Chapter 1: Awoken at Last

Yoona was still dawdling in the hospital’s lobby. Many faces—bearing hope, worries, sadness or combination of it all—passed the lounge bench Yoona was sitting at. However, unlike others who had their faces painted with fiasco of emotions, her face was like blank canvas. A blank canvas that hid storm of confusion inside.

Everything was too much and too peculiar for her.

After spending a day after the waking from her coma for few examinations, the doctor allowed her to be discharged. Her treatment had been paid fully by someone—or something—that the front desk refused to say (“It was their request for privacy, Mrs. Im,” she remembered the front desk said that). She was thankful the hospital kindly kept her belongings; a backpack filled with a couple set of spare clothes, her wallet which still contained some cash and her cards, a small notebook and her cell phone. When she found the notebook among her possession that been kept by the hospital, she was overjoyed. There should’ve been some notes she jotted down to keep track of events in the last five years before she underwent coma.

However, she had to face disappointment. Only few scribbles and unintelligible notes written on it, along with some phone numbers. Nothing was useful for her besides the short list of contacts. Should I try to make a call? A nurse kindly gave her a spare phone charger and now her phone was plugged with the charger to a power socket. Yoona was contemplating which number she should call when her eyes spotted a phone number labeled as “HOME”.

 Was it home, as in the home of her family?

She should’ve punched the “HOME” number to her phone and made a call. However, something held her; a of unexplainable feeling held her fingers. Peculiar hesitation discouraged her from calling her home eventually. Then, instead of typing her home number, she typed the phone number written below “HOME”, “LIEUTENANT KWON YURI”.

Yoona put her phone by her ear and waited patiently for the other on the line picked it up. Yuri was one of her colleague, and also one of people she trusted the most. She knew she could depend on her even in strangest circumstances, such as this moment.

“Hello?”

“Hi Yul, it’s me, Yoona.”

“Yoona? Is that you, Im Yoona? You’re still alive?”

Yoona rolled her eyes. “Of course I’m pretty alive, duh. Do you expect a call from the dead?”

A light chuckle could be heard from the other line, but soon it went dead and substituted by serious tone of Yuri. “Yoong, what happened to you? Where are you now?”

The doe-eyed woman looked around her. A group of high school boys by the receptionist, elderly couple on the bench two rows behind her, a young mother and two sons among others who filled the waiting lounge. No one looked suspicious enough around her and interested enough to eavesdrop her telling her friend how she suddenly woke up from six months of coma.

Yet again, why should she worry too much about the possibility of her being eavesdropped? Curse her overly sensitive instinct as an auxiliary intelligence agent. 

“It’s… a very long story, and I’m in Incheon right now. Look, are you free and at home tonight?”

“Yeah, I’m at my home tonight. Why?”

“I’ll come to your place right now and talk to you more. Your address hasn’t changed right?”

“I’m still saying at the same place. Wait, just let me fetch you there!”

“Nah, no need. I bet there’s still a train schedule to Seoul now if I make hurry. Talk to you later, Yuri”

She hung up and unplugged the charger from the power socket, dumping it inside her backpack and pocketed her phone to her jacket. She checked the time and if her memory didn’t fail her, at least there was a train schedule heading to Seoul in an hour’s time. I shouldn’t loitering around here and make my move fast.

“Im Yoona-ssi, I’m glad you’re already at your best condition.”

Yoona turned around and found the doctor who tended her smiling at her. She smiled back and bowed to him respectfully. “Thank you for taking a good care of me in my coma, Dr. Han.”

“Don’t mention it, it’s my duty after all. I just want to congratulate you for your discharge. Have you contacted your family or relatives?”

“I…I’ve called a trusted colleague of mine.”

“I see,” the doctor nodded slowly. “I also want to remind you that you might need some physiological rehabilitation. You’ve been bedridden for six months and your muscles might’ve gone slight atrophy and lose some of their strength.”

“Thank you Dr. Han. I’ll start exercising soon and get my body in shape.” Yoona bowed in gratitude. “…And doc, if you happen to get some information on how I got admitted to here or who sent me here, will you inform me?”

Dr. Han didn’t answered right away, but he eventually nodded—although in a too hesitating fashion for Yoona’s liking. “I’ll keep that in mind. Best of luck to you, Mrs. Im.”

Yoona smiled and bowed once again to him before taking her leave from the hospital. Once she stepped her feet outside, she was welcomed by soft sprinkle of snow from the sky. Her neck craned upwards and let her eyes gazed upon the sky where the snow came from. Two or three specks of snow landed on her face. She didn’t brush the cool whiteness off; she closed her eyes and took her time to appreciate the graceful cool sensation caressing her skin.

It reminded her of the soft touch of her love, her wife.

A cab suddenly passed her. She quickly ran after it and hailed it.

Xxxxx

She panicked when the cash money left on her wallet wasn’t enough to pay the taxi fare. Thankfully the elderly taxi driver was very kind to let her pay as much as she could. She thanked the driver repeatedly and bowed ninety degrees in her deepest gratitude. The elderly driver only chuckled and wished her safety before driving off.

“Ugh, so much for waking up after in comatose…” she chuckled dryly and entered the luxurious apartment complex.

She went to the seventh floor The door opened almost instantly and revealed a tan-skinned woman with a grin plastered on her face.

 “Yoona! I’ve been waiting for you for two hours!” Yuri scolded, then smiled and gave her doe-eyed friend a brief hug. “Come inside and don’t make too much noise!”

Yoona smiled lightly and followed the tan woman inside. The cozy warmness of the Kwons’ residence immediately pampered her winter-bitten body. Her eyes quickly landed of big wedding photo hanged on the wall, showing a brunette bride in white long wedding dress and a proud sun kissed lieutenant in her army uniform. She found she was staring at the wedding photo too long when Yuri nudged her with a chuckle and told her to sit down.

“Your place is still as nice and cozy as I remember. I think I wanna freeloading here for some time,” Yoona said, enjoying the plush couch she was sitting at.

“Psssh please, my wife will kick you out, lazy dog!”

“Speaking of your wife, where’s your scary sleepyhead ice queen?”                                                                                                       

“Dr. Jessica Jung-Kwon is on the States for a medical consortium.” Yuri answered with a roll of her eyes. ”Damn you Yoong, you make me miss my wife.”

“Guilty as charged, Lieutenant Kwon” Yoona grinned mischievously.

“Hey, it’s Captain Kwon now.”

“Oh, promotion already? Congrats Yul.”

Sounds of baby steps echoed from the corner of the living room. A little girl with disheveled hair hugging a bunny stuffed toy scurried to Yuri’s lap.

“Soojungie, why you don’t sleep?”

The little girl spoke slurry due to sleepiness. “Daddy, where’s Mommy?”

“Mommy will come home tomorrow.” Yuri kissed the little girl’s forehead gently and ran her fingers petting her hair. ”We’ll go to the airport tomorrow and pick her up together okay? Now Princess must go to sleep or shadow monsters will kidnap you~!”

The little girl whined softly on the tan woman’s hold and snuggled closer to her chest. Yuri laughed softly and lifted her daughter up, whispering a soft lullaby as she took her daughter back to the bedroom.

A gentle smile spread upon Yoona’s face as she became an impromptu audience of a small father-daughter moment. Yuri was always a kind-hearted person even with slightly brash and hotheaded outer persona, but this fatherly side of the former notorious charmer was really new to her. They first met as new recruits of auxiliary intelligent agent program and Yoona had to admit she was quite enticed by the tan woman’s charisma at that time. Soon the then military academy cadet Kwon Yuri was infamous with her endless flirt and sweet talks to literally everyone. Yoona herself wasn’t safe from her shameless flirt, but after a ridiculous date they instead ended up as “best buddies” until now. Only the then student-doctor Jessica Jung who could resist her charm; always pushing the army cadet away as far as possible. It still amused Yoona how the flirty charmer soldier and cool-as-ice doctor tied together in a marriage.

But not that she complained about this side of Yuri, instead she placed more respect to her auxiliary agent colleague now. Although she only saw it with her eyes, she could feel the affection Yuri gave to her daughter was genuine. It gave the doe-eyed a warm in her heart, as she was reminded of when her own little son cuddled to her embrace.

Her son. She missed her son, she’d just realized.

“Yoona, Yoona!” Yuri snapped her fingers right in front of the doe-eyed woman.

Snapped from her trance, Yoona blinked before flashing a small smile. “Ah…i-it’s nothing Yuri. Anyway, I didn’t know you and Jessica have had a daughter.”

“Well, she’s barely four years old and you were away like you’ve vanished from this world five years ago.” Yuri chuckled lightly and replaced quickly with a set of frown and concerned look. ”Which reminds me…Yoong, where have you been for five years?”

Yoona’s mouth tugged downwards as her first response to Yuri’s question. “W-wait… I thought you knew something happened to me in those five years Yul…” she spoke, her words somewhat came in weak manner. When the tan woman only gave her a confused look, a streak of panic struck her. She trembled slightly and her breath came off faintly shaking. “Don’t joking around, please. I ask you…be-because I didn’t remember anything about it! The last thing I remember is…”

The last thing I remember?

Her brain paced to its maximum, trying to salvage the remaining pile of recorded moments inside her memories. The latest memory she could recall vividly was a peaceful breakfast time…

Xxxx

“Come on, baby boy! Say Yoo…na… a…ppa!”

The doe-eyed baby boy pouted with drools smeared across his lips.  “U….aa… appa!”

“No no not that!” Yoona pouted and dabbed a tissue softly on his lips to wipe off the drool. ”Let’s try again, baby deer! Yoo…na… appa!”

“U…aaa appa!”

Yoona sighed softly and changed course to feed her son instead. Her doe eyes met with her son’s very own sets of cute wide eyes that resembled her own. The baby boy gobbled the baby food she fed with a small plastic spoon. She smiled widely, earning a happy laugh and clap from the toddler.

“Yoongie, give him a break. You haven’t eaten your breakfast too.”

“U..umma!” the baby boy called the puffy-cheeked woman with a grin.

“Aww, I just teach our baby boy my name, Seobaby~” Yoona looked up to her wife, beaming widely when a plate of bacon and french toast served in front of her. “Are you still jealous that the first word he said is ‘appa’?”

“Don’t be so full of yourself. Without me as his umma he even wasn’t here at the first place to call you appa!”

The doe-eyed woman laughed softly and pulled her wife to her lap. Her arms wrapped securely around the younger woman’s waist and kissed her round cute cheeks. “I know. And I’m really grateful to have you as the mother of our child, the bride of my life, Im-Seo Joohyun.”

Seohyun held her urge to roll her eyes at the doe-eyed’s cheesy choice of words, slapping her shoulder lightly. A soft cackle escaped Yoona’s lips as their eyes locked to each other, speaking their love without uttered words. Shifting slightly on Yoona’s lap, Seohyun leaned and placed a soft kiss on her wife’s lips.

Xxxx

Unnoticed by her consciousness, a single tear flowed down her pale cheeks. Then another tear followed by another, making a slow, silent cascade of teardrops without sobs.

Yuri hurried to her friend’s side and patted her back sof