The last train was deserted, lonely with a deathly silence that hung over her. Tzuyu leaned into her chair. It was time to return to Gangnam and take a walk down memory lane. The squalor of Part Five would be no more than a dream. She tried to shake Vernon’s lifeless face from her mind, but he remained in the labyrinths of her thoughts, like something stuck in a cobweb.

            Her hands shook and she forced herself to focus on the present. Her first kill. For a long time, she stood in denial, unable to express herself, unable to stimulate her appetite. She was a girl who relished on food, and knitted in her spare time. However, all the alacrity and optimism had been snatched from her. She was a murderer.

            Her breath wrapped inside . She swallowed and dabbed her rheumy eyes. Time healed all wounds, that was a lesson she learned. But it would never heal hers. A voice resounded over the intercom, giving the details for their departure. Just then, the doors opened, and in stepped another passenger, dreary, dark clothes dotted with sand, and head hung low in a lugubrious manner.

            Tzuyu stared at him, overwhelmed. Her heart quickened in pace, and she glanced at her reflection in the window. She seemed older somehow, wrinkles around her nose despite being in the peak of her youth, her bronze skin evident behind the darkness. Nightly reflections induced that aged effect.

            She heard rustling and footsteps. He took a seat opposite her, and dangerous emotions rippled through her.

“I remember you,” said the Jungkook-lookalike. Only, he was more than a lookalike. He looked exactly like the Jungkook from her past. “I lied before,” he said, with a tired shrug of his shoulders. He leaned back into the chair, arms crossing his chest. “I’m Jungkook.”

            For a moment, Tzuyu believed it was a lie, or perhaps her mind was so tired that she hallucinated. However, his steady, melancholic gaze told her that it was no dream. The man before her was Jungkook. Her mind never played tricks on her.

            She stuttered when she tried to speak. The past came crashing down on her. She recalled beautiful smiles, affectionate words, moments stolen under the silver moonlight, and sunny days with ice-cream and salt-drips. However, those memories faded away with his pained yet inscrutable countenance. He battled something tumultuous deep inside him. She sensed that.

            But what was it?

“I can’t remember my past,” he told her. “In fact, I can’t remember anything at all. Just my name, and what I’m supposed to do.”

            Tzuyu felt as if the world shattered around her. It explained so much; his odd behaviour, his foreign expressions, his harsh mannerisms. Nothing about him screamed Jungkook. Yet, he looked exactly like Jungkook, and he admitted that he was Jungkook. Something was amiss.

            “Aren’t you going to say anything?” he questioned, with a dash of bitterness and a hint of betrayal flashed in his eyes.

            “Sorry,” she said. “Sorry…I just…” Tzuyu pressed a hand over her forehead. “I couldn’t take it in at the start. I really believed you were Jungkook when I first saw you. I’m Tzuyu.”

            “That doesn’t matter,” he replied, still withdrawn and resentful. “What were you to me?” The train took off, heading for the barren wilderness, until the background resembled racing lights.

It hurt her more than it should. He should have just stabbed her straight in the heart. She decided not to tell him the entire truth, for he was shaken and undoubtedly confused. She imagined herself in his situation, with no recollection of her past, no connection to anything.

“We were good friends Jungkook…before…” She bit her lower lip. “Really good friends.”

“And then what happened? Please,” he implored, and she found that old side of him again; that side that promised her fairytales and sunny, carefree days. “I want to know what happened to me.”

“You went missing over a year ago,” she said. Tzuyu fiddled with her satchel. Her long boots seemed worn and dusty thanks to the rocky streets in the Old City. “And I dropped out of Santa Maria before I heard about you again.”

He squinted, as if he tried to gauge her story and if it fit into his own. He sighed, and closed his eyes. His head pressed against his seat. “I’m so tired,” he whispered.

She pitied him, and she resisted the urge to revive old feelings. “Where are you headed?”

“President’s District.”

“So you’ll be passing Gangnam in about two hours,” said Tzuyu. She chewed her lower lip again. “If—if you’d like, we can grab some food in Gangnam, and I’ll be happy to answer any of your questions.”

            He gave her that cold, calculating look. But his features softened. “Yeah. Let’s do that.”

“If you want to sleep, I can wake you up when we get to Gangnam.”

            He did not answer, and she heard a silent snore. His head was leaning to the side. Tzuyu quietly scuttled to the seat next to him. His head landed on her shoulder. A smile graced her as a giddy sensation overtook her. She stared at his long lashes, at the messy hair that demanded a cut, and the awful scent of sweat that exposed the hard work he endured, and the end of the day. What would he say if he found out that she murdered someone? Perhaps she did not deserved him in her life again. But she had to try.

It was nearing twenty-two hours. Tzuyu vowed she would help him regain his memories.

            For the first time in a while, Tzuyu allowed the girl inside her to awaken, and the perplexed young woman to lay dormant again.

                                                            *

She did not want to wake him, but when the train came to a halt, and she saw the dazzling lights of Gangnam’s skyscrapers and tall domes, she urged him to get up. His head rested on her shoulder. Jungkook’s eyes fluttered, and he seemed more like his twenty years than their initial meeting. Then, he scampered away from her, apologising in a low tone. It was the first time she witnessed his cheeks turn pink. Jungkook cleared his throat. He adjusted his weapons and stalked out of the train. Tzuyu, with a budding smile, followed his lead. She was aware that their hands were in close proximity, and she imagined herself reach out and hold his. But that would be pushing it too far. He still had to find his memories.            

            The platform was not as degraded as that of Part Five, but the metal gleamed like marble, and a glass dome greeted them, which was the exit out of the station. Gangnam never slept. This was her home until the dizzy skyscrapers, the gaudy lights, the affectations among the public became a tiring display. She guided Jungkook towards a busy streets, where the bars and food places rumbled with life. People gathered with each other, not a care in the world. They attained the highest earning jobs in the Gidem. Their descendants lived luxurious and comfortable lifestyles, and their futures were secured.

She was part of that crowd a year ago, until the truth about the playground bombing came out. It used to be her home. She felt estranged returning to Gangnam. Nostalgia washed over her, but at the same time, the lavish buildings and ornamented streets repulsed her.

            “There’s a really nice restaurant around the corner here,” she urged and motioned Jungkook towards Gargoyle’s Bridge. He merely grunted a response, either from a lack of enthusiasm or rigid tiredness.

It was named for its gigantic structures made out of glistening gold, a contrast to the metal and static roads that curved every angle. The gargoyles hunkered on all fours, grotesque faces of a dragon-lion with serrated teeth. Their wings spanned their backs, guardians that protected the realm. Legend foretold that they existed at some point in time, and were tamed by the Ancients. The statues always frightened her as a child. Jaemin, on the other hand, adored them. He used to make up amazing fables about them. The bridge spanned across the wide river Yam, which roared beneath with its murky waters.

            “I’m curious,” said Jungkook, breaking the silence. Vehicles floated passed them at high speed while they walked in the area for pedestrians. “If you live here, what were you doing in Part Five?”

            His question was simple, but she flinched. “If you don’t mind, I will tell you later. I don’t live here anymore.”

            “Oh,” he uttered, as if the puzzle fell into place. “Okay.”

Tzuyu cla