Chapter 2: Cafe Confessions

"Sorry Mrs Walker!" A man named Ken responded, whilst rubbing the back of his head and making a weary smile. "Anyway Dongtae! It's about time you got here! Come, have a sea-" Ken's sentence was cut short as his eyes panned along to see Chloe standing by Dongtae's side.

"Ahh, sorry about that. I the one who made Dongtae late, since I had to get ready after being invited. Nice to meet you I'm Chloe, Dongtae's neighbour." Chloe responded with a bright smile on her face and a slight wave of her hand.

Sat on the table, there was a man and two women. The man was known as Ken. He was the one who shouted out to Dongtae entering earlier. His hair was bright blonde and sort of messy. His baby blue eyes were wide open along with his mouth as he heard Chloe announce herself.

"N-nice to meet you t-too Chloe! I'm K-Kenneth, but please, call me Ken." He responded, stuttering as he was still stunned at the beauty that Dongtae brought with him.

"My, my, do ignore him. It sure is a pleasure to meet you Chloe. My name is Lea." The lady sat next to Ken, who called herself Lea had beautiful, long amethyst hair. She had glistening amethyst eyes to match. The paleness of her skin contrasted with her luxurious red dress. Her body was thin but curvy in the right places. Though, she was a size or two below Chloe.

"Yes. Ignore this idiot here. He's just a creep. The name's Anita. You're more than welcome to have a seat in place of this idiot." Sat next to Ken on the opposite side to Lea, Anita was at the edge of the booth on the right-hand side. Anita had short, void-like black hair, however specks of red could be seen on the tips of each individual curl. Her delicate, brown skin coordinates well with her maroon bardot top and navy blue jeans. Her slim body made the outfit really stand out as well.

"Hey! Who you calling an idiot!?" Ken retaliated in a louder voice, at the passive-aggressive insult thrown at him from Anita.

"You of course. Who else would be dumb enough to not know that much? Idiot." Anita muttered under her breathe as she crossed her arms and looked back towards Dongtae. "Aren't you gonna sit down?" She let out.

A sigh was released from Dongtae as he sat down next to Lea, who was on the left side of the table. Chloe shortly followed and sat next to Dongtae, at the edge of the booth.

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A few minutes passed as the five of them ordered some drinks. It was a little bit of an awkward position for Chloe as she hadn't met anyone here before. Anita and Lea were trying their best to prevent it from being too awkward by engaging in small talk, so it was bearable.

Once the drinks had arrived and the waitress was no longer within hearing distance, Ken asked Dongtae a question.

"So. What was the reason you called us all here Dongtae?" Ken asked just after taking a deep breath in. "You're not usually the type to discuss game tactics in person." He added, as Ken simply thought this was another group meet up for the upcoming raid in a game they all play together.

"You know I wouldn't waste your time with a game meeting in real life Ken. I asked you all here because of something that has been on my mind for a while, and I wanted to share it with all of you. Of course, I wasn't origianlly planning on bringing Chloe with me, but I don't mind sharing it with her either." Dongtae replied in a serious tone.

"Well. We're all ears anyways. If something has you so worried that you needed to talk to us, then it must be serious." Anita commented as she sat up properly and then took a sip out of her americano coffee that she ordered.

"Right. Well first I have a question for you all. Have you ever experienced a dream that felt so real it was like it actually happened?" Dongtae said to the group, who in turn looked a bit puzzled.

"Did you call us out here to get philoscophical with us Dongtae? Are you high right now? Dreams are dreams, they don't actually happen. It's all in our imagination." Ken replied, as if he wasn't taking this serious at all. To Ken, that question sounded really stupid.

On the other hand, Chloe, Lea, and Anita were thinking hard about what Dongtae could mean by this. It was then that Lea's eyes widened.

"Are you talking about that dream you keep having? The one that you've been having every night for the past few weeks?" Lea queried as she remembered the one time where she found Dongtae still online past the time he usually goes to sleep.

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Lea was online playing a game when she suddenly saw Dongtae come back online a few hours after he said he was going off to sleep. She got a little curious and decided to message Dongtae about it. In reply, Dongtae told her about his dream and how it woke him up like a nightmare. He wanted to play some games to distract himself from it, so he came back online. This was the fifth time Dongtae had this dream.

Being concerned, Lea tried to distract Dongtae as much as she could. Eventually it worked enough for Dongtae to feel tired again. So shortly after, Dongtae went back offline to try and sleep.

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"Yes, that's exactly it. It's been exactly 28 nights since I first had that dream. And ever since, I haven't been able to get a proper nights sleep." As Dongtae explained further about his dream, everyone was caught up on the reason Dongtae called them here.

Whilst Chloe and Anita were both stunned by the explanation, Ken on the other hand, was not impressed. He gave off the impression that he didn't believe Dongtae. From Ken's facial expressions alone, Dongtae could tell that Ken didn't believe everything he said.

"I had the exact same dream last night. The only things that seem to change between the nights is how long the dream lasts, and the inital location of where it puts me. Last night, the dream got me as far as one of those hellfire tornados almost killing me on top of a hill I'd never seen before. That was until someone grabbed me be the hand and pulled me out of the area that the tornado struck. It was so surreal. It felt as though I could burst into flames at any second. I still felt the amount of heat even as I woke up." Dongtae continued in a soft spoken voice.

The rest of the group just stayed silent. Until Anita voiced her opinion that is. "So what do you make of this dream of yours? It could be some of that creepy past-life experience shit that people are going on about recently. There's some rhumours online about people experiencing things like deja-vu and certain religious-scientists relating that to reincarnation." She spoke in a soft voice also, as if she was trying to sympathise with Dongtae.