Midnight Star

25 . Memories & Truth

It wasn't a big field like the one he was standing at, Chan thought, it was more like a garden with a one floor house stood in the middle and a small hut was standing small beside it. It all looked peaceful and quiet, like a scene from a fantasy movie where no pollution or technology came across this place.

Chan watched in awe frozen in place, till he felt Minho walking towards the house, he looked nervous though.

"Is that your home?"
Chan asked walking behind Minho looking everywhere around him.
"Yea.. not much but I wouldn't trade it for anything."
Chan smiled agreeing to that seeing and feeling how peaceful the place was.

Chan won't deny that he is actually shocked to see Minho's house looking like that, the whole talk of wizards and spells made him think that Minho is living in a cave or most likely a worn out dark house.

A movement on his side caught his eyes and he looked towards the little hut seeing that Minho also stopped and looked towards it.

It was Hyunjin coming out of it holding a basket and what seemed to be gardening tools, they both stopped and watched as the boy started to examine the flowers surrounding his little hut, watering them and cleaning around them.

"It's his gardening hour.. he does that every morning. Before him it was my mom's favorite thing to do before we wake up and now it's his."
Minho spoke softly not taking his eyes away from Hyunjin who started to hum a soft tune as he went on with his work.
"I'm sure it brings him peace."
"Yea.. to all of us actually."
"So... this is his memory. Should we try to talk with him now."
"No. Not sure, so no."
"How would you know when the right memory comes... shouldn't we try so we won't waste time."

Minho sighed and turned to look at Chan like he was about to teach a little kid something new
"Well.. first of all.. we need a memory that's he's dreaming of not just any memory we come across. Secondly.. we need to not waste time talking to memory fragments and figures because believe me you can lose yourself within them and get trapped in a never ending loop. Finally we need to be careful not to mess with any memory we get into."

Chan had too many questions and desperately wanted answers, he took a quick look at Hyunjin to see him still focused on his flowers not even noticing them.

"He won't see us as long as we don't interact with him or anything around him."
Minho answered the first question without even Chan get a chance to ask it and that was his chance to ask more since Minho seemed to be calm and talkative here.

"So how do you tell that this is a dream and not just a memory and what do you mean by messing up memories, is that even possible?"
Minho crossed his arm nodding
"Unfortunately yea.. a lot of sorcerer get here in order to change or wipe a certain memory or a part of a memory from someone, you can even plant a fake one into a real one. That messes up the person and believes whatever the sorcerer was aiming to change. It causes a lot of mental issues on the long run but I don't think a sorcerer would care about his victims mental health." Minho watched Chan getting upset and smiled for getting him riled by it
"So like brain washing."
Minho shrugged
"You call it that but we call memory swap... believe most of the brain washing you talk about is actually a memory swap performed by our coven. It's a part of beneficial relationship between the two realms... and to answer your first question, it's simple... tell me. when you dream of something that happened before whether it be good or bad. Is your dream exactly as the memory was?"

Chan took a moment thinking and when he didn't answer Minho sighed shaking his head
"It never is... your dreams are always different in a way, may it be a different haircut or a different set of clothes or certain things are missing from the memory, sometimes you dream of people who weren't there and suddenly they are sharing it with you, you subconsciously planted them into that memory."
Chan nodded realizing what Minho was saying actually is true
"Like when I dream of an old trip, I can tell it's different but like overall it's right, but little bits are different."
"Exactly.. that's how you tell that this is a dream and not a memory."
"But that's... that means that you need a memory you were sharing with Hyunjin in order for you to tell it's different."
Minho nodded excitedly that finally Chan was understanding what they were looking for.
"Now... this memory is just Hyunjin cause usually i'll be sleeping at this time. So I can't tell cause I don't know if there's anything difference in what he's doing. And if we talked to him..."
"We are risking either getting trapped or messing this memory for him."
Chan finished Minho's words and nodded
"This will take a long time to get that one right memory or dream."
Minho nodded and turned to look at Hyunjin once more
"Yea.. so we need to be quick and you need to follow me, don't try to touch anything or talk directly with anyone or anything. I'll take us through memories as fast as I can.. okay?"