A Tinge of Hope

The roars of thunder and the flashes of lightning woke the young woman from her nightmare. She was crying in her sleep again. For the umpteenth time, she dreamt of that incident that haunted her for 3 years now. She glanced at the window, it was raining hard. Her tears fell down on her cheeks again as she watched how the rain poured down. “Taecyeon…”

3 Years ago…

“What do you want for dinner?” a guy named Ok Taecyeon asked his girlfriend, showing her oh-so-cute puppy eyes.

“Hmmm..let me think…” Yoona, his girlfriend thought for a while as she tapped her fingers on the table. “Ah! Blueback Salmon would be great!”

“Hmmm. Blueback Salmon, huh?” she nodded excitedly.

“You do know that it’s quite hard to look for Blueback Salmon at this season right?” he raised one eyebrow playfully. She just pouted and it brought laughter to him as he admired his cute girlfriend.

He gently patted her head, “aigoo, my baby is craving for Blueback salmon. I guess I’ll have to find one just for you” he said as he stood up and fixed his shirt.

“Jeongmal?” she clasped her hands together in excitement.

He nodded before leaving a kiss on her forehead. Not knowing it would be the last…

“I’ll be back.”

2 hours later…

“Taec, are you sure you’ll be fine?” Yoona asked him worriedly.

Taecyeon was getting ready to sail when Yoona approached him. Yoona noticed that the clouds are getting darker and she was sure that there would be a thunderstorm at this rate. Even though Taecyeon loves the sea very much and how good of a sailor he is, she couldn’t help but think of negative things that might happen to Taecyeon.

“Just forget about the fish. I just want a simple dinner with you” she tried to convince him.

He looked up to her as he finished preparing his things for the sail. He smiled, “don’t you trust me? I promise you I will come back safe. And besides, I want this dinner to be special; after all, it’s our anniversary today.” He looked at the sea and back at Yoona, “I’ll be going now. See you in a few…”

He was about to ride his boat when Yoona hugged him tight. It caught him by surprise. Somehow, the hug felt different but nonetheless, he hugged her back. Yoona didn’t say anything, she just hugged him tighter. After a few seconds of silence, they broke the hug. He just gave her a warm smile and off he went to sail.

-

Yoona was standing by the shore as she watched Taecyeon’s boat sail further. She was silently praying for his safety as the clouds turned darker as ever, and suddenly, like she was expecting it to happen, a lightning struck Taecyeon’s boat. Several seconds passed by when she saw the boat flamed up. She couldn’t believe her eyes. No, this is a nightmare. This is not real. Her jaw dropped as she watched the unfaithful scene before her. She wanted to scream for help but not even a single sound could be heard. And with that, she fell unconscious.

Yoona’s POV

Everything was blurry as I slowly opened my eyes. What’s this? Everything I could see is white. I tried blinking a few more times and finally, my sight is getting clearer. But where am I? Am I dead already, but how? She looked to her side and saw a familiar figure. In a short span of time, that familiar figure brought me to her embrace. Umma…