Chapter 37: Dreamscapes
After a certain time consuming eating session, Doha left Song-rik’s office to go to his bar job. He left early as he had to change before going.
And now suddenly, he wasn’t feeling much embarrassed about his clothes. Perhaps because he had just seen an even more embarrassing sight just before that his senses were dulled.
The way back home was quiet lonely. He had refused to take the car that Song-rik offered to drop him off at home but decided to take the subway home.
As he sat in a seat, looking outside the windows, the sun was setting already.
He felt strangely melancholy that day. He had taken the subway home everyday ever since he came into the novel’s world. It was the cheapest transportation he could afford.
He often observed people on the subway. It always felt surreal how the world of a novel had come alive right in front of his eyes.
Wait...
What was the novel’s name again?
Who wrote it?
Yeon Doha stared at his partially visible reflection in the glass window. The person in that reflection seemed like a stranger.
His heart started racing as the realisation that he had forgotten another important part of his memories dawned upon him.
It took a while to get used to seeing Yeon Doha’s face in the mirror everyday.
He closed his eyes.
As if shutting out the images would keep him from going insane.
A while passed.
He opened his eyes again.
And he was back there again. In the rose fields.
He recognised it this time. He had been there just last night so the memory was especially fresh.
Doha wondered if walking would get him somewhere. It didn’t last time. So he just decided to remain where he was.
That place was eerily empty and quiet. No wind blew so not a single petal or leave moved. It was if he was stuck in a place where time had stopped.
And then, he saw someone. It was far way in a distance that he looked tiny like an ant.
A man. In a cop uniform. He seemed to have no face. A face-less man. A ridiculous man. He stood there watching Doha.
Doha could feel him watching. It was an easy guess.
"Hello?!" Doha yelled out loud, after a while.
"..."
No response came.
Perhaps the man was frozen in time too.
Doha decided to go near him and started walking.
He walked and walked and walked and walked. The man was now somehow looking further away. It was strange.
Surely he had been walking towards the man for almost an hour. How was going away? He wasn’t even moving.
Doha stopped. The gears in his mind started turning around. He turned around and started walking directly in the opposite direction from the man with his back turned to him.
He kept walking and walking, he never looked behind him. It felt like he would be killed if he did.
But somehow he could feel the man getting closer and closer to him.
And then he felt it. The man was now standing right behind him.
Don’t look behind!
Doha told himself.
"Who... Who are you?"
No answer came from the man.
"Do you know what this place is?"
Again, no answer.
"..."
"..."
"Can you not speak for some reason?"
"..."
"Can you move?"
"@#*%=+€£"
"Huh?"
Yeon Doha jolted awake. It was night and he was still in the subway train. He had gone eight stops further away than where he was supposed to get off.
Doha panicked as he rushed to the door. The moment the train stopped at the next subways station, he got off and looked for another subway running back.
There were none. He decided to take a taxi home. There was no way he could go to work now as it was already half past eleven.
He could see several missed calls from Yohan, Soohi and his mother as he checked the time.
How long was I asleep?!
But admittedly that he actually fell asleep in the subway and almost got off at the last station was too embarrassing.
So he just called everyone back and told them he went out to enjoy himself to clear his head and will be back in a bit.
His mother and Yohan didn’t question him much but Yeon Soohi.... She didn’t buy a single bit of his lies.
"Ya! Oppa! You think I am stupid?" She sounded especially irked that night. "Did you get arrested or something? Why are you hiding shit?"
"No, I didn’t get arrested. What exactly do you think of me to assume that?!"
"Then text me your location, I am coming to get you. Seriously, why did you even go out when you just got discharged from the hospital?"
"Yes. I’m kinda regretting it now."
"Text me. RIGHT NOW."
Doha looked around in a panic, he spotted a park outside and asked the driver to drop him off there. The driver seemed pretty weirded out by that.
And Doha knew exactly why he was because when he went closer to the park, it turned out to be a graveyard.
It was almost midnight now and Yeon Doha had willingly gotten off in front a graveyard.
Anyway, he texted Soohi his location as he went to the other side of the road to svoid the graveyard.
Soohi immediately saw his text and replied that she was coming there.
As Doha stood there, he felt like a retard.
I should’ve just told her that I’m on my way home. Why did I even bother getting off here?
But what was done, was done.
Doha walked around, circling a certain stone to be exact. It was getting colder and colder and he was, well, in shorts and crocks.
And just glancing towards the graveyard sent chills down spine.
And suddenly, an owl flew right past his ear, that made his heart stop and froze him stiff.
And our protagonist died, the end.
...
...
No, he didn’t.
But he sure felt like he did.
And then, a car stopped righ in front of him, again scaring the shit out of him. This time she shrieked.
Soohi came out of the car and was shrieked at right on her face.
"Oppa, did you have secret girlfriend that died or something? Why the fuck are you here in the middle of the night?"
"You know what, I’m asking myself that too."
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