Chapter 24: I Dreamt I Was a Butterfly
Rays of yellow trickled through the soft curtains as a medley of sounds brought back consciousness to the man sprawled across the wide bed.
Dan Woo groggily opened his eyes as he felt the warm breath of something brush against his bare skin. He turned to see long, slender arms wrapped around his neck as overflowing hair tickled his skin.
"Not again," he muttered as he jumped out of bed.
He looked at the woman lying on the bed.
It can’t be my therapist, can it?
His eyes moved to the hair. It wasn’t brown.
He breathed a sigh of relief.
Yet when his gaze shifted to her face, there was something familiar about it. Half of it was hidden beneath silky, flowing hair, but that sense of familiarity remained.
He moved closer to inspect her face more closely, but the moment he got close enough, the figure opened her eyes, startling him.
Before he could do anything, the woman quickly wrapped her arms around his neck, her soft lips meeting his own in a passionate kiss.
Dan Woo was caught off guard, pushing himself away from the sudden show of affection and passion. The woman slightly bit his lip from the abrupt movement.
"Wha..." Dan Woo began, but before he could finish the sentence, his eyes landed on the familiar face.
"Honey, are you okay?" the woman asked as she gazed at the man, who clearly seemed to be having a short circuit.
Suddenly, as Dan Woo continued staring at the woman, he felt something heavy on his left ring finger.
"Is there something wrong with my face?" Han Soo Hee asked when she noticed the intensity with which Dan Woo was gazing at her.
"What are you doing here?" Dan Woo suddenly asked, his voice deeper than he intended.
"What do you mean?" Han Soo Hee, who had been wearing a warm expression, asked as her face gradually took on a puzzled look.
"Is this a dream? It must be a dream..." Dan Woo began to mumble.
Han Soo Hee watched him as her puzzled expression slowly settled into annoyance.
"Is this because of last night? We agreed to work on children as soon as you won your award, didn’t we?"
Han Soo Hee turned toward the walk-in closet, disappearing inside for a few minutes before returning.
"Here is your suit. We will talk about this after the award ceremony."
Before Dan Woo could get a word in, Han Soo Hee had already walked into the bathroom, leaving the man looking at the well-tailored suit. Its beautiful blue colors seemed almost mesmerizing.
What was happening?
He couldn’t help but ask himself.
Wasn’t he facing an anomaly just a few moments ago that seemed to be weirdly teaching him something for who knows what reason? Why was he here? The question came to him.
Was he in a trance-like state?
He turned his vision toward the edge of his sight, trying to summon the countdown that usually popped up whenever he did that, but nothing of the sort happened.
Was he in another instance?
He turned to look around the room. It looked like his matrimonial home, the one he shared with Han Soo Hee, yet...
He walked around the room in confusion, not knowing what was happening. If he was in an instance, what were the rules? What was his mission?
Then the words of the masked figure rang through his head.
This must be part of the actualization lesson...
But what was he supposed to do?
He thought back to the knowledge he had somehow acquired from the weird sphere of mist, but now it seemed fragmented, as though there were chunks and pieces missing.
"Am I trapped here?" he suddenly shouted to no one.
His eyes then caught the figure of a butterfly fluttering freely through the open sky as it headed straight toward his window before entering the room.
Dan Woo instinctively jumped, watching the butterfly closely, afraid of what it might do.
Yet the butterfly paid him no mind. It simply flew toward the blue tailored suit, blending perfectly with its blue colors as it slowly fluttered its wings.
Dan Woo slowly approached the suit, still half-naked, trying to see what the butterfly would do, but the butterfly seemed to blend with the fabric, bouncing all over his vision, becoming both visible and invisible periodically.
Dan Woo now stood inches away from the suit, gazing at the blue fluttering butterfly, unsure if it was the anomaly or just another regular butterfly.
But just as he was doing this—
"What are you doing?" Han Soo Hee suddenly asked as she walked out of the bathroom, startling Dan Woo into touching the fabric of the suit as he blinked.
"What are you doing?" the question was repeated.
As Dan Woo turned to look at the woman beside him, she was now dressed in a lovely red dress, the scent of roses clinging to her. It was quite the whiplash, considering she had been barely covered by a bath towel only a few seconds prior.
Before he could make sense of anything, the sounds of roaring applause turned his attention to his surroundings.
He looked around to find himself seated among a sea of spectators. His eyes drifted toward the stage, first landing on the words Baeksang Arts Awards displayed across a huge screen. Then they shifted to the two hosts, who were speaking.
"Honey, what are you doing?" Han Soo Hee began. "Go take your award. You won Best Screenplay for Television."
"What?" Dan Woo muttered, still dazed from the sudden shift in scenery.
"Your screenplay, Script Matters, won. So go take your award."
Dan Woo reluctantly stood up and began walking toward the stage.
He looked through the sea of people, everyone gazing at him, the lights trained on him as his beautiful blue suit drew more attention than he had planned.
After only a few steps, he was on the stage, ready to accept his award—
when he suddenly heard the flapping of wings.
When this happened, a host of memories that seemed to have been hidden from him suddenly surfaced as he felt himself relive the struggle of getting the script for Script Matters out into the world—looking for funding, searching for investors, enduring countless setbacks.
He suddenly felt emotional as he reached for the award.
Only for his ever-suspicious mind to go into overdrive.
Is this the work of that butterfly?
The thought surfaced as he held up the award, ready to give his acceptance speech, only for him to catch a reflection upon its smooth reflective surface that immediately made him drop the award that had just been handed to him.
His face.
His human face had been replaced by a swarm of butterflies.
When Dan Woo saw this, his hands of flesh slowly began to transform into butterflies. The sight terrified him as he tried to touch himself, only for the entirety of his body to dissolve into a swirling mass of butterflies.
Suddenly, a huge gasp escaped his mouth as he gulped several liters of air.
"Boss, are you okay?" a deep, gravelly voice reverberated through the room as the figure of a bulky man approached Dan Woo.
"Who are you?" Dan Woo began, only to catch himself when his own ears heard the low, feminine tone of his voice.
"Boss, are you okay? It’s me, Little Beom."
"Little Beom?"
"Yes. Did you have a nightmare?"
Dan Woo only nodded as he checked his body, only to find it was the delicate body of Cha Hwa Rim, covered in various tattoos.
"Boss, the client has arrived. Should I show them in?"
"Client? What client?"
"For the tattoos, Boss. Don’t you remember? We’ll make a lot of money from this guy, for sure."
"Client... for a tattoo?"