dream catcher | jaemin

11

as i stood outside and waited for my mom, it rained hard.

thankfully, jisung spotted me. he came up to me and held his umbrella over the both of us until my mom got here. he even tried to offer me his sweatshirt, afraid that i'd be too cold, but i declined. the world needs more people like jisung.

when mom finally arrived, he hugged me goodbye and even opened the car door for me before turning to walk home. i couldn't wipe the smile off my face from his selfless gestures.

we drove to the hospital - well, the sleep center. chenle suggested that i stick to calling it the "sleep center" because it sounded less scary to him.

to be honest, it wasn't what i expected.

my room looked like a normal room, with a few hospital-like touches. it was decorated nicely.

they told me that i'd have to come here every day after school. the only time i'd get a chance to hang out with friends was on the weekends, from 12-5, unless they came over to spend the night. there's a couch that pulls out into a bed.

basically, the sleep center was now my home for however long they needed to keep me.

i felt like a chronically ill patient, and i had to keep reminding myself that that wasn't the case. apparently my dream patterns were "extremely irregular" but there wasn't anything terribly wrong with me, that they knew of. actually, the doctors said they'd never heard of anyone having dreams like i did.

while i slept, i'd have to have all these wires and stuff hooked up to me. i wasn't looking forward to it, but the kind nurse said i'd get used to it.

mom already packed all of my clothes and had them neatly folded in the dresser against the wall.

part of me thought that this wasn't a big deal, and it could be so much worse. but the majority of me really, really despised it.