Ana was packing a little bag with Tori’s few belongings from the hospital; a jacket, toothbrush, and towel. “You haven’t seen your parents in almost two weeks, huh?”

Tori was staring out the window again. She was wearing a T-shirt and jeans that Ana brought for her. Despite the lack of communication with the people around her, she could function perfectly fine on her own: get dressed, feed herself, use the bathroom, and all the other basic functions of a normal life. On top of memory loss, she seemed to understand what people said, but just chose to ignore them: her symptoms were diagnosed to be extreme antisocial characteristics due to, according to the doctors, a trauma.

“Don’t be upset at them, they’re working really hard for you. You know… hospital bills are expensive.” She zipped up the bag and looked out the window, “You know Mr. So found two constructing jobs? They pay him good money, too! If he can keep the job long enough, it’ll pay for all your hospital fees…” She looked down at the bag, “but, we can’t keep you here…. They want you to go to the psych ward….

Unnie…” she looked at the motionless girl, “you know where that is? It’s where the crazy people are. You’re not crazy. You’re just in your own world for now… right, unnie? You’ll come out soon, right?”

Dr. Choi rolled a wheelchair into the room with the same smile from the other day, “all set ladies?” he looked at Tori and leaned forward from the foot of the bed, like he was speaking to a child, “Are you ready to finally go, Tori?”

As if ignoring his question, she got up at the sight of the wheelchair and took a seat.

His smile did not fade, already accustomed to that response, “You all made the right decision. Being that after a whole month, the sole thing she seems to recognize is related to her experience in Korea, going back may be the best way to help her recover.”

Ana nodded.

“No need to worry, my colleague in Seoul is one of the best doctors that works with trauma patients. I’m sure he will be of great help as well. I already sent over all of Tori’s information, they will be waiting for her when you arrive.”

Not wanting to hear about trauma and how it can damage a person’s life, again, she nodded, “Thank you doctor, I think we should get going now,” she slung the bag over her shoulder and held the handle of the wheelchair. She bowed to the doctor and pushed Tori’s wheelchair toward the door of the hospital room that became uncomfortably too familiar for the both of them.

“I hope your friend can finally get that life back in her eyes, darling” Mrs. Robinson said as she headed out, “come back some day and show me that livelihood.” She said with a smile, “It sounded quite captivating when you told me about it.” With a last wink, she said goodbye to Ana and Tori.

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Exiting the airport, Ana tugged a small suitcase behind her while pushing Tori on a wheelchair, not accepting help from strangers since Tori proved to react negatively toward a new face. In the past month, Tori became accustomed to presence of Ana, her parents, her doctors, and a couple nurses; she no longer had strong reactions when they were nearby and did not hide from them. She just acted as if they weren’t there, however, she could throw a fit if any of them still tried to touch her and she would still shift away when someone stood or sat too closely. Ana, being the most common face she saw, was the only one she allowed to push her in a wheelchair. But even still, she neither respond to any question directed to her nor acknowledged Ana in any way. She acted as if Ana was a part of the wheelchair that she used to get around places.

“Unnie… isn’t the weather so nice?” Ana continued to ask questions to her friend, hoping one day she would respond. “You loved the spring time when you were in Korea. You said the green on the trees were sometimes too green for you to believe they were real.” She chuckled to herself, “Do you remember those times I ignored you when you talked about these things? You thought I wasn’t listening, huh? Well, I always listened carefully to everything you said, even back then…” She sighed in reminiscence and went to hail a taxi.

When the taxi arrived, the driver helped Ana load the suitcase into the trunk as she looked down at her friend. “Unnie… let’s get in the taxi. It’ll bring us to the hospital.” She said, not knowing if Tori even understood.

Tori stared at the silver car in front of her and examined the door handle.

The taxi driver shouted for them to get in as he ran back to his seat. “Neh (Yes/okay)” she said awkwardly, not knowing how to move Tori out of the seat.

But right when she resolved to try to pull her from the arm, Tori got up on her own and got into the car, closing the door behind her.

“Oh?....” Ana looked in amazement. Was that a response? A natural reaction? Or did she just move out of her own will?

The driver honked the horn, waking her up from her thoughts and she bowed in apology. She pushed the chair to an airport staff standing nearby and got in front seat of the car.

“Maybe Dr. Choi is right.” She thought as the taxi began to move. But, she asked the driver to lock the doors, “just in case” she thought.