22:08 p.m.

“Do you have any idea how annoying it can be to spend your entire morning trying to convince a fifty year old chaebol that there is absolutely nothing wrong with him and that there is no reason for him to get admitted to the hospital? And then spend another ten hours in the operation theatre, trying to fight against death?”

“Of course not, jagi. I only know how annoying it is to train new recruits all morning and attend the most boring formal dinners at the Blue House all evening.”

“Oh, come on now, Si-Jin. Give me a break. Do you know how big the bags under my eyes have gotten? I look like a thousand year old ghost. A beautiful one, albeit.”

Major Yoo Si Jin couldn’t help but laugh out loud at his darling fiancée’s absolute adorableness. He knew she was tired and worn out but still decided to pull her leg anyway.

“So tell me, Oh Thousand-Year-Old-Beautiful-Ghost, must I crack my skull open and lay upon an operation table for you to finally pay me any attention at all?”

“SI-JIN AH! When was the last time you opened your mouth and not spout absolute rubbish? Can you not utter such stupid things all the time?”

Si-Jin chuckled softly as he drove past a small factory on the outskirts of Seoul.

“Listen, just come back home already. I’ve missed you for too long. I need to catch some sleep now. The keys are under the second vase from the left, as-“

“-always.” Si-Jin completed. “I’ll be there when you wake up, Mo-Yeon ah. Love you. Bye.”

“Bye for now, jagi. Don’t forget to drive safely!”

 

23:57 p.m.

Doctor Kang Mo-Yeon woke up to the faint sound of her phone buzzing. It had to be from the hospital. She had no intention of even opening an eye but the thought of finding her boyfriend-no! fiancé sleeping next to her with his cute baby face forced her wide awake. But Si-Jin was nowhere to be seen. Mo-Yeon looked at the clock on the wall. It was almost midnight. She reluctantly picked her phone up from the bedside table. It was an unknown number.

“Hello?” she said softly into the phone.

“Hello, is this My Fiancée Mo-Yeon speaking?” enquired the voice of a woman.

“What?! Is this a prank?”

“No. this is the Shin-Jae City Hospital. Is this My Fiancée Mo-Yeon that I’m talking to?”

“This is Doctor Kang Mo-Yeon. How may I help you?” said Mo-Yeon with an increasingly agitated tone. Her mind ran wild with the possibilities. The call obviously had something to do with Si-Jin.

“Yes, you see Miss Kang; you were the last dialled number on the phone of the patient. He was found in a car crash a couple of miles away from the hospital by a few factory workers. He’s currently in surgery. It would be best for you to come to the hospital as soon as possible.”

“Y-yes. Thank y-y-you.”

Mo-Yeon could not really comprehend everything she had just heard on the phone. Si-Jin was found in a car crash? He was in surgery? But it had been only a while since she spoke to him…

 

01:15 a.m., Shin-Jae City Hospital.

“Hello, I need to know the status of Mr. Yoo Si-Jin, please.” Mo-Yeon said to the receptionist.

“Miss Mo-Yeon?”

“Yes. Can you please be a little quicker, Miss?” Mo-Yeon half yelled, half begged.

“Well, well. Calm down a little, will you? The patient is still in surgery. Wait for the doctors to comment on his health. Thank you. Anything else?”

“I am a trauma surgeon myself. I’d like to take over the surgery.” Mo-Yeon said desperately, without sparing a thought to the words she had voiced.

“Oh, then I am pretty sure, ma’am, that you are perfectly aware of how absurd an idea it is for anyone to just barge into the operation theatre in…flannel pyjamas and a hoodie in the middle of a surgery. Please have a seat and wait for the outcome. Thanks.”

Mo-Yeon took short, but quick steps to the closest chair and sunk into the seat. She feared her knees would buckle any moment and she’d fall to the floor. All she could sit there and do was pray to every higher power out there for her fiancé to come out of surgery safely.

 

02:22 a.m.

A female doctor strutted out of the operation theatre along with three other male doctors. Mo-Yeon jerked out of her chair at once and hurried towards the doctors to ask the status of the patient.

“Well, you see, Miss. The patient is out of danger now. But we have decided to keep him in the ICU for the next three days for observation. He has fractured his left arm and taken a serious blow to the head. There was severe blood loss. It would be fatal if he was brought in any later. All we can do now is wait for the patient to wake up.”

“Thank you, doctor,” Mo-Yeon bowed. She was relieved to know that Si-Jin was out of danger. But she couldn’t help worry about his head injury. What if they discovered he was paralyzed after he woke up? What if he was suffering from amnesia? NO! She had to force herself to stop relying on her medical mind and just hope that all was well.

 

04:11 a.m.

Si-Jin slowly opened his eyes. The blurriness cleared out to reveal a face, mere inches away from his own. The face was pale, with red eyes, having big puffy bags underneath. The face seemed to belong to a thousand year old ghost. A beautiful one, albeit. The owner of the strange but pretty face, murmured something that sounded like “Yeobo, you’re awake!” and ran out of the room only to return with another woman wearing a doctors’ coat. That’s when the smell of rubbing alcohol hit him hard. He looked around without moving his head. The white walls and green curtains resembled a hospital room.

“Hello, Mr. Yoo. I’m Dr. Park Jun-Hee. How do you feel? Do you think you can sit up?” said the woman in the white coat.

After getting him into a sitting position, he was asked to move his head from side to side. He was asked to count the number of fingers the doctor was holding up. He managed to perform both the tasks successfully. He was then asked to move his toes and the fingers on his right hand. This, too, he managed to do.

“So far so good, Mr. Yoo. Can you now please tell me a little about yourself?”

“Uh...well...my name is Yoo Si-Jin and I…uh, Doctor?”

“Yes?”

“What year is this?”

“It’s 20-“

“Si-Jin ah!” the strange woman cried. “Why on earth are you being like this? Now is not the time to joke!” The woman spoke to him like she knew him very well. But he had absolutely no idea as to who she was or why she thought she had the right to lecture him while he sat in pain in a hospital room.

“Look, young miss. Well, I guess you’re not that young…anyway! I don’t know who you are and I’d really like it if you could please just step out and let the doctor handle the situation.”

Mo-Yeon’s heart sank. She just knew from the look in his eyes, that Si-Jin was absolutely serious. She ran out of the room and sank to the floor with her back against the wall. She tried to hold back the tears that were blurring her vision, but she couldn’t help bawl her eyes out. She didn’t care that passers-by were giving her weird looks. The pain in her heart was almost nothing like she had experienced before. And she had survived a year believing Si-Jin was dead and gone forever.

 

07:00 a.m., Haesung Hospital.

“Eun-Ji ah~”, wailed Mo-Yeon, her voice breaking as she sobbed.

“Mo-Yeon, you have to get a hold of yourself.” replied Dr. Eun-Ji, Mo-Yeon’s best friend.

Mo-Yeon had driven herself all the way to Haesung Hospital at 5 in the morning after waiting for the doctors at Shin-Jae to complete a round of tests on Si-Jin. She had then gone ahead and cried in the arms of her best friend for a whole hour.

“Yes. That’s right. I, Kang Mo-Yeon will get a hold on myself. I have decided that I absolutely hate Si-Jin. I am going the leave all earthly matters behind, shave my head, and become a monk.”

“Oh for God’s sake, Mo-Yeon, isn’t this the same non-sense you spewed when you found out Si-Jin was alive after one year of believing he was dead? You’re a doctor for crying out loud! A doctor with so many years’ worth of experience! You should be well aware of the fact that someday, hopefully someday soon, Major Yoo will recollect all of his lost memories and everything will go back to being normal again.”

It was true that Eun-Ji made absolutely perfect sense. But Mo-Yeon couldn’t help but worry about the situation. Let alone the love of her life having completely forgotten her, she did not even know what she was supposed to do anymore about the wedding, her and Si-Jin’s wedding that was exactly three months away. How was she supposed to stand at the alter with a man who refused to let her be in the same room as himself, someone who looked at her like she was an absolute stranger? Mo-Yeon burst into tears again. Silent, hot tears.

“This is about the wedding, isn’t it?” Eun-Ji said, softly, trying to sound as comforting as possible.

Mo-Yeon nodded slowly.

“Mo-Yeon ah, I know your heart hurts. But look at it like this: a chance to relive all of your best memories with you fiancé before the big fat wedding.”

“Okay, just what on earth are you saying, man?”

“Ah seriously! Look. I know this is extremely hard on you, but take a break. Take Si-Jin with you back to Urk, where it all truly began. Where your love began to blossom. Do all the things you both did there that brought the two of you closer. I am sure that will have some effect on his repressed memories. What’s the harm in giving it a shot? What say?”

“But Eun-Ji, why would he follow me, a stranger, into a strange land to do perfectly strange things? He asked me to get out of the hospital room!” wailed Mo-Yeon.

“Oh come on now! He was already disoriented and you just startled him further. Give the guy a break. He just came out of surgery!”

“I guess you’re right. I’ll be going back to Shin-Jae Hospital in the late afternoon. Hopefully I’ll manage to get a grip on the situation by then.”

 

15:30 p.m., Shin-Jae City Hospital.

“Si-Jin sunbae are you kidding me right now? We leave the country for like, ten minutes, and you manage to forget some seven years of your life?”

“Myeong-Ju, give him a break. Major Yoo Si-Jin, you just abruptly ended my honeymoon vacation. How do you plan to fix this? We’ve come rushing all the way from the Bahamas because Dr. Kang couldn’t stop wailing over the phone and we could barely grasp the situation. I’m going to make you pay for this when you’re on your honeymoon three months later.” growled Seo Dae-Young, Si-Jin’s partner in the army, and best friend.

“Kang? I thought the doctor was a Par-Woah! Wait a minute. Ya’ll returned from your honeymoon? How and when did you even get married? I guess this is as daebak as it gets!” Si-Jin couldn’t help but giggle like a little boy. But he immediately shut up when he saw the sour expression on Myeong-Ju’s face.

“Dr. Kang isn’t the doctor treating you here. She’s your fiancée. You proposed to her on the day of our wedding, which was a month ago. The two of you are to be wedded in three months. She’s probably the first person you saw when you woke up.”, Myeong-Ju said.

“Oh come on. Don’t scare him with so much information all at once. Let him take it slow.” said Dae-Young.

Si-Jin was completely shaken up to say the least. The face from this morning had been that of the woman he loved? So much so that he had even proposed to her and they were to be married soon? He wondered how he could simply wake up from an accident and forget such an important person completely. He tried hard to recollect even the smallest piece of information regarding her. For one moment there seemed to be a flash of a beautiful smile before his eyes. But the next moment there was a sharp screeching sound. His head hurt like crazy and he felt dizzy. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead and he felt short of breath.

Myeong-Ju ran towards him and tried to make him drink some water. When he refused to open his eyes, she cupped his face tightly with both her hands and yelled at him, “Yoo Si-Jin! Get a grip. You are sitting in a hospital room. You are safe. You are fine. Open your eyes!” Slowly, Si-Jin seemed to have calmed down. But the dizziness was still quite there.

Not only was he suffering from amnesia, he was also showing signs of PTSD.

 

16:05 p.m.

Mo-Yeon entered the hospital room with shaky legs. Her knees felt like jelly, and her heart wouldn’t stop racing. felt parched. She knew she did not have enough courage to see the unfamiliarity in Si-Jin’s eyes again. She slowly and rather unsteadily made her way to his bed, and stood beside Myeong-Ju. How grateful was she for Myeong-Ju and Seo Dae-Young’s presence.

“Hello, Mr. Yoo.”, Mo-Yeon said cautiously.

Si-Jin looked up at her. His blank expression slowly morphed into a forced, yet gentle smile.

“Hello.”

“How do you feel now? We will be moving you to Haesung Hospital today and I will be your doctor from now on. See you later.” Saying all of that in one breath, Mo-Yeon rushed out of the room.

“What was that? I could barely grasp much of what she just spoke.” said Si-Jin in a genuinely confused tone.

Seo Dae-Young sighed. “I’ll go do the necessary paper work. See ya’ll.” He walked out of the room. He found Mo-Yeon standing near a window at the end of the corridor. He walked towards her and placed his hand on her shoulder, expecting to see her sobbing when she turned. But she seemed surprisingly calm, with a tight smile plastered on her face. But the sadness in her eyes gave her away.

“Thank you so much for being here right now. I don’t know what I’d do without the two of you. I’m so sorry you had to cut short your holiday.”

“You must not thank me. Yoo Si-Jin is my brother, my family. I have even sacrificed my life to protect him. So cutting short a holiday isn’t even a big deal. Besides, what’s more important is that that fool is alive. I am sure he’ll physically recover quickly. The man’s made of god-metal. I hope he can recollect all of his memories soon too. You must be strong, doctor. Myeong-Ju and I are always here for you. Fighting!” Dae-Young said with a little smile and walked away to the receptionist.

 

20:16 p.m., Haesung Hospital.

Si-Jin had been forced on to a wheelchair by a young nurse despite him insisting that both of his legs were perfectly fine. He had just been wheeled into the Haesung Hospital premises when he saw a huge poster of Dr. Kang promoting the hospital. But before he even had any time to comprehend anything, two grown men in doctor’s attire half pounced at him singing and waving their hands completely out of rhythm, “Major Yoo Si-Jin, Welcome! Haesung Hospital’s son-in-law, Welcome! You’re alive, Yay!”

Within a few seconds of their song and dance, an older nurse swatted them away. “Look at you two! Tell me, do you have any shame? Behave yourselves, doctors!” She then turned to Si-Jin and said, “Sorry about that embarrassment. But you might have to put up with it while you’re here. I’m Nurse Ha. These two idiots here are Dr. Song Sang-Hyun and Dr. Lee Chi-Hoon of the cardiothoracic department. We’ve worked together with you in the past.”

As they were being introduced, one of the men pointed finger guns at Si-Jin and winked while the younger one pulled a finger heart out of his coat. Interesting.

 

21:40 p.m.

Mo-Yeon sat on the stool beside Si-Jin’s bed and carried out a series of check-ups before she finally spoke.

“You look like you have something to ask. Go ahead. Shoot.”

“Well that’s something you must never tell a soldier. You never know, it might be the last thing you say.” he mumbled softly with a smirk.

Mo-Yeon couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “But I thought your principle was to protect the old, the kids, and the beautiful. So I suppose you wouldn’t shoot me.”

“You’re not that beautiful”

“I meant I’m old.” Mo-Yeon couldn’t help but immediately think about their first meeting when a similar conversation had taken place between the two.

“Anyway, ask me whatever has been on your mind.”

“Uh yeah, about that. The staff members here seem to know me well. They said we had worked together in the past. What was that about? Also, is that where we…met?”

Oh. So he did know they have a past together. It must have been Myeong-Ju or Dae-Young who mentioned it. But Mo-Yeon wasn’t sure how much he knew.

“No. the first time we met was at this very hospital. But some of the hospital’s staff members, including myself, had been sent to serve at Urk, where you had been deployed too. It was there that the soldiers and doctors lived together as a family and grew close to each other. All the doctors here are quite fond of you even now, after over two years of being back from Urk.”

“Oh. Okay.” Si-Jin tried hard to remember Urk. But he was blank. There was, for one moment, a faint picture of blue sea and beautiful green mountains that formed at the back of his head. But when he tried to recollect anything further, the picture simply evaporated. It was just so frustrating!

Mo-Yeon seemed to have noticed the bitter expression on his face, and tried to change the topic.

“Are you comfortable here? Do let me know if you need anything. Feel free to trouble the nurses. They’ll be more than happy to oblige.”

“Oh, yes. I forgot to ask. When will I be discharged? When can I go home?”

“Well, if your reports allow, you will be discharged in two days. And then we can go home.” Mo-Yeon winced the very next moment she said that.

“We…home…we live together?”

“Yes. But you can choose not to if it makes you uncomfortable. I can completely unders-“

“No! Doc- Mo-Yeon.”

HE SAID MO-YEON! Mo-Yeon’s heart was suddenly beating very lightly in her chest. It felt like it would stop beating altogether any moment now.

“I found from Myeong-Ju that you and I were, no, are a thing. That we have been a thing for nearly two years now. That we are to be married soon. I don’t want a temporary memory loss to change any of that. Maybe if we continue to live together like we used to, it can help me recover from amnesia. What say, doc?”

Mo-Yeon couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Si-Jin knew everything? He knew they were engaged? He wanted to continue living with her despite having no memory of her? This had to be a dream. Only it wasn’t. Si-Jin was still there, sitting on the hospital bed, waiting for her to respond.

“Okay. Okay, if that’s cool with you.”, Mo-Yeon breathed out.

Si-Jin smiled at her, and for one moment he seemed to be looking at her the way he always did, with love and admiration. It was the very look that made every woman at the hospital swoon over him. Suddenly things did not seem as dark and hopeless as they did this morning anymore for Kang Mo-Yeon.

 

TWO MONTHS LATER

04:02 a.m., Home.

Si-Jin bolted up into a sitting position. He was sweating profusely. He shook his head from side to side, hard, a couple of times in an attempt to get the picture out of his head completely. It had been another nightmare yet again. It was of the same sort that tainted his sleep every other night. Mo-Yeon and he would be sharing a happy moment together when all of a sudden everything would go dark except a single head light almost blinding him. As the source of the headlight came closer, it would turn out to be a huge truck instead of a motorbike as expected, and his car would go crashing into the truck, crushing his body into pieces. And then he’d wake up.

Si-Jin knew it was pointless to try to catch some sleep again from experience. And so he got out of bed and walked towards the kitchen to make himself a cup of coffee.

It had been two months since he had woken up at the hospital with amnesia and a broken arm. The arm in question had healed almost completely, but he had no such luck with his lost memories. Mo-Yeon had brought him to their home after being at Haesung for a couple of days. They lived together as strangers at first, and acquaintances later. Their relationship at the moment could be best described as friendly. They were awkward around each other. Things got so icky at times that the two of them came to a mutual consensus that sharing a room was a bad idea. And so, Mo-Yeon had no idea about the nightmares and the sleeplessness.

 

07:15 a.m.

Mo-Yeon got dressed quickly. She was wearing a cute pale pink dress and ballerina shoes. It was Saturday, which meant she’d be going on a date with her fiancé after a couple hours of check-ups at the hospital.

Si-Jin could not go back to serving as a member of the Special Forces, but he refused to sit at home all by himself while Mo-Yeon slogged at the hospital. So he’d visit the training department and train new recruits every day. And so he too had an off on Saturdays.

Mo-Yeon entered the kitchen expecting to have to chug some milk and walk out as always, because she was never much of a cook. And to top it all, she was just lazy most mornings to have an actual breakfast. But to her pleasant surprise, she was welcomed by a plate of omurice and ketchup along with a glass of freshly pressed orange juice. Si-Jin himself was seated on the opposite end, waiting for her. Today was certainly blessed.

“Si-Jin ah! This looks yum! You didn’t have to do this. But thank you so much. I’ll eat it well.”

“Well, every human should eat humane breakfast once in a while. Tell me if you need more ketchup. Also, what’s the plan for today? It’s your turn to take me out.”

“It’s a surprise. Come to dal.komm café as always. I’ll see you there at 11.”

 

11:11 a.m., dal.komm café.

Mo-Yeon came rushing into the café. She did NOT want to hear about keeping an army guy waiting for the third time this month.

“Wow, only eleven minutes of waiting today. The gods must be happy.”

“Hey! Big Boss! It’s not like I want to keep you waiting. It’s just that I have a highly unpredictable job. You just wait and watch who keeps whom waiting once you join the Special Forces back again. I’ve spent months waiting for you. So a couple of hours shouldn’t hurt.” Mo-Yeon said cockily.

“Alright, alright, Beautiful One. Please tell me what the surprise is.”

“Well, I hope it’s a surprise and not a shock. You see, when I first found out about your amnesia, I went crying to Eun-Ji and she had presented this idea. But I thought it was too farfetched and decided to keep it as a last resort, of sorts. But I think it’s a pretty good idea now.”

“Enough backstory, doc. Tell me what the plan is already!”

“You know how we’ve been trying for two months now to revive your memories? And it’s been a failure so far. So why not go all the way back to where we created most of our fond memories, along with some of the scariest ones, to be honest. Anyway, would you follow me to Urk for a mission? Mission Revive Memories.”

Si-Jin was amused by the idea. Spending some time away from Seoul with Mo-Yeon sounded pretty nice to him. He just hoped it would be safe for the two of them to be there by themselves. He knew that he wasn’t as strong as he used to be since he was still recovering. His mental frame wasn’t the best either. So, he wouldn’t be able to protect Mo-Yeon like he apparently always had in Urk.

“I don’t mind, Mo-Yeon ah. But are you sure it’s a safe idea?”

“Oh don’t you worry, Big Boss-sshi. I have some amazing contacts there.” Mo-Yeon winked.

 

5 DAYS LATER

12 Noon

It had been three days since they landed in Urk. They had gone around the town that they frequented two years ago during their stay at the barracks, a couple of times. They had spent more time together in the last three days than they had in the last two months. Mo-Yeon was especially excited about today as she had something special planned out for the two of them to do. She had even a hired a self-driven car for the day.

As Mo-Yeon packed a picnic basket, Si-Jin got out the washroom looking nice and fresh. He was dressed in khaki Bermudas, and a white and navy blue striped t-shirt. His wet hair stuck out funnily on one side. Mo-Yeon walked towards him and gently smoothened his hair out.

“There. Looking all good now.”

Mo-Yeon hadn’t realised that Si-Jin was looking at her intensely the whole time. When she looked into his eyes, she couldn’t help blush like a little girl. She quickly turned away to hide her red face. But Si-Jin grabbed her wrist and whipped her back, forcing her to face him. He gently tipped her chin up with his fingers, leaving her with no choice but to look into his eyes again.

“Looking all good?” he asked, in a low, raspy voice dripping with charm.

“Y-yeah”, Mo-Yeon’s ears felt hot.

“Mo-Yeon ah, what’s good? I look perfect!” Si-Jin quipped, in a high pitch, the raspiness gone from his voice. He was laughing hard.

“What non-sense?” Mo-Yeon scoffed. “I look at my unsurpassed beauty in the mirror every day. What makes you think your visuals can make my heart race at all?”

“Ooh, wait a minute. I never said anything about your heart racing. Tell me, is that the effect I have on you?”

Mo-Yeon did not know what exactly was making Si-Jin behave like his old self. May be it was just the air in Urk that made him all cocky. But whatever it was, Mo-Yeon was grateful for it.

“Stop spreading baseless rumours and help me carry this basket to the car waiting for us downstairs.”

“There’s a car waiting for us? How did you…”

“The last time we had transport issues, I asked the leader of the Arab world to lend me his car. So do let your imagination run wild.” Saying that, Mo-Yeon carried her camera bag out of the room.

 

12:20 p.m.

“Would you like to take the wheel? It’s a beautiful drive. Totally worth it, I promise.”

“Sure”, Si-Jin smiled as he placed the picnic basket into the boot. He walked to the passenger side and opened the door for Mo-Yeon. After getting her seated, he got himself behind the wheel.

He drove not-so-steadily for ten minutes before abruptly applying the brakes and bringing the car to a jerky stop.

“HEY! What was that about?!”

“I-I don’t think I can drive.” Si-Jin was breathing heavily. He seemed to be sweating bullets.

“Oh my, what’s wrong, Si-Jin ah? You seem so uncomfortable. Are you okay? Should we just go back to the hotel?”

“No. I’m alright” Si-Jin said shakily. “I guess it’s just a tad too sunny for me to drive. Do you mind switching positions? I’ll play navigator. I’m pretty good with a map, I swear.”

“Sure” Mo-Yeon wasn’t one bit convinced with this explanation, but she decided to play along.

After driving for another twenty minutes or so, they arrived at their destination or at least to the point of access to their destination.

Si-Jin had kept his eyes closed for the rest of the ride, but he wasn’t sleeping. It took some effort for him to calm himself. Holding on to the steering wheel reminded him of his horrid nightmares. But by the end of the ride, as Mo-Yeon parked the vehicle, his hands were stable again and he felt fine, more or less.

“So, where are we?”

“Oh this isn’t where we’re supposed to be. We’ll be taking a boat from here all the way to the island. You can still drive a motorboat, can’t you?”

“Of course I can. I’m the Big Boss after all” Si-Jin smirked.

The fifteen minute boat ride was absolutely scenic. Si-Jin had no trouble navigating the waters with the help of a GPS. The way the salt water sprayed on his face felt extremely familiar and comforting in a way. He was glad Mo-Yeon had planned a trip to the sea for today.

“Oh look, we’re here!” Mo-Yeon said in a sing-song manner, her voice full of child-like excitement.

All Si-Jin could see was a small island. The entirety of which was covered by the remains of a wrecked ship. Why would Mo-Yeon plan a happy-happy picnic date to such an eerie place? But he trusted her nevertheless.

The both of them got off the boat and Si-Jin anchored it by tying it to a pole on the beach. They placed their stuff on the sand and Mo-Yeon dragged Si-Jin by his hand to take a closer look at the skeleton of the water vessel.

The place didn’t seem eerie anymore. The entire body of the boat was covered with graffiti that seemed to be the artwork of lovers that had visited the place in the past. The place was littered with smooth white pebbles of various sizes. Mo-Yeon bent down to pick one up.

“You see this rock? It has a legend attached to itself. Apparently, if you pick one of these rocks up and carry them home, you will in one way or another end up coming back here again.”

“Wow, totally.” mocked Si-Jin.

“Hey! It’s true, alright? It happened to me too.”

“What kind of slimy man wooed you with such a farfetched story?” Si-Jin chuckled.

“Yeah. Go ahead. Laugh and mock that “slimy” man all you want, for it was you who brought me here two years ago and “wooed” me with this “farfetched” story.”

That wiped the mocking smile off of Si-Jin’s face. He folded his arms across his chest and raised an eyebrow. “Oh, so I see, being slimy paid off.”

 

15:48 p.m., The island.

The two of them had finished lunch and had been walking in the sand by the beach for almost 30 minutes. Mo-Yeon had been constantly clicking pictures of every other moment that they had spent together since having landed in Urk.

“You seem very passionate about photography.” Si-Jin thought loudly.

“Oh, no. It’s not some sort of a hobby. It’s just that the next time one of us whacks our head somewhere and loses our memories, it would be much simpler for the other one to have pictures of these memories, that they can show them, than having to the bring the person all the way to such a dangerous place.” Mo-Yeon said seriously, without even a hint of a smile in her voice.

Si-Jin burst out laughing. Gosh! This woman had to be a complete lunatic! He was pretty sure he was going to fall in love with her even if his memories didn’t return anytime soon. He extended his arms towards her and patted hear head gently.

“Hey, don’t do that. You’ll ruin my hair.”

He rubbed her head even harder, creating an actual mess out of her hair, and then ran for his life.

 

16:30 p.m.

Si-Jin lay his head on Mo-Yeon’s lap as she went through all the pictures on her camera, deleting the ones that were too shaky or too dark for even Picasa to save them.

“Si-Jin ah, why don’t you take out the portable speakers from the basket and play some music from my phone? You can go to sleep peacefully.”

“Sure.”

Si-Jin played an old Korean song that his mum used to play all the time. He was amused to find it in Mo-Yeon’s audio folder. He then went back to laying his head on Mo-Yeon’s lap and slowly drifted off into slumber.

Si-Jin ah! Just come back home already. I’ve missed you for too long.

Mo-Yeon seemed to be standing some 20 meters away no matter how fast Si-Jin drove. He could hear her perfectly clearly despite the distance and despite him being inside the car.

I am trying, jagi. Wait for me.

Suddenly, Mo-Yeon was no longer visible, and in her place was a huge truck. Si-Jin could not apply brakes and the truck kept advancing. It was pitch dark and the single high beam of the truck was flashing directly into his eyes. The sound of the blaring horn was deafening. The distance between his car and the truck kept reducing.

20 meters…

11 meters…

4 meters…

1 meter…

Si-Jin was ready for the crash. Or at least as ready to face death as he could ever be.

But suddenly the deafening horn morphed into Mo-Yeon’s voice, begging him to wake up. And wake up, he did. There was no crash. His body did not crush into pieces. This nightmare ended differently from all other similar ones. He woke up to Mo-Yeon’s face, like he did at the hospital a long time ago. She looked worried out of her mind.

“What was that, Yeobo? Why were you being like that? I’ve seen you wake up from nightmares in the past. But this was way too different. You were squirming terribly and desperately. You’re still sweating so much! I’ve never seen you like this.”

Si-Jin sat up. “Can I h-have s-s-some water?”

Mo-Yeon quickly poured water into a glass and handed it to him. Si-Jin tried to hold the glass but his hands were too shaky and he dropped it.

“Oh, God!” Si-Jin yelled.

“Calm down. It’s alright. Here, I’ll help you.” Mo-Yeon picked the glass up, poured some water into it again and held it to his mouth. Si-Jin gulped the water down hard.

“The nightmare,” he spoke up after a couple of minutes. He was no longer breathing heavily. “It’s been recurring every now and then since the accident. I thought it was mild trauma and it would go away with time. And so, I didn’t bother mentioning it.”

“Oh. My. God. Major Yoo Si-Jin, you have got to be kidding me! What do you mean you though it would “go away”? It’s not a common cold. It’s trauma. You lived with a doctor for over two months and still chose to suffer silently all by yourself? This makes me so guilty. I should have never suggested letting you sleep in a different room. I just wanted you to be comfortable. But if I had been by your side, you wouldn’t have to go through all of this.”

“Kang Mo-Yeon. Do not blame yourself. I didn’t think of it as much earlier. I hadn’t known it would escalate to the point where I can’t even drive without feeling nauseous.”

“Wait. What? I knew it! The whole it’s-too-sunny-so-I-can’t-drive thing was one big lie! At least tell me now what exactly is bothering you.”

Si-Jin tried his best to explain the nightmares. He kept avoiding eye contact the whole time for he felt too vulnerable to look into Mo-Yeon’s eyes. He was stable throughout the explanation but his voice got a little shaky towards the end.

Mo-Yeon hugged him tight after he was done speaking. She didn’t say a word. But there was a small wet patch on his t-shirt that kept growing in size where her head lay on his chest. He had no idea people could cry without moving a single muscle. He himself was an ugly crier for one. But not this woman. The woman in his arms was apparently a perfectly beautiful crier as well. Some people just had it all. He couldn’t help but chuckle at the direction of his thoughts.

Mo-Yeon slowly raised her head. She looked bewildered. “Yoo-nim, are you laughing right now? What is wrong with you, seriously?”

Si-Jin caressed her cheek, wiping the streams of tears away from either sides of her face. “Hey, you’re a grown woman, but you’re so adorable.”

“Even if you seem absolutely deranged at times...” he added as an afterthought.

Mo-Yeon sat gaping at him for a few seconds before screaming, “Hey, Yoo Si-Jin! Stop saying stupid things. The rubbish you spew makes me wonder if I should kick you or kiss you.”

“Frankly speaking, the latter sounds a tad bit more bearable”

That earned him a punch in his gut.

 

18:20 p.m.

It had been twenty minutes since sunset. The weather had gotten a little chilly. The horizon was a dazzling mixture of fire orange and bright, warm pink. Si-Jin and Mo-Yeon had been sitting in comfortable silence, looking up at the skies for who knows how long.

Si-Jin was the first one to break the silence. “Doc, can I play some music?”

“Of course. Play the Favourites section in my audio gallery, please. It has all the songs I had chosen as potential first dance music. I like listening to those songs.”

“First dance?”

“Oh, you know, for our wedding ceremony.” Mo-Yeon tried to sound as casual as possible, but she could feel her ears turn red.

“I see. Cool.” Si-Jin felt something in his gut. Were those butterflies?

Si-Jin played the first song on the Favourites playlist. It was a calm and peaceful English song. The title read “Thinking Out Loud – Ed Sheeran”. He had no idea which one of the two was the name of the artist(s) and which one was the title of the song. But he sure did like the tune of it. He set the music on shuffle mode and kept the phone away.

He placed his hand next to Mo-Yeon’s in the sand such that his fingers brushed the sides of the back of her hand. He felt her hand go rigid for a second and then relax. He slowly put his hand over hers. She then turned and twisted her arm such that they both sat with their fingers interlocked. All this happened while the two of them stared ahead into the waters, as if the hands had a brain of their own and the two of them knew nothing about it. They sat like that for the next few minutes till the melodic song came to an end and the next audio file began to play.

“If I knew I’d die like this, I should have just lived my life the way I wanted to.”

Mo-Yeon froze in her place. NOT AGAIN!

“I can’t believe that this is my dying message *ugly crying sounds*”

What was happening? Why had her life turned into a parody of itself?

“Yoo Si-Jin-sshi, are you on your way? You’re not coming. I don’t think you’re coming.”

She pulled her hand out of Si-Jin’s grip as quickly as humanly possible and leaped across his lap in order to avenge her dignity by stopping the world’s most godforsaken audio clip, that had ruined her once in the past already, from playing any further.

“If I knew I was going to die like this, I should’ve honestly confessed my feelings to you.”

But perhaps being as fast as humanly possible was just not enough. Yoo Si-Jin lived up to his rank as Big Boss, leader of Alpha Team, Special Forces. The man was faster than The Flash. He pushed the phone out of her reach with one hand, and grabbed the tiny portable speaker from the ground with the other, and held it up in the air, away from Mo-Yeon’s reach. Mo-Yeon screamed as she tried to reach up and grab the speaker and throw into the horizon in an attempt to save face. But she accepted fate after a few more seconds of trying, and failing miserably.

“I was kissed by an amazing man. My heart was fluttering the whole time. Captain Yoo Si-Jin-sshi, I think I am in love with you.”

Mo-Yeon expected Si-Jin to drop to the floor, laughing his guts off. She expected him to mock and . But what he did next was nothing of that sort.

Si-Jin dropped the portable speaker to the ground and clutched his spinning head. He pictured Mo-Yeon running in his direction and grabbing her phone, and running back in the direction she came from. That image then morphed into that of another car accident. Mo-Yeon and he hanging off a cliff in a red jeep, him trying to calm her down, him hitting the air-bag with the base of his gun, and then dropping the jeep down the cliff.

Beads of sweat formed on his forehead. He got dizzier with every flashing image. But this time, the more he thought of those images, the more detailed they got instead of simply evaporating into thin air.

He remembered falling into the water, pulling Mo-Yeon out of the sinking vehicle, and swimming to the shore. He remembered her screaming, with angry tears on her face, that he was crazy and they almost died because of him. He remembered laughing at her back then.

Si-Jin clutched his head harder. Pain throbbed in his temples. His vision blurred out every few seconds. But suddenly, he seemed to remember everything. He remembered anything that he tried to remember. He realized what had happened. He also realized what was happening in that very moment. Mo-Yeon seemed to have called up someone to inform them of an emergency at the island, but before she could complete speaking, he flicked the phone out of her hand while it was pressed to her ear and caught it behind her back, before it could hit the ground, in one fluid, calculated motion.

“What…” Mo-Yeon just couldn’t understand what was happening anymore.

“Mo-Yeon ah, let’s go home.”

“Well, I was just asking the guy that let us hire his boat to send someone to get us out of here since you can’t drive. But-“

“Mo-Yeon ah, let’s go home. To Seoul. To our home.”

Mo-Yeon could cry. Her man was losing it before her very own eyes.

“Doctor Kang Mo-Yeon, don’t look at me like I’m a mad man. The Big Boss is back, Jagi. Let’s just go back now.”

“Does that mean your-“

“-memories are back? Yes. Yes, they are. Come on, now.” Si-Jin said casually as he packed their stuff into the picnic basket and dragged his fiancée into the boat.

Mission Revive Memories had been accomplished.

 

THE D-DAY

“Good Lord, I look like a crow!”

“Dude, shut up already. You’ve spent over an hour staring at yourself in the mirror. You said you looked like a panda at first, and had people fix your “dark circles”. Then you complained that your hair was sticking out like the horns of a bull. We got that issue fixed too. And now it’s a crow?! A darned crow! What am I supposed to even make of this? I’m pretty sure you’re the first bridegroom that has more tantrums than any bridezilla ever.”

“Dae-Young ah~” Si-Jin whined, making a puppy face.

“No aegyo for me thanks.”

“Sergeant Seo!” Si-Jin commanded in a firm, loud voice.

“Sir!”

“Good. I look like a crow in this tux. My broad shoulders look like they were wrung out, and my toned arms look skinnier than my wife’s.” He whined like a kid again.

“I have no idea what broad shoulders and toned arms you’re talking about. We’re getting late for the ceremony. You don’t want to keep everyone waiting.” Dae-Yong dragged Si-Jin out of the dressing room into the hall.  

***

Mo-Yeon was probably less nervous when she was operating on the Arab Leader, with her life at a higher risk than his.

She was dressed in a pure white mermaid gown that showed off her slender form. The lace dress was chosen by her mother, even before Si-Jin had proposed, because she had a “gut-feeling” that her daughter was to be married off soon.

She had her hair done up into a complex looking bun, with an elegant minimalistic flower crown around her head, holding the veil together.

She held a bouquet of white roses in her hands as she walked down the aisle with her mom. The banquet hall was full of faces, some familiar, some strange. But every single person in the room was looking at her. The light from the huge, intricate chandeliers reflected perfectly off of her bejewelled Louboutin heels as she took graceful steps toward the groom.

The Groom. Oh! Had he always looked this handsome? He looked godly in his well-fitting black tuxedo and his hair done up to perfection. Mo-Yeon couldn’t help but swoon. The way he was looking at her, like he had eyes only for her, like she was the most beautiful, most pristine of all creatures in the world.

Mo-Yeon’s train of thoughts changed directions. She thought of the rough three months that led to the wedding. She remembered how at one point she thought it was all over, that this day would never arrive. But their love had conquered it all. And here they were, standing next to each other, ready to exchange their vows.

It was General Yoon, Myeong-Ju’s father who was officiating the wedding. Seo Dae-Yong and Eun-Ji were the best man and maid of honour respectively. Lee Chi-Hoon’s little kid was the ring bearer.

“To one and all present here, a very good morning. We are gathered here today to witness Major Yoo Si-Jin and Doctor Kang Mo Yeon join together in holy matrimony.” Said General Yoon, in his thundering voice, militarily style. Si-Jin and Mo-Yeon looked at each other and shared a knowing, mischievous smile. The vows were recited, followed by faithful I Dos. The rings were exchanged.

“I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride.” General Yoon boomed.

Si-Jin mouthed a rather obvious I love you, to which Mo-Yeon replied without missing a beat, in a loud whisper, “I love you too”.

 Yoo Si-Jin leaned in for the kiss.

THE END