Vantage || Hwang Hyunjin

Chapter 42. 𓇼 ⋆.˚ The Return Ticket

Aeri 𓇼 ⋆.˚

I was still breathing heavily.

It felt like waking up from a nightmare—except it had been anything but a nightmare.

It was strange how real everything had felt, but looking back on it, it was almost too good to be true. Hyunjin appearing out of nowhere, living near the cliff, everything falling perfectly into place... none of that could possibly be real.

I wondered if dreaming about Yulhee meant something, or if my brain had simply made it all up.

Immediately, I grabbed my phone, opened the Notes app, and wrote down the words she'd told me.

Destiny.

Together.

If I remembered correctly, she'd first said that destiny was waiting for me. Then, right before disappearing, she'd simply said Together with no explanation whatsoever.

I wrote the words down before I could forget them.

As for the rest of the dream...

God.

I shouldn't be dreaming about things like that.

It was embarrassing.

The worst part was how vividly I remembered everything. Every glance. Every touch.

Every feeling.

I buried my face in my pillow with a groan.

Nope. Not thinking about that. Absolutely not.

Desperate to distract myself, I grabbed my phone and checked my messages.

That reminded me that I'd apparently agreed to meet Minho in my dream, so I opened our chat just to make sure I hadn't imagined that part too.

Sure enough, there were messages waiting for me.

🐰👴🏻
Hey Aeri
Do you have time on Saturday? I wanted to see you sooner, but I'm still dealing with college paperwork.

Me
Hey! Yep, Saturday sounds great! Don't worry, take your time.

🐰👴🏻
Is there somewhere you'd like to go? Maybe lunch?

Me
Hmm... I saw there's a seafood restaurant downtown. We could try that!

🐰👴🏻
Sounds great! See you then.

I stared at the screen. It was weird. In my dream, Minho had asked me almost the exact same thing.

There had to be a reason for everything that happened.
Yulhee appearing. The cliff. Those strange words.

It couldn't all be random.

At least... I didn't want to believe it was.

𓇼 ⋆.˚ 🐚 ⋆.˚ 𓇼

⋆.˚𓇼  Hyunjin

What the hell was that dream?

I sat up in bed, breathing harder than I should've been.
My heart refused to calm down. Of all the things I could've dreamed about...

That?

I rubbed both hands over my face. The entire thing had felt unbelievably real. Too real.

I remembered arriving in Korea and immediately heading to the beach for some reason. Then I'd seen the cliff.

I started walking toward it.