English is not my first language so if there are any mistakes please let me know. I hope you guys like this fic. Happy reading.

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It started the day after he met them...

It definitely did...or was it way before that...there was a feeling in the back of his head that he was missing something really important, something really very important...

 

Déjà vu

 

He was running, running with all he had in him. He felt his lungs burning from the lack of oxygen as every breath he took became more laboured. There was a cold wind blowing right at his face as he sprinted towards the unreachable horizon, the bitter cold piercing through his skin like shards of ice. He knew that he had been running for a very long time now because he could feel a dull ache all over his body which seemed to get worse by time and a screaming pain in his legs making it harder to place one foot in front of the other. He wanted to stop, give up as exhaustion washed over his body but his panicked mind refused to let him cease his endless run, practically shrieking to keep moving before ‘it’ gets to him...

 

The longer he ran the more he realised that it was impossible to outrun ‘it’, it was way too close.

 

 He could feel the muscles of his calf go stiff with exhaustion and the next thing he felt was his knees buckling as the damp sand face-planted him. That’s when he knew that it was too late...that was all ‘it’ needed, a few seconds, to catch up and he had practically just handed ‘it’ those few seconds, his few seconds...just as he was about to turn his head the 15 foot massive wave engulfed him...

 

 

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Jae Hwa was working peacefully in the kitchen, humming to herself an age old lullaby that her mother used to sing for her when she was young which was something her mother had learned from her grandmother. It was like a family heirloom, the thought made her smile as now it was something that she sung for her own kids.

 

Her life hadn’t turned out as she had expected it to be, she wanted a peaceful life living in some country side, enjoying the fresh air as she tended for her family but instead she had ended up marrying the son of a third generation chaebol. It wasn’t something that she hated because it was her love for the man that she was married to now that changed her dream of being a country woman. She still remembered the day when he had proposed to her, it was unpretentious and yet so magical that thinking about it made her blush, even now.

 

Despite all the family wealth and celebrity like status Ji Sung was a down to earth humble man. When she had met him for the first time she had never even in her dreams imagined that he belonged to a family that owned more than 40% of the business world in Korea. A man of simple taste and yet such fierce determination that made her fall head over heels only to realise later that it wasn’t one sided.

 

All these thoughts passed her mind whilst setting the breakfast table. That’s when she heard it, a sudden scream followed by a loud thud sound. She immediately knew the source of the commotion...her son had another nightmare.

 

A concerned look shadowed her face as she ran towards her younger son’s room, slowly opening the door to avoid startling him any further.

 

There he was sitting on the floor beside his bed with a faraway look on his face, jaws slack, completely cocooned in the blanket with only his head and shoulders peeking. She quickly assessed that he must have fallen off the bed and in the process entangled himself with the blanket around him.

 

She slowly made her way across the room and sat in front of her son. When he didn’t acknowledge her presence she tenderly placed a hand on his shoulder, to which he responded by slowly turning his face towards her with the same vacant and a slightly confused look on his face.

 

‘Jiminah?’ she softly calling out his name trying to shake him into reality.

‘Are you okay?’ she asked him cupping his face between her palms her eyebrows knit together with worry. He suddenly snapped out of his trance and smiled at her.

 

‘Mom...I am okay. It was just another nightmare. The usual, don’t worry too much.’ Jimin said nonchalantly, but too fast, it was a reflex not an answer.

 

‘Are you sure?’ Jae Hwa asked still not sure of her son’s words. ‘You looked really shaken hon. What was it this time?’

 

She knew that Jimin used to wake up most of the days terrified but that was seven years ago. She hadn’t been able to understand the reason of his nightmares as they were seemingly random and completely absurd.

 

They had tried everything possible to stop these nightmares as they couldn’t bear to see their son tormented every night. They had consulted the best psychiatrists, neurologists and even shamans, something that she was not proud of admitting but they were desperate. Some days were especially hard, as on those days it took all the strength she and her husband had to hold their son down as he thrashed in fear unable to wake up from whatever horror that had gotten hold of him. She remembered silently shedding tears while holding her quivering son in an embrace, slowly running her fingers through his hair, whispering words of reassurance to calm him down but never letting her true emotions filter through her words. She spoke with a serene confidence making sure that Jimin found her voice as something that could anchor him to reality and pull him out his fears.

 

That’s when they had met the strange lady with her even stranger request and if possible in the strangest collection of clothes. She had appeared out of nowhere in their house one day dressed in a pair of harem pants topped with an extremely loud muumuu and a crimson velvet hood. She looked like someone who had walked straight out of a fairytale, the bad kind. Her request was simple, though it sounded more like a demand than a request, she wanted the most powerful sentimental object in the house and in exchange she would help her son and free him of his nightmares.

 

That was the last day of Jimin’s night terrors, at least that’s what she thought. Though before leaving the mysterious lady had not forgotten to warn her that the effect will last as long as the sentiments attached to the object she had given her never changed, as long as it held value the nightmares would not return.

 

Unfortunately, the necklace that she had given which was the last gift from her dying sister had emptied its value in just seven years. A month ago on the day of her sister’s death anniversary she had made peace with her sister’s demise. She had finally accepted the truth only to realise later that the strong sentiments that she had held with the necklace was of sorrow, heartbreak and denial not love and the nightmares appeared again...