Neir began to cry. Her sobs broke out without warning, sounding faint yet so clear in Dani's left ear, as if the weeping resonated directly with his consciousness.
He didn't see it directly, but the feeling was so tangible, as if Neir's sorrow was seeping through every strand of air between them.
Dani was stunned, his breath catching for a moment. This wasn't just a strange sound or vision that had been disturbing him. Now, he could feel Neir's emotion—her crying, her pain—as if it were his own.
Dani fell silent.
He wasn't the one crying. He was sure of that.
Yet, a drop of warmth fell on his left cheek, followed by a more steady stream. The vision in his left eye began to blur, disturbed by a pool of tears that weren't his.
He raised a hand, wiping it with the back of his hand, hoping it was just an illusion. But no—the wetness was real. The sensation was so vivid, as if someone else's emotions were flowing across the boundary between him and that other person.
Neir.
Dani's heart beat faster. He clenched his fists, held his breath for a moment, trying to control his increasingly chaotic thoughts.
Was this just an effect of the strange exchange happening between them? Or was there something deeper—something connecting them beyond reason?
He swallowed, then uttered the name, his voice firmer than before, but still restrained by uncertainty. "Neir?"
No answer.
Only the sound of soft sobs continued in his left ear, faint, fragile, like a whisper from a faraway place yet so close. As if Neir was there, right beside him, feeling a wound she couldn't express.
Dani clenched his fists, straightening his back that had been leaning against the wooden wall. Dani gritted his teeth. "I'm serious... I've heard this crying before."
But still, there was no answer. Only sobs that grew deeper, as if drowning in a sea of feelings that even Dani couldn't fully comprehend.
"Listen, I'm Dani." He tried to keep his tone calm, even though his head was full of questions. "I'm sure we've met before... in a dream."
But now he realized.
This wasn't a dream.
Dani didn't know how, but he could see what was in front of Neir. He could hear the sound of her crying. He could feel her tears.
Slowly, the strange pieces in his mind began to connect. They weren't just sharing sounds and sight—they were genuinely swapping senses. Dani's left eye now belonged to Neir.
His left ear belonged to that girl too.
Dani gripped his head. This was insane.
Why was this happening?
And why did it have to be with this girl?
A memory flashed in his mind—the strange feeling when he lay in the hospital, the weird dream about a red-haired child, and now... a reality more impossible than any dream he'd ever had.
Dani took a deep breath.
Somehow, this had to be related.
But he didn't know how to get out of this situation yet.
For now, only one thing was clear:
They were connected.
And there was no way to avoid it.
---
Neir finally stopped crying, although the remnants of her sobs could still be heard softly. She took a deep breath, trying to regain control. Slowly, she wiped her wet right cheek—while her left eye remained dry, as if her crying was only half-real.
Dani could see again. His vision captured a wooden table with a plate holding a piece of bread. The room was simple, illuminated by a warm light from an unknown source. All of this felt foreign, yet real.
Dani finally spoke, his voice sounding ordinary, not too loud nor too soft. "It seems I can see what's in front of you. And you can see what's in front of me, right?"
Neir didn't answer immediately. She remained still, her gaze empty.
Dani continued in a still-casual tone, "This is weird, but I think we... swapped something. Our left eyes and left ears."
Neir bit her lip slightly. She couldn't deny that statement. What Dani said was true—something unbelievable had happened to them.
Dani asked again, this time more directly, "Where are you from?"
Neir lowered her head a little before answering, "...Beysolun."
Dani repeated the name in his head. He had never heard of that place before.
Suddenly, a memory from his dream flashed in his mind. The dream that happened when he was unconscious for a week in the hospital. He remembered seeing a little girl with red hair—Neir. The clothes she wore in that dream were the same as what Dani saw now.
Dani muttered to himself, "So that wasn't just a dream?"
The strange dream he thought was an illusion from his fainting spell turned out to be real. The little girl in the dream truly existed, and now the two of them were experiencing something even harder to explain with common sense.
Dani took a deep breath. "I've seen you before."
Neir turned slightly, still in her confusion.
Dani continued, "When I was unconscious, I dreamed of meeting someone... and it was you."
Neir's eyes widened. "A dream...?"
Dani nodded. "But it seems it wasn't just an ordinary dream."
The atmosphere grew even quieter. Both of them began to realize that the strange events they were experiencing weren't mere coincidences. Something was connecting them—something they didn't fully understand yet.
Neir fell silent for a moment after hearing Dani's words. Her heart beat faster, not from fear, but because something within her was beginning to realize that all of this was indeed no coincidence.
"Me too..." Neir finally spoke, her voice soft, almost like a whisper. "I also saw you in my dream..."
Dani frowned. "Seriously?"
Neir nodded slowly. "When I was asleep for a long time... I saw you in a strange place. I was crying then, and you came... you calmed me down."
Dani fell silent, his mind spinning wildly, trying to piece together events that felt increasingly bizarre. So, both of them had the same dream?
When he was unconscious, he saw Neir in his sleep—and it turned out Neir experienced the same thing, meeting him in her dream during her long slumber.
That wasn't a coincidence. Impossible.
"So it's not just me..." Dani mumbled, more to himself, his voice faint in the quiet room.
On the other side, Neir bit her lip. She was still trying to understand what was really happening, even though her heart was filled with uncertainty. Her gaze drifted, as if searching for answers in a place unreachable by common sense.
"What does this mean?" she finally asked, her voice soft, yet enough for Dani to sense the anxiety within it.
Dani let out a long sigh, then rubbed his face with his right hand, as if hoping to wipe away the confusion dominating his thoughts.
"I don't know either..." he answered honestly. His eyes stared blankly at the ceiling, searching for something he couldn't find. "But one thing's clear—this isn't just a coincidence."
Silence enveloped them once more. They fell quiet, each lost in their own thoughts, trying to untangle an endless knot. Seeking meaning in something that didn't even make sense, even though deep in their hearts, they both knew—this wasn't something that could be ignored.
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