5 – The Memory

It was probably fragments of memory. An image of a very beautiful girl sitting in a café eating strawberry pancake was

playing in her head. The girl had a pair of very beautiful eyes, glimmering like a deep lake struck by sunlight. But when she

smiled, the lake would go away and a pair of crescent moons replaced it. Her voice was distinctive, something you can

easily distinguish even if she was screaming along with a hundred other people. She was smiling and everyone in the

whole world could tell that she was happy.

“Why are you looking at me like that, Taetae?” asked the girl.

“Like what?”

“That,” the girl turned her head away bashfully.

“What?”

“Don’t-,” the girl’s face had turned completely red now and she avoided eye contact. “Don’t do that.”

“Do what?”

“That! Don’t do that,” she put her hand in front of her face. “Stop looking at me like that.”

“You like this.”

“I don’t.”

“Yes, you do.”

“Stop it!” and then she laughed, showing the crescents that her eyes.

**

Jessica woke up in tears to a familiar ceiling of her apartment. She was on the bed, looking at the shadows from the

trickling water on the window. Rain was still going on strong out there. She sobbed a little and wiped the tears with the

back of her hand, thinking on why she cried in her sleep. Was it the dream? But it felt like it wasn’t her dream. She had no

memory of a girl with crescent eye smile.

After lying for a few moments, Jessica pushed herself up. Something moved on her side and she saw Yuri was sleeping

peacefully next to her. How did she get here?

The clock struck at seven in the evening and Jessica felt her stomach rumbling a little. She stepped down the bed and

found herself wearing a white tank top and a pair of brown shorts. It was weird, she thought, she never wore those to

sleep. Plus, why was she asleep at seven in the evening? It was too soon to go to bed. And why would Yuri be there?

Shrugging all the weird thoughts away, she took a loose tee to put over her tank top and went into the living room. She

moved across it into the kitchen not realizing her little sister was watching her movement so very closely. Jessica found her

way to her fridge and took a frozen pizza. She placed it in the microwave and heated it up for three minutes before walking

back to the living room and sat in front of the TV. It was only then she realized that Krystal was looking at her strangely.

“Oh, hey,” said Jessica, turning on the TV with the remote.

“Unnie…,” Krystal looked at Jessica with her eyebrows knitted together.

“Hm?” Jessica took a bite on her pizza.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m great. Why?”

Krystal moved from the corner of the room and sat next to Jessica. She put one hand on her sister’s forehead. “Are you

sure?”

“Yeah, sure,” then Jessica looked around the apartment. “Where are Mika and Hana?”

“They’re… hiding somewhere.“

“Why?”

Krystal sighed. “Unnie… don’t you remember?”

“Remember what?”

“How you got here.”

Jessica stopped chewing her pizza. Funny, she thought. She didn’t remember how she arrived home. “I…,” she said. She

remembered this morning when she went to the university and had an early lunch with Yuri. And then she met a ghost that

led her to the rooftop and then…. That was it.

Thinking back of everything, it was all weird how she was already asleep this early and how Yuri got into her bed

unknowingly.

“They messed with your head, Unnie…,” Krystal said.

“Who?”

“Girls named Sunny and Hyoyeon… and an unconscious girl named Taeyeon.”

Jessica’s head felt heavy all of a sudden. She dropped the piece of pizza on her hand and her breath started to rush.

“You really don’t remember anything?”

Jessica bit her lower lip. “I know… I know a Taeyeon….”

**

“She’s crying. Probably dreaming of the same thing again,” said Hyoyeon as she slowly closed the door to Taeyeon’s

room. Sunny was standing in the corridor, crossing arms in worry.

“She’s running out of time. Soon enough she will lose all of her energy and…,” Sunny could not finish her sentence.

Hyoyeon tapped the girl’s shoulder and walked her downstairs where Byunghyun was waiting next to a phone.

“Hyoyeon,” he said, “you can’t just burst out of the Homeland Security building’s window like that and flew away. They are

charging Secretary Gaeil the reparation fee right now and the man is charging me it now.”

“I’m sorry,” Hyoyeon slipped her tongue between her lips and took a seat on a sofa. “You know how it is when it comes to

my Host.”

“How’s Taeyeon?” Byunghyun sat across Hyoyeon while Sunny took a spot near the kitchen.

“She’s sleeping for now but I’m worried after she used her power today, she won’t have any energy left to even wake up,”

Hyoyeon rubbed her forehead.

“But she woke up once, didn’t she?”

Sunny cackled, “Yeah, she scolded us for screaming on her ears but then she fainted again so….”

“And this new potential Host?” asked Byunghyun.

Sunny and Hyoyeon looked at each other before returning their gazes to Byunghyun.

“Jessica…,” said Sunny, “but we’re not sure yet. Only Taeyeon could tell if she’s the right Host or not.”

“Where is she now?”

“At her home. We couldn’t establish a connection because she was not alone,” Hyoyeon answered.

“She wasn’t alone? So people saw you flying in the sky and Taeyeon doing her mind tricks?”

Hyoyeon shook her head. “Sunny dealt with the other girl but she left Jessica’s memory intact. In case Taeyeon would

need her energy.”

Byunghyun nodded softly and sighed. “Putting Taeyeon aside, I think we have more on our plate, Girls. I am worried with

all of these Hostless Helminthias popping around here and there. Something is going on.”

**

”Which one of you is Jessica?” asked Sunny, half shouting.

Yuri pulled Jessica behind her back and answered the question, “I am.”

“No!” Jessica yanked her shirt but Yuri pushed her back, shushing her.

“I’m Jessica,” said Yuri.

Sunny looked at Hyoyeon and walked up to Yuri. Yuri put herself right in front of Jessica, protecting her.

“Move,” said the shorter girl.

Yuri looked straight into Sunny’s eyes. “I won’t let you touch her.”

“We should go,” said Hyoyeon when she heard the sound of footsteps and people chattering from the floor below.

Sunny retreated. “Fine,” she said, “tell me where you live and we’ll tell you everything there.”

**

Yuri was awake the whole time, how could she rest when she just witnessed an event so absurd she could not process it

into her brain? Jessica, however, was oblivious to the happening because the girl named Sunny had took her memories of

today’s occurrence away.

For hours she lied on Jessica’s bed, side by side with her best friend, watching the sun went down behind the heavy rain.

Her mind was circling in the conversation she did with the two strangers that took her back with a way that even more

inhuman than what just happened at the college.

Hyoyeon admitted that she could control the wind and she proved it by lifting Yuri, Jessica, Sunny and the unconscious

Taeyeon into the air and sending them flying across the sky. She dropped them gently on the lawn of Jessica’s apartment

and forced their way in.

“This girl,” said Hyoyeon, “is a special girl and I say that literally. A Helminthia, like me.”

“A freak,” said Yuri in disgust, “that’s what you are.”

“We have skills normal human don’t,” Sunny intervened. “But they cannot live on our own, they need Host to survive.

Taeyeon is now dying and she needs your energy to keep her alive.”

“I’m not giving her anything,” Yuri retorted.

Hyoyeon scoffed. “I know you have been drawn to her like moth to a flame. You can’t stop thinking about her

even if you try. You worried about her more than anything in the world. You guys are already connected, Jessica.”

Yuri took a glance at Jessica and saw the latter girl was in utter shock. Then, Sunny suddenly walked toward Jessica and

put her hand on her face.

“No!” Yuri tried to pull Sunny away but Hyoyeon got to her first. “Let go!”

“She’s erasing her memory of today’s event, Jessica, so she won’t have any trauma,” Hyoyeon whispered into Yuri’s ear.

“Relax, she’ll be fine.”

Jessica crumbled on the carpet like doll and Sunny let out a heavy sigh.

Yuri shook herself off Hyoyeon’s grasps and looked at her in anger. “Just… go away.”

And the two left with Taeyeon after that. Yuri wished they took her memories away too because she didn’t want to

remember what happened that day, not a little bit. But she didn’t want Jessica to have anything to do with those people so

she decided to play the Jessica role a little bit longer, at least until the two girls decided to leave them alone.

“Yuri?” Jessica called her from outside the room.

Yuri rolled a little and looked at Jessica.

“Is your head okay?”

Yuri bit her lower lip. “Yes. Why?”

“Nothing…,” Jessica shook her head lightly and walked away from the room.

Yuri felt a little fear inside of her, scared if Jessica remembered what had happened, remembered the name Taeyeon and

what would come after that. She didn’t want to lose a special friend like Jessica.

**

Taxis were rare in rainy days and Soojin had been waiting for almost a full hour after her long day of work. The night was

young but it was so dark she felt like it was already dawn. Her house was not too far from her office but she didn’t want to

walk under the heavy rain even with an umbrella because the road side had already filled with water that could not go

under the drainage system. If the rain doesn’t stop soon then the city will be flooded, she thought. After another hour of

waiting, she decided to walk anyway. After saying goodbye to the security of her office building, she left.

When she reached her apartment, barely alive from the rain attack, she saw a man – probably in his forty judging from the

degrading hair mark – coughing up blood just under a stairway. Soojin stood frozen, worried and scared at the same time.

The man leaned on the wall before sliding to the floor, gasping for air.

Soojin slowly walked closer and asked the man in a very gentle manner, “Are you okay, Sir?”

The man looked at her and then shook his head. “No, I’m not.”

“You’re coughing up blood. Do you need to go to a hospital?”

“No, no,” the man shook his head again. “They can’t fix me.”

Soojin bit her lower lip. Whatever this man had was probably deadly. “Can I help you with anything then? Where do you

live?”

Then the man sobbed all of a sudden. He cried.

“Oh, no, Sir, please. Don’t worry,” Soojin walked even closer and put her umbrella down. “You’re going to be alright. Let’s

get you to a hospital.”

The man wiped his tears and shook his head violently. “I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.”

“It’s okay. Let’s go to the hospital,” Soojin gently helped the man up but then he grabbed her arms. “Eh?”

“I’m very sorry…,” the man said. “I don’t want to die….”

The man pulled Soojin closer. His grip was strong and Soojin could not break free. “Sir…, what are you doing?”

“I’m really sorry….”

The man forced himself against Soojin and placed his lips on top of hers. She struggled, looking away from the man but

she could not move. The taste of blood from his lips crawled into Soojin’s senses and it made her nauseous. A massive

surge of pain started to crawl up from her insides up to . Her whole body ached and tensed. Tears flew down her

eyes when she could do nothing – not even scream – to ease her pain. When the man released her, Soojin collapsed

weakly to the floor. Eyes were wide open, staring at the man as he reeled back in sadness.

“I’m sorry,” he said one more time. 

Soojin felt the warmth of her body leaving, lights flew away and she heaved her last breath.