Chapter 1: Memory loss.

It was a peaceful cool night of June.

A comfortable silence surrounding the road, only disturbed by the family car driving to go back to their home.

A joyful family singing together not minding their tiredness.

And then,

A strident honk ripped the quietness of the road.

A crash.

Cries everywhere.

Abruptly, nothing. No sound could be heard.

The comfortable silence of earlier was gone..

Only to be replaced now by a deathly silence....

****

“...Gee gee gee gee baby baby baby
Gee gee gee gee baby baby baby...”

A young handsome man sang along with the song, driving back to Seoul.

“Maaaan, if Hyun Joong finds out that I actually like a chick song, I’ll never hear the end of it!” The young man said out loud. He looked at the clock reading 12:30 am. “I should call Hyung to tell him I’d be back in a few hours...” 

He took his phone out of his jacket pocket and was about to dial when something caught his eyes.

“OHHH!!” He suddenly braked the car, a young small woman standing in the middle of the road. The car stopped at just a few millimetre from her.

“What the hell??” He got out of the car, furious and about to kick some common sense to the girl who appeared in the middle of nowhere.

“What in the freaking world do you think you were doing, standing in the middle of the freaking road out of the blue??? Do you want to die? Gosh, if you do, don’t involve other people in it, for God’s sake!” He yelled.

The petite woman looked at him with big eyes, completely dazed. She was looking at him without looking at him.

He frowned and came nearer. The front light of the car enlighted the both of them. He then notice the bruise on her frail arms and dried blood on her head. His eyed widened.

“Oh god, are you okay? What happened to you?” He asked frantically, his eyes travelling up and down looking for more bruises.

She blinked, opened : “I....” And suddenly collapsed in his arms.

******

She could hear nothing.  See nothing. Where was she?  Was there anyone here?

She heard a voice. Whose? She couldn’t recognize it. Then several more voices. Where were they?

Then nothing again.

*****

Slowly opening her eyes only to close them the second after. The light was dazzling, blinding her. She took her deep breathe, tried to be aware of her surrounding. Where was she?

Another try.

She opened her eyes, blinking, ajusting to the light. She looked around her; everything was white. The walls were white, the ceiling was white, her bed was white. All white.

Where was she?

Fear filled her entire being.

*****

He ran in the hospital, stopping in front of her room. The doctors were already there.

He waited, not wanting to interrupt.

Why was he here anyway? He didn’t even know the girl. Still, he felt responsible of her. She had seem so fragile and vulnerable. He couldn’t let her alone. Not yet. Not when no one knew her here.

The doctor in charge of her finally came out.

“Doctor, how is she? She’s fine right? I mean, it’s been two weeks already. Have you learnt who she was? When is her family coming?”

The doctor sighed. That wasn’t good.

“She’s physically perfectly fine. Her concussion isn’t as bad as we feared. However...” he trailed off.

“However what? What do you mean by physically fine?” He snapped. What the hell was wrong with her?

“However, her hippocampus has apparently been severed during the accident causing a possible memory loss. We are going to do a scan and MRI to see the extent of the injury...But from the psychological test I ran with her, it seems that...”

“Okay that’s enough. Just cut the medical crap you’re saying and tell me with simple words so that I can understand what is wrong with her.”

The doctor who seemed to be around his early thirties looked speechless for a moment.

“She’s suffering from amnesia. Like I just said, it seems that she doesn’t know who she is nor what happened. We are not sure if it’s permanent or not . However, permanent amnésia is extremely rare.” The doctor said trying but failing to be reassuring.

“She... doesn’t know who she is?” Shocked, he sat on the floor.

“Then... nobody knows her? There weren’t any one who looked for her for this past two weeks.” Hiding his head in his hands, he sighed. A big sigh.

“Can I see her?” He looked up.

“Of course. But try to not agitate her. She’s very confused and scared right now. We gave her a sedative to calm her down”.

“Thank doc.”

He walked toward the room, hesitating, took a deep breath and opened the door.

*

Her eyes was closed. She looked peaceful, as if asleep. He approached her bed and sat on the chair near her. He looked, not knowing what to do. He was about to get out of here when she suddenly opened her eyes.

Eyes meet. One questionning and confused, the other surprised.

They stayed like that for a minute or two.

He then smiled, took her hand and just said: “Hey. I’m Yoo Ah In. Nice to meet you.”