The rest of the evening was perfection. There was more music, drinks (that I really didn’t get into), and the chatter of a crowd. But by now, I knew that the illusion of perfection only lasts so long. It was a shrouded veil that, once up, slowly comes falling and as I looked around the busy crowd— Key and Onew chatting with others about the artwork, Minho, and Jonghyun smiling at each other while holding hands, I stopped in the midst of it all. My heart murmured that familiar sorrow that seemed to lurch onto my ribcage when the good was just too good. I touched the necklace, softly swinging back and forth from my neck when I looked down towards the floor.

“Taemin.” His words broke me from my thoughts and made me crane my neck back to normal.

“Yeah?” I asked.

He smirked then intertwined our fingers together.

“I want to go outside for a minute.”

He didn’t wait until I had a response. Instead, he dragged me towards the balcony the Gallery had and closed the door behind us, sealing off the inside noises. The soft bellow of the street cars down below wasn't any better, but at least they weren’t as loud as the inside. His thumb rubbed the palm of my hand, his smile warm and inviting.

Suddenly, his body moved down, he sat one leg down on the floor while keeping his hand grasped with mines and one leg sitting outward. The movement surprised me. I didn’t know what to say.

“T-Taemin.” His voice stuttered as if he’d never asked me this question before.

“W-Would you marry me?”

I paused.

My heart skipped a beat.

The heat rose in my skin.

“Taemin?” He asked again, the smile transforming into a worried frown.

“Do…” I paused and looked down. “Are you sure you want to? After all, I put you through?”

Kai pushed himself up, standing at eye level with me. He dug into his pocket, then pulled out a golden ring that I knew was the perfect size for my finger.

“Of course.” He whispered.

He stepped closer, the distance between us just becoming a breath apart.

“You’ve put me through worse.” He joked.

I chuckled too, but deep down I couldn’t laugh. I knew it had to be true and he saw it when he gazed into my eyes. I could tell.

“Taemin.” He took my hand, pulled it out, and slowly slide the ring on my finger.

“You truly are the only one for me. And if I have to repeat a horrible story to you every ten months, then so be it. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“Are you serious?” I whispered.

“Of course.” He smiled.

I looked down at the gleaming ring that glistened from the rays of the setting sun. An orange glow making its home on my finger.

“I mean, how many people can say that they get to fall in love over again every ten months?”

He chuckled.

Then I chuckled.

Then I stopped.

Now I knew why my mind was brooding so much over this fairytale situation.

Time.

“Kai?” I asked. “How long do I have before I forget again?”

I tried to remember our conversation at Key and Onew’s place or at the beach, but only bits and pieces were coming back to me. His laughing stopped, his smile, faltered. I touched him on the shoulder and flashed his smile back towards him. I closed our distance ever so slightly.

“Kai…” I whispered. “It’s okay.”

My hand went up to his cheek. I caressed the soft skin that laid there running warm with light, the orange hue from the sun making its home in the pores.

“It’s just,” he began, a heavy sigh weighing off his shoulders and ushering from his lips. “I haven’t thought about it since all of this happened.”

I could sense the trembling in his skin. The terrifying moment arising in his thoughts.

“You have a couple of months. Now that I think about it. So far your memory loss has had a steadily repeated pattern, so…ten months. That day you woke up under the tree not remembering everything was your deadline.” His voice was soft, indignant.

So, ten months. Right. There was time. Not a lot, but there was. He looked up to me and poured those loving eyes into mine, but all I did was smile. The news didn’t strike me as hard as I thought it was. Perhaps it was because my mind was at peace, my heart, at ease. I removed my hand from his cheek and intertwined our hands together.

“It’s okay,” I whispered again.

Our foreheads leaned down at the same time as they touched one another.

“It’ll be okay. At least we have time.”

There was a moment of silence between us.

“You never answered my proposal.” He finally murmured.

I chuckled.

“Yes. Of course, I’ll marry you. What else would I say.”

“No.” He retorted but began to chuckle as well.

And so did I.

***

Last Day of the Last Month

We were back in the country, had been for a while. Ever since we left Minho’s gallery event all those months ago. Key and Onew demanded that we stay with them until we thought otherwise. They said they liked the house full of personality. Me and Kai had decided to have a private quick wedding here in the country with only Minho, Jonghyun, Key and Onew in attendance. Key had wanted something grander, but Kai settled with him on a big feast instead, since I didn’t want anything that forced too much attention.

A day had passed and gone just as quickly as it’d come. Minho called yesterday just to inform us that he was going to be in the hospital for a couple of days. He had been getting worse as the months went by. I hadn’t seen him in a while just because my own memory seemed to falter a bit. Kai wanted me to stay close just in case the “pattern” we were all familiar with now went away.  I stayed in touch with them, though. Jonghyun was going to stay by his side of course during the hospital visit. I joked and said I wouldn’t remember anyway, though it was the truth. Minho laughed for a second too on the phone but was silent again.

“Don’t forget me okay?” He whispered.

There was sorrow in his voice, like a part of me was leaving him for good. I answered back that I wouldn’t, though, to be honest, I didn’t know. Jonghyun talked to me too. There was some happiness hidden in his voice but there still muttered a bit of sadness and I don’t think it was for me. He said the same thing Minho did, then hung up the phone.

Key and Onew stayed at home today, letting me and Kai get some fresh air together. We walked the long pavements, glancing up at the sky every so often. I added the ring he’d given me to the necklace so it would no longer be bare and so that I would never lose it. I asked him to keep the picture of Rani safe. He said I talked like I was going far away, but deep inside I felt as though I were.

We walked to the tree, a strong alluring statue for this small country alone. I had asked Kai if we could sit here for the rest of the day. No one would mind if we stayed the night here. I didn’t mind people staring, no one complained. I wanted to wake in a place that was obviously more familiar to me than anything. When we approached its strong white bark, I stopped my shoes, digging into the ground. There was something I never got an answer to now that I remembered. Kai simply strode with me towards the tall piece of artwork, now standing like a guardian than a creature of the night.

“Kai?” I asked.

“Hmm?”

“When I first woke up, I woke up here. But I still don’t know why. What was so important about this tree? I never asked you.”

He let go of my hand and placed it on the peeling bark of the tree.

“I’m sorry. I forgot to tell you.” He smiled. “Your sister liked to come here, way before you guys got into the accident. She said she liked the countryside. It was peaceful, quiet.”

He patted the bark underneath his palm.

“She liked this tree the best. She said it was like a monument or something. So, of course, you liked it too. You both had a knack for nature, though.”

I remembered the nightmare from the first time I had awoken and remembered the hallucinations from then on. I bent my knees, leveling myself with the tree’s roots.

“I think she left something here.” I murmured.

“Like what?”

I shrugged at his answer and tried to remember the hallucination of her. Like she was trying to tell me something in the nightmare but I was too afraid to pay attention. Her hands were digging into the dirt.

“I don’t think it was a nightmare, that one,” I whispered.

“Hm?” Kai asked.

I started to dig without speaking, and as if noticing the importance of the way my hands seeped into the dirt. He did nothing, just slid down beside me and watched me work, wondering what it was I was going to pull out. My hands were steady, my mind exact. If I was right, then it should be here…it should be-

My fingers felt something cold and metal. Small. But then there was something else. Thin, papery, and fragile. The dirt buried their memories, but I pulled them out, clasping them in the palm of my hands. Kai adjusted himself, moving closer in curiosity.

“Is that-“

“The locket,” I whispered, holding the dingy metal towards my eyes. “And the picture.”

No, it wasn’t another hallucination that I’d had when I envisioned her digging in the dirt. It was, perhaps, a memory.

There was only half of the picture. Like the half of the picture I already had in my possession, this one was torn where would be the middle, jagged edges dingy and bent. I placed the picture in Kai’s hand, for now, admiring the locket that clasped together. With careful fingers I opened it up, hearing a sharp snap after a short struggle. The small dust of dirt floated like feathers off the edges of the metal piece, returning to their home on the ground. Inside its confinements were us. Literally. Me and Kai. Kai’s shadow loomed over my body.

“I forgot we took that photo.” He whispered.

His hands lurked over me and he caressed the metal sides of the locket like a precious piece of glass.

“It’s Rain’s locket.” He continued. “Why would she have us in there?”

I shrugged.

“Maybe she missed us,” I answered.

“Or maybe she didn’t want to forget us. How-“

“When I woke up here,” In interrupted, “this spot was all I kept thinking about. I had, what I thought was a nightmare. But I think it was a memory. Maybe we were here together when she dug this in the ground. Maybe she told me she was doing it. Maybe we did it together.”

There were so many maybes, but, to be honest—I didn’t know. That was a memory that was locked away forever because of my injury. But, for some odd reason, it didn’t bother me as much as it should.

I closed the locket.

We sat down under the extending tree.

We each had an item in our hand.

I kept switching my eyes from the now closed locket to the torn picture of me. I wonder if me and Rani had come here together and she’d torn part of the picture to keep with her when she left. Or if she’d come alone and buried these two things together once she knew something was wrong with her. But wouldn’t she had told Kai. Maybe she told me. Maybe she didn’t and, as cheesy as it sounds, our connection had brought me here.

I’ll never know.

“You okay?” Kai whispered.

The sky was growing darker.

“Yeah,” I answered.

Our shoulders kissed one another.

My eyes were fluttering. I was getting sleepy.

I was scared to finally fall asleep.

Everything that happened would be erased.

“It’s okay,” Kai whispered.

His voice made my heart flutter.

And just for a moment, as my eyes closed;

I was at ease.