DREAMLIKE ✔️

- 11 -

"Last time I went to the beach was when I was a little kid."

Chaeyeon startled from Sakura's sudden confession, the two sitting beside each other at the artificial shore of the beach room they stayed in.

"No time afterwards?"

The Japanese woman chuckled, "of course I had time afterwards, I'm a gamer afterall. I don't necessarily have a strict schedule."

"Then why?"

...

Sakura brought up her knees as she rested her head on them, gazing off as if the wall in front of them past the water was a real horizon.

"You saw something earlier."

The dancer glanced at the older woman, "..."

"I know those eyes when I see them, what did you see? And why did you look at me?"

"I-I uh..."

"I'm trying to figure out what your power is since I've read up on mythology when I was in school... But I can't tell what it is."

Chaeyeon sighed, looking away, "I saw you."

"What?"

Sakura stared at her in confusion while the latter avoided eye contact, "I saw a younger version of you... You looked around... ten? eleven? I think it was you anyway, same eyes."

The gamer flinched, looking back at the waves, "uhuh..."

"You were with... your mom? I don't know, some woman was holding your hand. She was leading you somewhere? Or taking you away? You guys were in this really crowded area too, and it seemed like it was outside. A lot of the people there seemed... angry."

The younger girl slowly let the last scene fall from her tongue, carefully watching the gamer's expressions.

"Then my vision changed... All I saw was blood."

"Retrocognition..."

"What?"

Sakura didn't look at Chaeyeon as she mumbled out what she meant, "you have the ability to see someone's past just by thinking about them, probably by looking at them too."

"Oh..."

"There was a riot in Japan twelve years ago, it just suddenly broke out when I was out with my mom, shopping for groceries."

Chaeyeon tensed as she listened to the girl, the gamer seeming... unfazed...

"My parents divorced a few years before that, so I only lived with my mom. I haven't seen my dad since well... a long time ago."

Sakura sighed, "that blood you saw... It was probably my mom's."

"..."

"She died that day. Or well, because of that day."

The older girl started to bury her face deeper into her crossed arms to where only her eyes and bangs showed, "some security guard pulled me out since I was near the edge, my mom was already gone underneath all those people. I ended up living with my aunt until I was old and stable enough to move out."

The waves seemed to still as a silence enveloped them both, the gamer with her face fully covered from view.

"Is... that why you don't like going outside?"

A muffled "yeah" came from the older woman.

"I... I'm sorry..."

Sakura bitterly chuckled, looking away after brushing her hair back, "it's fine, no one could do anything about it."