The Best of Tomorrow

Chapter 3 – Part 2

The silver moon was glowing up in the sky… white, fluffy clouds were flowing slowly in the dark sky. It had already been night a long time ago.

“Hey! ”

I was seated on a cold wooden bench, my palms placed on the top. Humming under my breath, I swung my feet across along with the beat. At that moment, I heard a strange voice. I raised my head to see a man, whose hair was parted evenly, looking at me while he took his cell phone out.

“My friend asked if he can get your number?”

“What?”

“That guy in the grey hoodie said he was interested.”

My eyes shifted to look at where the man was pointed. Next to the pole, stood a man in grey hoodie, his dark head bowed down.

“Oh … I’m sorry, but I’d rather not… ” I replied in a hesitating manner and bowed my head in an apologetic way. The man smiled awkwardly and turned around to leave.

“Dude, you got rejected.”

“Shut up, you bast*rd. I guess she has a boyfriend.”

The man in the gray hoodie and the one who asked for my number glanced at me once before walking away.

It’d been a long time since the sun went down…

I didn’t understand why I was still here even though it was night… My eyes kept blinking, waiting to wake up…

….

Im-sol. How much longer are you going to sleep? Wake up. Open your eyes.

I shut my eyes tightly and slapped my cheeks with both my hands.

Wake up, me. Please wake up!

I lowered my hands and gently opened my eyes. I could still see the park where the darkness had fallen.

The same scenery as before.

Sigh. Why was it still the same?

At that time, I felt something vibrating on my thighs. Vibration? I could feel it… I couldn’t believe the vibrations were so vivid. So realistic…

I had to say… maybe it’s a new, realistic dream?

I reached out to my pocket, taking the phone out to see who called me.

[Mrs. Lee]

Oh, come on! It’s a dream and I’m still getting a phone call?

– Hello?

– Hey, why aren’t you coming home? Have you seen what time it is?”

I was speechless. Come home?

“Ah, this dream is so weird…”

– What dream? Forget it, come home now! It’s eleven o’clock.

“Mom, I can’t wake up. I don’t know for how many hours I’ve been sitting and dreaming here.”

– What are you talking about? Hurry up and come home. It’s late.

Thuck, the call was cut off.

I stared at the phone screen and something struck my mind. I quickly searched Potato Pancakes, Ryu Seon-jae, and Baek In-hyuk on the Internet, but nothing showed up.

I went to the school integrated information system site, entered my student number and password, and tried to log in, but that too, failed. It said there was no such information available.

Why did this seem so realistic?

It couldn’t be real… this has to be a dream.

Why can’t I wake up?

What did I do before I fell asleep?

I remember… I had screamed.

“Stop playing the TV so loudly!”

Then, came the sound of banging from the next door, and hitting the wall louder.

“Stop wailing so much!”

“Wailing…”

I stared at the distant, dark scenery. Everything looked the same like what it had looked the previous night. I tried to scream the way I had screamed before falling asleep and drifting to this dream.

I tried to walk as fast as I could in the park… kept walking but the light didn’t come out.

I cried and cried in a hope to see the familiar light but nothing showed up.

After a while, I stopped letting out tears. I breathed out briefly, letting out a hot breath and clutched my hands to the side.

“Now let me wake up from my dream!”

Suddenly, I heard a laugh from somewhere and turned around to see. It seemed the sound came from behind the flower bed in the park. While I was checking out who was behind the flower bed, the other side of the park resonated with laughter. I turned back to see a group of men with cigarettes in their mouths entering the park. They screamed, laughed and chatted with one another.

How bad.

Even if it’s a dream, one should always avoid situations like this. I got up from the bench and hurried to leave the park at the moment. As I had nowhere to go, I decided to return home… to the house where I had moved out and didn’t live in, anymore.

…

Get up! Get up!

The alarm shook me awake. It went silent when I pressed the panda’s head.

I slowly opened my eyes to see a brightly colored ceiling. I was lying on my bed, eyes fixed upwards.

This was not my room’s ceiling!

I jumped up and sat on the bed and looked around. My school uniform was hanging on the doorknob.

“Oh, my God. Still?”

I felt my face in a daze, opened the door and went out. There was no one in the house. My dad worked in the countryside and came home once a month. My mom went to work early in the morning because her workplace was far away.

I always lied that I ate something so that I didn’t have to eat alone and went to school.

I used to do this back in highschool.

As I went to the kitchen, I saw a memo attached to the refrigerator.

[Don’t skip meals, don’t be late.]

It’s mom…

“What is happening, man? What am I supposed to do? You want me to go to school?”

Standing in the middle of the living room, I frowned looking at the sunlight coming in through the window.

No way, this wasn’t a dream.

Or was it?

….

“Im-sol. Are you going to join the ranks of troublemakers? Are you skipping class?”

“No…”

As I answered with a stutter, the homeroom teacher glared at me with an unpleasant look on his face. I was guilty of running away yesterday without even thinking. I bowed my head, asking for forgiveness.

The bell rang to announce the start of the first period. I had to attend the class, so I stood up holding my books and leaving for my classroom.

“Where are you going? Are you not going to class?”

“Oh, yeah. ”

I nodded, bowed and left the teacher’s room. I walked into the classroom and sat down. I couldn’t remember where I was, but the bag I left yesterday was hanging on my desk.

“What in the world were you doing yesterday?” Eun-hee, sitting next to me, hit me and asked.

Only

“I know…”

I couldn’t believe I was back in second year of high school… I looked blankly at the blackboard with my chin resting on my hand. I looked at Euh-hee and asked, “Do you know Potato Pancakes?”

“Huh? Food?”

“No, the band. Idols.”

“Is there a band with that name? What’s with the name?”

She doesn’t know.

I glanced at the clock on the classroom wall. Time flew like an eagle in a dream. But the minute hand in the clock went normally, slow and painful.

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