Man

"Anna! Are you okay?"

"Hands off!"

Out of instinct, Anna's body moved on its own, sidestepping in order to get the hand off her.

Thud!

Her hips hit something hard, causing her to wince in pain.

"What are you doing?" Khai was alarmed, hurriedly wrapping one arm around her waist and the other on both her shoulders.

Only then did her posture stabilize.

"H-huh?" Anna blinked furiously.

'Khai?' She thought.

Looking around her, she also seemed to have returned to UOE!

'I-I'm b-back!' She could not help but to get emotional.

All the emotional tension in her body subsided in an instant.

However, her breaths were still hurried and rampant, almost as if she ran continuously for a whole day!

"Khai.."

Her body started to move closer to Khai unsteadily.

"I'm glad you're-"

Without warning, she lost all her strength and fell powerlessly in his arms.

"Careful!" Khai tightened his embrace.

He could tell that all her strength was sapped and she had no energy left to spend.

"What happened?"

She was just lively a few seconds ago. It didn't make sense to him how she would suddenly be dead tired and exhausted.

All they did was to walk for a few dozen steps!

"I-" Anna wanted to speak but she didn't know where to begin.

Her head was spinning!

"T-the d-re-ams.." She muttered.

Khai's brow furrowed. 'Dreams?'

Pulling out her phone weakly, she handed it to him.

He took it and opened up the phone but he was stopped by a passcode.

Noticing this, Anna said, "0901"

As soon as the phone opened, he was instructed to open the photos app.

He then saw an album entitled "Dreams" and tapped it.

"The last photo." She said.

"What about them?" Khai asked.

It was the sketch that shocked him the most when Anna was revealing her dreams to him.

The man and woman duo that he dreamt of himself!

"That man appeared."

'Man?'

"Where?"

"Just now, when we were walking, my surroundings changed and that man appeared."

"What?" The more he listened, the more Khai was plunged into confusion.

What she just said was too unbelievable, "What do you mean? What are you trying to say?"

His mind started to wander off and think of countless of scenarios.

Nevertheless, he wanted to get to the bottom of it no matter what.

'Fuck, the music is loud!'

However, the space they were in wasn't suited for a serious conversation.

Looking around, he spotted karaoke booths.

'Perfect!'

He immediately guided Anna toward the booths and paid to use one.

Getting in and closing the door, it was like magic as all the noises disappeared and replacing it was silence.

There was a large couch in the center of the room and a large tv in front of it.

Khai went directly to the point as soon as Anna sat down. "Narrate what happened."

She nodded and started to recount what she experienced, from how she wandered off to a different environment to how she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"This.." Khai was put into deep thought.

"Medieval clothing and weapons."

"Faceless people."

"Realistic sensations."

These three points were something their dreams had in common. Well, daydream would be more accurate for Anna's.

'But how is it possible that she experienced that in just a few seconds?'

Although he had doubts, he didn't want it to be what he'd focus on.

He was more concerned of how much their dreams were similar. He didn't even tell her anything about his dreams.

"That man that you were with.." Khai looked at Anna, "What was he wearing?"

"I-im not sure.." Anna tried to recall. "It was something yellow..."

At her response, Khai added, "Yellow mantle."

"Y-yeah, and a" at this moment, his dreams flashed before his eyes and he spoke with her, "white undershirt"

Anna looked at him in surprise. "H-how did you know?"

"Ugh.." Khai sat down beside her. "Listen, it might sound weird, but I think our dreams are the connected."

"Connected?"

"I don't know how and I don't know why, but those two you drew? I dreamt of them yesterday. The man you were with seems to be the man in your drawing."

Anna took her time to process the information before asking; "Were they faceless, too?"

"No." He answered.

"I see.." Anna hesitated but still spoke; "Actually.. that sketch of man and woman.."

"Hm?"

"I dreamt of them when I fell asleep looking after you yesterday."

'WHAT?!'

A mini explosion blasted in his head.

"…"

No one spoke as both were struggling to cope with the reality in front of them.

But, after a while, Khai realized that the exchange of information was still one sided. From the beginning, it was Anna who told her what she knew.

'Now it's my turn. Maybe her knowing would benefit me.' He was in a deadlock. He needed to take chances.

"Do you want to hear about my dream?" He asked.

Anna raised her head and nodded.

And so, Khai narrated what happened, including how he, too, was immersed into the dream, feeling pain and emotions.

And all disappeared when he woke up.

As he finished his story, he let her know that it was the first time he saw actual scenes but it wasn't common for him to dream of nothing but despair.

"I see how you think our dreams are connected." She muttered after a while. "But we do have one distinct difference." She added.

"Hm? What's that?"

"I live in the dreams, not spectate. I hear no voices other than the ones that are spoken by actual people in the dreams."

'That's true!'

'That's something, alright!'

He was glad that he chose to share what he knew.

Rather than watching, Anna was able to be live in the dreams while having the ability to change its course. While, on the other hand, he was only able to watch them unfold.

'Wait a minute..'

Speaking of voices, wasn't the voice that was blaming him, similar to the woman who was with the man?

His gaze switched to the phone he was holding, specifically to the woman beside the man.

The voices were slightly different, one was ethereal and one was sweet, but both had something similar that Khai couldn't quite point out.

"This voice.." Anna spoke up. "You hear her often?"

Khai paused before answering her.

"Yeah. It's like she's toying with me."

"It's not from a traumatic experience or anything?"

"I've never heard that voice except from my dreams." He answered confidently.

Anna sighed and scooted closer to him.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

However, she didn't answer, only taking both his hands with hers and placing them beside his waist.

'Huh?'

Just as Khai was about to ask again, Anna closed in on him.

"Ah.."

She wrapped her arms around him and tightened it.

He was dazed; not knowing what to do. 'She's hugging me?'

"You must have suffered a lot, don't worry, you have me now." She spoke with gentleness.

'That..'

As far as he knew, he was fighting alone.

Only his doctors knew about the voice and the hardships he went through; but they were only helping to do their job. They had to keep matters professional. They avoided attachments.

And he refused to tell his family that even when he sleeps, he's awake; suffering silently, suffocating in his own dreams.

But now, he had someone who was capable of understanding him.

'Ah, this feeling..' The warmth that was spreading from his heart was soothing.

"Mm, you have me from now on, too." He spoke and hugged her back.

She patted his back, "Thank you."

…

Leaving the booth, the duo walked mindlessly around the UOE.

Anna looked at her hand that was gripping a handful of tickets, "It's a shame we can't exchange these."

Khai looked at her and remembered something. "We can, actually."

"Hm?" Anna looked at him. She was sure that the cheapest exchange was 200 tickets, and all they had was 129.

"Come!" Khai offered his hand.

Anna hesitated but eventually placed her hand on top of his.

Passing through crowds and crowds of people, she couldn't help but to pick up her pace, inadvertently walking closer to Khai.

"Hm?" He slowed down and let her walk beside him.

As time passed, they reached the counter to exchange prizes once more.

"Over here.." Khai led her to the side of the counter.

When she looked where he was looking, there was a tray full of different items.

[ Miscellaneous Prizes - 60 Tickets each ]

"Oh?" Instantly, Anna's interest was piqued.

Her hand rummaged through the tray, picking and pulling out all sorts of accessories, designs, and other small items.

Finally, she settled on one item.

"I want this!" She exclaimed, as if falling in love with it. "Khai! You pick too!"

"Alright.." Khai chuckled and searched through the tray.

"Oh? This is small.." His hands felt something small that it kept slipping out of his grip.

Pulling it out, he retrieved a small plastic piece.

"Huh.."

"What did you get?" Anna asked, stepping closer to him.

"I don't know.." He showed her what he found in confusion.

"A memory card!" Anna exclaimed. "How cool! It stores photos and videos from your phone!"

'Oh.. I see..'

Khai looked at her. "You have it."

"Eh?" Anna blinked.

"I want you to have it, my gift. You can use it to store the memories we'll have."

"Ah.." Unknowingly, her cheeks brightened and her heart started to run around in a craze.

"Ehem.." Clearing her throat, she tried to calm herself down. "I'll gladly take it."

She took it with her left hand and stretched out her right hand. "Have this, then."

Curious, Khai extended his hand.

"A pen?" He muttered as Anna slowly revealed the item on her hand.

"You can use it to write our future." She grinned brightly.