Dara’s POV

I spotted Seunghyun at the bus stop.

‘Oppa!” I called. Seunghyun gave me a small wave. I ran towards him.

“Hey,” I said

“Oppa is Bom alright? Is she still upset?”  I ask, my voice full of worry.

“Can you please help and cheer her up? I want to talk to her, to make her happier somehow, but I don’t think she really wants to see me now. She’s always snapping at me. I’m scared if she sees me, she’ll get into a worse mood.” I continued. Suddenly I felt like crying, thinking about how upset I made Bom feel.

Seeing how tears were welling up in my eye, Seunghyun hugged me and patted me on the back reassuringly.  Me and Seunghyun always had this strong sibling like relationship. He comforts me whenever I’m sad. He listens whenever I have problems.

“Why does she hate me so much?” My voice cracked a little, and the tears were threatening to fall.

“It’s not your fault, She’s just having a bad day” His voice soothed. Seunghyun’s like that. He’s not good with words but he makes up for it by listening and giving you the occasional hug or pat.

“DARA!” A raged voice suddenly screamed. I turned toward the direction of the sound and found an enraged Bom. I shot Seunghyun a confused look before realising that it was probably not the best thing for me to be hugging Seunghyun, when he is Bom’s boyfriend.

“How could you do this to me?” she gritted her teeth.

Seunghyun pulled her back,”Baby, it’s not like that…”

“Oh now you are defending her?” she snarled, sending a hateful glare in my direction.

I was about to explain, when Bom broke free from Seunghyun’s hold and shoved me. I staggered from her huge force and stumbled clumsily onto the road. A red car sped past me, missing me by inches. I felt dizzy now with the annoying incessant blares from the cars. My legs gave way as I hit the rocky ground.

As another car sped in my direction, I knew I would not be lucky again this time. The car hit me, and then all I felt was the excruciating impact on my legs and midsection. A blood curdling scream ripped through the air and found its way into my ears, that abruptly silent into a whimper when I realised I was the one who was actually screaming.

The impact was finally gone but the pain wasn’t. I struggled to move in agony. In a flash, I saw Bom above me, her face in total shock. She was shaking me and screaming at me to not lose conscious.

At her words, my eyelids felt heavy. I never disobeyed her words but the drowsiness was making it hard for me to follow what she wanted me to do.

This was probably the end for me. I needed to tell her something. I stared into her warm eyes and barely whispered,” I’m…so sorry”

Tiredness overcame me and I succumbed to darkness.

Bom’s POV

I stared at her in horror. All of this was my fault and she was saying sorry? I shook her, begging her to stay awake, but to no avail. I felt her go limp in my arms as she lost consciousness. Time seemed to slow. Everything was moving slowly now. My surroundings seemed to blur, and I could only vaguely make out the driver running toward us, Seunghyun calling the ambulance, the panicked looks on our level mates faces as they moved towards us.

What have I done?

Bom’s POV

My head pounded irritably as I buried my face into my hands. After waiting for 4hours outside the surgery room, my patience was starting to thin. My last bit of sanity would be long gone, if not for Seunghyun, his presence giving me some source of comfort.

Across me, Mom was seated on plastic chair. As I looked closely, I could see that her eyes were bloodshot from crying, her face stained by all the tears. She looked liked she aged a hundred years, she looked so tired, it was as if she was going to collapsed any moment. My heart ached at the sight.

‘It’s all my fault’ I thought miserably.

As I sat there staring at her, her gaze shifted to my direction. Our eyes met, and immediately hers narrowed, sending me a hateful glare. I looked away, trying to distract myself from the growing pain, trying not to let the pain swallow me up. After finding out that I was responsible for the whole accident, she had not and would not allow me to get off with just slaps.

I no longer had energy to cry now and all that came out were soft whimpers and dry sobs. With every minute that passed, my heart pounded harder and the throbbing in my head increased.

After what seems like an eternity, the doors of the surgery room finally open. A doctor stepped out, his face expressionless and unreadable.

“Sandara Park?” He called out, surveying the room.

My mom finally got off her seat and hurried anxiously towards the doctor. Seunghyun and I followed suit.

“Your daughter is out of danger” He simply said. I could see the joy in my mother’s eyes. Right then, I let out a long breath of relief, and felt as if a heavy weight was finally lifted off my shoulders.

The doctor paused for a moment to let us take in the good news, before continuing, “She was injured quite badly though, but nothing very serious or permanent, or at least for now. It was a very traumatic accident for her. We will monitor her situation for a few weeks, and then she’ll be able to go.”

I stood there, frozen. And then, slowly, a smile crept up onto my face, and before I knew it, I was hugging Seunghyun, crying tears of joy and relief. She’s safe

3 days after the accident

I stared at Dara’s peaceful sleeping face. It has been 3 days since the accident. I clutched her cold hands and silently willed her to open her eyes but she didn’t. I rested my hands on the cool railings beside her bed, overcame by fatigue. Although the nurses were kind enough to provide a make-shift bed for me, I barely used it at all. Nightmares haunted me in my sleep, and after waking up screaming for Dara to stay alive, I refused to sleep.

I didn’t want to go home either, for I was afraid to face Mom, and she did not want to see me anyway. It was best for the both of us if I stayed. Mom wanted to stay too, but I forced her to go home, and she was too overcome by fatigue to argue.

“Unnie?” A sleepy voice suddenly called out.

I shot up from my position and hurried over to Dara. “Yes?” A smile was evident on my face. I was practically screaming in my head, but I have to remain compose in front of Dara.

Dara winced as she sat up suddenly. “Be careful” I cautioned, and helped her up.

“Where am I?” Dara asked as she looked cautiously at her surroundings. “Is this a hospital? Why am I in here?”

“Don’t you remember? The accident at school… I pushed you and and… Oh Dara I’m such a bad sister” That was all I managed to choke out, before tears began streaming silently down my face.

“I’m so glad you’re alive” I whispered, and hugged her tightly.

Dara patted me on the back, and laughed her tinkling laughter.

“I’m fine, Unnie. I should be the one sorry though.” She said, pouting a little.

Letting out a light chuckle at her pout, I shook my head, and replied “It’s my entire fault, nobody can deny it.”

Just then, Seunghyun entered the room. His eyes widened when he saw Dara awake, and instantly, a grin was spread across his face.

“You are awake!” He exclaimed, and attacked her with a hug.

Then he looked at me worriedly. “Go back Bom” He said,” You’ve been here for 3 days straight. Go take a rest.”

With Dara finally awake, I could finally leave her in the care of Seunghyun. After promising Dara I would come back soon, I headed back home with a huge smile. Everything was going to be alright now.

When I got home, a short note was left for me on the dining table. Turns out that Mom had a business trip she had to attend. She also warned me not to do anything to Dara, to take good care of her. I rolled my eyes, and scoffed. ‘If you cared about her whole heartedly you would stay.’ I mumbled.

After having a good few hours of sleep, I felt refreshed, and hurried back to the hospital to see Dara’s progress. She was still sleeping peacefully when I reached. I sighed and sat at the chair staring at her.

“Bom?” Seunghyun called out. I turned my gaze towards him. He held out a steaming cup of Milo. I took cautious little sips, all the while waiting for Dara to wake.

Dara shuffled in her sleep for a bit before her eyelids fluttered open. “Unnie?”

“You’re awake!” I exclaimed happily, but soon realised that something was wrong.

Confusion was written over Dara’s face. “What’s wrong?” I asked her, worried.

“Where am I?” She squinted at her surroundings, “Why am I in a hospital?”

I was taken aback by her questions.

“Dara? You don’t remember?” I frowned

“The accident!” Her eyes widened, ”I’m so so sorry unnie, so sorry about that day.”

I stared at her. Was this a joke?

“Dara?,” I picked my words carefully,”I thought we talked about this yesterday?”

“Yesterday? I just woke up today, didn’t I?”

Something was terribly wrong here. How could she not remember what happen? I decided to keep calm, after all maybe she was still in shock, and temporarily can’t remember anything. Maybe. Nonetheless, I decided to call the doctor to check on her.

The doctor ran Dara through a few more tests. When he had finally came to a conclusion, he called me to his office to share his findings with me.

The doctor ran Dara through a few more tests. When he had gathered all the information, the doctor called me and shared the results.

“From the tests we put her through, we found out that your sister has Anterograde amnesia. Anterograde amnesia is a loss of the ability to create new memories after the event that caused the amnesia, leading to a partial or complete inability to recall the recent past, while long-term memories from before the event remain intact.”

Anterograde Amnesia? My mind whirled around the word. My head became dizzy. What have I done?