I don’t know what time is it or how much it has passed, but Dara and I are still in the same place in the same poses. Me, sitting on the bed, she sitting in front of me, close, intertwining the fingers of our left hands, and her right hand on my right shoulder.

I don’t know how or when it happened, but my right hand is touching her face, my fingers almost touching the soft skin of her cheek.  I can finally see the person that helped me to see the light in that world full of darkness where I was living in. Our gazes are placed on each other, and both of us keep smiling each other.

I feel how Dadoong passes between us when his fur touches my arm; but I’m still looking at Dara and she is looking at me.

—… Dara…

I want to tell her what I just remembered but words won’t come out, it’s almost a whisper. She rubs again her thumb against my hand that is still holding her.

Not even the sound of the door hitting downstairs won’t take us out of our trance.

—Sandara Park! Why did you ask me to pick you up for your job if you’re still being late if you don’t get in the car right now?! Do you think I have all time for you? I still have a life missy!

Ok, that popped the bubble and takes us out from our world we were.

We both laugh at Bom yelling downstairs, then we split, but this time with no red cheeks or awkward moments, we just keep smiling.

—I should better go downstairs.

—Yeah, you should for your own good.

If we keep like this I think I might go back to my trance.

—Remember, you have to go back to the hospital for those radiographies my auntie asked you, ok?

—Yes mom.

—Don’t make fun of my protecting side.

—Overprotecting.

—Whatever. Oh, you know what? I’ll ask Bom if she can take you to the hospital as well.

—Hmm, could you also please prepare for me warm clothes for this weather, and leave it on my bed, please? Oh and the scarf and hat too, so I won’t get sick.

—Very funny… but now that you mention it, the weather is cold, so you better wear a coat.

—Didn’t you say it wasn’t that cold?

—It is if you’re going out. Now you better get ready! Bom will scold me at an-

—Aha! I knew I would find you here!

—Any moment…

—Are you guys enjoying your slumber party? Well, I’m glad but for your information I’ve been waiting for you outside for more than a half hour!

—I told you to get in.

—You told me you were gonna give her the breakfast, not that you were having a slumber party.

—So exaggerated. Besides, I’m not wearing any pijamas. By the way, can we also drop CL at the hospital? She is going for her radiographies.

—Sure, no problem, but HURRY UP LADIES! A go go go!

Says Bom snapping her fingers then pulling up Dara with one hand and taking me out of the covers with the other one

—We´ll be waiting for you downstairs, so please don’t take too long!

—So what do you have to do today?

—Things…

—Mysterious girl! Are there any discounts at the clothing stores and you’re afraid you might be late and the other woman already took everything?

—Oh! I never thought about it… HURRY THEN CL!

Bom and Dara leave the room between laughs and cries. Bom is so special.

I better hurry myself or she’ll never forgive me for not getting on time for the discounts.

I follow Dara’s instructions, so I wear warm clothes. I don’t have too much time to do my hair, so I just comb it and wear a woo hat. I take my dream notebook with me; I have important things to write down before I forget them. These kinds of thoughts make me laugh at how ironic it sounds. To forget a dream when my problem is precisely that one, I cannot remember.

I put it on my bag, grab my shades and go downstairs almost running. The girls are having fun arguing about something but stop the moment they see me. Bom opens the door, goes out as she winks to Dara. When I pass near her she smiles at me, she waits for me to leave the house so she can close the door. We ride the car and I decide to take the backseat one more time, Dara will go next to Bom on the front.

During the ride, I decide to write what I dreamt and remembered but it is almost impossible because the car is moving too much, so I just repeat myself on my mind “Dara is the person on my nice dreams”, I do It over and over again so I won’t forget it, but I think it would be impossible for me to do it, guess so. I find it easier to write moment the car starts running on asphalt, so I make the note: “The soft voice talking to me by my side, that holds my hand, that smiles and laughs is Dara. Those are the memories I had as I was in coma at the hospital.”

I glance at Dara, she’s joyfully having a conversation with Bom. I smile again and go back to my notebook.

“I can’t remember the dream with images, the voice of a man, it’s not the usual guy, and he says something like ‘fa’.”

That’s the last thing I can remember. I don’t know the meaning or from which language is coming from. It’s the first time I hear that word, I don’t know how to write it.

—Is everything fine back there?— Bom is asking me through the rear view mirror.

—Yes, I’m just writing down what I dreamt last night… by the way, do you guys know what ‘fa’ mean?

— “fa”?

—Yeah, something like that.

—Hmmm no, I’ve never heard that word before, have you Dara?

— “fa”…. “fa”… No, me neither. Was that word in your dreams?

—I guess so… As I was falling asleep last night, I kind of heard that word…

It was the same night Dara was rubbing that cream on my back, which makes me glance at her and notice a slight blush on her cheeks. Is it that maybe she remembers what happened that night as well? I look at her one more time and now she’s opening the window a bit more, maybe she’s feeling some heat inside the car, yeah, that’s it, or it might be because of her clothes.

—If it’s important you will dream of that again, right? I mean, you tell us you have the same dreams frequently, so why not with this one too?

—It could be…

I look through my window to find the sea, I love this landscape. And thinking about what Bom said, maybe she’s right. I don’t know if it’s important or what, but if it comes to my dreams again, it might be because it’s important. If I don’t, maybe it was just nothing. For a moment I thought it could have been Dara saying that word, but she wasn’t. What it’s more, she doesn’t what it mean, so it was not her for sure. Plus, the voice it was from a man. Another masculine voice, low, as if it was from a young man. Who is that? A friend, a brother?

The car stops, we’ve arrive to the Bar Dara works at. She’s about to leave the car but she stops and looks back at me.

—Don’t be nervous today, it’s just a routine check up, ok?

—Ha! Says the one that almost went panic when my mom told her about the radiographies!

—Shut up! As soon as you’re finished, please let me know how it was, ok? I’m going to leave my phone on.

—No worries, when the results are ready I’ll tell my mom to call you directly Miss Park.

—You’re so funny today, right?

—Leave now, your boss will scold you if you’re late, I’ll take care of the blondie, keep calm.

—Yeah, everything is gonna be alright. Bom is right, you should better hurry. I don’t want you to be scolded because of my fault.

Dara smiles at me one last time and leaves the car.

—You wanna sit in the front? I don’t like drive as if this was a taxi.

I laugh and get out the car to take a seat next to her in the front. Right on that moment I see Dara some stairs down, looking at us I say goodbye waiving my hand and she does the same. I can read in her lips “good luck”, then she disappears.

I get in and as soon as I close the door, Bom starts the car. The hospital is not that far, so we get there in a couple of minutes.

Bom comes with me inside the hospital; I guess she wants to see her mom too. Her assistant –or what I think might be- makes us get in her office as soon as she sees Bom. Inside her office, the doctor is already waiting for us and receives us with a wide smile. Bom and her mum hug tightly each other. I like to see these kind of scenes, super cute. I’d also like to have a mom like that, the kind of mom who would be with me in these moments.

—So, how’s my favourite patient going?

—Good, much better.

—How’s your back?

—Luckily it does not hurt as much as yesterday. That cream was magical.— And mostly the person that rubbed that cream on me… Ok CL! You don’t have to think on such things now, FOCUS!

—Wonderful! I‘ll prepare the machine to begin with the radiographies. Wait for me here please.

The Doctor leaves through the hall. She left me with Bom sitting on a couch.

—Aren’t you late for the discounts at stores?— I say sitting by her side.

—It’s too early so there’s no store open at this hour, plus if I ever leave you alone and Dara finds it out, she might kill me.

We both laugh because we know that would be true. It’s been a couple of minutes and now the Doctor is back.

—Everything is ready, let’s go! Bom sweetie, could you please wait here in the hall? Or you can go to my office, there’s a jar full of the cookies your grandma baked.

Bom stands up with a jump of joy and gets in the office without thinking twice. Her mom laughs at her reaction and takes me to the room where we’ll take the radiographies. As we get in, I recognize the place perfectly, I’ve been here several times before; I even shiver with the thoughts of those days. The Doctor maybe saw that on me so she comes close and softly puts her hand on my shoulder.

—This time is different, don’t be afraid.

—Yeah… it’s just that… I don’t like this place.

—The day a patient says he likes this place; it would be the same day Bom will stop liking Grandma's cookies.

Her comment makes me laugh, I think she said it so I could relax myself a bit more and it’s actually working.

—You can go there to change your clothes, you’ll find the robe there too.

—Yes .. I remember how this work…

—Great, I’ll wait for you here then.

I go to the dressing room, remove my coat first and then the rest of my clothes and finally put on that light blue robe I always hate. Once I’m ready I go back to the Doctor, she’s waiting for me with that folder of always. She asks me to lie down on the stretcher of the machine. I make every order automatically; I know the steps by heart. How come I can remember these sort of things and not my past? It’s kind of frustrating and somewhat sad.

The stretcher is moving now until my head reaches the correct place. That noise, that annoying noise, it sounds as if something was drilling my head, or an engine of something, sometimes Dara’s freezer makes a similar noise, I hate that sound.

—CL calm down, it’s only a check up. Remember not to move your head.

She’s right, I should not worry, it’s only a check up… Jung I’m hating you so much in these moments.

I start listening to different noises, it must be this thing taking shots of my head. The best thing I can do is to think I’m in another place now... but with those annoying noises is almost impossible. It’s just matter of a couple of minutes –or at least I think they are- what I’m trying to think on something else.

—Very well, now we’ll go for your back.

The stretcher moves again and now my head is on the other side, now I see a white wall, identical to the one I was used to see while I was here in the hospital.

Thinking of those things makes me think of Dara again. What she did while she was by my side on those moments, when I was desperate and full of fear. She gave that peace. Now I understand why I feel like I know her when she’s with me and makes me feel so good. It is actually weird to feel such things with someone I’ve never seen before, or that’s what she told me, that we’ve never met before, I think she’s not lying to me. Why would she? Also, if we had met before, Jung wouldn’t have asked me who I was, right? But I’ve had this feeling lately that I’ve seen her somewhere else. Maybe because my mind recognized Dara’s voice while I was at the hospital.

Ah…. How I’d love to remember everything now. I must put my best on this to get my memory back. I have to do something, there must be something to do, I cannot keep like this.

Now I feel the stretcher moving again.

—Very well, we’re done. You can change now, take your time.

I blink repeatedly; I can’t believe we’re done with this. When I get up, I see the watch on the wall; it was almost an hour here, wow… I didn’t even felt the time passing by.

I put on all my warm clothes again and when I go out I see the doctor smiling

—Let’s go back to my office, Bom might have eaten all the cookies already.

We leave the room and walk through that cold hall with white walls. We’re now in front of her office; it has the letters “Doctor Kyo” on her door. When the Doctor opens it, Bom turns her head to where we’re standing; she has crumbs on .

—I left some for you CL! These cookies are the best!

—Omg! What is this?! My daughter saved some cookies for someone else?

—Well, I can be a good friend if I want to.

—I know honey, I know.

Doctor Kyo kisses Bom’s forehead and she smiles like a 5 year old little girl. Then the doctor takes her seat and opens the carpet on her desk, takes a look at her notes and look