“Seulgi, do you still not remember anything?”

    Seulgi looked up at me, her eyes gentle swirls of liquid gold. “What do you mean?”

    “I mean, do you really not remember anything? Like, your family, where you live, nothing?”

    We were still at the park. Wendy had had to go back to work, and I’d decided to just stay for a while longer. The warm sun, cool breeze, and the smell of nature calmed me and helped me clear my thoughts.

    Seulgi’s eyes sparked slight bits of red, and frustration showed on her face, before she seemed to calm down, and her eyes turned into a murky green. “No, I do not remember anything. I apologize.”

    I furrowed my brows before leaning back into the bench and running fingers through my hair. Then, I sighed. “I’m sorry for doing this to you, Seulgi. If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t have lost your memory. Your family must be worried for you.”

    For some reason, Seulgi looked like she wanted to tell me something, but she only gave me a sad smile. “It is alright, Irene. It is not your fault. I . . . do not have family. I know that for a fact. I do not have anyone worrying for me, so you do not have to feel apologetic.”

    I froze at that, a familiar pang of heartache tearing through my chest. Hearing those words from Seulgi involuntarily made me feel empathetic towards her.

    Family. Something I used to have. Something I used to have, but had gotten taken away from me like candy from a baby. So easily, so quickly, and so helplessly.

    “Irene?”

    I snapped out of my stupor and turned to see Seulgi staring at me with a worried expression painted across her face, head tilted slightly.

I shook my head slightly as if that would somehow shake out the memories threatening to drown me, before I looked back up at Seulgi.  “Yeah. Uhm,” I let my eyes wander away from her before I caught sight of a little boy popping a lollipop into his mouth, “Hey, do you like candy?”

    “Candy?” Seulgi’s eyes lit up both figuratively and literally as mellow green turned ecstatic blue. “Yes. I enjoy candy very much.”

    I couldn’t stop the grin from spreading across my face as I got up from the bench.

    “Then let’s go and get some.”

~~

    Whose idiotic idea was this?

    Oh wait, Irene. I think it was yours.

    I felt like grabbing Seulgi by her arm and throwing her into the back of my van, but we were already trapped in a throng of little children and adults blatantly staring at the girl in front of me. Seulgi was utterly oblivious as usual, childishly eyeing the store with wide eyes and open mouth.

    “Irene. Is this all candy?” Seulgi asked.

She sounded like a schoolgirl talking about her crush, and if it were possible, I would have gladly strangled myself with one of the rope candies in the store. “Yes. It’s all candy,” I muttered. “Now will you hurry up and pick so we can leave?”

Seulgi looked at me with curious eyes of amethyst, and I had to resist the urge to grab her by the neck and force her to see all the people surrounding us and staring. “I do not know what to get. This is my first time seeing candies like these.”

I stared at Seulgi for a good minute before throwing up my hands in exasperation and moving around the store - weaving around the many people who were pretending to be shopping. I grabbed all the candies that I liked in quick succession before paying for them in record time and grabbing Seulgi’s wrist with urgent fingers, pulling her out of the store. When we finally made it to my car, I slumped against its side, ignoring the tinge of burning pain searing into my back against the slightly hot metal and breathing out a sigh of relief.

“Are you alright?”

I grunted as I shifted a little before looking up at Seulgi and handing her the bag practically bursting with sweets. “I’m fine. Here. You’ll probably like these.”

Seulgi’s eyes lit up a clear sky blue again before she reached out and took the bag from me with delicate fingers. “Thank you, Irene.”

“Mhm.” I pulled out my keys from my pocket before playing with them, absentmindedly tracing the cool metal of the keys as I let my mind wander.

“Irene?”

I pulled myself out of my thoughts and focused on Seulgi again. I was surprised to see a mix of fear, surprise, and anger in her expression. Her eyes were sparking red against the background of stone grey, and her brows pulled together dangerously. She looked tense, and I immediately pushed off of the side of my car. “What’s wrong?”

“We have to leave. We have to leave now.” Seulgi’s eyes were scanning the crowd as if she sensed danger that I was incapable of sensing. The urgency was obvi