Hyun Joong

She looked….oddly…

……familiar.

Suddenly my head started throbbing and I thumbed my temples hard to numb the pain from more aggravation.

“Are you ok?” the visitor questioned with deep concern.

Her voice……

She was reaching out to me, with the intent to ease my discomfort, I assume when Hyori interjected, “So Min, you better go. Hyun Joong is unwell and I’ll need to bring him in to rest.”

So Min

The name is…strangely familiar.

I felt the need to talk to her even with my headache. She was about to leave but I naturally held onto her left shoulder and pulled her back, “No, So Min. Don't leave. Please stay.”

She nodded and smiled meekly at me. I allowed her to support my other hand and both woman brought me back into the comfort of my own home.

“Hyori, could you get us warm water, please?”

Hyori went without uttering a word, much to my delight. I deliberately asked her to leave So Min and me alone so that I could ask if she knew about me.

I was housebound for the past three months. Hyori, undoubtedly took good care of me all this time, from doing the household chores around my house to buying and personally sending my three meals a day to me even on working days. Oddly, she was very defensive with anyone who came to pay me a visit or my queries about my past. Each time someone came by, I could feel her protectionism in full force to ward off any information leak about my past. I could not understand her motivation but I knew she only meant well.

But, at the back of my mind, something about Hyori was nagging at me.

The feeling…that very unsettling feeling that she was hiding something from me…and about my past, kept haunting me.

Hyori

When I spied So Min at Hyun Joong’s doorstep, I knew instantly that this did not look good. Putting up my worst front, I tried to shoo her away before Hyun Joong had a chance to meet her. The situation worsened when Hyun Joong, whom I thought should be napping after his medicine, came to answer the door. I took the opportunity to ask So Min to leave when he showed signs of discomfort, only to smell more trouble when he invited her to stay on his own accord. 

To my anguish, he even sent me away to fetch drinks for them, when what I most wanted to do then was to stay close with the company to dispel any opportunities of Hyun Joong remembering So Min, and destroying my plan. I had thought of retorting but admitted defeat because there was absolutely no good reason for me to reject his simple request. Furthermore, I would only be away for a mere 30 second at most. What could probably be exposed in that short period? So, I retreated into the kitchen while pricking my ears up on alert through the sliding door that I deliberately left half opened.

“I have a feeling that there is more between us than I could imagine, is there?”

Those were the first words I overheard from Hyun Joong. I choked on my own breath, not expecting Hyun Joong to ask So Min this so unexpectedly.

THIS. WAS. NOT. GOOD.

So Min

I stared at Hyun Joong momentarily, unsure of how to structure my reply to him

We were close, of course, more than close. We were colleagues, who were at loggerheads with each other. But we went through a battle of life and death together and he nearly died for me, while I lost my heart and rationality for him. Intuitively, I could vouch that if not for his memory loss, he would have felt the same for me. What we had, was beyond close, but now this happened. How should I explain this complicated relationship to him. If I revealed our past, would I become a sinner to break the blissful love between Hyori and him, or the worst, would he think me a liar? 

While the internal debate was going on within my mind, I could feel his gentleness in his gaze, as if probing me for a response with much patience. So soft and innocent were his eyes, that I was compelled to blurt out everything regardless of what may come. 

“Sorry, I don’t mean to be overly straightforward. I am impatient for I feel incomplete without a past and I have been having nightmares every night. I know my nightmares will only stop if I know who and what I was. Call me an idiot or maybe psychic. The moment I see you, something tells me that you know.

I need to know about my past. Please tell me..about me...

...about us…”

That was it! Disregarding all the possible consequences of him knowing the truth, I decided that Hyun Joong deserved to know the truth. I took in a deep breath..

“We….”