Three

It wasn’t easy for Seulgi to accept the fact that her memory is fragmented. She hated herself when she cannot remember anything. Her head hurts when she closes her eyes trying to remember these familiar faces. But they are just washed out. Washed out from her memories. She hated it when people pitied her. It was frustrating not being able to reminisce her past. All she has are bunch of jumbled blurs in her head.

When she woke up from being comatose, she barely recognized her parents. She didn’t know how their faces became old all these years. Though she knows them, the last thing she recalls about them was when she was fifteen. She wasn’t used to seeing those deep lines in their faces that wrinkled every time their expressions change. They look so small to her now. It was horrible.

Everything seems unclear to her. Sure, there were a lot who visited her claiming to be her colleague, or either friends from high school or college. But still, she cannot bring to her mind that she knew them.

The first visitor she had when she woke up was Kim Yerim. This is the time that she knew something was immensely wrong with her.

“Hello, Seulgi-unnie! Are you feeling better now?” The petite lady asked. It has only been a day since she woke up from being comatose.

Seulgi seems puzzled. This person, she has never seen her before. “Hi.” She says out of politeness. The petite lady is her visitor after all. “Do I know you?”

“Good one, Seulgi-unnie. You can stop joking now.” The petite lady laughs, almost trying to be contagious.

“No, seriously. Who are you?” Seulgi says in her most serious tone as if she’s not affected by the laugh at all. She has no time for jokes.

“Are you serious? I’m Kim Yerim!” Yerim says in panic. She hopes this is just a prank her unnie is playing.

“I don’t think I met you before.” Seulgi continues. She tries to look intently at the lady who gawks at her in disbelief. She doesn’t know why the petite lady had laughed at her question.

After a few seconds, the lady rushes to go out of the room. When she came back, the doctors were with her.

After a series of checkups and tests, they have concluded that Seulgi has a critical condition of selective amnesia. They said it must be temporary because she hit her head hard in the car crash. But they cannot say how long it would take for her to recover those lost memories.

Seulgi feels like her brain is going to explode. It made sense now. Her thoughts are blurry. Whenever she closes her eyes, she remembers pieces of unclear memories. She remembers splotches but everyone’s face is a blur.

“Seulgi-unnie, we went to the same high school. We were in the same club.” Yeri sits by Seulgi’s bedside. She tries to hide her concern but it seems like it shows more. “Do you remember anyone from here?” She flashes a picture in her phone and shows it to Seulgi.

“No.” Seulgi squeezes her eyes tight, trying to focus on the blurry images in her mind. She feels guilt when she opens her eyes. She feels apologetic towards Yerim. “I’m sorry. I don’t have any recollection of this photo.” She sees tha