Acrophilia

XIII: response

      Jaebeom's dreams are odd, not because he dreams of his mother's accident, but because Jinyoung is in the accident. In his nightmares, Jaebeom can never move and save his mother, he's always somehow stuck, but this time Jinyoung is right there, running past him, towards his mother's car. Jaebeom watches him working to open the damaged driver's door, unbuckling the seatbelt and taking his mother away from the turned car. Jaebeom's mother is unconscious but Jinyoung drags her away from the imminent danger, her blood stains his clothes and hands, yet the young man doesn't mind at all.

At a safe distance, Jinyoung lays down the woman and starts talking to her, softly patting her cheek as if trying to wake her up.

"Eomeoni, wake up. Please wake up," Jinyoung begs, his voice frantic and erratic, he's panting but he doesn't give up, speaking louder. "Please wake up! You can't leave your son behind. He needs you, so wake up!"

The woman twitches, but that's as far as a response as Jinyoung gets, yet he doesn't give up, even if it might be just be an involuntary spasm. But the young man never gives up.

"PLEASE WAKE UP!" Jinyoung screams and that's the moment Jaebeom wakes up, jumping on his bed and with a racing heart.

Slowly, he takes notice of his familiar surrounding, the tidy room where everything that's meaningful to him hangs on the walls imprinted in the pictures he takes. He wakes up with a bitter taste in his mouth that he recognises as guilt, because his dream is the place where he can do something for his mother, but even there he is frozen and Jinyoung has to come to rescue his mother.

Trying to shake that guilt off, Jaebeom gets out of bed to follow his normal routine, even if he's twenty minutes earlier than he should. He takes his time in the shower and picking his clothes, packing his belongings and even having breakfasts. Purposely, the young man doesn't think of his dream. After almost three months since the accident, he's used to the nightmares and can ignore them, labelling them as just that, dreams, that won't change a single thing.

That is how Jaebeom can go through his day like usual, listening to the professors explaining the theory to the class that they are supposed to apply later for their final project. Jaebeom hasn't really thought about that and what he'll do. They are supposed to portray a story in four photographs, in each one of the techniques learned during the semester must be applied.

Jaebeom hasn't even practised the theories, or listened in detail to even recall them.

Luckily for the student, on Monday he finishes his lectures after two PM, which gives him all the afternoon to go and spend it with his mother at the hospital. Plus, he wants to send his aunt home so she can rest and sleep properly for a night. She's been staying for over a week with his mother, barely getting out the hospital to eat and see Youngjae. Jaebeom is eternally grateful, but he doesn't want to feel guilty for making his aunt work too hard. She also needs a break.

Youngjae's texts during the day asking him if he has time to meet one of these days. The older replies they should have lunch together and then go to the hospital to see their mothers. Obviously, the boy agrees immediately.

Like that, Jaebeom ends up waiting for his cousins at the entrance of the arch of the campus, watching the many students pass by, the crossroad is so filled with people going in all directions that it's hard to believe such a mess is actually a timed plan to make people go from one side to the other, from one corner to the other, without getting ran over. Most people walk with their eyes glued to their mobile phones, ignoring everything and everyone, even the delivery guys to whom the traffic laws and street lights, apparently, don't apply to. Jaebeom is surprised he's never witnessed an accident outside campus, it's always so crowded at every hour, considering the clubs are just one street down, and a bit farther all the shops and restaurants and all the young people performing. Hongdae is such a lively place, never quiet, never still.