, smiling, hoping to get some sort of reaction out of him.

"When will this end?" He asked, his eyes empty. Haneul paused, not exactly sure what to say. "It's starting to get really cold."

"I don't know." She answered honestly, looking at the white floor beneath her. "I wish I knew how to help you."

"That way I won't burden you anymore right?" He spat. She looked up at him, surprised by his words.

"No, that way you'll be free." She told him as he leans back into a storm cloud, scoffing.

"You don't want these dreams." WInwin said. It was true, but that doesn't mean she doesn't want to help him. "In fact you're going to force yourself to wake up right...now."

"Wha-"

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP

Haneul groaned as she tried her best to reach for her phone on her bedside table, trying to silence her alarm. She rubbed her eyes before looking at the screen.

2:50 am sleep stage 4 - wake up to avoid dream.

She wanted to scream at herself for using the stuff she learned in class against her sleep schedule just so that she can avoid one dream. She isn't sure why she goes out of her way to avoid these dreams, it's not like they interrupt her ability to function, but she does get an odd feeling out of them. They almost feel real despite Haneul knowing it is a dream.

But why do I keep getting them?

❄️
———

She only got a few more hours of sleep after that, which is bad considering her mood if she doesn't get enough sleep. But she agrees that today she will challenge herself to have some emotional restraint, especially after she sees the text sent from her father, she realises she should probably practice.

Mr Gushiken has invited us to his charity event party tomorrow night, he's expecting us all to be there. Please wear something decent.

She let out a sigh, desperately not wanting to go, but she knows there is no way she can defy her father as he's the reason she is able to pay her tuition fees. Seeing other kids flaunt their Seoul national university medicine degrees or their 'perfect' boyfriends isn't exactly her definition of fun. But all she has to do is fake it, as she always does. Hopefully she gets to see some of her friends that she hadn't seen in a long time.

As she has the rest of the week off classes she decided to spend today doing something she hadn't done in a long time. Go to a batting cage. She used to go a lot as a stress reliever, she had never actually been good at batting but she just needed a place to let her feelings out. When her parents divorced this was where she went to get away from it all, and now she's back, but without all the pent up anger.

After paying for a few rounds, she took a bat and found herself an empty cage, most of them were empty except for one, the one beside her. She readied herself, legs apart for stability, holding the bat behind her, waiting for the ball to come flying and as it did...she missed. She looked down at the ball, disappointed by her first attempt. But as she continued, a few more throws of a ball and yet she managed to miss most of them, only successfully hitting a few. She found that this was a lot more unsatisfying than if she were angry, just as the guy in the cage beside her seemed to be. He was hitting them for sure, he grunts with each hit, putting all of his anger into the bat. The more Haneul observed his movements, his stance, in order to copy him, she soon realised that she knew guy. She squinted her eyes to make sure it really was who she thought it to be.