The dream had been different this time. Instead of starting at the beginning, it was as though someone had selected a scene from the middle of the movie.
When the dream started, Hyungwon was lying naked on the grass.
He should have felt the blades tickling at his unfettered skin, but he didn't. Instead, his body felt heavy, immobile. He couldn't close his eyes.
He was staring at the moon again, only the real moon this time, not a reflection. The sky was pitch black, a spattering of stars tossed across the landscape above as though they'd been thrown recklessly. Hyungwon wanted to reach out and grab a star for himself, but it was so far away, and his arm was so heavy. The more he stared at them, the farther they seemed to be, like they were running away from him, hurrying to escape his gaze.
It made him sad. He wanted to look away, but he couldn't. His head was as heavy as the rest of him. His eyes felt heavy as well, and yet they wouldn't close.
He felt tired.
A voice drifted to his ears, disembodied, as the speaker was out of sight. "You're all better now." A man, smiling down at him kindly, hope shining within his eyes. "I'm so proud of you." The man paused, his smile fading into a small frown. "I'm sorry about this, but I have to do it, okay? They don't understand. I fixed you. You're all better now," the man repeated as he went about something, disappearing from Hyungwon's vision. Something rustled, and the man's face reappeared. "This won't hurt at all, now. Just hold still." He laughed softly, and he reached across Hyungwon, grasping Hyungwon's wrist. "Good boy." He knotted a thick rope around Hyungwon's thin wrist, drawing the ends tight, and although Hyungwon felt entirely numb, he could feel the pressure. He wanted to shake it off, but he couldn't.
The man repeated the process with his other limbs, securing them with rope before standing up behind Hyungwon, looping his arms under Hyungwon's and lifting him.
Hyungwon felt all of his limbs grow exponentially heavy, and now in his field of vision were bags of rocks, tied to his ankles and wrists, assuring that he'd never be able to move them. He wanted to cry out for help, but there were no witnesses save the stars that had never stopped to glance back at him, still fleeing, abandoning him.
The blades of grass tickling his soles turned into pebbles turned into the infinite coldness of water not touched by the sun.
"Almost there," the man promised. His words were so warm, so happy. Hyungwon wanted to believe them, wanted to think that they were good.
But the water climbed up to his thighs, then his waist, circling his bare skin, snapping at the exposed flesh with frigid teeth, each bite latching onto him, claiming him. The deeper he was dragged, the harder the jaws closed, never to let go.
"You're free now," the man promised, stopping. The water was up to Hyungwon's collarbone, caressing his fragile form, whispering promises of a shared eternity.
And then the promise was fulfilled, and he was released from the man's arms. His eyes glimpsed the negligent stars for the last time before his vision blurred, and then the water slipping over his head, embracing him, comforting him, subduing him, ripping at him, dragging him, silencing him.
And so Hyungwon sank, the rocks leading him, to a bed on the floor of the lake where the stars had abandoned him and the sun would not find him.
