Jae suddenly woke up with a heavy gasp, his heart racing in his chest. He was drenched in sweat, the remnants of the nightmare still clinging to him like a cold shroud. He quickly sat up, rubbing his face, trying to shake off the disorienting remnants of the dream.
His breath came in sharp, uneven gasps.
He realized that the same thing had already happened. The familiar view outside only added to his confusion. He quickly checked the date on his phone.
Jae stared at the date, his mind struggling to process the reality of what he was seeing.
It's Saturday again?
The thought, disbelief crawling through his veins. His heart still hammered in his chest from the nightmare, but now, the confusion and fear began to rise within him.
He glanced around his room, everything looking the same, yet nothing felt right. The feeling of déjà vu was overwhelming, as though he was stuck in some kind of loop, reliving the same day over and over.
The vivid memory of the car accident, the rain, and Luna's face flashed before his eyes, but it felt impossible.
Did I just dream it all?
He questioned himself, shaking his head. But then he realized it—the unsettling truth. Everything from his dream was playing out in real life, and now, he was back at the beginning, with no idea how to stop it and no idea what was triggering it.
He couldn't ignore the growing dread that something was wrong. He had to find a way to break free from this cycle, but he didn't know how.
His mother's voice cut through the silence, snapping him out of his thoughts. "Jae, aren't you ready yet? You're going to be late for school!"
He froze, his eyes widening in disbelief as he stared at the screen. School?
It took a moment for the words to sink in, but when they did, the shock hit him all at once. He couldn't be late for school—he had just had this exact conversation in his dream last night, and now here it was, unfolding before him once again. His heart sank.
That was the moment he knew for sure—the accident was going to happen today.
"Mom, I think I died last night," Jae blurted out, still reeling from the shock of his realization.
"What? Did you have a bad dream? Get a grip and get ready for school. Luna's probably waiting for you," Mrs. Lee replied, dismissing his words with a smile.
But Jae's mind was racing. He couldn't shake the feeling that something was terribly wrong. He needed to find Luna. He needed answers. He rushed out the door, his heart pounding, nearly bumping into his mother.
As he approached Luna's house, the same overwhelming sense of déjà vu gripped him once again. Everything felt strangely familiar, like he was caught in an unending loop.
Mr. Kim was about to sit at the dining table to have breakfast, exactly as he had in Jae's dream.
"Jae, why are you up so early today? And why aren't you dressed yet?" Mr. Lee asked, his voice light and casual seeing Jae still in his pajamas.
Jae didn't respond. He just stood there, staring into space, as the weight of his realization sank in.
He had died, but where was he now? What was happening?
Without a word, he stepped outside, desperate to make sense of it all. As he walked down the street, a chill ran through him.
The world felt wrong—eerily empty, with no cars, no people, only an overwhelming silence. It was like an abandoned ghost town. The silence felt suffocating, unnatural.
The only people around were their two families, and yet something about the atmosphere felt completely off.
Jae's mind raced, each thought more frantic than the last as he tried to comprehend what was happening. Nothing made sense. He couldn't understand it. Frustration and panic surged within him as he hurried to Luna's room.
He had to wake her up—he had to make sure everything was alright. The dream had been so vivid—the accident, the firefly, the way it all ended. It had felt like more than just a dream.
He couldn't let it happen again.
Desperation drove him as he shook her gently, his hands trembling with the need to wake her. But no matter how hard he tried, she remained unresponsive, trapped in a sleep so deep it felt unshakable.
Minutes stretched into what felt like an eternity before Luna suddenly jolted awake, her breath catching in a sharp, labored gasp.
But as soon as her eyes opened, everything around them seemed to freeze. The room, the air, even time itself came to a standstill. Luna sat on the bed, her eyes wide but empty, staring ahead blankly. Her body was unmoving, lifeless, as if she were a mere illusion.
"LuLu?" Jae called out, shaking her more urgently, but she didn't respond. She was there, yet somehow, not there at all. His heart raced in his chest, each beat more frantic than the last, as panic gripped him. Something was horribly wrong.
In a surge of fear, Jae stumbled backward, his breath quickening as he bolted downstairs. His footsteps rang out through the oppressive silence that now filled the house.
The familiar sounds of life—the hum of conversation, the rustle of movement—were gone, replaced by an unsettling stillness that seemed to press in from all sides.
The house was unnervingly quiet.
No one moved. No one spoke.
Suddenly, without warning, the rain began to pour in torrents, heavier than ever before, as if some unseen force had been unleashed. It pounded against the windows, relentless and deafening, filling the silence with its thunderous roar. The world outside seemed to stand still, the rain the only thing that existed.
Jae collapsed onto the sofa, his mind spinning in circles.
What is happening? Why is this happening?
He needed to understand. He had to make sense of it, to find some meaning in the chaos. But the answers slipped away from him, elusive and impossible to hold onto, like water running through his fingers. The weight of the situation crushed him, suffocating him in a fog of confusion and helplessness.
He couldn't breathe. He couldn't think. The weight of it all left him paralyzed, trapped in his own mind. All he could do was sit there, staring blankly at the relentless rain, as if it held the answers he so desperately sought.
His thoughts were a tangle of darkness, each one darker than the last, pulling him deeper into the abyss.
"It feels like I've died three times already,
and I'm going to die tomorrow again."
The words hung in the air, heavy with the hopelessness he couldn't shake, as if the very fabric of his existence was unraveling, one terrifying moment at a time.
***
Luna's mother watched her with a soft, concerned expression as she stepped out of her room, her eyes searching for any sign of distress.
"How are you feeling today?"
Luna, still trying to process everything that had happened, managed a weak smile, but it didn't quite reach her eyes.
"I'm okay," she replied, her voice laced with uncertainty.
It had only been a couple of days since she had been discharged from the hospital, but the weight of it all still pressed heavily on her chest, leaving her feeling numb and lost in a fog she couldn't escape.
Her mother sat down next to her, her gaze filled with quiet worry as she asked softly, "Did you have trouble sleeping last night too?"
Luna looked at her, puzzled by the question. "Why do you ask like that?"
Her mother's face softened, the concern deepening in her eyes. "I came to check on you last night," she said gently.
"You were sweating, and it seemed like you were having a bad nightmare. I... I was worried."
Luna furrowed her brow, shaking her head as if trying to push away the unsettling thoughts.
"I don't know. I don't remember anything. Probably just a bad dream," she murmured, her voice distant and detached.
She stood up, moving toward her room, her mind already drifting elsewhere, burdened by the weight of confusion and fragments of memories that refused to make sense.
Mrs. Kim's tears flowed freely as she watched her daughter, her heart breaking with each passing second. She couldn't hold back the anguish any longer.
"Why did all this happen? She can't even remember anything!"
She cried out, her voice shaking with pain. Her sobs echoed through the quiet room, a raw expression of the helplessness and sorrow that consumed her.
Luna's father stood quietly nearby, his face etched with the same pain, and walked over to gently wrap his arm around his wife's shoulders, offering the only comfort he could.
"It's going to be okay," he murmured, lacking the strength to believe his own words.
The emptiness of his reassurance hung in the air, swallowed by the overwhelming grief they both carried.
Mrs. Kim wiped away her tears, but the ache in her chest remained, a constant, relentless weight that she couldn't shake. "Let's leave this place," she said quietly, her voice thick with sorrow.
"She can't heal here… not like this."
Luna's father didn't answer right away, his gaze distant, as though he were searching for a solution that remained just out of reach.
After a long moment, he nodded gently, his expression tight, his sorrow evident in the way his face seemed to collapse under the burden.
Words felt too small, too fragile to bear the weight of what they were both feeling.
***
As Jae remained trapped in the darkness and unyielding rain, a faint light suddenly appeared, as though his world was beginning to stir once more. Surprised, he stepped outside to investigate what was happening.
Before he could make sense of it, the house began to crumble, falling apart piece by piece. The rain ceased, but he felt the water rising slowly around his feet. Then, to his astonishment, the scene around him shifted, and he found himself surrounded by a sunset-lit beach, with sand stretching out before him.
Everything around him transformed, as if the house had morphed into this new landscape. His pajamas changed too, now replaced with a dark blue t-shirt and jeans, as if reality itself were reshaping before his eyes.
He looked around, only to see an endless ocean stretching before him, its waves crashing softly against the shore. The silence was overwhelming, a suffocating presence that made the scene feel both surreal and terrifying.
Panicked, he shouted, but his voice only bounced back at him, echoing endlessly. It was as if he were trapped in some invisible box, unable to escape.
He ran in every direction, but no matter which way he went, he found himself back at the same spot. Exhausted and disoriented, he collapsed onto the sand, as if stranded on a deserted island with no way out.
For a fifteen-year-old, this was more than just a strange dream—
it was a nightmare, too difficult to comprehend.