11

Tim had always been a busy man. Sometimes his career could actually cause him a little bit lunatic. He never had his own privacy since he stood in his early juvenile year. Every time he tried to go out, people all around him had always recognized his face, flashing cameras filled his big eyes, making the man always walk with his head down to ignore the thunderous crowd.

He didn’t regret any of it, these had always been his big dreams after all. However, sometimes the man's exhausted with this kind of life, every day he met different types of people that genuinely used him for his popularity, gleaming cameras surrounded at him, and always he repeated his own routine every day such as serenading and dancing until his legs were extremely fatigued.

Every once in a while, he sometimes wondered what it would be like outside there when no one recognized him and lived freely without any severe rules. Sometimes he wondered what it would be like to fall into someone, he wishes every night that he wanted to feel something, something that would make him feel some kind of euphoria or probably endearment in his crowded life. From time to time, he desired someone that could actually adore him, not only use him for his fortune. The one that who would understand him just the way he is, and someone that would always be on his side whether there was a thunderstorm coming into his life. Nevertheless, in the end he always gave up on that someone since he cared about his beloved fans and had always been in control with his massive company—no dating life until the contract is completely over.

There were times when Tim was a bit rebellious, he dated some few girls back then and tried to find the one that was completely well-suited to him. What can he say? He’s a man, after all—he needed some affection and tenderness in his chaotic life. Although from time to time, those girls weren’t the one that he had been searching for all of these times. Some of them were using him for his money and some of them—well, it just wasn’t a pretty good match for him. Thus, now he grew up as a man, and he felt as if he didn’t want to believe in love anymore and started to focus more on his career.

Everything felt like an endless wheel for him. He wished he could get some pauses for him to breathe into the fresh air. Every day he tried his best to perform the finest just for the sake of the company and his own life. His head felt dizzy, his body felt as if he was drowning into the bottom of the sea—and it felt as if no one was reaching for him.

Until one night, he was extremely fatigued from the performance, thus he decided to go to sleep right away. He closed his eyes, trying to recall his marvelous performance from tonight until he was deep in slumber. Suddenly, he felt both of his feet on the sand— a warm sand, and the color of the sand was gleaming golden. He tilted his head from side to side as he saw an incredible ocean before he tried to search for someone on this magnificent lonely beach. He walked and walked around the beach with the sun beaming on his figure until he eventually stopped his steps and took a deep breath in front of the ocean. He thought he was lonely on this beach, he was thinking that perhaps it was his time to relax and breathe from his crowded life. He smiled at the ocean, he always wished for this kind of moment when he wanted to run away from his life. He was closing his eyes, inhaling the salt air before he heard some steps near his figure. He quickly opened his eyes and tilted his head to the left to see a young woman standing right beside him and staring at him with no expression.

Tim frowned, he took a good look at her carefully, she had long wavy hair, big round eyes, and tan skin. She didn’t speak any words to him, she only stared at him and joined beside him to breathe the relaxing salt air while closing her big eyes. He was puzzled, there were a lot of questions on his head, but obviously the main question was, who is this girl. She’s definitely young, probably in her 20s. Tim wanted to ask the young girl. However, the girl suddenly opened her eyes and stared at him again with no single word coming from her mouth. The girl smiled at him.

Tim opened his eyes, sweats began to form in his forehead as he sat up on the hotel bed, looking around the room like a mystified man. He stared at the clock beside him and it struck at 6.11 am. He closed his eyes, feeling disappointed about waking up too early as he tried to get some sleep again however, he couldn’t, and it made the man frustrated. He decided to wake up, standing up on his feet before he recalled the dream from last night.

Hold on—those lovely big eyes, who is she? Tim’s thoughts began to ponder. He then messed his hair before pulling out his drawer and briskly drew the face of the girl that he tried to remember however, all he caught was that she had wavy long hair and her familiar big eyes. He bit his lip while shaking one of his legs until someone rang the bell.

“Wake up Tim! Don’t forget, we have to be ready at 8 for the rehearsal,” one of his band members told him in front of his hotel door. Tim ignored him, still couldn’t erase the woman he dreamt last night. Thus, he began to do his routine by practicing for his show as usual however, he still couldn’t erase the face of the beautiful woman from his dream last night, it’s as she's been living on his brain for evermore. The band members noticed his unusual behavior, Tim began to lose some focus and didn’t even catch their band mates talking to him from time to time.

“Dude, are you okay?” One of his closest band mates asked him, Tim only nodded multiple times. He wanted to tell his guys that he had this unusual, confusing, lovely dream, but he didn’t want to sound as if he was still a child who just barely had a wonderful dream. “You can tell me if there’s something wrong, alright?” His friend raised his eyebrow, trying to make sure. Tim once again nodded.

Tim felt as if he was going insane, his mind was only filled with that girl. The girl of his dream. Why can’t she leave his mind just for a single minute? He felt frustrated, it’s the first time he felt something like this. He can barely recall other dreams of his from thousand nights however, this time it’s different. Even from tonight’s concert, she’s still there, as if she was living on his mind. All he can remember visibly was her eyes.

The stars of the magnificent night sky finally twinkling in the busy city. Tim and the whole band members shared their farewells one more time before all of them went back to their hotel bedrooms. Tim felt exhausted from tonight’s concert, he took a shower and immediately went to bed.

Tim opened his eyes and felt some rain drops falling into his body. He briskly put his hands on his head, preventing himself from the heavy rain until he stood below the empty place from one of the boulevards. He crossed his arms shakily due to the coldness, he was slightly soaking from the rain, and now he was searching for someone. However, there were no people around. The road was empty, the boulevards were lonely, the only sounds that accompanied him was only the heavy rain that was drowning from the night sky. The rain turned softer now, Tim was about to leave the boulevard until he saw a girl standing in the middle of the road, she was soaking as well, and she looked around to search for someone.

Wait, she seems familiar. Tim thought. He wanted to help the girl before he suddenly found a single red umbrella right in the corner of the boulevard. What a coincidence. He quickly took the umbrella and reached the girl who was staring at him. It’s her. Tim stood right in front of her before handling her the red umbrella right above her head, letting the rain fall into his body. The girl with those familiar big eyes smiled at him again.

Tim sat on the hotel bed, staring blankly at the wall like a mad man. It’s been one hour ever since he woke up. He dreamt about her again. He’s been drawing her face over and over again until there were a lot of crumpled papers falling to the carpet. Tim was curious about the girl that’s been haunting him for days.

Months and years go by, Tim still dreamt about the girl in different places every day in his sleep. His band members also knew about the ‘dream girl’ however, they always thought that maybe she was just a stranger from one of his dreams. However, for Tim, she wasn’t just a stranger. Call him crazy, but he truly fell in love with the girl from time to time. Tim collected all of his drawings from all of his certain dreams to his bedroom wall, the project was getting crowded since he dreamt a lot of that young woman with big eyes.

Unfortunately, five years had passed. Tim hadn’t found the girl of his dream yet. He still kept his projects in his bedroom secretly, wrote some songs about her, and dreamt about her regularly. He almost wanted to give up, but her lovely face kept appearing on his mind every time he wanted her to completely vanish from his life. There were no tears left to cry anymore, and all he wanted to do was to forget the girl, or he called it as the imagination girl. He stared at the projects about her on his bedroom wall, the whole wall almost filled with her. He focused on one of his drawings about her eyes, the eyes that he’s been longing for five years, but his moment was cut off by a phone call.

“What?” Tim responded, bitterly.

“Where are you? Our flight will be 2 hours from now!” One of his band mates reminded him. Tim ended the call without any warning and briskly went to the airport to proceed to Singapore along with his band mates for a special event.

The hot weather from Singapore wasn’t a surprise for Tim. He greeted some of his fans that had been waiting for him for hours at the airport. He spared his kind smile to his beloved fans as he saw ‘11’ number from one of the fans’ cart board signs before Tim and his band mates continued to attend the huge hall where the meeting for their special event would be held. In the middle of the meeting, Tim pressed his pen repeatedly and yawned lazily since the meeting was a bit tedious for him. He checked the clock on his phone, and it struck at 11:11 am. Tim frowned, now he barely noticed that the eleven signs had been haunting him ever since he landed in Singapore. However, he only shrugged and continued to focus on his meeting.

The moon in Singapore began to glimmered in the night sky. Tim checked himself out in the mirror of his hotel bedroom once again. He looked incredibly handsome, the black suit and his black dress shoes fitted him so well, he checked the clock on his phone as it struck at 6:11 pm. Tim once again frowned, that’s quite odd.

The special event was marvelous, everyone was celebrating and congratulating the boys. Tim bowed at all of the people who admired him, the place was a bit crowded that he couldn't even notice his band mates. Tim sighed, drinking his champagne casually while searching for someone in the crowd. He knew that he was a fool to believe the woman in his dream would attend tonight's event. But he got this feeling that she's here. Two hours had passed, and Tim felt a little bit gauche since he was getting sick of people who came up to him with some various smiles. He excused some people before going to a place that’s a bit lonelier.

He walked outside from the crowd for some moments until he found a river, a beautiful river that was filled with certain lotus, and there were no people around. Tim sighed in some sort of relief, he needed to get some fresh air from all of the crowds. He stood in front of the river, staring at the gleaming city of Singapore. Tim closed his eyes for a good breath before he heard some steps coming at him. At first, he thought there were some fans who followed him here, but when he opened his eyes, he stared at the familiar girl with her big eyes. The girl stared at him in surprised.

There you are. Both of their minds uttered.