CHAPTER 23

       TIFFANY didn’t stop sobbing and blaming herself during the way to the hospital. She knew the car intended to hurt her and Taeyeon just replaced it by sacrificing herself.

       “I really can’t forgive myself,” Tiffany murmured in the middle of her sob.

       “I should never start it out, Sica…,” she added again while covering her face with both of her palms. In front of her, Yulsic couple was sitting but barely talked as they really had no idea what should spill out in sort of circumstance.

       “Ssssh… Stop blaming yourself, Fanny~yaaa…,” Jessica said. “If you have to put the blame on someone, Gyuri must be the one who has charge on it. I’m so sure about it!”

         “But now he’s gone… He’s gone because of me…,” Tiffany said feebly. Finally Jessica got up and sat beside her. She carefully guided Tiffany’s head to lean on her shoulder. Tiffany just followed like an absent-minded one and afterward Jessica gently caressed her back of head in order to soothe her, though she knew it probably wouldn’t work out so well.

         “How could you say he’s gone?” Yuri asked surprisingly.

       “I couldn’t sense his pulse on wrist, Yul…,” Tiffany said and squinted with her eyes shut as the scene suddenly popped again in her mind.

       But Yuri shook her head and slightly squatted beside her. He beamed her encouraging smile, like giving some hope.

       “It’s too fast to draw sort of conclusion, Tiffany,” Yuri said and patted her shoulder.

       “W-what do you mean? Are you trying to say that…”

       Yuri nodded hence cut her sentence off. “Sometimes it was too weak to detect. You could make sure by looking for artery carotid, here,” Yuri showed it by putting his thumb on the neck. “Artery carotid was more detectable one,” he explained and flashed a gentle smile.

       “I believe your boyfriend is a strong one. Moreover he’s promised you to always protect you. He wouldn’t die that easy, Tiffany. You have to be faithful.”

       As Yuri finished the sentence, the surgery door just squeaked open, and a doctor in green costume, presumably one of the surgery teams, just emerged. He just put off the mask and approached them.

       “H-how is he, doc?”

       “Thanks God everything just be fine, though… we could call it as a miracle…,” the doctor said sympathetically.

       Yuri cocked his head and looked at Tiffany, as if said “What I said? He wouldn’t die that easy!”

       “But…,” the doctor quickly added, looked hesitant for some moment.

       “But what?”

       “Due to the colliding at his head, I think you have to prepare yourself for this probability… It, inevitably, earned a predictable impact,” the doctor remarked again seriously. Suddenly Yuri thought he already absorbed what the doctor was going to say. He just shuddered imagining it and part of him still hoped his guessing was totally wrong.

       “W-what’s the impact?” Tiffany asked stutteringly.

       “It’s very possible for him to experience amnesia…”

       Tiffany was frozen in her track once the remarks were spilled out from the doctor mouth. (AMNESIA??? Losing of memory??? And there’s no guarantee when would it back… It… meant that Taeyeon would forget everything about her, about them, and… NO. It couldn’t be happened! My beloved Taeyeon wouldn’t know who he was, who was I, and how was our relationship???)

       Didn’t want to believe it, Tiffany just hustled over them and reached for Taeyeon, who was already sober, but still laying weakly on the bed. His gaze was directed to the ceiling, look like he’d already been apathetic one, spacing out somewhere. Tiffany just poured her tears unstoppably finding all the scenes.

        “Tae…,” she called out her beloved one softly while kneeling beside her. She carefully reached his hand but unexpectedly, Taeyeon just suddenly tilted his head to look at her with a weird look and yanked her hand away.

       “W-who are you?” he asked frantically.

       “Tae… It’s me…,” Tiffany didn’t give up that easy. “It’s me, Tiffany Hwang… I’m your girlfriend…”

       But Taeyeon still threw the same gaze, even he gave her a cold shoulder and of course, it hurt Tiffany so deep.

       “I don’t know who you are.”

       “I know… You experienced amnesia, Tae… But there’s no way for me to build any lie to you… I love y…”

       “I’m sorry, can you just don’t tell anything about love? It’s really weird for me, to see someone I don’t recognize at all say sort of things. Really.”

       Taeyeon cold remarks just like stabbing Tiffany’s heart deeply. A sudden pang just emerged and spread through over her body. It really hurt to find sweet and lovely Taeyeon spilled out kind of words like it to her.

       Even witnessing so many tears run down the smooth cheek looked like didn’t influence him at all.

       “You don’t need to cry,” Taeyeon said and shook his head witnessing the girl kneeling beside her like had no idea when to stop crying.

       “How could you say kind of words like this? You are my boyfriend, Tae… I can proof it. I’d call our friends here and…”

       Again, Taeyeon shook his head.

       “It’s non-sense,” he cut off. “I’m sure I don’t know them either.”

       There’s a short pause afterward. But at the next second Taeyeon already broke the ice and grabbed a cell-phone on the nearly table.

       “Let’s find the truth,” he said briefly. Tiffany threw him a baffle look since she couldn’t figure it out yet.

       “I believe if you can’t trust anybody in this world, the only one you can count on is your own parents. Rite?”

       Suddenly Tiffany’s expression just turned into worry one. It’s right, apart from your father, Taeng! It’s a wrong decision to make a call and ask your father about it because…

       Before Tiffany had any chance to finish her thought, she could catch Taeyeon already been connected with his father. at that time she knew the situation would even getting worse for them. She would lose Taeyeon… perhaps… forever this time… and she had no idea if she could bear it after all…

       “Taeyeon? How have you been? I heard you got some accident…,” the old man voice was slightly panic over there.

       “I’m okay, Dad,” Taeyeon said, his voice was slightly hoarse. “Don’t worry about me. I lost my memory, Dad. And because of it, I can’t put my trust to anyone, unless you. So, I’d like to ask some question…”

       A sly grin suddenly was played on the old man face.

(Really an ace in the hole…)

       “Go on, my son,” he replied.

       “It’s simple, Dad. I just want to know who my girlfriend is.”

       “Oh… It’s too bad,” his father made a dramatic voice. “You can’t even recognize your beloved one?”

       “Yeah. It’s really awful,” Taeyeon said.

       “Gyuri must be sad hearing this, but don’t worry, she’s so sweet and caring about you, Tae.”

       “W-what? Gyuri?” Taeyeon’s eyes widened hearing his father remarks and now he sent a glare toward the girl beside her.

       Tiffany, at that time already knew, her time already over.

       “Yeah. What’s wrong, son?”

       “N-nothing. I’ve to hung the phone. I’ll call you later, Dad,” Taeyeon quickly ended the conversation and now looked like very pissed off toward the girl he thought just tricked him before.

       “WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?” Taeyeon barked vehemently and clenched his teeth while glaring at Tiffany.

       “Tae, please listen to me. It…,” Tiffany was about say that everything told by his father wasn’t right at all, but after considering it for a moment, she found it would even be worse if she said something bad about his father, moreover, Taeyeon trusted nobody but him now.

       “It what?” he asked indignantly.

       “Such a good actress,” he mocked resentfully.

       Tiffany couldn’t spill out any answer anymore. She just struggled hard to fight back her tears that seemed wouldn’t stop at all. She didn’t want to provoke Taeyeon tantrum even more since Taeyeon had considered her played some drama.

       “Just leave me before I call the security!” he shooed her irritatingly.

       “And make sure don’t dare to see me again or don’t blame me if I do something bad to you!” Taeyeon barked.

(Tae…. I even don’t care if you do something bad to me as long as I can be with you for little bit longer… I really love you, Tae… I even will sell my soul if it can turn back time and dodge you from the accident… You have no idea Tae… I really can’t live without you…)

       “I… I promise I won’t meet you again,” finally Tiffany said hopelessly. “But before I go… may I say something to you for the last time?”

       Taeyeon shrugged his shoulder nonchalantly.

       “Suit yourself.”

       Tiffany stared at him deeply, her eyes were so teary, and she said solemnly.

       “I know you won’t believe me. But I still hope your heart tell something about me, about us. Though we’re now over, but still I felt so lucky could have the chance to share some moment with you… You have no idea Tae, how much I love you. But now… I guess we’re really over… Goodbye, Tae, and…”

       “I will always love you…”

to be continued...