As the Snow Falls

To Dream of You

Someone was singing. Jin couldn't quite hear the words—if there even are words to the song—but he could tell that their voice was sweet and soft. He'd never heard the song before but something about the melody resonated with him and made his heart beat with its slow rhythm.

It was the type of song that someone would sing in a field where the wind blew or in an open meadow with flowers of different kinds dotting the horizon. Or the type of song someone would sing under the shade of a great magnificent tree beside a wide glittering lake.

Gentle fingers were running through his hair too, making the pain and the migraine from days of working tirelessly go away. No pill he took before ever soothed him the way this person's hands did. Cleared his mind, calmed him down, lulled him to sleep.

He adjusted his head to a more comfortable position and only realized then he was resting on someone's lap. It didn't bother him in the slightest. How could he? When his body was melting from the comfort of their voice and the warmth of their touch.

He never was the religious type. But if he had to think about it, heaven would probably be something along the lines of this.

"You have a beautiful voice," he heard himself say, though his voice sounded further than it should be.

"You should hear my sisters'," came the person's tepid response.

"But I heard yours," he said, "And I think yours is the most beautiful I've ever heard."

The other person went silent. He waited for them to say something again—he didn't know why but he half-expected the person to push him away or flick him in the forehead, they seemed like the type that would do so.

But Jin opened his eyes.

And he was back in his apartment.

««««-»»»»

"Emergency?" Jin's voice raised another bar unintentionally as his hands went flying to his hips. A deep frown settled over his thick brows as he glared up at Sakura from his half-excavated quadrant.

Sakura, bless her soul, swallowed thickly. "Byul-Byulyi unnie told me t-to tell you that Mr J-Jung is going to fly to Spain and w-would be unavailable for t-two weeks. "

Of all the words he picked up on what she said, he couldn't believe that he picked up 'Byulyi unnie' of all things. Since when did she become close to his team?

His frown deepened and Sakura squeaked in one breath, "She said that he wants to be updated before he leaves."

Jin clicked his tongue. "And we have to leave now?"

"Yes," came Byulyi's answer as she appeared out of nowhere and clamped a hand down Sakura's shoulder, "Mr Jung's flight is 6 PM, he wants us there before then." She wasn't wearing the dirty sweater she wore earlier for excavating and was instead wearing her thick beige coat and brown button-up.

She turned to the younger woman and muttered a thanks and a soft 'I'll take it from here.'

Sakurabowed deeper to Jin—who was halfway down a pit—than to Byulyi before she scurried back to the quadrant she shared with Yooa and Hyojung.

Byulyi still looked down on him, a hand on her hip as she watched him climb up the steps of his pit. She was going to lecture him, she knew from the way her lips formed a thin line.

Even as Jin tried to ignore her, he was hyper-aware of her steps, of her presence behind him as he peeled his gloves off and walked towards the tent.

"Just spit it out," he said the moment the tent's flaps slid close