Written by Seunghee Han
Illustrated by Dong Nyung Lee
Once upon a dream, yes not once upon a time but once upon a dream of a young child, she met her true love.
When she first met him she searched for him in the reality but soon realized that he only existed in her mind
and the sole way to meet him was to sleep and dream. She would sleep all day wishing to see him even if it
was only a dream. She could not dare wish to meet him in reality nowadays because even in the dreams he
occasionally appeared. Her parents were worried of their only daughter sleeping all day long and denying the
reality. She slept so much that she now needed pills to get more sleep. What others say about her love didn’t
matter to her, as long as she could meet him. He would dance with her, hug her, listen to her and catch a
teensy bitsy change in her feelings. The more and more she met him the more she wanted her dream to become reality. Because she knew this was impossible, she grew paler and thinner as the days went by and her
love towards him got bigger and bigger. 10 years have passed. Her parents passed away and her aunt regularly
visited her to feed her. The money her parents left her was vanishing every day. One day, when she was getting
ready to sleep by taking the pills, her ticket to meet him, there was no drinking water left in the house. So she
went to the bathroom complaining about the fact that she cannot meet her darling any sooner. She was worried
that her love would go away because she made him wait. She hastily placed the precious pills on her tongue
and turned on the water tab and then slurped some water in to her dry, smelly mouth. When she unfolded her
aching back, she saw herself reflected on the dirty mirror: a woman with greasy hair, oily face from the excessive sleep, yellow sticky goo covering her once sparkling eyes, blackish teeth and a hideous expression. It was
nothing like what she saw herself in the dream. In the dream she wore a fluffy pink dress, the ones that Disney
princesses wear, and had the most attractive and prettiest face in the world. So, she always thought of herself
as a bright young girl who she once was. Now she has grown. And in an ugly way. “This can’t be true”, she
said in a trembling voice. She could not accept the cruel reality. “This is all a dream!!!” She slammed her head
to the mirror. The mirror shattered. She picked one of the broken pieces and said, “I must wake up and go back
to the reality”. The police arrived next morning after getting a report from an old lady that her nephew died.
When the police saw the dead body he was shocked. The woman was smiling as if she was having the happiest
dream.
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