Jun fell into a dilemma. He doesn't know what to reply to her. Should he reject? Or should he accept? There are still a couple of hours left. He can finish shopping by that time.
Jun thought for a while sent a reply, a truthful one.
Jun: I'm leaving for Seocho-gu. I need to shop around for the next round.
Somi: Are you alone?
Jun: Yes
Somi: Good. Then, how about you wait for me at GOTO mall? We can shop around together like in the old times. Maybe, you can remember something as you literally shopped there more than a hundred times.
"It's my favorite?" Jun was confused for a second. According to his memories, at the very least, he was never in this life but seems like he was wrong. "Is this why I was confident in my strategy?"
Jun: Okay. Call me when you arrive.
Since it has come to this, Jun felt like he should just go with the flow instead of thinking of escape routes or being conflicted with himself.
An hour later, including 45 minutes of waiting, Jun finally met Somi. For a second, he was awestruck by her beauty as she dolled up like a celebrity. He could even feel several eyes on her from around.
It's just wasn't him that seemed surprised. Even Somi was shocked as she saw his face. It was only a while since she last saw him but Jun seemed a lot more handsome than the last time. Naturally, she didn't know Jun upgrade his appearance by one point.
"Hi, Jun." She nervously greeted him.
"Hi…" Jun's hand rose automatically before he managed to control himself.
They started to walk around through this 800-meter long alley with over 600 stores.
"So, how is it going with your competition?" She asked him while looking around. It's been a while she came here last time. So, she was curious to see whether they are any new stores opened.
"It's going well." Jun answered her honestly, "I'm confident that I will get through this round, but I'm aiming at number 1."
"I'm sure you get it though…" Somi expressed her support before she thought of something to continue the conversation and asked, "So, um, Jun, I wanted to ask you something for a while."
"What is it?"
"How much do you remember until now? If you are curious about something, I can tell you though." To rekindle their love, Somi knew that Jun's memories are important. Considering how he behaves a lot differently than the Jun she knew, she wanted to take him to familiar places and try to revive his memories. Luckily for her, Jun unknowingly chose the place they have visited for a date several times.
"Honestly, it was like a huge mirror fell from the top of a building and got broke into countless pieces. Some are very big, some are tiny, and some are missing. It's very tough to put them back together." Jun tried his best to tell the situation. As a student who graduated medical school in top grades and is doing an internship at a hospital, she was intelligent enough to understand the meaning.
Still, he gave an after explanation just in case. "There are some parts of the childhood that are missing and I can't remember anything from middle school life except for the first semester. But, I still remember everything about my mom, my sister, and my grandparents."
Once he explained, he thought to himself that why did he bother to explain to her so much.
"As for me, you remembered nothing." Somi got dispirited when she heard it. Was she not important to him? Was she as insignificant to him as his classmates that his brain didn't manage to store it?
"Sorry," Jun apologized in a low tone. But then again, it wasn't his fault that his memories were in a jumble.
"It's alright." She waved her hands and looked around, spotting a familiar store. "Let's go there."
After pointing at it, she grabbed his arm naturally. Unlike last time, she seemed more proactive.
Jun wanted to swat it away and get free but the notification stopped him from doing so.
*Ding! A missing memory has been discovered. Merging it into the host's memories.
Jun halted his footsteps as several new memories appeared in his head.
He's a kid around 12-years-old, looking very cute. He's with 8-year-old Dahyun, and his paternal cousin, Han Bobae, and some other Noona whose face is blurry.
14-year-old Somi was with her father, shopping around. This was around 8 years ago in the year 2009. Matthew Douma in this parallel world had his foot in the entertainment industry already. He was working mostly as a model and sometimes, a one-scene character in films and TV dramas.
It is Christmas Eve and the underground mall is bustling with couples and families who are busy on a shopping spree.
It looked like Bobae and Matthew know each other. It was the first meeting between Somi and Jun.
Jun was back to reality within a second and Somi was looking at him and asked why he stopped.
"Nothing. Let's go." Jun shook his head and continued to walk. Seeing that Jun isn't resisting the skinship, she let out a smile and continued to walk before entering the store together.
Just as they crossed the entrance, Jun stopped walking once again with a new notification popping up and another memory appeared in his mind.
This time, he was a teenager around 14-years-old and is a trainee at ZC while 16-year-old Somi is a student at medical school. Both of them seemed like they are arguing with Jun wanted to buy black and black, on the other hand, Somi is saying different colors other than black and recommended Maroon.
Jun returned to reality and mumbled to himself, "damn, two memories…"
"Jun, what happened again. Come…" She dragged him inside and both of them walked towards the displayed clothes.
"Okay, so, what are you looking for again?" She asked him.
"Oh, we are thinking of a black shirt and black pants with black robes over them for the performance," Jun answered her.
"Black?" Somi shook her head, thinking that there's something that didn't change even after all these years. Jun's love for black.
She then said, "For that song, black might be common but it's boring. How about you try different colors? Something like…"
"Maroon?" Jun interrupted her in reflex while looking at the shirts.
"Huh?" Somi stared at him with a look of surprise on her face. she was stunned by his reply as it was exactly what she wanted to say and most importantly, she always recommends Maroon first. "Did you remember something?"
Jun realized what he spouted just now but tried to behave casually, "I too that of that at first but I also have a partner you know. I need to respect his wishes too." In the end, he put the blame on Daniel to escape her suspicion.
They shopped for like two hours. Somi also bought a dress, planning to wear it on their next date. On the other hand, Jun received a total of five more memories just by shopping around. They weren't that important but it impacted Jun a lot.
In those memories, when he saw how Jun and Somi were affectionate even while arguing about the choice of clothes, he didn't know why but he felt jealous of the dead guy. At the same time, he started to feel something for this ex-girlfriend and he hated it very much. Jun felt like these weren't his feelings and it is because of the will of the old Jun that attached to his soul.
After the shopping was finished, they visited a nearby restaurant. Thankfully, it is a new one and he doesn't have any memories with Somi regarding the place.
They ordered the food and took a table and waited.
Not intending to be silent, Somi initiated the conversation by telling him about the things that happened while he was gone. Jun lived a fair share of living in another world parallel to this. Most of the things were like copy and paste. So, he wasn't surprised about the things and just listened to them quietly while occasionally nodding his head.
After a while, the food items arrived at the table. Just as he was about to dig in, two young women entered the restaurant.
Jun's concentration was on the Beef short ribs. Just as he put a piece in his mouth, a familiar voice was heard nearby.
"SungJun-ssi?"
"Hmm?" He raised his head only to find Yuju and Hong Euijin. He swallowed the piece in surprise and started to cough.