“What the happened here? Why do you have a bandage on your head? Who is she? Who are you?” With her last words, her head abruptly turned to Eunseo, and she scanned her from head to toe. The woman seemed very distraught and had spoken way too fast.

Cheng Xiao and Eunseo exchanged very confused looks and neither of them felt like they could speak. The blonde had just opened the door to the house with her own keys, ran to them, and demanded answers. The unexpected entrance had made her look nothing short of crazy.

The girls were taken aback, not feeling at ease trusting her immediately. Neither of them really felt comfortable simply asking her who she was either, especially not Cheng Xiao, since she might, after all, be someone very important in her life.

“What? Why aren’t you answering me?” The blonde demanded, after the short period of silence, alternating her stare between the both of them.

“I’m uh… Son Eunseo?“ She introduced herself, reluctantly. The woman didn’t break her stare, as if expecting her to elaborate further. “I’m her neighbor.”

“Nice to meet you.” She answered coldly. “What’s going on here? Why are you here?”

Before Eunseo could answer, Cheng Xiao stepped in.

“Excuse me, but who are YOU?”

“Yes. Who are you?” The neighbor also stepped in and took a braver stance, seemingly encouraged by Cheng Xiao’s defiance.

Whoever this person was, Cheng Xiao didn’t like the way she was talking to Eunseo. She seemed almost threatening. That display of attitude made her let go of her self-consciousness.

“WHO AM I?! Who am I?!” The blonde was completely appalled, her eyebrows raised high. “What’s wrong with you?! Seriously, someone needs to explain this joke to me because I am not getting it.”

“If only you calm down, then maybe we will have a chance.” Eunseo said, firmly, her eyes confidently fixed on hers.

With this, the blonde woman loosened up and raised her hands up to her head, letting her guard down. Cheng Xiao was surprised with the way Eunseo was backing her up and standing up for her, and she thought it was probably best to let her handle the situation after all. She seemed to be a bit more level-headed at the moment.

“Okay. Fine. Go ahead.”

“Who are you after all? You didn’t introduce yourself to me when I did. Kind of rude if you ask me.”

The blonde sighed. “Kim Bona, personal assistant to CEO Cheng Xiao Xiao, of WuJu Systems Network.”

Kim Bona… Personal Assistant… CEO… WuJu Systems Network…

The amount of information Cheng Xiao had just recalled all at once had been so great and so overwhelming she started feeling her pulse on her temples.

Bona, of course. Of course she had spare keys to her house. Her personal assistant, but also her best friend. The invaluable best friend she had made when studying Business in university, who eventually became the most loyal, dedicated, tireless personal assistant when she took over as CEO of the company – WJSN, or WuJu Systems Network, one of the fastest growing tech companies in South Korea, with an ongoing expansion to China.

Cheng Xiao couldn’t believe she had forgotten about her best friend, and about her responsibilities as a CEO. No matter how hard she tried to convince herself it wasn’t her fault over and over again, a painful sense of guilt came to her every time she realized the things she had forgotten over a simple blow to the head. How weak could she be if something as harmless as this had made her forget all of her life, all that had mattered to her, how hard she worked, the people she loved? How solid could her memories really be? How did she even know all of the memories she recalled were real? Couldn’t this have been her brain simply filling up for the missing pieces of her?

Her world had alternated between feeling real and like a dream so many times already, and she had woken up just a few hours ago. It felt like she was in a void, in a limbo between the real world and the dream world. And she didn’t seem to belong in any of them. The injured girl wasn’t sure this was something she was feeling physically or mentally either.

However, there was no time to think about where she stood, and who and what she really was. She had responsibilities as a CEO. That’s what she was told just now, that’s what she recalled, and that’s what she had to trust for now, because all the paperwork, decisions, meetings, reports, she probably had to take care of were no joke, as she had left the company on its own for who knows how long.

The CEO fought back her tears of frustration and her visible anguish and put on a blunt, determined face, urgently heading towards the door.

“Let’s go then, there’s no time to lose. You can fill me up on the current happenings on the way.”

Bona barred her way, tackling her with her arms, and held her in place.

“Oh, trust me, you are NOT going anywhere. You don’t think I know that face? Plus, it’s only been a day, everything’s fine at the company. You’re going to breathe for at least half a second, for a change, and sit your down. And I’m definitely not going to “fill you up” on anything until I get an explanation. Is that clear? Remember, I’m older than you.”

Bona dragged the conformed Cheng Xiao onto the couch, making her sit. The Chinese girl was, in fact, very used to this behavior. Even though she was Bona’s superior, Bona was older than her by 3 years. She had to admit she really wasn’t good at taking care of herself – it was very evident, given the bandage on her head and its subsequent consequences. The blonde was a lot better at taking care of her than she was, so Cheng Xiao obliged, feeling as though listening to her was probably the right thing to do.

Meanwhile, Eunseo had been quietly watching them, and felt like she no longer had any place in the room, and it was probably best to let them have some time alone. Cheng Xiao had evidently remembered her and there seemed to be a lot for them to talk about. So she started swiftly making her way towards the exit.

“ACTUALLY.” Bona said, glaring straight at Eunseo, raising the volume of her voice, making the latter stop and stiffen. This woman was definitely something else when it came to bossing people around and having things her way. It was hard to believe she was the assistant, and not the boss. “Nobody’s going anywhere. You, sit too.”

The three girls were sitting on the weirdly-positioned couch, in the middle of the chaotic living room, an awkward silence between them after Cheng Xiao and Eunseo spent quite some time answering Bona’s questions (more like demands). They were all facing their laps. The blonde was now a lot quieter, giving herself some time and space to process the information and figure out what to do about it.

“You’re officially on medical leave. I’ll take care of everything.” Bona broke the silence herself.

“But—“

“No, don’t even try. One week at the very least. I’ll stay in touch with you in case anything needs immediate attention.”

“Yes! You need to rest and stay away from big efforts. Doctor Nam said so.”

Cheng Xiao and Bona both turned their heads to Eunseo, not having expected her to step in on the conversation. Eunseo felt it and shrunk in embarrassment. Cheng Xiao grinned very subtly.

“So, Xiao, do you by any chance remember what was that really important thing you forgot at home?” Bona changed the subject.

“What are you talking about?” Cheng Xiao frowned.

“Right.” She sighed. “We were on our way to the airport for our trip... We were supposed to meet with the new spokesperson for the company in China, but halfway through you begged to come back home because you had forgotten something super important you wouldn’t tell me about. Then you guaranteed you’d be back in time for the flight and told me to go on ahead, but, as you can probably tell, you never did. I called you so, so many times, but you wouldn’t answer, and I had no choice but to go by myself and try to sort things out, and maybe try to reschedule… Oh, it was awful…”

Bona’s face expression changed considerably into a hybrid of anger and terror at the end. Just before Cheng Xiao could ask about it, the assistant straightened herself and continued.

“Anyway, I landed really early today and you still weren’t answering any of my calls, I called the company but nobody had seen you since yesterday either, so I went full panic and thought you had to be here. Thankfully you were here, or else I swear I would have filed a missing person report on the spot. I was freaking worried… And to think I could have found you here, dead.”

The CEO’s face contorted in discomfort, as did Eunseo’s, who was now fidgeting in her seat. Nothing of what Bona said had rang a bell, except for the fact she had a business meeting in China, which she already knew about, but that didn’t matter anymore. All Cheng Xiao wanted was to change the subject as soon as possible.

“So why exactly was this meeting… awful?!”

“That woman… She’s ruthless. Merciless. She has no manners. Who the hell even chose her for the job?” Bona was breathing heavily through her nose.

“What… woman?”

“Xuan Yi or whatever. The spokesperson! How could they have chosen such a rude SPOKESPERSON?”

“What did she do…?”

“She gave me this huge lecture, like she was my mom. How could you not tell me the CEO wasn’t coming? Why did you waste my time? What kind of company is this that we can’t even have a proper meeting? Are you even taking the expansion seriously? Yada yada yada.” Bona was quite worked up, mocking the woman’s voice while making “blah blah” gestures with her hands, her face hot and red.

Cheng Xiao chuckled.

“What?! There’s nothing funny about this!” The assistant almost got up from her seat. She was visibly stressed out again.

“It sounds exactly like something you would say in a similar situation.”

“EXCUSE ME?! I would never…” Bona was going to continue, until she realized she really had no good answer for that, leaning back in her seat, with her arms crossed. “You’re lucky you’re injured. I would have hit you.”

“We need to arrange the meeting again. Please take care of that.”

“Oh, no, I am NOT going to be in her presence again.”

Cheng Xiao glared blankly at her for a few seconds, without saying a word, a tactic she was used to using with Bona when she was acting unreasonable – especially when she let her pride cloud her reason. It’s as if your eyes are guilt tripping me and making me search into my own soul, the blonde had told her once. And very rarely did this fail. Cheng Xiao prided herself in that.

“I’ll take care of it.” She replied, avoiding her boss’ stare.

Cheng Xiao smiled genuinely for the first time in the last hour. Bona was someone who always managed to make her happy. She had such a unique temper, a unique way of seeing things, and so they didn’t always see eye to eye. But somehow, this made Cheng Xiao laugh more often than it caused her trouble, and she was very skilled at dealing with it.

There weren’t a lot of vivid memories she could recall of Bona. But she felt how deep their connection was and how much they meant to each other, which made her realize just how much her few hours without knowing of the blonde had lacked the joy only she knew how to bring her.

For the first time since the incident, she was overwhelmed with sheer happiness about having recovered some of her memories. This time, there was no frustration, no guilt, no dissociation to overthrow it. There was only her, her best friend, and her neighbor, who had been forced to just awkwardly sit there most of the time by her best friend - but she had stayed, she had listened, and she had fully dedicated herself to caring for her for the past day.

Cheng Xiao was deeply grateful for everything about this simple, apparently meaningless moment. But nobody else needed to understand. She knew what was in her heart. That was all that mattered.

And her heart told her that whatever she would face, whatever she found out about herself in the future, she would be able to handle. It would all come together, little by little. She knew she wasn’t alone, and she was firmly holding on to that.

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A/N: Okay so here is another update. This time it's a bit longer than usual, but I really wanted you to be able to become at least a little familiar with Bona and her relationship with Cheng Xiao in this chapter. Poor Bona is very shaken with Xuan Yi :P Xiao also seems to have slightly changed her perspective on her current situation. Anyway, I really hope you like it and that it provided some of the answers you were looking for. Thank you for your continued support guys, I am so grateful!