After Sandara collapsed, Bom mobilized her team and called Big Bang and Hyesun to let them know what happened.

Seunghyun found his girlfriend efficiently talking to her team about Sandara’s condition but he could see the tear tracks on her face, evidence of the woman beneath the doctor. He also found Hyesun there, listening intently as she sat on Seungri’s bed beside their very worried looking maknae. Hyesun also had her professional game face on and he could see her making a notation on her tablet every now and then.

Seunghyun waited until Bom’s team has left the room. Once they were gone, he approached her and wrapped her in his arms. Bom held on to him tight and he tried to convey all the love and support he could through his embrace.

He looked up as Jiyong, Daesung and Youngbae entered the room. “What happened?”

Seunghyun felt Bom squeeze him once, before she faced Jiyong. “Let’s move to the boardroom. I only want to go through this once.”

They all nodded and started making their way out of the room, except for Jiyong who lingered near Sandara’s bed. His eyes were hooded and his hand hovered over Sandara’s limp arm. Bom touched his shoulder, “Physically, she’s resting. Once we go out, I’ll call Minji to come and sit with her.”

Jiyong nodded and briskly walked away. Everyone could see how rigidly he was holding himself. They all made their way to their usual conference room. Once they all sat down, Jiyong spoke. “What happened, noona? She was fine when you left us, right?”

Bom nodded. “Yeah.. I checked all her vitals and they were good.. We were joking around, gossiping about you.. We were having fun..” She stopped as she tried to compose herself. “Then we had a fight. Well, not a fight. She sort of snapped at me when I kept asking her if she actually remembered what happened. I guess because Seungri already gave her the third degree about it, me asking her about it was too much too soon.”

“I was just worried about her.” Seungri defended himself even though no one was questioning him about his actions. “When I woke up, she was just standing by the door. I asked her what was wrong and where she went and she acted like she doesn’t remember.” Seungri sighed. “I asked her over and over because I felt like she was hiding something from me but she provided some details. About Mino, his cat and stuff.. That was when Jiyong hyung came in and..” he trailed off, not wanting to expose how vulnerable his hyung was during that time.

Jiyong nodded. “I apologized for..” he waved his hand dismissively, not wanting to make a big deal out of it. “She said she forgave me but something was off.. I thought she was just too scared to actually say that she hates my guts..” Jiyong trailed off.. “I.. I have..” He shook his head and asked Bom to continue her story.

“We were talking about neurospecialists and she mentioned Hyesun wanted one to come and see her.” Bom shared. “Then she said she has no money and can’t pay for anything. Then she started rocking herself and she sort of.. I don’t know how to describe it.. But it was like she wasn’t all there. Her eyes were open and she was speaking but it seems like she can’t hear me. Her pupils were dilated, her breathing was erratic but that could be from all the crying.” She wiped away her own tears as she continued. “I tried hugging her like I did when she remembered Tamtamie but she just kept speaking and crying and rocking until she stopped. She looked at me and I could see awareness in her eyes. She apologized to me and passed out.”

“Who’s Tamtamie?” Youngbae asked.

Bom and Hyesun exchanged a look, then Hyesun spoke carefully. “Tamtamie was her pet rabbit..”

“Noona..” There was steel in Jiyong’s voice. “Maybe you should give us everything.”

Hyesun was clearly torn between her vows as a doctor and her vows as a friend. Bom solved that by answering Jiyong instead. “Tamtamie was her pet rabbit that her vile captors killed in front of her!” Venom was seething in every single word that came out of Bom’s mouth. “Those sadistic bastards are probably responsible for at least half of Sandara’s trauma. Ooooh… If I get my hands on those cowardly pricks..”

Hyesun gently cleared . “It was horrible.” She confirmed. “That actually triggered my suggestion for calling in a specialist. When she told me about it, it was a day after she remembered.. Her memories were so vivid. She remembers how soft her pet’s fur was.. How this.. This.. bastard dragged her or what she hit when he threw her off..”

“The blood!” Bom interjected, turning pale at the memory. “She says the color of the blood haunts her.”

The men remained quiet as Bom and Hyesun held each other’s hands in a gesture of support.

“After that session, she stopped talking about it.” Hyesun continued. “When I would bring it up, she’d wave me off or change the subject. As a friend, I wanted to let her change the subject but as her doctor, I wanted her to talk about it. It seemed to me that as the days passed, she’d remember less and less. After discussing it with Bom professionally, we couldn’t see anything abnormal in her brain activity other than the presence of the chip, of course. My specialty is more with the mental and emotional well-being, so I brought up getting a specialist. Sandara was fine with it. She really wanted to get better. She just asked me if you would be okay with it.” She told Jiyong.

“She never told me.” Jiyong said. Any of it. She never told me she remembered or that she was scared.

“She thinks that we discuss her medical condition among us all the time without her.” Bom shared. “Besides, she had lots of other things she wanted to talk to you about.”

“Not all the time.” Daesung said wryly.

“How did money come into the picture, noona?” Youngbae asked.

Bom squinted as she tried to remember. “We were talking about how the brain is a mystery and all that jazz. I made a joke about how that’s why the neurosurgeons are rich. Then she said she has no money to pay for a neurosurgeon, her food, her meds.. When I said that it didn’t matter because Jiyong is rich, she started saying she was useless.. Then all this stuff about hot buns and how she was a waste of money-”

“Hot buns?” Seungri asked skeptically.

Bom nodded. “Yeah! She was going on about how she should have been killed long ago but thank the hot buns she wasn’t and how she was a waste of space or something like that.”

“Bom” Seunghyun interrupted his girlfriend seriously. “Are you sure she said hot buns?”

Bom rolled her eyes. “I don’t know! I was kinda busy calming her down and trying not to freak out. I thought it didn’t make sense, but would anything she say make sense at this point?!”

“Noona.” Jiyong called her attention. “This could be important. When she mentioned money, did she mention a currency?”

“Currency? Like forex?”

“Yeah. Like million dollar baby or one billion won..” Seunghyun continued, happy to know that he and his team were on the same drift.

Bom saw the serious looks on Big Bang’s expectant faces. She tried hard to think back, getting the feeling that this was something important. “ Waste of space.. Waste of.. Space..” She murmured what she thought were Sandara’s words. “Burden.. Waste of space.. Waste of.. Yen!” She shouted. “She said something like, millions of yen wasted then she said the hot bun thing after..”

Something in Jiyong’s eyes glinted. “Could she have said oyabun?”

“Oyabun?” Bom repeated the word. “Yes. I think so. I remember wondering why her pronunciation seemed weird.. Oyabun.. Yeah.. That makes much more sense when you add the yen..” Her head shot up and her eyes widened in horror. “Oyabun? Like as in the Yakuza?”

“Daesung, get Seungyoon to focus on the name search for Koreans living in or who lived in Japan. Include Japanese with Korean ancestry in the search.” Jiyong ordered and Daesung quickly complied, calling Seungyoon and relaying the new instructions. “If only we knew which yakuza family.. TOP hyung, ask Jiwon hyung to check the tattoos on Seungri’s assassin to see if they match any well known symbols of the different groups. I’m sure they did a cursory check, but now we can ask them to focus on that trace. Youngbae, see if you could follow up on those files from General Yang or at the very least check when he plans to pay us a visit.”

“That’s it!” Seungri suddenly blurted out.
“What’s it?” Bom asked.

“When I was shot.. I was losing a lot of blood as we ran, especially when that guy and I started fighting..” Seungri told them. “I told Sandara to hide but she must have seen me when the gunman had me down. She..” He flailed his hands around as he tried to picture the scene. “She came out of nowhere and started hitting the gunman with a piece of wood. Thinner than a 2x4.. I was catching my breath but I thought that she’s got good form.. Now you’re talking about yen and yakuzas and Japan.. I wonder if..”

Jiyong steepled his fingers in front of him as his mind raced. This is what he’s good at: analyzing problems and finding solutions. “Daesung, have them check martial arts dojos and maybe take a look at kendo competitions. Long shot, but what the hell.”

“She was seriously good at Dance Dance Revolution..” Daesung commented recalling how they observed her footwork when Seungri took her to the arcade.

Jiyong nodded. The pieces are finally coming together. “Bom noona, Hyesun noona, please go ahead and get whoever you think will help. Since her memories have been triggered, I think this might be when she’s most susceptible to treatment.” He waited for either doctor to contradict his assumption but both just nodded. “Is there anything else we need to know?” When no one spoke, he nodded. “Seungri.. Just keep doing whatever you’re doing. She seems to like you..”

“She likes all of you.” Hyesun shared. “When she speaks of the times she’s felt happy, they all involve you.. All of us.” She smiled. “Granted, we’re practically all she knows but she genuinely feels happy here..”

“All the more reason to find the answers to this puzzle.” Youngbae finally said. “Not that we need more.. Cause we ehem Jiyong ehem all like her and care about her, of course.”

Jiyong chose to ignore Youngbae’s teasing. His feelings for Sandara.. That’s a battle for another day. Right now, he needs to focus on the plan.

_______________________________

Sandara, honey?

Open your eyes, princess.

There’s been an accident..

I’m so sorry.

Keep your eyes on me.

Open your eyes, Sandara.

Sandara woke up with a start. That seems to be like the only way she wakes up these days. She blinked to clear the sleep away from her eyes. She turned her head when she heard a noise by the door.

“Oh. You’re awake.” One of her favorite nurses, Minji, said from the doorway. “Sajangnim was just here. Let me see if I can catch him.”

Sajangnim? Sandara wondered. Her eyes stayed glued to the doorway, waiting for this sajangnim to make an appearance.

“You’re awake.”

Her lips curved in a smile. “Jiyong.”

“Yeah.”

“I was confused when Minji mentioned that Sajangnim was here.” She told him as she tried to sit up. He approached her swiftly and held her steady until she managed on her own. “For some reason, I imagined a middle-aged man wearing a hat.”

“You knew I was sajangnim.” Jiyong said lightly. “Did you forget?”

Sandara frowned. “I know you like own the company and stuff.. Oh, I guess that makes you sajangnim, huh?” She smiled sheepishly at him.

“You’ve been asleep for a while.” Jiyong commented as he sat on her bed so he was facing her. “Let me send a quick message to the others to let them know you’re awake.”

“Have I been asleep that long?” Sandara wondered.

“Not that long. You know them.” Jiyong returned his phone in his pocket. “They’ll be here in a bit, I’m sure.”

“Jiyong?”

“Hmm?”

“Do you know where Dadoong is?” she asked timidly, her arms aching for here little pet.

“I think Seungri took him outside for a bit. I’ll tell him to bring him back when he comes back to the room.” Jiyong took his phone out again and started drafting a text to Seungri.

“Where is Seungri?” Sandara asked as she watched Jiyong type on his phone. “He’s sick too, right?”

“Sick in the head.” Jiyong murmured.

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