Primary Song: Ellie Goulding- Love Me Like You Do

Genre: Fluff (particularly the end)

Characters: Chanyeol/ Female OC (Soo Jamie)/ Jamie's grandma/ Mentions of some other EXO-K members

“Excuse me, sir, are you okay?”

I hear a faint soft voice asking me if I’m okay and feel a small hand gently shaking my shoulder. The action awakens me, and I slowly force my eyes to open and meet the concerned face of a young girl- maybe Sehun’s age?- crouched next to me.

Her face alights with relief that’s heard in her voice as well when she says, “Oh, you’re okay. I’m so glad.”

I don’t feel okay. That’s what I want to tell her. My body is aching, and my shoulder- the very one she was shaking- stings a lot. But I don’t say a word as I make myself get up from the lying position I was in on the ground. How did I even end up lying on the ground? Last thing I remembered, I was helping the boys pack up camp.

Panic courses through me as I struggle to remember how I ended up in the situation I was currently in. I emit a gasp. Did I remember my own name? Oh no, I couldn’t rem- Wait. A memory of Kyungsoo, one of my friends, screaming my name as Baekhyun, another one of my friends, and I ran away with one of his precious spatulas. “Park Chanyeol!” he had roared with a red face. Man, what a beating we got after. Without meaning to, I shiver at the memory.

“Are you cold?” the girl asks me, noticing my shiver.

“No, I’m fine,” I reply, but she seems taken aback.

“Your voice,” she begins but stops herself from saying anything else.

So I urge her to go on. “Yes, my voice? What about my voice?”

She blushes in embarrassment but continues, “It’s not what I expected.”

Having expected that answer, I smirk. “That’s what everyone says.” Now that I’m up on my two feet, I glance around to see where I am. Tall trees, sodden ground, light filtered through the leaves, creating ominous shadows. The idea of shadows unnerves me for some reason. But I don’t dwell too much on it.

“Can you tell me where I am?” I ask the girl.

“Clearly a forest,” is her witty reply, and I laugh.

“Okay, but where is this forest?”

“In Korea?” I shoot her a “stop-messing-around” look, and she giggles. “Okay, okay, we’re actually a few miles away from Seoul.”

Am I where I’m supposed to be? I began to be a bit frustrated with my lack of knowledge. “Can you help me?” I suddenly ask the girl, whose name I realize I don’t know.

“Uh, depends on how I can help you,” she replies, suddenly suspicious of me.

I roll my eyes. “Oh, now you’re suspicious of me. Fine. Be that way. But I need somewhere to stay till I get my memories back.”

“You lost your memories?” Her round eyes, similar to Kyungsoo’s, express her shock. “Wow, and here I was, thinking that only happened in dramas,” she mutters to herself before telling me, “Come on, follow me. I’m sure grandma wouldn’t mind you staying over.”

She begins leading me somewhere where I suppose her house is, and on our trek, I take time to not chitchat, but secretly observe her. She looks young, but not childish. Definitely a late teen or just beginning to be a young adult. And her face. There was something about her face that didn’t seem fully Korean.

Because I’m too busy sneaking glances at her, I don’t notice that she had lead me to a small traditional Korean house with a fence and a courtyard included.

“Grandma?” she calls into the house as she takes off her shoes.

“Here, sweetie!”

I follow the girl (I still didn’t know her name) into the kitchen where a short and withered grandmother is chopping carrots. She looks up when we walk in, and a look of surprise settles on her face when she sees me.

“Jemi,” the grandmother uses what I assume is the girl’s name, “who is your friend?”

“Um,” the girl hesitates, probably unsure where to begin, so I save her from answering.

“Hello,” I say as I bow, “my name is Park Chanyeol, and I met your granddaughter only a while ago. I’m a little lost, so I asked her for help.” I don’t mention the fact that my important memories are sort of gone because I’m not sure if the older lady would believe me.

The surprised look on the grandmother’s face clears up and is immediately replaced with understanding. “I see, then you’re welcome to stay a while,” she offers.

I bow in gratitude. “Thank you.”

Although her attention is fixed back onto chopping her carrots, she commands, “Jemi, show him around, will you?”

“Yes, grandmother.” And with that, she beckons me to follow her. As if I wasn’t going to.

As soon as we’re out of the main building, I casually ask, “So, your name is Jemi?”

“Actually, it’s Soo Jamie, but since it’s hard to pronounce for some Koreans, my parents gave me both a Korean and an English name. You can call me either.”

“Why both?” I ask curiously.

She’s quiet for a few moments before responding, “My father was Korean, and my mother was American.” That explains her non-fully Korean face.

I don’t miss her usage of past tense, and even though it may be rude of me, I can’t help but blurt, “Was?”

Jamie was just about to push open the door of another building when she halts. I can’t see her face because her back is to me, but I can imagine pain, sorrow, and anger painted on it as she replies, “Yeah. Was.” And that’s all she says before she pushes open the door and enters.

“Well, this is my room. Nothing really interesting,” she sighs, and I take a few moments to take a look and absorb the details. But she’s right. There really was nothing special about her room. Just a single mattress, pillow, and pink bedsheet, a desk with a neat pile of notebooks and pencils, a wardrobe, and a bookshelf half filled with books. There was nothing else that screamed individuality, or the fact that this was a girl’s room, or that this room belonged to Soo Jamie. No pictures, no stuffed animals, or anything else girls enjoyed having in their room.

So I ask, “Why don’t you have any pictures or stuffed animals?”

She’s silent for a while, only sending me a look (or was it a glare), before finally asking a question of her own, “You’re a very inquisitive person, aren’t you?”

I shrug, not denying it but not exactly agreeing. I guess it just depended on the situation.

“Come on, I’ll show you the garden.”

And as we left her room, I notice she never answered my question.

That night, after Jamie finished her oh-so-fabulous tour (did you hear the sarcasm? You should have) of her humble abode, I dined with her and her grandmother. And during that dinner, I learned a few things about the two women.

One: Jamie has a lot of charm when it comes to persuading her grandmother. She was able to convince the elder lady to let me stay over until I could regain my memories (we had to spill the entire truth).

Two: Her grandmother told the funniest jokes and stories I’ve ever heard. The tale about her getting into trouble for shaving her teacher’s head is probably my favorite out of everything she said during dinner.

Three: Holey shizzle, Jamie’s grandmother’s kimchi stew is the best, and I won’t ever eat anybody else’s again. Even Kyungsoo’s.

As I lie on the slightly dead grass of the courtyard, I recall the memories of the dinner that took place only an hour ago, and I don’t even realize I have a content smile on my face till Jamie points it out.

“Why are you smiling so widely?”

Shocked by her sudden intrusion on my peace, I sit up and whip around to see her standing all bundled in a blanket like a burrito.

“I’m not smiling widely.”

“Yes, you are. Well, you were,” she corrects herself as she sits down next to me. “What were you thinking about?”

I lie back down and truthfully answer, “About how awesome you and your grandmother are.”

“What?” she sharply asks, probably out of surprise.

“You guys are such nice people, housing me and feeding me, even though I’m a complete stranger. There aren’t many people in the world like you guys.”

I know I’ve stunned her when she stutters, “I-It’s nothing.”

“Not to me it’s not,” I counter. “Without you and your grandmother, I’d probably be wandering aimlessly out there. Cold. Hungry. Who knows? I may have died out there.”

She scoffs. “No, I’m sure there’d be other people who’d take you in as well.”

“Yeah, well, I’m glad it was you guys though.”

“Why?”

Propping myself on one elbow, I turn to her and say seriously, “Because your grandmother’s kimchi stew is the best, and I’m so glad I got to taste it at least once in my life.”

Jamie takes a moment to laugh. "You're ridiculous, Chanyeol."

"Why, thank you," I say in a pompous voice, "I pride myself in being ridiculous."

Rolling her eyes, Jamie only asks, "Can I lie down next to you?"

"Yeah, sure."

With that, she lies down next to me, and we stare up at the night sky and moon in silence for a long time. Until Jamie asks rather sleepily, "Chanyeol? Have you-" She breaks off because of an incoming yawn. "Have you regained your memory yet?"

"Not yet."

"Will you-" Another yawn. "-tell me when you do?"

"Of course."

Not hearing another response or question from her, I turn to her, and to my surprise, she's fallen asleep. In disbelief, I chuckle. "Unbelievable."

I stay a bit longer on the grass, pondering Jamie's question. When will I regain my memory? It's only been a few hours since I woke up, so I guess I have to be patient.

Sighing because I'm not exactl