What the hell?” TOP demanded to know and they quickly broke apart. Ji Yong looked shocked to see them standing there and Soo-Jin looked guilty and flustered.

“Lia!” she cried out. “I swear, it’s not what you think it —”

Lia’s face registered shock to disbelief to anger to hurt. Her face slowly crumpled as she tried to blink back the tears, trying to hide the obvious hurt.

Ji Yong looked down. He took one step to her. “Lia.”

Why does he have the same face, same voice as Ji Yong? Yet sounds nothing alike and doesn’t look at all familiar at the same time?

Lia looked into the eyes of her lover and felt empty. His eyes were hollow, like her soul.

It was Kwon Ji Yong, the man she fell in love with, yet at the same time, it’s not him as well. This man has no memory of her, has no memory of them being together.

And right now, watching him kiss another girl, she didn’t recognize him.

She quickly turned around and ran back in her room, slamming the door shut behind her. It took TOP, who had clenched his fist into a tight ball, a few steps toward Ji Yong before he grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and gave him a punch.

“You bastard,” he yelled. “How dare you kiss my girlfriend and cheat on your wife!” He punched him again.

But Ji Yong pushed him away. “I don’t even remember her!” he shouted back, wiping off the blood from his nose.

TOP landed another blow on him and he stumbled backward, crashing into the fridge. “Then I will punch you until you remember,” he growled furiously at his leader.

“I —”

“Maybe you cannot remember her as your wife, but did you ever stop to think about how she feels? You know, I thought, even though you don’t remember her, you would have at least had to decency not to kiss Soo-Jin and to take my sister’s feelings into consideration as well!” He kneed him in the groin and Ji Yong doubled over.

“Stop —”

“I will not stop until you at least feel guilt in that black heart of yours!”

“SHUT UP!” Ji Yong hollered. He swung his hand to defend himself.

TOP leaned back. “I want you out of this house,” he said quietly.

“That’s not possible,” he sneered at him. “I remember the doctor saying that you need to keep an eye on me. So that means you cannot kick me out.”

TOP narrowed his eyes at him and raised his fist to punch him again when Soo-Jin took his hand. “Let him go,” she pleaded. “He isn’t worth it. Go to your sister.”

“You go,” he said, glowering at a badly beaten-up Ji Yong. “I’ll take care of this ing piece of .”

“Oppa —”

“I won’t punch him, if that’s what you are afraid of,” he muttered half-heartedly. How he wished he could, though. No one hurts my little sister like that. No one. Anyone who does will pay.

She nodded, avoided Ji Yong’s staring eyes and she hurried to Lia’s room. It was dark but she could hear her sobs. It was coming from the bed. She found Lia crouched down on the floor, hugging her knees, her head bowed. Her dog, King, was sitting next to her, watching her protectively.

“Lia?” she said hesitantly. She began to crouch down. “Lia, I’m sorry about everything. I really am. I didn’t mean for —”

“Leave me alone.”

The words came out as a whisper but it was clear.

Soo-Jin, stung by her harsh and cold words but nonetheless understood what she felt, nodded, feeling guilty. She turned to walk out of the room.

“Unnie?”

She turned back to find Lia’s head slowly come up, tears in her eyes. “I don’t hate you,” she said quietly.

That was enough to let Soo-Jin know that she doesn’t blame her. She nodded and left the room. She felt relieved that Lia doesn’t hate her but she felt really bad for her that Ji Yong had done what he had done. It’s not like him to do such a thing.

TOP was sitting down on the sofa, his head bowed. Ji Yong was nowhere in sight. She sat down next to him and looked up.

“He’s in his room,” he told her.

She nodded. “What about your sister? She’s really hurt.”

He sighed, looking angry. She touched his face at the place where Ji Yong had at least managed to strike back. He winced slightly at the pain. “I’ll go talk to her,” he said, standing up and she stood up too. “It’ll be safer if you go upstairs and tell the others what happened. You know, just in case. . .” He shot a hateful look toward the direction of Ji Yong’s room.

She nodded and kissed him. “I’m sorry,” she started to say.

He shook his head. “It’s not your fault,” he replied. “It’s no one’s fault but Ji Yong’s. okay, in some ways, you can’t blame him, but he must at least think about others around him. He isn’t the only one suffering. My sister is in a lot of pain and it hurts me and everyone else who loves her to see her break down like this yet she’s trying to be so strong about it. I just don’t know how she can even do it. It’s too much. I would’ve quit a long time ago.”

Soo-Jin nodded. “I know. She doesn’t blame me either but if I had —”

He cupped her face and looked into her eyes. “Soo-Jin, you did nothing wrong. I know you tried to fight back. Ji Yong told me. And my sister and I saw you trying to push him off as well.” He kissed her. “Go now.”

She ran out of the apartment as he walked toward his sister’s door.

Ji Yong laid down on his bed, replaying the scene again. His hand moved up to his cheek, wincing when he felt the pain on where TOP had hit him. It stung like hell.

Did he really do that? How could he have been so heartless to Lia? Why is he so stupid? He was on his bed for a long time.

He wasn’t sure about the time but some time later there was a soft knock on the door. When the door opened, light flooded into the dark room. Lia poked her head in.

“Dinner,” she said softly.

He nodded, looking up. “I’ll be there soon.”

She closed the door and he got out of bed. Ji Yong ran his hand through his hair nervously. Would TOP be outside? He walked out and saw only Lia at the dining table.

She didn’t look up when he approached her. Ji Yong thought he saw the painful look on her face. She was busy setting the table when he realized she only set for one person.

He looked at her. “You’re not eating?”

She shook her head.

There was this nagging feeling inside of him at the thought of Lia not eating. It seemed familiar, like he had felt it before. Could it be like a memory from the past?

She finally looked up and her eyes widened when she saw the bruises on his face. Then she quickly looked down again, muttering some sort of excuse and left him alone to eat.

Did I make her hate me now?, he wondered as he ate his food alone. When he was done, he cleared everything and washed up all the dirty dishes. He sighed, applying soap on the plates. He closed his eyes.

“Ji Oppa!” a girl giggled from the kitchen sink.

The boy next to her looked up the same time she flicked soapy water to him. He pretended to gasp. “You did not! Payback time!”

There was a loud squeal as she tried to run from him but the boy grabbed her from the waist. Then he wiped his wet hands on her face, laughing as she tried to push him away.

She giggled again and reached up to kiss him, which he responded.

“Eeee! Umma and Appa are kissing again!” a little boy’s voice called and soon another little boy and a little came up to them. The little girl wet her hands and flicked her fingers to the man. He just laughed and did the same and she giggled the same giggle her mother did. Soon the whole kitchen floor was wet as the five of them ran around, flickering each other with water.

He opened his eyes. He looked around. It was only him in the kitchen. The woman and the children were gone. There was no sound of laughter and the floor was totally dry. But Ji Yong could still hear their echoes lingering around somewhere in the room.

What the hell was that?

That couldn’t have been a memory, could it? He shook his head, pressing his wrist to his forehead. Aish, why is this happening to him? Did TOP really punch the memories back into him or something?

That’s not possible, is it?

Lia still hadn’t come out of her room so he went back into his instead. He walked over to the mirror and stared at himself.

“I must be going crazy,” he murmured. Ji Yong looked down and his heart skipped a beat when he saw a bracelet on the table. He picked it up. It was those adjustable bracelets with two symbols: a book and a microphone.

What does it mean?

He felt like he should remember it; felt like it was important to him somehow. He couldn’t quite place it.

He set it back down on the table and went to sit down on his bed.

The door opened and Lia came in with a small bucket of water and a face towel slung over her shoulder. She placed it in front of him and dipped the towel in the water. She then squeezed it and began dabbing it lightly on his face.

She was cleaning his wounds.

“Lia?”

She didn’t answer him and concentrated on what she was doing. She avoided his gaze. He felt extremely guilty. Even though he had hurt her, she still had the heart to clean his wounds when she should have just left him alone.

He saw something dangling down from her hand. It was smaller version of the bracelet he had seen just now.

Come to think of it, he always saw her wearing it but never really bothered to ask her why she wore it all the time.

“That bracelet,” he blurted out. Lia, who was about to wipe his face again, paused her hand mid-air. “Why do we both have identical bracelets? What does it mean?”

She looked startled — which later turned into pain. She “It’s our couple bracelets,” she told him. She looked away.

He waited for her to explain some more but she just kept quiet. So he decided to ask her about it himself. “When did we get it?” Ji Yong wanted to know.

She shrugged.

“Please,” he begged. “I want to know.”

She sighed. “When you first asked me to be your girlfriend,” she replied. “The book is for me, because I want to be an author. And then of course, the microphone is because you are a singer.”

“Oh.”

Lia suddenly stood up and made a move to leave when he grabbed her hand. She stiffened.

“I’m so sor —”

She jerked her hand away and left the room without a backward glance, closing the door behind her, leaving him back in the darkness once again.

Ever since that day, Ji Yong never saw her wearing the bracelet again.