...
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Everything is quiet.
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And then it was not.
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I could hear the sounds of cooking, the swishing of winds, and sounds of life in general.
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I opened my eyes, expecting to wake up on the road, bleeding profusely, feeling immense pain.
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Perhaps on some hospital area, but that was not the case.
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Am I dead?
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But I don't feel dead.
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Then again I have no idea what it would feel like.
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I was in my room, lying on my bed. There was no pain of any sort.
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It genuinely felt like I had simply taken a long but good nap.
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My back is stiff and my eyes are practically glued together.
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I rubbed my eyes.
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Is all that just a dream?
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It was a really realistic dream if so. I could still remember the texture of the shopping bag that I was holding, the hazy city lights, and the coldness of the night.
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I recall standing by the crossing, waiting for the traffic lights to turn red despite the empty road.
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And then...
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There was a car.
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A car appeared out of nowhere. I remember facing it before everything turned white and then black.
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Everything was so fast that if it had been real life, I would probably be horribly injured.
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And then there was something...
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I think I heard someone.
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It was like a whisper.
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I think it was something like going back or something?
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Weird dream.
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Taking a step back from my thoughts, I reached for my phone under the pillow and....
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It's nowhere to be found. Which should have been impossible since I have a habit of putting it under my pillow.
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I searched around the bed.
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To the extent that if it were possible to flip the bed, I would have.
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There was something so peculiar about this bed. How the bed sheets feels so rough but so orderly.
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And then it hit me.
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The bed covers were not the color I remembered it was.
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The layout of the room felt only slightly different
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And the walls are in a slightly different shade.
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Huh?
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I stood up, walking slowly around the room.
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The window was half obscured by the curtains, pulling it aside brings a wave of golden light to the room.
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Next to the window sat a desk, it was smooth and clean, with a stack of brightly colored books and a haphazardly placed flip phone.
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A flip phone?
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It was a familiar object.
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I think I've used a phone like this before.
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Behind the books was a calendar. A calendar for year 200X.
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I took a second look, suspecting my eyes had fooled me.
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Isn't it the year 201X?
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Am I still dreaming?
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5th November 200X.
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Either that or I'm dead.
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So a dream it is.
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Raising the flip phone at eye height, I began examining the thing.
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It's a phone from the 'L' brand and it really seemed to be my old phone.
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It has all the songs that I remember being obsessed with and the scratch at the cover is one of a kind.
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Now that I think of it, I do feel different.
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I looked for a mirror.
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Woah...
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The face in the mirror was one that I haven't seen in a while.
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It was chubby and youthful.
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I suddenly remembered that fantasy sageuk* drama.
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Feeling a peculiar sense of suffocation, I opened the window of my room, and I saw a scenery that was so familiar yet different from the year 201X.
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It feels uncanny.
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Familiar but uncanny, like something I would see in a dream.
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I watched the skies while my brain got consumed by thoughts.
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Year 200X.
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How old am I at this time?
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It's ten years ago, so...
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15 years old.
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What a weird dream, I don't know dreams could be this specific.
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It must've been because I just rewatched that darn drama again...
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...
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"Ha-na!! Go down and eat your dinner!!."
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A loud voice interrupted my musings.
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Is that my mom?
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How realistic
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Is this not a dream?
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But if it were real, it wouldn't be 200X, and I wouldn't be 15 and this room wouldn't look like this.
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So, it was a dream.
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So now what?
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How do I end this dream?
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There is no need for me to stay any longer in this dreamspace, because I have a job to do and a course to finish-
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"Ha-na!!!! Dinner!!!!"
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Maybe that will wait.
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I have a weird feeling that I wouldn't enjoy the wrath of this dreamscape mother.
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"Yeah!!! I'm going downstairs!!".