# The Dream Is Still There
“Hi, Lina. You finally made it. I’ve been waiting for you for a while,” someone said from behind Alina.
There was no way Alina wouldn’t recognize this voice. Whose voice could it be other than Vano’s? His appearance had been expected. Still, Alina had hoped he wouldn’t come to her dreams anymore. Alina did have feelings for Vano. Especially since seeing him earlier that afternoon had brought back the feelings she had kept buried all this time. But dreaming about him every month for nearly ten years was really too much for Alina. She had just been happy that she hadn’t dreamed about him for two weeks. But because they had met earlier, she dreamed about him again.
“Lina, why are you spacing out? Hey, hello,” he said again, waving his hand in front of Alina’s face. Alina only stared at him with an annoyed, displeased expression.
“That’s better. Look at me, don’t space out. Come on, let’s go to class.” Vano took the book from Alina’s hand—a book she had no idea when she’d started holding. Alina simply followed behind him, wondering where he would take her in her dream this time.
“Lin, we’re here. Come on, get out.” Suddenly, we were in a familiar-looking cafe. FYI, Lin was Vano’s affectionate nickname for Alina. Alina furrowed her brow and looked at Vano in confusion, clearly questioning why they were at a cafe.
“Didn’t you want to tell me a lot of things?” Alina’s eyes widened in shock at his question. How did he know? This dream was a little different from usual. Alina slowly exhaled, shook her head, and looked away.
The cafe only looked similar; it wasn’t the same cafe they had been at that afternoon. Alina took a sip of the drink in front of her. Hot chocolate? She looked back and forth between Vano and the drink, silently asking when it had appeared in front of her.
“I ordered it earlier. It’s your favorite drink, right? I know your favorite drink,” he said proudly, which Alina answered with an unamused expression.
If you’re wondering why Alina communicated with Vano only through expressions and gestures, it was because she couldn’t speak in her dreams. No sound came out of her. She had been able to speak in a dream once, though. But that had been a very long time ago. Even her memory of that dream was beginning to fade.
“Alina, you’re not happy to see me? Lately, it seems like you don’t like it when you see me. You don’t need me anymore?” Vano put on a sad expression.
“Even so, I’ll still be by your side, just like I promised you back then,” he continued.
Alina looked at him guiltily. She was confused. On one hand, she was happy that she could always meet Vano in her dreams. But waking up and realizing that her relationship with Vano wasn’t real made her sad. Slowly, that feeling became mixed with anger.
Alina’s relationship with Vano in her dreams wasn’t like a long, continuous novel. It was more like a collection of different short stories, with Alina and Vano as the main characters.
Slowly, Alina realized that her vision was beginning to blur. Vano’s voice gradually grew faint, like the voice of someone speaking underwater. His expression looked serious and hurried. Alina stared at him, trying to sharpen both her vision and her hearing.
“Alina, you have to remember how—” Vano hadn’t finished his sentence when Alina’s vision went dark and the surroundings suddenly fell silent. Within seconds, Alina woke up.
*What was Vano going to say? How? How what?*
Alina hadn’t even heard the rest of Vano’s sentence. She spent the entire day wondering what Vano had wanted to tell her. That dream became Alina’s first and last dream of meeting Vano that month.