Asleep

“I was always asleep. Even when I was awake, I was asleep.”

Night and Night’s Travelers

The first story follows Shibami, a young woman grieving the death of her boyfriend, Haru. She struggles with insomnia and begins seeing Haru’s ghost in her dreams. Meanwhile, she befriends a woman named Fumi, who also lost someone. Their shared sorrow creates a bond, but Shibami remains trapped between wakefulness and dreams, unable to fully let go of Haru.

Love Songs

The second story centers on Fumi, a woman who falls into a deep sleep after her lover, a married man, leaves her. She drifts between reality and dreams, haunted by memories. A mysterious woman named Shiori appears in her dreams, offering cryptic comfort. Fumi’s sleep becomes a refuge, blurring the line between escape and surrender.

Asleep

The final story follows Terako, a woman who sleeps excessively after her best friend’s suicide. She becomes entangled with a man whose wife is in a coma, forming a strange, dreamlike relationship. Their shared loneliness binds them, but Terako’s sleep feels like both a curse and a sanctuary, leaving her suspended between life and death.

Key Ideas

• Grief and loss as transformative forces
• The thin boundary between dreams and reality
• Isolation and emotional numbness
• Sleep as both escape and imprisonment
• Female resilience in the face of sorrow