Wendy’s session started. Victoria, Krystal, Amber and Luna were sitting with her in a café. Wendy was a well-known therapist, she helped little children with small problems like wetting the bed, to young adults with destructive addictions and traumatic pasts. She was praised among her colleges for being completely attentive to what her patient is saying, storing every detail in her memory, allowing her to be free from writing when they were talking, giving the patients a better feeling of sympathy. She made her way to ascend and be in charge of a small group of doctors and colleges, if anyone deserved the Nobel prize, for sure it’ll be her, she was always so caring and hard-working that the people respected her, even when she was the youngest psychologist in Korea.

“So, Krystal, how old are you?” Wendy asked and sipped her coffee.

“I’m not doing this” The ice-looking girl said, crossing her arms and leaning back on her chair.

“It’s okay, we can talk about anything else” The psychologist said, resting her chin on her right hand.

“How about… the weather?” Amber suggested and Luna elbowed her.

“Sure, do you prefer winter or summer?” Wendy asked both Krystal and Amber.

“I like summer” Amber cooperated.

“I like winter” Krystal replied.

“Are you really getting on me because I helped you?” Amber snapped and looked at Krystal who gave back a confused look.

“She just said she likes winter, Amber” Luna said as she pulled Amber to her sit again.

“Yeah, off” The younger girl mocked.

“Why do you dislike summer, Krystal?” Wendy asked, attentively looking at Krystal.

“Because I was admitted in a mental hospital on summer time” She nonchalantly said, leaving the other girls excepting Wendy, confused.

“You said you couldn’t remember well” Amber said.

“Wendy, would you kindly shut Amber the up please” Krystal rolled her eyes.

This is not working, Wendy said to herself.

“Do you guys happen to be a couple?” She asked as she took her last sip of coffee.

“Yes”

“No”

Amber, upon hearing Krystal saying ‘no’, stood up and said “C’mon, we’re half way there”

“No we’re not, Amber” The younger girl said.

“You see? She’s running away from her feelings again” Amber told Wendy while pointing at Krystal with both hands.

“Yes, I’ve seen enough actually. Come with me, Krystal” Wendy suggested and Soojung looked at Victoria.

“Can I come too?” She asked to the psychologist.

“Sure. Luna, take Amber with you and stay in the waiting room” She said as she walked out followed by Krystal and Victoria.

“Can you be any more of an obstacle?” Luna asked her ex as they walked out of the café.

“She’s messing with me” Amber replied.

“Me, me, me. You’re so egocentric, stop making yourself the protagonist, Amber. Or this time you’ll lose Krystal for good” The tanned girl terminated.

They drove around the cold Seoul until they reached a small consulting facility. They parked in front of it and approached the entrance. From outside the place looked rather uncomfortable, but the Feng Shui they had inside could make anyone reach a point of instant relaxation. They walked to the lobby and were greeted by the secretary, who informed them that Wendy’s consulting room was on the second floor. They rode the elevator and when the doors opened on the second floor, they were left speechless by the amount of rooms there were.

It seems like Wendy actually built up this place from scratch, it was accommodated for her patients to stay over in the night if they needed to be monitored. Nurses came by and greeted the ex-couple as they walked away looking for the waiting room. They finally made it to the end of the small but busy corridor and sat next to a girl that was drinking some coffee while munching on a churro.

The latter noticed the ex-couple sitting next to her and wiped the sugar from her lips as she said “Hi, my name’s Seulgi” ending her sentence with a big gummy smile.

“Hey, I’m Amber and this is Luna” Amber introduced themselves to the still munching girl.

“How are you guys doing? Are you here for consulting?” Seulgi warmly asked.

“Actually, my girlfriend is inside” Amber said, pointing to Wendy’s door.

“Oh, I’m so happy for her! I’m here to support my girlfriend too” She said, shooting them a bright eye-smile. Wow, Amber thought. This girl was being so nice and they just met seconds ago.

“Did you hear that? She used the word support instead of helping, learn something from her, Liu” Luna whispered to Amber, making the latter elbow her in disagreement.

“Actually, do you guys mind visiting her? She can use some company, y’know, besides mine” Seulgi giggled.

“Sure thing, buddy” Luna cheerfully said and pulled Amber out of the chair to follow the smiley girl.

They reached room number 3, a small, beautiful girl was sitting on the bed, reading a book. She noticed the crowd in her room so she looked away from her book to look at Seulgi.

“Hey, babe” She said, got off of the bed and went to steal a passionate kiss to the now blushing Seulgi. Luna and Amber looked at each other, they were startled by the girl’s bold actions.

Seulgi cleared . “Uh this is Joohyun, my girlfriend” She continued while scratching the back of her neck.

“No-uh. I’m Irene” The girl said, playfully swinging her index finger.

“Oh, right. Sorry, this is Irene” The girl with monolid eyes corrected herself. Amber and Luna looked even more confused of the girl’s actions, Irene got the message right away and told Seulgi to tell them about it.

“She has Dissociative Identity Disorder. Her real name is Joohyun, but she has another personality named Irene… it’s complicated” Seulgi tried to explain, the ex-couple looked at her attentively and nodded in the process of understanding. (Nice seulrene Au… I wonder if I can make that happen 👀👀)

“So, how are you doing, Irene?” Luna asked.

“Pretty good sis, we’re about to hit the road, right Seulgi?” She answered as she looked for some clothes in the small closet.

“Are we… Rene?” The taller girl asked.

“Yeah, I wanna go to the club! Let’s dance the night away, baby” Irene said as she danced to the bathroom.

“I… uhm, I guess we’re leaving guys” Seulgi said, embarrassed by her girlfriend’s bluntness. “We will see you later” She finished as Irene exited the bathroom and they walked out of the room, Irene cringing onto Seulgi’s left arm.

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“So, Krystal. Can we talk a little bit more about the asylum you were held in?” Wendy asked her softly. Wendy’s room was really pretty and relaxing, she had small plants on the window, a big green couch in the middle of the room and some paintings. Krystal felt at ease, the mental hospital’s consulting room was nowhere near the quality of this one. Back at the hospital the psychiatrist was always moody and waited for Soojung to just shut up so she could prescribe even more drugs to her. Wendy was different, she was a professional and knew how to properly provide the right energy.

“I really don’t remember much” The ice-looking girl said, looking down. She isn’t sure, however, if Wendy was able to help her. How is she supposed to talk about the things she experienced and heal if she didn’t remember a thing?

“Don’t worry, we’ll get there. Why don’t you tell me what a day inside of there was like?” Wendy said and accommodated herself on her chair, putting her elbows on her lap and supporting her head on her hands to have a better view of Krystal’s body language.

“Well… you wake up…. They spray you with cold water and call it a ‘bath’. We then form lines to get our oatmeal, I hate oatmeal by the way. After that… I think they put us in this huge room where we needed to do hand craftings because it ‘relaxes’ us” Krystal furrowed her brow, Wendy knew that’s a signal of her trying to remember. “I… I think we had checkups every day, and we talked to psychiatrists to lower or higher the dose of drugs” She finished, fidgeting with her fingers.

Wendy interpreted the way she stuttered and fidgeted as the way her body was reacting, it’s not that she couldn’t remember, she didn’t want to. After a very traumatic experience, the brain can associate a long time lapse as s danger zone, making the person burry the painful memories and letting them being able to only remember the normal or pleasant ones.

“Let’s do something. I’m going to walk you through the hospital, and together we’re going to describe what we see. Can we try that?” Wendy suggested and Krystal nodded.

“My name is Soojung by the way” The younger girl added.

“Okay, Soojung. Let’s start”