From morning, my head felt heavy.

Maybe it was because I hadn’t slept properly, or maybe it was because even while not sleeping well, my worries pressed down on my mind. From the moment I finally opened my eyes late in the morning, my head was heavy and my thoughts scattered.

I felt like I had dreamed something, but I couldn’t remember it clearly. It left me with a vague sense of longing and regret. Maybe it was a childhood dream.

Whenever I had a childhood dream, it was usually like that. Sometimes I had dreams that made me feel good all day, but mostly they left me feeling nostalgic and regretful. Perhaps I loved my childhood more than I thought, Jeong Tae-ui reflected.

I looked back on those times, which I could never return to, with a sense of longing, seeing that time again and again in my dreams.

Though it wasn’t quite a headache, it felt like a stone was placed atop my head, heavy and dull. I thought it was just from just waking up and that it would pass soon. So, I went out to the garden and lounged around flipping through the pages of a book in my bag. Yet even after lunch and into the afternoon, my head wouldn’t clear.

I figured I really needed some medicine’s help, so to drink something and clear my head, I went down from my room on the second floor to the kitchen to get some beer. It was then, almost at the bottom of the stairs, that I missed my footing.