•Gi Kwang•
    I went to them. Yoseob got up to let me sit in front of Lia. She stared at me weirdly. I guessed she was trying to remember me.
  "Hi, I'm Lee Gi Kwang," I started weakly. It felt absurd to introduce myself to my wife.
  "My... husband?" She asked uncertainly.
  I was startled that she knew. "How did you know?"
  She pointed. "Yang Yoseob told me." Then she brought up her fingers and stared at them. "If I'm married, why don't I have a ring?"
   The kids and I chuckled.
  "You told us that the ring was ugly, like an old, wicked witch's ring. You said to wait for the pigs to start flying, then would you wear it," I explained in between chuckling.
  She smiled and cocked her head to the side. "That sounds like me. Ermm... can I ask you a question?"
  "Sure."
  "No offense, but, why did I marry you? That, doesn't sound like me at all."
  I was reluctant to answer.
  "Your Keomonim and Gi Kwang's Eomeonim matched you two up," Hyun Seung answered for me. He was always the one among us that was brave enough to drop the terrible bomb.
  She stared at him. "The guy with the orange hair say what?!"
  I suppressed a laugh. Lia was just too funny sometimes.
  She looked at me. "So we didn't like each other? We were forced to marry each other?"
  I pursed my lips. "We were forced to marry each other and we didn't like each other at first." I hesitated, but I wanted so badly to touch her. So I went ahead and laced our fingers together. She looked down at our joined hands. "But we fell in love eventually."
  "I..." She looked up at me, frowning. "I fell in love with you?"
  I nodded.
  "But, that couldn't be right. I've never fallen for anybody. Why would I fall for you?"
  That stung. I just shrugged.
  "But..." She frowned deeper. "Why would I go ahead with my Keomonim's plans? Didn't I refuse? Or— or objected about the marriage? I wouldn't have ever agreed to the marriage. And, what did Lucas say about this? My father? How could my father let me be? Then again, he must be more than willing to get rid of me. But Lucas— where is he anyway?"
  Again, she called for him. I didn't know what to answer. The doctor said to not tell her for the time being, to not let her stressed out. Her condition would go worse if she was depressed.
  I shook my head. I let her assumed that I didn't know. The door opened and the parents walked in with Ha Seung. Keomonim, Eomeonim and Ha Seung's eyes were puffy and red.
  Lia scowled at her aunt. "Keomonim! Why did you marry me off to a guy I've no idea who?"
  "They told you already?" Keomonim asked weakly.
  "Of course."
  "Our company needed someone to take over. My son here, didn't want to. But you agreed to do it. And the only way for you to take over was to marry you off to my son," Eomeonim explained to Lia carefully.
  She glared at me, snatching her hand out of mine. Which kind of hurt me. I wanted to hold onto her forever. "Why didn't you want to take over?"
  "I wasn't interested. And because I already have a job."
  "What job?"
  "I'm a singer." I pointed to the kids. "They're my band mates. We're in a boyband named Beast."
  She groaned and covered her face with both hands. "I'm married to a freaking idol?"
  "Uh, yeah."
  "Does the media know about this marriage? Or did we secretly get married?"
  I was surprised that she caught on fast. "No. The media doesn't know about this. We kept it really low profile."
  "So, what? I'm like your hidden mistress?" She demanded.
  "No! Of course not! You're my wife."
  "A wife that nobody knows about."
  I gestured to the people around us. "They know."
  She glared at me, annoyed. Then turned to her Keomonim. "What about Dad? Why did he let me off like this?"
  Keomonim bit her lower lip. Sahmchon looked away while Ha Seung hid behind her father.
  Lia stared at them. "What? Keomonim, Sahmchon, what? What about my father? Ha Seung. And Lucas? Where's Lucas? Why isn't he here? Did something happen?" She looked at me, her eyes pleading. "Lee Gi Kwang, where's Lucas? My brother? You should know my brother, right?"
  I edged a little away from her. How were we supposed to not answer her?
  "Why isn't anyone answering?" She cried out, frustrated.
  The door opened then, and in walked Jay-hyung and the other five of Lia's friends. Lia's eyes lit up.
  "You guys are here too?" She asked in english.
  "Lia!" Ashley ran to her and practically threw herself at her.
  I got up and went to stand at the back, letting them have their reunion. Every single one of them hugged Lia. Michael hugged her longer than necessary though. I narrowed my eyes.
  "Why are you guys in Korea?" She asked.
  "We flew all the way here for you, idiot," Adam said.
  "For me?" She placed a hand over her heart. "Aww... I'm so touched."
  Adam rolled his eyes, but he was smiling.

  "How are you feeling?" Michael asked her quietly, smiling slightly. He invaded the seat I had just vacated, in front of Lia. The way he looked at her, made my skin crawl. He tucked a strain of her hair behind her ear intimately. My jaw and fists clenched tight on their own.

  "Like crap," she said, and they all laughed. "My shoulder hurts and I can't feel my legs."
  Jay-hyung rested a hand on her knee. "Can you feel my hand?"
  She shook her head.
  And then, to everyone's shock, Jay-hyung punched her leg hard. I jerked forward. "Did you feel that?"
  Lia shook her head again. "It's like my legs are numbed."
  He frowned a little, worried.
  Then, Lia asked, "Where's Lucas? Isn't he with you guys?"
  Her friends stood frozen, staring at her. Then, Jace turned slowly to me, shocked.
  "She...?"
  "She can't remember me either. She can't remember anything after the—" I couldn't finish.
  "After the what?" Lia demanded. "Why won't anybody tell me?"
  Michael pinned me with his intense blue eyes. "Why won't you tell her? Don't you think she has the right to know?"
  I opened my mouth but Keomonim cut me off, pleading in english. "Doctor said to not make her stress because her condition would get worse. Michael, don't—"
  "Screw that doc," Michael snapped. "Lia has the right to know."
  "Michael! How could you speak to Lia's Keomonim like that?" Ashley scolded.
  "Sorry, Keomonim," he mumbled. "I'm just— Lia deserve to know what happened. I know her. She'll hate us if we don't tell her earlier."
  "Tell me what?" Lia demanded. She looked at all of us, her eyes stopped at Michael. "Mikey, tell me what?"
  He turned to her and I saw his blue eyes softened. The love in his eyes was unmistakable. He took her hands in his. His voice changed, becoming gentle. He always spoke to Lia with this tone, I realized.
  "Do you remember the day you dragged me to a tattoo shop?"
  "Michael, please," Keomonim pleaded again.
  He turned and looked at her. "I'm sorry, Keomonim." Then he turned back to Lia. "Do you?"
  She frowned and shook her head slowly. "No— I, I can't remember. Why did I drag you there?"
  "To get a tattoo."
  Her eyes widened. "I got a tattoo? Seriously?"
  He nodded.
  "Where?" She looked all over her body. "What tattoo did I get?"
  "It's at your back, near your spine."
  She touched her back. I didn't know what Michael was doing. I didn't understand his way of breaking the news to her.
  "Damn! I want to see it," she said. "What tattoo did I get? Please tell me it's not a tacky butterfly like some sort of tramp stamp. If it is, you're the worst friend ever for letting me get one of those."
  "It's not a butterfly. It's a picture of a rose twining to a name."
  "Huh. Whose name?"
  Michael stared directly, meaningfully into her eyes. His eyes were so intense. If he had stared into my eyes like that, I would have looked away. Lia didn't though, she stared right back at him. It was as if they were passing a message silently. Like they were reading each other's minds. I was suddenly so, so angry.
  Then, Lia's facial expression changed. Her smile slowly started to dim before disappearing completely. She stared at Michael seriously.
  "Whose name is it, Michael?" She asked it a low voice. I thought she already knew. "Whose name is it?"
  It took a moment for him to answer her. "Lucas."
  One minute of total silence. We were all waiting for Lia's reaction. I was waiting for her to ask why Lucas name was at her back, why she had chosen that name. And then Michael would tell her.
  But that wasn't what happened.
  Lia shut her eyes tightly and whispered. "No... No. NO. You're lying." She opened her eyes and glared at Michael fiercely. "You're lying. YOU'RE LYING!"
  Ashley and Roo started crying. Ha Seung, Keomonim and Eomeonim were already crying.
  Michael shook his head sadly. "No, baby, no. I'm not lying."
  "You're lying," Lia insisted. She turned to Jay-hyung, who was standing on her other side. "Jay, he's lying, isn't he? This is some kind of a sick joke you guys are playing on me, isn't it? You guys are lying aren't you?" She looked at her other friends. "Ashley? Roo? It's a joke, right? A joke? Jace. Adam. Come on, guys. Where's Lucas? Get him here already. Please."

  Denial. The first stage of grief. Oh god.
  Jay-hyung started sniffling and then Jace, Yoseob and Dongwoon started weeping silently. Lia saw that, she saw them crying and it finally hit her that it wasn't a joke. The pain, the hurt came then.
  I didn't know what to do. I was frozen in place, staring at my love helplessly.
  She looked down, closing her eyes. Then, she started whimpering, making a keening sound at the back of . I knew she did that because she wanted to cry. But couldn't, because it was drilled into her head since she was young that crying was forbidden. I hated it when she did this, I hated it so much. I wanted her to cry, was about to go to her and pulled her into my arms and ordered her to cry. But Michael beat me to it.
  He cupped Lia's face in his hands. "Baby, baby, please don't do that," he whispered. "Your father's not here now. You can cry. Cry." Then he pulled her to him and kissed the top of her head.
  She started sobbing then. Sharp, painful sob. And I couldn't take it. The love of my life couldn't remember me, couldn't remember she loved me, she was in so much pain, not being able to hold her— it was all too much for me. I ran out of the room and kept running. Running, until the tears choked me up and I couldn't breathe. Until my legs gave out under me. I didn't know where I was. I didn't care that I could see the darkening sky now. I didn't care that there was no one around and I didn't recognize my surroundings. All I knew was that my insides were bubbling, building up something that was about to burst. Was about to burst right now!
  And then I heard a heart wrenching scream. A scream so hurt, so broken, it'd break your heart into pieces too. When my throat started to hurt, that was when I realized that the scream came from me.