Tears came into Jihyo’s eyes when she saw Gary, all bandaged up, with tubes all over his body. She slowly sat on the bed.

“Oppa,” she whispered softly. Her fingers slowly traced the outline of his face.

Was this how you felt when I was in a car accident? She thought to nothingness, as her tears fell onto his arm.

They stayed like this for a while. No one spoke or made a sound. The room was silent, except for the gentle humming of the machines that were keeping him alive.

Turning to Haha, she said, “Oppa, can you guard the room for me?”

Haha hesitated for a while. He knew what she was going to do. He wasn’t supportive of it, but he knows her well. She wouldn’t be persuaded against this. Silently, he left for the door.

Jihyo closed her eyes and channelled her energy to her hand, and from her hands to him.

Haha watched from afar by the door. He knew she was healing Gary, just like how Gary healed Dream. He watched as Jihyo’s calm expression turned into a frown, as struggled to concentrate. And finally, after close to 15 minutes, she finally collapsed beside Gary. Haha rushed over in shock.

“Yah!” he exclaimed, frantically propping her up.

“Hm…” she mumbled, her eyes dazed and her lips pale.

“Jihyo! What’s wrong!”

“How’s he?” she asked weakly.

Haha turned over to check up on Gary. He still looked like what he did when they first came in.

“I don’t know,” he said. “What happened to you?”

“Water…,” she said.

Haha nodded, rushing out to get her a bottle of water.

Jihyo gulped the water down. Gradually, colour returned to her face. Both of them sighed in relief.

“What was that!” he demanded.

“I don’t know,” Jihyo admitted. “It’s the first time I’ve healed injuries this severe… I must have exceeded the threshold…”

Haha looked at her and sighed, but didn’t comment any further. He helped Jihyo to the lounge, where she could rest, while he looked after Gary.

They repeated these for a few days- taking turns to stay by Gary’s side. Finally, on the fourth day, Gary woke up.

But the first questioned he asked them was, “Who are you?”

Jihyo was beyond shocked. Maybe even heartbroken. She knew she shouldn’t be, because it wasn’t what he wanted. But still, it bugged her. How could he forget her, her of all people?

But it wasn’t just her, of course. He had forgotten Haha, too. And the members. Jiyoung. Ji-ohn. His family members who passed away. Himself.

He even forgot himself. His own identity. Kang Gary. Kang Hee Gun.

The doctors classified this as a case of retrograde amnesia with declarative memory loss. To put it simply, he can’t remember who he is and everything around him, but he can still perform everyday functions.

It was a blow to both Jihyo and Gary.

“You’re telling me that I have two kids?”

Jihyo nodded.

“And you’re my wife?”

She nodded again, willing her tears not to fall, but they fell nonetheless. Gary was shocked by her tears, and the unfamiliar ache in his chest.

He blinked and swallowed hard.

“I’m sorry.”

She ran out of the room and broke down in tears. Haha looked between the couple, trying to decide who to stay with. Eventually, he decided to let Jihyo have some alone time to calm down and he stayed with Gary.

“And you are…?”

“Your best friend. We grew up together… We spent over 20 years together, hyung. Don’t you remember me at all? Anything?”

Gary shook his head. “I’m sorry.”

He wanted feel really, truly sorry. He wanted to comfort them and tell them that he’ll remember them one day. But he couldn’t, because as of now, he felt nothing for them. They were but mere strangers.

They sat it awkward silence.

“It was an earthquake,” Haha said, breaking the silence. “You were here for a talk show- we’re all from another country, you know, Korea? But you came here for a talk show. You were supposed to return the next day, but there was an earthquake…”

“I…”

Haha didn’t give him the chance to speak. He went on.

“You were a celebrity. I mean, you are. You are still a celebrity now. We all are. We used to film a show together- that was how you met her- Jihyo. But like I said, you and I knew each other from way back. There were other 4 other permanent members for that show- so it’s a total of 7 of us. We were really like a family, hyung. The show was called running man and it ran for 4 years.  But it came to an abrupt end about 5 years ago,” he said. And paused, thinking to himself that this was such an uncanny coincidence.

“… it stopped partially because you left the show, but mainly because she had amnesia.”

“What?”

“Due to a car accident. It wasn’t like yours. She only lost a part of her memory. But still she wasn’t well to continue the show. But eventually she recovered. You guys got married and had a pair of twins- Jiyoung and Ji-ohn. They’re almost 4 now. They-“

“Stop, please,” Gary said, massaging his temples with his forefinger and thumb.

Haha stopped, finding himself slightly breathless. He realised he had been blabbering so quickly. But he wanted Gary to know as much about himself as possible. And that was 39 years of life. Of course he had to talk at such a speed.

“It’s your life!” Haha said angrily. “Why do you act like it’s a pain for you to hear about it? Do you know how worried we were? How worried Jihyo was? She hadn’t been sleeping well for so long now! and the kids! She left them-“

“I know!” Gary snapped. “Just give me some time to settle all these information, will you? I just came to without any memory of my identity and who I was and how you’re bombarding me with so much information. Have you thought about how confused I-“ He stopped abruptly, suddenly feeling guilty.

And Haha felt guilty too. It wasn’t like Gary wanted to lose his memories. And he was acting like it was his fault.

He nodded.

They sat in awkward silence for another while.

“But… just remember that she really loves you a lot, will you? And you really, really loved her too. If you can’t remember that, could you just pretend that you do? Because it would really break her if you don’t remember her.”

Gary looked deep into Haha’s eyes and he felt the sincerity it carried. It was almost pleading.

He nodded a hesitant nod.

Just some facts about amnesia: http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/nonfiction/forget-everything-you%E2%80%99ve-ever-known-about-amnesia/

And I know this part doesn’t rlly make sense, but can you just take this as a plot device HAHA

Ps: does anyone have any tips for presentation skills)))))))))))):