Dreams

Knock, Knock, Knock.

Three gentle taps, rythmic like a melody.

Click*

"Ah.. I shouldn't have done that.."

"Hey! Close it! He still might be asleep!"

"Eh? It's open though. I'm just going to take a peek."

Crkk

As the door was pushed open, a neatly constructed room appeared.

"Eh? Where is he?" Link stood outside, dumbfounded.

"Are you sure this is the right dorm?" Anna asked in doubt.

Link nodded his head and closed the door. "Yes, I accompanied him yesterday. Maybe he went out already."

"If that's the case, he's probably fine then."

"Who is?"

"WAH!" Anna was shocked out of her wits, almost falling to the ground if it weren't for Link's quick reactions.

"Y-You-"

"Me?" Khai tilted his head to the side.

He just went out for coffee to get himself ready for the day.

What were these two doing? They looked so suspicious, standing outside his dorm like some kind of burglars.

"Where did you go?" Anna composed herself and asked.

"Uhn." Khai showed them the coffee he purchased downstairs.

Anna sighed in relief.

"Hm?"

"Well uhm.." Awkwardly scratching her head, she didn't know what to say.

"She was worried that something might've happened to you." Link ruthlessly exposed her.

Embarrassed, her face flushed red and her pitch piqued. "Hey! I was just about to get to that!"

Link let out a heavy sigh. "See? I told you he's fine!"

"Shut up! I told you I'd go alone! You were the one who fervently insisted to come along!" Anna was indignant.

"Should I not be.. fine?" Khai was getting confused as time passed by.

"Well, you did pass out all of a sudden yesterday.." Link said. "She was just worried that it would relapse so we dropped by."

"Oh, I see." Khai smiled. "Thank you for the concern."

"Mhm," Anna reciprocated his smile with her own.

'…'

A moment of silence passed.

Uncomfortable by it, Khai spoke up.

"My illness isn't the normal one, you see. Passing out has become a way for my body to protect itself. There's no need to worry about me."

"Protect itself? From what?"

"Well, from the pain."

"Pain?"

"Mhm, severe headaches and nausea, a bit of muscle contraction, cramps, stuff like that. Many doctors have diagnosed me with different kinds of illnesses but they never found out the real cause nor remedies for it."

"Then what was the medicine in your bag?" Anna curiously asked.

"Anesthetic." Khai took out a small vial in his pocket. "I believe you're already familiar with this."

"This small thing was especially created for me to alleviate pain temporarily." He added.

"Oh, that's the one I used before carrying you to Anna's room." Link nodded.

"Right, how did you know how to use it?" Khai was baffled. He had been thinking about it for quite some time now.

"It's in the cover.." Link pointed out.

"Really?" Checking the cover, Khai noticed that there really were instructions on how to use it.

"Ah, I didn't notice that."

"Eh?" The siblings looked at each other in shock.

"It's your medicine, though?" Anna was in doubt.

"It is, but it's new to me as well."

"Did you recently develop this illness?"

"Mhm." Khai nodded.

It would save him the trouble of explaining many complicated details.

He didn't want to bring up the fact that the doctors didn't want to overdose him with sedatives nor with any medication to not make him immune to it.

Although he did, in the past took medications to relieve symptoms from time to time, it only made things worse. The more he took medication for it, the more it retaliated like some kind of virus.

It was like he was fighting a live enemy inside his body, constantly learning of its flaws and developing counters for it.

Eventually, he decided not to seek medication anymore and suffer the pain by himself.

And this continued, until now.

As he was entering uncharted teritories on his own, his grandfather made him shots of anesthetic so that he wouldn't be as powerless against the pain in times of crisis.

Due to miscalculations, however, Khai found out that he would go down faster than he anticipated. Who knew that he coudln't even reach for the vial in his bag before passing out?

"Well, it's thanks to the intructions that I was able use it properly." Link said.

'Wait, is that it?' Khai suddenly realized something.

Was the reason that he had a good sleep when he passed out because of the anesthetic? Does it also affect him mentally?

"Mhm, thank you."

If it were a second ago, Khai would've believed that Link's interference was useless. But now, seeing as he was able to rest properly, that might not be entirely true.

"Can you teach me how to use it?"

Khai didn't realize it but Anna stepped close to him.

"Uh, sure.." He kept his composure but he wasn't used to this kind of contact.

He was only this close to his younger brother before.

"You just pull the cap and stab it anywhere you'd like."

The vial was designed to be simple but efficient. Just one stab and it will do the rest.

"Isn't this like an EpiPen?"

"It's not 'like' an EpiPen, you can consider its contents different but its container is completly based off of EpiPens." Khai said after a moment of consideration.

"That's so interesting!" Anna excitely took the vial and inspected it like how a child would on a toy that interests them.

"Ahem.." Left to the side, Link purposely coughed to get her attention. It was rude to take something from a person's hand without any permission.

"Can I stab myself with it?"

"No! Definitely not!" Khai's mouth twitched.

However, he was mercilesly neglected. The two continued to talk like he didn't exist.

"Anna.." Link sighed.

"Then the used one! I've always wanted to try getting stabbed by an EpiPen!"

"No! It's still dangerous!"

"Aw!"

"Okay! Alright! That's enough!" Link finally couldn't take it anymore and interrupted the duo's lively banter.

"Unlike you carefree bunch, I have to get myself to the sports club soon."

"Oh, right! I completely forgot about you!" Anna glanced at her brother awkwardly.

"No shit." Link rolled his eyes.

Anna returned the Epipen to Khai, "I'm sorry but let's meet up again later! We have places to go!"

"Sure, drop by anytime." Khai smiled.

"Actually.." Link interrupted. "Do you have any plans for today?"

After a moment of thought, Khai shook his head, "No, not really."

He only planned to get familiar with the campus' structure, which was really not much.

"Perfect! How about coming with us?"

"Oh! That's right! Today's the screening of the sports teams!" Anna added.

"That's not it. The application for the teams have already been finalized the day before. Today's the screening, and without an application, you can't be screened."

"Then?" Anna was confused.

She though his brother wanted Khai to experience the screening process of the sports team in Xiala.

"We'll meet at 1 pm, no? If Khai's fine with it, we can all have fun later this afternoon." Link suggested.

"That sounds like fun!" Anna's eyes flared up. "Are you freee?"

She closed in on Khai excitedly.

"Uhm well.." Khai was shocked at how fast everthing happened.

Unfortunately, the sight of Anna's expression overpowered his senses.

"I am."

"Alright!" Anna excitely cheered.

"Ok, now that everthing's settled, let's meet again after 1!"

In a blink of an eye, Link dissapeared without a trace.

"He's in an awful lot of hurry.." Khai commented, surprised that he wasn't afraid of slipping.

"Uh," Anna looked at her phone. "He has 4 minutes to get there."

"Ah" Khai chuckled. "How careless.."

"Mhm,"

"…"

"…"

Silence.

'Did I do something wrong? Is something on my face?'

For some odd reason, Anna's gaze was fixated on him the second he chuckled.

'What is she blankly staring at me for?' Khai was in the brink of tears.

"What's up?" He asked.

"Ah?" Waking up from her daze, her eyebrows rapidly fluttered like wings, forcefully blinking to gain her attention back.

"Is it really you?" She suddenly asked.

"Hm?"

"The boy from my dreams."