Cheng Xiao was allowed to go home after a few more examinations. Dawon guaranteed it was safe for her to be discharged, but she would have to return for a check-up next week. She also recommended Eunseo kept a close eye on her, at least for the first few days, should she suddenly feel or act out of the norm. With this, Cheng Xiao also found out she lived by herself, and so did Eunseo.

She didn’t exactly dislike the idea of being taken care of by the tall girl. It would definitely pose a chance for her to get to know her better. She really wanted to understand what her previous relationship with this girl was. She thought for a second about the possibility of Eunseo actually being her girlfriend, but she immediately shook it off, way too embarrassed about having thought such a thing, puzzled about why that even popped in her head. No way, she said she had never seen her smile, right? And they lived in separate houses… But right next to each other, so… No. No way. She shrunk visibly on the beige leather passenger seat of Eunseo’s luxurious car, her face heating up immensely, which made her hide it in her hands.

“Oh my god, are you alright?!” The girl in the driver seat asked, visibly alarmed, her eyes widened.

“W-what? Y-yes!! It’s fine!! I just uh… The sunlight! My eyes feel kind of sensitive to the light. Doctor Nam said it would be normal for that to happen.”

 “Geez, you scared me! I was just about to turn the car around and take you back to the hospital. But I’m glad everything’s alright.” Eunseo smiled right at her, breathing a sigh of relief. She then lowered the sun shield on Cheng Xiao’s side.

What a save…

The ride home went back to being silent, which left Cheng Xiao spacing out in her thoughts once again. Which she knew wasn’t what she was supposed to be doing, since it was better for her to analyze her surroundings on the way home, in order to possibly recall memories. But that seemed impossible for her to do right now. There was too much going on.

Out of all the questions she wanted to ask, which one would she ask first? She didn’t want to bomb Eunseo with questions and be annoying when she was already being so kind to her. But her head seemed like it would burst (almost literally, since she still had that annoying recurring headache as well).

“Eunseo… what are you to me?” No, she hadn’t actually shaken the thought off. As silly as it was.

“It’s sad that you don’t remember it, but… I’m your girlfriend, actually.” Eunseo answered, still facing ahead, eyes on the road.

So Cheng Xiao was right. Oh my god, how couldn’t I recognize her? What now? She must feel so awful…

Eunseo looked straight at her and started laughing uncontrollably.

“You should have seen your face right now, it was priceless! I’m so sorry, I couldn’t resist it!” She said in between laughs. “I’m really just your neighbor.”

Cheng Xiao also chuckled a bit, feeling even sillier and more embarrassed. And if she was going to be honest with herself, she was kind of disappointed it wasn’t true. Eunseo smiled brightly, which made the passenger feel more at ease, but simultaneously more embarrassed. In whatever way that was possible, at least.

“I forgot to mention I’m also the babysitter of your fish. Or should I say… fishter?” She continued, with a witty grin.

“My… fish? Fish… sitter…?” Cheng Xiao was puzzled with the randomness of what she had just said.

“Well, yes… in fact that plays a big part in how I found you. But I’ll leave that for a later time. Now, let’s go? But wait there, I’ll help you get out. The doctor said you could have balance problems.” Eunseo said, while releasing her seatbelt and then opening the door on her side. Cheng Xiao hadn’t even noticed they had already arrived, with how much she was lost in her thoughts.

The taller girl opened the door for Cheng Xiao and gently placed her hands on one of her elbows and one of her shoulders, helping her up. As she got up, Eunseo still had one hand over her shoulder and the other one on her arm, not letting go of her as they started walking. Cheng Xiao felt incredibly uneasy, but in a good way. This was really awkward, but she liked it.

Cheng Xiao stopped for a second to admire the building in front of her, slightly startling Eunseo, who was now looking straight at her, observing her contemplating expression. It was an incredibly tall and majestic building, easily over twenty storeys high, even though she hadn’t bothered counting them. It was mostly covered by very tall, black-tinted windows, with the surrounding walls fully painted in pearl white. The incredibly modern rectangular construction had protruding open balconies, fenced in glass, on either left and right side of it. As she turned her head to analyze the building’s surroundings, she noticed there were a few more buildings just like that one – perfect duplicates – spreading to either side of it. On the opposite side of the road, she could spot commercial places – mostly clothing stores, some of them looking quite luxurious, and restaurants, looking just as posh. She was astounded by the beauty of this place. However, she soon realized she was very, very familiar with it.

“I live here… we live here.” Cheng Xiao said, turning to Eunseo, with a small gap between her lips.

Eunseo smiled and nodded. She led a still-dazed Cheng Xiao to the large, sober, entrance hall, at the end of which a short girl with a bob, in a black and white suit, stood by the elevators. As they were approaching, she pressed the button to bring down the elevator and smiled welcomingly, bowing.

“Good morning Ms. Son Eunseo. Ms. Cheng Xiao Xiao.”

“Good morning, Soobin.” Eunseo greeted back as she smiled warmly.

“Good morning, Soobin.” Cheng Xiao repeated after her, smiling as well.

She recognized Soobin’s face immediately, and remembered her completely as Eunseo said her name. The doorkeeper’s smiling face greeted everyone in the building every morning, and her positive energy seemed like it could brighten anyone’s day. She rejoiced with the fact she remembered someone else, but at the same time, she was puzzled she still didn’t remember Eunseo.

As the golden-coated elevator arrived, the two girls stepped in and Eunseo pressed the button with the number 13 on it. Cheng Xiao was taken aback by the image in front of her. There was Eunseo, looking serene, as beautiful as she is. And next to her, a girl with a small, pale face. Almost as tall as Eunseo. Wearing a formal pantsuit, contrasting with Eunseo’s chic yet laid-back style. Big, brown eyes, small nose, bow-shaped lips, and a pointed chin. A bandage around her head, slightly visible under very messy bangs. She started moving her eyes, nose, lips, contorting her face, just to be sure. That was definitely her own reflection, in the elevator mirror. She couldn’t come even close to be able to describe the feeling of looking at her own reflection, and, even if for a brief moment, not being sure it was her own.

Apart from that, she must have looked really silly while moving the muscles of her face, because Eunseo was giggling, and she was pretty sure she was the reason.

Another surge of memory came to Cheng Xiao when she stepped out of the elevator, into the wide corridor of the 13^th floor. At the very end of the corridor, there were two doors – one in front of her, and one immediately next to it, but on the right side of the wall – respectively, Eunseo’s house, and her own. She remembered making small talk with her, helping her carry her groceries sometimes, giving her very strict instructions on how to care for her very valuable and precious fish tank while she was away…

Something struck Cheng Xiao suddenly, and she abruptly grabbed Eunseo’s wrist, taking off in a run towards the door of her house, which left the latter incredibly confused.

“My keys?! Do you have my keys? Where are they?” Cheng Xiao shook Eunseo’s arm, hurrying her.

“Y-yes!” Eunseo answered, still unable to pinpoint the reason for Cheng Xiao’s behavior. She used her free hand to remove a small clutch from her own bag, which was hanging on her “abducted” arm, then removing the keys from it, trying to open the door as fast as possible.

As the lock clicked, Cheng Xiao pushed the door open and ran towards the back of the very large living room, not even thinking about removing her shoes. There it was – an enormous aquarium. At least a lot larger than the average fish bowl – or any aquarium you would normally see in a house. Rectangular, supported by a metal structure of the same shape.

Eunseo took off after Cheng Xiao, and the both of them stopped in front of the structure. The owner of the aquarium maintained a blank expression for what seemed like forever. She tried not to believe her eyes. The brown-greenish color of the water. The number of small figures of varying colors and sizes floating by the surface of the water, lifeless. This was too much for her. She didn’t exactly know why. But she knew that she had always taken care of these fish with her life. That this aquarium meant the whole world to her. She felt like she had taken a punch to her gut. Disbelief, sadness, emptiness… all these emotions were running through her.

She felt a hand lightly touch her shoulder. She turned to Eunseo, who was wearing an apologetic expression. It was enough to ground her back to reality. Cheng Xiao suddenly launched herself into Eunseo’s arms and started sobbing loudly into her chest. Even though Eunseo was visibly taken by surprise, she hugged the crying girl tightly and rubbed her back. She wasn’t even close to her. She didn’t even know the slightest thing about her. But somehow, there was a unique sense of comfort she found in Eunseo’s arms. It felt comforting, but not nearly enough. Feelings were crawling and piling up like a snowball. She had just lost her fish, which were so important to her, for some reason she didn’t know about, which had happened because she went to the hospital for some reason she didn’t know about either. The frustration of suffering from amnesia had come back, now to hit her ten times harder.

Shortly after, Cheng Xiao felt the girl who was holding her stiffen. She looked up, to find Eunseo’s head scanning the room, looking around with an unbelievably shocked expression. There wasn’t anything that needed to be said. Cheng Xiao also turned her head to look around the room. But now, she really wished she hadn’t even raised her head from Eunseo’s chest.

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A/N: Here's another chapter! I really hope you don't think this is becoming boring or slow-paced. I really wanted to focus on Cheng Xiao's inner feelings as she rediscovers the world and things about herself at first, but as soon as she has a more solid sense of self, the story will be able to move in a faster pace and we can get to some action :) She's just getting to discover the basic things about her identity. I am planning for a more explanation-heavy chapter really soon, to give Xiao a chance to get an answer to all those annoying questions she has in her head and never gets the chance to ask.

Also, please don't think it's silly poor Xiao is so sad about her fish. There is a very deep reason why that tank means so much to her (even though she just doesn't know that yet ;_;).

And really, thank you so much for all the subs, votes and comments. I really didn't expect this! You guys are the best.