I closed my eyes as I rested my head on her lap. She naturally ran her gentle hands on my messy tied hair and removed the rubber band to lessen the tangles which were clear products of my absolute weariness the other night.

“Tell me all about it Nana. I would like to hear it from you too.” I asked her politely and my tears started to brim on my eyes. It was a gloomy story to begin with but I will bear with it. The six of them suffered enough and endured those years remembering me while I on the other hand, leisurely erased them unintentionally – somehow.

“The accident, it brought you too much pain. I tried to convince myself that time to give you a chance to handle it on an early age but you were too young to deal with it. The six of them tried to do their best to comfort you but you both ended up bearing the agony of not being able to meet half way. It was tragic.” She started.

“I felt that grief will drain the best of you so I decided to take the risk of putting you under hypnotherapy. It was the only possible way that you will be able to recover lightly from the wounds that you carried in your heart. The experts told me that it will be the finest to hide your memories starting from when you began to root here until your parents’ death because those are what lingered to you the most.” Nana’s voice reflected her heavy heart during that time. I can tell that she’s doing her best to keep her pace with the story and not get too emotional.

“It was an extensive memory warp. It almost deleted a yearlong memory in your life that you cherished the most and the other half was when you mourned the most –both extremities were removed and you got back to the normal you. I regret to tell you that, those memories that you had with them can no longer be recovered.” And a warm drop of tear fell on my forehead.

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t have any other way to rescue you but only through this. I felt sorry too towards them, mostly to Eric who bear all the guilt of your unfortunate situation.” I sat to wipe Nana’s tears with my own hands and hugged her tightly.

“Nana, it wasn’t your fault. It was no one’s fault. Everything happened for a reason and you did a good job bringing us together again. My memories may never come back but everything else stayed in our hearts, specially that warm feeling for friendship.”

She stood up and held my hand as she led me to the staircase. She pointed on the engraved writings on the rough cement which is almost unreadable: don’t forget, after 17 years. I never looked back on that since the first time I tried deciphering what it was on my first night.

“You recklessly scratched that with a stone before your parents took you away. The five of them gave you a pinky-swear and promised to always remember you. You told them to wait for your return because you’ll do your best to come back after 17 years.  Eric – the closest to you, came late that day. You scraped your message on hard concrete for him to see when he arrives. Andy told you about what happened right?” she faced me with teary eyes and a light smile on her face.

I nodded to her. “After you left, he never smiled again. Dongwan sent me pictures of him and the rest but I never saw that poor kid’s cheerful face. He used to pull all kind of pranks on them before and will always laugh but his expression was replaced with a poker face since then. Eric started to hide his feelings from everyone and kept his burdened heart all alone.  So I decided to remind you the promise that you gave them to fulfil it. Since I know that you are already strong and capable to do so. ” she held my left cheek while giving me a proud smiling face.

“You did a good job my dear. You were even able to finish it sooner than I expected.”

I admired Nana more than ever. She knew the best way to handle this situation. I really appreciate every little thing that she did for me to be able to get here and encounter all of them – every single one of them. I am so grateful of how she planned for this game and I can only give her a long tight hug in return.

 “Nana, can I still stay here and spend my whole month with them even if I’m done with my mission already? I would like to know more about us.” I requested.

“I knew you will think that way after finding out about everything.” She said while laughing.

I looked at her with my eyes full of excitement and when I was about to ask her to have breakfast with me, a man’s voice shouted from the entrance of the Villa and I saw Dongwan hurriedly opening the gate running towards us to give us both a hug.

“I told Nana that you already did your mission Kris! I’m the one who reported to her! Thank me! Thank me! Hahahaha” Dongwan said while clinging on Nana’s arms while giggling.

I looked at Nana with confusion and she smiled at me saying, “Let’s talk about that over breakfast.”

Laura prepared plenty of good food to eat. There were scrambled eggs, bacon, spam and mixed rice on a bowl. Dongwan put a basket on the corner of the table and opened it to take out freshly baked breads of different kinds.

“I made all of this for you Nana!” he flashed his sparkling white shiny teeth and looked at me dreamily.

“It’s just like the old times.” Dongwan said as he sat down beside me and placed an oblique-shaped bread covered with floss in front of me.

 “Dongwan told me about witnessing Eric’s return.” Nana opened up all of a sudden and I was taken off guard because I have missed it.

“It was when he brought you to the hospital Kris. I decided to watch you two walk outside. Both of you were on the hall and before I can even go out, I heard a familiar roaring laughter that I haven’t heard for ages. I tried to take a better look and saw him laughing with you. I almost lost my mind when he even looked like he’s pulling a joke.” He told me while sticking his fork on one of the spams.

I remembered. It was something that I thought he normally did because it looked so genuinely expressed. I thought he’s just one awkward shy guy but, it meant a lot for Dongwan and Nana already.

“I hope you stay here for the whole month Kris. I was even hesitant telling Nana about that but she should know right?” he said with a concerned look on his face, it was the same face expression he used to make me take my medicines.

I smiled at him and put scrambled egg on his plate. “I already told Nana about that and I think we should arrange our schedules from now on.”

His face beamed with pure joy and started eating happily while Nana watched us with a satisfied look on her face.

“I became a doctor because of you Kris. If it’s worth to mention, due to your clumsiness I decided to put my expertise on doing surgeries.” Dongwan shared randomly.

“We used to play hide and seek at the school where Eric is teaching now. The university is big enough for you but I don’t understand how you will always stumble on flat surfaces and scratch yourself like a hobby. You don’t even quit playing with me even if you are already bleeding.” He continued while spreading a huge amount of mayonnaise on his bread.

I listened to his random stories about the rest of them; he was more like the group’s open diary.

He told me why he thought Junjin became a sheriff. It was one of the many nights when both of them were talking over the phone and he discussed that being a town officer will be efficient for my return in Sylfaen since he will be knowledgeable about all the directions and rules. I just remembered Junjin was the same person who knew my glitch when it comes to that specific field. It made me happy to know that I am one of the reasons why he decided to serve and protect this place.

Dongwan even knew why Hyesung picked establishing his own coffee shop.  I loved coffee from the very start but I hated drinking instant coffee mix. He will always experiment on different coffee flavours in the Villa’s kitchen when he used to me while waiting for Nana to finish her classes at school. He even commended him as one of the best baby sitters since Hyesung discovered the key to handle my short temper.

Eric’s case is the only one that was left untold when Dongwan confessed that it has been a rocket science kind of theory for all of them why he decided to become a teacher.

We both looked at Nana for some possibilities and she just smirked at us.