I woke up in my bed. Sheets were over my face, but I pulled them down with a stretch of my arm and a flap of my hand. My eyes were groggy, perhaps from the crying I did yesterday, no doubt—but I didn’t appear tired at all. Matter of fact, I felt good, refreshed. My body’s tension that has seemed overloaded lately, vanished from my muscles. Strings of a headache waved away by one night. And before I could fully open my eyes, a gentle hand caressed my hair, through the strings, adventuring through the parts. His thumb moved down and rubbed my temple with the slightest touch.
“You fell asleep at the beach.” His soothing voice spoke to me.

When my eyes fully adjusted, I could see Kai hovering above me, eyes twinkling with that enamor he seemed to always find in me, no matter how much grief I pegged on him. There was real, true love settled into his irises. Once again, Key was right.

“Instead of waking you, I just carried you to the bed. You had a long day anyway.” His voice as soft and low, as if the slightest pitch in volume would shatter me like glass.

I smile, or what I attempted to be a smile and realized, just for a moment, that I didn’t smell anything.

“No breakfast?” I asked.

Kai chuckled, moving his hand away from my face and pushing his body off of the bed.

“It’s in the afternoon Taemin. You’ve been asleep for a very long time.”

Afternoon? Was I really that tired.

I pushed myself up and looked around. From the window, I could see the sun, but the sky seemed to be settling in the way that noted, no, it wasn’t morning anymore.

“I’m sorry.” I murmured, moving my eyes away.

He caught the glance and gently grabbed my jaw, pulling me in his direction.

“What are you sorry for? You needed to sleep. You’ve had a long couple of days, that’s for sure.” He joked.

I wasn’t sure how he could be so playful with me after how I treated him. But perhaps that was to be expected from the love that was set in his eyes—the love Key tried to convince me yesterday night was really there, though I kept bickering like a little kid who never wanted to listen. Key.

The house was quiet.

“Are Key and Onew here?” I asked.

He pointed his thumb towards the door.

“They said they needed to go get groceries for the house. They left a while ago, though, so they should be back soon.”

I nodded, still trying to get my bearings straight of how I slept through the entire morning.

“Do you need anything? Coffee, tea? Water?”

This time, I laughed.

“No, I’m fine.”

“Oh- A guy named Minho kept calling. Said he wanted to see if you were alright. Something I should be worried about?” His eyebrow arched, but I could see, in the way he leaned his body and the curl in the right corner of his lip, that he was just fooling around again.

“No.” I smiled back. “You remember that hotel where we…ya know…apparently were staying at and had that fight.”

“Yeah...” He scratched the back of his head. “He told me what hotel already…when I asked who it was. He got kinda quiet though when I told him who I was.”

“Yeah,” I looked down, “I was still really disappointed in everything when I went there again.”

“Well…he told me to let you call back when you woke up again. Said he had something important to tell you about some painting he did.”

“Painting?” I questioned.

Could he have been talking about the brain painting that he was working on while I was there or perhaps the others that hung around his gallery?

“Yeah, a painting. Are you ready to talk to him right now? I could go get the phone for you. Or do you need a little more time waking up.”

I vigorously shook my head.

“I had all morning. I think I’m good.” I chuckled.

“Ok.” He lightly slapped my thigh and moved out of the room. Seconds later he came back with the phone, the number for Minho already plugged in and ringing.

“If he’s there, he should answer…or, that’s what he told me.”

I nodded and perhaps, to give me room, he left—quietly closing the door behind him. As I watched his body move away from my sight, I could help but think of everything I’ve done to him. The stress, the distress. How did he hold up so well?

“Hello?” Came that dark voice that was familiar to me by now.

“Minho?”

“Taemin?”

“Yeah, Kai said you wanted to tell me something. About a painting?”

“Well, I’m glad you’re okay. And by the sounds of things…” he trailed off, cautious of his words.

“It’s alright.” I murmured.

“Well, by the sound of things, it seems as though everything is looking up for you?” It was more of a question than I statement.

At first, I nodded my head, then I remembered that I was talking to him.

“Yeah. I got a lot of answers and a lot of stress gone.” It still didn’t take away the fact that I only had a little while until my memories were going to be wiped away again if history served any correct purpose.

I hadn’t thought about that with all of this commotion going on. But for some reason, talking to Minho made me remember. Just how much time did I have left? Or more of, how little time? I looked down towards the sheets, the familiar heavy aura surrounding me again, making me forget who I was talking to.

“Taemin?”

I snapped out of it.

“Sorry. Was thinking about something.”

“Oh…” he paused. “Hey, if you want to talk later-“

“No, seriously Minho, it’s fine. What painting did you want me to know about?”

“Well…more like I would like you guys to come up and see something. I have an event going on today around five. When you’re here, you’ll see what I’m talking about. Do you think you guys would be able to make it?”

“You guys?” I questioned.

“Yeah,” he chuckled, “I’d think after finding the person you’ve been looking for and hanging out with whoever you guys are with, you wouldn’t want to separate from them all of a sudden.”

Now that I thought about it, he was right.

“Oh…then sure. There’s nothing really I have to do so I’ll talk to everyone else and ask them.”

“Alright. Remember…five. I’ll see you guys when you get here.”

“Okay.” And with a click, he was gone.

***

When Onew and Key had returned, I filled them in on everything right after talking to Kai who immediately agreed. There was an inkling in the back of my head that sensed a bit of jealousy whenever I brought Minho up. I could see it in the tap of his foot when I was explaining or the slight rosy blush in his cheeks. It was cute, to say the least.

It wasn’t hard for the couple to agree on the trip. They said they couldn’t remember the last time they visited the city. So around three-thirty, we were off, heading down into the city. It took at least an hour plus traffic, so by the time we actually made it to the hotel, it was at least twenty minutes past five.

The lobby floor was full of people—crowds dressed in simple yet lovely couture. Some held wine in their hands while talking to their friends, other checked themselves at the front desk. I looked down at my clothes, wondering if we missed the memo and by the lift in eyebrow from Kai, he was thinking the same. Key and Onew inched their heads from side to side in order to see what was going on. I think they were just set in awe. And as if he knew what time and where specifically in the lobby we were going to be in, I heard the booming of Jonghyun’s voice.

“No, we’re out of wine over at station three. And remember, no snacks in the gallery. I don’t want crumbs around his artwork.” He sighed from the front desk and shook his head. Then turned around to leave, but like a sense, he stopped and curved.

When our eyes met, there was a different glow from him. Nice, but different. It wasn’t like the first time I met him…or the time before to be perfectly honest.

“Taemin!” He cheered, throwing his hands up in the air. “You made it.”

He ushered over quickly, giving me a slight hug, which I didn’t expect, and shaking the hands of everyone else.

“Minho told me to be on the lookout for you, but I’ve been swamped with somehow EVERYONE BRINGING SNACKS TO THE GALLERY!” He hollered, then turned around and glared at a tall woman monitoring the front desk. She met his gaze and immediately regretted it, nodding her head and walking off.

He sighed.

“Newbies, what can you do?” He shrugged.

“Nice to see you again.” Jonghyun eyed Kai. “More or less. Hopefully, the two of you actually made up this time and don’t plan on making another show.”

His words were blunt, but I could tell by this new hint of glimmer in his eyes that it was a joke. Kai got it and smiled.

“Follow me, I’ll show you guys were Minho is. He was really anxious to show you his work.”

“Yeah…” I trailed off while trying to keep lead—Kai, Key, and Onew behind me. “He wouldn’t tell me over the phone what he was so hyper over.”

“You’ll see.” He smiled.

I chuckled.
“That’s exactly what he said.”

A couple of minutes later, we were back up in the familiar hallway, where at the end, Minho’s art gallery stood. It was different this time around. Loud voices, people talking in the hallways, the doors wide open for anyone to venture in and out.  We followed him down the dark red carpet and into the booming area where immediately, my draw dropped.

They were paintings.

Of her.

Some were quite abstract, perhaps being a recently done painting. Others were well formed, catching the cascading of her hair over her shoulder. Each painting was a different version of her sitting down, looking out of the hospital window. And each painting was overloaded with black and white accompanied by a swirl of one particular color, every color different on the individual painting depending on her position. I looked up at the familiar direction where I saw her before.  Her face turned to the window with only a small part of her cheek visible to the eye. Her raven hair, masking her body, curving down her waist and overlapping the chair. Her arm pulled up towards the window with her palm resting on the glass. Her skin, fair. Her feet, bare while the toes curved to their tips, hovering in the air as she sat down.

“Is that-“ I heard Kai begin.

“Rani.” I finished. “Every painting in here is Rani.”

“Ah! So you do remember her now.” The voice strode in.

I was prepared to smile towards him, but what I saw made me lose the moment. Minho walked over, limping so vigorously, that he needed the help of a mahogany polished cane to lead his way. His lips curved from end to end when our eyes met, so I couldn’t help but smile back.

“Glad you could make it.” He stated.

He saw the gaze I gave him, though I tried not to.

He chuckled.

“Eh...” He shrugged, “what can I say. Guess my brain doesn’t want me to walk either.”

He laughed at his own humor, though it was the truth, then looked at everyone else who were still awestruck.

“Nice to meet you all.” He grinned.

Onew and Key snapped around and apologized, shaking his good hand.

“And you,” he said turning to Kai, “must be the infamous person that led this huge search.”

He shook his hand.

Kai chuckled but scratched the back of his neck.

“That’s me.” He joked. “So what-“

“How did you come up with all these?” I finished.

He smiled some more and looked around at his own masterpieces.

“I found a couple of them in my wanky closet in my room. I keep pieces in there that I’m not sure about. I was rummaging through with this busted ol’ leg and found some more of her. I don’t strictly remember painting all these, but then again…brain problems ya know. Anyway, I decided to take a leap and keep painting even though the hand is getting bout tired of me doing that.” He laughed again. “Though I don’t remember painting all of these, I slightly remember her more. She was always in the same spot when I went to the hospital. But then…I realized why you were so familiar to me as well.”

“Me?” I touched my chest.

“Mhm.” He smiled.

With his good hand, he pointed towards a direction I hadn’t seen yet. It was another painting. Black and white, with an abstract figure of a girl and a boy. The boy stood over her, while she sat at the same spot as usual. In front of the window. Her hand lifted up and touched the boy’s, their fingers intertwined.

It was us.

“I can’t do color that well anymore so sorry it had to be in all black and white.”

“You saw us. Together before.” I stated.

“Yeah.” He smiled. “That’s my favorite one out of all of these.”

“Mine too,” I whisper.

And as I stare at her, those groggy deep feelings that welled up inside before whenever I tried to look at the photo of her, didn’t surface. I felt calm. I felt relaxed. I felt protected. There wasn’t much I remembered about my sister except for the nightmares or the photo. But now, I had something new. Now, I had a memory.

I no longer knew her.

I know her.