A sharp static exploded in his ears when his body tried to adjust to his sudden awakening. His head pounded but the pain quickly subsided. The first things he noticed were whitewashed ceilings above him and an annoying beep entering his left ear. He couldn’t move his body and his mouth had gone dry.

      “Where am I?” TaeYeon thought. His vision constantly blurred and he couldn’t decipher what was happening. Everything he saw seemed foreign to him and he couldn’t describe anything that his eyes landed on. But then it met Tiffany’s brown, blood-shot eyes. Something about those brown, glistening eyes felt like home.

   Tiffany lost her breath seeing him stare back at her. dropped from shock. It felt like a dream seeing him finally awake—finally looking at her with those calm eyes.

      “TaeYeon?” Tiffany stuttered with a smile. However, he did not respond and Tiffany immediately assumed the worst. “Do you... remember me?”

      Although unaware of his current situation, TaeYeon was still able to understand her words. He stared at her trying to find an answer. Who was she? Her voice sounded familiar like a popular song of the past. Her face, though swollen and abused with tears, looked beautiful to him. She must have been someone in his life for his heart felt comfortable just staring at her, but not a memory or even a name came to mind. He tried to reply in any way he could but his sore throat did allow him to speak. His nerves were too stiff that he helplessly could not move any part of him. All he could do was faintly squinted his eyes for a second with his eyebrows struggling to furrow along as an answer. Then his eyes suddenly felt sore and he closed it.

      Tiffany held his hand tightly trying to get her soul closer to him. As she desperately searched for a way to find assurance that he knew what she was saying, ragged breath escaped her lips. TaeYeon opened his eyes, startled that her tears began to show. Though clueless as to what these emotions exactly meant, TaeYeon felt the desperation starting in her voice. “It’s me,” her lips quivered, “Tiffany.”

      Not a reply came for he could only do nothing but blankly stare. When she could not take seeing his lifeless eyes on her, bloated tears fell. One fell warm on TaeYeon’s arm, and then came another. For a minute, this hot rain poured endlessly on his skin. His heart violently reacted to every drop and the heartbeat monitor amplified it all. He wanted to reach out for her cheeks and catch her tears, but his weak muscles forbid him.

      “Can you hear me?” she cried. TaeYeon blinked slowly and slightly nodded his head. Tiffany felt a little glimpse of joy and relief, but it just didn’t seem enough.
      “Can’t you remember anything?”

      TaeYeon opened his mouth but only his breath made a faint sound. He closed it immediately knowing nothing would come out. The thought was at the tip of his head, but he could not bring himself to answer. What was he even supposed to say?

      “It’s me, Tiffany… I’m your girlfriend.”

      TaeYeon opened his eyes as he remembered how burdened he was hearing those words from Tiffany fifteen years ago. If Eunji says the same thing, Key might have a similar reaction as he did when he woke up from his coma.

      “Hi.” That was all that came out of Eunji’s mouth. TaeYeon anticipated her words but that was it. A minute passed and she hasn’t said anything else. She didn’t know what else to say. She was just sitting there holding Key’s unmovable right hand.

      TaeYeon couldn’t bear to watch what else would happen and alerted the doctors right away. In no time, the doctor and nurses came in to check Key’s condition. Their faces brightened up for they confirmed that he was really awake. Then one doctor told a nurse to call Key’s family. After that, TaeYeon and Eunji went home and called it a day.

      On the way home, Eunji didn’t say anything. Her eyes drifted away to the window through the whole ride. TaeYeon could not help but wonder what was going on her mind.  Was she happy or sad that Key was finally awake? He could not tell. All he knows is that she hasn’t been the same jubilant girl he met months ago. She could no longer add any snarky comments or replies to his questions. Neither could she laugh heartily at something that was funny to her before.

      It was easy to see that she was feeling something unpleasant, but just how could he help lift that hidden burden? Should he loosen up the atmosphere by joking or by softly comforting her daughter knowing that Key’s circumstances were similarly tragic to his own story? He felt worse the longer he did not do anything to comfort her silently aching heart, but the least he wanted was to upset her with wrong words. He did not know what approach would work for her and thus tensely drove both of them home without a word.

      “Oh, you’re home,” Tiffany greeted her daughter with a big hug. “Is something wrong? You look gloomy,” Tiffany said, clearly sensing her daughter’s troubled heart.

      “Key’s awake,” Eunji forced a smile.

      “That’s good news, Eunji!” Tiffany exclaimed, cupping her daughter’s face.

      “Yeah…” Eunji let out a restrained chuckle and went up to her room. Tiffany easily detected how unenthusiastic her daughter was but decided not to confront her about it for now.

      “Did something happen to Key? Did he lose his memories too?” Tiffany turned to TaeYeon.

      “I don’t know,” TaeYeon just sighed and shrugged. The doctors didn’t inform him anything yet, but it was too easy to guess the outcome from a coma like that. It’s either he loses his memory, damage a part of his senses, or both. Either way will be tragic and hard in some form for Eunji and everyone else. All he knew is that he did not want his daughter to feel the pain her mother went through, at least not to the extent that it would start erasing the color to her life.

      He gripped his guitar case tightly and took the courage to see how Eunji was holding up. Carefully he knocked on Eunji’s opened door. Eunji let him come in.

      “Eunji… here’s my guitar in case you want to use it again or want to practice,” he said, awkwardly putting the guitar case in the corner of Eunji’s room. He had an inner battle trying to decide whether he should talk things out with Eunji or just let Tiffany do all the comforting. He was definitely not new in trying to console people, but it somehow just felt nerve-wracking and different to do the same thing with Eunji, his daughter. What if he says the wrong thing? He was her father now, someone who she greatly looked up to. He should live up to that title. He had to prove himself worthy of that title.

      “H-how are you holding up?” TaeYeon stammered trying to force himself to talk. Eunji just looked up to him as if she didn’t hear clearly.

      “Are you feeling okay? You know… Key, waking up?”

      “Uh…” Eunji looked away. “Yeah,” Eunji nodded. “Yeah I’m fine,” she assured with a smile but her wavering eyes could not fool TaeYeon. He was also once like her, holding deepest emotions in from anyone with a smile. He’s done it many times to know how it looked, but feeling uncomfortable to press on, he just bought her words. He told himself that those words meant she wasn’t ready to talk about it, but in reality, it was he who was not ready to bear her burden. Besides, he thought, what could he really do? Maybe Eunji would want her mother’s consolation than his. Furthermore, he believed in Eunji’s amazing ability to be bright and optimistic again, so she probably won’t need any help dealing with her emotions at all. But the further he walked away from the door, the harder it was for him to forgive his own actions. “And you call yourself her father,” he scoffed at himself.

      “You’re not staying for dinner?” Tiffany asked as she saw TaeYeon prepare to leave her home.

      “I-uh… I think I need to arrange some stuff for Xiah Dragon Noodles,” he said. “I’ll see you again tomorrow okay?” He kissed Tiffany on the cheeks and said goodbye.

      As he stepped out of the home, he buried his face on his coat and smoke puffed out of his mouth as he heaved a big sigh through the cold. It surely was getting colder outside, but he felt his body freeze more at the thought of not being able to comfort his own daughter. He felt like he should’ve done better or tried harder.

      He could walk her home from school, provide her money that she needs, buy her anything she wants, fix her documents, run and get her insurances and IDs, attend parent-child conferences, and joke around with her behind Tiffany’s back, but one of the most important parts, which was to be with her in dark times, was unexpectedly the hardest thing he faced as her father. He could just leave all of Eunji’s emotional problems to Tiffany, but he felt somewhat responsible to do something about it. Was this the kind of responsibility that HyoYeon talked about three months ago?

      He took out a small pink box in his pocket and dejectedly stared at it for a few seconds. He remembered just a few months ago, he had given up the thought of settling down with someone because of his shaky memories. But with an unexpected turn of events, he has now been reconciled with the girl of his dreams along with an additional blessing—his teenage daughter. He was beyond happy to have a chance to love Tiffany again, and he was overjoyed to be in good terms with the daughter he didn’t even know he had. It was starting to weigh down on him that proving to them he can commit his life to them forever was no easy task. He knew he had to man-up and face what’s expected of him head on, but for once he wished loving them was as easy as a walk in the park.

      “I feel so useless,” he closed his eyes and shook his head. Even though there’s no other family he he’d rather be with forever, he realized he was not ready to take the responsibility of being husband and a father.

      A week later, TaeYeon and Tiffany went to the Gangwondo Province where Tiffany, Sunny, and Yuri once lived because of SooYoung’s sudden and alarming orders. SooYoung begged only Tiffany to come but TaeYeon went along with her, assuming that he was invited, too. They didn’t exactly know why they were suddenly summoned to that place, but since SooYoung was one of their closest friends, they didn’t question it. They just assumed SooYoung had some kind of emergency at that place.

      When they arrived, SooYoung and Sunny’s parents were there in the re-furbished hanok house. The Lee family warmly welcomed their niece Tiffany and squeezed her cheeks like she was still a young girl. While they complimented on how radiant Tiffany had become since they last saw her, TaeYeon excitedly went up to SooYoung for a hug. SooYoung did not share the same joy though, and he ran to the small man with his eyes burning in anger.

      “Yah! What are YOU doing here?!”

      “H-huh? What do you mean?” TaeYeon froze as the man tall as a pole headed towards him like a heaving giant.

      “I only invited Tiffany! I didn’t ask for you to come!” SooYoung poked TaeYeon on his chest and he stumbled backwards.

      “Well, sorry! You said it in the group chat so I thought…”

      “Was ‘Yuri and Tiffany come quickly’ not clear enough to you???”

      “SooYoung, I’m sure it’s fine to have extra guests, don’t you think?” Sunny’s father came to the rescue as his wife and Tiffany followed behind.

      “But the day won’t be so perfect…,” SooYoung whimpered.

      “Oh dear, don’t get so upset,” laughed Sunny’s mother. “I’m sure everything will be fine.”

      “Who is this man,” Sunny’s father asked Tiffany as he turned to TaeYeon.

      “Ah, hello, sir, I’m Kim TaeYeon,” TaeYeon bowed to the elder.

      “K-Kim TaeYeon?” Sunny’s parents both said in unison. “You mean… the boy…”

      “It’s been months. Haven’t you heard from Sunny about the whole story of how they came back together?” SooYoung said.

      “We have. We just didn’t think we’d meet him. A pleasure to meet you!”

      “It’s nice to meet you, too,” TaeYeon smiled and bowed once more.

      “These are my aunt and uncle,” Tiffany happily introduced them. “I lived with them numerous times.”

      After a small chat, SooYoung told them that they arrived way an hour-and-a-half too early. The mysterious event hasn’t even been fully organized yet. Tiffany took this as an opportunity to take TaeYeon out to the village. Even though some things have changed since the last time she has been here, some things were still familiar and she wanted to tour TaeYeon on a big part of her life while they are here.

      “Ah~ I can’t believe the air here is still as fresh as ever,” Tiffany skipped her way and twirled around like a little girl.

      “All I smell is soil. Wet soil.” TaeYeon’s nose scrunched up. “You call this fresh?”

      “Hey, that’s the scent of a healthy land! It’s the scent of nature!”

      “How can you tell when the ground seems frozen? And besides, body odor is nature and that’s pretty awful,” TaeYeon said. “Anyway, not saying it smells bad right now. It’s just a little strange. I’m not very used to the countryside… or just this Gangwondo farmland, I guess.”

      “That’s because you’ve been sanitized your whole life,” Tiffany scoffed. “And you barely go out to enjoy a nice weather unless I force you.”

      “It’s freezing these days. Of course I don’t want to go out!” he pouted and Tiffany just giggled.

      “You know, I never go out myself back then, too—the first days I was here.”

      “Really? I can’t imagine... you’re always itches if you don’t go out within three days.”

      “Yah~!” Tiffany pouted like a child and slapped the back of her hand on his arm. “It doesn’t!”

      “I just mean you can’t stay at home,” TaeYeon snickered.

      “Oh. Yeah… I guess. You’re right. Especially when I was young, I always liked going out even if it was cold. I always liked exploring, too. But the first days I lived here, I really couldn’t go out. See this cement road that we’re walking in right now? If you follow this long road, it will lead to the main square. But back then, this was a dirt road. Walking on it was hard! And on hot days, you could smell awful stench out of nowhere! It was horrible! But I got used to it… Wow, it really has been a long time. They even added fences to separate the road from the crops now. And there are signs and lamps set up! What an improvement! It used to be really dark by sunset, too.”

      “When did you stay here? I can hardly imagine you on the countryside. You’re always such a city girl type.”

      “Oh?” Tiffany wondered for a moment and said, “Now that I think about it… It’s after you left town, Sunny called me to live with them. I was pregnant with Eunji when I got here and stayed for a few years.”

      “When I left town?”

      “Yeah, your family had to set up the optic shop in Jeonju. Don’t you remember?”

      TaeYeon was blank for a moment, but he then remembered reading it from his notebook. “Oh… that time.” He was suddenly dispirited remembering how depressed he was during those days. The struggle he went through every single day suddenly crept up on him. These feelings got worse knowing Tiffany was carrying his child and aching to have him by her side on that season.

MARCH 1998 (two months after waking up from his coma)

      Ever since his parents declared that they will be moving back to Jeonju to set up the optical shop, everything that irritated him about the new world left his stressed head. The pressure and expectation to remember who he once was will finally die down. He finally won’t be able to have his class surrounding him and bombarding him with the same questions. He will finally have an opportunity to be alone and find out for himself who he really wanted to be instead of discovering who he was before.

      “Knock, knock,” a girl’s voice echoed from the gate of his home. TaeYeon knew exactly who that was. He was about to get up, but Tiffany already entered like it was her home.

      “Oh, hey,” TaeYeon’s eyes sparked in excitement seeing her.

      “Do you mind if I take you on a walk tonight?” Tiffany asked.

      “Sure. Where are we going?”

      “I don’t know… just a walk,” she smiled with her hands behind her back.

      TaeYeon’s heart thumped at the sight of her cuteness in the moment. Every time they cross paths, he notices something radiantly beautiful and new about her. “No wonder she’s my girl,” he would often think. “Every little thing about her drives me crazy.”

      Under the moonlight and dazzling stars, they strolled together wherever their feet would take them. TaeYeon was extremely happy to be with her after realizing how precious she was to him. There was truly nobody like her. Among all his friends, she’s the only one that ever persisted to be with him after all the apathy he has given. She cheered him up, took care of him, and understood him more than anybody else did. Just being with her lift his spirits up. And like a child with a parent, as long as she’s beside him, he never worried about where she took him. Tonight, however, was unexpectedly different.

      “I heard your family is leaving for good,” Tiffany started, unable to admit from her lips that TaeYeon himself was going to leave, too.

      TaeYeon’s energy slowly drained away. He did not realize that leaving this place also meant leaving Tiffany behind. He was too caught up in her smile that he forgot about the fact that he couldn’t bring her with him. His first instinct was to start begging her to come with him, but then he thought it was a ridiculous and childish request. She has her own life—why should he dare disrupt it any further with his broken brain? The only right thing to do was say goodbye at the end of the road, but he couldn’t muster up some courage to even think about that word. “Goodbye” to him only meant he would not be able to see someone for a long unpredictable period of time. Applying that word with Tiffany would be the end of the world for him.

      When TaeYeon realized how heavy the atmosphere had suddenly become, he chuckled trying to lighten up the mood, “Why, are you going to miss me?” He didn’t want to think about it as a bad thing for now.

      “Of course I will,” Tiffany answered. “I