Kage slammed the door as she sat in her car. She buried her face in her hands. The doctor’s words kept replaying in her head.

Amnesia.

Kris is showing signs of amnesia. It’s common for someone with the injuries Kris has acquired to experience amnesia as a side effect. Don’t worry too much though, he had said. Many people have overcome their amnesia and gone on to live happy lives. Many, she thought. Not all.

                Kage lifted her head and looked out the window through teary eyes. Of course out of all the people in his life, it had been her who was kicked out of Kris’s memory. Ever since the day she ran into Kris, she thought fate was on her side. But all along, fate was just playing a cruel joke on her. Just like it had years before she met Kris….

                She could still remember every detail of that cold day. The letter of acceptance to her dream college had finally come in the mail after weeks of agonizing wait.  She had stayed up so she could surprise her parents when they got home. She waited in the cold; her cheeks were pink from a combination of the cold and excitement. It was nearly 11 when she got the call.

Hello, this is the DC Police Department calling. Ms. Kage, your parents got into a car crash around 10:30….we’re sorry to inform you but…your parents were killed in the accident. We’re truly sorry for your loss.

She was told that they had died on impact. As if though that was going to make her feel better. She didn’t talk for nearly three months, barely eating either. Most of her time was spent staring out of the window of her parent’s bedroom. She had turned down the offer to go to college. She didn’t want to stay in DC. She didn’t even want to stay in America. That’s when she decided to go to Korea. It put a physical distance between her and the country in which her parents had died in. She had lived there since, only returning to America once a year to visit her parents’ graves.

Kage had opened up a small ramen shop in the middle of Seoul. Having a restaurant had always been one of her mother’s dreams and Kage was determined to make it a reality. The ramen shop did well; it was always bustling with customers. Kage would keep just enough money to get by and donate the rest to the local orphanage. She lived a quiet, uneventful life. She was lonely. There was no one in her life that cared for her and it was slowly killing her. And then came that day….

“Hey watch it,” Kage snapped at the tall figure that ran smack into her, causing her to nearly fall over. The figure caught her arm and helped her stand straight.

“Sorry,” said the man, grinning at her. Kage looked up at his face and blinked. He was…angelic. Clear, white skin on a perfectly structured face. His smiling brown eyes looked down at her as the sun outlined his golden hair, almost like a halo. He looked strangely familiar. His tall, lanky figure was incredibly close to her. She took a step back, putting some distance between them.

“I’m Kris,” he said, bowing. “I’m sorry I ran into you.” Oh…Kris…wasn’t he that one guy from EXO? “Please,” he continued, “let me take you out to dinner to make it up.” 

Kage blinked. “Wait, what, whoa you’re moving too fast buddy, you don’t even know who I am.”

Kris grinned , “Well I’m sure I can learn, I pick things up pretty quickly. Besides, it’s customary in Korea to take a person out to dinner if you accidently knock them over.”

“Oh….really?” In her two years in Korea she had never heard of such a custom….

“Nah, I just want to take you out to dinner,” he said, grinning, “I mean come on, you can spare a stranger one night, can’t you?”

Kage just stared at the man. What in the world was wrong with him? He just stood there stupidly grinning at her. Kage couldn’t help but grin back. This man was crazy. She had never really interacted with anyone since her parents died. Yet she felt something strangely compelling about this stranger she had just met. She slowly nodded at him as he broke out into an even wider smile. Well, screw going to the hardware store, it’s not like she was going to pass up a free dinner….

Their one night quickly turned into two. Then three. Then four. And before she knew it she was falling for the stranger she ran into on the corner of the street. Slowly but surely, he helped her break out of the shell she had placed herself in long ago. He made her laugh like crazy. It didn’t even matter how crazy or stupid it was, whatever he said had her dying of laughter. And God, he made her smile, even to the point of hurting. He became everything to her. His smile. His laugh. His scent. The way his eyes glowed when he looked at her. The way he wrapped his arms around her and buried his face in her neck late at night. The way he would whisper, “I love you” as they lay together in the dark. Kris became her reason to live. And now he couldn’t even recognize her.