Yun Oh was about to start walking to the bus stop when his family's driver dropped by his school, the door was unlocked, and he was obliged to enter the vehicle to be driven home without wasting his money or energy in waiting for a bus ride.
"I'll see you girls around, stay safe!"
Min Seo waved at her friends just as Yun Oh was passing by.
"Min Seo! Hey." he opened the door to enter but had the thought of offering an acquaintance of theirs a ride home.
She looked around for the source of the inviting voice and her pinkish cheeks were flushed.
"Oh, uh." she hesitated to go to him and accept his unexpected offer, slowly walking up to the vehicle as Yun Oh realized what his behavior meant.
It was random yet the timing was impeccably spot on.
"Are you sure?" she checked to confirm with him and his driver, receiving a quick nod in return, then took a seat at the back of the vehicle.
"Thanks." Min Seo was unsure of what to think of the situation or if she was supposed to discern anything from the kind gesture coming from her crush.
'He looks tired tonight.' Min Seo would glance at Yun Oh every now and then till she was utterly confused about his offer. "Do you know where I live?" she brazenly asked from curiosity, not being aware that Yun Oh knew her address.
"Yes." he shortly said in an unfazed way.
"How? When? Did Sihyeon tell you?" the female questioned.
"Hold on, she does not know about it either..." she debunked her speculation, catching her breath and letting the other student speak.
"I am baffled by how hurtful you are, Min Seo." he exclaimed in disbelief upon being reminded of their past together.
'What is this guy talking about?' she copied his movements and turned to her right to face him. The rain started to pour from the dark orange sky, with cirrus-type clouds scattered all over the atmosphere.
When Yun Oh viewed her face after carefully touching her chin to dive into her sapphire blue eyes, he no longer doubted her if ever she was pulling a prank on him.
"You still don't appear to remember." he spoke aloud. "No, I don't."
They were both bemused at what was happening in front of them, the girl with the scarlet red auburn hair tied up into a braided loose ponytail that reached her elbow had fallen into a whole lot of confusion.
"I don't reckon to be ever forgetful in my life..." she almost quietly corrected him from assuming that she was such a person who forgets people, in other words, she denied having any long-term memory problems, unlike a goldfish.
"We're here. Sir. Ma'am." the driver gave them notice that they had arrived at the female student's address. "Sweetheart!" the girl's mother disrupted the staring contest that had gone down between Min Seo and Yun Oh.
Yun Oh felt embarrassed and fidgeted with his hair and abruptly opened the car door to exit and give way for his friend to leave, Min Seo was greeted and hugged by her mother who instantaneously recognized another person behind Min Seo.
"This is Yun Oh, mother. He is a schoolmate of mine." the girl shyly covered her mouth from accidentally smiling widely once she came to the conclusion that her mother coincidentally met the person she likes incredibly without knowing how low or high the chances of that ever happening.
"I knew I recognized this handsome young man right here."
Min Seo introduced her acquaintance, and her mother didn't think twice about kissing his cheek as if she had known him for so long.
"Mom. Have some dignity!" she was thunderstruck by her mother's warm welcome to him.
"I'm flattered by your words." he replied in unison with her sharing some stories about how their life has been all these years.
"I don't think he needs to hear any of that, Mom." Min Seo could not withstand the humiliation she felt from her mother's unnecessary storytelling to Yun Oh, so she followed the two of them inside after Yun Oh was practically pulled by her mother.
'How did it come to this??' she rushed inside her room, dumping her black leather school bag on the red-carpet floor while her mother brought Yun Oh some appetizers from their kitchen.
"Dinner will be ready soon, son." she happily informed him. "Thank you very much... Mom."
Min Seo was listening through the small opening in her door that was the only thing keeping her from getting seen by the two and exposing her overly blushing cheeks.
"Do call your driver in as well. I made too much tonight. It would be a waste..." the male willingly did as the woman told him, and the driver peacefully joined them.
"Sweetheart! Come out here and help me with these-" the girl's mother was assisted by both the driver and Yun Oh when setting up the dining table on the other end of the living room.
'I have to hide all things possible!!' Min Seo had her back faced against the wooden door painted in mint green color, flying from one corner to another as she organized her room.
'He might barge in here or something!' she panicked so hard.
Min Seo took off her school uniform, unlatching the lock on her closet and rummaging through her drawers to find a more comfortable fit before she went back out there.
"Uhmm... You in here?" her schoolmate's black hair peeked through the slight opening in the door, forcing her to put on an oversized white plain shirt as fast as she could.
"Don't come in!" she shouted, running toward the door and sneaking her head through the opening as well. "Don't do that." Yun Oh held out his hand which directly collided with the girl's slightly thin round rosy, pink lips.
"Oh, uh. Thank you for the kiss..." he chuckled at the incident, trying to enter his head slightly more inside her bedroom.
"S-stay out! I am undressed..." Min Seo forcefully pushed his head back outside, causing her friend to fall on the ground with a loud thud, Min Seo worrying about getting scolded by her mother, she widely opened the door.
The male was down on the ground, his back was slightly up though he was still pushed hard.
"I am sincerely apologetic." she decided to lend her hand to him and assisted him back on his feet as her mother's head popped in the corner.
"Min Seo! Put on a skirt or something, will you?" this remark from the woman made Yun Oh panic and turn around.
"You should go on back and do as she says, I'll head there first." the male was covering his eyes as he sprinted back into the living room with a laugh, acting as if they were still children when things such as that were still normalized.
"You're finally here. Let's eat now." her mother pulled a seat for her, indicating that she should sit beside her acquaintance, an acquaintance that she still finds close to her heart and yet, distant in her memories.
"Mom, I have a question that I have been meaning to ask you about."
The driver simply minded his own business and had his phone placed on the table, leaning on one of the dishes they were served.
Yun Oh, on the other hand, was occupied with digging in as if he lived with them his whole life.
'Him being here feels like he's no stranger.'
Min Seo played with her hair as she unconsciously rested her elbows on the table in front of her plate, she made sure to untie her braids before coming back out there earlier, exposing the volume of wavy hair from being often tied in a braid.
"Don't put your elbows on the table when there's food around, sweetheart." scolded by her mother before being allowed to ask the question she had in mind to ask.
"Can you explain to me how you know this person?" she referred to Yun Oh.
"Why do you speak of him as if you don't remember him being your playmate back then? You both even vowed to get married when you grow up."
Her mother took a bite of her food before resuming.
"It took both families a year before giving you both our blessings for when the time is right." the woman laughed while reminiscing about the children's history.
'I... How come I don't...?' Min Seo no longer uttered another word about it.
She felt guilty after hearing something like that from her mother without any sort of denial or correction from the person sitting beside her.
--Yun Oh's Point of View--
My hands felt colder than normal despite already being tucked inside my pockets. I was still in my school uniform since her mother suggested that I stay overnight at their place.
We were both out on a night walk in their neighborhood which is not so far from my place, technically, we used to live next door. 'Until she had to get that surgery.'
I gazed at her silhouette as she guided me around the streets that I no longer memorized.
Min Seo must have been shocked to find out just today.
"Were you enlightened?" her head turned to me without a minute or even a second yet.
"I don't... I can't find the right thing to say. I'm sorry?" were the words she let out with a deep sigh, breathing heavily from the burden I loaded her with.
'I must have tried too hard to protect myself.'
To the extent that we've reached this point... I walked closer to her and we circled the neighborhood side by side.
"Are you not going to say anything more..?" she timidly spoke, the guilt, confusion, and suddenness of the situation and the reveal of the secret must be too much for her to carry.
"I waited for the right time."
"But how long did you think it would take for that time to come?" she made me wonder, I started to walk backward so that I could see her mesmerizing face, the face of the girl I used to love dearly. "I was young and scared." I admitted to her.
Her steps came to a halt. Those sapphire blue eyes of hers sought my soul and I couldn't bear to look back into her eyes.
"I never really knew why I seemed to begin liking you since I came to Seoul Global High." she started opening up about her side of the story even when it was my fault from the start.
"Your chocolate eyes gave me a certain message from the way you used to look at me." she smiled as she compared my brown eyes with her favorite.
"Is there anything else that is missing from all of this? Need I hear anything more?" her arms reached for mine, I gave her consent to link her arms with mine as we went back to our night walk, heading back to her place this time.
"You seemed fine at first but in time, I noticed that you were actually hiding some kind of pain that led you into receiving treatment and to the point where you got scheduled for a surgery out of the blue." I shared the reason behind everything.
"So, after the surgery..." I slowly raised one of her hands as I held them in one of mine, kissing them while visiting the past wherein I was in so much heartbreak.
"I wanted you to get better, so I pretended not to know in front of your parents..."
With hope, I thought that it would be enough.
With trust, I was sure that nothing would ever go wrong.
But with love...
"The thought of loving someone whose memories were incomplete, it had me thinking..."
"I started to think that maybe... It was for the best to let you go."
I let go of her hand, looking down at the ground once I set my mind in the present, the present whereas I am in love with someone else now.
"I thought that it was a sign." we arrived in front of her house, and she was still listening attentively to me.
"When I went to visit you after the surgery, that was it." I felt mad at the memory of that day.
"The way you looked at me with those glistening eyes right now, you used to have those for me before you got treated." my mind was going crazy when I saw her hot tears and silent sobs suffocate her, I couldn't hug her or comfort her for the way I was also feeling about what happened in the past.
"I should be the one saying sorry between the two of us." she fidgeted with her fingers, agitated by the memories that she doesn't even remember or try to remember because it was a surgery that meddled with her brain.
A surgery that affected her memories, memories that can never be brought back.
"I knew you would never remember. Not unless I did what I did tonight." the only thing I could do was trigger her feelings and remind her of what went down in our history because that surgery can never be undone.
"How come you never t-tried...?" she stuttered and stumbled upon her words, but I could only shake my head unstoppably while hearing that.
"Try?" I asked her, receiving a nod after. "They made an irrevocable mistake! How in the world do you think I can try??" I grabbed her hands in madness, feeling enraged by the reply I got.
"Well, if I couldn't remember you, you could have just tried to make new memories with me! Instead of dwelling in the past, you could have focused on the future."
Her answer had me laughing like a maniacal person.
"If you wanted to, you would have done so in whatever way you could. I doubt that you really loved me despite being so young and so much of a coward!" she stormed away and ran inside their house, at this point, I may have no right to enter this place anymore, therefore, I walked home by myself.
"I am a coward." more than I ever thought I was.