"You can't run from me. You can never run! Even if you run to the ends of the Earth, even if you run to the bottom of the ocean, I will find you and I will make sure to once again lock you up where no one can pay their eyes on you. You are mine!"
My eyes shot open and I raised my head from the desk, startled.
My heart was racing and I had broken out in cold sweat. What was that dream?
It was so dark and heavy on my heart that even after waking up, I was still feeling the effect of that man's words.
And those words came from a novel I had read in the past. I was sure of it.
In my first year of college I read a novel my friend who was in the book club gave to me.
It was a book with various tags but the tag that got me curious was 'BL', and it was then that I came to understand what that tag meant.
It was basically a book where men fall in love with men or boys have crushes on other boys. In any case, it was a story about the same gender falling in love.
But there was something odd about this book.
Now, I don't really judge the idea of men falling in love with other men. Just give me a good book with writing that will blow my mind and I will read anything, even if the context involved monsters and humans 'cohabitating'.
Anyway, I believe love should be shared and given to whomever it was due without discrimination. I didn't even know if I was gay or straight since I had never, in particular, fancied anyone irrespective of their gender.
Ahem, as I was saying, that book had an odd concept that I had never heard of before, just as I had never heard of the word 'BL' but at least, I was a bit aware of the concept of same sex love.
Omegaverse.
It was a world where the genders weren't as simple as men and women but Alpha, Beta and Omega. It was quite complex to grasp since I couldn't quite understand how men were capable of giving birth.
Still, my curiosity was at its peak and I was ready to find out.
In this book I read, there was one main protagonist who was an Omega and four other characters who I would like to refer to as protagonists as well but the things they did to the main protagonist is enough to make me regard them as villains.
Since it also had 'psychological' tagged to it, I expected there would be a few gruesome or heavy misunderstandings that made the entire plot dark but it was far darker than I'd ever imagined.
The title of this novel was 'Bruised'
*Bruised were the hearts of the characters who had all fallen for the delicate flower and bruised was the flower that had lost its ability to bloom, only suffering for the roots that it had grown up from.*
That quote was the first thing I saw when I opened the book. It was as if the author was preparing us for the worst but I was ignorant then and had no idea what it meant to suffer for the roots that one had grown up from.
Basically, the main protagonist had a history with the four guys that all ended up with misunderstanding, so they no longer wanted to care for him heart wise. At least, that was what they liked to tell themselves and so they dealt harshly on the poor protagonist.
He had been sold to the four young leaders since he was an Omega with a high breeding rate, each expecting to make him bear a child and produce a strong heir for them.
In that world where Alphas and Omegas were the only ones who could mate and produce children, the Omegas were awfully scarce and not all Omegas had high breeding rate for such dominant Alphas such as them.
It was almost impossible and the continuation of their lineage depended on finding an Omega with a high breeding rate.
This was where the protagonist came in.
But even then, it was not guaranteed a 100% success so they had to do whatever they could to put a baby in his womb.
Seriously, at that time, I wondered what came over the author to write such a plot. I wanted to rip the pages out of the book each time I saw how they treated the protagonist and how much the misunderstanding was hurting all of them while they used him as a breeding machine.
But I was even more curious to know how the story ended.
Now, why in the world would I suddenly have a dream that had the contents of that nerve-wracking book when I hadn't even laid eyes on the book for years?
"Why did I suddenly have a dream about that book?" I wondered out loud while scratching my head. "It's giving me goosebumps. When was the last time I read it? Two? No, three years ago?" I counted my fingers.
It had been a while since I graduated from college and I had a job as a sales manager but I could still remember the contents of that book quite clearly as if I had just opened the first page and closed the last page once.
"Hey, manager Jo-Pil, whatcha doing?" One of the workers called out and I raised my head.
"Oh, I was just taking a nap." I said.
"You must be exhausted after taking the night shit, manager. You're so hard working." He said.
My name was Hwang Jo-Pil and this man's name was Oh Tae-Ming. He was a diligent worker who, unlike most others who liked to grumble and complain about the work load, sincerely put his all into our job.
"Then, were you having a nice dream?" He asked, suddenly dropping his hands on my shoulder to give me a massage.
It was something he seldom did but it was not strange since he was the type to get comfortable with anyone he was close to.
"Well, I... I don't think it was." I answered, my tone laced with uncertainty.
"Oh? What was it about?"
"Hm," I gave the dream a thought and then asked, "Hey, Tae-Ming, would you believe me if I said I'm someone from another world and I'm capable of getting pregnant?"
Tae-Ming exchanged serious chances with me for a few seconds before finally bursting out in laughter.
"Haha, Jo-Pil, how can a man get pregnant? And what other world?" He laughed. "You're so funny." He said, swiping the newly formed tears from his eyelids and I laughed as well.
"Haha, that's me." I said. "Always ready to spout bullshit to lighten the mood." Honestly, I was just spouting nonsense.
I had read a bunch of books that it looked like I was starting to mix reality and fiction.
Though, it still bothered me that I dreamt of that book out of nowhere. Was it just my brain replaying a distant memory? But why was it so vivid and--?
"Well, you certainly succeeded." He snickered. "Anyway, I'll get going now." He said, smiling heartily. "I still have a few things to look after so I'll get going now."
"Alright."