PART 2

A Friend

His smile was kind of familiar as he looked into my eyes. I somehow feel his presence for about a long time. A perfect time, this person might be my friend in the campus. Somebody who I assumed that knows my condition.
His hand was slender than the girls, very peculiar for a man. My hand is bigger than him so I barely feel the warmth in his hand. I’m a bit impressed that he was able to support me when he pulled my hand. His body was quite slender either.  And what startled me the most was his voice when he asked me.   

"Hey! Buddy? How are you today?" he cheerfully asked.

"I-I'm good"

I was confused but he still got me answered to him. His breath blew right through my forehead and some of my hair strands flew. His nose was red as the famous reindeer from Christmas songs and that's the same with his cheeks. I restrained myself from smiling.
He's so familiar and I somehow feel closer to him.

"Wh-Who are you?" I stuttered.

"I'm Byun Baek Hyun. I'm a friend" he introduced.

He checked the time on his phone when I asked him. Together with my expectation, my phone alarmed me that it’s already 12:55 in the afternoon.  I kinda wonder about his existence to me. I just thought to myself that this person knows me very well.
I find it hard to believe.

"Oh it's already one 1 o'clock in the afternoon" he announced.

"I didn’t asked about the time" I shrugged.

"Come on! Let's go to a nearby cafe and I'll tell you something"

He doesn’t even wait for my answer, he dragged my arm around by the moment I noticed, and we’re already inside the coffee shop sitting whilst drinking this bitter beverage. I’m starting to get tired listening to his non-stop talking. The words that coming out from his mouth swiftly entered on the other then quickly escape on the other side. This is so depressing.

“So what's exactly happened to me? How did we get to know each other?" I halt him.

"You got yourself into accident Chan Yeol-ah and you're going to meet a friend when a truck hit you just like what I said earlier.”  He said then continues after pausing in few seconds.

“You're suffering from retrograde amnesia which your memory lasted only every twelve hours and you must carrying a journal, read it and you will know all the happenings two years previously until now"

I shoved my hand in my bag and pulled the brown note out of my bag. I was surprised from what I've heard and especially from what I read.
What the hell is blocking my memory? I read all the things recorded from my journal. What exactly happened from my accident? I don't get it. I repeatedly read the note. It is not quite thick. The more I tried to remember the more headaches I got.

"You're the nosy guy from the journal" I said.

"WH-what .. Nosy guy? you say?" He snorted as he raises his eyebrow.

"Here, read this part" I pushed the note on the table towards to him.
I pointed the part where his name was being mentioned.

Byun BaekHyun, the nosy guy who always appears before me around lunch hour mostly before the end of the noon ever since I started as a college student.
He seems to know me but I don't really remember a thing about him.
It might be a waste a time to deal with this annoying guy so I decided to ignore him and stay away from getting close to anyone as well. But he follows me everywhere, so he might be sitting with you if you're currently reading this.

"You're quite rude kiddo!" he pouted crossing his arms around his chest.

"I'm starting to see why, so I'll be going now" I excused myself.

"W-Whe-! HEY!! Where are you going?”

"I got a class"

I went straight ahead to the registrar office where I can drop some of my subjects so I got a reason to stay at the university. It's kind of hard playing a student in this kind of ty situation. I'll be getting the part-time job in the nearby cafe "COFFEE SHOCK".
I purposely lied to Byun Baek Hyun that I'll be going in class because I know he will follow me  wherever I go and might even stop me from dropping my subjects.

I surprisingly know his nature even though I don't remember him being my friend.   

♦♦♣♦♦

 

I started working in the early week of December. The frost makes the streets slippery. Most of the people wearing was scarf and bury their faces as they walk just like me.
I sighted a man waving his hand to me across the street when a bit part of my fragment came flashes back to my mind. I precisely saw him standing in the same location, waving his hand just like that man. I gradually felt the world spinning. The different lights illumined from eyes. The beeping of the cars sounds louder than earlier. I just felt that people are looking closely to me when another occurrence stings on my brain the more I tried to remember.
The man across the street was running towards. My vision was getting blurry.

"Chan Yeol-ah" I heard, lifting my head and saw his worried face. “Chan Yeol-ah, Are you okay?”

"Ba-Baek Hyun!" I grabbed the bottom of his pants before he kneeled down.

He repeated when another episode suddenly came again. I pressed both of my hands on the cold and bland ground. That man was relentlessly calling my name just like Baek Hyun who’s keep on mentioning my name. His voice was much familiar, just like that man from my retrieved memories.
I growled from stinging pain in my head.

"Chan Yeol-ah! Chan Yeol-ah! Are you okay?" He shouted.

"Wh-Who are you?" I asked weakly feeling nausea.

"Chan Yeol-ah? What's wrong?" he answered with a question.

"Who exactly are you?" I repeated.

"Does your memories disappeared again?" he says while trying to retrieve his phone inside the pocket of his trouser.

"Baek Hyun! I'm asking who exactly are you to me?" I yelled as I halt him from digging his phone.

I grabbed his hand and squeezing it with my large hand. I saw his eyebrows twitched.
I noticed myself being forceful. I can sense his peculiar relation to me and I want to trust my intuition.
Our eyes are staring right through to each other. In few seconds his mouth started moving.

"Ju- just like what I said before, I'm Byun Ba- Baek Hyun.
Yo-Your” he paused “Friend"

I caught the melancholy on his face. Tears were grouping before his long eyelashes and his keeping it back from falling. Baek Hyun budges his head when I glimpsed on his quivering for a certain reason.
I can’t bring myself again to ask him another question after seeing his posture.

It’s already six o’clock in the evening. Two hours has passed after that awkward moment with that guy. I’m bothered by it. He might be the person who I supposed to meet before the accident happened. But he clearly said that it wasn’t him when we first met after having this damn amnesia. He might be lying because he feels bad on what happened to me. I keep on thinking on it, I don’t get why Baek Hyun keeps on linking to my memory.

I was wiping the moisten glass in the coffee shop when I saw Baek Hyun standing before it. He’s waving his hand to me together with forceful smile. I can’t seem to embarrass him so I smiled back to him though it was kind of false too. I thought of different place but he beat me as he entered the coffee shop.
 
“Ch-Chan Yeol-ah” He said while pointing his eyes to the table.

“Why don’t you look me in the eyes? Is there anything wrong?” My sarcasm at him.  

“No, nothing. It’s just, hmm-“ he stopped and stood “ Don’t mind it too much it’s nothing, then I’ll be going now”

He was nowhere to be sighted the moment I moved my eyes. What’s wrong with this guy, I thought to myself. Who is he to talk to me like that? What? Don’t mind it? This is so important to me. He was showing up to my memories. Just like what I thought, he’s really related to me. I’m precisely positive that he knows something.

It’s nine in the evening when my shift ended in the coffee shop. I saw my mom sitting in the leathered couch next to window. She welcomed me with a smile, a very soothing to see. She quickly brought herself in the kitchen and prepared the plates for my dinner.

“ Son, Why you’re late?” She asked while filling the glass with iced tea.

“Oh-oh I met a friend and had a coffee” I said.

She looks so happy when I said that I met a friend. Although I can’t bring myself that I was part-timely working in a coffee shop. Even though I really met someone there at least I cut one of her worries for having a so-called friend.
I took a seat on the four edges with four seated table.
I gladly had a sip on mom’s beef soup and potato stew while munching the other side dishes in the platelets. I even had a three bowls of rice. Mom is quite happy while watching me eating her cooking.

It’s 10:30 in the evening when I finally rested to my stuffy bed. I stared at the ceiling into nothingness. I hear nothing but the hushing of my breathing. It took half an hour before I realized that I must jot down the memories that I happened to remembered today.

I fetched my note and pen from my bag. I the lampshade settled to my study table next to window. I noticed that I was on the second to the last page of my journal. As I flipped it for the next page I saw the #3 sign on the hard cover at the back. Then I realized that I’d been keeping journal for about two and half years so it’s a surprise if my journal got numbers and filing up. On the lowest drawer I found the #1 journal. I read it thoroughly, the first few pages were exactly the same, it tells about my amnesia and things on what I should do.

On the last page of it,

 

2014, November 25
I’d made a promise with Baek Hyun. We’re going to meet at the Polar Coffee Shop nearby the University. He got something important to talk about, I wonder what it is. It feels like it’s the first time I saw Baek Hyun like that. Sadness was showed to his gentle looking face.

 

I sought for my second journal. I wonder what Baek Hyun told me. I’m pretty sure that I wrote it to my note because November 26 was the day I supposed to met him, the person in my missing memories. I looked to my closet, shelves, drawers, underneath my bed and everywhere but I couldn’t find my 2nd journal. I must find it. It might be the key to my lost recollections.

I’m perfectly aware now that my accident took place in the same freezing season. A man was standing across the street and waving his hand to me while giving a big smile to him. And that man was Byun Baek Hyun.