Part Two || The Rain

- The rain awakens diversity in our minds

The constant clattering from water against the ground served him no justice according to himself, as he stomped through the streets, barely minding where to go.

It should not have come to that; Sungmin knew deep inside of his heart that nothing should have spiraled the way it did. It had all been because their own stubbornness and their both bad days that had affected their moods, however, Sungmin had felt more victimized than he used to at that point, and that was what had triggered the frustration to rise.

It was as if the two halves of his heart were fighting against each other; one half wanted to go back, and the other just wanted to run far away and not even mind what would possibly be happening next. The black-haired man glanced towards different directions as he found himself heading –

Nowhere.

He had been enraged, frustrated and on the verge of turning into a monster, but the last thing he had thought about when he had marched out of the building was where he would be heading next. Sungmin didn’t doubt that any of his friends wouldn’t pick up though; everyone he knew could not possibly have been busy particularly that night.

Two seconds into dialing a number of one of his friends, Sungmin locked his phone quickly and decisively. Kyuhyun would probably be searching for him all over – including calling all of their friends – and that was nothing Sungmin really wanted to know about. He didn’t want to care, or be worried that the other would find him easily. Sungmin wanted to wait until he was ready to go back himself.

But having that in his mind would lead him nowhere. He began thinking that he maybe should take in on a hotel, which brought him to his next problem; he didn’t have his wallet with him.

A loud sigh escaped Sungmin’s lips as he finally stood there by the road, wet and broken, with only his phone that was running out of batteries. And finally, he decided that he would call a friend after all, to have somewhere to stay over the night. Perhaps he could sneak home the next day to fetch his money and charger, and he would be safe for another few days until he felt ready to face the other again.

Sungmin didn’t usually get angry, or at least he tried to find an outlet for it and help things get back to normal as soon as possible; but something that day – it may have been the non-luck that had struck him – had lured his real frustration out. Even though Sungmin regretted his outburst – and his whole contribution to the worse situation in general – he couldn’t find it to blame himself. And not even the harsh weather gave him want to go back home.

A long moment of simply walking through the foggy and drenched streets – without really knowing where he was exactly – Sungmin picked up his phone to finally call a friend of his. He couldn’t spend the whole night outside; it was too cold and too dangerous. And where would he go when the sun eventually would rise above the surface?

However, soon realizing that he was only a few blocks away from that very friend, he began walking quicker. Although the fog began thickening, he still moved forward carelessly, almost half-running to get to some kind of shelter. The phone was in his hand and he dialed the number at the same time as he was walking, not finding it to be a problem at all until he heard a noise that came from an awfully strange direction. He who thought himself being on the sideway, frowned when he couldn’t really see any lights of a truck or a car in the direction he thought he heard it closing in, however, what was next to come, appeared sooner than his mind was able to register.

Sungmin’s head began spinning immediately, and in all the bewilderment, he could hear a loud noise that sounded almost like a trumpet. He wanted to cover his ears but wasn’t quite able to. Along with the great, disturbing sound, something came to hit the side of his body. But before he was to come up with all the possible conclusions on what was happening to him – even if it was a dream – everything disappeared.

Completely unaware of time and space – and with a huge headache – Sungmin felt a warm light on his lids. His limbs were weak; almost to the point of him wondering if he was really able to move his hand to his eyes, which also was his first, comprehendible thought.

So, he kept breathing unevenly, wondering where he was but feeling too fragile to open his eyes even though that had been his first wish since he had realized that he was awake – somewhere, perhaps in reality or in another dream. The pain was unfamiliar to him, and it worried him more and more. The light on his lids slowly grew dimmer, and that was when the male decided to try moving his arm and opening his eyes. He strained himself to lift a hand; it had something around it, and he couldn’t figure out what.

Sungmin held his breath as he tried to bring his hand to his face; luckily, he succeeded, but just as he was about to open his lids carefully, he heard a loud shuffle in the very same area, and so, he shot his eyes opened quicker than he himself was prepared for.

The bright light was stingy to his eyes and caused him to wince and cover his face with his hand; yet he had not seen entirely everything but an agonizing lamp above him.

“Are you okay?” Someone said, not too far away, and that’s when Sungmin realized that he was being taken cared of. The second time he opened his lids, he did it slowly, and with his hand giving him shadow. He saw white, green and grey colors, and blinked for a few times to let his pupils adjust themselves to the light. It wasn’t particularly cold or hot in the room; in fact, he felt just fine, however, there were a few things to clear up with his aching body.

The voice echoed in his head,

“Sungmin-ssi? I’m sorry if this is inconvenient to you.”

An uncomfortable wave spread through the lying man’s body; he didn’t recognize the name the least. In fact he didn’t even remember why he had waken up with his whole body hurting at all.

He started shifting on the spot, his eyes widening all the more as he saw his own body covered in bandages and unfamiliar clothes; soon he even found his eyes tearing up. All this while his body heat and pressure increased, the person to the side turned flustered.

“Are you okay?” The other voice spoke again; that time, he walked over to where the other lay and tried to make eye-contact with him, something that the latter didn’t know how to respond to other than just looking back into the other’s eyes. He looked like some sort of doctor or nurse.

“N-no”, the blonde panted, “Am, am I Sungmin?”

A clear expression of astonishment played out on the other male’s face; his eyes widened instantly and his face drew paler. Through his own terrified black holes, Sungmin could see that his question was nothing the man had expected, but no less himself.

“Um… Yes you are. Don’t you remember anything about yourself?”

The blonde shook his head, staring right through the air with tearful eyes as he lowered his head, completely horrified that despite how much he dug in his aching head, he could not find any information about himself; he didn’t even know the color of his own hair.

Sungmin reached up to his head and realized the bandage wrapped around it. Nevertheless there was an open spot on the top, and he pulled on some strands, both in fear and curiosity.

“What color is my hair?” He asked, gazing at the – by no doubt – older hospital staff that was still in shock with his little notepad hanging along his body.

“It’s blonde…” He mumbled carefully, but then seemed to snap out of whatever trance he was in,

“I’m sorry, I’m nurse Kang, and I have the most responsibility for you.”

He bowed, and Sungmin nodded in return; at least feeling happy about the fact that he could recognize his surroundings. But the huge fear still left his stomach bubbling; it was almost like he had fallen really ill with all kinds of diseases.

“Why am I here; what happened to me?”

Mr. Kang straightened his posture and tilted his head slightly, taking up the notepad that had hung along with his arm just seconds earlier.

“You were involved in an accident with a car.” He said with emotion, skimming through the contents of his papers, “And the back of your head seemed to have taken most of the hit. You’ve been unconscious for four days.”

Sungmin’s breath hitched; a wave of chills spread along his skin and he bit his lip.

“I understand that you’re very afraid right now,” Mr. Kang continued, “but I can assure you that we’ll do our best to-“

“-Wait!” the blonde yelled and grabbed his head with both hands, at first wincing at the enormous pain he got from the sudden impact but then looking straight at the nurse a brief meter away from himself.

A pleasant wave spread through his body as the tears building up in his eyes began falling,

“I remember myself! And my family!”

A while of thinking about what he could remember and at the same time being treated by a few nurses that handed him water and other edible treats passed by, and Sungmin felt helpless where he lay, in his soul swimming in a constant fear for the fact that he barely remembered anything about his life other than himself and his relatives. Things popped in his head eventually, and after a day, he suddenly knew where he lived, and where some of his relatives lived.

Yet, it was still a horrid experience, and along with the headache and the other hurting body parts, he really thought that nothing could get worse. He felt as if it literally crept him out. Being almost entirely clueless about yourself, your childhood, where you worked and who stood close to you, where does it lead?

Before he was able to open his mouth and beg for the staff to contact his parents; Mr. Kang came into the room with a stranger. The stranger was a brown-haired man, probably about Sungmin’s own age, and he wore entirely normal clothes.

That it could have been an old friend didn’t hesitate to cross his mind; after all, he had tried to calmly accept the fact that he had lost a part of his memory and that it might be better later, but it still frightened him when the male walked towards him.

“I’m Henry”, he said as he bowed, and Sungmin nodded his head, clueless about what to do. The brunette looked insecure and he flicked away some hair from his forehead as he tried to speak yet again.

“I helped taking care of you until you came to the hospital, and I stayed here and hoped to be able to meet you… So it’s okay if you don’t recognize me since you were unconscious before…”

Sungmin raised his brows for a short while, wondering what to say. It may have been a stranger, but he was glad that someone had aided him when he was in need, even though he couldn’t recall any of it. Henry reached out a hand that contained a small card, and Sungmin took it carefully with his left hand, the one that wasn’t covered with bandages.

He read the content of the card that had a little picture of a panda on the front.

Get well soon!

When he glanced back at the brunette, he could see that he was smiling a little. Sungmin felt joyed about the little gesture – even though he didn’t know the guy – and nodded towards him.

“Thank you.” He said with a smile, and Henry nodded back.

A silence fell between them with the brunette merely standing there, and Sungmin eyeing him, wondering if he would stay or leave so that the blonde could ask the staff to call his parents. Not that Henry would be a bother if he stayed; it appeared to be the contrary. Sungmin didn’t know whether to feel lonely or not, since he after all wasn’t sure if he had any friends. And the man standing ever so awkwardly a meter away from him could just become one.

“I’m sorry if I’m a bother to you, Sungmin-ssi”, the other eventually added and seemed to prepare to leave, but Sungmin lifted a hand to stop him.

“It’s okay, I-I’m not quite sure who to expect coming here anyway…”

The final half of his sentence turned out to be a mumble, but Henry seemed to have snapped it up.

“I’m sorry, I can tell that you’re having a hard time. You really don’t remember anything?”

Sungmin shook his head in denial, clarifying in his mind that completely nothing but the images of his family existed in his brain. Another flood of tears threatened to pass his orbs, but he hindered them with the hopes that he might be able to remember something more later on.

“I remember my family, and where I live…” He said seconds afterwards, and Henry nodded in response; finally seeming less insecure as he brought a chair from against the wall closer to the bed and sat down on it. The blonde observed him while he did so.

“Do you mind if I-?” Henry said suddenly, referring to the fact that he had just taken a seat beside Sungmin’s hospital bed. The other shook his head again, smiling assuring.

“I don’t mind. How old are you, Henry-ssi?”

“I’m 23.”

The blonde raised a tired brow, “So I have a little youngster here, do I?”

The other gave out a breathy laugh that was almost ironic, as if he was used to being younger than most of the people in his circle of friends or acquaintances.

“How old are you then, sir?” Henry said jokingly.

“Oh god, not that old. Just 25.”

He was surprised that he actually had managed to crack some sort of joke in his times of misery, and the other seemed to be quite as amused as him.

But then he also realized that he had actually remembered his own age.

“Then why did you call me a youngster?” Henry carefully laughed back, until seeing the wide opened eyes of Sungmin, and panic arose.

“What happened?”

The blonde stared at the other for a while, completely astonished, and it took a few seconds before the O-shaped mouth turned into a big U as he stretched out his lips and smiled.

“I remember my age!”

“That’s fantastic!” The brunette smiled, “I really wish the best for you in your recovering, S-Sungmin-ssi.”

The older looked down at his knees, expression casual.

“Me too…” He said faintly before he turned his head back towards the younger, “You don’t have to be scared. Let’s speak comfortably.”

After that day – the first day of Sungmin’s life – Sungmin and Henry were officially friends. To Sungmin, it was the first friend he had ever gotten, when in reality, there was so much more in his past than he could have imagined. At the moment, he didn’t know about his passion for flowers, and he couldn’t remember anything about where he worked.

His father and aunt came to visit him a few times at the hospital as well, them being blissed over the fact that Sungmin was okay and that he could remember his relatives. Sungmin himself thanked heaven a thousand times over that he had made it through the accident and it gave him hope that he would also be able to recall a whole lot more of his memories.

But there wasn’t only luck to everything; despite the lingering hopes, there was still a reality out there, one that Sungmin didn’t feel ready to face entirely. He knew how the world looked and regular things that would appear, but he still didn’t know much about his own life, and it frightened him as well as his family, and Henry.

When Sungmin got to know that his mother was dead, he burst crying like he had done the last time; when he had been 20 years old and just entered a new university. His father told him that his mother had wanted for him to be happy, but with the so-called news, Sungmin felt deep in his heart that it was something he wouldn’t quite be able to do.

No one told him things about his daily life, where he worked or who his friends were. He sometimes asked, but they merely shook their heads, telling him that they didn’t know. It worsened his thoughts in that he had a close relationship to his relatives.

The hospital wasn’t able to provide Sungmin with much more than the ability to keep contact with his father and other relatives, but Henry would often come to the hospital to visit him. It often happened in the evenings, since the younger claimed that he often worked until late afternoon. But Sungmin was okay with it; he thought that he couldn’t do much about his situation, even though he deep within had a longing ache for knowledge; he was scared and lost, wanting to recall his past and return to his old life that he hoped was a good one. But despite the pain and the fear, he tried to stay optimistic to be able to get through his hardships. It wasn’t easy at all – in fact, he found himself crying almost every day – but he wanted to fight.

The day eventually came; the day he would be able to choose which path to take in his life. Sungmin stood with a heavy heart in a stairwell, key in hand in front of an unknown door, but which clearly had a name tag with his own name printed all over it in black letters. Henry stood beside him with his hands clasped together in an uncertain manner.

“You okay, hyung?” He asked, seeing how the blonde male kept staring at the lock without pushing in the key he had already lifted with his hand.

Sungmin remained quiet for a few seconds, before he sighed slightly and inserted the key and twisted the lock. He pulled the little silver item back out, but then he only stood still, his body turned towards the younger brunette.

“I don’t know if I’m ready to go back to something I have no clue about…”

There was a silence before he opened his mouth again.

“I’m going crazy…” He mumbled with his head in his hands. Henry still gazed at him, alarmed and unsure of what to say.

The blonde threw a glance at the door before turning his attention towards the other.

“Can you… Go in there first? And remove everything that you think I would be scared of facing again?”

The 25-year old didn’t know better than the two past months he had been aware of; the unknown came as something different and frightening, and had Sungmin wondering whether he should lurk around his past or try to make his life into something new.

His insecurity seemed to win at that time, because 20 minutes later, Henry opened the front door and motioned towards Sungmin to come in. The blonde got up from his resting position on the wall, and nervously stepped after the younger man to enter the home he didn’t know if he had remembered.

Nothing fell coherent to him except for the bright colors and the plan, that he for some reason could recall as he remembered the building he lived in. Sungmin found it strange how he could recall so many small things but not his life as a whole. Even though education never even crossed his mind in that state of confusion, he didn’t even know what he had studied.

Letting his glance travel over the various objects that represented his home, Sungmin wondered how everything could have turned out the way it had. It was almost as if he had not lived at all.

“I somehow feel like I’ve just been born.” He whispered, enough for the younger friend to hear, who patted his back carefully.

“I don’t know how that feels but I assume it must feel weird.”

The blonde didn’t answer, but only kept on observing the surroundings he didn’t recognize the least. A crippling feeling passed through his body slowly as he walked into room after room, from the small hall, to the brown-themed kitchen and into the bright bedroom. Henry said nothing unless it was necessary, and the elder barely bothered to speak either.

Except for the perspective of the real world that he still could behold, everything was new to him.

With a new friend as guidance and support, Sungmin tried to start his new life.

Aaaaand hellokyu does a comeback x'3
i never forgot about this, it's just that sO MUCH STUFF HAS HAPPENED AND MY LIFE ASHJSDNMDJH.

Well, Sungmin lost a big flipping part of his memory and has fallen into light depression ((lol yeah I know the final sentences were kinda happy, but you sometimes need to put an optimistic perspective on things...and that's what I want to show you guys, that even though he's practically a wreck he still wants to try and he wants to find a way so he won't give up right there))

The story is divided in parts (even though the chaps are fairly short) and this is chap 1/2 of part 2! Hope you'll like this 'comeback' chapter haha!