C.12

 

 

He broke down.

People at the cafe started looking at them.

“Somebody please call the ambulance! Please!! Please!!!”

 

+

 

Chaerin sat on the floor at the emergency room hallway, her back on the wall and her hand circling around her knees. She drown her face between arms.

She’s crying.

Merciless guilt sneak into her chest.

Chaerin lifted her head when she heard Dami’s voice.

“Unnie…” she didn’t see his parents.

“You…” Dami hissed.

Chaerin gulped.

“I was clearly told you not to push him to remember anything!!”

Chaerin bit her lip. She told Dami what happened on the phone when she and Jiyong was on their way to the hospital, and she knew Dami’s gonna be so angry.

Dami dragged her to the outside of the ER.

“Chaerin, I was wrong about you! You’re so selfish! You’re such a egoistic person! You only think about yourself!!”

“I’m sorry… unnie I’m sorry…”

“If anything happened to my brother I swear I will hate you forever.”

“Unnie…. Please…” she cries.

“What could be so hard from being patience, huh?”

Chaerin didn’t say anything.

“You could’ve killed him, in fact neither of us know how is he doing now.” Dami furrowed her eyebrows and closes her eyes, she tried not to cry. She came to the hospital earlier but couldn’t see Jiyong because he was on intensive care.

“Unnie…” Chaerin said.

“Now go.” Dami coldly said.

“Unnie… don’t, please…”

“My parents will be here tomorrow and we’ll bring him back to the US.”

Chaerin crying.

“You better off now and don’t you dare to ever looking for my brother.” She said.

 

+

 

Boston, Massachusetts.

A month later

 

“Hello, I’m Dr. Hopkins.” A man with full grey hair greets Dami.

“I’m Kwon Dami, Jiyong’s guard.”

“Yes, I’ve heard, thank you for waiting.” He smiles.

She sat in front of Dr. Hopkins.

“So, after a two weeks under our supervision, I think your brother is now fully recover.”

“Really?”

“I could say so.” He smiles again, “Actually I see nothing wrong with him since the first time he gets in here, but from the record…” he took documents from his desk. “Dr. Johnson was the doctor in charge, right?” he mumbles.

“Yes…” Dami nodded.

“When Mr. Kwon Jiyong arrived I was pointed to replaced Dr. Johnson as he has to move to California, then I studied his case, from what I saw, he got pre-treatment condition and Dr. Johnson instruct the patient acquaintance to be gentle and not to push any diminish memory to come back, right?”

Dami nodded.

“I don’t see why is that necessary.” Dr. Hopkins said.

“Pardon?”

“I have some patients with similar cases as mr. Kwon Jiyong, but each of them fully recover even right after the treatment, they did have some memory lost but I always tell the family or close acquaintance to slowly telling the patient about memories they couldn’t remember.”

“B-but… isn’t that dangerous for the patient?”

“Dangerous? Not at all, it will be dangerous if patients is kept from knowing the memories they lost for too long, when he find out by himself, he’ll get confuse or agitated because the knowledge is baseless due to their condition. But if they have someone beside them telling them about the memories, they will have room to ask and more facilities to be comforted by the other parties.” Dr. Hopkins explain, “And what happened to mr. Kwon is he was kept from his own memories for too long and when someone tried to insert just any information about him losing his memories, it will be like the trigger, and so this is what happened.”

Dami shook.

“I’m sure Dr. Johnson didn’t wrong, he just have different point of view, as far as I know, Dr, Johnson doesn’t take rough and risk-full medications, he will go with the most comfortable way, but for me, this kind of case sometimes needs a shock therapy and what Mr. Kwon Jiyong had a month a go is the best cure. Now—after a long treatment—he doesn’t have to worry about his condition anymore.”

Dami gulped.

Chaerin. She thought.

“M-my brother, does he…?’

“He’s perfectly fine, he could remember everything, we did test about all his motoric system, and it went very well. He had session with psychologist to do some mind therapy and it was also went smoothly.”

“Can I… can I see him?”

“Of course.”

Dr. Hopkins walked Dami to Jiyong’s room. For almost a month Jiyong had his therapy again at the hospital, he wasn’t like regular patient who’s only lay down on the bed with IV injection on their hand. Jiyong had more activities, they check on his health, he got MRI several times to watch his brain function, he follows some physical training to see his heart function and also he had some session with psychologist to do some mind therapy, just like Dr. Hopkins said.

Dami paused when she saw Jiyong sat on the bench at the park, reading some books.

“Ji…”

Jiyong lifted his head, “Nuna!”

Dami hug him tight, “You okay?” she asked.

“I’m perfectly fine.”

“You must be so boring to be here, right?”

“Yeah… but doctor already told me that I should stay here for 3-4 weeks for some tests.”

“Jiyong…” Dami smiled.

“How’s mom and dad?” he asked.

“They came here a week a go, but couldn’t see you since you were preparing for some therapy. Now they have something to do in Taiwan,”

“Oh…” Jiyong smiled.

“And how’s…” he paused. “Chaerin?”

 

 

+ + +

 

One year later

 

 

Osaka, Japan

 

Chaerin waved at a man who was waiting for her in a car.

She gets into the car and immediately got kiss on the cheek from the man.

“How’s the first day of work?” he asked.

She chuckles, “It is so different than the works I’ve done before. Even tho I’m still a marketing but selling things and selling people is two diverse things.”

“So which one you prefer?”

“Now, selling goods. Much better than selling you.” She smiled. “I always interested in home décor anyway, so this is like a dream come true”

The man leaning to his backrest much further, “We’re on different office now, you’re not the marketing of the modeling agency where i work anymore, you’re now a working on a big home living studio gallery.” He said, “So now will you start thinking about us?”

Chaerin smiling at the tall-pale white-handsome man beside her, “Why don’t we go to have dinner first, So Hyuk oppa?”

 

Chaerin and So Hyuk sitting in a nice restaurant in the heart of Chuo ward.

“You always have ways to differ this issue.” He sulked.

“Oppa, you know I love you.”

“As a brother.” He scoffed.

Chaerin laughs, “you think so?”

“I don’t know.” H shrugged, “you tell me.”

“I remember first time I knew you, you weren’t this sulky.” Chaein said.

“I was trying to be that cool oppa you seems to always like.”

“Who? Who’s that cool oppa I always like?” she playfully asked.

But the the two of them paused.

Chaerin knew So Hyuk looking at her neck, where she got her necklace hanging. The infinity pendant necklace.

“Chae,” he reached her hand, “You always know how I feel towards you, and I want to know if you feel the same way or not…”

“Oppa, I told you I love you.”

“But why you always refuse to date me? Isn’t that means that you don’t love me the way I do?”

Chaerin didn’t replied.

“Do you still think about that guy?”

Chaerin chuckles, “You know his name… why always call him ‘that guy’?”

“Alright.” He sighed, “Kwon Jiyong.”

“Its been a year, oppa, and I’m smart enough not to drown deeper.” She said while cutting her salad.

After she met Dami at the hospital, the next day Chaerin went back to hospital just to find that Jiyong has been moved to the State, she was devastated, no one knew where is he, in which country of USA Jiyong was. She contacted Dami but seems like she’s being blocked. She explained herself to Youngbae but he couldn’t do anything to help her because he also doesn’t know where’s Jiyong. She spent nights and day just to cry and blame herself for everything till Mr. Teddy Park, her boss at the intership office, offer her job in Japan to be a junior marketing for a developing modeling agency owned by his friends. She decided that she needs new environment so she moved.

Still mourning, she met one of the senior models in the agency where she worked as a marketing peoplr, Lee So Hyuk, they became friends simply because both are Koreans who lives in Japan, until So Hyuk realized that he likes her more than just a friend. And after a year working in a modeling agency, her boss mutate her to ano