Rain in Our Hearts

The Nightmare

Chapter 9: The Nightmare

I wasn’t sleeping.

I hadn’t had a proper sleep in four days.

“Yoona, are you even listening to me? I need help arranging my date with Young Bae oppa!” Jae Hwa screamed at me, and I was shaken from my half-sleep.

“Sorry, I’m just so tired. I can’t sleep...” I told her, trailing off.

Concerned, she asked me, “Why? Is something wrong? Are you fighting with Seung Hyun again? That’s the second time this month!” She laughed at her own joke, and I gave her a look of pure hate. She stopped laughing.

“No, we’re not fighting. I’m just having a reoccurring nightmare every night. It’s really horrible,” I told her, feeling crazy. I hadn’t even told Seung Hyun about my nightmares, I just managed to wake myself up without waking him too. In fact, he didn’t even know I wasn’t sleeping. I finished my coffee and started to get up to leave, but Jae Hwa grabbed my arm.

“You’re not leaving are you? You have to tell me what your dream is about!” she said frantically, but I won’t tell her. I shook her hand away.

I apologized, “Sorry, it’s too... personal. I have to go, so bye.” I walked out of the coffee shop and was about to walk home, when I remembered the fight I had a few days ago. Pulling out my cellphone, I pressed the number one, speed dial for Seung Hyun. It rang twice before he picked up.

“Hello?” he answered on the other line.

“You want to pick me up? You know, so you don’t yell at me for not calling you?” I asked him, frustrated.

He sighed, and answered, “I’ll be there in a few minutes. You’re at the coffee place, like always, right?”

“Yeah, I am,” I replied. He hung up, and I sat down on a bench on the outside of the shop. Jae Hwa came out.

“I thought you were leaving,” she said, with question in her voice.

“I am, when he picks me up. He thinks it’s dangerous for me to walk all the way home alone,” I told her, cringing at the thought. I knew I was in no danger, and yet everyone else thought I was. I didn’t understand! As I sat there, I thought about my nightmare. In my nightmare, that’s when walking home was dangerous. But that would never actually happen to me. There wouldn’t really be people hiding in dark, hidden allies, waiting for me to walk by. They wouldn’t try to kill me. Not like in my dreams, where they’d grab me and try to murder me in those allies where no one saw anything. Plus, I woke up every time I was about to die. It was just a nightmare, it would never happen. I had to keep telling myself that, or I would forget. Seung Hyun’s car finally pulled up, and I stood up.

“See you later, Jae Hwa, I’m going now!” I said to her, and got in the car.

“You’re ready for home already? You haven’t been there long, is everything okay?” Seung Hyun asked me when I got in. I nodded, but he didn’t believe me.

He angrily said, “You told me you would tell me when you’re sad, so talk to me!”

“I’m not sad, oppa. I’m really tired, that’s all. I haven’t been sleeping well for a few days...” I told him, nervously. He didn’t seem to be in a very good mood.

“Why are you tired? Don’t you sleep enough?” he asked me, speaking with a more gentle voice.

I replied, “I would, if I wasn’t constantly having nightmares.”

“Nightmares? You didn’t tell me that you were having nightmares,” he stated.

“I haven’t told anyone, I didn’t think it was a big deal,” I replied, sighing deeply.

“Well, it is. You wanna tell me about it?” he asked, sounding curious. I shrugged.

“I don’t really remember what was in it, I just know it was scary,” I said, trying my hardest to make it sound like that was the truth. He seemed to believe me, because he didn’t question me further. My plan once I got home was to try to sleep, but unfortunately Ji Yong’s car was parked in the driveway, and I got the feeling I was going to need to stay awake so I could help him ‘entertain’ his girlfriend. How fun. Not.