Dream Interpretation – 1

“N-no, that’s not it?”

“Just be honest. I know everything.”

Seol-ah narrowed her eyes. Her attitude was closer to certainty than mere suspicion. What’s going on? It’s as if she knows exactly the content of the dream I had. I gritted my teeth and continued to deny it.

“I’m telling you, that’s not it.”

“First, in that dream, you and I were dating.”

She began pointing out my lies, numbering them. How the hell did she know? While I was flustered and could only open and close my mouth without saying anything, she continued explaining the differences between my dream and my explanation.

“Second, Hestia wasn’t at the school festival in your dream. Only you and I went together.”

“No, that’s…”

I was at a loss for words. Her observations were extremely accurate and sharp. Almost as if she had directly witnessed my dream. I decided to give up the pretense of deception at the point when she mentioned the second reason. I don’t know what method she used, but she clearly knows the exact content of the dream I had.

“Finally, you and I kiss on that hill.”

“I’m sorry. I lied because it was embarrassing. By the way, how did you know?”

I finally surrendered to her. Honestly, I’m not sure if slightly editing my dream when telling someone about it is something to be interrogated so seriously over, but I apologized anyway. Whatever the case, the fact remains that I was caught lying.

However, Seol-ah’s subsequent words made me understand why she had taken such a serious attitude.

“I had the exact same dream.”

“What?”

“I said I had the exact same dream. You and I dating, having a date at the library, going to the school festival together, looking at stars lying down, kissing on a hill at sunset, and even returning to Earth—it’s all the same content as the dream I had.”

I instinctively felt that this conversation was dangerous. Her expression was becoming increasingly unsettling.

“W-well, that’s quite an amazing coincidence, isn’t it?”

“Do you really think so?”

Seol-ah leaned in close. Her eyes had already half lost their sanity. The light had gone out of them. Unconsciously, I stepped back from that eerie expression. She stepped forward as if pursuing me. Her face was getting closer and closer to mine.

“You actually know too. That this dream isn’t just an ordinary dream.”

“It is a bit strange, but I can’t be certain…”

Finally, her face came very close to mine. I tightly shut my eyes.

“Kuhup… Ahaha! Why are you so frightened?”

When I slightly opened my eyes, Seol-ah, who had been approaching me as if she was going to devour me, had completely relaxed her expression and was laughing loudly. Whew. I breathed a sigh of relief. To be honest, I was thinking that if she tried to pounce on me, I would hit her right in the chin, dump her in front of the women’s dormitory, and run away.

“Is it funny?”

“Yes, it’s funny. As I’ve said before, everything you think shows on your face, so it’s fun to tease you.”

So this is how Cordelia felt. I’m sorry, Cordelia. I won’t tease you anymore… well, that might be a bit difficult, but I’ll try to restrain myself a bit.

“But everything I said was sincere. You don’t actually believe that we both coincidentally had the exact same bizarre dream at the same time, do you? If so, I might need to seriously reconsider our relationship. I’m not into dealing with dolphins.”

“We don’t have any relationship, you know?”

I grumbled at Seol-ah’s sarcasm. I do know. As she said, the probability that this is a simple bizarre dream approaches zero. I just blurted out whatever I could to get out of the situation, but it’s a fact that can be realized with just a bit of calm thinking. Two transmigrators who displaced the original protagonists having the exact same dream simultaneously—if I were to just dismiss this as a coincidence, I’d have to vomit up all the novels I’ve ever read.

I threw out a more detailed question to accurately assess the situation.

“This dream, when exactly did you have it?”

“Friday night. That is, crossing over into Saturday.”

“It was the same day for me too. We both had a dream with the same content on exactly the same day. What could this mean? Moreover, it’s been three days already, but the content of the dream is still vivid.”

That’s the problem. I understand that something made us dream, but I can’t figure out the content of the dream.

“This is just my thought, but the content of the dream is probably a modified version of the original story.”

Seol-ah muttered quietly. A modified version of the original story? I asked her for an explanation. She readily began explaining.

“I just realized that you wouldn’t know anything even after seeing this dream. That’s why you considered it just a bizarre dream.”

“Are you saying you learned something from seeing this dream?”

“Of course. It’s all content that appeared in the original story.”

“The original story? You clearly said that with Wilhelm taking a leave of absence, all the original content became useless.”

“That’s why it’s a modified version. In my opinion, the content of the dream is the original story in a world without Wilhelm. They were all events that occurred in the original story. It’s just that Wilhelm has been removed from it.”

“So, it’s like an ‘IF’ side story?”

“Exactly. That’s it.”

She means the dream content is what would have appeared in a side story asking “What if Wilhelm wasn’t there?” after the conclusion. She clapped her hands with a “thwack,” saying my explanation was spot on. However, even with this understanding, there’s still one unsolved mystery.

“But then, what does Earth mean at the end?”

“This is just my thinking.”

Seol-ah cautiously began speaking while watching my reaction.

“I think it means we can return to Earth when we see the ending. Remember the scene where we kiss on a hill at sunset, just before the Earth scene? That was the final scene of the original novel.”

“…Why are you looking at me so cautiously?”

Throughout her explanation, she couldn’t meet my eyes, only occasionally glancing towards me before quickly looking away, repeating this pattern. Additionally, she couldn’t keep her hands still, constantly touching her hair or fidgeting. Anyone watching would think I was going to eat her alive.

“Am I going to eat you?”

“No, it’s just that last time when I talked about the original story and mentioned going to Earth when seeing the ending, you reacted quite strongly.”

Seol-ah’s voice became small. It’s hard to believe this is the same person who was teasing me just a moment ago. I sighed and explained to her. There were reasons for my reaction, and it’s unfair to be misunderstood like this.

“This time is different from then. Back then, you were insisting without any evidence, saying ‘Maybe it’s like this’ and trying to proceed with the original story on your own. This time, there’s evidence, even if it’s suspicious to anyone. Do I seem like someone who would get angry at such a discussion?”

She raised her head with a brightened expression at my words.

“Really?”

“Yes. So don’t mind my reaction and please continue with your explanation.”

Seol-ah, as if she had never been worried, resumed explaining her hypothesis.

“As I mentioned earlier, remember the scene that appears just before going to Earth? Kissing on a hill at sunset. That’s the ending scene of the original work. Since we met again on Earth after that scene, my thinking is that perhaps we’ll be returned to our original state after seeing the correct ending.”

“So whatever sent us to this world made us have this dream to guide our actions according to that modified version of the original story? And the bait is returning to Earth?”

“That’s exactly it.”

Her words certainly had credibility. Colloquially speaking, everything fell perfectly into place. I was already half convinced that there was something transcendental that sent us to this world. The timing of our dream was precisely when Wilhelm declared his leave of absence and retired from the original story.

“That’s plausible.”

“Right, right? So are we going to follow the content we saw in the dream?”

“Of course not.”

This woman is getting ahead of herself again. I firmly expressed my rejection to her expectant voice. Seol-ah’s head dropped again.

“What? Then what do you want to do?”

“First, let’s confirm if the dream content is accurate.”

“How?”

“You and I never met on Earth, right?”

“That’s right.”

“Tell me what my appearance was like in your dream.”

She rubbed her chin for a moment, trying to recall her memory. She then closed her eyes tightly and began describing my original appearance on Earth one by one.

“Your height was average. About 175cm? You weren’t wearing glasses, and your skin was a bit dark? You had some mosquito bite scars on your arms, and you didn’t have any accessories, dyed hair, or perms. Your hair was short and neatly groomed. Your eyes had slight inner double eyelids, and your eyebrows were very thick.”

Wow, she remembers all that? I opened my mouth wide in amazement. Her description was not only detailed but accurate. Even if you asked me to describe my own face, I wouldn’t be able to do it that well.

I really was about 175cm tall and wore contacts when going out. Having been discharged from the military not long ago, my skin was still tanned, and my hair wasn’t long enough for dyeing or perming, so I just kept it short. Because my unit was in the mountains, I had quite a few mosquito bite marks on my arms. It’s also true that my eyes had inner double eyelids. Sometimes on tired mornings, my eyelids would protrude outward. My eyebrows are thick too. When I was young, my parents used to call me “Jjanggu” (a character known for thick eyebrows).

“Well?”

I silently applauded. At my applause, her nose soared high with pride.

“You can praise me more.”

“How did you remember all that? Honestly, even if you asked me to describe my own face, I couldn’t do it that well.”

“Why wouldn’t I remember the face of someone I like?”

“Isn’t this face the one Seol-ah likes?”

I asked, pointing at my face. Honestly, my original face wasn’t something you could call particularly handsome. Maybe the level where you could say it’s good-looking as a white lie? Not the kind of face that would give me advantages wherever I went, but not the kind that would disadvantage me either—just that level of a face.

Seol-ah frowned and became serious at my question.

“Are you joking? What I like is you as a person, not your face. If I was only interested in a face, I would have just lived with Wilhelm who said he liked me. Why would I have chosen the difficult path?”

Although I thought, “But at first, you tried to pursue both with that mindset…” I didn’t make the mistake of voicing it aloud.

“You just thought something strange, didn’t you?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Anyway, at first, there might have been some influence from that supposedly handsome face, but now I like you as a person regardless of your face. And your original face wasn’t that bad either.”

Feeling somewhat embarrassed, I hastily changed the subject.

“Thank you. Now it’s my turn, right?”

“Yes. How was I in your dream?”

“I should warn you beforehand that I can’t describe as meticulously as Seol-ah.”

Seol-ah smiled, saying it was okay. Like she did, I closed my eyes tightly and slowly recalled her appearance in the dream.

“First, um… you had straight black hair.”

“Yes, that’s right. And?”

“Your eyes were big and friendly? Is that right? Yes. Anyway, that’s how you looked. Should I say you had a puppy-like face?”

“I used to hear that a lot. What’s next?”

That’s it. I didn’t have the ability to describe her appearance in more detail.

“That’s it.”

“Wow, really, isn’t that too much?”

“I told you at the beginning that I couldn’t explain well.”

“But still…”

I cursed my poor observational skills and vocabulary. I carefully examined her face in my memory, but all I could say in the end was that she was of medium height, had white skin, and was pretty.

“Isn’t your explanation lacking sincerity?”

Though she said that, her expression showed she was torn between feeling disappointed by my inadequate description or happy about the compliment that she was white-skinned and pretty.

“I’m sorry.”

“Anyway, it seems I’m right. So, since we accurately recalled people we’ve never seen before in dreams, it’s clear that there was some intervention. What are we going to do now?”

Yeah. What are we going to do?

“Living here isn’t so bad…”

“Don’t you want to return to Earth?”

Seol-ah cut off my sentence midway and asked. The question of whether I don’t want to return.

“To be honest, yes. I don’t know why, but I don’t feel the desire to return.”

At my words, her expression contorted as if she couldn’t understand.