“What do you mean those are my memories?” he said, realizing that this conversation had taken a bizarre turn. He was now seated facing her, still at the counter.

 

“Don’t you know what memories are?” she asked.

 

“Of course I do. But that’s not the point. Why are my memories doing on VHS tapes? And what are you doing here?”

 

“I’m the shop keeper,” she huffed. “Well, sort of.”

 

“Sort of?”, he quirked his eyebrows.

 

“That’s the least of your concern now.” She waved her hand dismissively.

 

He looked at her in the eyes. They gave off a certain warmth. The more they talked, the more he needed that warmth. The store was gradually getting colder and before he knew it, he could see his own breath. Woohyun cupped his hands to his mouth and blew into them.

 

“What’s happening?” he asked, slightly alarmed.

 

“Don’t worry. It’s just the air conditioner,” she said, rubbing her hands. “It turns on automatically. We have to keep this place cold. It’s good for the tapes. Keeps them in good condition.”

 

“I see,” Woohyun nodded. “But good condition for what? For whom?”

 

“Who else?! For you, of course. For this moment.”

 

He’s not sure what she meant by that. The silence grew heavier. He turned back to the tapes and looked through the labels again. Thousands upon thousand of tapes. Thousands of days. Thousands of memories. He didn’t have any idea where to begin.

 

“So how does this works?” he inquires.

 

“You can take out three tapes at a time.”

 

“Just three?”

 

“Don’t push your luck, kid.”

 

Woohyun grinned at the glare given to him and turned his attention to shelves looming over him. He ran the figures in his head. 26 years of living. That’s over 9000 days, over 9000 tapes. And the fact that he could only rent out three of them made it even more preposterous.

 

Absently tapping his foot on the floorboard, Woohyun tried to recall all of his 26-year’s worth of memories as much as he could. Every time periods that he could remember.

 

It’s a futile attempt since he couldn’t remember none. It hit him, it hit like a wrecking ball that he remembered nothing. Only his name and basic information like his age and address. He also remembered the names of his family, his friends. Lovers? He had no idea.

 

And despite all those names, he couldn’t relate even a single one of them to a particular memory. It’s like someone formatted his brain part where all of the memories were stored.

 

The lady noticed the frustration on his face and said, however, with an odd air of caution, “Don’t mind me. Just take your sweet time and pick your dates carefully.”

 

“I can’t remember anything,” the frustration even more apparent in his voice. “I don’t understand.”

 

With a gentle smile, she replied, “Just pick. And perhaps then, you’ll understand.”

 

Weird. Her reply wasn’t really helping to clear up his confusion. If any, it only made him more confused before. However he refrained himself from asking any further and decided to just pick out the damn tapes and get over with all of this.

 

He looked up at the highest row and tiptoed to reach it. He picked up his first tape:

 

06/09/2010

 

Then another:

 

12/12/2014

 

And after a little rummaging around the shelves, the final one:

 

09/08/2015

 

They felt heavy in his hands. Three tapes. Three days. A chance to relive those moments. Woohyun turned his heels away from the shelves and walked over to the cash register and smiled at the lady.

 

“That’s it, I guess. How much will that cost me?”

 

She laughed. “Did you really expect to pay for your own memories? How silly! They’re free. A gift from yours truly.”

 

“Really?”

 

“Yup,” she chirped. “And I hope you enjoy them. We paid a lot to get a top notch director for these.”

 

“Yeah, I hope so too.” Almost at a lost of words, he rocked back and forth on his heels, eyeing the tapes laid on the cool counter. “What now?”

 

“What, what now?”, a hint of playfulness could be heard.

 

“Well, you heard me. I couldn’t remember a single thing. So it also means that I don’t know where I’m heading after this. Home? I don’t think I can remember the way back. That, if I have any. ” He stuffed his cold hands in his coat. “And I doubt I can find any VHS player lying around on the streets.”

 

The lady grinned. “Thought you’ll never ask.” She then crouched down behind the counter and pulled out a dusty looking device. A VHS player. Woohyun hadn’t seen those in ages.

 

She set it on the counter and busied herself with the wires. Woohyun coughed several times from the dust flying around. And after a while, he retreated to a stool near the wall in an attempt to stay away as far as possible from the irritating dust.

 

“You know, this is quite strange,” Woohyun started. Seeing the lack of reply as a sign to keep talking, he continued, “All the things that’s happening to me. Did I knocked my head somewhere? How can all of my memories get wiped clean.”

 

The lady was still into the device. Seems like she had made progress with it, deftly handling the wire and plunging them into their respective places.

 

He knew the lady was still listening and continued, “But the strangest thing of all his how unfazed you are this whole time.” Woohyun turned his body fully to the lady. “A normal person would have freaked the hell out if a guy follows her at night, and I don’t think walking into a barren, dark store after that is a safe act. In fact, you were quite dandy.” She was now standing upright, dusting the dust on her apron. “And you seemed oddly calm when a potentially amnesiac person roamed around your store. You’re not even surprised when I told you I couldn’t remember anything.”

 

“Come here.”

 

She gestured for Woohyun to drag the stool to the counter. Somehow he felt the need to be cautious around this lady. After his revelation, he came to realize that a lot of things were off. He just can’t put his finger on it. Yet.

 

“What is this all about?” he eyed the small eyed lady warily. “You’re not one of those serial killers, right? Those who lure their victims into dark buildings and distract them by acting all chummy and killed them later.”

 

She laughed. Like actually laughed a hearty laugh. “If this makes you feel better, no, I’m not a serial killer." She shook her head. "Now, shut your mouth, quit those stupid questions and focus on the screen. You’ll thank me later, kid.”

 

Woohyun frowned at the nickname. He’s 26 years old and definitely not a kid. The man was about to voice his protest but his words got swallowed back into his mouth when once the buzzing statics could be heard. His attention was now fully on the monitor. Heart pacing erratically, he could feel the pulse on his wrist.

 

The statics started to clear out and Woohyun unconsciously leaned closer.