“Do you remember this house?”

            Sungyeol looked at the large area in front of him. The neighborhood was nice, clean, but it seemed like all of his neighbors were either at work or staying inside. It was the middle of the day, and the beautiful sun was out. He had expected at least a few children running outside. He could remember that much from before. On a sunny day like this, at least five kids would be outside running around.

            He noticed a faded mint-green painted house in front of him, and a word immediately popped into his head.

            Sunggyu.

            He turned to Sunggyu and pointed back at the house.

            “Is this your house?” Sungyeol asked.

            Sunggyu’s eyes lighted up, as it did every time Sungyeol managed to remember something and nodded.

            “Yup!” he chirped, “This is actually our house, but at least you remember that I live in it.”

            Sungyeol raised his eyebrow.

            I used to live here?

            He pouted a bit.

“Sunggyu, I don’t remember living here that much.”

Sunggyu’s smile disappeared a bit, but he still managed to not frown. He patted Sungyeol on the shoulder and looked back up at the house.

“Don’t worry, Sungyeol. We’re going to get you to remember again,” Sunggyu reassured him.

            “Hey Sungyeol, do you remember anything about the white house next to yours? That one right there,” Dongwoo said while pointing, “the one on the left with the wind chime on the porch.”

            Sungyeol stared hard at the house, trying to get at least another word to connect to something about the house. He started to feel a little dizzy and flashes that were similar to pictures appeared in his mind.

            Woohyun, Sunggyu, and I were playing hide-and-go-seek as little kids.

            Woohyun was running away as I tried to catch him while we were all playing tag.

            Woohyun and I were sitting on the bench in his porch, watching the stars.

            Woohyun and I both have our backpacks on. It seems as if we were walking back home from school.

            Sungyeol smiled at the little memories, and he was a bit excited to turn around and tell his friends that he had remembered some more things and that the white house was, for sure, Woohyun’s house.

            He turned around to see Woohyun staring at the house as well.

            “Woohyun,” he called.

            The dark brown haired man looked back and gave Sungyeol a small smile.

            “This is your house isn’t it?” Sungyeol asked.

            Woohyun nodded, while Dongwoo started to squeal to Hoya that Sungyeol was remembering more.

            “Sungyeol, do you remember what my house looks like?” Dongwoo asked excitedly.

            Sungyeol stared at the shorter man for a little bit, trying his best to remember. He thought of colors and a flash of a small pink house came into his thoughts.

            “Is it…pink?”

            Dongwoo nodded repeated, obviously very happy, and he started to tug onto Hoya’s sleeves.

            “Do his house next!”

            Sungyeol looked at the man next to Hoya, surprisingly enough, it came to him right away.

            “Hoya lives in a big apartment in the city. You tried to trick me, Dongwoo!” Sungyeol cried out, happy that his friends could joke around.

            Dongwoo’s eyes widened.

            “Hey, maybe he’ll remember stuff faster if we lie to him!”

            Sungyeol chuckled at the thought, when suddenly another memory came to him.

***

            It was raining and both of the boys were standing in front of Woohyun’s door at the porch. Both of them were drenched.

            “Sungyeol, what were you doing waiting in front of my house? I was looking for you everywhere!” Woohyun yelled.

            He grabbed at Sungyeol’s sleeve, but Sungyeol immediately flinched away and took a step back. He held back a choked sob and replied to Woohyun.

            “I’m scared, ok?! I don’t know why any of this is happening, and I don’t know why I can’t walk away.”

            There were tears in Sungyeol’s eyes.

            Woohyun mouthed out some words, reaching up to try and take off Sungyeol’s black hood. Sungyeol could no longer clearly hear the things that Woohyun was saying. The rain was loud, and Woohyun’s voice was too soft. Nevertheless, he slapped away Woohyun’s hand when he had tried to take off his hood.

            “Don’t,” Sungyeol demanded.

            Woohyun’s eyes were filled with pain, but he let his hand fall down to his side.

            A few seconds after just staring at each other, Woohyun leaned forward and took Sungyeol in his arms.

            “I’m sorry,” Woohyun muttered into Sungyeol’s ears, “I’m sorry I wasn’t there to protect you.”

***

            When the memory started to fade away, Sungyeol looked back at Woohyun. Everyone was staring at him, all wondering which memory he had got back. He was a bit surprised they all knew what happened whenever he got a memory back, but that seemed to be ok. He just hoped he didn’t make a stupid face while getting back a memory. He turned to Woohyun.

            “Woohyun, I got another memory back about you,” Sungyeol stated.

            “What was it?” he asked.

            “It was raining, and I had a black hoodie on. Was I ever lost? You said you were looking for me everywhere.”

            Sungyeol had on a confused face. He wanted to know what was happening, but it seemed like everyone there stopped breathing.

            “You guys? What happened? Did I run away from home or something?”

            He heard Dongwoo laugh nervously.

            “Y-Yeah, something like that, let’s just say that you didn’t live with Sunggyu for a while. It’s not a good memory though. Can we not focus on it? We should just work on getting your good memories back,” he suggested.

            Sungyeol furrowed his eyebrows for a bit but reluctantly nodded soon afterwards.

            “Ok, but you’ll tell me about the bad memories someday too right? I don’t want to make any mistakes that I’ve done in the past again. I’m sure that I wasn’t the most perfect person.”

            Dongwoo nodded very quickly but only once this time. He moved forward and put his hand on Sungyeol’s shoulder.

            “Come on. Let’s head into your house. Maybe you’ll get some more good memories back. Woohyun can take this time to take a shower too. He still stinks,” Dongwoo said, giggling at his little jab at the younger.

            Walking around the slightly familiar house, Sungyeol could see flashes and flashes from his past. He remembered thanksgiving with his family that year, when he and Sunggyu had both tried to get the big part of the wishbone and get their wish, only to have the two of them break it evenly, not knowing whether both of their wishes came true or neither of them did. He also remembered Christmas, when he and Sunggyu both chipped in to get their parents matching watches, only to have their parents give them the same thing. He peeked into the living room and saw himself sitting on top of Sunggyu’s stomach when he was seventeen, yelling that he wouldn’t get off until Sunggyu let him win in Super Mario Kart. He giggled, realizing that he was actually pretty childish, even at seventeen.

            Sungyeol smiled, thinking that maybe it wasn’t so bad that he had lost some of his memories. It was pretty nice to think of small moments like those. As Sunggyu continued to show him all around their house, he had recalled so many great memories—he didn’t understand why he’d ever leave or run away from home. His parents visited every year for the holidays, he and Sunggyu rarely fought, and it seemed like they never had trouble with money. Sunggyu continued to smile as Sungyeol told him about all the memories he remembered, but Sungyeol still couldn’t pinpoint why he had left home. Why would he leave Sunggyu when he seemed to be the best big brother ever?

            Bits and bits of his memories from high school and the beginning of college came back to him as Sunggyu led him through the halls. He remembered chasing Dongwoo down all the way to the stairs, because the elder had stolen his notebook to study for the exam that was coming up, and he had accidentally spilled some coffee on it. He also remembered crying and hugging Dongwoo, because by the next day, Dongwoo had rewritten every single word from it into another notebook for Sungyeol. He recalled screaming down the hall and telling Hoya and Dongwoo that he was going to be the best man at their wedding the day they told him and Sunggyu that they were going out. Sunggyu had pushed him onto the ground and sat on his stomach then, saying that there was no way that they’d choose Sungyeol over him to be their best man. Sungyeol continued to tell his friends what he was remembering, and it brought smiles to Sungyeol’s eyes and laughs to his ears.

            “Sungyeol, are you ready to see your room?” Sunggyu asked. He was about to turn the doorknob and show Sungyeol his room, when the doorbell rang.

            Sunggyu walked over to the window and opened the curtain. He looked down and saw that it was Woohyun at the door.

            “It’s Woohyun!” he said.

            “That’s the quickest shower he’s ever taken,” Hoya murmured.

            Dongwoo giggled as Sunggyu headed downstairs to open the door.

            That’s because he can’t keep away from Sungyeol too long,” he teased, making Sungyeol blush.

            Sungyeol smiled as the couple started to laugh and make jokes behind him. He opened the door to his room and walked inside, curious as to how he lived before.

            The walls to his room were white, and he had a bunch of polaroids hanging on a rope that was tacked from corner to corner.

            There was a picture of Sunggyu and him on his eighteenth birthday—he remembered getting the polaroid camera and kissing Sunggyu on the lips in excitement. Dongwoo and Hoya didn’t shut up about that for a week, and Sunggyu decided to never give Sungyeol a big present ever again (which was a lie because Sunggyu gave him a car the year after). He saw a picture of him and Woohyun with cake all over his face; he remembered it as Woohyun’s 19^th birthday party, when Sungyeol decided that he didn’t want to eat his slice of cake and mushed it all over the birthday boy’s face. He smiled as he looked through all of the pictures. There was one of Hoya and Dongwoo kissing, one of Woohyun and Sungyeol eating ice cream, and there was one of Sunggyu next to this clown with really big eyes. He walked all around his room, seeing as it was kind of a timeline of pictures, and he stopped at the last one. Every single one of the pictures was a square shape with a white border, except for this last one.

            This one was more of a rectangular shape, and it had a black border. It was different from all of the others, and it was also the only one where only Sungyeol was in the picture.

            Just as he was about to pick up the picture to take a closer look, the door to his room swung open. Sunggyu and Dongwoo jumped onto Sungyeol’s white bed, and Hoya sat on top of Dongwoo’s back as soon as the two guys were settled down on it. Sungyeol stood up straight and turned around to his brother and friends, only to turn and find his eyes landing on Woohyun, who was leaning against the door frame. He had cleaned up pretty well. Now, he was wearing black jeans, a navy blazer, and a white t-shirt. He had shaven—something that Sungyeol was very excited about—and Sungyeol could smell the fragrant, strawberry-scented shampoo from the other side of the room. He chuckled. Woohyun was trying to look so cool, and yet he smelled like he just took a bath in strawberries—not the coolest thing he could’ve done.

            Sungyeol walked over to Woohyun to greet him, and the three people on his bed started to make teasing noises and catcalls. It made Woohyun’s eyes widen, and the poor guy almost lost his balance against the doorframe. Once he caught himself, he stood up straight in the middle of the door, blushing furiously, not looking up at Sungyeol.

            Good job, Woohyun. Way to make a fool of yourself again, he thought to himself.

            Sungyeol smiled at the cute sight in front of him. He stood in front of Woohyun, leaning forward, trying to get the other’s attention.

            “Hey,” he said.

            Woohyun looked up and blushed because of how close Sungyeol was. It had been a while since he was this close to Sungyeol. The hospital didn’t count of course—he wasn’t in the right state of mind then, Sungyeol had just woken up. Now that he was washed up and sober, he was reminded of the reasons why he fell in love with Sungyeol in the first place.

            He cleared his throat, giving up on trying to look manly and cool in front of Sungyeol. They were best friends. Sungyeol was going to remember that he was a complete dork anyway.

            “Hi,” he whispered. He had wanted it to come out loud, but it ended up just barely being able to be heard.

            Luckily Sungyeol heard it. He giggled.

            “Did you lose your voice while showering?”

            Woohyun rolled his eyes. This was the Sungyeol he remembered, funny Sungyeol that loved to joke around.

            "No, I think I lost it when someone breathtakingly beautiful decided to greet me at his bedroom door,” Woohyun replied.

            Hoya made throw-up sounds in the background, and Dongwoo kicked his legs up so it would hit Hoya for ruining the terribly greasy moment.

            Sungyeol laughed and turned around to watch as Hoya and Dongwoo started to get into a fight with Sunggyu trying to get away as fast as possible.

            “Hey! Leave this all at home, you guys! We’re supposed to be a happy family!” Sunggyu yelled.

            Hearing that, the couple stopped trying to push each other and just focused on pushing Sunggyu off the bed. Sungyeol leaned back against the wall next to Woohyun and watched as his brother and his friends made a huge mess of his once-clean room.

            “So, does this happen all the time?” Sungyeol asked.

            Woohyun chuckled. “No, but it happens often enough that we try to keep them away from each other while we’re at a fancy place. I hope you get to remember the time that Dongwoo and Hoya pushed Sunggyu into the fountain at my parents’ house. That was hilarious.”

            Sungyeol smiled. He hoped that he’d remember that time too.

***

            Eventually, Sunggyu, Dongwoo, and Hoya had calmed down and realized that they created a mess, but by that time Woohyun and Sungyeol were in Sunggyu’s room, looking at some old pictures that Sungyeol had taken.

            Sunggyu walked into his room, rubbing his now sore back. He looked at Woohyun sitting next to Sungyeol, flipping through his photo album. Woohyun had seen those pictures a bunch of times—Sunggyu knew that for sure. Sungyeol always made Woohyun look at the pictures he had taken, and this was before Sunggyu had gotten him that Polaroid camera.

            But even though Woohyun had seen these pictures multiple times before, it didn’t stop him from showing every single one of them to Sungyeol, slowly explaining where and when each picture was taken, sometimes Woohyun even remembered why. Sunggyu crossed his arms and smiled, watching as Woohyun had one arm on one side of Sungyeol, holding the photo album when in fact, it looked like he was holding Sungyeol in his arms. Every once in a while Sungyeol would peer closer at a picture and Woohyun would glance at him and smile.      

            “Having fun there?” Sunggyu asked, interrupting the showing of pictures.

            Sungyeol looked up and grinned at his older brother, a little sadly.

            “I had forgotten about so much,” he said, sighing.

            Sunggyu looked down, smiling with sad eyes as well. He sat down next to his brother and put his hand on his knee, trying to reassure him.

            “You’ll get back your memories. We’ll make sure of it.”

            Woohyun took his arm from around Sungyeol and closed the photo album on their lap. He nodded, agreeing with Sunggyu.

            “And like Dongwoo said, we’ll focus on the good memories this time,” Woohyun added.

            Sungyeol smiled and wrapped his arms around his brother and Woohyun.

            “Thank you for being so patient with me,” he mumbled.

            Woohyun leaned onto Sungyeol’s shoulder. He glanced at the door and raised his eyebrow in curiosity.

            “Where did the couple you were fighting with go, Gyu?” he asked.

            Sunggyu groaned, getting up from the bed.

            “After they both sat on top of my back, they decided that it was time to go get dinner. They’re ordering food downstairs, I think. I was supposed to bring you two down there, but it’s just so quiet up here without them, you know?”

            “Hey, we heard that!” Dongwoo yelled from downstairs.

            “Sunggyu, we’re not done with you yet!” he heard Hoya shout.

            Sungyeol laughed as his brother proceeded to crawl into his blanket on the bed.

            “Wake me up when they leave,” Sunggyu begged.

            Woohyun and Sungyeol got off of the bed and took the blanket from Sunggyu’s arms.

            “Come on, Sunggyu. Don’t you want to eat with Sungyeol?” Woohyun asked.

            Hearing that, Sunggyu immediately sat up and took Sungyeol’s hand in his.

            “Sungyeol! Come downstairs with me, and let’s see if you can remember anything else! Let’s rub it in their faces that you remember more about me than those two.”

***

            After a fun dinner with many mentions of the past, Sungyeol had a pretty good idea of how his life was before he had lost his memory. He had a nice, stable life, wonderful friends, a lovely family, and a crazy love for coffee and photography. It made him wonder what terrible event had happened that no one would talk about that made him lose his memory.

            Once everyone had finished eating, they went into the living room and waited for Woohyun to get Sungyeol’s favorite movie, A Werewolf Boy.

            “I’ll never get why you love this movie so much, Sungyeol,” Sunggyu said.

            Dongwoo nodded his head in agreement.

            “I cried for like an hour when you first showed it to me!”

            Hoya chuckled and called his boyfriend a ‘baby’, to which Sunggyu mentioned that ‘Ho-baby cried, too’.

            Sungyeol laughed again, and Woohyun had just come back into the room after hearing everyone laugh. He raised his eyebrow at the giggles but continued to squat down and give Hoya the DVD to put the movie in. Sunggyu noticed that the younger had something behind his back, and Woohyun gave him a knowing look. He smiled and moved away from his younger brother, giving Woohyun room to squeeze in between him and Sungyeol.

            Once Woohyun was settled in, he turned towards Sungyeol and took his hand out from behind his back. He had Sungyeol’s Polaroid camera in his hands.

            Sungyeol’s face lit up, and he smiled. From the blank look in his eyes a few seconds later, the others knew that he was getting back another memory. Woohyun grinned at the cute sight and decided to take a picture of Sungyeol’s face. It would be a new good memory.

            He reached up and looked through the screen to focus on Sungyeol. The second he pressed the button to take the picture though, he noticed Sungyeol’s eyes widen in panic.

            There was a flash from the camera, and suddenly Sungyeol was screaming.

            “No, let me go! Get away from me!” he yelled out.

            Dongwoo, who was on the other side of him took a hold on his arms and tried to hold him down, suddenly incredibly worried about his friend. Sungyeol’s arms started to fly everywhere, hitting his friends hard enough to cause a bruise. His legs kicked out too, keeping Sunggyu and Hoya away from him.

            Woohyun had dropped the camera onto the carpeted floor the second he had seen Sungyeol’s eyes widen through the screen, and he immediately stood up and ran into the kitchen to get the younger some water and medicine. The doctor had warned Sunggyu earlier that because of the trauma, something like this might happen, but none of them thought that it would actually happen. Sungyeol had seemed so happy and innocent. They didn’t expect for his bad memories to come back so soon.

            By the time he came back though, the screaming had stopped, and Sungyeol had fainted.          

            Everyone in the room was silent and looked at each other with the same thought in their heads.

            What in the world had just happened?

            Woohyun got down on his knees in front of Sungyeol, who was lying in Dongwoo’s arms, the only movement coming from the younger was from his uneven breathing. He placed the glass of water on the floor and put his hand on Sungyeol’s forehead.

            “His temperature’s ok,” he stated, “Was it the camera? Do you guys think what Myungsoo did had something to do with the camera?”

            Each of them had a distressed look on their faces. They were all worried about Sungyeol, and the mere mention of Myungsoo’s name put everyone on edge.

            Sunggyu leaned forward and took Sungyeol’s limp hand in his.

            “I don’t know, but whatever happens, we have to make sure Sungyeol never sees him again.”